Playing pool with Korean officials one evening in the Koryo Hotel, which has become the nightspot for foreign businessmen and an increasing number of diplomats (to say nothing of the burgeoning number of spies and journalists traveling under second identities), I was handed that day's edition of the Pyongyang Times. At first glance it seemed too laughable for words: endless pictures of the 'Dear Leader'—Little Boy's exalted title—as he was garlanded by adoring schoolchildren and heroic tractor drivers. Yet even in these turgid pages there were nuggets: a telegram congratulating the winner of the Serbian elections; a candid reference to the 'hardship period' through which the country had been passing; an assurance that a certain nuclear power plant would be closed as part of a deal with Washington. Tiny cracks, to be sure. But a complete and rigid edifice cannot afford fissures, however small. There appear to be no hookers, as yet, in Pyongyang. Yet if casinos come, can working girls be far behind? One perhaps ought not to wish for hookers, but there are circumstances when corruption is the only hope.
Christopher HitchensTags: prostitution united-states journalism diplomacy propaganda espionage north-korea kim-jong-il 2000 pool pyongyang north-korean-famine the-pyongyang-times casinos koryo-hotel north-korea-and-wmd prostitution-in-north-korea serbia serbian-election-2000
Are you guys really arguing over where to eat dinner?"
"It's one of the more savage tools in the diplomatic arsenal.
Tags: diplomacy dinner arguments location
People who keep their feelings to themselves tend not to know, after a while, what their feelings are.
Paul BermanTags: diplomacy feelings outspokenness
Diplomacy never works.
Nadia ScrievaTags: humor politics war diplomacy
I--buy, and I sell."
"You're a thief.
Tags: diplomacy george thief gary
The "compleat diplomat" of the future should remain cognizant of realism's emphasis on the inescapable role of power, keep liberalism's awareness of domestic forces in mind, and occasionally reflect on constructivism's vision of change.
Stephen M. WaltTags: international-relations diplomacy
Try to be pleasant to one another, get plenty of fresh air, read a good book now and then, depose your government when it suspends the free press, try to use the mechanism of the state to adjudicate fairly and employ diplomatic means wherever possible to avoid armed conflict.
Jasper FfordeTags: reading war government diplomacy free-press
In diplomacy there are two kinds of problems: small ones and large ones. The small ones will go away by themselves and the large ones you will not be able to do anything about. The biggest challenges in your career will come from the temptation to act. The test of your mettle will be how nobly you surmount it.
Patrick McGuinnessTags: diplomacy
The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed.
Mario PuzoTact is the ability to step on a man's toes without messing up the shine on his shoes.
Harry Truman« first previous
Page 4 of 6.
next last »
Data privacy
Imprint
Contact
Diese Website verwendet Cookies, um Ihnen die bestmögliche Funktionalität bieten zu können.