Month: September 2014

The Consulate closed for the day on September 11, and all employees, both foreign service officers and locally engaged staff, and engaged in various service projects in the city.

I was on the “urban beautification” team, which meant that I picked up trash along the canal. If you know anything about big cities, you can guess that there was a very big beautification potential along the canal.

Several local people were very curious about a bunch of foreigners picking up trash. More than one photo was taken with a cell phone. One guy offered to notify the media. We all had a good laugh at that offer. We can’t imagine that the local non-free press would report that foreigners were doing selfless service projects.

It’s fair to ask that if we weren’t getting local press coverage, is it worth it to engage in these service projects? I think the answer is yes, for two reasons. First, even though the media wouldn’t report on it, as we were out there working, we interacted with several people. When asked who we were and what we were doing, we simply said that we were US diplomats, and we were trying to make the city looked better. I saw a lot of thumbs-up gestures, and heard some approving comments. We did a lot of direct diplomacy that day. For those of us whose job it is to try to further international understanding and prevent wars, this was a big win.

The second reason why this was a worthwhile activity is that service is an appropriate way to remember the people who were murdered on 9/11. Doing something positive for the public good affirms who Americans are as a people, and exemplifies why diplomats are sent to live in other countries.

The Harbin Daily newspaper put on an informational event on studying abroad in the U.S., and invited speakers from the Consulate to speak. The Public Affairs section sent an officer to talk about higher education in the U.S., and I offered to represent the Consular section to talk about selecting a school and student visas. Foolishly, the newspaper and our P.A. section agreed to invite me.

The editor of the newspaper wanted a photo op. I dominated the conversation, as usual.
The poor guy barely got a word in.

When the public affairs officer was talking, I could barely keep in my seat. I bit my tongue while she presented.

I could tell the audience was dreading the time when I would start speaking.

Droning on and on.

The funny thing was, the audience didn’t seem to notice how boring I was, and the P.A. officer must have been napping, because she made up some lie about how well my presentation was received. Obviously, she didn’t pay attention. The newspaper editor was also very polite and told a whopper about how the audience enjoyed the Q&A part of the presentation. Even though nobody walked out during my presentation, I could tell that they couldn’t wait for me to leave. They clapped and clapped as we walked out of the hall, I’m sure it was because they were relieved that they could finally go home.

It was a total disaster. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to inflict myself onto people.