News & Politics

Donna Evers • May 3, 2012

Depending on how old you are, 1960 may not seem so long ago, but the world was quite a different place then. As far a the global scene went, France was busy shedding colonies in Africa, the U.S. was making treaties with Japan, and Nikita Kruschev was acting up at the UN, although the “banging his shoe” incident was probably trumped up and passed along because it made such a good story. The U.S.S.R. already had already initiated the space race, and in 1960 launched a satellite with two dogs on board. This distressed the U.S. almost as much as the Russians shooting down Francis Gary Powers, as he flew over Soviet air space in his U-2 spy plane.

College kids were complacent, although an interesting group called the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was organized by student activists at Shaw University, a black Baptist college in Georgia. American Express issued its first plastic credit card. Marshall McLuhan explained in brilliant theories just how invasive and influential mass media was. There were no cell phones and no PCs; the computers used in offices were huge, unwieldy, and very slow. Oh yes, and everybody smoked cigarettes in restaurants, offices, hotel rooms, and everywhere else. The connection between smoking and lung cancer, while suspected, had not yet been established and publicized.

A new British rock group, who called themselves The Beatles, made their first appearance on stage in Hamburg, Germany. Elvis Presley, who went into the Army to serve his country, was made a Sergeant, and his stint in the military didn’t seem to cut into his singing career. The images on TV were only clear in the major metropolitan areas and grainy to snowy elsewhere, but everybody was hooked on it by 1960. They watched Jack Paar on the Tonight Show, and when Lucille Ball divorced Desi Arnez, it seemed unthinkable to all the fans who loved the zany couple and their antics on “I Love Lucy”. Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking film “Psycho” opened in New York, of which the show scene, fifty years later, is still one of the scariest scenes in movie history.

Washington politics were in for a change. A dashing young senator from Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, decided to run for president, outmatched his opponent Richard Nixon in the first televised presidential debates, and won the presidency in November. He and his pregnant wife Jackie moved from their Georgetown house to the White House and brought the fresh air of youth, idealism, and hope to Washington.
Back then, investigative reporters pretty much considered the President’s private life “off limits”. It took years after John Kennedy was assassinated for his affairs with Marilyn Monroe and a mobster’s girlfriend, among others, to make the news. Even if the public had read it in the newspapers in the 1960’s, they wouldn’t have believed it, which is quite a statement on how the media and our perception of public figures have changed.
In December of 1960, the musical Camelot opened on Broadway and its brilliant cast went on to give 873 performances. If there’s one thing that even jaded Americans who were around in the 1960’s remember wistfully about the Kennedy presidency, it’s probably the reference to Camelot and its “one brief shining moment” in the pages of history.

Gary Tischler •

Outside, it was a typical American-style Friday night in Dupont Circle, restaurants and watering holes busy, couples and groups of people wandering up and down the streets; a mild fall-like weekend
night, outdoor dining, indoor imbibing.

In that scene, the outside of 1630 Connecticut Avenue looked like any other night-time office building, but inside and out of view, at the site of the still new Iraqi Cultural Center upstairs, something different
was going on. Culture—in the form of ancient music inspired by and evocative of something as prosaic as coppersmithing—seemed to have had an accumulatively powerful effect on an audience gathered for the first concert offering of the 2010-2011 Embassy Series.

That particular Friday night, Embassy Series founder and director Jerome Barry had something that vividly illustrated what he’s always said the series are meant to be: staged musical events in embassies, ambassador residences, and cultural centers that double as cultural diplomacy.

Nothing demonstrated the possibilities and opportunities of cultural diplomacy more effectively then the merging of audience, performers, and Iraqi officialdom from the ranks of the embassy more than this Friday concert of music by the Safaafir Iraqi Maqam Ensemble, a young group of musicians of Iraqi and American heritage, who played music from, in effect, the Cradle of Civilization, but with new compositions.

An evening of Iraqi music played by musicians, some of them from the American Midwest searching for the roots of the music of their Iraqi heritage in front of an audience of Americans and Iraqis in Washington, D.C. has an undeniably powerful resonance – historically, politically, and culturally.

In Washington, Iraq lies vividly in the contemporary mind, full with memories of 9/11, the invasion, the fall of Saddam Hussein, thelong, violent American military presence, and the ongoing efforts of the country to recreate a viable nation and government. These things are impossible to put aside for any great length of time, but they can be softened by a keen appreciation of cultural opportunities that builds bridges.

