Finally the Season begins

Tags

Canada., diplomacy, Fenice, Handel, Music, Organ, PRC

Well yesterday 4 June finally the weather warmed up to the point that restaurants could open up to diners on their terrace. Boats are finally gliding down the streets towards the launch docks in the marina. To see those monster being towed down the street is impressive, traffic has to make way for them. Still very few tourists and the cruise ships have come on days when the weather up to now was poor and cold. I do not think this will be a very good season for tourism, everything is a month late and since most things shut down after 30 August, that is not much time.

In books I am reading now one is entitled Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s campaign of influence by Jonathan Manthorpe is the story of how Canada came to recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1969. The influencers were all Canadian missionaries who worked in China between 1920 to 1949 and beyond, many names were familiar to me as those of people who held great influence with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in coming to a decision to recognize the PRC. What the book reveals is how naive Canadians and our Government are and were about China. Canada believed that we could change China and make it a model of democratic governance. This belief was encourage by the influential group of Canadian Scholars on China, many of whom were the children of the Christian missionaries who had worked for decades in China prior to the victory of the Communist forces over the Nationalists in October 1949. They had lived and worked in China and spoke fluent Mandarin, their knowledge back in Ottawa was impressive and no one thought of questioning their beliefs. To this day and until fairly recently prior to the dispute with Huawei and the hostage diplomacy practice by the Government of China, many in official circles made themselves the apologists of the Communist dictatorship. Canada now understands that we will not change China nor its lack of respect for Human rights, democracy and an open society. Canada is in no position to dictate to a super power and we are under pressure from the large number of Chinese citizens in Canada to cowtow to China. A very interesting book and one which reflects my own experience in the PRC before 2007.

I have also re-read the book of John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels. It is about the terrible fire which destroyed the Fenice Opera House in Venice in January 1996. A complex story of negligence, corruption, incompetence which happens to often in Italy.

It is a story I know well since we visited Venice many times between 1996 and 2011. I do remember visiting the City months after the fire and the stench of the burnt Opera house was still very present in the air. We did go at the re-opening in 2004, it was re-built as it was in 1836, quite a beautiful place.

Berendt’s book reads like an investigation report, many of the details were well known to me and re-reading it brought back a lot of memories. If you do not know much about the history of this criminal fire and the actors, this is a good book to read.

 

Jean Victor Arthur GUILLOU, French organist of note, 1930-2019. Plays G.F. Handel concerto for organ no 10, allegro. At the organ of Montélimar. His interpretation is different and beautiful.

 

1989 – 2009

Tags

diplomacy, Egypt, Europe, Iraq, Sudan

Some 20 years separate these two photos.

My Official passport photo of 1989 when I was posted to the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt with responsibilities for the Sudan. Back then only one photographer in Ottawa could take such pictures for the Foreign Ministry and his studio was on Sparks Street behind the Langevin Block which is the Office of the Privy Council for Canada and the Prime Minister’s Office. You had to make an appointment and you had to wear a suit and tie because that photo would go into your Diplomatic passport with mention on page 5 of the document stating your rank and function at the Embassy. Egypt then was a great posting, it was also the time of the First Gulf War when Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and Canadian war ships sailed down the Suez Canal, we went to the Canal to see them pass by.

I also travelled often to Khartoum and we had special permission to board the Lufthansa flight which made a pit stop in Cairo to travel to Khartoum 2 hours South following the Nile River in a straight line. We did not want to take Air Sudan it was too dangerous, planes poorly serviced and mostly unable to fly on any given day. Egypt Air was not safe enough because of tensions between Egypt and the Sudan. Lufthansa had a great flight and so did British Airways back then. I also often carried with me 10 to 12 bags of Diplomatic mail and documents all sealed up. It was all pretty romantic to be a diplomatic courier and also representing Canada in the Sudan. To me that country was about General Gordon and his heroic death in Khartoum. In Saint-Paul Cathedral in London there is a memorial to Gordon of Khartoum next to 19th Century painter Frederick Lord Leighton. I say a memorial because when the expeditionary force arrived in Khartoum to relieve Gordon and his men, everyone had been killed and his body was never found. When I went to the Sudan a new ”Islamic” government was in charge, same people as today. The funny thing was that we had to pay for every curfew pass and special permission pass to travel in the City with bottles if not cases of Johnny Walker Red Label, I discovered that Scotch is an international currency and the favourite drink of staunch Muslims. So we use to call it Johnny Mohamed Walker.

In early 1991 I found myself again in Khartoum and it was at this point that the First Gulf War ended with the defeat of Iraq and the setting on fire of all the oil wells in Kuwait by the retreating Iraqi army. As I arrived at the Hilton Hotel I heard a commotion behind me and turn to find myself face to face with Tareq Aziz (1936-2015) the deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, the cultured face of the Iraqi Regime. I had a very uneasy feeling when I saw him surrounded by his goons. He was well dressed and spoke impeccable French and English. The clerk at the Front Desk explained that Mr Aziz would have his room on the third floor and I was bumped to the seventh floor. The war had just ended the Sudan was an ally of Iraq and Canada was part of the coalition which defeated Iraq. We simply exchange polite greetings, there was nothing else to say and I had absolutely nothing to say to him.

What puzzled me was how he got to Khartoum from Baghdad, there was a no fly zone, it took me some time to figure out that he would have travelled by road from Baghdad to Amman in Jordan which took about 10 hours. Then flew on a private jet from Amman to Cairo and then on to Khartoum. A few years later when I was posted to Amman, I would become more familiar with the Iraqi Regime and the politics of the region, a very complex affair to say the least.

