Poland's minister names non-existent country as UN supporter

[Jaga]

and internet has fun with it

Poland's foreign minister names non-existent country as supporter in bid for UN Security Council seat

San Escobar 'fully supports Poland's candidacy to the Security Council', one tweet says

Poland's foreign minister has been ridiculed on social media for claiming he had had a meeting with a representative from a country that does not exist.

Witold Waszczykowski told reporters in New York he had met with officials from some Caribbean nations including "Belize or San Escobar”.


But San Escobar does not exist.

Mr Waszczykowski, who was in New York to lobby for a Polish seat on the UN Security council from 2018-19, later explained that it was just a slip of the tongue, made while he was tired.
He had had Saint Kitts and Nevis, a two-island Caribbean country known in Spanish as San Cristobal y Nieves, in mind when he made the blunder, he said.

“Unfortunately after 22 hours in planes and several connecting flights you can make a slip of the tongue,” Mr Waszczykowski said.

Yet jokes under the hashtag #SanEscobar erupted online anyway, including an invented flag and a slew of fake news about the fictional place.

A Twitter account created for the invented country featured advertisements of the imaginary state’s sandy beaches and even a climate data chart, to better inform potential tourists of when the best time to visit was.

[karl]

Yes, of course we are all human, but not all humans are the same. For in the foreign service there is no room for such so called mistakes, for with the responsibility at stake as a representative of the state of Poland. What this man {Mr. Waszczykowski} says, is a direct reflection to his office, the state of Poland and to the people he represents. There are no mistakes.

To say it was a slip of the tongue is not good enough for such a person with such responsibility that is reflective of his office.

For with such slips of tongue that is written off as a mistake. The question will always arise, what else was spoken that is a slip of the tongue. For this is the quick manner of cutting very short a promising career.

There are no mistakes in the foreign office.

Karl

[Jaga]

Karl,

I totally agree with your assessment. Still, Waszczykowski learned sth from this error and try to make it into a joke also... I guess, this is probably a right approach, although you are right, the tolerance for this type of error is less for a foreign office.