Saturday, May 17, 2008
Last weekend the secretary of state flew down to the Caribbean for a couple of meetings. What does such a little official jaunt cost? Would you believe $40,000 -- and that's just for the rooms.
Apr 10, 1998 | Like most Americans, I have never been a whiz at Caribbean geography -- my solution would be to rename the Caribbean islands in alphabetical order -- yet last weekend I found myself for the second time in three weeks in the country of Trinidad and Tobago. If you fire up your online encyclopedia, you will find the island of Trinidad seven miles off the Venezuelan coast. A few miles east lies the much smaller Tobago, the tropical paradise home of Robinson Crusoe.
Tobago is one of those unspoiled, unknown gems -- that is, until People magazine put the tiny island on the map. For this is the place where last December the Queen of CNN, Christiane Amanpour, became engaged to Jamie Rubin, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's press secretary and the Clinton administration's most eligible bachelor. The Clintonistas pushed this glam couple story hard. A Lexis-Nexis search shows over 50 articles referring to this Tobagan love story.
Now Rubin was back in Tobago with his boss, Albright, for a 36-hour visit -- a visit consisting of one 45-minute bilateral discussion with Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Basdeo Panday. The meeting produced two agreements on environmental and energy cooperation that could have been signed in Trinidad. Although the State Department folks were reluctant to talk about why we were there, the local residents fed me the following story.
Rubin and Amanpour stayed at the Manta Lodge in the northern part of Tobago during their December visit. As they toured the tiny island, they discovered the five-star Le Grand Courlon Resort and Spa, the best hotel on the island. Rubin raved about the place to Albright, suggesting that she take an R&R break when she visited Trinidad for the annual Caricom Conference (an organization of Caribbean countries and the United States). Prime Minister Panday chuckled when he was asked to explain Albright's visit. "Someone must have told her about the beauty of Tobago," he said.
Air Albright left the United States for Haiti early Saturday morning, pausing long enough to chew out the Haitian government and watch a drug interdiction exercise (which turned out to be a real drug bust). Sensibly, she then returned to her jet to spend Saturday and Sunday nights in Tobago.
While the T&T government was delighted about Albright's visit, State Department officials were more circumspect. When asked why we were in Tobago, Jamie Rubin responded, "Oh no, not that question again. (Pause.) Tobago is a wonderful island. I'm glad to be here. I'm on the other side of the island this time." In an interview with the local newspaper, Newsday, Rubin called Tobago "his second home." Newsday reported that Amanpour hinted at purchasing a house in Tobago when she was there last year.
Albright deflected the same question with a combination of diplo-speak and a joke. "Our diplomats always go to just Trinidad when they visit this country. As the mother of twins, I like to treat them equally."
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