Rome 2009 at home on Via dei Villini

My last post, what was interesting about this posting was my accreditation to Greece, Malta and Albania. I went to Tirana some 26 times, it must be a record of some kind, no one else at the Embassy went so many times. I had regular business to attend and I wish could have gone to Athens more often. Albania was a very strange country, waking up after 45 years of brutal dictatorship under a madman Enver Hoxha (1908-1985) who completely isolated this tiny country, it is only slightly bigger than Vermont, from the rest of the world and broke relations with every country including his Communist allies in the USSR and then China for not being communist enough. No one could travel outside and very few could ever enter Albania. Now in 2007, Communism had vanished with the death of  Hoxha and the nightmare was over which led to all manner of excess. A very poor country with no paved roads, a very poor electric grid and primitive social services. It was difficult to image that to the South was the border with Greece and just across the Adriatic was Italy.  During my time the country saw much progress, there was a large US presence, there was also much investments by Austria, Germany, Sweden.

 

Relations between countries, no one is a friend.

Tags

Africa, China, Colonies, diplomacy, Foreign Relations, France, Iran, Jordan, La Sublime Porte, Lebanon, London, Paris, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Syria, Turkey

Recently the King of Saudi Arabia died and he was replaced within a few hours by Prince Salman. In the wake of his death, commentators wrote about the relationship of  the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Western World. On the chat lines many people questioned why we had relations with that country and presenting their views, mostly and largely uninformed. I do not know why politicians love to use the term our good friends in country X or the expression we are shoulder to shoulder with this country, blah blah. It is simply a false statement, a delusion, it is true that Statesman can see eye to eye on a specific point of mutual benefit and interest but that is usually limited in time and focused on a specific topic.

What most people do not seem to know or take into consideration is the fact that all relations between nations is dominated by self-interest, fierce competition, one upmanship and little else. It is true that in the last 70 years countries like Canada have enjoyed peaceful political relations with many other countries, some relations are old and well established, there are many common interest but at the same time elements that devise and irritate the other party. This is true of our relations with the USA, the UK, France, which historically have been mixed at many levels. Our first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald knew this and he always kept a weary eye on both London and Washington.

Somerset House Conference 1604, Peace between Britain and Spain.

To return to the events of last week, in the case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia we have to think of the geopolitics of the region and its long and old history. How the Arab Monarchies of the Arab Peninsula dislike Iran and fear its influence. Currently Iran is negotiating with the USA on nuclear matters and preventing Iran from developing Nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia is fearful of a deal or arrangement which would leave them out. Iran is a regional power and has been influential in the region for a very long time, centuries in fact. Iran supports military groups in Lebanon and Syria. It enjoyed good relations with the Assad regime, father and son. It plays a role in Iraqi politics and supports Shia politicians and their armed groups. This to the great displeasure of Saudi Arabia who is a new regional power, new in the sense of since 1973 when the oil prices jumped and created new wealth for the Saudis.

Canada has relations with Saudi Arabia, again relatively new relations, we are newcomers to this region compared to Britain. Our relationship is also very different in historical terms. We have more than 500 post-graduate students in Canada and this alone brings in millions of dollars to our Universities, cities and in taxes not counting also consumer goods they buy. This is a wealthy group of students who often drive luxury cars and live in tony neighbourhoods. Many Canadian companies do very profitable business with the Kingdom, Canadians profit economically in many various ways. Our politicians need to consider this carefully when making decisions on Foreign Policy matters.

It seems that for the average person issues like women having to wear a veil or not being able to drive or having their civic rights curtailed by tradition and culture. Every one has a horror story they read in the newspapers about Saudi Arabia. A country were the death penalty is still applied with a high number of executions per year. Such items in the news always disturbs Canadian sensibilities and that would be enough reasons to cut off diplomatic relations for most people. Luckily such decisions are not in the hands of public opinion. Breaking diplomatic relations would be very shortsighted, it would go against our self-interests.

The same reasons could apply to many countries, according to that train of thought we should simply walk away from such countries, because they are corrupt or have a justice system different from ours or their culture and history is offensive to us. Public opinion says shame them for behaving contrary to our norms and beliefs. Such reactions are emotional or based on ignorance. Diplomatic relations are far more complicated than that, because you must never forget that if you break relations with one country, it will be very difficult to re-establish them later and many years may pass before being able to negotiate a new understanding on mutual relations, concessions may be asked which may not be to our liking and then what about Consular relations and the protection of your own citizens who visit countries with whom you have no relations. Currently Canada has broken off relations with Iran and Syria. Other countries may seek to exploit the vacuum for political and commercial reasons. They will step in to take your place economically and politically, those same countries may be a NATO ally or a country with whom you have long peaceful relations. They will profit at your expense and you will lose because you want to stand on principle. Principles are fine but in the end such a narrow position would not be sustainable economically nor politically. Careful analysis must be made of every situation and disagreement before taking action you may later regret.

The ambassador of Siam at the Court of the Sun King presenting gifts.

Diplomacy and Foreign Relations is not about morals or ethics, Diplomacy is an amoral business. You have to be a hard nose realist and pragmatic in any relations you conduct, emotions and feelings have no place in Foreign Relations. Our Prime Minister likes to say that we conduct a moral or ethical Foreign Policy, that for domestic consumption is great speechifying and the common person may rejoice that our PM will tell those people what is what. Think again, it does not work that way at all and Harper found out the hard way with China. He snubbed China for three years and made hostile and intemperate statements at home to please his local base of right wingers. When he finally went to China, the Chinese made him apologise and publicly rebuked him. Harper understood that commercially the Chinese were far more important than he had ever imagined or understood.

