Happy Birthday, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar! At 69, You Are At Your Peak In Perspective, And Are Serving Well Your Own Country

Happy Birthday, PH Secretary Of Agriculture William Dar! Born 10 April 1953 makes you 69 years old today, Sunday, 2022. The number “69” is all about perspective, which you apply greatly – no wonder you are a gifted leader!

All about the significance of “69” 61x9ine (spin.com) says:

The true meaning of 69 is just because you’re right doesn’t mean I’m wrong. YOU JUST HAVEN’T SEEN LIFE FROM MY PERSPECTIVE. Turn the 6 upside down: it’s 9 but remains the same in a different perspective.

I took the photograph above on 04 May 2018, a Windows 10 accidental collage, in my Lenovo laptop; my camera Panasonic FZ100. I took the image from my Windows 10 extended monitor, Mr Dar being the happy, colorful figure – yes the combined image hints at national leadership in agriculture for the good of households & families.

For starters, Mr Dar is the Ultimate Servant Leader to me. He leads groups for their own good.

I did not know him from Adam before I blogged about PhilRice Director Santiago R Obien in the American Chronicle: “Management: Relating Is Everything. Or, The Wizard Of Rice Who Cultivated Minds” (31 July 2006, americanchronicle.com – unfortunately, this magazine died a long time ago). Mr Obien suggested that I write about Mr Dar, and I did.

On Mr Dar, then Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India, I wrote, somewhat historically, about sweet sorghum and ICRISAT (“The Yankee Dawdle. On Discovery Sorghum, The Great Climate Crop,” 2007 February 4, americanchronicle.com). Mr Dar liked my journalism and as a writer from home, WFH, I wrote much about ICRISAT from 2007 to 2014, and it published 7 collections (books) of this WFH’s essays on its works.

Today, Mr Dar is in a different milieu as it were – he is “in charge” of the rising of Philippine Agriculture from poverty to prosperity, what he proudly calls

“Masaganang Ani at Mataas na Kita” (“Bounteous Harvests & Plenteous Earnings”).

Oh, certainly he knows that that is a Tall Order! But he is a warrior, not a worrier.

Above all, he is a planner. That’s why I started this essay about perspective. Before he was appointed PH Secretary of Agriculture on 05 August 2019, he already had come out with his The New Thinking for Agriculture with its 8 supporting paradigms:

(1) Modernization
(2) Industrialization
(3) Promotion of exports
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development
(6) Higher budget & investment
(7) Legislative support
(8) Roadmap development.

A complete package!

Today, on the occasion of his 69^th birthday, let me expand the perspective to the whole country, especially imagining a Metro Food Hub in each of the 17 PH regions, each region producing food, processing, storing and marketing nearby as well as abroad.

I am imagining The Vision that presents itself in all PH and in countries where we export farm products:

“Happy Science With A Happy Filipino Face.”@517