i met mr. rabby. i saw his capacities, when i met him in lucknow. since he is transferred from india, i could not contact him, as i do not have his e mail now. my questionis the gentle man is so qualified but why he has not married? is it general blind problem everywhere? regards drun
On 7/8/07, Geetha Shamanna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Saturday Profile > > A U.S. Diplomat With an Extraordinary Global View > > By [4]MARC LACEY > > PORT OF SPAIN, [5]Trinidad > > AS chief of the political section at the American Embassy here for the > last two years, Avraham Rabby has had the job of surveying Trinidads > political landscape for Washington. > > The fact that he has not actually seen the Caribbean island or any of > the places on five continents where he has been posted has not stymied > him. > > I necessarily listen more than a sighted person would, he said. If Im > walking along a street, I can tell there is a building next to me > because of the echoes of my feet or my cane. A blind person sees the > world differently from a sighted person. Our impressions are no less > valid. > > Mr. Rabby, who lost his sight at the age of 8 because of detached > retinas, is the State Departments first blind diplomat. It is an > achievement he fought for in the 1980s, passing three written entrance > exams and two oral exercises along the way. But even then, the State > Department barred him from the diplomatic corps. > > You dont ask a blind person to drive a bus or be a bank teller, George > S. Vest, who was the personnel director for the Foreign Service, > explained in a 1988 interview. There are jobs which are dangerous or > unsuitable for them. And in the Foreign Service, were full of jobs > like that. > > The department contended that diplomats, blind ones included, had to > be able to work anywhere in the world and to work with confidential > documents without any outside aid. In addition, State Department > officials said, diplomats had to be able to pick up on nonverbal cues, > such as winks or nods, which can sometimes have more meaning than the > words being uttered. > > But Mr. Rabby illustrated another essential quality of diplomats: > perseverance. No international treaty has ever been decided on the > basis of a wink or a nod, he retorted, after hiring a lawyer and > challenging the State Departments policy, which dated from the 18th > century. > > Aiding Mr. Rabbys effort was a federal law barring the government from > disqualifying prospective employees because of disabilities. > Eventually, after the news media and Congress found out about his > case, the State Department reversed course. The new policy would > consider disabled diplomats on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Rabby became > case No. 1. > > In 1990, he was off to London, where he was posted at the embassy > there as a junior political officer. He moved next to Pretoria, South > Africa, where [6]Nelson Mandela had just been freed from prison and > where Mr. Rabby witnessed the countrys first free elections. It was > one of the most stimulating experiences in my life, he said, noting > that he was one of the embassys election observers. > > People ask me how I can assess a political rally if I cant see it, he > said. I tell them that I listen to the crowd and to the speakers. You > can sense what is going on. > > He spent time in Washington at the State Departments Bureau of Human > Rights, and in postings in Lima and New Delhi. During a stint at the > United States Mission to the [7]United Nations, he helped write > resolutions dealing with literacy, global health and the rights of the > disabled. > > His final posting he retired at the end of June at the mandatory > retirement age of 65 was to Port of Spain, where he became an expert > in Trinidads political system, which has long been divided between > parties, one predominantly Afro-Trinidadian and one Indo-Trinidadian. > > When journalists descended on Trinidad recently in search of > information on the suspected plot to set off a bomb at a fuel line at > Kennedy International Airport that was traced back to this Caribbean > island, he became one of the officials to talk to. > > A diplomat does a lot of writing, a lot of reading, a lot of thinking, > a lot of talking and has to attend a lot of meetings, he said. Thanks > to technological advances and a full-time assistant, Mr. Rabby could > do all of those things too. > > He wrote his cables to Washington using a machine that wrote in > Braille. He then read them back to his assistant, Rhonda Singh, who > typed them up. He also had a computer with a speech program that > allowed him to listen to his e-mail messages. > > As for tracking news developments, Ms. Singh, an American citizen who > lives in Trinidad, read him the local papers. I was basically his > eyes, she said. > > BORN in Israel, Mr. Rabby, who is known as Rami, was sent to live with > an aunt in England at the age of 10 because his parents believed there > were better schools for the blind there. A Hebrew speaker, he quickly > mastered English at Worcester College for Blind Boys. > > I remember the headmaster used to go out and speak to groups about the > school, and he used to say that we teach our boys to stand on their > own two feet and, if necessary, to step on yours too, Mr. Rabby > recalled. > > He went off to Oxford, where he studied French and Spanish. Finding a > job after college proved a challenge. Time and time again I met > recruiters who felt that a blind person could not work in management, > he said in the British accent that he has never lost. > > Eventually, he joined Ford Motor Company in Britain, where he worked > in human resources. After about a year, he moved to the United States > and earned an M.B.A. at the [8]University of Chicago. > > After graduation in 1969, he sought out a management training program, > but had few offers after dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of > interviews. > > He finally landed a job with a management consulting firm, Hewitt > Associates, and later moved to Citibank. He also spent time as an > independent consultant, writing a number of employment guides, > including one giving advice to blind job seekers. > > One of my problems in my working life, after a few years I get a bit > tired of what I am doing and I want to change, said Mr. Rabby, who > became an American citizen in 1980. > > It was while living in New York that he decided to make the jump into > international relations, a longtime interest. The State Departments > regular rotations of its diplomats proved a perfect fit. > > His fight to join the Foreign Service has helped others along the way. > There are now four blind Foreign Service officers stationed around the > globe, the State Department said, among about 170 disabled Foreign > Service employees overseas. > > MR. RABBY said blind Foreign Service officers had recently been > restricted from adjudicating visa applications because of their > inability to verify photographs and signatures of applications. > > Mr. Rabby, who attributes the decision to the increased restrictions > after the Sept. 11 attacks, said he did visa work at the start of his > career in London, with the assistance of a reader, who verified > documents for him. He asked the questions and assessed the responses. > > The State Department is not yet completely on the side of the angels, > he said. A State Department official disputed that there was a policy > in place restricting the assignments of blind diplomats. Decisions on > assigning personnel, the official said, are made on a case-by-case > basis in accordance with the law. > > Even before Mr. Rabby headed out into the world as a diplomat, he was > already testifying before Congress on his quest for the job. He said > back then that he did not want to be put in a pigeonhole as a blind > diplomat. > > Blind people are as different from one another as sighted people, he > told members of the House Foreign Affairs and Civil Service Committees > in 1989. There is no such thing as a category labeled, blind. > > Prior Beharry contributed reporting. > > To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