China is pursuing an aggressive Foreign Policy, they have the population and economic might to regain the old glory of Imperial days and despite the fact that they may say that they are bridging the gap, resolving differences through mutual understanding, all that is again words for the naive. In any negotiations the Chinese are very tough and unyielding, they know their weight and know that Western consumers want cheap products, Western governments cannot refuse to satisfy the demands of shoppers back home. At the same time the Chinese understand the limits of aggressive behaviour in Asia against neighbours with whom they have irritants with Vietnam, Japan, India to name a few countries. The Chinese are also careful not to get involved in International crisis by taking sides, Crimea, Syria, North Korea, ISIS or ISIL terrorism etc.. they always say that they do not want to get involved in what they consider internal crisis. Their interest is to protect their markets and economic development. At home the Chinese Communist government can only survive if they give the population more wealth and if the country prosper.

China has routinely blocked with its Veto any economic sanction measures at the UN all the while negotiating that Veto vote with the countries most concerned by proposed sanctions. China is only doing what is good for China and its people. Though some have suggested that with its increased International profile China will have to get more involved in crisis around the world that is unlikely to happen.

European Embassy being presented to the Ottoman Sultan, La Sublime Porte

Relations between Canada and China are interesting, China sees us as a supplier of raw resources and nothing else. We do not matter much to Chinese geopolitical way of thinking. On the other hand our politicians believe that because we have a large Chinese population made up mostly by Cantonese speaking Southern Chinese (AKA Hong Kong and Guandong Province) we must matter to China, you know we had this Canadian Norman Bethune who helped Mao in the late 1930’s and we supplied wheat to China during the great famine of the late 1950’s that must mean something. Wrong, it means little though the Chinese are very clever at playing this up knowing we think it is important. When Canadian politicians travel to China be it a Provincial Premier or a Mayor of some metropolitan area, said Canadian politicians fully expect to be received at the highest level of the Chinese Government, i.e. the President or the Prime Minister of China. Wrong again, usually Provincial premiers will be lucky to meet with a member of the Politburo the Chinese judge to be of an equal level as the Canadian provincial premier. As for Canadian Mayors usually the calculation is based on the population size of the City in Canada compared to a neighbourhood in Beijing. A deputy Mayor for that area of the Chinese Capital will meet with the Canadian Mayor. Many Canadian politicians have been dismayed at the polite, courteous but junior level reception they got. So our Canadian politician must make a big deal of any trip to China and show results at home but it is usually pocket change investments for the Chinese.

The Chinese are experts at assessing the opposite side and responding at the level they judge proper in relation to their own view of the world and their place in it. Can we call China our great friend? No not at all, we have correct business like relations which are often difficult and that is it.

Another area where interest matter is commercial contracts. Trade as always been since time immemorial the driver of much of the diplomatic ties between Kings and Princes and today between States.  The power and wealth of Nations depends on trade, not just military strength. Venice is a prime example as a City State, the Hansa of Northern European Cities is another, Spain and Seville after 1492 and under Charles V was the wealthiest of Empire due to the riches from the Americas and the trade in goods that were then sold to other European States, Britain and its Empire, German industrial might and its merchant navy, etc.

Trade disputes often lead to war with devastating effect. Then you have the case of France, it had many African colonies and it decolonized in the late 1950’s early 1960’s but to this day France keeps a tight watch on so many of its former colonies for commercial reasons which favour French Companies. The diplomatic relationship in this case is incestuous, patronizing and the success or downfall of any French speaking ex colony depends very much on how much the President for Life of country X is willing to play ball with the Elysée Palace in Paris. France will not hesitate to send troops to any of its ex-colonies to protect commercial interests disregarding National Sovereignty of those countries, i.e. Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, etc.

Interestingly the Middle-East is another region where France played a role prior to the Second World War, a secret Treaty Sykes-Picot of 1916 created Lebanon to protect the Arab Christian population with allegiance to France. Was the population consulted, of course not, one could argue cynically this was done for their own good. Same for much of the Middle-East, Syria, Iraq, Jordan created by Britain out of a promise made to Sheik Hussain of Mecca with the help of T.E.Lawrence who was the British Liaison Officer in the great Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule.

France today would like to play a greater role in the Middle-East but would have to be let in by the USA. France did not participate in the Wars involving Iraq and various coalitions since the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990-1991. France was suspicious and angry that US oil companies in the event of victory and an overthrow of the Saddam Hussein Regime would lose oil contracts it had negotiated for TOTAL the French oil company. TOTAL did lose its contracts in Iraq.

Here in Canada the Harper Government has badly played its hand in its diplomatic relations with the White House and the Obama Administration. It is obvious that our Prime Minister is much more philosophically in tune with the GOP and the Tea Party in Congress and in the Senate. He does not hide his preference and that is bad politics and diplomacy. President Obama does not like him much and is tired of being hectored by the likes of the now ex-Foreign Minister John Baird, who according  to former Canadian diplomats, the worst Foreign Minister we’ve ever had in Canada. However Baird was a faithful servant of his master Stephen Harper. This in itself is the job of any diplomat to carry the message of your master no matter how distasteful it may be to you personally, you must defend the message and endorse it that is what a diplomat does. So no Canada does not have friendly relations with the USA and the USA is not our friend. We have a complex relationship based on commercial interests, supply of energy products and military dependency for our National Defence.  People can be friendly towards each other and this is very often the case but not Governments, simply because they have other objectives and interests.

King Louis XV

In closing a bit of music by Jean-Philippe Rameau composed to celebrate a diplomatic & military victory of France with the successful conclusion to the War of the Austrian Succession during the reign of Louis XV.

