My global experiences that lead up to Election 08

In the late 1960s, at the start of my international career, I was posted to the Trucial States as they began the process of transition to become the United Arab Emirates under the leadership of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

I was subsequently posted to Nigeria after the end of the Biafran war of independence in 1970 which resulted in the downfall of General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

A decade later, in 1981, I was living in Egypt when President Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat was assassinated and Muhammad Hosni Mubarak took his place.

In Somalia, while Sharon and I were living there, the civil war broke out in 1989 that lead to the exile of President Mohamed Siad Barre and the collapse into the anarchy that prevails to this day.

In China, the doyen Deng Xiaoping died and the rise of the next generation of leaders was assured without one vote by the people being cast. We were there.

Finally, in Nigeria in 1998, we witnessed the transition of power back to a civilian government following the mysterious death of General Sani Abacha, said by the British High Commissioner, perhaps only partly in jest, to be from an overdose of Viagra.

In June 2007 I became eligible to vote in the United States presidential election and the other day I exercised that right. Hopefully I shall bear witness to another government change but this time through a democratic process.

And on Friday, Sharon and I will be bussed to Springfield, Missouri for five days to campaign in one of the five remaining swing states. Ten-hour overnight bus journeys and days of pounding the sidewalks will certainly not be any picnic but we can consider ourselves truly part of this democratic process and, perhaps, privileged to be a small part of history in the making.

Watch this space to see how we get on !!!!

p.s. ……. given that my presence in particular countries has coincided with the demise of no less than four heads of state, I am surprised that the CIA did not manipulate my being sent to North Korea, Libya or Cuba.