Foreign dignitaries treated to Ramona hospitality
Four riders from the Patriot Guard’s Stragglers provided a motorcycle escort for four foreign dignitaries from the visitors’ hotel in downtown San Diego to a barbecue at the home of Dave and Donnie Sossaman on the east end of Ramona.
The dignitaries from Jordan, Maldives, Nigeria and Senegal were in San Diego as guests of the U.S. State Department, through the San Diego Diplomacy Council. Ramona was their second stop in San Diego, and San Diego was their third stop as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).
They are in San Diego to make professional connections while examining: the structure of the U.S. criminal justice system and to review how its principles are applied to the prosecution of international crime; U.S. foreign policy priorities to build global cooperation against terrorism and other international crime; the impact of international crime on the political, economic and social stability of the world community and to learn how we balance law enforcement and security with civil liberties in a democratic society.
A gathering of friends and associates of the Sossamans greeted the visitors. Flags from each of their countries adorned the porch of the Sossaman property on Sutherland Dam Road.
The four delegates were Capt. Hakem Alharahsheh, head of Jordan’s Preventive Security Detachment; Hussain Rasheed, Coast Guard Squadron Commander with Maldives’ National Defense Force; Henry Sini, investigator with Nigeria’s Department of State Security; and from Senegal, Tafsir Hane, technical adviser to the president of Senegal’s National Financial Information Processing Unit.
The view of Ramona’s rolling hills kept the four visitors on the porch until the wind and rain made it too uncomfortable.
“When I first heard where we were going in America — Washington DC, New York and two famous border cities that we see on our news reports — I thought how will I be safe?” said Rasheed, who left his two daughters, ages 6 and 2, at home with his wife. “I am so surprised and embarrassed. Everywhere we have been you Americans have been so nice. In Washington and El Paso and now here, look around, we are made to feel very special.
“With motorcycles driving with us to here, and these flags, cameras and all of the wonderful hospitality, we feel like celebrities.”
Rasheed said he had never seen a border as busy as the international border in El Paso, Texas. His country does not have such border crossings.
In San Diego, the contingent met with Law Enforcement Coordination Center officials. In Maldeves, Rasheed is charged, among other things, with trying to curtail child labor, pornography and human trafficking. He said he was extremely impressed by how well all of the different law enforcement agencies here work together.
“We do not see this kind of corporation in our countries,” he said. “It is very impressive to see how American agencies work so closely and so well to help each other. I hope to share these findings in my country, to make changes like these.”
Hane echoed Rasheed’s comments. He, too, said he was impressed by the warmth of Americans at each of their stops. He also commented on the open nature of their meetings, how eager their hosts were to share information, and how well connected American agencies seem to be.
“I’m from a French speaking nation,” he said. “We do not say things so directly as you in America. I mean, we talk in circles around what we mean in my country.”
He agreed that the formality of French customs, hierarchy and protocol versus the more down-to-earth, informal “get the job done” attitude that he saw during the visits here and in Texas were what he found so refreshing. He hopes to bring some of these concepts back to his country.
Dave Sossaman has traveled extensively in the Middle East doing security.
“They loved the visit,” he said. “To be with ordinary people and not with politicians was a nice change for them. We don’t really know Muslims, and they don’t know us. Their television programming shows them our violence, like we see only the beheadings from over there.
“When I’m over there, I live with them in their homes, and I see them give the last piece of food to a stranger. I’m sure they’d take a bullet for me if I was in danger.
“I was really happy to show them our kind of hospitality. Hakem from Jordan was surprised when I asked him to say a Muslim prayer before lunch. No one had ever done that before. They had a great time here.”