Paradise Under Seige: Notes From a Trip to Uganda in 1976
The explosive bang ricocheted around the inside of the white Peugot station wagon. We hit the floor; the driver hit the gas pedal and the car raced down the disintegrating highway, ignoring potholes and sunbathing monkies alike. This was Idi Amin’s Uganda…
Incident in the New Year
It was the first working day of the New Year. For the Department of External Affairs it was just another ordinary death abroad. A young thin man who had been living in India for six months had died. Telexes were being sent…
Mes adieux à l’Afrique
Chers amis, Je vais passer aux aveux tout de suite. Oui, je suis ému, très ému. J’étais bien, même très bien avec vous. Si l’inverse n’a pas toujours été vrai, je m’en excuse sincèrement. Je reviendrai là-dessus tantôt.
A Barrel of Bricks
Have you ever felt that fate had struck you several hard blows in succession? If so, you may be able to identify with the writer of the following letter written thirty years ago by a Fijian Ministry of Works employee at the…
TV Socko at the U.N.
Every time I hear another tirade about the evil and sinister pervasiveness of American cultural imperialism, I think back to some bizarre things that happened when Canada’s Lorne Greene showed up in New York in 1967 and asked me to show him…
“Haven’t We Met Before?”
“Oh, Lord,” I prayed, “give me the strength to do it all again.”
A Matter of Principle
There has always been a fuzzy line when it comes to the limits of consular assistance to be provided to Canadians abroad. There is the constant judgement call which must be made between following our consular mandate by providing legitimate assistance to…
The Inimitable Esther Heilbuth
She was already a legend when I arrived in Copenhagen — Esther Heilbuth, translator extraordinary and superb Canadian representative. She had joined our service immediately after the Second World War, when the Canadian Embassy consisted of an office in the basement of…
An M.P. in Manhattan
Working abroad in the Foreign Service may provide one unexpected compensation — a more intimate and rewarding view of Members of Parliament than you are likely to obtain back in Ottawa.
Tales from Away — The Old Story Teller
by Laurel Pardy
