MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Sir Robin leaves after four years of ?engagement' with Argentina.
Today British Ambassador Sir Robin Christopher turns 60, which is not just a personal milestone but also the automatic end of his diplomatic career under current Foreign Office rules ? early tomorrow he flies back to Britain.
Since tomorrow is also the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, the Herald started the valedictory interview by asking this native of Sussex whether that day would find him feeling more like William the Conqueror or Anglo-Saxon King Harold with one in the eye after four years in Argentina. Sir Robin did not reply directly but, reading between the lines below, the answer might be inferred: "Perhaps both of them, perhaps neither but either way Argentina has left me a fuller human being."
Certainly in individual and family terms, the posting has been pure gain ? immense personal enjoyment for both himself and his wife Lady Merril Christopher with the formation of many lasting friendships which are sure to bring them back privately while their two girls spent the decisive formative years of their early teens here.
His diplomatic work is harder to summarize. The overall relationship remains sound with his own contribution an "effective and useful engagement with Argentina" perhaps best symbolized by restoration of the residence ? "back in business with the facilities to make it a proper conference centre." Nor should "back in business" be understood purely in terms of business and trade ? NGOs, universities, "intellectual diplomacy" (especially in the public policy sector) have all been part of using the residence to the full to bring together people from all over the country. Sir Robin feels that he has honoured his pledge to make his house "a meeting-place."
If restoring the residence was one of his two main achievements, his other source of pride also ties in with the most complicated part of his mission ? the construction of the monument to Argentina's 1982 war dead on the disputed islands. A sound overall relationship "cannot be divorced from the atmospheric uncertainties over the islands which will always be there" and "managing a dispute with fundamental differences is very complicated," requiring a lot of time, effort, contact and communication.
But the experience has also been positive beyond the achievement of the monument ? not his achievement, he hastens to add, but very much the project of the commission of the families of the war dead. His close partnership and friendship with them has helped make even uphill South Atlantic diplomacy "gratifying" but in general, managing such a difficult dispute is also "what diplomacy is all about."
While the South Atlantic dispute was the most difficult part of the relationship, not all the problems he shared were offshore ? arriving in late 2000, most of his years here have been hard times with five changes of government and an epic economic crisis in 2001.
But this was not Sir Robin's only experience of crisis ? in his previous Indonesian mission he lived through the 1997 Asian crisis (strangely enough, exotic, turbulent Ethiopia was the most normal of his three ambassadorial postings). In his experience crisis anywhere tends to bring out the best in civil society ? both zeal to change the systems which caused the crisis and a desire to help those affected.
Asked if he had any tips for his successor John Hughes, Sir Robin replied that all ambassadors had to find their own way but that the new envoy could depend on a warm welcome "totally in the Argentine nature" and on an excellent staff ? "second to none" in his very long experience.
No interview could be complete without extensive mention of the British community ? the refurbished residence was very much their "meeting-place" too with the annual fete and the Farmers' Ball perhaps the biggest among many community events. Not everybody is able to dance with a lady on her 100th birthday as he did with Sophie Dawson ? this was thanks to the British-American Benevolent Society (BABS), a "wonderful institution."
But he is also an admirer of Terry Chapman's work at the Argentine-British Community Council (ABCC), the Royal British Legion, the Argentine-British Chamber of Commerce, the British Hospital, etc. He especially admires Ofelia Veltri's work at the British Arts Centre (BAC) in not just teaching English but also establishing a British presence in culture and drama in the heart of the city. Also on the cultural front, he enjoyed a "productive relationship" with the British Council's Paul Dick, who came and left (at the start of this month) at the same times he did, "often joining forces for a common purpose." Admiration for the BAC, then, but also for Culturas all around the country. Not all of Sir Robin's fondest memories belong to this city ? the Welsh choir in faraway Chubut stands out, for instance.
What lies ahead for the retired diplomat? After taking the long way home, Sir Robin will end up in London where he hopes to be active with one or two NGOs he especially values ? he might also be helping to sell Argentine wines in Britain. Lady Christopher will be returning as Merril Stevenson to her old job in The Economist which she left 10 years ago for Addis Ababa.
Asked to reflect on a long career which has seen him as an ambassador in all three regions of the so-called Third World (Africa, Asia and Latin America), Sir Robin finds comparisons odious but comments that he finds South America the perfect ending to a career beginning as a Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) teacher in Bolivia in 1963 (he recently returned there to meet former students and the same family in the same house where he stayed 40 years ago), thus completing the cycle.
Yet he did not only find family warmth in Bolivia ? he recommends an Argentine wedding as an insight into the strength of extended families and childhood friendships. The value placed on friendship and family here would be hard to find in Europe today and he hopes that the "embrace" of these social values will never be lost.
By Michael Soltys ? Buenos Aires Herald Staff
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