30th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
This morning it was pouring with rain when I first looked out of the window. So I was pleased that it had cleared a couple of hours later when my Brazilian colleague Isabel and I stood on a hillside overlooking Addis Ababa in our wellington boots. Actually, it was perfect conditions for tree-planting, and we […]
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27th July 2012
Washington DC, USA
With the spectacular opening ceremony happening in London tonight, I wonder how many people attending the London 2012 Olympics this year will have been there in 1948, the last time London held the Olympics? My father was one of those who attended the 1948 London Olympics at the old Wembley Stadium, a 12 year old […]
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21st May 2012
Washington DC, USA
The countdown clock in our Embassy tells me that the that the London 2012 opening ceremony is barely two months away. The Olympic Torch has begun its tour of the UK. All around the world, athletes are qualifying for their national teams. Here in the US, the first goosebump-raising, Morgan Freeman-voiced Olympics ad hit the […]
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5th April 2012
Nairobi, Kenya
Yesterday’s horrific bomb attack in Mogadishu has served as yet another reminder of Al Shabaab’s cruel and twisted ideology. The day was meant to be one of celebration – marking the first anniversary of the launch of Somali National Television at the newly re-opened National Theatre. Yet it is to be remembered now for the […]
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27th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Some weeks ago I wrote about several of my colleagues’ swimming accomplishments at Lake Valence. Now, inspired by the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, they have been entering foot and cycling races too. On 4 September, 3 colleagues competed in the Budapest half-marathon. One male colleague ran alone, and two other female colleagues ran in […]
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28th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
It’s always humbling to meet elite athletes. So I am rather in awe when we bring together at the residence to mark the one-year countdown to London 2012 some truly great Olympians from Ukraine. They include Valery Borzov, who I remember winning the 100m and 200m gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and […]
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3rd June 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Earlier this week we held a very well-attended, high profile press conference at the Embassy at which the Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap (MTVA) – the official Hungarian media sports TV/radio organisation spoke about the London 2012 Olympics and all the international sporting events leading up to the Games in which Hungary is involved. Agnes Cserhati […]
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5th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
In Japan, a country much in our thoughts these days, volunteers generate a greater share of GDP than the financial services sector. And research shows that for every £1 the average company invests in volunteering programmes, they get a return of between £3 and £5. In general, the business case for employer supported volunteering is […]
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17th March 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A few weeks ago I promised that we would be marking 500 days to go to the 2012 Olympics on 16 March. The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that this date was in fact 499 days from the Olympics (and 532 from the Paralympics). The reason was that 15 March is an important national […]
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25th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Earlier this week I sat with the UK Sports Minister and leading members of the Hungarian Olympics and Paralympics Committees. Hugh Robertson was visiting to attend the Sports Ministerial Informal meeting at Gödöllő and at the end of his programme made time to meet our partners and ask what we could do to help them […]
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