Peter Wilson

Diplomacy for five year olds

This morning I spoke to my son's reception class in Beijing about my job. I think it was my hardest audience. He and most of his classmates speak three languages - Chinese, English, and one other. Most of them have lived in at least one other country in their lives.
 
Here's what we talked about.
 
I said that my job as a diplomat is to help countries work together, and to stop them fighting. I tried to explain why my job matters.
 
The class thought countries are a bit like people. They have relationships with each other. Sometimes they are friends, sometimes they don't get along. Sometimes they argue. Occasionally they fight. If they do, that is very bad, because people can die.
 
To do my job well, I have to try to understand why other countries think as they do. Countries, like people, have choices. I try to help my country, and the country where I am working, make good choices. If we do, then the people who live in both our countries will be safer, richer, and happier.
 
In the last five years my family has lived in four countries. Britain. Portugal, where my wife is from.  Pakistan, our first family foreign posting. And now China. I explained how my son helps me in his work, by being a special, friendly boy, who is kind to everyone who comes to our house. That helps me make friends, too.
 
My country, Britain, thinks that diplomacy is important. We send diplomats to almost every country in the world. We join as many groups as we can, to work with other countries on common problems. We learn a lot of languages.  I speak Chinese, French, and some Portuguese. But I do not speak Portuguese nearly as well as my son.
 
Coming to China is a big job for me. China is a huge country. More people live here than in any other country.  Before the children in my son's class were born, China was still quite poor. Now it is growing very fast - even faster than my son. That is not just changing China, but changing the whole world. People from other countries who know a lot about China will have important jobs to do in the future.
 
I like my job. Every four years, I get to learn about another place, and meet new people. It is a bit like going back to school. If I am doing my job well, I meet interesting people. If I do my job really well, then China and Britain find more ways to work with each other, and together we find ways to make the world a better place.
 
My son and his class told me about some of the conflicts they get involved in, and how they sort them out.  And they told me ways they negotiate, too.  They will make a great generation of diplomats - whatever they choose to do.

Posted at 10:21 23 October 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[2]