The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Enlargement of the Diplomatic presence in the US since 2012 has raised some eye-brows as to the effectiveness and requirement.

Since the appointments what we have seen of the appointees is a lot of meetings with only Afro-American people. Unsure whether anyone has deliberately set a policy but over the past 40 years of Independence the only thing we have witnessed from Afro-Americans who visit under the guise of investors is photo-ops and a lot of promises.

My question is Washington, DC and NY cover that regional area so why is HE Paulette Zonicle stationed in Washington and not in a mid-US State like Missouri-St Louis or Texas-Houston?

40-years under the belt, Minister Mitchell is so right that especially in Foreign Affairs we do not have a cadre of Foreign Affairs Officers qualified, not only with degrees, but with on the street experience - why? MFA is one area of the Civil Service where you enter and should stay for life providing professional support to the Minister. Surely the time should be gone when we have to transfer an inexperienced person into MFA to take on a position which they have never acted in especially when that appointment is purely supported by politics.

Successive governments since 1973 thought Foreign Affairs was not important – we still do not appreciate that area of government and criticise the work and travel of the minister.

If you watch the BBC - CNN you will see the European Foreign Ministers flying up and down to very important meetings... there is no difference with the requirement of ours and we should encourage the Minister and the staff of MFA to do their best for The Bahamas. This is an essential service. Much of the time of the European Foreign Ministers is concentrated on selling goods and services of their countries to keep their people in work. They obtain multibillion dollar contracts.

J H WILSON

Nassau,

March 25, 2014.