“Iraq is not just a country of explosions,” said Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie, the Ambassador of Iraq, speaking with a moving eloquence. “We are not just a country of violence and problems.

“This concert is about a different side of Iraq. We are an ancient people, part of a great civilization
from the Cradle of Civilization. What you will hear is music that goes back thousands of years. You will hear music made on instruments that presaged all string instruments, like the violin and the lute, as well as percussion instruments. You will hear music which came from the market place in old Baghdad, melodies which men and women, poets and vendors swayed to in that ancient city.”

“It’s a historic night for us,” Barry said. “Iraq is the 57th embassy to have participated in the Embassy Series.”

The group—made up of brother and sister Amir El Saffar and Dena El Saffar, Tim Moore, Zafer Tawil, and Carlo DeRosa—takes its name from a well known market in Baghdad, evoking the sound of the ancient art of coppersmithin. The rhythmic noises, din-like, constant, syncopated almost, result in singular works of beauty. The sound of what’s called Maqam—a kind of classical vocal tradition dating back centuries in Iraq—includes the metallic timbre of the instruments used in making the music, which includes percussion instruments and ancient string instruments, like the Santur and the Oud.

The result is something is so evocative that it’s almost otherworldly, but it persists in the market places and the society of Iraq where the music links up with poetry. In Iraq, poetry is serious business—not in the sense of being published, say, in magazines or academic circles, but as being written on a daily basis and recited at dinner among family members. Consider for a moment Ambassador Sumaidaie’s background. He is almost a quintessential techie, with degrees in electrical engineering and a diploma in computer study. He’s also an entrepreneur, a veteran diplomat, and he writes Arabic poetry in the classical form.

The brother and sister team of Amir and Dena El Saffar were pursuing traditional contemporary
musical studies and careers—Amir as a jazz trumpeter in New York, Dina with a degree in classical music. From the Midwest with an American mother and Iraqi father, they began to explore traditional Iraqi music and the result is the Safaafir Iraqi Maqam Ensemble.

With roots in secular poetry and Sufi mysticism, the Maqam as performed by the ensemble evokes more than anything a quality that is particular to Middle Eastern music. There is a stirring yearning, a building ecstasy achieved by repetition. In his vocals, Amir El Saffar builds a kind of musical mountain from sand. The repetition builds the emotion and it can careen from plaintive sadness to ecstatic joy. Some of the textual material—the words—are old stories about unrequited love. “The last one involved a man who meets a girl he instantly falls in love with,” Amir explained. “She’s part of a caravan. He goes to the caravan, but it’s already gone. So he follows, and they come to a monastery, where he’s just missed her. The monks listen to his story and begin to cry themselves, so sad is his plight.”

Lamentation is likely one of the first forms of music—a keening repetition that rends the heart. In its current musical form, it’s a more embracing kind of music. It pleads for participation.

The concert was the first performance event for the Iraqi Cultural Center, which opened in May. The concert proved to be a bridge to an older place, a better time, and the music made it vivid, where before, amid two wars, it had to be imagined.

Courtney Overcash •

The American Red Cross issued a request for blood donors last week. With schools, which normally hold blood drives, out for the summer and many families traveling, the Red Cross has seen a dramatic dip in the number of donors. A lack of donations, combined with the summer’s typical spike in car accidents, has caused blood banks to reach critical shortages across the country.

While May and June’s demand for blood remained constant, the number of donations was the lowest reported in over 12 years. The Red Cross is calling for any and all blood types. However, blood banks especially need the universal O negative, which can be used by all receivers.

Only through donations can the American Red Cross give blood to its 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the United States. Red Cross blood donations help accident victims, cancer and sickle-cell disease patients, and those who need transfusions every day due to rare blood disorders.

Luckily for D.C. residents, several radio stations around the D.C. area are hosting summer blood drives where giving back gets you fun gifts. All are welcome to donate.

• 97.9 Baltimore is hosting 98 Rock MEGA Drive July 20-22 from noon to 8 p.m. at 2 locations: Town Mall of Westminster and Tall Cedars of Lebanon. All donators will receive a free t-shirt and 98 Rock goodie bag. Donors will also be entered to win 2 VIP tickets to Outlaw Jam 2, with Poison and Motley Crew.
• Six Flags America and Hot 99.5 are also hosting a blood drive on June 29 from 9a.m. to 4p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bethesda, MD. All participants will receive a free ticket to Six Flags America.
• Big 100.3 rounds out the summer with their own blood drive in Fairfax, Va. on Aug. 5 from 9a.m. to 4 p.m. All participants will receive a free NASCAR ticket to the One Last Race to See the Chase at Richmond International Raceway on Sept.10.

