RABAT — It’s my last day here at the Atlantic Dialogues and, quite frankly, in hate to leave. Two of the plenaries I wanted to attend are taking place this morning and early afternoon. One is on the Caribbean, the other about Africa. I must leave early because of commitments in London tonight before flying early tomorrow to Toronto for the Toronto Global Forum. (More on that important gathering over the next few days).
POLITICAL FIREWORKS
My head is still spinning from Saturday in Rabat. It’s all a blur because so much happened — from an intimate lunch discussion on transforming Africa’s security forces to my plenary on urban cities to fireworks at a panel on the U.S. presidential elections to a nightcap with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s policy secretary.
Here are a few thoughts and observations:
Democratic operative Hilary Rosen, my Friday dinner table mate, gives as good as she gets. She was part of a very stimulating “night owl” session on November’s elections. For full details, go to http://www.AtlanticDialogues.org.
Olayinka Creighton-Randall of Sierra Leone should run for office at home. We met at a lunch breakout session on how to transform Africa’s security forces. She’s smart and extremely perceptive with fresh ideas of what should be done, drawing from her work in Sierra Leone. A shout out to Ambassador William Mark Bellamy and Col. Birame Diop of Senegal, who did a great job framing the discussion over our lunch of chicken tagine.
A big thank you to the panelists on my urban cities as global actors panel: Aart De Geus, chairman of Bertrlmann Stiftung; Graca Fonseca, deputy mayor of Lisbon; Harry van Dorenmalen, chairman of IBM for Europe; and Norberto Pontiroli, international relations adviser to Buenos Aires.
The lively discussion was highly informative. And we had a good time. Shoutout, too, to my Caribbean friends who managed to insert a tourism ad into the session.
Dr. Paul Oquist Kelly, the Nicaraguan Minister and Private Secretary for National Policies, and I met for drinks at the end of the day. Over cognac and a great local red wine, we talked about his new country (he renounced his U.S. citizenship in the 1980s), the region and the world. I cannot get into more details because it was off the record. Needless to say, he’ll be following the outcome of next Sunday’s presidential elections in Venezuela very closely. (See earlier dispatch with The Miami Herald’s Jim Wyss. I’ll have much more on Venezuela over the next two weeks.)
After three thought-provoking days here, I bid adieu to Rabat.
[Photos show me doing moderating the urban cities panel, being interviewed in the lobby of the Sofitel as I prepared to leave Rabat (shot by PRI’s The World’s Lisa Mullins) and Hilary Rosen mixing it up on the political panel.]
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