Is he going snow-boarding?

We had the oddest meeting with journalism faculty at the University of Algiers today (Saturday, 6/16). The topic was what our program might do for journalism students. So the director of the program and three professors, including a woman in a black scarf and a beefy guy with a crease across the bridge of his nose who looked eerily like my second-cousin Pauly Scaringe, welcomed us with paper plates of sugary cookies. Then they led us down a crowded and dingy hallway thronging with students to a conference room that had the works: big round table with plastic plants, service of water and juice boxes and brochures describing the program. The cover of the brochure inexplicably shows a tree in front of what looks like a gas station with three tiny men working off-center.


And as we sat down across from each other we were joined by this odd man, nearly as short as me, with a wiry black beard wearing a brown hat with ear flaps. As our boss launched into his spiel about what we do, the director interrupted to say the man in the ear flaps was the Secretary of the Scientific Council and he wanted to greet us but he had another appointment so he would have the floor first.

Whereupon he delivered an utterly incomprehensible speech about how Algeria was the first nation in the world to recognize the new U.S., that now globalization was bringing everyone closer together but we had to stop war and we needed not to forget poor people and then there was the environment and we are very welcome at the university. I would have questioned Nadir, our interpreter's sobriety, except that the professors' body language made clear they didn't get it either. They were poking each other, smirking and lounging back in their chairs.

The man in ear flaps finished, shook all our hands and then left. "Now," said the director, "let's return to the serious matters."

So, who was that man with the cold ears? A political officer? A scientist interested in journalism?