Friday, February 29, 2008

Political Player


I've been friends with Cathy Toledo since our Stanford days and over the years we have shared all the ups and downs of life. You know you have a true friend when she spends all of her frequent flier miles to come and visit you in the Maldives. Believe me, she is not the type to sit around on the beach. Cathy has experience working in political campaigns, non-profit organizations like Planned Parenthood, and has lobbied the Texas legisature on behalf of medical interests. Her visit could not have come at a better time as this country is being politically transformed. Nasheed, the minister of Legal Reform, Information and Arts, wasted no time putting Cathy to work. Nasheed's wife, Sheena, is basically the surgeon general of the Maldives and met with Cathy on a wide range of health care issues. And now that we are teaching the journalists to make independent news judgments, someone has to teach the government and opposition PR people how to spin the media. Cathy became so busy that when we were offered a chance to check out another resort we had scheduled too many meetings to accept! Here we are in front of the People's Majlis (the parliament) on the way back from meeting with the president's press spokesman.
Cathy also conducts seminars for American Dream Women, educating women about how to manage their money. There's probably a market for that here too!

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