Meeting Under Secretary Maria Otero at the US Consulate in Karachi
On 3rd November a small group of social & print media bloggers were invited to the US Consul General’s Residence in Karachi for a small luncheon discussion with the visiting US Under Secretary Maria Otero.
Maria Otero, is a well spoken representative of the US, coordinating U.S. foreign relations on a variety of global issues, including democracy, human rights, and labor; environment, oceans, health and science; population, refugees, and migration; and monitoring and combating trafficking in persons.
The discussion was interesting, everyone had a chance to put their point of view across, My issues were focused on
- Pushing for independence of US involvement in Pakistans political issues,
- We would like to reaffirm our dignity & self respect and would choose not to receive charity money, but would like to build on stronger business relationship, with BOT investments by US in Pakistan
- Help Pakistan eliminate corruption [?] by tightening on where US’s money actually goes
- Help us achieve transparent democratic elections where I discussed the concept of Mera Vote Meri Taqat
Other attendees also presented some very valuable ideas & insights on their concerns about Pakistan
Seemingly at the end in my opinion, it was nothing new, most of the issues the US already knows and it seemed that having invited us, only served the purpose of “Making us to feel important” and secondly such “private luncheons” actually opens channels with bloggers, which may come in handy at a future date. The more important question is, was the US team there to “listen & possibly implement” or were they there merely to serve us a LOLLIPOP ….??
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