My First Twenty-eight Days in Office

Barack Obama may need a hundred days until he first looks back at his time in office, I can do it after merely twenty-eight!
Coming out here, I was worried about what work would be like, how the atmosphere would be, whether I would get on with my boss and the new colleagues and whether I would – like some friends – dread going to work every morning. After four weeks, I can honestly say that there was no need to worry at all!
During my first week I looked into the issue of introducing carbon taxation in South Africa during an economic downturn. Researching the area, I can assure you that it is not as dry as it sounds – in fact, I found it really interesting!
South Africa, one of the biggest emitters of CO2 in the world, has plenty of scope for improving energy efficiency and investing in renewable energy sources and everyone who knows me should have no doubts that I argued one hundred percent for the introduction of carbon taxes. Analyzing the pro’s and con’s, the experiences of other countries and the economic implications, I wrote a Memorandum for the Deputy Director General, the head of our division and am currently waiting for his feedback. Following on from this, I got in touch with researchers at Deloitte, who were arguing that carbon trading (sorry to get technical) would be more suitable for South Africa and we arranged to meet up and discuss the various issues behind our respective positions!
So, having worked on environmental issues for some time, I thought it was time to add a bit more to my portfolio. When reading the Financial Times one morning (it is amazing how many newspapers we get delivered straight to our desks every morning), I found an article stating that food prices were likely to increase again throughout the course of the year. Having an interest in “soft Economics”, I was keen to look into food security in South Africa. With the country heading for a pro-longed recession, unemployment rising and social security benefits insufficient, I wanted to look at the impact rising food prices will have on South African’s. This fits in quite nicely with the work I did for my dissertation so I was really pleased when my boss, Fundi, agreed that it was a good idea and gave me her blessing to look further into the issues.
I am really pleased to have found a niche in the division and some topics, which all link together, that I enjoy working on! So I am hoping to establish myself in that area a bit more in the next months.
At the moment the division is very busy working on the budget, which will be published on February 11th. The Treasury recently sent out invitations to attend the screening of the budget speech and it sounded like we were going to see a football match or a concert “Refreshments will be provided and everyone is welcome to attend”. We enjoy the same sort of relaxed atmosphere every day in the office as well – working hours are very flexible, I can arrive any time I want as long as I work eight hours a day (and get my work done…), there is plenty of opportunity for talking to the colleagues over a cup of coffee, everyone brings in cakes on their birthday and when major sports events are taking place, they are shown on the big screens all over the office with everyone cheering for their team. I really do think we are a great division and people, who have moved into other one’s assure me that it really is the best place to work in all of the Treasury. So once again, I consider myself very lucky and wouldn’t wanna swap for anything in the world!