Hi Mia!
It’s a tradition that the Swedish ambassador to DC invites Nobel
laureates to dinner and arranges White House reception for them
beforehand. The date is set by the White House and you can see (it was
Dec. 1) they put it off until the last possible moment. Six laureates
and spouses in turn shook hands with Bush–we had all* made up our
minds to be polite, because being otherwise wouldn’t help anybody but
could embarass the Swedes, who have been so nice.
Ambassador Jan Eliasson is very impressive, with a background in
diplomacy and mediation:
http://www.swedenabroad.se/pages/general____7038.asp
The announcement that he’d be President of the UN General Assembly is
very recent:
http://www.swedenabroad.se/pages/news____29882.asp&root=6989
In person he is charming, a good speaker, thoughtful, etc. His wife
Kerstin is Deputy Minister for Culture–she comes over from Stockholm
to be part of the DC event each year–he joked that this was one of its
many benefits.
He is also so modest that we didn’t hear about his new UN position
until Justice Sandra Day O’Connor congratulated him in an after-dinner speech.
I also met the more-palatably-politicked Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg–for some reason she was wearing tiny black crocheted gloves. Let’s see, other DC gossip–Condi Rice should
buy bigger or better shoes; she was very trimly dressed but with little
white “ouch” pads peeking over her high heeled shoes where they rubbed
the back of her ankles.
I wish the US had the good luck to be led by somebody like Jan Eliasson.
Love and xxx
Betsy
* I think at least one laureate
supported Bush. Other points of view expressed by “Nobel Laureates
Other Than Frank Wilczek” (NLOTFW): “It’s the office, not the man. It’s
the office, not the man.” “I’ll be polite but I’m not making any small talk.” As it turned
out, small talk was not required. See my next post for more…