Affairs of State!

"... A guided tour through Lebanese President Michel Suleiman’s international trips. At a cost of just under $9 million in outstanding travel fees – $2.5 million of that for the president’s private aircraft – Suleiman has been busy fulfilling some seemingly inane diplomatic duties from Buenos Aires to Riyadh....
In its letter requesting payment, the foreign ministry provided a detailed breakdown of the costs incurred by official Lebanese delegations on trips abroad in recent years......

Suleiman’s Subdued Romps in Foreign LandsA sample of Suleiman’s activities, as detailed by the ministry, is provided below.
(*) In Armenia, Suleiman visited the old brandy distillery in Yerevan, ...
(*) In Rome, the president lunched at the famous Palazzo Brancaccio restaurant with then Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and various Italian cardinals....
(*) In Mexico, Suleiman was greatly impressed by the Museum of Anthropology,
(*) In Brazil, he inspected Corcovado Mountain, site of the statue of Christ the Savior, where he and his wife had commemorative photos taken to document the historic visit.
(*) In Russia, the president visited the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), where he delivered a “strategic” speech in which he explained how Lebanon had suffered from the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948 due to “the influx of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees into a country with limited space and resources.”
(*) Suleiman also traveled to Spain at the expense of the state, ending the visit in Barcelona. He and José Montilla, president of the Catalan Regional Government, attended a traditional Barcelonian lunch and made a toast to the Lebanese and Catalonian peoples.
(*) The president’s trips to the US were equally productive. On one of them, he met Miss USA, Rima Fakih, and awarded her the Shield of the Presidency of the Republic.
(*) In Great Britain, he accepted an invitation to lunch with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, with whom he “discussed the global financial crisis,”...
(*) Other landmark tours took Suleiman to France. On one trip to Paris, he and his wife received Nazek al-Hariri, the widow of assassinated prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. This followed a “calm” meeting with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
(*) But the truly “historic” visit, according to the president’s website, was the one to Sydney, Australia. There, Suleiman visited the monastery of St. Charbel, which is affiliated with the Lebanese Maronite church. Being “historic,” the trip included a visit to the ballet at the Sydney Opera House.
(*) While in the Czech Republic, the president visited Charles Bridge which crosses the Voltava River in Prague.
(*) After Prague, Suleiman went to Romania, where he laid flower wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In Athens, Suleiman placed a similar wreath on a similar tomb.................
These activities cost the state coffers billions of pounds, while a couple of days ago, the Lebanese were drowning in puddles of rainwater...."