Diplomatic Immunity, the myth!

Tags

Clement XI, diplomacy, diplomatic conventions, Farnese, France, Italy, Louis XIV, Papacy, Rome

This is a much misunderstood topic, everyone thinks that diplomats can get away with murder because they have Diplomatic Immunity. Not so.

Diplomatic immunity or immunity simply put as always existed in every society throughout history on all continents. It is a concept that is necessary when two groups of people wish to settle a dispute or simply speak on a common topic of interest. One party will send to the other party a message, the messenger must be granted safe passage to travel, present the message and return home without being molested. That was or is the original concept, of course we can think of example in history where one ruler not happy with the message he was receiving killed the messenger or as a reply to the other ruler sent the head of the messenger. Poor messenger! We know that Julius Caesar received embassies from the various people Rome was at war with at some point. The emissaries and their persons were respected and went unmolested.

In other cases, passing through a foreign land an envoy would seek safe passage, this was necessary when the ruler of that Country was not neutral in a dispute and might decide to kill the envoy for political gain.

Immunity is given by a receiving State to an envoy who comes in Embassy and in return the Sovereign expects the same for his envoy, in other words you have reciprocity. It is seen like a Sacred agreement and has taken on with time an Aura of Civilized behaviour amongst parties.

Map of the Papal States surrounded by other Kingdoms and Principalities.

Louis XIV sent an ambassador to the Holy See, which in the 18th century was a State covering much of what is today Central Italy, to resolve a dispute with the Pope over the appointments of Bishops and the naming of Cardinals in France and the activities of the Jesuits. Always a sore point with all kings and emperors. The Pope would appoint people the King did not like and he would have none of it. His Ambassador’s was given a clear mandate to negotiate with the Pope and would press the point with the Papacy in Rome by enlisting the help of the Roman population and other Nobles favourable to the French cause. Most Romans and people living in the Papal States tried numerous times to overthrow the Theocratic rule of Popes.

San Luigi dei Francesi in central Rome next to Palazzo Madama (Italian Senate). The church has 2 Caravaggio and many other great paintings.

The concept of diplomatic immunity changed with time and customs and was refined. At the time of Pope Innocent XI the immunity given to the Ambassadors in Rome was defined by the Vatican. Rome was ruled like a Theocratic State and the Romans lived in terror of the Papal Police. The French knowing they could pressure the Pope on some point would deliberately go out of their way to challenge the authority of the Pontiff. The French Ambassador declared that his King did not recognize the limits put on the French Embassy on drinking and revelry around the area of the Palazzo Farnese site of the French Embassy. The Ambassador went so far as to declare that his immunity extended as far as his eye could see. Usually diplomatic immunity extends only to the building and residence occupied by the Ambassador and staff and his person. There is no such provisions under as far as the Ambassador’s eye can see. This was pure fantasy and invention. However you have to appreciate the point, from the Office window of the Ambassador, you look out straight into Piazza Farnese and down the Via dei Baullari into the Mercato Campo de Fiori and then all the way down the street into Piazza San Pantaleo passing in front of the Holy See Supreme Tribunal of the Signatura. Meaning that anyone living in this very large area was covered by the immunity of the Ambassador and the Papal Police could not intervene. So the French wooed the population of Rome with parties, music, food and wine poring from the large basins in front of Palazzo Farnese. The Pope was livid that his authority would be challenged in this manner. But the French Ambassador had his orders and he was doing what he was told to do by his Sovereign.

The Pope decided he had enough of the Sun King’s ways and his arrogant Ambassador. So one morning the French Ambassador arriving for Mass at St-Louis des Français or in Italian as the church is known in Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi, found the doors closed.

The parish priests informed the Ambassador that the Pope had excommunicated him over night without the customary courtesy of informing the Ambassador of His Most Catholic Majesty, in other words the immunity enjoyed by the Ambassador was lifted. The Ambassador who represented at the time the most powerful Monarch in Europe was most upset. He immediately dispatched a messenger to Paris to inform his boss Louis XIV, the story has it that the message reached the King in 3 days. An incredible feat for the time and many horses died of exhaustion completing this trip. The Sun King lost no time in reacting, he imprisoned the Papal Envoy and declared war on the Pope, moving his army into Papal territory and threatening to come to Rome to settle scores. The Pope was alarmed and immediately dispatched a special envoy trying to repair the damage done by his actions. Louis would have none of it, he demanded that 3 senior Cardinals come in person to Paris to apologized on their knees for the grave insults made to his August person. The Pope obliged meekly restoring the immunity of the French Ambassador and lifted the order of excommunication.

Thus confirming the principle for all other Sovereigns to see that the person of an Ambassador is Sacrosanct and inviolable. An Ambassador is the personal representative of his Sovereign and his government. Even in the case of war between States, Ambassadors are allowed to return home safely. For this reason the principle of protecting an Ambassador and his Embassy is the responsibility of the receiving State and is a guarantee of good intentions in having diplomatic relations with the other nation, a point of Honour in other words between Heads of State.

Immunity today is defined by the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations 1961 and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963. It covers Ambassadors and the diplomatic staff of his Embassy, the Chancery building, the Residence and Official cars. But immunity is given by the receiving State and is not automatic. A diplomat accredited to a country must always behave as a guest would in someone’s house and be very respectful of all the Laws and Regulations of the receiving State. Must never give offence and never do anything that would bring shame or embarrassment to his Ambassador or Government. Pay all his parking tickets and always be polite and courteous with any Official he meets and avoid saying anything which could be seen as a criticism or negative remark on the country where he is. Never engage in disparaging remarks about the Head of State or government of the Host Country. Consular staff are protected under a different Convention 1963 and it is not as extensive as the Diplomatic Convention of 1961.

