 Global Connection Show. I'm your host, Carlos Juarez, and it's been a great pleasure today to bring back a guest who's been on our show before, a dear friend, Patrick Tijana Branco. Patrick Branco is a state representative of this city, representing Hailua and Kaniwa Bay in the Hawaii State House of Representatives. And more than that, he's a public servant who's been many years in the government prior to joining the recently the state legislature. He served many years in the foreign service, the US foreign service as a diplomat. And so today we've got a great opportunity to kind of reflect on some of that. And now also as you bring closure to your first section there. But let me first just welcome you, Patrick. Thank you so much for joining us again here on Global Connection. Great to see you. Great to see you too, Dr. Juarez. Thank you for always having me on the show. Well, as I was reflecting, because you've had opportunities, particularly, right now, maybe allow you to give us a final snapshot of how things ended. But I'm particularly eager to have you kind of step back and now that you've had more experience with state and local government, you're also handling a lot of complex emergencies and issues. I mean, government is obviously putting out fires, resolving challenges. But your prior experience, particularly in the international arena, was managing some pretty tough spots, as we'll see in a moment, places like Bogotá, Colombia, Islamabad, Pakistan, Caracas, Venezuela. I mean, these are some challenging posts that you had recently. And even Washington DC, the operation center there. But first, just a reminder for some of our guests. I know we're familiar with you, but one of the great things is that you're one of our local boys has really gone on to kind of take on a real global experience, particularly in the diplomatic service. You're a graduate of the Kamehameha School of Court. And then you came out of Hawaii Pacific University years ago, where I had a chance to meet you there in a former life myself, but gone on to the prestigious Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies as a Rangel Fellow. And that, of course, is what helped bring you into a path into the foreign service, or the diplomatic career. A couple of years back, you took a break and have now joined us here back in Hawaii. I shouldn't say a break. You sort of had a new life chapter that's brought you back here. But let me, before we jump into some of these complex emergencies you've dealt with in fact, maybe a quick thought on how you've managed to bring closure to your experience here, back in Hawaii, state and local government, and any either insights or lessons that you can draw from that diplomatic experience. No, absolutely. One of the foremost things during a crisis is always communication. And so that's been one of the key things, whether it was during the pandemic when I was running for office, or when I currently as a state legislator, it was always keeping our community abreast. And so one of the things that I did while I was running for office was whenever the new guidelines came down about COVID or whenever Governor Igay signed a new proclamation, one of my jobs when I was with the Secretary of State was to distill complex issues, a lot of information into 30 second 90 minute briefs for the Secretary. And so I essentially took that type of skill set and did the same exact thing with these emergency proclamations. So every week or so, we were mailing out to the community letting them know, hey, this is the new update, this is happening with restaurants, this is happening with the mask mandate. And I felt that was really my value added. And when I got elected, we continued that in. We're the only state representative office that actually sends out a weekly newsletter every Tuesday. And it's not about kind of like what I'm doing politically, it's actually what's happening in the community, what's happening in our government, the key points that you need to live your life as a citizen. And I think that's the number one thing to emphasize in a crisis is very clear, concise, accurate information. Yeah, no, very well said. And I think one of the things we often don't appreciate is in the job like you've got today as a state rep or as a diplomat representing interests abroad, you've got to also have the ability to understand who your audience is because you're dealing with many of these, often you're very high level people, very intense leadership making quick decisions. You may have to convey that to people who are again in many different different places or even your constituents today, different types. And your ability to kind of convey this complex issue in a way that's understandable that you've gained their trust and respect. And of course, doing that in a foreign context as other dimensions here in Hawaii, of course we have this rich diversity and that is something we always cherish but it also means you might have to approach your communication skills in different ways, right? And what I'd like us to, you know and we'll keep coming back again, weaving in your insights from your more recent state experience but obviously the opportunity you had in the foreign service as a US diplomat, initially I'll never forget you, you have been a student of Korea and Asian studies and you know, where does Uncle Sam send you on your first duty down to South America, what was that Columbia? And you know, it's a force that's gone through a lot of ups and downs and a history of political violence but more broadly it is certainly a high security place and just day-to-day activities because even though it's had recent peace agreements and whatnot, nevertheless, it remains a challenging environment in a different way neighboring Venezuela where you would return later, right to Caracas. And I'm just thinking in these kind of places as well you were in very much a hot spot at least when I'm about Pakistan, you know places where again, even just moving around to take care of your day-to-day activities has a very high security element but I'd