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Why is giving up, the easiest path, sometimes the hardest thing to do?

I might be attending the Global Forum for Health Research in Beijing in Oct/Nov, which would be about 7-8 months too late to when I should’ve been there, or 8-9 months too early. Might being the operative word - I am very unlikely to succeed.

Thank you very much for sending an essay for our competition. All essays have now been reviewed and we are in the final round of judging. Results will be announced at the beginning of August. I am pleased to be able to tell you that your essay has been shortlisted.

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I rushed out of the office during lunchtime (missing yet another incredible AEI three-course lunch) to take the Metro down to the Library of Congress to attend UC Santa Barbara prof. Kim Suk-young’s presentation on “Kim Jong-il and North Korean films”. It was ridiculously hot and I had decided to wear my suit, which was a bad idea. The Metro was screwy and I was in such a rush that I went into the wrong building and had to get through security all over again. Eventually I found my way to her talk.

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When Atlas Shrugs

On my way to sit in Parliament with David, I took the bus past a local university and saw this billboard, and realized how tragic it is that one of the most fundamental and most precious of civil liberties has been reduced to a marketing gimmick for mobile phones, most ironically, by a telecom firm owned by those who deny it. Perhaps it was most tragic that none of the students there would appreciate the horrible irony.

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While I stopped over in the city I attended the book launch of Macartan Humphreys‘ Managing the Resource Curse at the Earth Institute in Columbia. Here’s what happened:

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Looks like I’ll get the chance to stay at the Hyatt NYC for once in my life:

CONGRATULATIONS! Welcome to the 33rd Annual Business Today International Conference, “Sustainable Growth - Taking Responsibility for the Future”. After a long process, the admissions committee and I are pleased to offer you a spot as an attendee at the conference to be held November 17-20, 2007 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. You were selected out of an applicant pool of over 1,000, so there are high expectations for you, but we feel confident that you will rise to the challenge. The conference will be a fantastic experience for you in that you will have the opportunity to meet, speak with, and learn from over 75 Fortune 500 executives. The agenda is still being finalized, but the current version is attached for your perusal. We are in the process of securing seminar leaders and are beginning to create the case study project, so you should expect more updates about the executives who will participate in the event as the summer continues.

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And the living isn’t easy. Although I thought my time back home in Singapore would be a long-awaited vacation spent having fun with old friends, it seems like all I’m doing is research and writing projects, entirely of my own volition but for an unclear aim.

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