The paintings appeared on social media in 2020 in support of leftist and rightist causes, and now two years later, they’ve become ubiquitous on social platforms.

The four paintings by Rockwell were inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of Union address. In his speech, the president argued that what was at stake was the defense of four universal freedoms that Americans take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Although Roosevelt’s words and thoughts were inspirational, they were too abstract to a large segment of the population. Rockwell, a well-known illustrator for magazines, proposed to transform them into images that a large populace could understand.

First, he offered to undertake the task in collaboration with two government agencies but was rejected. Finally, the editor of The Saturday Evening Post was the one who saw the potential of the paintings and commissioned Rockwell to create them.

Rockwell’s interpretation of Roosevelt’s’ speech appeared on the magazine covers, and the images soon were everywhere.

According to contemporary press reports, “The government put them on postage stamps, displayed them in an exhibition as part of its nationwide war-bond drive and printed them on posters that helped raise $133 million for the war effort.”

Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, the deputy director and chief curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home of the “Four Freedoms” paintings, is quoted saying: “Rockwell’s oeuvre was intended to distill and quickly spread a mass message. Many Americans did not register what the meaning of those freedoms truly were and found Roosevelt’s speech abstract. What Rockwell wanted to do was to envision them in a way that a large populace could understand.”

In fact, Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” had an extraordinary appeal on a mass of people living behind the Iron Curtain. Even during the darkest days of the Cold War and Stalinist terror, the images of the painting surfaced.

Significantly, many of the history books used in schools in Eastern Europe featured Rockwell’s images, although they were interpreted according to the Communist doctrine.

Thus, I was familiar with the “Four Freedoms” paintings long before my arrival to America in 1958 as a refugee from Communist Czechoslovakia.

Once my wife and I settled in Lake Placid, New York, visiting the Norman Rockwell Museum was high on our list.

Always on the look-out for a good story, we checked into the iconic Red Lion Inn. I was told Rockwell often dined there and used the features of local residents in his illustrations.

A local man informed me, confidentially, that some of the people portrayed in the “Four Freedoms” paintings were actually Stockbridge residents, although Rockwell moved and settled in Stockbridge decades after the paintings were created.

During my several visits to Stockbridge and the Rockwell Museum, I failed to stumble into an “exclusive” story that would have added to the Rockwell legend.

However, the “Four Freedoms” paintings remain the images to me that best describe America as the “Shining City on the Hill.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

The money from criminal activity is considered dirty, and the process “launders” it to look clean. However, contrary to public perception, it is not just drug or terrorism related crimes that require money laundering.

Every second federal criminal indictment seems to include at least one charge on money laundering. People think it involves the clandestine exchange of bags full of cash and numbered Swiss bank accounts.

This is not the case.

“Technically, under U.S. law, the crime of money laundering means engaging in a transaction that involves the proceeds of an earlier crime with an intent to either carry on further criminal activity, or hide the nature, location, source, ownership or control of the proceeds of the earlier crime, or avoid a federal reporting requirement,” Jacob Thiessen, of Williamsburg, said in an interview with the Gazette.

Thiessen, a lawyer by training, has dealt with money laundering cases for 25 years.

He also holds a doctorate degree in comparative world history from Johns Hopkins University. In the fall of each year, Thiessen teaches a course at the William & Mary Law School.

“Most crimes, except crimes of passion, are committed for profit and therefore involve proceeds,” he explained. “Most criminals want to hide their crimes and therefore try to draw attention away from the proceeds they’ve made. So, most people who commit crimes will do something that can be characterized as money laundering. This isn’t just a phenomena of drug cartels and international arms traffickers; money laundering is ubiquitous because crime for profit is ubiquitous.”

Thiessen explained that criminals need to do three things with the proceeds of crime, if they really want to enjoy those proceeds. First, they need to place those proceeds somehow in a non-criminal commercial world. Sell the stolen goods, deposit stolen currency or checks. Then they need to layer transactions — move money from one account to another, buy something valuable and resell it. Finally, once they’ve successfully covered their tracks, they need to integrate the proceeds into the legitimate financial system. This layering integration allows the authorities to focus their attention on the process and instruct third parties such as banks to watch for suspicious financial transactions, a thing they are good at.