like to get back to this question of communication because today of course we live in an age of social media and you know, you cannot function and when you're dealing with an embassy that is abroad you really have the US government all there in one community but you're conveying information not only to the Americans there, obviously one of the priorities is the American interest protecting citizens, et cetera but as you're dealing with emergency situations you're gonna be dealing with a lot of others you know locals and the like. So the communication takes on many dimensions and I know I think in one of those posts if I'm not mistaken I recall maybe it was in Venezuela where you were or perhaps it was the Columbia one you were directly involved with a lot of the, you know communication, social media, outreach to the community and I mean, just share some reflections on that because again, I think of like Hawaii in many ways we have this diversity which means like the same thing may not work with one community as with another I don't know how do you see that? I can touch a little bit on that so my first position was actually as the deputy press attaché and embassy Bogota and one of the main things there I covered non-traditional media so social media and then also digital but overall whether it was traditional media and non-traditional it was very important for us to always speak with one voice especially as the US embassy, right? And so what was very critical for us was our leader there is the US ambassador and so even though I was one of the spokespeople we always made sure that the ambassador was the voice the ambassador was always the face so they always had one voice the other thing too was what was important in embassy Bogota was one of the largest diplomatic missions in the world for the United States it was also critical because we had 44 federal agencies we also needed to be all speaking with one voice, right? Whether it was the IRS or it was DEA or State Department or USAID it needed to make sure that we were talking with one voice so our social media platforms were actually all coordinated across the embassy it was only one it was La Embajada Bogota, you know like Estados Unidos, right? It was always one voice that we always had that was very critical for us that we were talking with that clear concise voice and also to build that repertoire that rapport with the community so they knew that this was accurate information coming from the US embassy and it's very official so that was one key and I just want to touch one story quickly so actually my first week when I arrived in Bogota Friday night, my first Friday night I received a phone call on my landline from actually the deputy ambassador, the DCM the deputy chief of mission and he had let us let me know that we had a US citizen that went into the forest to go find tigers there are no tigers in Bogota or in Colombia and he got captured by the FARC and the New York Times is on the line ready to speak to you and so of course, crisis communication immediately came in it was my, I was a junior officer, it was my first tour so what I immediately did was I took the call and I just asked the New York time you know, I just need a few moments, right? Cause you know, I needed to assess the situation and what I immediately did was I actually called my supervisor who was actually vacationing Miami and so I was duty at the time so that's why I got the call but also my second call was also to our local staff and that was really critical in the embassy was always to lean on our local staff so our local Colombian staff in the embassy because they understood the context they went through what was prior so I think that's one thing to emphasize whenever you're in a crisis or a communication crisis always go to the source who has that institutional knowledge and that was our local staff and they were able to coach me through what I needed to do and then the next morning at 7 a.m. we had a country team so basically the ambassador leads the country team with 44 department heads and I was able to present a press plan because I knew to lean on our local staff and so that's very critical to you know, lean on those who have expertise and lean on those who have institutional knowledge Yeah, I think you put it very well and what you underscore if people don't always appreciate a U.S. embassy and particularly a substantial one and what with that happens to be larger for many reasons, security dimensions but there's so much cooperation that goes on agricultural trade and the like but at the end of the day what you have in these essential embassies is really the whole of government all represented there and that can present challenges if you've got everybody putting out there you know, the social media and the like so very critical, a very strategic focus you know, here's the same message and driving it home and you know, you also underscore we have this obviously these embassies exist because they help us carry out our affairs you know, both relations with country but also helping address you know, American citizens and their needs you've got to suddenly an American citizen that needs help and one of the challenges in you know in the difficult places that you find yourself having to often negotiate or talk to people of all types you know, different kinds and different levels and the like you refer to the local staff again, an appreciation of you've got a lot of people who have tremendous continuity and institutional knowledge often they are local nationals that we will hire any part of the world because at the end of the day you can't depend exclusively on just your own and those become very trusted I guess part of the staff I think of a very similar let's say in your career now as a legislator you've got career civil servants who understand the lay of the land and sit in there they kind of continue regardless of who might be at the top the political leadership often changes and comes and goes now you have a need for those skills you know, the thinking and the strategic vision but you