Thank you Reema for your very kind and thoughtful introduction.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It is such a great pleasure and honor to be here in the company of family and so many friends to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Arab American Institute Foundation’s Kahlil Gibran Spirit of the Humanities awards.
I am deeply grateful to the Foundation, its Board Chairman, George Salem, and AAI’s President, Jim Zogby, for honoring me this evening with the Najib Halaby award for public service. I have attended many of these Gala evenings and have been awed by the individuals and organizations that were recognized for their commitment and contribution to promoting the principles and values so beautifully enshrined by the legendary Kahlil Gibran.
t was my good fortune to spend most of my Foreign Service career in the Middle East, which provided me the opportunity to play a small role in bridging the divide between the United States and the Arab world.
Today the Arab world is undergoing a period of profound transition that is reshaping the region in ways large and small. Unfortunately, at this critical time, the ability of the United States to influence events in the M.E. has diminished. The catastrophic consequences of the invasion of Iraq, the subsequent rise of the “Islamic State” group, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, demonstrate the folly of the United States trying to impose its will on the region.
To regain its standing and credibility, the US needs to come to grips with regional realities in all their complexity as they are today and develop a comprehensive strategy that can serve our interests while contributing to the region’s stability. For far too long the US has focused on, and invested almost exclusively in, the military-to-military ties that now define most of our bilateral relationships.
To better understand the current complexities of regional conflicts and competing agendas, the U.S. administration should strengthen and broaden our diplomatic engagement. Unfortunately, under the Trump administration, the situation is likely to worsen, as the State Department faces potentially severe budget cuts that, if enacted, would cripple American diplomacy for the next decade.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would not be here tonight to receive this extraordinary award and recognition without the support of the not-so-small village that has stood by me throughout my career: my friends, my mentors, and my family. I begin with my parents, who had the courage to uproot the family from their beloved Egypt and become immigrants, moving to the US right after the 1967 war. Both my parents are gone, but my cousin Victor Malik, traveled from Sacramento to be here tonight to represent the West Coast side of the family where my brother & several cousins live in California as well as my sister and her husband who live in Vancouver, Canada.
I am grateful to my late uncle, Boulos Malik, for inspiring me to join the Foreign Service, and I would be remiss if I failed to recognize my mentor and now close friend, Ambassador Frank G. Wisner, who took a risk on a new and untested FSO and brought me on board to serve as his Press Attache’ at US Embassy Cairo – my very first overseas assignment.
Last but not least, the most important moment of my foreign service career was the day I met my soul mate and husband, Derek Farwagi. We met in Cairo, where both of us had roots. A city to which each of us had returned after establishing new lives in the west. Derek was living in Sydney, Australia at the time, where our daughter Morwenna Farwagi, still resides, and I’m delighted that she traveled to be with us this evening along with her two children, Monty and Havana.
Finally, a shout-out to my great team of colleagues from the Arab Gulf States Institute; without their extraordinary effort and professionalism we could not have succeeded in establishing this remarkable new think tank, devoted to building bridges of understanding between the US and the Arab gulf countries.
The Najib Halaby award has recognized a number of very distinguished Arab-Americans over the years, including Governor Mitch Daniels, Senator George J. Mitchell, and Secretary Ray LaHood. I never imagined that I would be invited to join such remarkable company, and I am both humbled and extremely proud to accept this award.
Thank you all so very much!