Two worlds

I spent part of the day at Queen's job fair. It was mostly London-based firms looking for law students willing to do a two-year training stint in various aspects of corporate law, at the end of which they could focus on M&As, securitisation, contracts, or other aspects of corporate law. Since I am interested in none of the above, I spoke to a few firms about whether they work with financial institutions on the investment and regulatory risks posed by climate change. One of the firms, whose research I had used in my thesis, does work on this issue and the 20-something-year-old guy I spoke to said their "knowledge management team" would be interested in talking to me. We'll see.

Afterward, I went to the agency that works with refugees and asylum seekers. It is in a ramshackle townhouse with bars on all the windows. My job is to enter names and phone numbers into a cellphone. Today, I got through Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. The names are beautifully foreign and I wonder how some of them are pronounced. Here are two examples:
Fatemeh Ebrahimpour Azizi
Silindile Ngcobo
I found a few people from Zimbabwe named Perseverance. I wonder if the women who had these babies knew what lay ahead for them--trying to find housing, clothing and food in a foreign culture, in a cold climate, and in a chilly political climate.
10-22