also need people who can implement and one thing we know about the bureaucracies and organization theories if you don't have the clear either buy in or understanding of how things are going to be implemented or like you suggested knowing the lay of the land from your local staff that becomes so critical well, again, the other thought I had was as you think about these complex emergencies I mean, it requires a lot of different skill sets and many of us have some of them some people have more than others in general we might think of especially operating in a foreign environment you need very important intercultural effectiveness skills and that means dealing with, you know, again foreign environments, different cultures different rules of the game you know, we often take for granted in the US that things work a certain way even among our states there's variation but when you're in another foreign setting it's a very real challenge I mean, maybe any anecdotes or examples from ways things have done so definitely that you have to adapt and you have adaptation skills that are so critical Yeah, absolutely whether it was in Colombia, Venezuela or Pakistan even just entering, you know each country was very different, right? Because definitely the security standards that the US embassy had or also the country put in place those also very important not to play with those rules or to try to, you know, go around those rules and so it was very critical I remember in Pakistan, you know there were selective zones that we had to be in and you know, some members would go outside of those zones and they would think, you know it's safe or whatnot but there are real threats out there and so of course that's another thing with crisis is also, you know, follow the rules and that's the basic thing I could say is that you need to make sure and especially when it came to the embassy our regional security officers they understood the lay of the land and understood what real threats were out there especially when I was in Colombia the first time you know, capturing a US diplomat was a prime target if they could get us in Bogota, Colombia, right? And so when I was in Bogota the first time we weren't allowed to drive outside of the city city limits because, you know, outside of that limit there was, it was insecure and so that was really important for us to emphasize and whether it was in Venezuela also we had those same type of restrictions the same type of places we could go even though in Venezuela was a very unique situation, right? We had a food crisis so if someone said there was eggs, right? You knew that that specific zone where there was eggs you weren't allowed to go and sometimes you just couldn't get eggs you couldn't get milk but that was the situation because it becomes really critical and I also wanna from being outside in the field you know, you have a different point of view but coming back to Washington and when I was in the operation center, right? You could see how extensive those types of decisions on the ground diplomats were actually affecting us in the operation center and so it was really good for me to get both of those perspectives to make sure that we were following those rules because if something happened to a US diplomat in Latin America or in China or whatnot it came up through the totem pole and it basically set the alarms for the entire building at State Department and then we all had to kind of have a full response and so it was very difficult too when there was someone who just didn't follow the rules or follow the regulations. Yeah, no, very well said and you know, getting, you know these are skills that you know, on one hand you do learn them, you get introduced to them and obviously as a diplomat you're trained to have some understanding of the host country and culture you're dealing with, the language, you know and yet until you're there and on the ground a lot of it is more informal your own relationship developing, you know building ties with people once you're there very different from your first day arriving suddenly, you know, six, nine, 12 months later you've now got a different set of relationships. Now, one of the things that maybe, you know kind of like the teacher in me is always bringing it back to what are some of the, I guess the skills and competencies that you either need or you develop for that kind of thing and again, what I find fascinating is that while you can, we can speak about it right now in a foreign context there are also complex issues that we deal with at home or maybe to put it differently we often think of conflicts and today, in many ways I was struck by your own experience I can imagine in Eastern Europe today given the crisis in Ukraine our embassies in places like Warsaw and, you know, neighboring Romania even something like the U.S. consulate in Krakow, Poland which is near the border today are two with just a, you know very, very, you know dynamic rapidly changing environment and refugee crisis money pouring in, materiel delegations of, you know members of Congress and whoever or not it is just a flurry of activity and it has a way of in some ways sucking out the air and energy out of other things again, complex emergencies happen, you know in many places sometimes they're short-term, periodic you get over it, you move forward you describe Colombia I had myself privileged of living there 30 years ago, early 90s it's a pretty tough time as well but even in the time I was traveling there were times where it got more relaxed it was like a truth other times where it obviously heated up and you had to be very careful but let me get back to this other part again, part of the crisis communication that you describe, you know today we live it in New Orleans so a diplomat today must be connected to the social media and monitoring it and being aware because a lot of the dialogue is happening there's just as it does here and, you know, from your experience and whether it's in the field these places you serve you were also back in Washington and with the operation center where you're