Salocin

From the BBC

The Bush administration is reported to be planning a long-term military relationship with the post-Saddam Hussein government of Iraq ..... Such access would be useful for putting pressure on Iran and on Syria.

Useful? I wonder what for.

It's taken me 2 days to recover from it, which is why it's taken me so long to get around to writing about it, but I think it's fair to say that the weekend was an unqualified success.

The Wharton Welcome Weekend was an unqualified success. I can say this with a straight face, and this is no mean feat, given how negative everyone tells me that I am.

A number of friends of mine were involved in the overall organization, and I got involved in a bunch of activities, and so I obtained a strong perspective on what it was like from the inside. All things considered, it was a great deal of work.

It's important to state that a huge number of current students are involved in the effort. In fact, the Welcome Weekend itself is organized almost entirely by current students, with a little participation from the administration and staff. Who better to give the incoming class a sense for what makes Wharton Wharton?

This undertaking does not come easy, however. The number of volunteers ranks in the hundreds. The schedule for the admits is 8am to 2am daily, and every event they have in that space of time is organized, co-ordinated, populated and run by students. This is because it's the students that make Wharton Wharton.

Welcome to a world where we run the show. Where the Private Equity tuition you'll get before your internship will be given to you by a student. Where the memberships you pay will be paid to students. Where the clubs you join will be run by students. Where the awards you recieve will be given to you by students. Sure the school provides some of the best finance, operations, marketing and leadership training in the world, but you'll learn as much again from the students. We are Wharton, and so will you be. Welcome.

I've just started "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace. It's a big book, and I have limited time to dedicate to it, so expect it to be in the "reading" box on the right for some time!

We went rowing this morning - we don't usually row on Sundays, but we've signed up for a race next weekend, and we're into embarassment-mitigation these days. That being said, we got to take out a different 8-man boat today, and it was so much better than the one we usually row that despite the wind, the cold and the choppy water, we flew!

Another little hiccup was that several members of the team failed to notice that the time change occurred last night and we lost an hour, which means half the team was killing time at the boathouse waiting for the others to get there.

Once on the water, we had a little trouble getting used to the different boat - The "Robert Palmer" that we usually row is very heavy and takes pretty much all of us pulling together to get it moving at a respectable pace. The "Wharton Journal" that we were rowing today is somewhat lighter, and for some reason that could no doubt be explained by a PhD in fluid dynamics, it just flies. It's a real rush to be pulling on the oars in unison and to see the banks of the river go flying by.

We're not at the level we should be (especially in terms of technique) in order to race, but we can get the boat moving enough to get from the start line to the finish line, and if the other university's amateur teams are as amateurish as we are, perhaps we have a chance!

That having been said, the race is the day after the Europa party, which promises to be huge, so I'm a little concerned regarding our state of health when the starting gun goes off!

Apart from all that, we have so much to do it's not even funny - I've all of next week's lectures to prepare, two homeworks to do and a company valuation to start, a team meeting at 2:30 (in 15 minutes), a dinner at 7:30, and I got up early enough that I need an early night. It's fun to be busy, but you can also get too much of a good thing!

It's only a few days away... On Thursday, hundreds of admitted students will descend upon Wharton to judge for themselves whether the school is where they want to be. The preparation has been intense!

Months of preparation, I am not joking, go into these three little days. I remember from last year, when I attended the same event, thinking that they couldn't possibly expect us to attend every single thing on the agenda, but they were one step ahead of us. Committees of students had agonised over details such as the transit time from this event to that lecture, or from the drinks on campus to the international club dinners. With a military precision that would put the allied forces to shame, Wharton has prepared what probably amounts to its largest annual event.

Everyone here looks forward to it. Two truly huge parties and a sneak preview of our classmates for the coming year, along with the host of activities that many MBAs help out with make this a weekend we all feel intimately involved with. Personally, I'm going to be helping with the greeting and distribution of Welcome Weekend information packs, I'm hosting a student at my apartment, I'm on a student information panel, and I'm part of the team organizing the Friday night party, which is going to be huge, so I'm looking forward to it all!