The stories of people misbehaving and claiming they can because they have immunity, is pure nonsense and should not be taken seriously. Immunity is a serious matter and you have to live up to it.  As a diplomat you do not want to be associated with colleagues who misbehave or present when they misbehave so as not to be tainted with their mischief. You can be sent home by your Ambassador for any failings to live up to your commitment to respect and behave according to your status as a Diplomat, no one wants to be sent home with the negative consequences for your career that it implies. It is also important to explain to your kids and spouse that they do not have any immunity at all, they are dependents not diplomats. So they have to walk the straight and narrow. In my career I have seen colleagues sent home because their children misbehaved, meaning doing something which came to the attention of the Police and the Chief of Protocol. Employee-Parent gets called in to the Ambassador’s Office and told you have 48 hours to pack and leave. I do not know of any Ambassador or Government who will tolerate being embarrassed by employees or their family. Relations and briefs between States are too important to be jeopardized by a person who does not understand their role and status. The world of diplomacy is a rarefied one, you are not an ordinary person nor a tourist, you are an agent of your government and must behave as such at all time 24-7. You may meet with business people or ex-patriates or group of citizens of your country but you have to be mindful that they may do as they please but you live under very different rules.

 

 

Diplomatie

Tags

BBC, Cold war, diplomacy, Farnese, Fire, Iraq, Kuwait, Nuclear weapon, Oil, Rome, Saddam Hussein

Diplomacy is probably one of the most misunderstood job in the world. You know there is a meme showing 6 pictures of one topic. One is What people think I do, Another is what my mother thinks I do, what my father thinks I do, what my friends think I do and finally What I really do. Diplomacy is like that and it is difficult to explain what you actually do because it is a job requiring much preparation for an assigned task, background knowledge, lots of reading, good writing skills, analysis, logic, and a sense of what might happen with a dose of intelligence work and the most important assets discretion, judgement and patience.

Canadian Diplomatic Uniform prior to 1950. Windsor coat.

I was often asked to write a short report on a situation, usually this report would then be vetted by my immediate superior who would often return it marked in red ink asking me to change this or that or develop a point further, he would also edit the text.  I would then redo it and re-send it to him. He in turn would send it to the Ambassador to have a look, if the ambassador agreed it would in turn be sent to Headquarters to the head of our division and distributed to all other divisions concerned in the Foreign Ministry. One great prize of any dispatch was to be selected for the overnight dispatch paper which was sent to the Minister and Deputy Minister. That always made the Ambassador smile, the report had been noticed and he would make a point of mentioning it at Morning Prayers (meeting with diplomatic staff at the Embassy).

You also have to develop contacts and know people in various segment of Society in the country where you are accredited. Gain their confidence, so they may speak freely with you about a file or a topic which might come to some interesting developments. Knowing the country well and its population, the tensions amongst groups inside the country or the government, who was a raising star or about to be dropped from government or politics was also important. You could not rely on the media international or local since they usually got it wrong. What you had to find out was what the local government thought and who was a well informed and reliable source.

Each one of us kept jealousy our list of sources close to our chest. My superior who was the Head of Chancery (no.2) had some good senior sources and high level contacts but that did not mean that he would get the juicy bit. A more junior person might be able to learn something and then we would put our information together to write our report and get the concurrence of the Ambassador. I was lucky that I never had a political appointee as Head of Mission. They can be more of liability than anything else, so the no.2 is the real head of Mission, the political appointee on a swan song can go out and eat cake and kiss babies. I would find it difficult to trust such a person since they often saw their job very differently, another stepping stone in their career.

Diplomacy is also a very structured world, top down, the Ambassador is the Captain of the ship. You do not bring to his attention matters that can be resolved by no.2 or no.3 It is very dangerous to hit too high and find out that the reaction is not what you expected. The same with the Foreign Ministry of the country you are accredited to, the way it works is as follows; the ambassador is the one who represents his country, no one else, the Foreign Minister of the receiving State and the Chief of Protocol will speak with him or with no.2 Head of Chancery. All the diplomatic staff are part of the suite (embassy) of the Ambassador. It is the ancient concept when a Sovereign would assign a brief to a person naming them ambassador to represent them and deal with this brief successfully, the ambassador would select people to help him and work under him, his suite and would go abroad with them.

An example of this would be Cardinal Alphonse-Louis du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, the older brother of the other more famous Armand-Jean du Plessis Cardinal Richelieu of France the powerful Prime Minister of the King.  He will go to Rome as Ambassador of King Louis XIII, unlike his younger brother, he is remembered as a pious, honest, modest and good man with a fondness for chocolate which he believed help relieve bad temper. He will put up his Embassy at the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, he will rent the building from the Pope.

French Ambassador’s Office at the Farnese Palace, Rome (today)

In diplomacy, discretion and patience are huge assets to have in your personal character. Often a brief will take years to resolve and many people will work on it. Sometimes it will be your life’s work, though it is more rare nowadays to spend an entire career on one file. Though being a specialist of a region, knowing the language, the culture, history and it’s people is a great asset. The Russians or Soviets as they were then known knew their region very well and often spent all their career on one country or geographic area. The British are also very good at developing people and their knowledge base.

