Apple Core. Baltimore.

Who's your friend?

The duty officer.

We all know who's in charge of what, and what to do, when a full-blown, God-please-help-us crisis erupts, but what about the lesser-but-we-still-have-to-deal-with-it stuff that arises during ordinary down time, such as after normal business hours, weekends, and holidays?


Most Americans have this fond image of us constantly there: alert, erect, wide awake, fully caffeinated and ready to take on the world for them, whatever the hour. Most local folks, both civilian and government, know our reputation for excellent service and so either hope that we'll take care of them anyway, or are dealing with a crisis - either personal or professional - and come to us because no one else can help them and they truly cannot wait.

Good luck with this

 Madam has a well-earned reputation for tirelessly repeating merciless criticism and correction until the tragic subject of her wrath succumbs to either correction or murder/suicide. But we're dealing with another issue here - not ordinary consular incompetence, but larger mission shortsightedness.

ACS and NIVs are, rightly, the center of OUR lives. But some missions become so used to their duty officers only fielding visa, passport, and arrest calls that they forget about other duty possibilities, and forget to account for them.

For example, a recent OIG inspection report included this: "The embassy's duty officer program was geared solely to the provision of emergency consular services." And in an actual situation that must have humiliated the post's upper management: "The duty officer recently failed to provide appropriate after-hours assistance to a XXX government official."

As if front office attention weren't enough, the inspectors rightly had to rub in more detail: "According to 2 FAM 115.3-1, embassies are required to arrange for personnel to be available at all times outside regular office hours. Furthermore, according to 2 FAM 113.8, the Management Section is responsible for developing and maintaining a duty officer guide that includes information about each of the mission’s programs, embassy and host country contact information, and scenarios for a range of frequently encountered after-hour services.

"The duty guide did not include this information. It included no reference material other than American Citizens Services-provided materials and how to handle after-hour telegrams. All information on the duty officer tablet dated from 2012. Management’s role in the program was limited to developing the quarterly duty roster and transferring custody of the duty tablet and cell phone."

And finally, as if this detailed damnation were not enough, inspectors tied this problem back to the major importance of consular work, the true heart of after-hours duty: "Absent program oversight and updated guidance, the embassy risks being unable to provide appropriate emergency services in ...cases affecting the welfare of American citizens or embassy employees."

And, just as a throwaway: "Duty officers were not always reachable when the Marine Security Guard called them."

Ouch!

So, a consular officer might say, the post got a righteous and well-deserved hand-slapping for this, directed, for a change at the management folks. But how does it affect consular work enough that Madam has devoted this week's rant to it?

One word: competence. We may be consular officers, but no one at post sees or recognizes the depth and breadth of duty responsibilities the way that we do. What happened to consular management, which never looked at or questioned the lack of most of that depth and breadth, let alone the age of the information that consular management itself had provided? By not looking beyond their own narrow ACS-NIV interests, they lost an opportunity to help the post take are of business, and look good while doing it.

Okay, two words. The second is development. Most duty officers in larger posts are fairly junior. Most fairly junior officers are assigned to the consular section. If these young folks can't be prepared for the more rare and complex non-consular issues that might arise after hours, and - ideally - be able to handle them on their own - then when they get an out-of-consular assignment they will be less ready to learn, understand, and perform that work. They will have less self-confidence later, as well as now.

So who is a consular officer's best friend? The duty officer, who lets everyone else sleep through the night.

And who is the duty officer's best friend? The consular officer, who sees to it that he/she is ready to handle anything that might go thump in the night.

Yes, They Are Still Called Customers

After some inexcusable time off, Madam returned to this site to discover a long-pending comment on a prior entry.

Being as pique-able as always, Madam deleted the comment (with some force) before noting which of her specific posts it referred to, and she can't quote it exactly. But roughly the commenter claimed that calling visa applicants 'customers' is no longer in fashion.That 'Disney-esque behavior,' the person noted, 'went out of fashion on 9/12.' They are 'applicants' and 'the public.'

