Steering Meetings

President Zelenskyy of Ukraine may have picked up, astutely, what is typical of African officialdom -- when he said that he did not want “any surprises” from the African delegation's visit to Russia. This in response to President Assoumani, who spoke of a “road map”. OBSERVATION: My own experience of authorities in Southern Africa is that they seek to decide everything before one walks into a meeting. The purpose of the meeting is then to steer things towards the outcome. Thus any input or information which one introduces to a meeting is fairly useless. Not in every case, of course.