The difficulties at the personal level are often great, the Foreign Service requires that you travel and live abroad in a culture that is often unknown to you or at least foreign to what you would know at home. Your accompanying family, spouse and children will have to put up with the brunt of this foreignness. Your spouse is at home, working abroad is almost impossible, so the spouse’s role is to keep the home and deal with everyday issues, in terms of shopping and food preparation and managing servants if you have any. There is precious little support from the ex-pat community and or the Embassy, your spouse has to be a flexible, self-starter and patient person. Your kids will have school issues to deal with and often no activities after school, except to stay home and amuse themselves the best they can. Which is fine for children under 12 but for teenagers this can become a huge problem. You are at work and very busy, have long hours and very often functions to attend at night, which may or may not require the presence of your spouse. Those diplomatic functions can be deadly boring but must be attended nonetheless.

Your discretion is also very important, during a career you will come to know things, secrets will be shared with you, it is important that those confidence stay secret, meaning that you cannot at night share with your family around the dinner table. That can be a great burden when the secret is a dangerous one with terrible consequences.

I am thinking here of the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962. I was recently in the Canadian War Museum in gallery 4 which is dedicated to the theme of the Cold War 1945-1989. I had older colleagues during my career who had lived through those events, the Atomic Clock was at one minute before Midnight, compared with today we are at 3 minutes before Midnight, meaning that an Atomic Attack was then that close with the MAD effect (Mutual Assured Destruction) which is still in effect today. Imagine coming home and not being able to talk about a possible Nuclear Attack. Not one word, you know everyone would die, there would be no survivors. You have to pretend all is ok, a very difficult situation.

This type of situation thankfully never happened to me but I faced other situations which required quick thinking, staying calm so others would not panic. Like that morning in Cairo when the ground war started between the Allies and Iraq in February 1991 to liberate Kuwait. The invasion had occurred in the night of 2 August 1990, we all knew at the Embassy in July 1990 that Saddam Hussein President of Iraq was preparing to strike. He needed a diversion after the 10 year of bloody war against Iran which solved nothing and ended in a stalemate. Saddam needed to show his strength and picking on Kuwait was very easy, a small State with little military strength, the Kuwait National Guard was 12,000 men strong, on the other hand Iraq had an army of 1.6 million men and massive equipment of all sorts.

Saddam Hussein was a USA Ally in those days, Ronald Reagan and Donald Rumsfeld had courted him and Saddam believed that the USA Government would not mind a military adventure in Kuwait as long as the oil flowed and the contract were not disturbed. The US Ambassador April Glaspie, the first women US Ambassador to an Arab country,  met with Saddam Hussein and declared that the USA had no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts, such as the dispute with Kuwait on the border question. Saddam took that as a sign that the USA would not interfere.

In January 1991, once the 34 Nation coalition had positioned their troops to attack Iraq, the beginning of hostilities against Iraq was now imminent. CNN  had purchased exclusive rights to report the conflict from Baghdad and Peter Arnett was the CNN Correspondent. All other news outlet, in this exclusive deal worth millions of dollars, had been totally excluded by Iraq, to their great anger, Arnett was very much disliked by his fellow correspondent. He in the meantime bought an incredible amount of rare Oriental Carpets many from Iran for bargain basement prices, which he intended to sell after the war. There was an embargo on Iranian carpets so they had a very high value on the open market.

Arnett’s reporting, as I remember it, was sensational and over the top, war as a spectacle. The BBC World Service did a much better job and was far more balanced.

However since most Egyptians listened to CNN including President Mubarak, there was a wild wind of panic in Cairo and every one wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Rumour had it that Cairo would be bombed by Iraq with scud missiles. A fantastic story which made no sense what so ever but you cannot reason with a mob.

So on that morning, our guards suddenly reported that a crowd was gathering at our Embassy gates in the Garden City neighbourhood of Cairo. I was at work, my office was at the back of the building, so I went to the front to see what was happening. The crowd was growing by the minute, it was fairly quiet and orderly. The guards were handing out Consular Registration Forms to anyone claiming to be a Canadian Citizen.

View of Garden City neighbourhood in Cairo near the Canadian Embassy in 1991

This is a time before the computer or the internet when Citizens were asked to register in person with their embassy if they were staying for more than a few days and wanted us to contact them in case of emergency. The way to register was very inefficient, forms had to be filled out and in turn we compiled them. Most people did not fill out the forms properly and would not advise us when they left the country. We had 500 Canadians on the paper registry. However that morning more than 5000 persons came to register all at once. We did not have enough forms for such a crowd and the minute the guards ran out of them, panic ensued, the huge crowd became agitated and it was scary, we could not ascertain who they were. They were not Canadians but Egyptian Nationals who had no faith in their own government to help them in time of war. Canada seemed like a good option at the time to most of them, we also had flimsy iron gates and such a crowd could easily tear them down. The British and the American Embassies had massive walls so they were ignored by the crowd. We had to call the Egyptian riot police, who arrived en force and started to clear the street but it took some time. They were armed with long bamboo sticks, a sharp blow inflicts pain and moves a crowd but is not lethal. We in turn had to promise to look into every application presented to ascertain if these people were Canadians. It turned out some had gone to Canada as students, others as tourists and most had no link to Canada but saw an opportunity in the mob action. It was clear that if the crowd had succeeded in tearing down our gates, there would have been violence and injury. The next crisis the handing out of gas masks to the Canadian staff, luckily we never needed them and the war was over in a few days, the Iraqi army melted away but they did set on fire every wellhead.

Kuwait, some of the 700 well heads blown up by the retreating Iraqi army in February 1991 burning some 6 million barrels of oil per day. The last well head fire was extinguished in November 1991.

Things that change forever when you live abroad.

