CHRIS THURMAN: Winding up the year with a coup de grâce
Huguenot descendant Nataniël thumbs a nose at venal politicians
The life of a diplomat seems glamorous: postings to distant lands, black-tie events aplenty and history-changing backroom negotiations. But there are numerous drawbacks too. You never “settle down”. The glad-handing and speechifying that goes into building relationships must get tedious. Your dealings with allies and enemies alike are constrained by policies not of your making. On the one hand, the diplomatic corps seems to offer continuity. Take the US mission in SA:many of the people who served during the Obama presidency under ambassador Patrick Gaspard a few years ago are still here in the era of the New Guy whose name needn’t be mentioned, and will remain regardless of the directions that might be taken by nominated deployee Lana Marks. On the other hand, the transitory nature of the business means that ambitious ambassadors can find it difficult to stamp their mark on local politics or see the projects they start through to completion. This mutability is a necessary mitigation...
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