The next phase begins

So in the paper, I dealt with climate change in the context of international businesses, and the effectiveness of environmental management systems and strategies. Ah yes, and writing up executive summaries for the evaluation of Vodafone’s annual and corporate social responsibility reports.

The guys went to the pub afterwards, whilst some of us girls preferred to get some fresh air in Hyde Park. The weather was good. Blue, clear skies and warmish… just the right sort of weather needed to celebrate the last exam day ever*. Spent some time after that chatting on MSN, sorting out emails to reply and organising my notes and all those reports and publications.

I’ll be adding to my carbon footprint as I fly back to Singapore tomorrow; shall be there for a good three weeks-ish. Thesis research begins now, in preparation for the proposal submission in late April. From now till September I’ll be free to dictate my own doings, as and when and where. Working to deadlines, of course, and a few specific guidelines.

Current reads and what’s lined up for the Easter break:

• The Age of Consent – by George Monbiot, one of the speakers from our policy seminars. Some radical stuff there, about capitalism and democracy, world institutions and ideas for a ‘new world order’. How to tackle poverty and environmentalism and all… it’s in the book.
• Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind – by Geert Hofstede, the pioneer of this field of intercultural differences and applications. Singapore, Hong Kong and numerous other countries are included in the national cultural profiles.
• The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living – by Fritjof Capra, on the ‘unified systems that integrate the biological, cognitive and social aspects of life.’ Looks quite dry and lengthy; this one might take a while.
• The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovations and Governance in the 21st Century – I lived on this book throughout the term. Well, this, and countless others. But it’s such a good book that I wanna devour every single page and it’ll take me some time to pick off the remains.
• And tonnes of papers relating to cultural anthropology, environmentalism, business management and stuff about the Asia-Pacific region

^{* Very possibly so. I can’t envision myself going through formal lectures and exams ever again. Unless I go for an MBA in the far future. Or something. The two other girls in QuGee are both going for PhDships! And Sun may be returning next year, also for a doctorate…}