success

...well, of a kind. 2 weeks ago we found out our bid to the UK government's Global opportunities Fund was successful, enabling us to continue the work I started and make it bigger and better. Actually I got back home at about 2am drunk, to check my mail and find out the news. "Lets celebrate" said Peter. "um, I'm already drunk, how about we celebrate another day?" I replied!

It also means I got paid finally, so I rewarded myself with this bike, which cost about 1 fifth of what it would in the UK and reduces my cycling time to long-distance destinations by about 40%. It feels fantastic, and looks great too!

Other things I have been up to included a day hiking with most of CSR team and a trip to Tianjin with 20 others to see some factories, attend a big Investment fair and get an office for the Tianjing branch of AIESEC, thanks to an alumni at the EU Chamber. This weekend was mostly spent cycling and trying out the new bike, whilst enjoying the beautiful weather. This week might be a little slow, but after the may holiday it will be a crazy dash to the finish with lots of travelling and activities; plus June spent in transition to my successor, Juan.

I suppose this week was the week when China really hit the big time: Its GDP for 1st quarter grew by 10.2% (apparently, even though the government is aiming for 8%) pushing it ahead of the UK officially into 4th place in the World and Hu Jintao went to visit Bush. Despite Hu making lots of concessions beforehand (releasing some political prisoners, being nicer to Taiwan, being nicer to the exiled Dalai Lama etc), the trip was still useless and achieved nothing (predictably) -not helped by the US government's ineptitude (woman shouting out about falun gong at the press conference, announcer calling the national anthemn with the name used by Taiwan -Republic of China- rather than the People's Republic of China, and Bush dragging Hu around)!

I am not sure what is going to happen, but it seems clear that the USA wants to remain the World's dominant power. China might not explicitly want the position of #1 (it has many of its own internal issues to worry about with a GDP per person still putting it at about 100 in the world!) and won't get it for a good 30-50 years more, but its still causing friction.. friction that won't go away. It seems everyone nowadays is competing for resources. Interestingly it seems that both countries inernational actions are more based on their domestic circumstances (either political or economic), and not what is actually best for their international relations. Surely this means that something has to give: domestic or international priorities?

Now it is time to try to find a job. then i might be able to write another 'success' post!