And Barbados? Pretty nice gig, one might presume: sun, sand, sea, fresh fish, fancy sailboats, gorgeous new facility that isn't too small yet ...
...but a consular schedule that might daunt the most hardened travel lover.
The post just announced an upcoming consular visit to the British Virgin Islands to provide US citizens' services.
Still not impressed? How about the fact that US Embassy Barbados is accredited to seven different countries - more, as the State OIG points out (see pages 4 & 5) than any other mission in the world - and has varying degrees of responsibility for numerous other European possessions. The chart on page 5 of the OIG report should serve to put Paradise in perspective: it's not only warm and sunny; it's diabolically complex, with consular responsibilities for Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Martinique, Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba), St. Barthélemy, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Martin, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Never mind that, stuck all together, the total land area of consular responsibility hardly adds up to Kansas: that is a lot of air time (much of it requiring third-country transit, all of it requiring at least one and usually two overnight stays) many times per year. But the consular section soldiers on. Fly on, Barbados!
2 comments:
I'm glad they found travel money to visit the BVI. I understand that in the immediate past they had to bum rides with the political ambassador's private plane (she owned plane and fuel). But now she's gone and so's the largesse (I think that's what the GAO called it). I hope the next one appointed also has a plane.
You've described why I spent half my career lusting after a consular job there....
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