D.C. is also home to several nearby donation centers like the VA Medical Center on 50 Irving St., and the E Street Donor Center at 2025 E St. NW. Call 1800-RED-CROSS to schedule an appointment time.
Donators only need be 17 years old, meet basic height and weight requirements (110 pounds or more, depending on height) and in generally good health. Eat and drink plenty of fluids and bring a Red Cross Donor card or a government issued ID and come by to give.

Gary Tischler •

One of the great literary stories is the relationship—sometimes strained, often competitive—between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Arguably America’s two greatest novelists when that sort of stature meant something.

Fitzgerald—literary posterity judges him to be the better writer in terms of after-life reputation—was a man fascinated by the lifestyles of the rich and famous and wrote the best book ever written about the American dream of money and success, “The Great Gatsby.”

According to the oft-told tale, Fitzgerald one day breathlessly announced to Hemingway his great discovery. “Ernie,” he was supposed to have said “the rich are different from you and me.”
“Yes,” Hemingway was supposed to have replied, “they have more money.”

But oh, how much more money. Even Hemingway might have been baffled and not a little awed by the chasm between the very rich and those with considerably less. Hemingway would no doubt retain his irreverent and realistic attitude about such matters. F. Scott, after downing a drink, might have sat down and written “The Great Gatsby.”
Or “The Great Ecclestone.”

One of the great contemporary mysteries, it seems to me, is the absolute worship of the super-rich and the great, rolling-in-profit corporations on the part of the lock-step GOP. The great negotiations or roll overs on raising the debt ceiling will result in a temporary lift of the ceiling, so as to avert an unimagined disaster, or a comprehensive settlement that President Obama and House Speaker John “Weeping Willow” Boehner, the golfing partners, are said to be working toward (probably not), or a default whose consequences people are starting to have nightmares about.

But all this is happening in a flattened economy that isn’t quite a depression but is depressing to average folks trying to pay their mortgage, find a job, or put gas in their tanks and food in their mouths. And yet, all the GOPs, the rank and filers, the leaders, most especially Mr. No-Way-But-My-Way-And-No-Taxes Eric “The Whip” Cantor, and even more especially, the lemmings of the tea party running toward the cliff with moral certitude insist, scream, shout it from the highest hills, that there will be no tax raises, especially on the rich or on corporations. And closing a loophole is: a tax increase. A tax break on private jets is: a tax increase.

But wait. There’s more. Mitch McConnell in the Senate calls such increases “job killers.” Silly us. We thought jobs were being killed in GE’s overseas banks, which allows that company to pay fewer taxes than I do. We thought outsourcing is a job killer practice. We thought targeting public employees for firing and layoffs was job killing. Nope. Regulating corporations with silly stuff like conforming to environmental rules or safe rules or foods safety, those are job killers.

Where do GOP rank and file members-some of them born in bosom of the American People without a silver spoon or any other utensil in their mouths are trying to sell us their belief that corporations and the very, very rich have the best interests of the American people in mind. Reagan thought so: he gave us trickle-down economics which conjured up a picture of millions of Americans waiting (in vain) for the financial leftovers from Wall Street to trickle down to Main Street.

As former President Bill Clinton noted recently, those days are long gone. American corporations are multi-nationals, beholden not to country, community or the American people, but only to profit and shareholders.

Sure, there are anomalies like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, American citizens and world citizens. But many are a lot like Petra Ecclestone, who, thanks to her billionaire dad bought Candy Spellings’ Hollywood mansion for$150 million after already owning a $90 million home in London. She got her money the old fashioned way—she asked Daddy for it and he gave it to her. I believe she is selling her own brand of bags to keep her hand in.

Think of those sums. They could keep Minnesota running for a few days, to say the least, save the lives of thousands starving in Somalia. You get the drift.
No trickle down here. Where is Madame Defarge when you need her?

