Vice President Pence has just visited Jakarta, Indonesia, which is where I live.
Understandably, his visit involved a helluva lot of security issues, and a certain amount of … inconvenience … to various people, mostly Americans, working in variously American-funded roles here in Indonesia’s capital. (Which is cool, by the way, and not a partisan issue at all; it’s just reality.)
Anyway, as part of that inconvenience, a bunch of Americans were displaced for a while, and because my husband works on a US-funded project and has a large conference room, he was asked in advance if he could take in some, er, “refugees” for a few hours while Pence was in the building they would ordinarily occupy. Of course, he agreed. This involved some logistics, like making sure people got lunch while they were unable to occupy their usual office or follow their usual routine.
So today, I sent CairoSpouse to work with a large quantity of cookies that I baked. I couldn’t do anything about the glum feeling that many people had (your average SDMB reader will not be stunned to know that overall, the displaced Americans do NOT support the Trump administration and were pretty horrified by the little details of what Pence did/did not do during his visit) - but I could offer up some cookies for solace.
I made spritz cookies and mocha biscotti. They were, I am told, well received.
Recipes available upon request. Both are quite easy, and tasty.
Ah, I was hoping that you had gotten a really great protest tee from your last visit home and managed to run across Pence’s stage while wearing it, maybe flashing the cameras for fun.
I wish I could, but I don’t want to get anyone into trouble for sharing stories, in case they were not supposed to say anything, which is very possible; there is a whole lot of protocol involved with visits like these, and US Embassy staff put up with a lot of grief whenever a VIP or VVIP visits.
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Not to Hijack …but…I’d love to hear your take on the newly elected Governor !
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To be honest, I’ve more or less abandoned following Indonesian politics with any degree of depth since I have my hands full keeping up with what’s happening in the US, but it certainly was disheartening that Anies won. Non-Muslim Indonesians are feeling stressed, which is very understandable.
Correction: embassy staff put up with a shitload of grief for those types of visits. Everything from unreasonable last-second requests, putting up with arrogant staffers and press people, not being reimbursed for expenses, and outright theft by the visitors. Oh, and then there was the time that a visiting CODEL had hookers in their rooms and ripped off the hospitality suite for an $800 case of port.
Correction: Embassy staff put up with a million shitloads of grief for those types of visits.
In other words, I couldn’t agree more. I don’t have to deal with it now, but back in the 1990s my job gave me a front-row seat to the stuff you are talking about. What was worst (for me) was the uncertainty - VIPs would dither, dither, dither about when and whether they were visiting, and then they’d make a sudden decision to come NOW, and if I was lucky I would have 24 hours to put together an event that met all the security, social, and political protocols that the VIP required.
On a slightly cheerier note, one such event did allow me to score a point or two against the patronizing, sexist American businessmen I regularly dealt with. Mickey Kantor, then the USTR, was speaking and no one was allowed to enter the hotel ballroom until the bomb-sniffer dogs were done.
The entitled business leaders decided they had been kept waiting too long, and came to me to demand immediate entry, which of course I was in no position to grant.
So I had a nice little chat with one of the ominous-looking Secret Service guys, who exuded an air of quiet menace that suggested he could easily dispense with plump American businessmen, their muscles shriveled from lack of exercise and two-martini lunches. “Anybody complains to you, just send them to me,” he said calmly.
So I did. It was very satisfying, for just one time in my miserable job that involved a basically endless onslaught of condescension, to see those guys being told “NO” by someone they were afraid to argue with.
.
I had some CBS news reporter snap his fingers at me and tell me to get him a car. I glared at him for a few seconds and just turned away. When Madeleine Albright came to post, we were all told not to look at her forehead, as she was sensitive about her thinning hair. :rolleyes: When the CIA director paid a visit to one post, we were told that he didn’t like stairs, so there should never be more than two for him to have to drag his sorry ass up. The egos on some of these people are astounding.
Don’t look at her forehead? That would make me want to subconsciously look at her forehead, whereas before I would have had no reason to. How are you supposed to look at her eyes while talking with her when she thinks you’re looking at her forehead? Streisand Effect in action.
Unless you heard this from the person himself/herself, I’d cut them some slack. It could be that Albright expressed concern about her hairline once or the CIA director tripped on some stairs once, and their overly-solicitous seconds, eager to avoid any difficulties for their boss as well as justify their existences, make a point of settling rules for the plebes. The VIP might not even be aware of this coddling.
