Learning Curve

On June 29 the IHT had an article by Elaine Sciolino about a French official's learning curve. The official is France's new foreign minister, and by all accounts the learning curve is quite a steep one:

How does a cardiologist and former health minister with no foreign policy experience suddenly transform himself into the foreign minister of France? With lots of enthusiasm and a request for forgiveness.

Philippe Douste-Blazy welcomed the Anglo-American press to the Quai d'Orsay on Tuesday and revealed what he knows and does not know about the world.

"I have a very interesting, very passionate profession, where I probably could have made, I believe, two, three times more money a month than being a deputy or a minister," he said of his decision to give up medicine. "But I chose politics, because I like politics."

Ignoring the negative connotation politics has in diplomacy, Douste-Blazy made clear Tuesday that he intends to be a very political foreign minister.

"I am a political man," he said. "For me, that's not pejorative. On the contrary, it is one of the most beautiful missions that can exist for a person."

He added that his country's Foreign Ministry "needs a politician more than ever."

Clearly, Douste-Blazy, 52, who entered political life when he was elected mayor of Lourdes 16 years ago, is learning the new job along the way. He asked journalists for "a bit of charity" if his answers were "not yet precise," and told them they had "many things to teach him."

Asked about the scandal in Italy where 13 CIA-led agents have been indicted for their abduction of a radical Muslim cleric, Douste-Blazy replied, "I'm not up on that. I'm not up on that."

Turning to a line of aides sitting behind him, he assured his audience, "I am going to immediately look into that with my staff."

There is a lot more of this, and I would suggest that it makes disquieting reading.

(Hat tip: MAK)