bout de papier, Vol. 14, No. 4 (1997) — Winter 1997 // Hiver 1997, p. 2
This edition of bout, the last of volume 14, brings to a conclusion one of our focuses this year: Canada’s Year of Asia-Pacific. Indeed, the APEC summit has just been held in Vancouver, amidst protesters and virtual panic about the continuing problems of Asian economies. A steady procession of Asian leaders have made their way through Ottawa following the summit and in advance of the deluge of foreign delegations attending the signing of the International Treaty on Land Mines. Many have been burning the midnight oil in Fort Pearson in preparation for either — or both — events. For those, Paul Gibbard’s “Wasting Away in Margaritaville” will strike a familiar chord. For the rest of us whose lives have not been quite so traumatised, it provides an interesting insight into the history and workings of our NAFTA and APEC partner’s Foreign Ministry.
We also conclude our look at micro-missions, with Ann Collins’ perspective from the banks of the River Neva. Having read all three contributions, it becomes evident that the cost-effectiveness of single-Canadian micro-missions could be enhanced with better information technology and training and enhanced responsibilities for locally-engaged personnel. In all three cases, it is a case of “do everything with less” as our authors are expected (and do, most of the time) to respond to everything asked of them. While coping, of course, with rules and policies designed for full-fledged missions. Life in St. Petersburg is no exception. Senior managers contemplating future micro-missions, or indeed, single-officer programs within larger missions, should keep these articles as compulsory reading.
This issue includes two commentaries reflecting the mood among current — and former — foreign service officers. The first, Phil Calvert’s “Letter from the Monkey House”, is a satirical response to a news report in early September about staff salaries on Parliament Hill, and gets the point across with some vivid imaging. Our second commentary, reprinted with permission of the author, is Elizabeth Gammell’s letter of resignation from the foreign service in favour of a non-rotational career. It, too, speaks for itself but to make everything abundantly clear we have also included current salary information. Those mandarins that bring us La Relève keeping telling us (themselves?) that compensation really isn’t the issue in the civil service, and that it is a question of building morale and pride in our work.
I strongly encourage each and every mandarin who may read this magazine to pay particular attention to these contributions. Then show us the money.
Roger Paul Gilbert presents an interesting analysis of the last, and most controversial, visit to Canada by Charles de Gaulle in “Le Canada, Le Québec et la dette de Louis XV” This calm, researched contribution from M. Gilbert provides an historical perspective to an event for which passions are still extreme thirty years after the event.
The world barely noted the passing of Mobutu Sese Seko in the tragic first week of September — and those that did probably did not mourn his death in exile in Morocco. This issue of bout presents a pair of contributions about the last years and weeks of Mobutu’s Zaire, caught up in the Great Lakes’ refugee crisis while the country itself disintegrated in civil strife and turmoil. “A Small & Challenging Post in Africa” by Helen Horn, a British FCO regular reader of bout, takes us from the civil war of early 1993 to the Ebola crisis of mid- 1995 and two million Rwandan refugees in between. Her account sets the stage for the exerpts of Raymond Chrétien’s “Great Lakes’ Mission — Reflections of a Special Envoy” and his whirlwind tour of the region to resolve the refugee issue just over a year ago. These two contributions take us beyond the headlines and column inches of the media into the eye of a storm which has now virtually faded away as yesterday’s news.
On a final note, our article in Summer 1997 bout, “Le drapeau autour du monde — Showing the Flag” prompted James A. Gibson’s recollections of a previous flag debate over fifty years ago between the Union Jack or the Red Ensign. While the issue itself is documented in archives and journals, the benefits of such a first person account of the discussions and the debates of the day is one of the unique and wel come characteristics of this magazine.
As the end of 1997 approaches, I would also take this opportunity to thank all contributors to bout during the past year. You are what makes this magazine. To all of our readers, thank you for your continuing support — may you enjoy peace and prosperity in the new year.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 14, No. 4 (1997) — Winter 1997 // Hiver 1997, p. 2. Read the rest of this issue →
