[nfbwatlk] Rami Rabby makes the news

[Mike Freeman]

Sounds like he'd had a few that evening! <g>

Mike

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alco Canfield
  To: amcanfield at comcast.net ; 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
  Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 1:09 PM
  Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Rami Rabby makes the news


  Sorry.  I didn't know this posted to the list.

  Alco

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
On
  Behalf Of Alco Canfield
  Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 1:04 PM
  To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
  Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Rami Rabby makes the news

  Very interesting.  I will never forget the time he banged on all these 
doors
  and was completely lost and angry at the hotel because they didn't 
have
  someone escort him to his room.

  Alco

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
On
  Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
  Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 8:54 PM
  To: nfbw
  Subject: [nfbwatlk] Rami Rabby makes the news

  An interesting article about Rami Rabby.
  carl jarvis


  The New York Times, USA
  Saturday, July 07, 2007

  A U.S. Diplomat With an Extraordinary Global View

  By MARC LACEY

  Caption: Avraham Rabby en route the U.S. Department of State in 
Washington,
  D.C. Andrew Councill for The New York Times

  AS chief of the political section at the American Embassy here for the 
last
  two years, Avraham Rabby has had the job of surveying Trinidad's 
political
  landscape for Washington.

  The fact that he has not actually seen the Caribbean island - or any 
of the
  places on five continents where he has been posted - has not stymied 
him.

  "I necessarily listen more than a sighted person would," he said. "If 
I'm
  walking along a street, I can tell there is a building next to me 
because of
  the echoes of my feet or my cane. A blind person sees the world 
differently
  from a sighted person. Our impressions are no less valid."

  Mr. Rabby, who lost his sight at the age of 8 because of detached 
retinas,
  is the State Department's first blind diplomat. It is an achievement 
he
  fought for in the 1980s, passing three written entrance exams and two 
oral
  exercises along the way. But even then, the State Department barred 
him from
  the diplomatic corps.

  "You don't ask a blind person to drive a bus or be a bank teller," 
George S.
  Vest, who was the personnel director for the Foreign Service, 
explained in a
  1988 interview. "There are jobs which are dangerous or unsuitable for 
them.
  And in the Foreign Service, we're full of jobs like that."

  The department contended that diplomats, blind ones included, had to 
be able
  to work anywhere in the world and to work with confidential documents
  without any outside aid. In addition, State Department officials said,
  diplomats had to be able to pick up on nonverbal cues, such as winks 
or
  nods, which can sometimes have more meaning than the words being 
uttered.

  But Mr. Rabby illustrated another essential quality of diplomats:
  perseverance. "No international treaty has ever been decided on the 
basis of
  a wink or a nod," he retorted, after hiring a lawyer and challenging 
the
  State Department's policy, which dated from the 18th century.

  Aiding Mr. Rabby's effort was a federal law barring the government 
from
  disqualifying prospective employees because of disabilities. 
Eventually,
  after the news media and Congress found out about his case, the State
  Department reversed course. The new policy would consider disabled 
diplomats
  on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Rabby became case No. 1.

  In 1990, he was off to London, where he was posted at the embassy 
there as a
  junior political officer. He moved next to Pretoria, South Africa, 
where
  Nelson Mandela had just been freed from prison and where Mr. Rabby 
witnessed
  the country's first free elections. "It was one of the most 
stimulating
  experiences in my life," he said, noting that he was one of the 
embassy's
  election observers.

  "People ask me how I can assess a political rally if I can't see it," 
he
  said. "I tell them that I listen to the crowd and to the speakers. You 
can
  sense what is going on."

  He spent time in Washington at the State Department's Bureau of Human
  Rights, and in postings in Lima and New Delhi. During a stint at the 
United
  States Mission to the United Nations, he helped write resolutions 
dealing
  with literacy, global health and the rights of the disabled.

  His final posting - he retired at the end of June at the mandatory
  retirement age of 65 - was to Port of Spain, where he became an expert 
in
  Trinidad's political system, which has long been divided between 
parties,
  one predominantly Afro-Trinidadian and one Indo-Trinidadian.

  When journalists descended on Trinidad recently in search of 
information on
  the suspected plot to set off a bomb at a fuel line at Kennedy 
International
  Airport that was traced back to this Caribbean island, he became one 
of the
  officials to talk to.

  "A diplomat does a lot of writing, a lot of reading, a lot of 
thinking, a
  lot of talking and has to attend a lot of meetings," he said. Thanks 
to
  technological advances and a full-time assistant, Mr. Rabby could do 
all of
  those things too.

  He wrote his cables to Washington using a machine that wrote in 
Braille. He
  then read them back to his assistant, Rhonda Singh, who typed them up. 
He
  also had a computer with a speech program that allowed him to listen 
to his
  e-mail messages.

  As for tracking news developments, Ms. Singh, an American citizen who 
lives
  in Trinidad, read him the local papers. "I was basically his eyes," 
she
  said.

  BORN in Israel, Mr. Rabby, who is known as Rami, was sent to live with 
an
  aunt in England at the age of 10 because his parents believed there 
were
  better schools for the blind there. A Hebrew speaker, he quickly 
mastered
  English at Worcester College for Blind Boys.

