And was dismissed for fast-tracking the visa of the nanny of his mistress's baby's.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Geetha Shamanna Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 8:55 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AI] The blind diplomat David blunket was married and divorced. This is not a matter of exclusion, but a matter of choice. ----- Original Message ----- From: "rajesh asudani" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 3:07 PM Subject: Re: [AI] The blind diplomat Yes, I do also inclined to hold the same opinion, even David Blunket seems not to have married! Exclusion is ubiqutous. Rajesh ----- Original Message ----- From: "dr.u.n.sinha narain" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Geetha Shamanna" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 1:28 AM Subject: Re: [AI] The blind diplomat >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.i n >> > > 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.i n > To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. 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