The international cultural show was last night, and while the trend is to rave about how talented our fellow students are - and it would never cross my mind to disagree - the show succeeded more than this - it provided an emotional and enchanting look at beautiful aspects of cultures, inspiring emotions that linger and inspire.

What a show. I don't say this lightly. With over 1600 students in the school, you could guess that a fair amount of talent had to lie beneath the surface, but when you see it on the stage in such condensed form, it inspires and motivates.

Held in the Annenberg Center on the Penn University campus, the show sold out (as far as I could tell) the 970 seat capacity of the Zellerbach Theatre. In its 3 short years of life, the reputation of the event has reached a level where it can sell out Penn's largest venue. And there's another showing tomorrow night.

The show started strong, with a Chinese Ribbon Dance from the Chinese New Year celebrations. There was much cheering as we saw faces from our classes and our social lives here in Philadelphia demonstrating an art form that was unfamiliar to many, and clearly being performed to a high level - this was to be the theme for the night: Our friends have been rehearsing for months.

Most of the acts involved dancing: we were treated with the Chinese ribbon dancing, Azerbaijani traditional dances, Argentine Tango (one of my favourites), Persian dancing, African gumboot and several forms of Indian dance, to name but a few. Some acts involved song or music, such as the Jewish Klezmer, American bluegrass, the Whartones (Wharton's acapella group) and Bateria, the Wharton drum group. Brits showed a video spoof of Trigger Happy TV, African students and partners treated us to some folklore and songs, martial arts were demonstrated and our hands were sore from the clapping by the time the French Can Can took the stage to round off the evening.

At 3 hours long, with most acts lasting between 3 and 5 minutes, you may think that the show had its ups and downs, but every act had a soul and power reflective of the culture it was drawn from. The students here have many hidden talents that are too seldom taken to the stage, but I knew that already. More than that, and regardless of previous travels, a show such as this reignites the desire to see the world and experience the powerful artistic expressions that are infused with the spirit of so many cultures. This is very much a high point of Wharton life.

I went to France last weekend, to participate in Forum 21, a conference on trans-Atlantic relations. At this time, of course, this is more interesting than ever, and while one side of the debate was more heavily represented than the other, it was nice to see that moderate views can still be held.

More happened at the Forum than could possibly be encompassed in an article on a simple website such as this. The theme of this conference was "Improving the Human Condition", but of course the world around us imposes its own subjects for discussion, and the Forum doesn't shirk from addressing the matters that weigh on our minds. With a very healthy turnout from both sides of the Atlantic, all sides of every argument were at least somewhat represented.

The panels and plenary sessions covered an extremely broad variety of subjects, including possible approaches to future multinational efforts to tackle global problems, the future of transatlantic relations, a report from the bleeding edge of scientific research, the role of film as a cultural bridge, the financing of pensions across the world, technology and privacy, intellectual property and the future of Turkey. The greatest shame is that panels occur four-at-a-time, meaning that participants must make trade-offs when choosing what to attend.

My favourite plenary session was the update on science, where we learned about efforts to discover the Higgs Boson, the latest thinking on the expanding universe, an explanation of cosmic exploration and an assessment of our ability to respond to the threat of space debris in the coming years. When people with positions at the forefront of scientific research also possess the communication skills to enchant and educate their audience, the subject is elevated to the point where is becomes fascinating.

We were also spoilt over lunches, with informal speeches and discussions from the likes of Marc Pachter (Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC) and Mario Vargas Llosa (Peruvian author of great renown).

The high calibre of the delegates, the relaxed and honest nature of the interactions and the global issues tackled all come together to make Forum 21 an event that allowed me to deepen my understanding of issues I was not familiar with, and to contribute my opinion where I had something to say (and to get the reactions to that opinion!).

It's exhausting to go across the Atlantic for just a weekend, but more than worth it when such experiences await.