Half way done

Hey guys, I am half way done my exams, 3 down 3 to go, and I am pretty excited to get my first year done.

I am writting this post to respond to a comment Wheels left to one of my recent posts. In that post I disscussed the 'cult of the international' etc. and the predomiance of 'international studies', arguing that such a focus is to the detriment of other areas of study. Wheels seems to have thought I was denying the importance of the 'international' to the future of canada. I.e. doesn't canada have to participate in a world economy. Certainly this is the case, that Canada must participate in the world economy, and there is nothing inherently wrong with the study of international relations, international political economy. etc. Maybe my objections came off as too strong or not completely well explained.


Basically I am not a fan of the attitude that people have chosen to take towards higher education and the world more generally. I just think that our obssesion with the international has lead to people ignoring their own communities. It seems for many who I talk to that there couldn't be any problems in their own backyards. (Ultimatly these are just my rantings and are not fully reasoned)

I guess secondly, what bothers me, and I see this in law school, people are all doing this to support and advance their careers. Once again it is attitudinal. But really, it is hard to blame these individuals where the job market in the white collar world is so ridiculously competitive.

Ultimatly I was just bothered by the issue of international students. It is unclear to me that accepting international students inherently makes us more comeptitve in the international economy. Especially for smaller regions, like the maritimes, we need more educated maritimes who are willing to remain in the area but have the capabilites to deal on the international stage.


But, sometimes I wonder who long the 'international economy' will last. With the scarcety of oil, and the possibility that we have reached the 'peak' of the worlds production of oil, it isn't clear that the international economy will be able to survive a serious decline in production and the increase in the cost of oil. Its hard to tell if we have reached this point considering the existence of OPEC and their unwilligness to divulge fully the amount of oil they have. But this is really just speculation.

Anyways, that is my thoguhts on the issue.