obviously receiving, you know all the input that's happening in the field and yet I could just imagine, you know the old time, well in the old days we would read a newspaper we would follow some wire services now there's just so much information and how do you find it? How do you get on? Because a lot of it is going to be clustered in little, you know I guess you might call them bubbles or silos, right? But we need to understand we need to, you know, monitor that and not only that but even as you convey the information you describe sort of the one you know the importance of let's say a clear single message and yet there are so many different outlets I mean is it the same thing everywhere or do you have to find ways to tailor it, adjust it? I don't know if you could share a little more about the different types of communication and, you know and communicating maybe, you know about an emergency it might be different again in a different cultural setting or the different generational groups that you're trying to inform. Well, the other thing with, you know to prepare yourself for any crisis is also the relationship building, right? Yeah I think that's really important too especially when you're in a foreign country is to make sure you have good connections with journalists, you know with the not the top level of every bureaucracy or department but also kind of having the mid level or kind of the upper management so you can kind of get more insight when you see kind of a crisis brewing that's really important as well so whenever I went to a new embassy it was very important to have those initial courtesy calls with the, you know the key journalists in the country the key ministers in the country the key political leaders because that's how you were able to get information the other thing too, which was important when I was managing you know, some people would like to just repost tweets or from a newspaper or whatnot for me I would never do that because I think, you know it shows a bias to certain publications but it's important to, you know glean that information and make those tweets your own the other thing too for us we were very fortunate is that we also had the backup of the department of DC so this actually happened when we were going into evacuation in Venezuela it was important to us to reach back to our DC colleagues and so when we were evacuating they were able to take over our various social media outlets our various outlets so they could back us up but they were only able to do that because it's also with the information we give them so it's very important to have that communication especially for us you know, state departments a very complex agency to make sure that that communication between the agency and also back at post was really important as well and the other thing too is going back to your point about like, you know, cultural sensitivity it was really important too whenever you're in crisis to understand the cultural sensitivities when you're going so like for in Pakistan I just knew, you know I managed a large team of 45 and I had some women on the team and, you know, here in Hawaii we greet with a hug or those types of things but it was really important for us to understand the rules and boundaries as well when it came to the Islamic culture which was really important for us to know so that's the other thing is you should become very familiar with the host country culture because you don't want to make those fumbles when you're dealing with a crisis Yeah, yeah No, actually, well put you need obviously a clear understanding of that host country culture and a respect for it and maybe more generally an attitude of modesty and respect goes both ways because one of the challenges for the US you have a long history and a sort of a personality trait is being the big bully you tend to be large and when we arrive, you know and even the negotiating style that's, you know, typical of particularly American businessman or even, you know, the negotiator kind of come in, shake hands, make a deal you know, give things done and many, many places of the word that just doesn't work you've got to build that relationship first you have to, you know you have to have many meals and many, you know, developing those ties but more broadly, I think again, one of these competencies that I think you develop very well in this type of crisis environment is you need to demonstrate modesty not only about your own culture but a respect for the ways in which the local culture itself is approaching things they may have a different understanding or different knowledge of the local context so you need that kind of in some ways, I don't know if it's a good listening ability or modesty that comes in and I mean, you yourself spent many years in the foreign service where you also saw it at a time where suddenly the US and its leadership was being challenged we had a president who gave the power that obviously was, you know contentious, controversial and many were, you know questioning the US leadership role and, you know even fair to say a lot of credibility was lost in some of our relations well, all that to say here we are now, we're coming back and, you know, we're now dealing with a major crisis in Europe that obviously the US is taking a leadership role bringing together, you know many allies and the like but you can never take away this reality that the US is so big and powerful but as a diplomat you then have to also balance that with, you know if you're going to gain the trust and you want to work effectively with people in the environment you need a certain degree of or a certain attitude of modesty and respect and I was actually going to say, you know I think I was more successful in the sense because of my upbringing in Hawaii, you know you were uniquely positioned in the in the Pacific where we understand a lot of culture and we experience a lot of different cultures here and so I think very pervasive in our culture is to listen first and talk less, right? And so that's kind of the mentality I took during my diplomatic career