The Foreign Service Journal, April 2010

12 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 0 outspoken former mayor of London, to call former U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle a “chiseling little crook.” Louis Susman, the current ambas- sador, has assured Londoners that “We intend to do what’s appropriate and we are working with the Treasury on that.” Acknowledging past difficulties, Sus- man has pledged to be “a good neigh- bor in our new home” and said that the eco-friendly building would generate enough power to contribute to Britain’s national grid. The new embassy — a towering glass cube covered with a thin sheath of photovoltaic cells — is expected to be comparatively airy and accessible, and less likely to clash with the sur- rounding Wandsworth community on the south side of the Thames River. In State’s view, the design “met the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, time- less, safe and energy-efficient embassy for the 21st century.” The structure will be surrounded by a green expanse “honoring the English tradition of urban parks and gardens as the context for many civic buildings,” as well as a semicircular, 100 foot-wide moat. Blogging for the Los Angeles Times , architecture critic Christopher Haw- thorne praises the design as a break with the bunker mentality that has marked somany recent U.S. embassies. But he warns: “Whether the new em- bassy seems open to the city around it may be a matter of perspective. For Londoners who are accustomed to the accessibility of Saarinen’s building and who may even remember the days when it was possible to walk almost ef- fortlessly inside, the new facility may appear hardened against attack. But compared with recent U.S. embassies in other cities —Beijing and Baghdad, to name two — this one makes a no- ticeable effort not to turn away from urban life.” Washington Post commentator Phil- ip Kennicott laments the break with the tradition of American presence in Grosvenor Square, which dates to John Adams’ appointment as the first U.S. minister to the Court of St. James’s in 1785. But he approves of the design, quoting architectural historian Jane Lo- effler: “Very fashion-forward, but it’s not just trendy; it has rationale and sci- ence behind it.” — Steven Alan Honley, Editor Indonesia: Back on the Map? President Barack Obama’s upcom- ing second trip to Asia has brought In- donesia into focus on the American foreign policy radar screen once again. Hopefully, the president’s visit to the land he called “home” for four years during his childhood will prove to be not simply a sentimental journey, but the beginning of a serious strengthen- ing of relations between Washington and Jakarta. A working relationship between the U.S. and Indonesia could be very ben- eficial, both bilaterally and for the rest C Y B E R N O T E S Site of the Month: MobileActive.org Mobileactive.org , “A Global Network of People Using Mobile Technology for So- cial Impact,” is an impressive and useful forum. The site not only hosts an array of information regarding the newest mobile potentials, but it supports the idea of social activism through an unlikely medium: our cell phones. In an age of increasing technological capabilities, organizations now have the power to utilize mobile phones as a means of communication and social advance- ment. This site is home to a broad range of features, including a comprehensive database on the mobile capabilities of virtually every country in the world, a directory highlighting available mobile tools, case studies, how-to-guides and further research (named the mDirectory). In addition, a blog center is the venue for discussion of the most recent news and a variety of issues concerning mobile technology. Mobileactive.org focuses on seven fields: Advocacy, Citizen Media, Democratic Participation, Disaster and Humanitarian Relief, Environment, Health, and Livelihoods and Economic Development. Registered users of Mobileactive.org can add a mobile tool, blog post, strategic advice or a case study to the site, updating it constantly with the most current and relevant mobile knowledge. The Mobileactive.org community consists of a medley of nongovernmental staff, intermediary organizations, content and service providers, organizations funding var- ious mobile projects and grassroots activists. The site is a project of the Nonprofit Technology Network ( www.nten.org ) , a membership organization of technology pro- fessionals devoted to increasing nonprofits’ use of technology to address and pro- vide for community needs. The Mobileactive.org mission is to help NGOs to employ mobile technology, build partnerships through an overarching framework, and expand organizational knowledge of mobile capabilities. This site reminds us of the breadth of current media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, and points the way for mobile technology to become a contender as one of the leading technological agents of shared knowledge and progressive change in the near future. — Jennifer Thompson, Editorial Intern