Although money laundering is usually associated with converting “dirty money” to legitimate money, terrorist financing makes legitimate money available for illegitimate purposes. Thus, guarding against money laundering involves scrutinizing transactions to see where the money comes from and where it goes.

The Bank Secrecy Act passed in 1970 intended to guard the U.S. financial system against being used to launder money. It requires financial institutions, including banks, to have anti-money laundering programs, keep records and report certain kinds of transactions to the federal government.

In the wake of 9/11, a new law, popularly known as the “USA Patriot Act,” was passed in October 2001. It gave the federal government more power to crack down on terrorist financing.

It is well-remembered how easily the 19 hijackers could open bank accounts, get money wired to them and navigate life in the United States while plotting their attack. Since then, one of the provisions is a requirement that financial institutions identify their customers before opening accounts for them.

According to Thiessen, a new twist in the anti-money laundering world is the rise of cryptocurrency. It is some sort of private electronic money, on which you can speculate the price rising and falling. Some people passionately support cryptocurrencies, others hate them. However, millions of people around the world use them. This presents a challenge to traditional ways of protecting against the use of financial transactions to launder money or finance terrorism.

To illustrate the volatility of cryptocurrency, Thiessen described the first-ever Bitcoin transaction. It was the purchase of two pizzas on May 22, 2010, for 10,000 bitcoins, which worked out to $41. The exchange value of one bitcoin was $0.0028. Earlier this year, one bitcoin was worth $58,685.10.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

Being fluent in Czech and Slovak languages as well as Hungarian, and speaking a smattering of Russian, I was appointed as the translator to a Soviet general commanding a combat division fighting German SS troops in the street of Budapest.

My position enabled me to move freely in the Soviet-occupied city. This was a special privilege because the Soviet military police set up dragnets in the streets of Budapest to replace the thousands of escaped Hungarian prisoners of war by capturing new men. They were shipped to the Soviet Union to do forced labor to help rebuild the country. Thousands of those Hungarian prisoners of war died in captivity.

No Hungarian man walking the streets of Budapest was safe from being shipped to the Soviet Union unless he had a “bumashka” (an official document). I had one, testifying that I was serving as a translator for the Red Army Division Headquarters. The document was signed by the general and bore a large official stamp.

This also gave me free access into the newly opened Czechoslovak Embassy in Budapest.

Dozens of people, former Czechoslovak citizens, lined up daily in front of the embassy to obtain certificates of Czechoslovak citizenship. These certificates would protect them from being shipped to the Soviet Union as replacements for escaped Hungarian prisoners of war.

During one of my visits to the Czechoslovak Embassy, I spotted a young man waiting in line, looking totally forlorn. I asked him what was troubling him?

“I had just escaped by a hairline, a Soviet dragnet,” he said. “I need a certificate of my Czechoslovak citizenship, desperately.”

I took him into the embassy and asked an official to assist him. We parted ways.

Fast forward.

Two years later, I went to the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry in Prague to present my credentials as a foreign correspondent for Hungarian newspapers. The official in charge, the head of the department, was Victor Rybar — the man whom I had helped in war-torn Budapest to obtain his certificate of Czechoslovak citizenship.

Once again, fast forward to 50 years later.

Following the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Communist Czechoslovakia and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the U.S. Information Agency invited 12 Czechoslovak editors and top journalists to America to participate in its project, “Journalism in the United States.”

The program was designed to allow the visitors to explore the relationship between the media and politics and the concept of an independent press.

The monthlong tour included a seminar at William & Mary’s School of Law on how to protect press freedom. I was recruited by William & Mary to serve as a translator.

During a lunch break, I was seated next to one of the leading members of the group. He was the editor-in-chief of the Czechoslovak Television’s educational department. His nametag identified him as Stefan Rybar.

I asked him whether, by any chance, he was related to Victor Rybar, a former Czech government official?

“He is my father,” Stefan Rybar replied.

He then shared with me his father’s odyssey through decades of communist rule.

As a young, idealistic man, Stefan recalled, his father joined the Communist Party. After Nazi Germany’s occupation of the Czech lands, Victor was high on the Gestapo’s list of wanted men. He fled to Hungary, living there under an assumed name.  Following the liberation of his homeland, Victor returned to Prague. He became an official in the foreign ministry. Following the 1948 communist coup d’état, as a pre-war Communist Party member, he was entrusted with increasingly higher positions. By the time my wife and I escaped from Communist Czechoslovakia in 1954, Victor Rybar was Czechoslovakia’s consul general in Istanbul, Turkey.

