This variance between perception and reality is nothing new. Although the ambassador's more serious labors are often confidential and intangible, taxpayers have some sense of the substantive policy work of Embassies. What our fellow citizens may not realize, however, is how much of our time is spent as innkeepers, reservations clerks, constituency-service representatives, and processors of the grunt work of government. A critical duty of every ambassador has been to help re-define the role of the Embassy for a new generation. A glimpse of what else an Embassy really does today demonstrates that its work is being reinvented.
Numbers tell part of the story.
The classified pouch material we handled in 1999 weighed more than 30,000 kilograms. We issue 25,000-plus passports each year. On Mondays, before noon, it is not uncommon for us to have already replaced 50 passports, which had been stolen over the weekend. Last year, we processed 166,000 non-immigrant visa applications from individuals representing 185 nationalities. We register as citizens about 3,600 babies each year.