Home Sweet Home

I landed at Washington-Dulles Airport on schedule Saturday afternoon, 17 hours after leaving Baku.  I breezed through Immigration, the baggage carousel, Customs, went through the arrivals door, and found Roberta waiting with the car at the curb with a rose!  The police on patrol, eventually, told us to move on, and we drove to Reagan [...]

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There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.

I wish it were as easy as clicking together my ruby slippers.  Instead, I get picked up at 4:30 Saturday morning for a 7am flight to London, connect there, and arrive in Washington at 3:30pm, 12:30am Sunday, Baku time.  But I am every bit as excited as was Dorothy!  Chelsea’s flight from Colorado arrives about [...]

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There goes the neighborhood

When the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy acquired a three-story, store front building to call home for the next two years while its new campus is being developed, the Mayor of Baku promised to give the neighborhood a facelift.  In less than a month’s time, that’s what he’s done! 

What’s been done to this building across the street [...]

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57:25 without commercial interruptions

 
That was the running time of the first ADA Majlis which aired Sunday evening on ITV, the Azerbaijan Public Television Network.  It was preceded and followed by popular soap operas, so we imagine the ratings were high.  The 11-hour editing session on Sunday to ready the program for air was a group effort of ITV and [...]

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Saturday night at Ismailiyya

When I began to consider coming to Azerbaijan, when I imagined making “television” here, I could not have envisioned a scene like Saturday night.  It turned out to be much more than just the first ADA Majlis.  It was an event.  The Ismailiyya building was brilliantly illuminated outside and in.  The audience numbered around 35, [...]

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Energy & Excitement

Even with delegations from 22 nations, many arriving the same day, Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister, Natiq Aliyev, opened Thursday’s crucial pre-summit ministers meeting at the Hyatt precisely at 4pm and ended it precisely at 6pm.  The participating countries all have different needs, but can be divided into three categories:

The Haves – Caspian Basin countries such as Azerbaijan, [...]

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Reckless optimism

 
 
 
Thursday 9:00am:  Ten hours to go until we finally roll tape on the “kick off” segment of the first ADA Majlis, a roundtable discussion with several energy ministers who are just arriving for the Baku Energy Summit.  The program has to be strong!  A lot of people in Azerbaijan, a lot of important people, will be watching Sunday [...]

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It’s Showtime!!!

Wednesday, 9:30am:  I‘m driven to Villa Petrolea, headquarters of British Petroleum, Azerbaijan’s primary oil partner, to meet with company VP Seymour Khalilov.  He agrees to participate at Saturday night’s premier taping at the historic Ismailiyya building where we’ll discuss developments from this week’s multi-national energy summit here in Baku.  Elshad Nassirov, VP of SOCAR, the State Oil Company of [...]

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Back in the USSR

 If all goes as planned…
…on Saturday evening, November 15, one black Mercedes-Benz after another will deliver ambassadors from Poland, Georgia, Turkey, and the United States, among other countries, to the entrance of the historic Ismailiyya building, one of Baku’s most beautiful.  It was built at the turn of the 20th century by Musa Naghiyev, Azerbaijan’s wealthiest oil barons, [...]

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Half a world away

The invitation read, Good morning, Mr. President.  It was sent by US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse, inviting a group of American citizens, living in Baku, to eat breakfast and watch the election returns at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.  I arrived shortly before 7am, and it was well worth the early rise, even with Wolf Blitzer [...]

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