“In 1968, my father, always an idealistic communist, became a supporter of the newly elected first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubcek,” Stefan said. “Dubcek launched a reform movement called the Prague Spring, or ‘Socialism with a Human Face.’ However, the effort to reform the regime ended abruptly when the Soviet Union and several Warsaw Pact members invaded Czechoslovakia. The hardline communists took over.”

Victor Rybar was dismissed from his job and prevented from obtaining any meaningful work. He eked out a living by standing on street corners selling maps of Prague to tourists.

The 1989 Velvet Revolution that reversed history found Victor Rybar too old and sick to do more than observe how his son, Stefan, became a leading champion of free speech and independent press in the now democratic Czech Republic.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

It provides a behind-the-scenes lens on the news from across the wider world of higher education.

In his update, Lambert, who graduated from William & Mary in 1999, reflects on the 332 years of history of William & Mary, sometimes called the alma mater of the nation.

He quoted the words of Judge John Charles Thomas, the first African American and youngest appointee to the Supreme Court of Virginia. In his address to this year’s graduates at William & Mary, Thomas said:

“I depend on this class, not just the undergraduates but also on the graduates who studied here, that when you leave this place and go out into the world, that you will understand that with the skills of freedom, you are meant to be builders of the best that America can be.”

Lambert noted that those words deeply resonated with him as William & Mary celebrated its recent anniversary, a year filled with milestones, challenges and achievements.

“At the core, what gives our community strength through the tumult of the world is a focus on building a stronger nation and the world, using the skills we cultivate and community we build at William & Mary,” Lambert wrote.

He reiterated that William & Mary remains laser-focused on three critical areas: providing a transformative student experience, preparing students as 21st-century citizens and professionals, and ensuring graduates will have secure, meaningful and well-paid employment after they leave the university.

Lambert pointed out that William & Mary is committed to low student-to-faculty ratio — 13:1, among the lowest of any public university in the nation. This ensures personal, impactful learning experiences. W&M is continuously evolving the curriculum to meet the demands of global citizenship and professional life.

In addition, there is a guarantee that every undergraduate has access to a funded internship or other applied learning experience. William & Mary provides real-world experience and mentorship. In fact, 84% of the undergraduates are engaged in mentored research, with over two-thirds participating in study abroad programs and a significant majority involved in community-engaged learning.

“WM is ranked in the Top 25 in the nation for educational experience, carrying forward our long-standing tradition of creating well-rounded critical thinkers ready to enter the career market,” Lambert wrote. “By focusing on these priorities, we ensure that our graduates are well prepared for whatever comes next, setting them on a clear path for lifelong success.”

William & Mary was the first in the nation to implement an emphasis on constructive conversation and thoughtful discourse across curriculum. Based on the Aspen Institute’s “Better Arguments Project,” the concept guided William & Mary students to engage confidently and constructively with one another around difficult issues.

“While protests roiled campuses nationwide, we upheld our values, fostering dialogue and understanding within our community,” Lambert stated.

In his “Insider’s Update,” Lambert pointed out that the very existence of William & Mary as a university is a testament to the generosity of those who believe in its mission.

“At crucial junctures, impactful donors have transformed our university, paving the way for groundbreaking advancements.”

Lambert listed a series of milestones when private donations made it possible for William & Mary to enhance not just the university’s physical landscape, but to also implement “Vision 2026,” a strategic plan that provides a roadmap for the future, with cornerstone initiatives such as the School of Computing, Data Sciences and Physics.

“Increased scholarship funding, career readiness and internship programs, higher levels of excellence in our academic offerings and campus environment ready for the next 100 years are just the beginnings,” Lambert wrote. “There is excitement and determination in the air as we plan for these future opportunities. As we look around the landscape of higher education more broadly, we need the power of our people now more than ever.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at Bruton Parish Shop and on Amazon.com.

For a good reason.

In the words of Cliff Fleet, the current president and CEO of the foundation, “Colin’s steady hands made an indelible imprint on Colonial Williamsburg, ensuring its survival as a national treasure and charting a course focused on preservation, education, and civic engagement that the institution is following today.”

