The Houston Agreements, 9 years later

Yesterday, my girlfriend Kate and I went to Rice University's James Baker Institute for Public Policy to see where the Houston Agreement was negotiated and signed. In 1997, UN representative and former Secretary of State James Baker sat down with Morocco and Polisario to try and clarify the Settlement Plan made in 1991. According to the Agreement, a referendum would be held in 1998. Of course, that never happened, but that didn't stop us from taking pictures.

By the way, it turns out Kate and I were about a block away from the Baker Institute. We figured the Institute was in Baker College, but apparently it's in Baker Hall. Oh well. Consider this post an homage to James Baker, committed Western Sahara negotiator that he is.


I was so excited to stand in the grass where Mohammed Abdelaziz and King Hassan II napped with their entourages between negotiations.


This picture demonstrates not only Rice's safety facilities, but also the brewing humanitarian emergency in the Western Sahara.

The pictures of Kate are awfully cute, too, but she worries about Moroccan reprisals. I'm fine with them not being up here, as that suggests maybe I'm making her up, which adds an element of personal drama to the blog.