Thursday, February 10, 2005

 
I'm obviously not a regular blogger, eh?

It's been a month since my last blog entry and yet things stay the same while time passes. I'll work backwards and see what I can dig up from my mind.

Chinese New Year - Yes, happy chinese new year everyone! My mom's side of the family gathered for 2 dinners. I realize that I haven't had these things for the last 2 years, being in the UK. My last chinese new year dinner was such a hoot - Michelle and I, having hot pot with a rice cooker at her college room, and rice balls for dessert! This year's dinners were more tame. I guess the only thing out of the ordinary was me playing with my niece and nephew. They found a new way to play in the house - they ran around and around and around various rooms upstairs, squealing and laughing all the way. Ah, to be a kid again!

"International Relations is worthless and useless" - This statement sums up my own mother's thoughts of the last two years of my studies and my new-found appreciation for theoretical approaches. Talk about being burned badly. I'm still in the midst of recovery.

Canada-Norway Human Security Symposium at UBC - one glorious weekend of masquarading as a student again and attending a weekend conference on HS. Got myself invited by flashing my degrees at the organizer in my email to plead my case - great stuff, this "M.Phil Oxford" :) The conference itself was mostly as expected, however, I've had more enthalling conferences. It was not student-driven, so it wasn't as lively as most, and the speakers, while interesting, really didn't say anything new. I sat for too long, and drank too much coffee and tea. I didn't get to speak with anyone either really, unlike other conferences I've been. Probably because I felt out of it for the most part, and seeing no urgency to network. Big mistake on my part, I'm sure...

I also had the unfortunate experience of sitting next to someone at lunch who is apparently a Big Name in the are of human security. Well, little ole me didn't recognize the significance of this person, so when we introduced ourselves, I tried to cover up my ignorance of the HS elite. I made the lame comment of "Oh, if I had memorize all the biographies of the panelists, I would know exactly what you've been working on in HS, but I didn't, so which institute are you with?"

She didn't bite.

I thought that my next question was legit - I asked her which specific are of HS she is working on. Her answer? "Everything."

Excuse me? That's like answering "Which area of human rights are you interested in?" or "Which aspects of soveriegnty are you working on?" with "Everything"! Ahh... you shouldn't do that! Throw me a bone, c'mon!

One of the highlights of the conference was something that a panelist said. Usually I don't go for the feminist analysis / gender studies, but this one was hilarious. Asked about the state of affairs in gender studies and the gross (and wrong) overgeneralizations of differences between male and female, the female panelist said this:

- "You're right about the confusion. Just in the last while, there's a book out on the correlation between males and females with violence. The authors wrote about how men are more prone to and easily incited to violence to due their ability to have male orgasms, and women, as breastfeeders and childcare givers, are less inclined to be incited to violence, etc...."

And then the panelist gave a stony stare, and she said point-blank:

- "I was incited to violence after reading this!"

[Teeeheeeheeeee!]

So yes... in conclusion, not the best conference but there were some gems :)

UBC IR seminars - Robert Cox was here, so was the former senior trial attorney for the Milosevic case at the ICTY; Kal Holsti spoke as well, Richard Price presented his work on constructivism and normative theory, and Roy McLaren of int'l trade answered questions. Nothing like the Big Names at Oxford, but not every university can attract the Greats like Joseph Nye to be visiting professor, eh? Oooh, I _so_ want to be back and attend some of those lecture, especially those by Welsh and Shue!

Club78 - ah, the youth group at church. This, for a change, has been enriching. I've led the last 2 weeks of Club78 on the topic of families, and specifically, how to deal with parents. It was good think about how to approach this without being cliche or plain teaching. I enjoy interacting with the youths.

CMC - This is ongoing without end... kind of like housework! Got newsletters out (written, printed, folded and mailed by me). There was drama about competition venue and now the monkey on my shoulder is the fundraising dinner - venue, invites, silent auction, etc.... Sigh

Woods has also been in HK for a while now. Mo.

On a random note, I've been reading Mere Christianity by C.S.Lewis. Having first read Surprised by Joy, I was afraid that this one would be a convoluted read, but it's going surprising well. Insightful and thoughtful. I'll let you know when I finish it...