Under Campbell’s leadership, the foundation raised $687 million from 1.7 million individual donors from 2000 to 2013. As a result, the Historic Area was enriched by several projects, including the reconstruction of Charlton’s Coffeehouse, the construction of Anderson’s Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury and the construction of the Market House.

In his retirement, Campbell worked to fund a 65,000-square-foot expansion of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. But it was not only the enhanced physical landscape that Campbell left behind.

According to Carly Florina, chair of Colonial Williamsburg’s Board of Trustees, Campbell also oversaw the expansion of programs focusing on periods that led up to and during the American Revolution.

Campbell’s accomplishments as president and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation are well known. What is less well known is the record of Campbell’s professional career before CW.

I was introduced to Campbell by Bill O’Donovan, former publisher and editor of The Virginia Gazette. During the ensuing years our friendship deepened, and Colin shared with me memories on episodes that left a lasting mark on him.

One of those events was his involvement in the development of Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

Central European University was designed to serve as a key element in the establishment of “open societies” in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

George Soros, a Hungarian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen, accumulated a multibillion-dollar fortune through international investments. It was his idea to establish a network of foundations, first in Hungary, then in countries throughout Central and Eastern Europe, that would support institutions dedicated to building and maintaining the infrastructure of open societies.

One of the major institutions designated to contribute to the development of open societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union was Central European University. It was established in 1991 and financed by Soros.

The mission of Central European University was to serve “as an advanced center on research and policy analysis and facilitates academic dialogue while preparing graduates to serve the region’s next generation of leaders and scholars.”

Such an ambitious goal was easier to proclaim than to accomplish, because despite Soros’ financial support amounting to tens of millions of dollars, the academic credentials of the university remained questionable.

During an official visit to Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine, Campbell, then-president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, was invited to join a river cruise with Soros.

When Soros met Campbell, he didn’t mince words: “I heard that you are critical of Central European University. What’s the problem?”

Campbell had a ready answer: “In my opinion, it is academic legitimacy. Central European University must have a faculty that has a voice and independence.” Then Campbell listed a few other needed changes.

“Soros listened but didn’t respond. It was the end of the conversation,” Campbell recalled.

A short time later, Campbell was invited by Soros to become a member of the board of trustees of the university. During Campbell’s tenure on the board, the university received Hungarian academic accreditation and absolute charter from the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

Campbell’s professional career before becoming president and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation took him around the world, meeting and dealing with statesmen like the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel.

However, what Campbell was most fond of was reminiscing about the 2007 visit of Queen Elizabeth II to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement.

“During her stay in Williamsburg, Queen Elizabeth II took a carriage ride down Duke of Gloucester Street. My wife, Nancy, accompanied her,” Campbell told me with a chuckle. “I must say, during our many decades of marriage and my varied professional career, I never had to worry that Nancy would make a faux pas.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and on Amazon.com.

“They are essential to manufacturing, clean energy production, semiconductor production, and for the defense and aerospace industries,” an analysis of global economy states.

China currently controls much of the global critical minerals marketplace. It is the lead producer of 29 commodities including 22 minerals and seven industrial materials.

All this didn’t escape the attention of members of the U.S. Congress.

A new policy working group was formed by the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. The group is focused on countering China’s control of the critical mineral supply chain.

Congressman Rob Wittman was named to lead the committee.

“Dominance over global supply chain for critical mineral and rare earth elements is the next stage of great power competition,” Wittman said. “We must secure American access to these minerals that are integral to the technology we rely on in our daily lives and for our national defense. I look forward to leading the Critical Minerals Working Group with (Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla.) to elevate this aspect of the serious economic threat posed by the Chinese.”

The policy working group is charged with producing legislation and spreading awareness through committee events to counter the Chinese dominance of critical minerals.

Wittman emphasized that the Critical Minerals Policy Working Group will work to create transparency in the U.S. supply chain dependency for minerals and develop a package of proposed investments, regulatory reforms and tax incentives to reduce that dependency.

In an interview with Wittman, I asked what kind of a role model the United States should follow in response to the dominance of China in the field of critical minerals.

“While the United States has faced critical mineral supply chain vulnerabilities for many decades, the scale and scope of the challenges before us today are unique,” Wittman said. “We must elevate domestic competencies for critical mineral and rare earth elements access and processing, while focusing on technology and workforce development in the short-term. At the same time, we must protect and reinforce our environmental standards and stewardship that differentiate us from the Chinese Communist Party.”

