So? So? You think that dialect they speak in Argentina is Spanish?
Well, I never heard that being ambassador was a sinecure. I’m translating here the decrption of a typical day by an ambassador, from some online article :
[QUOTE= French diplomat]
Information gathering, processing, relaying occupy the central part in the life of a diplomat. So, the day begins invariably by the reading of the dispatchs embassies use to communicate and exchange their informations and the administration use to transmit its instructions and requests. To which is added reading news agencies dispatches and papers.
Most of the activity of the diplomat then consist in meeting extremely varied interlocutors : ministers, high ranking civil servants, business, university, army, church leaders [then list peculiarities in third world countries receiving international aid, like visiting cofunded projects]. Interviews with the local medias are common.
The diplomat must then report what he has seen or learned, inform about the results of missions he has been ordered to carry out : it’s a job with a lot of writing. The ambassador must dedicate part of his time to the management of his team, to the coordination of the action of the different services of the embassy, and to administrative tasks.
Then the day often ends with an official dinner, sometimes following a reception. That’s the “social” part of the activity, the most well known of the general public, sometimes mocked, but essential to get to know new people and gather information.
[/QUOTE]
I can’t see a political hack being able to carry out these duties, except the last part, (official dinners) and interviews, and even then it would be better if an actual diplomat was doing it, since dinners aren’t just socializing and since what you say to the local medias isn’t unimportant.
The US also appoints a fair number of retired politicians to Ambassadorships. Is this practice common abroad?
I don’t know if it’s as common as it is in the US, but Australia and Canada have done it a few times. (Both countries’ current ambassadors to the US are former politicians, actually.)