  "I remember the headmaster used to go out and speak to groups about 
the
  school, and he used to say that we teach our boys to stand on their 
own two
  feet and, if necessary, to step on yours too," Mr. Rabby recalled.

  He went off to Oxford, where he studied French and Spanish. Finding a 
job
  after college proved a challenge. "Time and time again I met 
recruiters who
  felt that a blind person could not work in management," he said in the
  British accent that he has never lost.

  Eventually, he joined Ford Motor Company in Britain, where he worked 
in
  human resources. After about a year, he moved to the United States and
  earned an M.B.A. at the University of Chicago.

  After graduation in 1969, he sought out a management training program, 
but
  had few offers after "dozens and dozens, if not hundreds" of 
interviews.

  He finally landed a job with a management consulting firm, Hewitt
  Associates, and later moved to Citibank. He also spent time as an
  independent consultant, writing a number of employment guides, 
including one
  giving advice to blind job seekers.

  "One of my problems in my working life, after a few years I get a bit 
tired
  of what I am doing and I want to change," said Mr. Rabby, who became 
an
  American citizen in 1980.

  It was while living in New York that he decided to make the jump into
  international relations, a longtime interest. The State Department's 
regular
  rotations of its diplomats proved a perfect fit.

  His fight to join the Foreign Service has helped others along the way. 
There
  are now four blind Foreign Service officers stationed around the 
globe, the
  State Department said, among about 170 disabled Foreign Service 
employees
  overseas.

  MR. RABBY said blind Foreign Service officers had recently been 
restricted
  from adjudicating visa applications because of their inability to 
verify
  photographs and signatures of applications.

  Mr. Rabby, who attributes the decision to the increased restrictions 
after
  the Sept. 11 attacks, said he did visa work at the start of his career 
in
  London, with the assistance of a reader, who verified documents for 
him. He
  asked the questions and assessed the responses.

  "The State Department is not yet completely on the side of the 
angels," he
  said. A State Department official disputed that there was a policy in 
place
  restricting the assignments of blind diplomats. Decisions on assigning
  personnel, the official said, are made on a case-by-case basis in 
accordance
  with the law.

  Even before Mr. Rabby headed out into the world as a diplomat, he was
  already testifying before Congress on his quest for the job. He said 
back
  then that he did not want to be put in a pigeonhole as a blind 
diplomat.

  "Blind people are as different from one another as sighted people," he 
told
  members of the House Foreign Affairs and Civil Service Committees in 
1989.
  "There is no such thing as a category labeled, 'blind.' "

  Prior Beharry contributed reporting.



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-------------- next part --------------
Sounds like he'd had a few that evening! <g>
 
