qui tacet consentire videtur

These days I have come to accept that disappointment is a part of life and I should get used to rejection. You win some, you lose some. But it really sucks to have lost the important one.

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Thanks to the scholars program, I was able to see two Broadway shows: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the Lion King.

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Chris Hill, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the head of the US delegation to the six party talks was invited to Columbia by WEAI to talk. I was not the only undergraduate present, but the room was largely graduate students and press. I sat in between mainland Chinese graduate students and this lady from a Taiwanese wire service. There were five or six television cameras at the back.

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When a friend and I were discussing summer plans and how it seemed like everyone had some kind of financial services job except me, a part of me justified my “you don’t run with the crowd/ you find your own way” with this: it seems so selfish to focus on my personal happiness when I have a responsibility to do so much more. Like save the world. It was only later that it occurred to me that perhaps I’m the selfish one for simply pursuing my own intellectual interests, when my peers pursue lucrative careers not out of greed but a sense of responsibility to support their families in an increasingly uncertain future.

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(Shibuya, Tokyo) In our commoditized society, what is the price of friendship?

X: What do you think of Y?
Me: Sometimes I worry that Y only cares for people insofar as it advances Y’s interests. That once I have nothing to offer, our friendship will come to an end.
X: That’s funny… because Y said the exact same thing about you.

It was hard to say yes to the pretty girls who otherwise ignored me except when they wanted something: lecture notes, answers to problem sets, advice about this or that. I felt cheap for being so easily bought by a smile, but I gave in anyway. It sometimes seems like many of my so-called ‘friends’ are only interested in me because I have something to offer them.

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(Eden Center, Arlington VA - a.k.a. last remaining territory of the old South Vietnam republic) America needs more culinary diversity.

How do you define diversity? There is no logical end to diversity, since there are an infinite number of criteria by which people differ, but some definitions are more important than others in achieving some degree of proportional representation of whichever constituencies are defined. Some definitions are broadly accepted as bad or problematic definitions: ethnicity. Some definitions are difficult to employ in practice: means-tested income. Some definitions depend on the winds of fashion and political correctness: gender, sexual orientation. Some definitions are somehow very unpopular: political orientation. Some definitions are absurd in one aspect but are perfectly acceptable in another. I focus on one particular definition, which seems legitimate: diversity of worldview.

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The long-awaited animated special of my all-time favorite k-drama MiSa (미안하다, 사랑한다 / Mianhada, Saranghanda) has finally been released on DVD. I want it so bad.

I’m going to Switzerland.

On behalf of the International Students’ Committee (ISC), we would like to cordially thank you for your excellent contribution to this year’s St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award. We are very delighted about the challenge you have undertaken when working on the topic “Global Capitalism - Local Values”. In the past few weeks the jury has thoroughly evaluated the around 1,000 entries in order to choose those 200 students who will be invited to the 38th St. Gallen Symposium.

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(Ghibli Museum Mitaka, Tokyo) Whose children can best pilot the Japanese economic machine?

I attended a Weatherhead institute seminar on the ownership and board structure of Japanese family firms by Prof. Yupana Wiwattanakantang from Hitotsubashi University, hosted by b-school Center on Japanese Economy and Business director Hugh Patrick. I actually had the opportunity to visit Hitotsubashi while I was in Tokyo this winter, where I stayed with my friend and co-JFTC-winner Dyna in his Economics RA office. Prof. Yupana presented her a working paper on the performance of family firms in Japan, which I found quite fascinating.

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(Asakusa, Tokyo) It’s when it rains that I need you most by my side.

I remember the taste of her specialty chicken curry, its rich coconut cream and spices that soak into the thick slices of bread. She would bring bowls of it to me, and Yeo’s drinks, before slipping a red packet into my hands while encouraging me to study hard. I only saw grandaunt once a year, because it was our tradition to visit them on the first day of the lunar new year. I remember the walk up to their three-room flat in an old housing estate, back when it had not been redeveloped yet. Those childhood memories are hazy, but I remember how magical their aquarium seemed, with toys and figures perched around the pond. They said it was good fengshui.

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