The former US ambassador to Zimbabwe has resigned from government service and will now become a general citizen with everyone else.
Ray told friends from his home on Thursday night that he is changing professions and will now be a journalist.
“I am retiring effective Sep. 1. After that date, I am a private citizen and journalist, no longer a diplomat,” he said.
Ray also issued a statement on his blog stating that: “it is good to be home” in which he also announced that he can now get back to doing what he loves doing.
“I can now get back to doing what I love doing, when I’m not writing or some other activity, riding the Washington Metro Rail observing my fellow passengers. That’s right; like most writers, I am a notorious snoop and eavesdropper, and some of my best characters, plots, and descriptive have come from subway rides. In fact, the subway is probably one of the best places for a writer to observe the human condition. I’ve ridden subways in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco (not to mention London, Paris, and Stockholm), and each of them has its own unique characteristics. But, for me, the Washington mass transit system has been a gold mine,” he wrote on his online portal.
Charles Ray struck history becoming the first foreign diplomat in Southern African history to engage at personal level local citizens on social communication websites Twitter and Facebook on a wide range of subjects covering various social issues.
Thousands of Zimbabweans began joining him particularly on the social networking website Facebook.
It was not immediately clear what influenced him into resigning at the time of writing. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)