Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,
Greetings to you all,
It was an unpleasant surprise for me on Thursday to hear of the divorce of Dame Rosalind Marsden from her diplomatic spouse, the Sudan!
I thought she could not leave without a farewell encounter with her friends in the Sudan, so as to express our appreciation of her six-year stay as British Ambassador and as EU special envoy. During that period, she dispersed her duties as a representative of her principals to the Government and Peoples of the Sudan.
In many ways, she reached out to Sudanese society as family. In our last meeting she said something very touching: that when I come here, I feel like coming home. I answered her in the meaning of a well known poem: Home is not geography, whenever you find love and respect is home.
I am sure that her Sudanese episode will haunt her mind and heart non-stop.
Therefore, dear Rosalind, we extend to you an open invitation to touch base with the Sudan, whenever your thoughts and feelings urge you.
Actually, the Sudan is turbulent, but potentially, its peoples are bound to find Just and Comprehensive Peace and Human Development under the blessings of Democracy.
Talks which we hold with our country’s political forces, and our activities in all fronts, they are defined by one and the same inevitably victorious National Agenda.
We expect all our expatriate friends to support these aspirations if only by genuine good will. When there is a will there is a way.
Goodbye and have a happy and fruitful retirement.
Many people experience a renewed calling when they are free from official shackles.
May you Dame Rosalind do the same and shine in retirement.
