Great speech, Your Excellency

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An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country," said Sir Henry Wotton back in 1604, and some things never seem to change. American ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson came visiting as Bill Clinton's special envoy to South Asia in April. At the centre of his visit to Dhaka was a keynote speech he gave on 13 April at the Bangladesh Institute of International & Strategic Studies.

The talk bore the epic title "Making Democracy Work in the 21st Century", and as one would expect, Richardson used it to reiterate the current concerns of American foreign policy as it relates to the Subcontinent. His sermon included references to human rights, child labour, the advancement of women and international trade. All of it worthy stuff, spoken as though there was unity of purpose and objectives, shared by one and all.

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