Oh child, where to begin?

Let's just start here:

9/11 was not perpetrated nor performed by any one of the scores or thousands of applicants for consular services who have appeared before you since that date. If you have been rude to the utterly innocent because some totally different people perpetrated a criminal outrage, Madam must admire your ability to hold a senseless grudge for more than a decade and a half, but she must also admonish you for your utterly cruel irrationality.

If, when you open your service (yes, service!) window every morning, you glare out into the waiting room with hostility and suspicion, you are tainting your career and your life with your own fear of the extremely unlikely. You have, besides, abused the English language. Merriam-Webster defines the word 'customer' as, 'one who purchases a commodity or service.' There is no implication of murderous intent in that word, even if, in the end, the customer only purchases a 214(b) refusal. But most of them won't, will they? And were you nasty to them, even while providing the service they deserved? If so, shame on you.

Do you remember the part about how you can catch more (ants?) with honey than with vinegar? You are far more likely to hear the truth if you speak to your customers with kind civility rather than accusatory hostility.

And it will be far easier for you yourself to digest your lunch.

Say What?

This is a repeat/update of an old post that bears repeating, in honor of  PS.

Interpreting, translating – what’s the difference? Most people use these words interchangeably, but an interpreter translates orally, while a translator interprets written text. In consular work, officers who are not fluent in the local language must sometimes depend on local employees for both skills, but interpreting is by far the most difficult.

Interpreters must be discerning listeners. They must be able to process and remember several sentences, and repeat them accurately in another language. They have to possess excellent public speaking skills, and the ability to transform idioms, colloquialisms and other culturally-specific references into analogous statements the target audience will understand. And they must be able to do this for speakers who are not trained to use interpreters, and so tend to speak in paragraphs.

Madam once watched a news broadcast of Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, making a statement. He was slouched comfortably on a small stool. Next to him sat a younger man, his interpreter. As the ambassador began to speak, the interpreter sat up very straight, concentrating on Zaeef's face and voice, clearly preparing to accurately and completely render his boss’s Pashtun to Urdu. But Zaeef spoke and spoke and spoke without pause. The young man’s forehead creased, his hands tightened into fists, his back tensed, his eyes widened. After well more than a minute, with no break in sight, it was the interpreter who broke. He suddenly let out his breath, closed his eyes, opened his hands, and surrendered. There was no way he could do that job, and he knew it.

Zaeef and his interpreter in better days

As consular officers, we cannot afford to leave our interpreters – our local employees – so dispirited.  After all, we need the information that the person we are interviewing will give us, and we need to pass accurate information back.  So here are the rules, learned from (and checked by) many excellent FSNs/LESs and professional interpreters:

The officer:

It is you and the customer who are having the conversation. The interpreter is not a member of that exchange. Look only at the customer, glancing at the paperwork or computer screen as necessary, but never look at or speak to the interpreter.

Use simple, clear sentences; no convoluted, complex, stream-of-consciousness, rambling.

Pause after every declarative sentence or two, and after every question, for the interpreter to catch up.

Wait for the whole response from the customer, and then wait for its interpretation.

If you want to consult with the interpreter about the possible veracity of the customer’s answers or for any other reason, get up and leave the window together, have that conversation, then return and resume.

Rinse, repeat.

The interpreter:

Stand or sit to one side, slightly behind the officer; your presence should be minimal. Your voice is the officer’s tool. You as a person are not there.

Translate only the exact words used. Do not preface any sentence with ‘The consular officer wants to know…” or “She says that …” 

If the interviewee addresses you directly, continue to translate exactly what he says. For example, if he says directly to you, in the local language, “Oh sister, please please help me,” what do you do? You repeat, “Oh sister, please please help me,” in English.

And please accept Madam's - and every officer's you have ever interpreted for - humble thanks and appreciation. After all these years, we still have no idea how you do that. Good job!