Time to Write

With paper deadlines fast approaching (May 9^th) the time has come to buckle down and to put pen to paper, as they say. It's never easy to get started. It's never easy to frame your thoughts, assuming you have any thoughts to frame in the first place.

For my Political Strategy paper, I decided to write about the political legitimization of Sinn Fein in establishing a government for Northern Ireland. They told us at the beginning not to write about things that you have an established position on, or that you feel passionately about, since it is much harder to write objectively and academically. This was sound advice I chose to ignore.

Sinn Fein is the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, or political subordinate, depending on how you want to look at it. Many protestants declared that they would never join a power sharing government with the IRA, a position that was not hard to defend. But a lasting peace was never achieved without their support, and eventually all sides conceded. A Sinn Fein member named Martin McGuinness was named as a First Minister, a high position of power in the Northern Irish government. McGuinness also has another side job. Although the inner workings of the IRA are secret, he is widely believed to be head of the IRA's Army Council, essentially making him the top man in the IRA.

It's hard to read about Northern Ireland's progress in the last ten years (of which there has been a large amount) without thinking back. I remember the paramilitary march I went to, which induced the most fear and adrenaline I've ever experienced. I remember the helicopters diving above our heads maybe 50 feet off the ground, watching, listening. I remember the automatic weapons held by the police on every corner in the city center. I remember knowing that I stood out, that everyone knew I wasn't supposed to be there. In the end, it was much ado about nothing, although there was that electricity that came with knowing that history could be made at any moment.

I remember walking the North Belfast neighborhoods and seeing the murals of the paramilitaries. The flags that lined the entrances to subdivisions were emblazoned with the Red Right Hand that Protestant paramilitaries use. They were a warning or a welcome, depending on your heritage.

Protestant paramilitary mural (Photo is not mine)

I remember my first morning back in the United States. Restless with jet lag, I went walking at 5 or 6 in the morning. As I came to the first intersection I saw the Red Right Hand flashing at me from a crosswalk. I sucked in my breath. Then I looked around and saw that I was in sleepy early morning Fort Collins. It was calm and quiet.

Maybe they were right that we can't be objective when we write about things we have a history with, but I think that controlling my subjectivity to the best of my ability is a better skill than writing on things that don't excite me. I still think of Belfast when I see the Red Right Hand in the crosswalk, although without any visceral reaction. There are many cheap flights around Europe available, and I think after this semester is over I would like to visit again. I think we have a lot of catching up to do.

My Magic Suit

It's been really busy here. Classes ended last week, now we need to work on our papers, which I plan on getting to shortly. I don't know where the time goes but somehow my week always fills up.

Last week I bought a suit for the first time in my life last week. With the International Conference this week, and job interviews coming up it seemed like the right time. I had my first opportunity to wear it today while attending a conference put on by the UN on how to get a job with them.

The conference was located in a Belgian federal building in a huge underground conference room. There were rows of desks with microphones and headphones, presumably for translator services. Even though the UN didn't own this room, it looked exactly like one would expect a UN room to look like. Two long term UN employees put on the seminar to about 200 prospective employees, which was to last about 3 hours. The conference humming along like you'd expect, with some information about the UN and some basic job hunting advice. Then they started talking about the telephone interview that all prospective candidates would have to take. One of the women asked for a volunteer. No one raised their hand after a few seconds so I raised mine. My new suit gives me false confidence, I guess. After repeatedly asking the audience for another volunteer another girl was selected. We were led to the head of the room, given a microphone and told to turn our chairs around to face the wall, to simulate being on the phone I guess.

The girl was asked a question about how she approaches teamwork and to name a specific time that she was a member of a team, what her role was, how the process was developed, what the outcome was, and what could've been done better. It was quite an in depth question, and she was trembling but she gave a pretty good answer to all of the parts to the question, considering the circumstance. When she was finished, the moderator asked the audience what she could've done better, and they duly gave a laundry list on where she could've improved her answer. It was a bit savage to lay upon an unsuspecting volunteer, in my mind.

Hmm. Tough crowd. Then it was my turn. They asked me the same question, except that it was for event planning, my role, the outcome, etc. Event planning is not exactly my strong suit. Actually I don't remember planning an event in any professional context so I had to go to my "B" material. After thinking for a second, I regaled (possible exaggeration) the audience with a story on how I had helped organize the first University of Kent Beer Pong tournament. Beer Pong is a college drinking game that we the student government had organized into a tournament as a fund raiser. I elaborated on how I helped pick out the trophy and how I felt that the only downside was the amount of drunk students that where wandering around the neighborhood afterward. My suit gives me a bit of a smart-mouth, I guess.

I turned around and both moderators came at me with every criticism they could find, from the length of my answer to my posture in the chair (Hey I thought this was a telephone interview and we were supposed to be comfortable?). Neither one was amused, but I did see some smiles from the audience, whatever that was worth. I had a good time at the conference today, but I am not expecting a call back from the UN.