Dietrichsen is one of that dwindling band of diplomats who represented both the apartheid regime and South Africa’s new democracy led by President Nelson Mandela.

His memoir contains gems of a unique history that includes the complex and often exasperating transition between the two.

Dietrichsen writes in a detailed, discursive manner that reminds one of the procedural style adopted by writers of the increasingly popular Nordic Noir genre.

Presumably he owes this either to the kilometers of diplomatic drafts he was required to write in a 35 year career in the foreign service or to his Danish heritage, which explains the puzzling title of the book.

Full disclosure, I did military service with the author in D company of the Army Gymnasium in 1967.

He went on to graduate from the Military Academy in Saldhana Bay. He hung up is uniform in 1972 to join the foreign service.

Over the years, we met up a receptions and foreign affairs events – he as a diplomat and public servant, me as a journalist.

This book puts meat on the bones of what I learned about his rather stellar career.

More importantly, it is a concise and well constructed history of the demise of apartheid and the birth of South Africa’s democracy.

Apart from experiences abroad, he played a role driving the rapprochement with neighbouring Mozambique through the Nkomati Accord; in the eventual inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president; and in the formation of the diverse new Department of International Relations.

The book  is elaborately  embroidered with his personal experiences and family tales. 

His three daughters, who have personally distinguished themselves thanks to or perhaps despite his unsettled diplomatic wanderings, add a colourful tailpiece to the book.

They were clearly inspired by their father’s sense of curiosity and adventure and took full advantage of the opportunities provided by his peripatetic lifestyle.

Dietrichsen overcame the disappointment at being pushed aside to make way for an “affirmative” appointment , having been named as ambassador to Indonesia and received agrement  from the host government.

He went on to become ambassador to Switzerland  Liechtenstein  and Ireland.

He left the department in 2007 to accompany his wife on her posting to Hanoi. 

Never one to put up his feet, he has embarked on an academic career training the leaders of tomorrow.

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The 50-year-old, appointed by his father three years ago, has already has property impounded by the  Swiss and Brazilian governments.

ends intro

The Appeal Court in Paris upheld an earlier ruling by a lower court seizing property, luxury cars, fashion and jewellery bought with money embezzeled from Equatorial Guinea by the deputy president.

It furthermore fined Teodorin Obiang 30-million euros for using public money to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Switzerland will auction  11 luxury cars taken from him and Brazilian authorities have confiscated $15-million worth of his luxury watches.

Equatorial Guinea has deployed what it calls French meddling in their affairs.

Obiang was not in court for the ruling 

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The money will be used for infrastructure projects in Nigeria.

Abubaker Malami will sign agreements with the Island of New Jersey and the US government to recoup the money salted away by Sani Abachar.

Nigeria has in the past managed to get money that the kleptocratic military ruler had hidden in Switzerland on condition that it is properly accounted for.

The Attorney General and Justice Minister said before leaving Abuja for Washington that the money would be used to fund the building of two railroads and a bridge in Nigeria.

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The R5 billion left by the General who ruled Africa’s most populous country from 1993 until his death five years later will be split between Nigeria, Jersey and the United States.

The decision by Jersey’s Civilian Assets Recovery Fund ends a five-year wrangle over what should happen to Abacha’s corrupt proceeds.

The process was taken the through courts in the United States.

The money is believed to be only a fraction of the billions hidden by Abacha in foreign accounts.

Switzerland last year returned to Nigeria four-and-a-half billion rand left there by Abacha.

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This after the SADC election observation team issued its report saying the poll had been relatively well managed.

Head of the DRC electoral commission known as CENI Corneille Nangaa’s told aspirants for the country’s presidency that provisional results of the election, scheduled to be released on Sunday, will be delayed.

That’s because less than a fifth of the tally sheets from around the country have reached the commission offices in Kinshasa.

He did not provide a new date for publication.

Authorities have blocked the internet in the Congo until the provisional results are made known.

The European Union, United States, Canada and Switzerland have told them to turn it on again.

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Election observers are complaining  that they are being denied access to the count.

The diplomatic note to President Joseph Kabila was delivered by Britain’s Ambassador to Kinshasa.

The European Union’s chief envoy has been expelled from the DRC.

The United States, Canada and Switzerland have joined the call on the DRC government to abandon its plan to block social media until interim election results are published on Sunday.

Unofficial results after three days of counting shows ruling alliance candidate Emmanuel Shadary trailing opposition runners Felix Tshisekedi and Martin Fayulu.

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The embassies of Canada, Britain and Switzerland joined the US last week in expressing concern about the loss of ahead of the end-of-era poll.

Twenty-one candidates are running to replace President Joseph Kabila whose hand-picked successor Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary is one of the front-runners.

The mineral-rich central African giant has never seen a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

More than 40 million voters will cast their ballots on Sunday to choose a successor to 47-year-old Kabila, who has ruled the nation since the assassination of his father in 2001.

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Kweku Adoboli, who left Ghana when he was 4-years-old, say the British authorities are being racist.

Kweku Adoboli served half of a seven year sentence for losing R35 billion in risky trade in the City of London for the Swiss Bank UBS.

Britain automatically deports foreigners sentenced to more than four years in prison.

The Home Office says foreigners who abuse British hospitality should be in no doubt of their determination to deport them, adding that 42 800 have been removed since 2010.

Adoboli, who was given a student visa on arrival in Britain, has never applied for British citizenship. 

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The study is the first to link environmental pollution with newborn and child mortality rates in the Niger Delta.

The study by Switzerland’s St Gallen University shows that oil spills occurring within 10km of a mother’s place of residence doubled neonatal mortality rates and impaired the health of her surviving children.

Crucially, oil spills that occurred while the mother was still pregnant had no effect on child or neonatal mortality. But even spills that happened five years before conception doubled the neonatal mortality rate from 38 deaths to 76 deaths for every 1,000 births, the data found.

Profressor Roland Hodler from the Swiss university describes the results from the study as absolutely shocking.

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