2000 Year in Review

Highlights:

• As an Instructor in the Management training section at FSI (Foreign Service Institute) I had the opportunity to travel to New Delhi, India ( April 1-8) Islamabad, Pakistan (April 9-14, and Bangkok, Thailand in April 28 -  May 22 to give Supervisory Skills training and Customer Focused Management to local staff and attend an IMO conference with a stop in San Francisco May 23-26 on the way home .  (See separate blog on trip)

• Week of February 21 attended a conference at the Charleston Financial Service Center. 

• CFO Bert Edwards made it a point to speak to every new FMO class.

• We used to invite the regional bureau (AF, EAP, EUR, NEA/SCA and WHA) budget officers for a roundtable discussion with the FMOs to get an understanding of the Bureau's role vis-a-vis funding and relations with FMOs. 

• In August I was assigned to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) as a Management Inspector.  Initially I worked on the survey phase of the inspection of Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.  First exposure to Regional Bureau, HR/OE, HR/CDA, A/OPR/CR, A/OPR/OS and M/FLO.  Even the Under Secretary for Management, Patrick Kennedy and Bill Eaton.

• The week of August 14 I attended the Inspectors General Auditor Training Institute at Fort Belvoir.

• OIG orientation and training took place the week of September 11

• My first inspection was of the European Bureau which lasted from October until mid-December.  EUR/EX was Lynn Dent and Budget Officer Roger Simpson who was instrumental in getting my assignment to Athens in 1994.

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Favorite Memories:

• Returning to the U.S. also gave an opportunity to see old friends and get together with others that I served with overseas.  Especially liked getting together with Jim Robertson and Roger Meece.  Both Jim and Roger and I go back to Peace Corps days.  I played squash with Roger out at the Fairfax County gym.  He went on to become the Ambassador in Zaire and retired to Washington state.  I attended Roger's swearing in October 2, 2000.   We still stay in touch with Jim and see him and his wife Claire every time we go up to Washington.  

• January 28, 2000 saw Harry Connick Jr. at a concert.

• May 31st farewell lunch with Tom and Naida.

• I used to meet my friends from the Department and overseas at Ireland's Four Courts Pub near the Courthouse Metro in Arlington.  Fond memories of holding court with former colleagues like Mark Young     

• In July I experienced a mild heart attack playing tennis and had to have an angioplastywith a stent planted in my arteries.  Another stent was added in December as a result of scar tissue.

U.S. Events:

• Wary investors bring stock plunge; beginning of the end of the Internet stock boom (Feb. 25).
• Cuban boy Elián González, 6, at center of international dispute, reunited with his father after federal raid of Miami relatives' home (April 22).
• U.S. presidential election closest in decades; Bush's slim lead in Florida leads to automatic recount in that state.  Republicans file federal suit to block manual recount of Florida presidential election ballots sought by Democrats.  Florida Supreme Court rules election hand count may continue. U.S. Supreme Court orders halt to manual recount of Florida votes. Supreme Court seals Bush victory by 5-4; rules there can be no further recounting (Dec. 12). 

World Events:

• Austria at center of European dispute after conservative People's Party forms coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, headed by xenophobe Jörg Haider (Feb. 3).
• Reformists win control of Iranian parliament for first time since 1979 Islamic revolution (Feb. 26).
• Governing of Northern Ireland passes back and forth between Britain and nascent Northern Irish parliament; major dispute over IRA's refusal to disarm (Feb-May).
• Former Indonesian president Suharto under house arrest, charged with corruption and abuse of power (May 29).
• Presidents of North and South Korea sign peace accord, and at least symbolically, end a half-century of antagonism (June 13).
• Vicente Fox Quesada elected president of Mexico, ending 71 years of one-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) (July 2).
• Concorde crash kills 113 near Paris (July 25).
• Palestinians and Israelis clash, spurred by visit of right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to a joint Jewish/Muslim holy site; "Al Aksa intifada" continues unabated (Sept. 30 et seq.).
• Nationwide uprising overthrows Yugoslavian president Milosevic (Oct. 5); Vojislav Kostunica sworn in as president (Oct. 7).
• U.S. sailors on Navy destroyer Cole die in Yemen terrorist explosion (Oct. 12).
• Mad cow disease alarms Europe (Nov. 30 et seq.).     

Movies:

Best Picture was "American Beauty".  Best Actor was Kevin Spacey "American Beauty".  Best actress was Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry".  Michael Caine in "Cider House Rules" and Angelina Jolie in "Girl, Interrupted" won best supporting actor and actress respectively.  Sam Mendez won as best director. 

                                               

Super Bowl:

Super Bowl XXXIV was between the St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans.  The Rams defeated the Titans by the score of 23–16, capturing their first Super Bowl win and first NFL championship since 1951. The Rams entered their second Super Bowl in team history with an NFC-best 13–3 regular season record. It was the franchise's first playoff appearance since 1989, when they were still in Los Angeles. The Titans, who were originally the Houston Oilers, also finished the regular season with a 13–3 record, but advanced to their first Super Bowl in team history after entering the playoffs as a wild-card team.   The game was tied 16-16 with 2:12 left in regulation when quarterback Kurt Warner completed a 73-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Isaac Bruce to regain the lead. The Titans then drove to the St. Louis 10-yard line with six seconds remaining, but on the final play of the game, Rams linebacker Mike Jones tackled Tennessee wide receiver Kevin Dyson one yard short of the goal line.  This play went into NFL lore as "One Yard Short", or simply "The Tackle".  Warner was named Super Bowl MVP, becoming the sixth player to win both that award and the NFL MVP during the same season.  As of 2019, this was the most recent Super Bowl that featured two teams that had never won the title before.

World Series:

In the 2000 World Series the Yankees defeated the Mets, four games to one, to win their third consecutive championship and 26th overall. It was referred to as the "Subway Series", referring to the longstanding matchup between New York baseball teams; it was the first World Series contested between two New York teams since the 1956 World Series. Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was named the World Series Most Valuable Player.

The Mets advanced to the World Series by defeating the San Francisco Giants, three games to one, in the NL Division Series, and then the St. Louis Cardinals, four games to one, in the NL Championship Series; it was the team's fourth World Series appearance, making it the most of any expansion franchise in MLB and the Mets' first appearance since winning the 1986 World Series.  The Yankees were the first team in baseball to win three consecutive championships since the 1972–1974 Oakland Athletics, and the first professional sports team to accomplish the feat since the 1996–1998 Chicago Bulls.

Training Local Employee Staff at Embassies in Islamabad, Pakistan; New Delhi, India; and, Bangkok, Thailand