Tags

Change, diplomacy, Europe, Foreign Service, life, World

Where is home, this is a question, Will and I have had to answer so many times from friends and family. When you live and work in the Foreign Service you are in a world unlike ordinary mortals. You travel around the world as if you were going to the supermarket around the corner, it becomes mundane and routine.

You live in various countries and you move constantly, most people live their entire lives either in the same City or may move 2 or 3 times either in the same city or to another part of the country but never to another country all together. So their home is fixed to a certain degree, they are close to friends and family.

In the Foreign Service you do not have that at all, what you have is constant exotic change. Friends often assume that you will come home meaning where they are and where you were born to your family the minute you have a chance, for vacation or important life events like the birth of a child or a medical operation. How could you not, how could you stay in that foreign place, surely if there is social unrest, trouble, a military coup, a bloody revolution or a natural disaster you will be the first on the plane out, right? NO! not at all, in fact in the Foreign Service the worst things get at post where you are, it is most likely that you will stay put and monitor what is going on, it is your duty and job to do so, that is why you are in the Foreign Service, you are not a tourist, you’re a diplomat, and yes you are taking a risk, possibly life threatening one but you chose to work in the Foreign Service and this is what it means.

So recently I found on a blog by Angie Castells on Edinburgh, Scotland where she lives her post is about where is home and how living abroad changes you.  I could not agree more with her.

Here is her post from her blog: Mas Edimburgo.wordpress.com

When you move away, when you turn your life into a journey filled with uncertainty, you grow up in unexpected ways.

You face new challenges, you get to know parts of you you didn’t know existed, you’re amazed at yourself and at the world. You learn, you broaden your horizons. 

1. Adrenalin becomes part of your life.

From the moment you decide to move abroad, your life turns into a powerful mix of emotions – learning, improvising, dealing with the unexpected… All your senses sharpen up, and for a while the word “routine” is dismissed from your vocabulary to make space for an ever rising adrenalin thrill ride. New places, new habits, new challenges, new people. Starting anew should terrify you, but it’s unusually addictive.

2. But when you go back… everything looks the same.

That’s why, when you fly back home, it strikes you how little everything has changed. Your life’s been changing at a non-stop pace, and you’re on holidays and ready to share all those anecdotes you’ve been piling up. But, at home, life’s the same as ever. Everyone keeps struggling with their daily chores, and it suddenly strikes you: life won’t stop for you.

3. You lack the (and yet you have too many) words.

When someone asks you about your new life, you lack the right words to convey all you’re experiencing. Yet later, in the middle of a random conversation, something reminds you about ‘that time when’…, and you have to hold your tongue because you don’t want to overwhelm everyone with stories and come across as pretentious.

4. You come to understand that courage is overrated.

Lots of people will tell you how brave you are – they could never move abroad. And you know that courage makes up about 10% of life-changing decisions. The other 90% is purely about wanting to experience it. Whatever comes our way, we deal with it.

«It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.»

5. And, suddenly, you’re free.

You’ve always been free, but freedom feels different now. Now that you’ve given up every comfort and made it work thousands of miles away from home… you feel like you’re capable of anything!

6. You no longer speak one particular language.

Sometimes you unintentionally let a word from another language slip. Other times you can only think of a way of saying something… with that perfect word which, by the way, is in the wrong language. When you interact with a foreign language on a daily basis, you learn and unlearn at the same time. All the while you’re soaking up cultural references, you find yourself reading in your mother tongue so it won’t get rusty. 

7. You learn to say goodbye… and to enjoy yourself.

You soon realize that now, most things and people in your life are just passing through, and you instinctively play down the importance of most situations. You perfect the right balance between bonding and letting go – a perpetual battle between nostalgia and pragmatism.

8. You have two of everything.

Two SIM cards (one of them packed with phone numbers from all over the world), two library cards, two bank accounts… And two types of currency. 

9. Normal? What’s normal?

Living abroad, like traveling, makes you realise that ‘normal’ only means socially or culturally accepted. When you plunge into a different culture and a different society, your notion of normality soon falls apart. You learn there are other ways of doing things, and after a while, you too take to that habit you never thought you’d embrace. You also get to know yourself a little better, because you discover that some things you really believe in, while others are just a cultural heritage of the society you grew up in.

10. You become a tourist in your own city.

That tourist site you may not have visited in your country only adds up to the never-ending list of things to see in your new home, and you soon become quite the expert on your new city. When someone comes over for a few days and asks for some suggestions, you know what to recommend.

11. You learn how to be patient.

When you live abroad, the simplest task can become a huge challenge like finding the right word. There’s always moments of distress, but you’re soon filled with more patience than you ever knew you had in you.

12. Time is measured in tiny little moments.

It’s as if you were looking through the car window – everything moves really slowly at the back, in the distance, while in front of you life passes by at full speed. On the one hand, you receive news from home – birthdays you missed, people who left without you getting the chance to say goodbye one last time, celebrations you won’t be able to attend. On the other hand, in your new home life goes by at top speed. Time is so distorted now, that you learn how to measure it in tiny little moments, either a Skype call with your family and old friends or a pint with the new ones.

13. Nostalgia strikes when you least expect it.

A food, a song, a smell. The smallest trifle can overwhelm you. You miss those little things you never thought you’d miss.

14. But you know it’s not where, but when and how.

Although deep down, you know you don’t miss a place, but a strange and magical conjunction of the right place, the right moment and the right people. That year when you traveled, when you shared your life with special ones, when you were so happy. There’s a tiny bit of who you were scattered among all the places you’ve lived in, but sometimes going back to that place is not enough to stop missing it.