Amos Gelb •

In the not-for-the-faint world of D.C., you do not exist politically if you are not loathed by at least one group. But David Frum is in an elite category – he is hated by both sides of the fence. A stalwart speechwriter of the W regime, no friends on the left. Then excommunicated by the right when he dared to suggest that Republicans were blowing it in their blind opposition to the healthcare bill, a posture he has maintained vociferously regarding the current Republican posture on the debt ceiling, “you don’t play chicken with default.”

“Yes, my views put me in a minority these days,” he admits bedecked in a blindingly white jacket befitting the tropics that have descended on D.C.

But what ATM was curious about is how Frum, lawyer-schooled-journalist-resumed-formerly-White-House-employed, turned being suddenly on the outside into something of a personal media empire. His website, Frum Forum, has become the voice of the less uncompromising (but not necessarily moderate) right, he is omnipresent as a political analyst for CNN, he gives about 20 speeches a year and he is finishing up his 7th book – this latest one a novel about D.C.

In the age of the new media, Frum has done what so many are trying unsuccessfully to do. He has created an identity on the web, attracted readers and kept people’s attention.

And he doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Media is the plural of medium. Medium is just the conduit. It is like wanting to talk about electricity – you want to talk about where it comes from and how; not about the poles and pylons. We are pylons.”

Instead, what Frum wants to talk about is his fear; his fear that well-meaning people in power are about to drive this nation off a cliff.

“Frum Forum is not about making money, it is not about me. It is about responsibility. My goal is to be heard. We have the responsibility to be heard. To be part of the conversation. And I think we are.”

For an hour, despite repeated determined ATM attempts to steer the conversation to his journalism pedigree (he worked as a freelance writer in Canada, as an editorial editor for the Wall Street Journal and is the son of one of Canada’s most famous journalists), Frum deflects the attention from himself to why he is doing all this media.

Each thrust at discussing his empire is parried into a guided tour of some of today’s most intransigent political issues adding shades of grey and the occasional primary color to the issues being hashed out in public in black and white. Global distribution of wealth is indeed skewing to the ultra-rich. That is wrong but just taxing the ultra rich will not work because they will always find a way around it. Rather than take away from one side let’s find a way to help the other – for example in the last 20 years we have reduced crime plaguing the poorest citizens. Today’s financial issues stem not from war but from the voracious leveraging a relatively few bad loans (multiple bets being made on the same few chips). Unfair to blame Obama for the economic woes even if you don’t like how he is handling them. The country is not as partisan as it seems – the current angry tone is rather the product of Congressional rule changing and gerrymandering. Our system of government cannot work if the “opposition” just exists to oppose. Party affiliation should play no role in local community politics; candidates should stand on their personal integrity.

For the self-made outsider (“I am still firmly a Republican”) who put the words into the mouth of a president so loathed by many, here was the surprisingly considered discourse that we all claim we pine for. In Frum’s world, those who disagree are not depicted as lepers to be despised or worse and hence banished to a desolate wilderness; rather their ideas might be viewed as wrong but not mean-spirited.

“Are you at least having fun?”

There is a pause on this. The thought of fun seems to have not occurred to Frum. A journalist turned pol who is now the journalist-pol, why wouldn’t this be fun? He has a website, a following, a voice that is being heard, if not always welcomed. The pause lasts a bit longer as he seems to search for something hidden in a corner.

“Our current situation is too perilous to be having fun.”

Frum seems to have forgotten that today’s evolving new media has reached a stage of the cult of personality where individual Twitter feeds, blogs and even by-lines are increasingly about the self. And his self has a higher profile today than ever before, partly because he seems to relish sticking his finger in so many eyes. Yes, that should be fun.

And yet there is the distinct sense that Frum would be just as happy, perhaps happier, if he didn’t think his voice was needed quite as much right now.

David Post •

Does the government spend too much? Probably.

Are taxes too low? Probably.

Is there an easy or quick fix? Absolutely not.

Tax receipts cover 60 percent of government spending. We borrow the rest, so an inability to borrow means there won’t be enough money to go around. Few households and businesses can cut their expenses 40 percent overnight. Neither can the federal government.

When households and businesses face cuts like that, they go bankrupt. They lose most of what they own and creditors don’t get paid. Their credit ratings drop. Their living standards decline. If they can borrow money, interest rates rise. Anyone with a credit problem knows recovery takes years. It’s not a pretty picture.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, who incidentally was appointed by George W. Bush, said it would be a “calamity.” It will affect everyone. A talking head should ask Congress if it will take a 40 percent pay cut and pay 40 percent of their health care.

