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

Opportunities and challenges presented by the AfCFTA

President Kenyatta joined other African heads of state on March 21 in signing the #AfCFTA. What does this mean for Kenya? It means that Kenya's goods and services could have a broader market to sell to. It also means that locally made goods and services will face increased competition from similar products in the African market, especially if other countries have a comparative advantage. What is the projected net effect of these two sides of trade? Well, it's difficult to predict. It depends on which goods are on the schedule of reduction of tariffs both for other countries and Kenya. Pres. Kenyatta signs the AfCFTA Image courtesy of PSCU   Looking at other similar regional pacts such as North America's #NAFTA or the EU, we can see that trade between countries increases many fold. But as in the case of Mexico which saw the bankrupting of peasant farmers due to cheap corn and other agricultural produce from subsidized American farms, the aggregate effect might be po...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 2: To Bali, New Year's Eve

We spent most of new year's eve in transit. We left Ibis Styles Hotel at 10.30am, got to Jakarta international airport, got our tickets to Denpasar (in Bali) and left for Bali about 2.30pm (about 30mins late due to air traffic density at the airport) In transit at Jakarta Airport domestic departures; after check-in on the way to Denpasar Photobombed by Tom Hilde and Tom Jones We arrived in Denpasar around 7pm, where we met with Sunday who had arranged our transportation to Ubud. It took us the next hour and a half weaving through ever narrowing roadways towards Ubud, which is our home for the next six days. The driving in Bali immediately reminded me of Nairobi. Traffic wasn’t too bad, but driving a car involved checking both sides of the mirror because scooters, mopeds and motorbikes weave in and out of lanes at breakneck speed, with little warning or caution. Further, while passing huge vehicles like buses and lorries, our drive honked twice to let the other car know...
Post a Comment
Read more

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