Tunisian Ambassador
So for what it's worth, I have now completed my experience with the Hatem Atallah, Tunisian Ambassador. I actually was around him twice. The first time was when he met yesterday with Arabic classes, and our professor had us go. This was entirely in Arabic. I asked him about the future role of Tunisia in the pan-Africa movement, which sent him into a lengthy reply I could not begin to understand. It sounded interesting, though.
Today's luncheon turned out to be in a rather small room with a total of six people. I had originally sought to sort of "stay out of the way" at the end of the table, but due to the way things were set up and the fact I was one of the first there, I wound up sitting right next to him. The Tunisian Ambassador to the United States has now passed me the bread. He also has a great memory, and recognized me from yesterday. There was a lot of fascinating conversation about Tunisian politics and economics I won't go into here, and some lighter discussions about the food of different countries and the squabbles which sometimes ensue over who invented what. He found out I was working on going to Morocco this summer and gave me some useful advice. I'm also really intrigued by the possibility of tacking a tour of Tunisia onto the end of my trip, as he described a lot of interesting places there.
So that's my first formal meeting with an ambassador. Interesting guy. I suppose I should mention that Tunisia is a dictatorship, but I don't see it useful to hold that against people I know nothing about. When I was at a conference in Kalamazoo, I met a former ambassador of Pakistan to different places, and talking to him made it clear he was basically just a career civil servant working for his country and that changes in government were more or less like the takeovers one sometimes sees in big business. At the same time, we really don't know how some American government officials would act in a society that tolerated dictatorship. Besides, as far as I know, Tunisia's not close to the same level of repression as Syria or Iraq.
Today's luncheon turned out to be in a rather small room with a total of six people. I had originally sought to sort of "stay out of the way" at the end of the table, but due to the way things were set up and the fact I was one of the first there, I wound up sitting right next to him. The Tunisian Ambassador to the United States has now passed me the bread. He also has a great memory, and recognized me from yesterday. There was a lot of fascinating conversation about Tunisian politics and economics I won't go into here, and some lighter discussions about the food of different countries and the squabbles which sometimes ensue over who invented what. He found out I was working on going to Morocco this summer and gave me some useful advice. I'm also really intrigued by the possibility of tacking a tour of Tunisia onto the end of my trip, as he described a lot of interesting places there.
So that's my first formal meeting with an ambassador. Interesting guy. I suppose I should mention that Tunisia is a dictatorship, but I don't see it useful to hold that against people I know nothing about. When I was at a conference in Kalamazoo, I met a former ambassador of Pakistan to different places, and talking to him made it clear he was basically just a career civil servant working for his country and that changes in government were more or less like the takeovers one sometimes sees in big business. At the same time, we really don't know how some American government officials would act in a society that tolerated dictatorship. Besides, as far as I know, Tunisia's not close to the same level of repression as Syria or Iraq.
posted by Brian Ulrich at
6:42 PM
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