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

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

They told us to wait

They said we should wait. The wazees were deliberating. They were discussing "important" issues of national security and interest. So, we walked out. We stood by the door. It was raining hard, and we strained to stand as close to the wall as possible, to avoid getting drenched. Inside, the air was exuberant. The wazees were laughing heartily as they imbibed to their fill with nyama choma and Tusker baridi . My stomach was grumbling. I looked around at my friend. She was shivering. "She's going to catch a cold if we don't get somewhere warm soon," I thought to myself. I could stay here and wait to see the wazees and tell them why we had come. Or I could save my skin and call it a day (or night). I chose the former. I motioned to Wanjiku to follow me. She seemed shocked. We had come so far, having walked in the wind and rain for two hours. She was heavy with child, and due any day now. We passed the Toyota VXs that had transported the wazees to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amka Afrika

The rise of the continent of Africa is imminent, it is ongoing and it is unstoppable. For a long time now, the land that is the home of the Black Man has been downtrodden, allowed only to eat the scraps, the leftovers from the white man's rule. This is changing. We are seeing more nations of Africa freeing themselves from the bondage of complete dependence and servility to nations of Europe and the Americas. Our people are standing tall. But this cannot be one man's dream. Nor can one nation go it alone in the process of gaining complete autonomy from the rule that keeps him serving the selfish ends of corporations. We must unite. We must unite not only to move forward, but also to survive. It is imperative that the nations of Africa see themselves as a brotherhood for the black soul. One nation alone will not survive the onslaught that is coming to anyone that dares challenge the status quo. We have seen what happened to those who dared go alone in the liberat...
Post a Comment
Read more