Mike
 
----- Original Message -----
From:
mailto:amcanfield at comcast.net Alco Canfield
To:
mailto:amcanfield at comcast.net amcanfield at comcast.net
; mailto:nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
Sent:
Monday, July 09, 2007 1:09 PM
Subject:
Re: [nfbwatlk] Rami Rabby makes the news
Sorry.  I didn't know this posted to the list.
Alco
-----Original Message-----
From: mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Alco Canfield
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 1:04 PM
To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Rami Rabby makes the news
Very interesting.  I will never forget the time he banged on all these doors
and was completely lost and angry at the hotel because they didn't have
someone escort him to his room.
Alco
-----Original Message-----
From: mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 8:54 PM
To: nfbw
Subject: [nfbwatlk] Rami Rabby makes the news
An interesting article about Rami Rabby. 
carl jarvis
The New York Times, USA
Saturday, July 07, 2007
A U.S. Diplomat With an Extraordinary Global View
By MARC LACEY
Caption: Avraham Rabby en route the U.S. Department of State in Washington,
D.C. Andrew Councill for The New York Times
AS chief of the political section at the American Embassy here for the last
two years, Avraham Rabby has had the job of surveying Trinidad's political
landscape for Washington.
The fact that he has not actually seen the Caribbean island - or any of the
places on five continents where he has been posted - has not stymied him.
"I necessarily listen more than a sighted person would," he said. "If I'm
walking along a street, I can tell there is a building next to me because of
the echoes of my feet or my cane. A blind person sees the world differently
from a sighted person. Our impressions are no less valid."
Mr. Rabby, who lost his sight at the age of 8 because of detached retinas,
is the State Department's first blind diplomat. It is an achievement he
fought for in the 1980s, passing three written entrance exams and two oral
exercises along the way. But even then, the State Department barred him from
the diplomatic corps.
"You don't ask a blind person to drive a bus or be a bank teller," George S.
Vest, who was the personnel director for the Foreign Service, explained in a
1988 interview. "There are jobs which are dangerous or unsuitable for them.
And in the Foreign Service, we're full of jobs like that."
The department contended that diplomats, blind ones included, had to be able
to work anywhere in the world and to work with confidential documents
without any outside aid. In addition, State Department officials said,
diplomats had to be able to pick up on nonverbal cues, such as winks or
nods, which can sometimes have more meaning than the words being uttered.
But Mr. Rabby illustrated another essential quality of diplomats:
perseverance. "No international treaty has ever been decided on the basis of
a wink or a nod," he retorted, after hiring a lawyer and challenging the
State Department's policy, which dated from the 18th century.
Aiding Mr. Rabby's effort was a federal law barring the government from
disqualifying prospective employees because of disabilities. Eventually,
after the news media and Congress found out about his case, the State
Department reversed course. The new policy would consider disabled diplomats
on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Rabby became case No. 1.
In 1990, he was off to London, where he was posted at the embassy there as a
junior political officer. He moved next to Pretoria, South Africa, where
Nelson Mandela had just been freed from prison and where Mr. Rabby witnessed
the country's first free elections. "It was one of the most stimulating
experiences in my life," he said, noting that he was one of the embassy's
election observers.
"People ask me how I can assess a political rally if I can't see it," he
said. "I tell them that I listen to the crowd and to the speakers. You can
sense what is going on."
He spent time in Washington at the State Department's Bureau of Human
Rights, and in postings in Lima and New Delhi. During a stint at the United
States Mission to the United Nations, he helped write resolutions dealing
with literacy, global health and the rights of the disabled.
His final posting - he retired at the end of June at the mandatory
retirement age of 65 - was to Port of Spain, where he became an expert in
Trinidad's political system, which has long been divided between parties,
one predominantly Afro-Trinidadian and one Indo-Trinidadian.
When journalists descended on Trinidad recently in search of information on
the suspected plot to set off a bomb at a fuel line at Kennedy International
Airport that was traced back to this Caribbean island, he became one of the
officials to talk to.
"A diplomat does a lot of writing, a lot of reading, a lot of thinking, a
lot of talking and has to attend a lot of meetings," he said. Thanks to
technological advances and a full-time assistant, Mr. Rabby could do all of
those things too.
He wrote his cables to Washington using a machine that wrote in Braille. He
then read them back to his assistant, Rhonda Singh, who typed them up. He
also had a computer with a speech program that allowed him to listen to his
e-mail messages.
As for tracking news developments, Ms. Singh, an American citizen who lives
in Trinidad, read him the local papers. "I was basically his eyes," she
said.
BORN in Israel, Mr. Rabby, who is known as Rami, was sent to live with an
aunt in England at the age of 10 because his parents believed there were
better schools for the blind there. A Hebrew speaker, he quickly mastered
English at Worcester College for Blind Boys.
"I remember the headmaster used to go out and speak to groups about the
school, and he used to say that we teach our boys to stand on their own two
feet and, if necessary, to step on yours too," Mr. Rabby recalled.
He went off to Oxford, where he studied French and Spanish. Finding a job
after college proved a challenge. "Time and time again I met recruiters who
felt that a blind person could not work in management," he said in the
British accent that he has never lost.
Eventually, he joined Ford Motor Company in Britain, where he worked in
human resources. After about a year, he moved to the United States and
earned an M.B.A. at the University of Chicago.
After graduation in 1969, he sought out a management training program, but
had few offers after "dozens and dozens, if not hundreds" of interviews.
He finally landed a job with a management consulting firm, Hewitt
Associates, and later moved to Citibank. He also spent time as an
independent consultant, writing a number of employment guides, including one
giving advice to blind job seekers.
"One of my problems in my working life, after a few years I get a bit tired
of what I am doing and I want to change," said Mr. Rabby, who became an
American citizen in 1980.
It was while living in New York that he decided to make the jump into
international relations, a longtime interest. The State Department's regular
rotations of its diplomats proved a perfect fit.
His fight to join the Foreign Service has helped others along the way. There
are now four blind Foreign Service officers stationed around the globe, the
State Department said, among about 170 disabled Foreign Service employees
overseas.
MR. RABBY said blind Foreign Service officers had recently been restricted
from adjudicating visa applications because of their inability to verify
photographs and signatures of applications.
Mr. Rabby, who attributes the decision to the increased restrictions after
the Sept. 11 attacks, said he did visa work at the start of his career in
London, with the assistance of a reader, who verified documents for him. He
asked the questions and assessed the responses.
"The State Department is not yet completely on the side of the angels," he
said. A State Department official disputed that there was a policy in place
restricting the assignments of blind diplomats. Decisions on assigning
personnel, the official said, are made on a case-by-case basis in accordance
with the law.
Even before Mr. Rabby headed out into the world as a diplomat, he was
already testifying before Congress on his quest for the job. He said back
then that he did not want to be put in a pigeonhole as a blind diplomat.
"Blind people are as different from one another as sighted people," he told
members of the House Foreign Affairs and Civil Service Committees in 1989.
"There is no such thing as a category labeled, 'blind.' "
Prior Beharry contributed reporting.
__________ NOD32 2386 (20070709) Information __________
This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
http://www.eset.com http://www.eset.com
_______________________________________________
nfbwatlk mailing list
mailto:nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk
__________ NOD32 2386 (20070709) Information __________
This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
http://www.eset.com http://www.eset.com
_______________________________________________
nfbwatlk mailing list
mailto:nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk