Zurich

Today's big news is I got a scholarship to attend a two-week business and human rights program in Zurich this summer. I'm not jumping up and down. This is partly because it is more work. It's intense, there's an exam, all-day workshops, etc. I spent all day in the library today and yesterday and I'm so tired of research and footnotes and academia. Also, my very good friend and boon companion Kyle will get here something like two days before I'd have to leave. Sitting in a pub shooting the shit with her sounds far more appealing than spending two weeks discussing labor law.

I now have 22 pages of notes, so I guess I should start writing the paper. I wanted to do some live interviews because I'm writing on a recent issue, but I have reached none of the five people I pursued (two members of Stormont, an environmental activist, a professor, and an angler). My topic is related to illegal dumping along the Faughan River Valley, a very beautiful place near where I lived as a teenager. Northern Ireland politicians have a horrible record of environmental neglect and my position is, basically, that the EU needs to fine their sorry asses to get them to take the environment seriously. Like America, the brains at Stormont put climate change deniers and creationists in charge of the Department of the Environment, while also emphasising development over conservation. Way to go, boys.
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