Now breaks my wooden shoe!

Last week I was promoted, forcibly, to become our office's Security Officer. Quite a big responsibility, which I guess has mainly been given to me because doing a sloppier job than my predecessor, our friendly but alcoholic and utterly dysfunctional Head of Administration, seems a tough call.

I had a look at the things involved in the new task, and I'm afraid this new responsibility is going to be a major headache. It involves for instance dealing with our local security company... It is an ironic twist of history that this post was given to me: I am extremely absent minded, forget my keys, leave lights on, cupboards open, money lying about, and most gloriously of all leave my personal organiser (in a wallet with passport, credit cards etc. on the top of my car and drive off, with the organiser falling off the car somewhere on the highway (I managed to pull this one off twice in Luxembourg, plus left it once on the shelves in a giant DIY store: it took me 30 minutes to find it). In short, just the man you need to be in charge of your security!

On the other hand it's quite interesting, a wholly new domain, so a 'challenge' to use the usual cliché. And it may very well force me to change my ways. So there I was yesterday early morning, putting in place tighter security procedures and telling (even showing!) security guards how to check people for weapons etc. Hilarious, really. Fortunately there's competent back-up from HQ.

In the meantime my local reputation as a subtle diplomat is reaching dazzling heights ... Last week I was in a meeting with the boss and no less than three Ministers. They complained rather violently about the fact that our budgetary aid is not forthcoming quickly enough, as it is tied to all sorts of financial management performance indicators. Obviously they prefer blank cheques. The Vice-Minister of Finance said at some point that the fact the IMF had now agreed to a (rather modest) programme for the country, was proof that public finance management in the country was good enough to warrant our budgetary aid. That just did it for me. The lack of understanding, or unwillingness to admit it in public, even at the highest level, of how disastrous their situation is drives me up against the walls. So I sort of lost my patience at that point and snapped that if public finance management was really that good, we would not be working on a 6 million euro technical assistance effort to remedy just that. Ouch, that hurt! He was extremely unamused. I was right of course (with all due modesty...), but telling him so in front of two senior colleagues was probably not the most judicious thing I have done so far in my career.

On the other hand, I am what I am, and people here tell me that I am widely known as a straight-shooter. Some even appreciate it.... Anyway, it probably saves me lots of time and energy. This pertains to the work side though. Whatever my shortcomings (many), I do believe that I am more considerate with people's personal feelings, even though the Vice-Minister will not necessarily agree... I will meet him on Monday, see if we can kiss and make up.

To end on a sad note: the husband of Odile (one of our two nanny/maids) is dying. He had his milt removed a few months ago and has been going slowly downhill ever since (not surprising given the lamentable medical care available here). He went into coma yesterday. Odile was on the phone today choking with tears telling me that she couldn't come to work as her husband was getting worse. Heartbreaking, I don't even want to imagine what she's going through.

* "Now breaks my wooden shoe" = Nu breekt mijn klomp!: an utterly Dutch expression meaning 'that's the bloody limit!'.