Let us Make Bureaucracy Great Again
Here is Episode 5 of The Fading Causes Podcast.
My “victim” is Claus Haugaard Sorensen, the former Director General of the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations or EU in Emergencies, more popularly known as ECHO, the world’s largest humanitarian donor.
I have been trying for some time to get him to write a memoir. Fruitlessly, as it happens, because he is as stubborn as only a lifelong bureaucrat can be. So, If he ever does write his full story, an apt title would be “The Good Bureaucrat”.
I appreciate that this is not the most enticing way to get you to listen to this latest episode. Who wants to spend time listening to grey-sounding servants of institutional bureaucracies – especially international ones – when they are currently in such bad odour with the public?
But, Claus is no grey civil servant. As in a previous episode (hope you listened) when I talked to a former general, wondering if there could be a good soldier in an era of bad wars, it is worth following my conversation with Claus.
We talk on myriad topics: lessons from the “European project”, discontent with democracy, failings of governance and multilateralism, disappointments with globalisation, humanitarian insights, and the importance of restoring the social contract between states and citizens while leaving no one behind.
Claus has an answer to everything but that is not as infuriating as it sounds 😀. As I gain experience doing these podcasts, one thing I am learning is that a good conversation is one where the respondent answers questions confidently with well-argued points. But still leaves the listener asking if they can swallow all the smooth talk and wondering if there is something more – even contrary wise – to say…. Thus a good podcast creates space for further conversations.
Please listen to my chat with the good Claus Sorensen and Make Bureaucracy Great Again.