I also asked Wittman what role he sees for institutions of higher education, such as William & Mary and its considerable research capability, in finding solutions to the problem.

“Research institutions and universities will be a very important part of our effort to find a solution to the critical minerals challenge,” Wittman said. “They can produce the research that enables a more effective use of minerals for all kinds of technology like batteries, phones, lasers and partner with industry to develop technologies and processes to more efficiently mine and process minerals domestically.”

Wittman singled out William & Mary’s international development research lab, AidData.

“It contributes by showing the potential harm of Chinese development financing in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and helps build a case for loosening China’s vise grip on those sources of critical minerals.”

Wittman pointed out that the complexity of supply chains for critical minerals and rare earth elements essential for advanced weapons, electric vehicles and battery storage makes it challenging to fully mitigate existing risks.

“Our working group aims to generate policy options to enhance the security of supply chains for high-priority minerals impacting Americans’ daily lives,” he said.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and on Amazon.com.

Significantly, Thiessen’s family roots in Colonial Virginia go back to the 17th century.

Elijah Craig, Thiessen’s seven-times removed great-uncle, was the brother of Jacob’s six-times removed great-grandmother. She was born sometime after 1730, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Craig was born in 1738.

In 1764, at the age of 26, Craig was converted to Baptism by a traveling preacher and subsequently become a Baptist preacher himself. According to historical records, ever since then he conflicted with the established Church of England.

At that time, Virginia had an established church, the Church of England. It was supported by taxes. It had special legal privileges over other religions, including other Protestant sects. You couldn’t preach without a license. Your marriage wasn’t legal unless recognized by the church.

All this was anathema to Elijah Craig. He wanted to preach to a church of believers. Between 1764 and 1771, a lot of people in Virginia became Baptist. All of them had been baptized as adults by full immersion in a nearby river. They were fully aware that what they were embracing was opposition to the established church.

In 1771, near Blue Run Baptist Church, which Craig had founded, not far from Montpelier, the home of then 20-year-old James Madison, a meeting was held by the Separate Baptist General Association. Craig was one of the keynote speakers.

As a Baptist preacher, Craig made an appeal that the restrictions of the Church of England on freedom of conscience be not just relaxed but abolished outright. He called on the adherents of every other religion to join him. He invited especially Jews, who he called Hebrews, and Muslims, who he called Muhammadens, saying that government  shouldn’t pick and choose among sincere expressions of conscience. People should be able to make up their own minds at their own pace.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 people attended the meeting of the Separate Baptist General Association. According to historians, it was the largest gathering in Virginia at that time. At the end of the meeting, Craig was elected one of the leaders of the Separate Baptists of Virginia.

According to Thiessen, despite all the efforts of Craig, his appeals didn’t work at first. The Church of England remained dominant. Craig was arrested at least once for preaching without license. Not until revolutionary times did cracks appear in the dominance of the Church of England. It was disestablished in Virginia in 1779, the year the Statute for Religious Freedom was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly.

Craig may have played some role in this. He decided to go into politics and lobbied the most prominent Virginia politicians of the day, hammering on the argument that it was inconsistent to throw off allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain and not to allow complete freedom of conscience.

Thomas Jefferson agreed with him. Jefferson may have been also influenced by his ally, James Madison, who had grown up with Baptists holding revivals near his family home.

No better example is needed to demonstrate religious freedom and tolerance in America than the fact that Thiessen, the descendant of Craig, a Baptist preacher, with his wife, Dr. Andrea Meyerhoff, an expert in tropical diseases who is Jewish, decided to become a member of the Temple Beth El in Williamsburg.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

Nanci and her late husband, Robert Bond, a retired college professor, were transplants from California. They adopted Williamsburg as their beloved hometown, and Nanci, a lifetime activist, devoted herself to make Williamsburg a better place to live in and more accessible to tourists.

It was at a coffeehouse conversation among some Williamsburg old-timers that the subject came up about how the old decrepit Williamsburg train depot was transformed into a welcoming center for visitors arriving by train or bus.

Some remembered that it was a woman, a plucky community activist, who through letters to The Virginia Gazette and the Daily Press, as well as unceasing lobbying at City Council meetings, pushed for transforming the train depot into the Williamsburg Transportation Center.

