Thursday, September 25, 2014

Faux Hotel

A lot of hot air, which has left me somewhat dumbfounded, has been hitting the airwaves in Pakistan about Nawaz Sharif's choice of hotel while he is here in New York attending UN General Assembly's annual session.

Before I get to that, let's clear some of the fundamentals out of the way that may sound irrelevant but are not.

Let's start with United States Secret Service. It's a federal agency working under United States Department of Homeland Security. The Secret Service is responsible for the security of the president of the United States, president's immediate family, the vice-president and his/her immediate family. This protection is not just while they are in the office; it is for life. So, the Secret Service protects all the living ex-presidents, all ex-vice presidents and so on and so forth.

An additional responsibility of the Secret Service is to protect the visiting heads of states. If you are Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Secret Service will protect you while you are in United States. They will provide you the same kind of protection that they provide to the President of the United States.

And they would love it if you are not staying in New York City (NYC). Why?

A routine protection regimen for a visiting head of a state staying at a hotel means the Secret Service would make regular electronic and canine sweeps of the hotel lobby, the room he/she is staying in, the floor he/she is staying at and the elevators in that hotel. But if that dignitary is staying in a hotel in NYC, it becomes even more complicated. Anyone familiar with NYC can tell you that the hotels in NYC do not have parking spaces (real-estate is expensive) which means that if you are Nawaz Sharif, the Secret Service would have to drive your car right in front of the hotel entrance, you would get out of the car, take a few steps to the hotel entrance...and for those few steps, you would be exposed to a sniper and the Secret Service does not like that. What they do in this situation is that they occupy part of the street, put up a tent that covers width and breadth of the distance between the car and the hotel entrance and thus ensure that when you step out of the car and enter the hotel, you are invisible to a potential sniper on a high-rise looking for you. It's not perfect but it's the best they can do. On top of that, they put snipers on the buildings around the hotel to return any fire when you are leaving the hotel or coming back.

One can imagine how cumbersome that is. One can also imagine how cumbersome it would further become if the Secret Service has to do all that for not just one head of a state but close to 120 heads of states at the same time. That is what they have to do whenever all these world leaders descend on New York on such UN sessions.

If everyone of these leaders decides to stay in a separate hotel, the Secret Service would have to do all that described above 120 times. That's a logistic nightmare. So, what do they do? They give every visiting head of the state a list of recommended hotels to stay at in NYC. A lot of factors must be considered for such a list; the location of the hotel, the route from the hotel to UN and back etc. Nawaz Sharif chose Waldorf Astoria Hotel to stay. And the airwaves in Pakistan are filled with, mainly, two allegations;

1-) Waldorf Astoria is the most expensive hotel in New York
2-) The room NS is staying at is $8,000/night

Waldorf Astoria is NOT the most expensive hotel in NYC. Ritz-Carlton, The Plaza, Four-Seasons, St. Regis, all of them are more expensive than Waldorf Astoria. In fact, according to a past article by Business Insider, Waldorf Astoria is the 10th most expensive hotel in NYC. I checked their website today, and called to confirm, and their Tower Suite, the most expensive they have, is $529/night. But, hang on. There is this Presidential Suite. That goes for about $7,000 to $10,000/night. And one of the anchors in Pakistan, who yells at her audience instead of talking to them, showed the pictures of that suite in her program saying this is where Nawaz Sharif was staying. That makes sense!! He is staying at the Presidential Suite...

But, no, he cannot be.

Why?

Well, the Presidential Suite is called "presidential" for a reason. Whenever the President of the United States is in New York, that's where he stays  (that is why it is called "White House of Manhattan"). This suite has hosted every president from Herbart Hoover (1931) to Barack Obama (2014). Whoever pays $7,000 to $10,000 per night for this suite is not paying that money for the luxury but for the history of this place and for the bragging rights. Nawaz Sharif cannot be staying there because, on those very days while he would be in NYC, Barack Obama will be staying there.

Which begs the question: if Waldorf Astoria is not the most expensive hotel in NYC, then why every president of the United States chooses that hotel to be his abode while staying in NYC.

Waldorf Astoria has a unique feature that makes it the most favorite hotel in NYC for the Secret Service.  Recall the tent for the arrival of the person they are protecting; Waldorf Astoria has a driveway that goes right beneath the hotel building with an entrance to the hotel, which makes it much more secure than a tent.

I passed by the Ritz-Carlton yesterday, a more expensive hotel than Waldorf Astoria, and there was much more activity outside that hotel than what I observed outside Waldorf Astoria today, which is right across my office. That tells me that there are many more dignities staying at Ritz-Carlton than there are at Waldorf Astoria. But then I can't call them to ask to confirm since that would be the most certain way to have a knock at my door by a couple of Secret Service agents asking me why I wanted to know that.

