How to Become a Good Delegator

24th July 2008 Charles J. Brown
09:56 am

How to Become a Good Delegator

I don’t really have a joke here. I just found this interesting. Bush announced “the designation of a Presidential Delegation to the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games.”

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, will lead the delegation.

The Honorable Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of Labor
The Honorable Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services
The Honorable Clark T. Randt, Jr, U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China
The Honorable Karen Hughes, Global Vice Chair of Burson-Marsteller
Mr. Peter Ueberroth, President of the United States Olympic Committee
Ms. Michelle Kwan, Figure Skating Champion and American Public Diplomacy Envoy

So Karen Hughes gets to go, but not James K. Glassman, her successor as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. No Democrats. And no Members of Congress. Wouldn’t want those pesky Members of Congress around to ask questions about Tibet or the Falun Gong or dissidents, now, would we?

So this got me thinking. What if the President had the guts to name a different kind of delegation, one that would raise human rights issues with the Chinese? Would would be on it? Here are my suggestions — I’ve tried to make it bipartisan:

The Honorable Harold Hongju Koh, Dean of the Yale Law School and former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, will lead the delegation.

The Honorable Frank Wolf, Member of Congress
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Member of Congress
Bette Bao Lord, Chair emeritus of Freedom House and best-selling author.
Harry Wu, noted Chinese-American human rights activist
Joey Cheek, 2006 gold medal winner in speed skating & President of Team Darfur
Richard Gere, actor and Tibet activist

Now that’s a delegation. I wonder if the Chinese would even let them off the plane.

Who would you pick?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under foreign policy, pop culture. It is tagged under China, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush, human rights, Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 2 responses to “How to Become a Good Delegator”

Why not let us know what you think by adding your own comment! Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's, so come on... let us know what you think.

1 On July 25th, 2008, kim said:
Is George Bush or anyone else going to hold China to account on the promises it made that hosting the Olympics would improve human rights in China? It doesn’t look like it.

In China you probably couldn’t write a blog like this, it will be blocked by the Great Firewall or taken down by the censors. Amnesty International have a way you can show your solidarity for Chinese people who risk censure, arrest, torture and even imprisonment for peacefully speaking out online.

It’s an online Day of Protest against Internet censorship. Check it out - http://action.uncensor.com.au/dop/

It only takes a couple of minutes and the more people that join the stronger the message it sends to the Chinese Government.

Support Chinese bloggers’ right to freedom of expression and speech.
2 On July 25th, 2008, Charles J. Brown said:
Kim,

Thanks so much for your comment. I could not agree more — I was deputy executive director for action at Amnesty International USA from 2001 to 2004. Hope you’ll keep reading!