It’s been one of those days. Somewhere towards the end
of the work day, I got a call from a director in one of the companies that my
employer is liquidating. While I am generally OK with the guy (he’s ex-British
army, which is something I respect), he suffers from an illness that White Men,
particularly those who have made it good, suffer from – the innate belief that the system bends to their will because they say so.
This fellow suffers from this syndrome in major way
and in his particular case, the syndrome has been compounded by an innate sense
of being made impotent. It was very clear when I tried to explain the
adjudication process and he yelled, “Oh, no you don’t talk – I’m going to take
control of this conversation – you’re a bunch of CB, lying c**ts (which are
actually the same thing but in different languages) and I hope you’re recording
this because I want you to tell your boss in those words and I want him to sue
me and I’m done dealing with you b***s.” He also promised to “do a Putin on Ukraine”
to my current employer.
In a way, I symathise. This guy was living the good
life. He built a successful business that lasted for a long time and then one
day he got into a legal dispute and instead of getting the court system in Australia
and Singapore to work for him, he proceeded to spend an innate amount of time
complaining about how he was brought down by fraudulent lawyers and kept insisting
that we had to stop the liquidation, even though there was a court order
stating very clearly that we, as liquidators had to go in and liquidate the
company.
So, yes, he has my sympathies but then again, what can
you do for someone who refuses to see that their situation has changed and their
refusal to understand that the situation has changed has played a key role in
their downfall?
It took a while to bring the temperature down but I
managed to do it. It’s not the first time that I’ve been in rough situations on
the job. Also had to manage a bankrupt who thought nothing of having her “man”
speak loudly to me while she sat in a corner saying “Don’t worry, he won’t beat
you – we know that we can’t beat people in Singapore.”
Such situations are thankfully rare and while one
could argue that I’ve acquired that most precious of skills – dealing with awkward
people, in awful situations, it’s a skill I don’t really want to use more than
I have to. Its emotionally draining but you got to do it because its something
that needs to get done.
When you deal with awkward people and awkward
situations, you start to understand that diplomats actually do serious work. If
you were to ask what a diplomat’s job is, I would say, it is to ensure that
people who might be otherwise hostile to your country end up being friendly
enough to help.
Now, the challenges of this job depend on who you are.
If you are the USA or China or even India, you’ll find that everyone will want
to be your friend. Reason is simple – everyone wants to do business with you
and in the case of the USA, you also have the military might to protect other
people.
However, it becomes more challenging when you are
someone smaller with significantly less to honour. The smaller you are or the
worse the neighbourhood you’re in, the more challenging your job. European diplomats
have an easier time than say diplomats from their Caribbean or Pacific
counterparts. Everyone wants to be in Europe but nobody really wants to be in
the Caribbean or Pacific for anything longer than the time it takes to get
their suntan.
OK, as a matter of disclosure, I was invited to the
Jordanian Embassy’s National Function earlier this week. While the Ambassador
was talking about what Jordan had to offer potential tourist, it occurred to me
that Jordan had a very special resource – diplomatic talent.
Let’s face it, this is a country, with little to no natural
resources. As one YouTube video stated – Jordan is disadvantaged by geography –
nearly 70 percent of the land is desert and the Jordanian population is
relatively small. In terms of geopolitics, Jordan is in a rough nighbourhood.
Neighbours include Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories as well as Israel
and Saudi Arabia. Whenever it comes to refuges, Jordan has become the sponge in
a region that leaks refuges. Yet, despite all of this, Jordan has been
politically stable beyond expectation.
How did it happen? Somehow, Jordan found a way of
making friends across the political divide. Jordan’s late King Hussein was a
master of diplomacy. He managed to stay on the right side of regional powers,
like Gamal Nasser of Egypt and Saddam Hussein of Iraq who were promoting
confrontation with the West, without going against the West. He saw to it that
Jordan would become the second sovereign Arab nation to make peace with Israel,
but unlike Egypt in the 70s, no one else in the Arab League isolated Jordan.
His skillfulness as diplomat was seen at his funeral
in 1999. Four US Presidents came down to pay their respect and political rivals
like Iran and Saudi Arabia and India and Pakistan put aside their differences
for a day to pay respects to the man. A list of the attendees can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_King_Hussein
The late king wasn’t just a one off. His son and successor,
King Abdullah II has managed to keep the legacy of his father going. Jordan is
miraculously stable and we need to ask ourselves how they’ve managed to become
so deft despite having not all that much to offer.
This could be the Jordan’s secret sauce to further prosperity.
Jordan could start a school of diplomacy, where smaller nations who have to
deal with larger and sometimes more unstable neighbours can be trained up. Whatever
Jordan lacks in resources like oil, it more than makes up in talent. This is
something that the world should look to.
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