Here’s the big picture showing federal government income and expenses last year and ten years ago:

Billions of dollars 2000 2010

Federal Receipts $ 2,025 $ 2,163

Federal Expenditures $1,789 $ 3,456

Surplus (DEFICIT) $ 216 ($ 1,293)

As percent of GDP

Federal Receipts 21 percent 15 percent

Federal Expenditures 18 percent 24 percent

Surplus (DEFICIT) 3 percent (9 percent)

Stop there, and the story is an easy one. Even though tax cuts reduced revenues, and the recession, two wars, and an expansion of Medicare increased spending, no one is discussing that. Instead, the screaming is about “no new taxes” and out of control spending.

Every mechanic knows what to do. Look under the hood and see what’s making the noise. And there it is: we’re getting older and old is expensive.

In the past ten years, Social security has almost doubled from $400 to $700 billion, and federal health care costs have more than doubled from $390 to over $920 billion and continues to rise much faster than inflation.

Yet, it’s going to get worse. Here come the baby boomers and they are a tsunami. Today, 40 million people in the U.S. are over age 65, of which, 19 million are over 75. Behind them stand 79 million people between 45 and 65, so about 79 million are going to replace 19 million in the retirement pool over the next 20 years.

Medicare covers the health care of those over 65 which cost $500 billion last year. Dedicated Medicare tax receipts covered $65 billion, about 13 percent, of those costs. Another $400 billion in federal health care costs were spent on the military, veterans, federal employees, and the poor with no tax source other than the taxpayer.

In 2010, total personal income tax receipts were about $900 billion, enough to cover the government’s health care tab, but that leaves nothing for other government function. No military, no highways, no courts, no environment, no national parks. No Congress! Next year, taxes may or may not increase depending upon the economy, but retirement and health care costs will increase, certainly more than tax revenues. That is a bad formula.

Imagine this Jeopardy question: If the retirement population doubles or triples over the next thirty years, how do we pay for social security and retiree health care? What is the winning answer?
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, proposed a plan. First, eliminate Medicare in ten years, give seniors an $8,000 voucher, and let them buy their own policy. (I’m 62 and can’t buy a policy for that amount now. Maybe costs will go down over the next three years.) Second, give the states block grants and let them figure out how to deal with rising health costs. (In other words, let states raise taxes or decline care for the poor.)

Public opinion is divided on whether to raise taxes, but otherwise, public opinion is very clear: reduce spending, don’t reduce social security and save Medicare. Figure out how to do that, and Washington is calling you.

The debate should be addressing health care costs and an aging population. Instead, Washington is playing political roulette with the public’s future.

Washington needs more kindergarten teachers and coaches, those special giants in our lives who taught us to share, to be fair, to give a little and get a little, to be nice, and that we either win or lose as a team, not as individuals. How much we forget as we get older!

Samantha Hungerford •

The latest buzz circling around the Mall isn’t this week’s congressional goings-on, a new display at the National Gallery of Art, or a festival taking place on the green. It’s PETA’s newest, shockingly graphic promotional display titled “Glass Walls,” an initiative backed by Sir Paul McCartney to convince people to go vegetarian or vegan.

Situated across from the Museum of Natural History, the display will be in place through Sept. 3 and features 12 large panels that draw similarities between slavery, child labor and female oppression, and animal cruelty in its various forms. It also boasts a large-screen TV playing McCartney’s “Glass Walls” DVD, which gets its name from its tagline, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.” The video shows some incredibly horrific and heart-wrenching scenes, enough to put a damper on any passerby’s day – I had to watch the whole thing through my fingers.

Needless to say, PETA is making a huge statement with this. While there are definitely some major flaws and inhumane practices going on in the meatpacking industry, is it necessary to slam the thousands of tourists and residents that cross the Mall daily with such grotesque images?

We asked our followers on Twitter if they though PETA’s display was a bit too much and so far have heard an almost unanimous answer: yes. Nikki Burdine said the display is “a bit disturbing,” and Margarita Noriega responded with a definitive “Yes. A bit too much.” Kayleigh Irby, an intern at the Georgetowner and a vegetarian, responded to the tweet with “Ugh PETA is THE WORST.”

However, I dare say that this is exactly what PETA is going for and from their standpoint, the venture could be labeled a huge success. The longer the display stays up, the more it affects, disturbs and inflames people’s opinions. Positive or negative, any response is, in the end, better than none, right? According to the PETA website, 10,000 copies of the “Glass Walls” DVD were distributed in the first month of the venture alone. The site also tells stories of people who saw the display and vowed never to eat meat again. Couldn’t that be called effective?

