Off you go, Andy

19.01.2017 - EB

Andrew Schapiro is the most controversial foreign ambassador to the CR of the past quarter-century. Craig Stapleton made headlines in 2003 for a falling-out with Václav Klaus about Iraq, and Otto Jelinek of Canada departed last year in a cloud of doubt about links to corruption in his pre-diplomatic days, but these episodes have been outdone by Schapiro's spat with Miloš Zeman and his informal chairmanship of the NGO movement. George Soros is being run out of parts of Europe, and Schapiro is seen by critics as an official voice of the kind of values Soros spreads stealthily. MEP Jan Zahradil of ODS said that of the six U.S. ambassadors he has known, Schapiro is the worst. For ex-diplomat Petr Kolář, Schapiro is one of the better ones. What makes Schapiro so controversial is that he has done his job well. Those who dislike what this job is, have only disdain for him. Those who agree with the progressive U.S. agenda can't get enough of "Andy."

Glossary of difficult words

off you go - used to signal or prompt someone's departure (used here intentionally because it is ambiguous as to whether it is meant neutrally or negatively);

falling-out - a quarrel or disagreement;

spat - a quarrel about an unimportant matter;

stealthily - behaving or done in a cautious and surreptitious or secret manner, so as not to be seen or heard;

disdain - the feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one's consideration or respect;

can't get enough of something - to like something very much and to want much more of it.



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