Letters From Cornell University - 3
- Part 4 -
- The Global Leadership Forum at Washington D.C. 19th - 23rd October, 2008 -

By Rajkumari Sunita Devi *

My other Indian Humphrey fellows and I were searching high and low for our Indian Ambassador (he was not present, sadly) but whom did we caught? The Nepal Ambassador and the Chinese Ambassador.

We decided if not our own, what the heck, they are Meena's and Li Changxiao, our dynamic friends from Nepal and China's ambassador , so that make us equally ours. I could see the solitary Thai man (only one fellow from Thailand) taking a group photo with the Chinese Ambassador and the Chinese fellows, that was the nearest he could get and maybe he was feeling the same like us.

Rajkumari with China's Ambassador. Photo: Petch Manopawitr

The Under Secretary for Political Affairs, William J. Burns, who is the Department's third-ranking official after Secretary Rice, was the main speaker of the evening. There were other speeches by Ed, and members from Department of States.

After the speeches were over, we were by ourselves. Exploring every room, getting and taking photographs of just about everything, and with everyone. It must be a record, the number of photos each one of took.

Humphrey Fellows Cornell at the Dinner in Benjamin Franklin Room. Photo: Petch Manopawitr

Rajkumari Sunita with Hubert Humphrey's niece in second from right. Photo: Petch Manopawitr

The night did end promptly. Exactly at nine, we were shown the door and happily we all marched out. What a night! living our dream.

The third and the fourth day of the Forum were as fabulous . The presentation by Mr. Thomas A. Farrell : The Seven Revolution was just fantastic. His presentation didn't leave any aspect of today's world from economics to IT, from biotechnology to nano tech, food crisis to Global warming. Really thought provoking, how we ignored certain aspects of our daily life but which was contributing to global issues.

The school trips for the Humphrey Fellow that followed after the talks, was another goodies. It was basically to learn how the American schools works and their system of education.

Just as every good thing has to come to an end, so did the Global Forum. The dance party at the last night was worth remembering too. The floor was set at the Capital View Ballroom with DJ Dan Goldman of Bialek's Music. The remix was great, ranging from Indie- bhangra to salsa, from Bee gee's 'Staying Alive' to Queen's 'We will rock you', simply another Wow.

The next morning each of us bade goodbye, and it wasn't a sad event because we knew we all will be meeting again at the year-end retreat and we were also pretty sure that the IIE has plenty of other treats in store for us again.

Check out a photo gallery on this event here.

Concluded....



Read more on Sunita here.

• Catchments characterization of Loktak Lake
• Living with Rock 'n' Roll and my hus-band

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* Rajkumari Sunita Devi (Junior Scientist at Manipur Remote Sensing and Application Centre) is a regular contributor to e-pao.net. She is the recipient of Hubert Humphrey Fellow, 2008-08 at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. She was conferred the "Map Asia Award 2007" at Kuala Lampur. Read more on her here and here. This article was webcasted on December 18, 2008.

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