I do not have access to some classified source. All of the above is common knowledge among New Yorkers. Any journalist or anchor in Pakistan could find all that out by browsing the net and talking to someone in New York in less than two hours. I wonder why no one bothered. Is it just laziness or has the entire media become Imran Khan: what is whispered in the ear comes right out of the mouth without a moment's hesitation?

19 comments:

  1. We don't bother that NS is sraying for the reason mentioned above but how a PM of a poor and bagger country should stay in a hotel where US presudents stay or paying 7-10k$/night. This money may not sound very high in US or in other developed countries but in country Pak it is a huge amount. Do u know what is minimum wadge in Pak? Yes 2-4$/day. Now imagine the quantum of 7-10k$ in Paki perspective.

    Plus are the Indian or other poor countries Rulers also stay in such expensive hotels?

    And that would not only one NS but his whole hoard of his family members and other officials which would cost to the poors of the county.

    And if he is so much careful about his security then who has asked him to become our PM? He should stay home if he is so scare of his life. Simple?

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    1. I know the minimum what Pakistanis make and I know what the conditions of poverty is in India but still their Prime Minister didn't choose a cheap hotel. Modi is staying at the New Palace Hotel. I am not talking about the merits or demerits of this visit. I am just responding to an unfounded propaganda.

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  2. The question is ,"Is attending UN meeting do any good for our country ? Answer is NO .So why spend that much money.Pakistani Government needs to straighten thier coutry first and then comes diplomacy .Its better that he gets a snipper.So many people are dying here in Pakistan for petty reasons.So we really dont care about the reason that money is spend for.

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  3. and yes a comment for you,..."Puranay Chamchay"....i dont care if you feel offended...as i don't care about you and Nawaz shareef.Zyada bhaasun deinay ki zaroorat bhi nahi hai is qisam ki.should uderstand what these politicians have done to Pakistan.Bhaar mein gayi in ki security.If you thought we will od our heads in agreement after what you wrote shows you have no Idea about the ground reality in Pakistan and how people really do not want to hear any thing other than reforms.

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    1. And reform will never come unless we abuse, lie and propagate falsely!

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  4. Thank you so much for honouring!
    proud of a unique friend like you!
    keep it up.(sorry,dnt have any -ve comment to seek your attention :D )
    "And one of the anchors in Pakistan, who yells at her audience instead of talking to them,"<-----was the best one.... :-)

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. It was very interesting to know all about .where ever PM of Pakistan are staying must be a reasonable place because its all about prestigious of Pakistan .we don't want our PM represent Us like we are poor country.

      Thanks for sharing

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  5. I just don't understand why every visit by PM is so worthless in the eyes of PTI trolls. What do you want him to do? Stay home? Cut Pakistan off from the world? This is getting a bit too lame now. Grow up guyz!

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  6. I agree that the UN meeting disturbed my vacation a bit, but I also agree that this meeting needed to be held. What happened to me - my hotel, one of the Hotelscheap chain gave me a map with the blocked streets marked so I don't end up there. Of course, a lot of them were main streets, but I still was able to enjoy my few days in NYC. I feared that maybe something would happen, but yeah, as we all know, nothing did. Maybe they should have given me a cheaper rate, but nothing can be perfect.

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  7. I had the same experience but I booked my place with Reservation Counter. I avoided the region and I ended up at Brooklyn. It was quite a nice trip for me. However I really wanted to stay at Faux.

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  8. وزیراعظم نواز شریف اس وقت پاکستان کے اندرونی اور بیرونی دشمنوں سے ایک ساتھ لڑ رہے ہیں

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  9. Sir main aisay he ap ko "murshad" nahi kehta. Beautiful piece.

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  10. Sir main aisay he ap ko "murshad" nahi kehta. Beautiful piece.

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  11. The reasons, mentioned by the author of this piece, for staying in Waldorf Astoria are quite rational. We have become so antagonistic in nature that we intentionally blink our eyes at reality and let no opportunity of maligning our rivals slip away.

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  12. The reasons, mentioned by the author of this piece, for staying in Waldorf Astoria are quite rational. We have become so antagonistic in nature that we intentionally blink our eyes at reality and let no opportunity of maligning our rivals slip away.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The reasons, mentioned by the author of this piece, for staying in Waldorf Astoria are quite rational. We have become so antagonistic in nature that we intentionally blink our eyes at reality and let no opportunity of maligning our rivals slip away.

    ReplyDelete
  14. وزیراعظم نواز شریف اس وقت پاکستان کے اندرونی اور بیرونی دشمنوں سے ایک ساتھ لڑ رہے ہیں

    ReplyDelete