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Almost Diplomatic on Print

in Almost Diplomatic on Print, Diplomatic Incidents, Personal Musings

Advice to the young: Some rules need not be broken

June 20, 2023

This article first appeared in the August 28, 2021 issue of The Manila Bulletin.

My paternal grandmother in the Danish side of my family was a model when she was younger. She died at the age of 96 in Copenhagen around five years ago. My father still loves to mention her during our phone calls. Maybe because he’s painfully aware of how fond I am of her even though we didn’t get to spend enough time together.

He also knows that one of the biggest compliments I ever received in my life was when, during a quick visit to see her in her home, she told everyone we looked like each other. I remember feeling so chuffed that day. “She is like you, yes,” my dad said once. “One time, she broke her hip and as the nurses carried her away to be examined, she screamed at them not to forget her face creams.”

I laughed, not really expecting my father to pick up on the details of my own vanity.

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in Almost Diplomatic on Print, Diplomatic Incidents

Hosts never eat first and why rushing never did me any good

September 16, 2022

This article first appeared in the August 28, 2021 issue of The Manila Bulletin.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been in a state of rushing. Rushing to school, rushing to finish a project. I was always in a hurry to grow up, to get a job. To run after sources and to finish my stories. My time as a TV reporter was a constant state of an adrenaline rush followed by a huge crash after a full day’s work. Then come the hours of feeling exhausted as I stared at the ceiling, hoping to fall asleep. In the morning, I wake up to my alarm, ready to have another go at my energy roller coaster.

I brought that way of life with me even as I left the broadcast industry. Often saying yes to so many things only to rush getting from one commitment to another. “I never run,” AA Patawaran, Manila Bulletin’s lifestyle editor, once told me. It was a balmy evening in Berlin and we were on our nth glass of port. “But what if you’re late for a flight?” I asked him. He told me no, not even. He was smiling but I knew he was serious.

AA never seems to be in a rush and that’s something that fascinates me. I’m always in a hurry and, more often than not, I often find myself in a pickle because of it.

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in Almost Diplomatic on Print, Diplomatic Incidents

At Home with German Ambassador to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel

September 15, 2022

This article first appeared in the August 7, 2021 issue of The Manila Bulletin.

Germany’s Ambassador Anke Reiffenstuel arrived in Manila back in August 2019. Tall, blonde, svelte, and with a warm air of sophistication, she had seven months to get to know the Philippines before the pandemic hit. She acknowledges that she’s quite lucky to have arrived when she did. She had a bit of time to lay the groundwork for some of their projects before the world went into a standstill.

NATURE’S CONVERGENCE A Buddy Bear, one of Berlin s most memorable symbols with a whaleshark painted on its stomach, welcomes people into the German ambassador’s home in Manila

A different challenge

The pandemic hasn’t been kind to people who love to socialize. For diplomats who are required to engage in socialization and build networks to be effective in their careers, the new normal has been quite the new, untamable animal. “It’s just not the same kind of atmosphere when you are talking, exchanging thoughts,” says Amb. Reiffenstuel. “The large part of what diplomats do in these meetings is catch the atmosphere, getting an idea of what’s going on in the margins of the conferences.”

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