Today, I had to perform a classical diplomatic task. I was privileged to host Tawfiq Kawar and a number of his friends and family on the occasion of his appointment by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II as Commander of the Order of Dannebrog. Tawfiq Kawar received this in recognition of his 41 years of service as honorary Consul General for Denmark in Jordan.
Tawfiq is a well know businessman in Jordan. He is the chairman of the Amin Kawar & Sons, part of a big Jordanian conglomerate with interest in shipping, tourism, IT, minerals etc. His sons Rudain and Karim are now running the Company on a daily basis. Karim by the way used to be the Jordanian ambassador to the US.
It is not common to have a consul general in office for so long. But Tawfiq is someone special and we are happy that he has served Denmark for so long. Tawfiq was until recently the Dean of the consular corps in Jordan as he was the Dean of the Danish corps for honorary consuls.
For all those years Tawfiq has been the anchor point for Danish-Jordanian relations whether they are in business, tourism or more difficult consular issues. I don’t think that there is any Danish businessman, politician, journalist or diplomat with some relation to Jordan that doesn’t know about Tawfiq and his wife Abla Kawar.
How to recognize such a long and distinguished service? Let me quote from a royal patent from 200 years ago.
“Convinced that the upright person, next to the stimuli of religion and morality, considers the Honour as the purest and noblest mainspring of everything Good, and that he, next to the gratifying feeling of having been useful, considers the esteem of his Sovereign and of his fellow citizens the most dignified reward, We have found that Our paternal purposes can best be achieved by means of an external symbol of recognized civic worth”
This “external Symbol” is the Royal Order of Dannebrog that was instituted in 1671 and of which Tawfiq Kawar today became Commander. For more info on the Danish Orders of Chivalry I’ll point to my Danish colleagues in Washington D.C. and to the Danish Royal Court.
Cross of the Commander of the Order of Dannebrog
June 3, 2008 at 11:52
Mr. Ambassador, a belated reply to the announcement that my dear friend Tawfiq Kawar was bestowed the Royal Order of Dannebrog, he definitely deserves it. He and his family have been the best of personal friends but also the best representatives of Danish interests in Jordan.
I worked with Mr. Kawar ‘86-’89 as a Commercial Counsellor at the Royal Danish Consulate in Amman, without Mr. Kawar’s support and assistance my life would have been extremely difficult. Over the years we have kept in touch and both my wife and I are right pleased for the recoqnition which is so well deserved.
With best personal wishes,
Hans Henrik Friis
Executive Director
BRÄHLER ICS AG
Bonn, Germany