Public Diplomacy Seminar

"Public Diplomacy: the strategic planning and execution of informational, cultural and educational programming by an advocate country to create a public opinion environment in a target country or countries that will enable target country political leaders to make decisions that are supportive of advocate country's foreign policy objectives." (http://www.publicdiplomacy.org/45.htm)

The aforementioned definition of public diplomacy seem to be complicated. Right? During the seminar on Public Diplomacy, we were enlightened by the personnal experiences of the speaker about public diplomacy. His talk was informal but very informative. One of the lines that struck me is that "The number one ambassador of your country is you". My classmates would agree with me with this. After what happened in the Manila hostage crisis, Filipinos all around the world are down and being discriminated by the different nationalities. But because of that certain line, at least those who are in the seminar are enlightened and the burdens were kind of lifted. After all, it is not the end the world. Maybe one of our fellow citizens have made this mistake and our authorities were not able to perform their duties well, it is not the end of the world. The young administration is faced with this big problem but if we will act as a nation and stop blaming another, we will be able to surpass this. I believe that once we are able to solve this issue with pride and dignity, our country will be strong enough to face any other challenges that involves this kind of issue.

I believe that as a country rich in resources and values that are liked by many, we are advantageous in public diplomacy. We have a lot to offer and be proud of. As the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Tourism take the lead in making our country stand out using public diplomacy, we, the citizens of this country must also help them and take part in making things possible. We have to be proud of our country and help in promoting the country's bests. If this happens, surely the economy of the country through tourism will boost.