as well and, you know I had my my ambassador and he would jokingly kind of just, you know we had 44 agencies I was his special assistant so my job was to kind of coordinate and he would always say, hey Patrick, go do your Hawaiian thing because he realized that the way I approach you know with modesty and humility and my non-threatening style I was able to get a lot of our employees our teammates to get on board a lot quicker and I think Hawaii really set me up and this is why I always tell young people I actually spoke to an elementary class this morning and I said, you know do you know what a diplomat is and they didn't and I shared with them and I said, you know you are already prepared to become a U.S. diplomat because of our unique cultural upbringing here in Hawaii and so I'm as always I'm encouraging folks to reach out to myself or reach out to the diplomat and residents in the you know the Western region and I do believe you have one at the East West Center as well that can speak to young people about joining the Foreign Service because Hawaii has those unique qualities that really position as well to be very successful diplomat. Yeah, no, absolutely and I mean those are qualities again there are many of them what I often call the sort of the inter- inter-culturally effective person and you know like you described growing up here you're you're managing and balancing these different sort of you know social relations, if you will in a way that's very different from those who grow up in other parts often where it's either much more genius or maybe it's you know in parts of the U.S. where it can be largely a black and white or increasingly brown I mean here we really are truly a melting pot of different but they play out in different ways, right and both understanding the concept of culture but having this attitude of modesty and respect that we described and yet that same attitude sometimes can be seen as who either is the lanimous or you know not not assertive enough or not you know clear but at the end of the day a lot of it is about building trust, right and that can only come from from having a mutual respect and showcasing that so I think you've put it well students or you know somebody growing up in Hawaii kind of already has some of those skills that are quite crucial for inter well inter-cultural I wonder you know as you think back now you know again we've done this a few times that that experience that you've had clearly puts you on the hot spot in many places but as you're coming back now you're dealing with a different kind of government and in respect to this overall question you know the federal government that you're you know representing abroad as a diplomat is complex and diverse state and local government is right here I mean it's same but different I mean as you finish maybe some final reflections what are some lessons takeaways in terms of what is similar and we talked a little bit about that and what might be very different because on the other hand and maybe let me finish it with this anecdote we often hear the phrase you know we want to think globally because the world is you know interdependent connected and we need to be aware but ultimately we're all here in our communities and we need to act and understand locally so just on that any final reflections on you know your own experience developing inter-cultural effectiveness sure I think the first thing of course I see a similarity between whether I was in Colombia or Venezuela to Hawaii is you know here in Hawaii politics are all relational right and so that was really key is to building those relations you know with your colleagues whether they're from Puna or Kaimukki or from Hanalei is very important to build those relationships the other thing too that I learned as well which I I developed at the embassy is emails great but face to face is even better and so if I was able to you know have that communication walked on the hall and you know I'm known for this in the state house is you know I will never send an email I can if I can avoid it and I'll walk over and talk to you about the issue because you can understand what someone is trying to convey or the tone that they're trying to convey when you're meeting person to person and so that's that's really critical for me especially also as as you know a builder of teams to have that personal kind of of relationship building is is so critical the other thing too as people always kind of say government is slow so you have to remember that but there are ways to be effective and when you build those relationships and you know the person who is at the DMV office or the person that you know in the department of planning and you can go and kind of you know not call them or to do something but call them to ask to explain a situation I think that's the best way to approach it as well and so that's really critical so I can not emphasize enough the importance of relationship building as I know of all very well said and on that we can close this ongoing conversation I think especially as we're coming out of this pandemic now that it reinforces the need that we need to get back to more people to people in person exchanges we're still doing our Zoom here for now but one of these days soon we will have a in person one of course Patrick let me thank you again it's been really great and of course I see you as a really a public servant of really of the very important kind of like a polymath somebody who understands obviously the big complex global issues but it will also has your you know very much immersed in local issues that are at the end of the day what matter and so I didn't mention but of course your own past maybe continuing as you've launched now a candidacy for the congressional district here that's opened up now and so wishing you all the best of that I know we'll look forward to some ongoing dialogue as we have opportunities again I want to thank you for joining us here again on Global Connect because Patrick and always a pleasure to reconnect and thank you for your insight Aloha Aloha thank you