That's a practical approach. --- If something is part of one's own system, besides trying to get a bad set of rules or standards changed -- and the scope for doing this may be finite -- one has to be practical and adapt....By the way, Singapore has a twist on such number crunching. They do ask for the number of new, useful contacts made by each diplomat, but they also ask for details of each contact. First, this checks on the 'quality' of that contact. Second, it builds up a vast information database.....A particularly open Japanese Amb in Algeria (a good bridge-playing friend) told me in the 70s that for information he used the local office of Japanese companies, who even by then had begun to collect vast databases on anything that might be useful. 'That you are a bridge-player will be in their data collection', he told me. And I had nothing to do with Japan.

Source author: Kishan S Rana kishanrana@gmail.com