With the help of the editorial support of Bill O’Donovan, a former editor and publisher of the Gazette, the transportation center became a reality.

Nanci and Bob Bond decided that Williamsburg would be an ideal place for them to retire. But they had no plans to busy themselves with the city’s problems.

That is, until Nanci noticed the deplorable conditions of the train depot, a place where visitors gained their first impression of the city.

She also noticed the dangers pedestrians faced crossing roadways. She set out to find remedies.

I once asked Nanci during an interview for the Gazette, what made her into such a dedicated community activist?

“I think, I was always an activist,” she said. “I co-founded a bird club when I was 10 years old.”

During her first marriage, her family moved to Chatsworth, California. Driving to work on the main street through town, Nanci noticed the tree wells were filled with trash and weeds were everywhere.

After returning home from work, she collected her young son, Jim, and equipped with a garden cart, rakes and trash bags, she returned to Main Street to collect the trash. A shop owner asked her, why is she doing such work?

“Because,” she said, “I cannot stand to see such an unsightly mess on my Main Street.”

That sentiment became Nanci’s guiding light.

After she joined the Chatsworth Junior Women’s Club and other local organizations, she became a moving force in projects that focused on beautification and environment, including raising money to install lights at the local high school.

To extend her reach, Nanci wrote letters to the editors of regional papers, bringing their attention to problems residents had to deal with. She attended community meetings and organized task forces.

Nanci’s constructive activism didn’t escape the attention of one of the most powerful members of the Los Angeles County Council. He made her his assistant and gave her a free hand to initiate and support projects with lasting value to the community.

Those included opening hiking trails, creating three large public parks, planting 10,000 baby pine trees and establishing the Rim of the Valley Equestrian Trail.

During one of my interviews with Nanci, I asked her whether she had any ideas about how make New Town the heart of a vibrant community.

“Mr. Rockefeller and his designers came up with the cozy, human scale Merchants Square,” Bond said. “It is a perfect blend of streets, shops, eating places, and offices — a gathering space. Like the famous, popular gathering places in Europe.

“What New Town needs is people spaces and a variety of interesting scenes and activities going on that attract and welcome people. It should be a destination people would say, ‘Let’s go there!’”

Nanci’s son, Jim Oliva, in a letter to her mother’s friends wrote: “I know Nanci doesn’t want any of us to feel sad, but to look up, and think of what next? How high, how far, how best to help and to enjoy the gift of that we all are lucky enough to share.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

I replied: “I became a translator to a Soviet general. He was commanding a combat division fighting German SS troops in the streets of Budapest.”

“My Russian was far from perfect,” I said, “but being fluent in Czech-Slovak, a Slavic language, and speaking a smattering of Russian made me a ‘king in the land of blind.’ At that time, very few Hungarians understand or spoke Russian.”

The Soviet general set up his headquarters in a luxury high-rise apartment building in the center of the city. He took over a whole floor. The rest of the building was occupied by wealthy Hungarian families, mostly women and children. The men were serving in the Hungarian army or were in hiding.

Hungarian women were terrified of being raped by Soviet soldiers, quite justifiably. But having the division headquarters in the building provided the women living there with a degree of security.

That is, until the Soviet general ordered me to arrange for one of the women living in the building to “volunteer” to join him for dinner each night. I could not find a “volunteer.” I was desperate, because my existence depended on the general.

Historical records show that during the siege of Budapest, tens of thousands of Hungarian soldiers were captured by Soviet forces. As prisoners of war, they were shipped to the Soviet Union to help rebuild the country. They were dying there by the thousands.

Hundreds of captured Hungarian soldiers managed to escape. To make up for the number of escapes, the Soviet military police set up dragnets all over the streets of Budapest. No one was safe from being shipped to the Soviet Union as a prisoner of war.

To be safe on my errands for the general, he issued me a “bumashka” (official document), testifying that I was serving as a translator for the division headquarters. It was signed by him under a large official stamp.

Also, he assigned two armed Soviet military policemen as my escorts. I was never bothered.

My assignment to find a female companion for the general required, for me, free movement around the city, especially at night.

I lived in Budapest before the Second World War and remembered that there was a district in the city where officially sanctioned houses of prostitution flourished. They were under medical supervision.