15. You change.

I’m sure you’ve heard about life-changing trips. Well, they’re not a commonplace – living abroad is a trip that will profoundly change your life and who you are. It will shake up your roots, your certainties and your fears. Living abroad changed us forever in many ways. Maybe you won’t realise it, or even believe it, before you do it. But after some time, one day you’ll see it crystal clear. You’ve evolved, you’ve lived, you’ve changed.

16. You fit your home into a suitcase.

From the moment you squeeze your life into a suitcase, whatever you thought ‘home’ was doesn’t exist anymore. Almost anything you can touch can be replaced – wherever you travel, you’ll end up stockpiling new clothes, new books, new mugs. But there will come a day when you’ll suddenly feel at home in your new city. Home is the person traveling with you, the people you leave behind, the streets where your life takes place. Home is also the random stuff in your new flat, those things you’ll get rid of in the blink of an eye when the time to leave comes. Home is all those memories, all those long-distance calls with your family and friends, a bunch of pictures. Home is where the heart is.

17. And… there’s no turning back.

Now you know what it means to give up comfort, what starting from scratch and marvelling at the world every day feels like. And it being such a huge, endless world… How could you choose not to keep discovering it?

Diplomacy, Language, Poland, Popes

Tags

diplomacy, Poland, Popes, protocol, Vatican

I my memories of my encounters with Officialdom at the Holy See (Vatican) in the period of 1998-2001 I was on post in Warsaw, Poland. The Embassy of Canada is across the street from the Polish Parliament in a nice park like setting in the centre of the Polish Capital near the Royal Park of the Lazienki Palace (pronounced Wajenki) built on water.

At the time Jean-Paul II was Pope and the favourite son of Poland. His long pontificate from 1978 to 2005 was coupled with the end of the struggle in Poland with the Worker movement Solidarity who received his support to the cause of National Liberation from the influence of the Soviet Union. I was in Poland at a time of great changes in terms of building of first ever new infrastructure like shopping malls, gas stations, modern banking, ATM machines etc. What I took for ordinary as a consumer was a discovery for most Poles who had never seen anything like that prior to 1990. Suddenly they went from an economy where everyone had to queue for bread and any other commodity to giant supermarkets with so much on offer that it often created a kind of paralysis in shoppers who did not seem to know what to buy. My first experience with these brand new modern shopping malls was during my first week in Warsaw, I walked into a supermarket wanting to buy milk. I was not prepared for the fact that despite the fact that the Supermarket was a chain from Holland all the products on sale were labelled in Polish language only. So what is the word in Polish for Milk? Good question, there I was in front of a gigantic dairy counter with all kinds of products with not a clue as to how Milk would be labelled. So after 10 minutes of a frustrating search, no one amongst the staff could help me since they also only spoke Polish. So finally a mother with a little boy around 4 years old come along and I see the boy make a beeline for a carton of milk, the word is MLEKO. Needless to say after that I made a point of learning the language, you cannot take for granted that Nationals will speak either French or English, though at the time in Poland anyone over the age of 50 spoke French and people under 30 spoke English. Most Poles spoke Russian or German, but generally refused to speak Russian, a language they were forced to learn by their Soviet Comrades.

So during my stay in Poland we had visits by the Pope which were treated by Polish authorities as grand State Visits. Meaning that building were re-built, renovated, roads repaved, parks renovated, enormous expenses for the State all to prepare for the ”visit”. Every minute of the visit had to be historically significant, with jubilant crowds, marching bands, honour guards, etc. Poles would say that the Pope should visit more often since the infrastructure got a lot of attention prior to his visit. Essentially each visit was pastoral or religious in nature but in reality they were nothing short of Political with messages directed to the Government of Poland on what the Vatican would like to see in reforms in Law and to the Constitution. Per example, prior to my arrival in Poland, the Polish Constitution had no mention or description of what constituted a couple. The Communist government did not bother with describing what constituted a couple or a spouse or a family member. However now that they were gone from Office the new Catholic members of the Government strongly linked to the Archbishop of Warsaw, Cardinal Josef Glemp and connected with the Papacy were rewriting the Constitution along Catholic doctrine.

Within days of our arrival in Poland so I could take up my post, the Polish Embassy informed me that they would not issue a residence visa to my spouse because we did not fit the new official definition voted by the Polish Parliament 48 hours prior. I informed my Ambassador who took up the matter with the Polish Foreign Minister, a diplomatic visa was issued though it did not Officially recognize the existence of the bearer but did permit entry and residence in Poland. A strange twist of logic only possible for anyone in that rarefied world of protocol and diplomacy. When my spouse wanted to work, the Embassy asked for a formal recognition, the Foreign Ministry could not help since according to them he was not ”Officially” in Poland though physically present in the country. The Official directed us to the City of Warsaw, maybe they could help since they issued work permits and this matter was out of his hands. The City Official had a interesting opinion on the matter, he could not issue a work permit to a person not recognized by the Foreign Ministry. If we returned to the Protocol Office maybe they could help us because any diplomatic matter was not a Municipal jurisdiction. So you would think at this point all is lost, well not quite. We had made the effort of asking Officially the pertinent question and were given an answer, no one could fault us for going ahead and having my spouse work, since the Polish authorities had played ping pong with the question. If the matter came up again, and everyone concerned knew it would not, we could simply repeat what we were told officially on recognition. As for the Officials, diplomatic circles are very small and everyone knows everyone else, the situation was documented and no one was hiding. The Officials had done their job by repeating verbatim the official position in their sphere of competence and would take no further action because it would cause embarrassment and in polite society no one wants to cause unpleasantness between allies. My spouse went on to work for senior officials of the Polish Government in Warsaw.

Lazienki Palace, Warsaw