Australia

Prime Minister John Howard of Australia became the 44th world leader to honor my request and one of the few to include a real actual signature.

As you surely know, New York and Australia are practically at opposite ends of the world which could, in part, explain the late response. Australia is, of course, its own continent. Nevertheless, I not only received an apology for the delayed response but was informed that "the Prime Minister was more than happy" to agree to my request.

The apology, though, is not entirely out of place. After all, the postmark indicates the correspondence was only mailed six days ago. Hence geographic distance does not seem to have played a role in the delay. What then was the reason for the delay you ask? Well, the answer to that was conveniently left out of the letter...

The Prime Minister also becomes one of the few leaders to send me his "best wishes." This thought is very kind of him and I appreciate the gesture...