When I started this column a little over two years ago, the French Embassy was one of the first entities that actually reached out to me.
It was during the early stages of this column when I started to meet people from the French Embassy. Since then, they always welcomed me with open arms and shared the work they do with me.
For that reason alone, I will forever be grateful to them. I am someone who has always believed in trust. And I am not talking about a certain condom brand. It is one attribute I will always highly value.
Put your trust in me and I will be by your side. I will be loyal to you. Loyalty, now that is something I also value. My close friends know that.
Now that trust and loyalty are also the two reasons I never ever wanted to shortchange those who, for some reason, stumbled upon this column. I am blessed that there are actually people who read this column and, at times, send me e-mails on what they thought about it.
Trust and loyalty are also two things that I guess should also be highly valued at work.
Management, or those in the higher ups, should never micro-manage their staff. You hired them for a reason and you should place your trust that they are capable enough to do the work assigned to them.
For those who work the daily grind in their offices, a bit of loyalty for the company you work for will go a long way. There are too many out there right now, who act like hired guns that look for their next higher paying job with another company.
Trust me, a lot of individuals out there, who stuck it out with one company over a long period of time, have been greatly rewarded with a healthy and growing career path.
Anyway, going back to the French Embassy, when I was invited to the media launch of the 20th French Film Festival, I could not say no. How could I? Trust and loyalty, remember?
I thought I will be at the event early in Bonifacio Global City but, as always, a lot of factors always get in the way. It is embarrassing and, most of the time, unavoidable. But those who know me are used to it and, hopefully, understand it at the same time.
When I got to the media launch, all the speeches were already done and they were about to screen the movie Hippocrate. It was a very good movie and I will get to that later.
But always there to assist me was French Embassy press attaché Camille Conde. She led me outside the theater and, there, we waited for French Ambassador Gilles Garachon. Thank you so much, Camille, as always.
When Ambassador Garachon approached us and I asked him for a few minutes of his time, he never hesitated.
Ambassador Garachon is one member of the diplomatic community I hold in high regards. I have met him in multiple occasions and never for once during those instances did he place a wall between us.
There were always the warm handshakes and conversations that felt like we were friends for a long time. I could ask or discuss anything with him. He genuinely cared.
Ambassador Garachon told me that his tour of duty here in the Philippines was an amazing and wonderful experience, which he will never forget. He followed that up by telling me he was not exaggerating one bit.
Ambassador Garachon said he has a huge love for the Filipino people and appreciates very much the food here and the humor of our countrymen. Coming from him, that was a big pat on the back for us as a country.
Remember, this is the same person, who, in all likelihood, played a key role in the historic visit of French President François Hollande to the country.
That visit resulted in signing of cooperation agreements in the areas of development, tourism, health and academic exchanges between the two countries.
Ambassador Garachon loves the Philippines and even intimated to me that he will seriously consider retiring in our country once he hangs up his ambassadorial duties.
As for the French Film Festival, which is now on its 20th year, Ambassador Garachon said they never expected the event to grow this big.
He said it gained strength because of the Filipinos growing interests in French movies and the partnerships that were fostered along the way. At 20, he likened the film festival as someone who has reached adulthood.
Based alone on Hippocrate, I am pretty sure the festival this year would have one of its strongest lineups in years.
The movie was set in a hospital that was having all sorts of difficulties but having doctors and nurses that truly cared about their patients.
The scenes with an 88-year-old cancer patient made me think of my mother. My mom is much healthier than the one in the movie, and I thank God every day for it, but it just made me think about the little amount of time I spend with her.
From start to finish, the movie will tug at your heart. There were no fancy special effects or super heroes trying to save the world. All that are in it are the facts that remind us how it feels to be human.
Here is a fun fact. Ambassador Garachon wanted to become an archeologist then later changed his mind and wanted to become a movie director.
How he ended up as an ambassador, I will find out when we meet again. I am pretty sure that is an interesting story.
As for his favorite movies, he mentioned two titles to me—the 1939 French film The Rule Of The Game and the original version of Moulin Rouge.
Now those are two movies I want to look for and watch. Hopefully there are original DVD copies of them I can get somewhere.
For comments, suggestions and reactions, I can be reached at raalzona@yahoo.com.