Practical Diplomacy, Friday, January 25, 2019

[sith_happened]

"In the course of your job as a diplomat, your boss, country, organization, or planet your representing will absolutely do or say something mind-bogglingly stupid," Anakin said, "and someone will ask for your opinion on it."

He glanced around the room. "And you are not allowed to say 'well, that was mind-bogglingly stupid.'" He smiled. It wasn't a very nice smile. "Your job today is to come up with what you would say if, for instance, you arrive at a meeting to discover that the leader of your organization/planet, or whatever, has been caught kicking puppies for fun, was President of a secret puppy-kicking society, and there is holo footage of it."

Well, Lana might not care because Sith, but that should give the rest of the class something to chew on.

Comments

Re: What do you say?

[in_sidon_we_trust]

Sidon was ruminating over this one very carefully, a deep frown on his face as he considered the information they were given...and perhaps some of the details that were not.

"Is this reprehensible puppy-kicking activity something that is likely to come up in the context of our meeting?" he ventured. "I rather think I would avoid mentioning it if I could, unless it has a direct correlation to the meeting itself."

Re: What do you say?

[sith_happened]

"They bring it up before you can start on what you are really meeting about," Anakin said, "Puppy kicking is considered deeply shocking for your counterparts."

Re: What do you say?

[in_sidon_we_trust]

"Hmmmm." Sidon frowned deeply as he thought about it a little more, but the few pieces were, hopefully, leading him to a workable conclusion.

"Well," he said after a moment longer, "surely I would be able to deflect the matter. Explain that, while the topic is certainly an important one worthy of consideration and comment, it would serve us best to focus on the topic at hand that brought us all there that day, with the opportunity to open the discussion again, perhaps when the timing is a bit more..." And here he offered up one of his more disarming smiles, "appropriate."

Re: What do you say?

[sith_happened]

Anakin chuckled. "Not bad. And if that didn't work?"