“Walking in the Door”

In this chapter is the first of three chapters that follow the path of walking in the door to work in the United Nations. In this chapter presents the bureaucratic and managerial world that surrounds you; Chap. 3 draws you into the essential dynamics of diplomacy required as a Representative or Ambassador; and, Chap. 4 takes the reader into the national everyday world one lives in within a previously unfamiliar culture. This chapter presents Stephen’s direct experience of a Headquarters commanded bureaucracy that can suddenly suffocate essential action, and in contrast, the need and ways in which one may simply have to break the rules when handling the uncertainties and sudden surprises out in the field when unexpected social crises or physical trauma strike, such as was the May 1998 Revolution in Indonesia and the December 2004 Tsunami that smashed into Aceh, Sumatra. Decisions made at the International General Assembly up to two years earlier may simply become irrelevant, requiring, apart from anything else, the need to raise considerable extra-budgetary finance to cope.