Wales vs Fiji

“So Mr. Brown, what's it going to be? Why don't you go ahead and call that election. Let the people pass judgment on 10 years of broken promises. Let people decide who's really making the arguments about the future of our country; let people decide who can make the changes that we need in our country. Call that election. We will fight, Britain will win.”

Anybody who’s known me for any length of time can tell you that I’ve long had an interest in politics. This was taken from a speech that David Cameron, Conservative party leader in the British Parliament, gave at the party’s convention yesterday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in office only a few months now, is faced with a decision on whether to have a referendum on his party’s leadership, and risk giving up the office he recently inherited from Blair. Last weekend, as a bit of background reading for one of my classes, I found myself reading a book on British politics that was written just over ten years ago, the last time the Conservatives held power in Great Britain. “We are at a time when there is a great choice to be made about our political system,” the author wrote, “and we live in a country which needs to keep its nerve and think clearly about the opportunities and dangers ahead.” Much of the same can be said about the political situation today, and it will be interesting to see how things turn out.

It’s a cold, foggy night in Aberystwyth. A short time ago, I returned from a lecture given by Peter Jackson, a professor in the international politics department, on British intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. He described the process by which it was gathered, analyzed, and eventually misconstrued in the attempt to justify the administration’s policies. It was interesting at times, and it called to mind the events of four years ago, when our two countries went to war in the face of worldwide protests. It also reminded me of a conversation I had the other night with a PhD student from India (random, I know) who made the point of how undemocratic it was for us to invade Iraq under such conditions. I think it was part of his attempt to poke holes in the Democratic Peace Theory that we learn about as interpol students, but I’m not sure.

As everyday life becomes more of the same college routine that I’ve gotten used to over the last three years, I’m noticing more differences between university life here and at home. One major difference is in how courses are structured. Here, it’s mainly lectures and seminars, with long reading lists to be completed by the end of the semester. There are no reading schedules, and most students choose to simply check the books they need out of the library instead of buying them on their own. Lectures can be intense, but at the same time there is very much a casual attitude around campus, much like I described last week. Students seem to be a lot less stressed out about things, and there are a lot more events during the week than I’m used to. During the lecture tonight, I glanced out the window at one point and saw a gigantic disco ball spinning in the student union building, where they were having a “pound party” with one-pound drinks (roughly two dollars each) offered at the bar.

In other news, Wales lost to Fiji in the Rugby World Cup last Saturday night. It was a sad event – rugby is, for many people, a way of life around here – but all was soon forgotten, as there are a lot of other things on the minds of the British people these days. Also, on a completely unrelated note, I might have a radio show here on campus soon. Being a part of a college radio station is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I figured this would be a good opportunity. I also figured they might need an American accent on the air. It probably won’t happen for another week or so at the earliest, though, so stay tuned for further details.

Tomorrow morning (after classes), a group of us international students are heading up to Snowdonia National Park for a good part of the weekend, hiking to the summit of the highest mountain in England and Wales and seeing some of the sights in the region, including Caernarfon Castle. I’ll be sure to post more pictures when I return. To everyone who’s still reading this, thanks for making it this far, and I promise to try to make these shorter in the future (I’ve already heard from a few of you about this). I hope things are going well for all of you back home in the states. Cheers!