travails of an accidental "trader"

With agriculture attaches, policy people
and our boss, USec. Fred Serrano
(extreme right)...

Had somebody told me that one day I would find myself promoting export products, I would have plunged into the sales arena early on. See, my grandmother often reminded me that “the early bird catches the worm.” I would have taken a business course in college, worked with a world-class pharmaceutical company, bought a house at 24 and a car by 26 so I could resign from my job and travel around the world in leisure at 40 – in that chronological order.

But hey, sales talk is not my forte. I even cringe every time I enter a store and sales people start hovering around to convince me to buy their products. So, no, I knew early on that I would never make a good sales person.

Taken all those into consideration, I cannot help but ask: Why the *&%# did I agree to be a trade desk officer (TDO) at the Department of Agriculture?

For fear of sounding too defensive, let me reiterate that I did not lobby for this post. I did not even know the responsibilities that went with it when it was first offered to me. The only thing that registered in my mind was: I will finally be working under the wing of Undersecretary Fred Serrano, the country’s chief negotiator for Agriculture at the WTO. Heck, long before i finished my master's thesis in tokyo, I was already dreaming of working with him. In fact, for nearly a year I devised ways and means to break through the thick bureaucratic wall to be able to talk to him. When all connections failed, I personally introduced myself to him. Talk about courage amid desperation. Unfortunately, even then, nothing happened.

Then the offer to be the TDO for Japan came. When I was told that my boss was going to be USec. Serrano, I knew I had to accept the post no matter what it entailed. I just hoped that being physically near the person would transmit some of his brain cells to my cranium.

The first few months in my new office were exciting. I met young people who eventually became friends, I got to interact with my boss as often as needed, I learned new things, I accepted more challenges – all these more than made up for the glitches I encountered here and there.

Being the OC that I have always suspected myself to be, I already had my intellectual map drawn out. I felt that being a trade desk officer was just a stepping stone to what I really wanted to achieve: to understand the power play between developed and developing countries, and to figure out the politics of WTO. Whoa! Lofty dreams, I know. My best friends could not even understand my sudden obsession with WTO (this is something that I should write about in another article).

My dream was crushed when one day I woke up to an instruction that instead of WTO, I would be dealing with export sales. Sales @%&*??????? Pardon the profanity, but why the heck would I exchange my first love (which is writing) for something that I have never even dreamed of doing in the first place?

It is bad enough that I was required to do sales, but it is even worse that there is a plan to uproot all desk officers from the Policy office. The only reason why I agreed to do this job is because I wanted to work with USec. Serrano. If this fair exchange won’t happen, then I have to make another drastic decision; something that will bring me back to square one.

a trip to nowhere...

In Shenzhen...there were Greek columns...:))) Goes to show how good China is at imitations!

This is the urban jungle called Hongkong...with tall buildings seemingly sprouting from mountainsides....

This is beautiful Macau...with its exquisite Portuguese architecture and smiling people. I would love to visit again, if only for sight-seeing.