I set out with my military police escort for Conti Utca, a street known for having several functioning houses of prostitution. I explained to the madam at one of the houses that whoever volunteers to join the general for “dinner” would be richly rewarded with cash and food. Food was worth more than gold in a starving city.

A young Hungarian woman volunteered and accompanied us to the division headquarters.  A few hours later, laden with all kinds of food and bottles of wine, we escorted the young lady back to Conti Utca.

During the following two weeks, girls at Conti Utca begged the madam to be chosen to be the general’s “dinner companion.”

In the eyes of the women in the apartment building, I had become a hero. They couldn’t have been more thankful.

Once my hometown — Parkan, on the Czechoslovak side of the Danube River — was liberated, I returned home. I found only my father alive. My brother, who returned later, survived after almost dying of starvation at a Nazi concentration camp. All other members of my family perished in the Holocaust.

Shortly after the liberation of Czechoslovakia, I moved to Prague. I resumed my journalistic studies and subsequently became a foreign correspondent, based in Prague.

In 1954, at the height of the Stalinist terror, my wife, Jaroslava, and I escaped Communist Czechoslovakia. After some years spent in Europe, we arrived in the United States in 1958. We found here, our “Shining City on the Hill.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and on Amazon.com.

The subjects that the institute investigates are of vital importance to our country’s national security. Congressional committees and high-level government officials are keen to be briefed on the latest developments in international relations.

According to Michael J. Tierney, the Hylton professor of government and international relations and director of the Global Research Institute, Brad Parks was invited by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, chaired by Congressman John Moolenaar, to give a testimony about China’s overseas development portfolio. Parks, executive director of AidData, an international development research lab at the Global Research Institute, is a 2003 graduate of William & Mary.

To summarize and explain to the members of Congress the institute’s 427-page report on China’s overseas development finance, Parks was allotted six minutes.

He made the best of the allotted time.

Parks invited the members of the congressional committee to imagine themselves sitting in Beijing right now and looking at a global dashboard on China’s overseas project portfolio.

“You will see a lot of flashing red lights,” Parks said. “The Chinese authorities are dealing with three big problems at the same time.”

The first is debt repayment, Parks explained.

“Beijing went on a lending spree and issued thousands of loans worth more than a trillion dollars for big-ticket infrastructure projects spread across 125 countries. Now, its borrowers are having difficulty repaying their debt. Eighty percent of China’s overseas lending portfolio is currently supporting countries in financial distress.”

Parks pointed out that a lot of China’s overseas infrastructure projects are risky — from an environmental, social or governance perspective. When China first got into the global infrastructure market, it had only 17 problem projects worth less than $450 million. Today, it has nearly 1,700 problem projects worth more than $450 billion.

The third problem that Beijing has to cope with is reputational risk.

According to Parks, as Belt and Road projects have run into trouble, Beijing has seen its public approval rating in the developing world plunge — from 56% to 40%. Media sentiment has also soured. And with the grace periods on many Chinese loans expiring, Beijing finds itself in an uncomfortable position as the developing world’s largest official debt collector.

This picture may provide comfort to those who fear that China is on the way to replace the United States as the leading super power in the world.

But the GRI’s 427-page report is an independent scholarly research paper that presents data indicating that Beijing is not going to stand by and watch its flagship global infrastructure initiative crash and burn.

Data shows that the Chinese authorities have already launched a far-reaching effort to de-risk the Belt and Road Initiative. They call it BRI 2.0.

According to Parks, in the short-run, Beijing is scanning its global portfolio and firefighting in response to crises. It’s refocusing its time and money on distressed borrowers, troubled projects and sources of public backlash.

“But Beijing is also playing the long game,” Parks said. “It’s putting in place new safeguards to future-proof the BRI.”

The William & Mary’s GRI research shows that China is making long-term changes to its loan portfolio to reduce the risk of not being repaid in the future. Rather than relying on its own banks, Beijing is increasingly outsourcing risk management to lending institutions with stronger due diligence standards.

Parks, in his congressional testimony, reminded members of the committee that Beijing is several steps ahead of its competitors.

“The U.S. and its G7 allies have underestimated the ambition of China’s effort to overhaul the Belt and Road,” Parks said. “They are focused on competing with a version of the BRI that no longer exist — BRI 1.0 rather than BRI 2.0.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.