Skip to main content

Look, I am become a diplomat

"You speak very good English, where did you learn?" a person I just met asks.

"In Kenya, in school…" I calmly reply.

"Wow! You speak English in Kenya?" He continues.

"Oh yes, we do …" The conversation goes into how we do (not) live with lions as pets and how I don’t run like "all" other Kenyans they've seen on TV. If you are wondering, this is an actual conversation I have had with persons I have met here in the US. This is not to say every conversation I have had goes this way. On the contrary, in the greater Washington metropolitan area where I live, this is the exception.

Any time I have to field questions about Kenya, however, I feel as if the responsibility to represent Kenya and communicate its brand is upon my shoulders. This is despite not getting any training on this aspect of my travel experience. Some other well-meaning people have said, once hearing I am from Kenya, that they visited Uganda, Rwanda, Botswana, South Africa and a multiplicity of other obviously non-Kenya countries. To keep the conversation going, I have had to link it all to Kenya, one way or the other. About Uganda, I have said, "Oh, that's Kenya's neighbor to the west." About Botswana I have said, "I had a friend who knew someone from there…" You get the gist?

Now, with a rapidly changing world, and the anti-globalization movement picking up the pace, these conversations are becoming more important. A student in a foreign country is not just a student, but a representative of their country, its ideals, its culture, language and vision.

I believe therefore, it is in the best interest of each nation to send students who are prepared about their roles as informal diplomats. Kenya for instance, should render a crash course of its history (known or hidden) and the values that students are expected to uphold. In order to make it even more compelling, a list of possible conversation threads to expect may be shared with the learners. It is important to let students be prepared, but not to appear mechanical in their responses, perhaps ruining the trust of their host counterparts.


All this should happen even as nations begin the process of revising their identities, as they look inward to redefine what they care about, what their role in the world is, and how they are going likely to interact with other diplomatic actors, ditto United States. As these identities change, so will the conversations. As conversations change, moving ultimately to virtual interactions over Twitter, Facebook and other social tools, so will there be a greater need for prepared student diplomats to continually mediate estrangement between their changing home countries, a responsibility every country should take seriously.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No one knows what it's all about

We are all in a rat race, whose beginning we do not comprehend, and whose end we cannot fathom. Therefore, in typical human fashion, we have invented systems that keep us sane, as we try to figure out what it's all about. We invented religions, economic systems, socio-cultural systems, political systems and so on, all to make meaning out of our lonely and short existence. But all this has fallen short of fulfilling us. We know we are on a journey, but don't know a journey to where. We do not know how we will know once we get there. Is it possible that the destination is behind us, but we have not recognized it? "Preposterous," we think to ourselves. Aren't we higher beings able to shape our own paths? Would we not know where our paths are headed? History does not agree. Every system that has been built seems to have been the ultimate one. Political & economic systems have struggled to lay claim to the title of the "best" and most "sustainabl...
Post a Comment
Read more

How well-meaning parents ruined us

Growing up, it was common for our parents to encourage us and tell us how we could be anything we wanted in life. "You can do anything you set your mind to do!" They would cheer us on. "Even the president?" We'd ask unconvinced. "Yes, you could even become the richest man in the world!" All this fascinated us. We vowed to ourselves that we'd in fact become people of substance who would be recognized in the entire world for our achievements. We'd ride in super-yachts like Abramovich and the rest of the mega-rich. We would produce life changing inventions, innovating our way to stardom. We'd become the next prodigy in music and sports. All this is well and good, meant to lift our spirits. Assessing our lives however, no matter how much effort we have put in to realize our dreams and visions, they have eluded us. We have become adept at doing other things though: commenting on FB posts, retweets, identifying the hottest political issue...
Post a Comment
Read more

Analyzing a carry trade proposal: Short USD, go long on bitcoin

I recently completed an assignment for an International Economics Policy class which entailed designing a carry trade. A carry trade is a financial transaction that involves borrowing (short) in a low interest currency, and lending (go long) in a high interest (yield) currency. For instance from Bloomberg 's rates for bonds, this would involve borrowing in Swiss francs (rate is -0.15 percent) and lend in New Zealand dollars (rate is 2.83 percent). All else remaining equal, the carry trade would yield a rate differential of 2.83+0.15 = 2.98 percent. Note: this is an unusual case where the interest rate we are borrowing from is negative; usually, this would involve subtracting the first interest rate from the second. For instance, borrowing in Japanese yen (0.04 percent) and lending in Kiwi dollars (at 2.83 percent) would yield 2.79 percent as profit. My carry trade in this case involves borrowing in USD at a rate of 2.33 percent, and buying bitcoins. But, what, you may ask, is the...
Post a Comment
Read more