Harvard Bureaucrats Ball

LAST December 15, the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association of the Philippines (HKSAAP) celebrated its 33 years in the country with a gala event, the Bureaucrats Ball, a tradition started at the Harvard Cambridge campus and replicated in the Philippines only for the second time. The gathering is a Harvard family affair where in the words of its hardworking executive director Jose Buenaflor Jimenez 3rd, "Although divided in political convictions and affiliations, its members stand united in the pursuit of better living, [through] exemplary leadership, honor, and always with utmost integrity."

Harvard University over the years has had many of its graduates recruited to various Philippine administrations. In the best tradition of academic and professional excellence, the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) has had its share of these men and women occupying the political spectrum. The classic "clash of ideas, the thesis and antithesis resulting in a synthesis" has been the hallmark of the philosophy behind the institution's founding. The Harvard-Kennedy community is diverse as the citizenry it serves.