One commenter named Carla posted on the PETA saying “Awesome Peta!! Way to go!! If you can change a few minds, it’s all worth it!!”

Please keep in mind that the video below is graphic.

But what do you think? Post your comment below and become part of the buzz.

Courtney Overcash •

A D.C. summer favorite, Screen on the Green, returns to the National Mall tonight with “In the Heat of the Night.” Screen on the Green gives families the chance to curl up on the grass and enjoy an outdoor evening together. And it’s totally free.

Sponsor HBO had considered cutting the event a few years ago, but the D.C. Film Alliance rallied with such community support and Facebook feedback that Screen on the Green is back with gusto.

This season’s movie lineup consists of four Hollywood Classics. Films begin every Monday night at dusk. Crowds begin to arrive around 5:30 p.m., so claim a spot early. No rain dates have been scheduled; Screen on the Green is taking a cue from Hollywood and “the show must go on” even if extreme weather occurs.

The location has changed this year, but only slightly. Still on the National Mall, the movies will be seen between 8th and 14th streets, not 4th and 7th as in previous years. However, the docket and atmosphere of the evenings should remain the same.

So grab a blanket and fill up your cooler for an evening of family fun. If you bring chairs be sure they are the low-sitting or camping style. You may be asked to collapse regular lawn chairs, so others can see behind you.

2011 Screen on the Green Line-up:

July 25 – In the Heat of the Night
August 1 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
August 8 – Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
August 15 – Cool Hand Luke

Jeff Malet •

In conjunction with The 24th Annual Nation’s Capital Feis & “All-American Championships” and The O’Neill-James School of Irish Dancing.

Robert Devaney •

Ryuji Ueno and his wife, Sachiko Kuno, founders of Bethesda-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and S&R Technology Holdings, have purchased Evermay, for $22 million, 55 percent off its 2008 asking price of $49 million. The purchase price of the historic 3.5-acre estate on 28th Street, which borders Oak Hill Cemetery at R Street, is a record sale for D.C.

The names of the new Evermay owners were first reported in the Wall Street Journal on July 22 in its “Private Properties” section. The buyers’ representative Mark McFadden of Washington Fine Properties spoke with the Georgetowner and confirmed that, indeed, Ueno and Kuno are the new owners of the 12,000-square-foot house and grounds, adding that they will continue the preservation of the estate, founded by Samuel Davidson in 1792 and sold by the Belin family two weeks ago, through a limited-liability company, Evermay LLC. The listing agent was Jeanne Livingston of Long and Foster, a Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate, whose other big sale was Katharine Graham’s estate on R Street. Livingston said the new owners would be “good stewards” of Evermay, a property which was once rumored to have caught the interest of Oprah Winfrey.

While the Japanese-born drug researchers Ueno and Kuno – who own a house on P Street – are not well known to most Washingtonians, they are known in philanthropic circles, such as the Washington Opera and the Smithsonian. The couple founded the S&R Foundation in 2000, a non-profit whose mission is to encourage and stimulate scientific research and artistic endeavors among young individuals – and “to recognize talented young scientists and artists for their distinguished work in fields of science and fine arts, especially those who contribute to U.S.-Japanese understanding.” Their foundation awards the S&R Washington Award and the S&R Ueno Award.

Ueno and Kuno’s Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, focuses on the development and commercialization of medicines based on prostones. Ueno, who is also a medical doctor, discovered “the therapeutic potential of prostones, which are bio-lipids that occur naturally in the human body.” The company markets the drug Amitiza for gastrointestinal disorders. One of the couple’s first successes was Rescula eye drops, the first bioactive lipid used to treat glaucoma.

Together, the accomplished couple holds several degrees from universities in Japan and the U.S. and have other interests as well. A Class A race car driver, Ueno is a member of the Leica Historical Society of America, Ferrari Club of America and Miles River Yacht Club. Involved in fundraising for the Washington Opera, Kuno was also cited by the Washington Business Journal two years ago in its list, “Women Who Mean Business.” She even studied in the neighborhood at Georgetown University’s International Business Management Certificate Program. Add to their resumes: “Keepers of Evermay.”
[gallery ids="100242,106634" nav="thumbs"]