Social business

Just went to a talk about social entrepreneurs. What an idea huh. Seems just up my street. Need to think of the next idea though and maybe after this week...
Still need to read 80 pages, do a summary of it, probably a power point (maybe in French) and probably write a French letter and go and see Emma for Bailey's cheese cake before sleep.
I'm sure though the time for social entrepreneurship will come. I have faith it will, just not this week. :)
Ps. Ideas welcome.

Today's Parisien adventure

Found myself wanting to go somewhere different today before work. So, I got on the metro to Gare d'Austerlitz, grabbed a cappuccino from McDonalds (sorry I know it's not very Parisien but it's not bad) and sat in the Jardin des Plantes to read.
Fully recommended, large scary plastic extinct plastic animals and people watching included for free.

You can save the world before 9am

Today I have a Saturday morning class which starts at 8 am, that's in about 4 minutes. I don't want to go....  I love my bed too much.

I made it however, a little late, but I made it all the same and I'm learning about the role of the private sector in development policies. It's actually rather interesting despite the early hour and the fact that it's in French.

I've said this to myself before though "you can save the world before 9am" and when I do indeed get up I love the mornings. Those calm moments when most of the world is still sleeping, you can grab a coffee, read the news and work out your plan for the day so that you're ready for what it has to bring. (That's the idea anyway.)

This morning it's even better someone is really telling me what's wrong with the world, (very positive on a Saturday morning really) and what we can do about it. I suppose though that's not a bad reason to get up in the morning.

So, next time I'm going to try and keep this in mind.  The idea (we'll see how I feel tomorrow morning) is that the mornings are not a battle, they're the start of a new day and who knows what that has to bring!

Perspective

It's important to try and gain a sense of perspective whenever you can. I often get lost in the moment and I'm suddenly wearing blinkers that cut me off from the bigger picture. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, it keeps you on that immediate path but you've got to take them off. You've got to think about the whole journey.

So how do I do that? Well today I went for a run with loud blaring music in my ears and I just kept going. Then, this was my favourite part, I lay on a bench and looked up. It seems simple really but, my, was it affective.

Looking up to the sky makes you think about all those below it, all those who have seen it and, most mind blowingly, what lies beyond it. It makes me feel small, tiny, microscopic in fact. It clears my mind and fills it with new thoughts which help me to think about the journey or about nothing at all.

So next time you've got your blinkers on, have a look up. You'll feel all the better for it.

A real education

Learnt something new today. John Major never went to university. Makes you think what a real education is all about??

A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward. - Winston Churchill

Why I love the bus

Everyone seems obsessed with the metro or the tube. You're first thought to get somewhere is which dark, unforgiving tunnel will take you to a station with numerous confusing exits.
The bus however gives you a sense of place, of human contact (the driver doesn't sit in a box hidden from view) and a view unprecedented on the metro.
Would you see the Opera Garnier (see below) from your metro box.
More than that though, in Paris at least, is often quicker.
So for me I sometimes like to take the bus and I'm sure I'm better for it. And thinking about it, I'd like to Thank Mela for helping me appreciate it back in Brussels. You were right!

"Do not worry about holding high position; worry rather about playing your proper role." - Confucius

Genius

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information. - Winston Churchill

So this is what Churchill had to say about genius. Well as I stare at my game theory paper and the numbers on matrices that flow around I'm not sure to what extent I've mastered this skill but I'm trying none the less.

According to Howard Davies, one of my favourite professors here at Sciences Po, my history degree helped me on my path towards the genius Churchill talks of. (Well he didn't say that exactly but...) Apparently, it helps you to distinguish the truth from the lies, to battle through the intellectual maze and create something coherent (Ah he knows how to make someone feel better.)

Really though, I'm not talking about being a genius, of course, but when you've got so much information you wonder what you're aiming for. Why, in other words, am I doing this Masters. One thing is to learn  information but another more crucial skill is to learn how to and continue to evaluate "uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information". We have to learn to distil and never has that been more true.

Monday nights have never been so fun...

In case some of you think that life is Paris is a always a blast. I'd like to say that it is in many respects but as I stare at European directives next to Game Theory analysis the fact that I'm in Paris seems to drift away.
My wonderful Monday night is spent juggling these concepts while trying to cling on to sanity which I hope, but highly doubt, lies at the bottom of a coffee cup...
Monday nights have indeed never been so fun... :)

Breaching the divide

The epoch in which we live passes us by at an unprecedented pace but quite frankly I don’t think we’re the first ones to feel this way. Humanity has an amazing capacity to evolve and change - and relatively quickly (in the scheme of things). Nevertheless we have to find our own way of coping with our technological gift/burden/surroundings.

In this 21st century of globalisation I live right in the crest of this new wave of migration (can you see the ‘economic’ speak creeping in – I’ll throw in some more.) Again, this is nothing  new; the mercantile period from 16th to the 19th century saw Europeans dispersing themselves around the globe. Similarly the industrial period witnessed an estimated 48 million emigrants leaving Europe. The last century, however, saw a stifling flow of people – the world stopped trusting each other. We’ve started moving again though and it’s not just the Europeans who are doing so.

So now, as the daughter of a Chinese-Malaysian woman and a British man who is currently studying in France I am a product of this new wave of international freedom. I can travel and see new things, and meet new people without much regard for how difficult or how unusual it may have once been.

Being far away from good friends I am lucky to live in a time when connection is never far away but there is still something missing. The everyday moments I experience, the thoughts that pass me by cannot always be shared with all the friends I hold dear to me.

In that respect this is for you. You may not want to read it, you may not care, you probably think I’m a little crazy but here goes. I hope you enjoy.

Much Love. V x