An electrical fire erupted today in underground utility tunnels near Medford Square, blasting two manhole covers 25 feet upward and sending flames high into the air.
No injuries have been reported and the subterranean fire has been extinguished, but not before knocking out electricity to 7,000 utility customers. More than half of those customers had service restored by early afternoon, but those who remain without power may have a long wait.
Come join the best minds in business, politics and investment as they debate and analyze political risk mitigation strategies at the conference “Managing Political Risk,” which will take place Friday, October 23rd at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. Conference panelists will include OPIC executives Rod Morris, Vice President Political Risk Insurance, and Barbara Day, Acting Vice President Investment Funds.
Sponsored by The Center for Emerging Market Enterprises, the Fletcher Political Risk Forum at The Fletcher School, Tufts University with support from ExxonMobil, this Boston forum will bring together over 100 professionals and feature panels on energy and resource nationalism, business intelligence, investment and trade finance in conflict affected countries, and political risk insurance. Two keynote speakers, Dr. Louis Wells, Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School, and Dr. Llewellyn Howell, Emeritus Professor of International Management at Thunderbird School of Global Management will open the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively.
To register and for more information, including a schedule and list of panelists, please visit: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/politicalrisk09/. For additional insight on the conference content, visit the conference blog at http://blogs.uit.tufts.edu/managingpoliticalrisk/. Registration for this event will close COB Tuesday, October 20th.
OPIC was established as an agency of the U.S. government in 1971. It helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment, and supports U.S. foreign policy. Because OPIC charges market-based fees for its products, it operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to taxpayers.
OPIC’s political risk insurance and financing help U.S. businesses of all sizes invest in more than 150 emerging markets and developing nations worldwide. Over the agency's 38-year history, OPIC has supported $188 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over 830,000 host-country jobs. OPIC projects have also generated $72 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 273,000 American jobs.
Outubro.
Dia de visita. Pap's, Mutti e Walter vieram passar o sábado chuvoso na pacata Boston.
Brazil: Host of the 2016 Olympics. Home to a Professional Diplomatic Corps.
Ambassador of Brazil to the United States Antonio de Aguiar Patriota addressed Brazilian grand strategy and foreign policy developments at the latest Charles Francis Adams Lecture, "Brazil - USA: Bilateral, Regional And Global Dimensions,” on September 30, 2009 at the Fletcher School. The main takeaway was the newly independent character of Brazilian foreign policy, a country which, as Dean Bosworth put it, is proud to have “one of the best foreign services in the world”. He pointed to the fact that Brazil has opened dozens of new embassies, and all of its Ambassadors are professionals, not political appointees.
In comparison to other BRIC countries (Russia, India and China), Brazil is the only one that is self-sufficient in food, water, and energy, just as the U.S. was 150 years ago. It is also the only BRIC in which inequality has decreased. In the social and cultural arena, IBSA (India, Brazil, and South Africa), three large multicultural democracies, have signed a treaty that will increase these countries’ soft power in the upcoming years, as already demonstrated by Brazil’s increasing presence in summits and conferences around the world.
Ambassador Patriota expressed a positive view of the Obama administration’s openness to negotiations with countries with which it has not had a dialogue in the past, such as Trinidad and Tobago. He defined new milestones to explain the U.S.’s wisdom and dominance, which rose with the fall of the Berlin Wall and has faded since the Wall Street collapse. In view of the discussions at the recent G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, he believes that the G-8 is becoming obsolete. It is neither dead nor being replaced by the G-20, but it is on the way to becoming a club for Europe and the U.S. to discuss specific issues. He pointed out that Brazil is a top contributor in the new G-20 group.
Brazil is a vital regional player, maintaining productive relationships with its ten neighbors. Stability, democracy, and economic and social progress are the goals of the triangular diplomacy conducted by Brazil and the US with Latin American and Caribbean countries in order to develop capabilities such as biofuels production.
In response to a question about the proposed U.S. military presence in Colombia, the Ambassador recognized the U.S.’s right to conduct its own military relations with other countries, but stressed that Brazil and others in the region are requesting assurance that U.S. military operations will be restricted to within Colombia’s borders. Colin Canham III, a first-year MIB student, was disappointed by Ambassador Patriota’s response to this question, which failed to address the enormous diplomatic elephant in the room, Venezuela. Nonetheless, Canham was impressed by the fact that Brazil seems poised to take the lead on a new progressive global movement in light of its success in reducing poverty, repaying its debts, and continuing to strengthen trade/finance integration and anti-corruption. Brazil is now “almost” a creditor, has a stable currency, and was largely unaffected by the current financial crisis due to its low degree of dependence on foreign trade.
As Brazilians look forward to hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, they can take pride in a diplomatic corps that is dedicating so much effort to carrying out Brazil’s foreign policy.
Manias, Panics, and Crashes: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It.
A varanda. Ponto de encontro dos moradores do primeiro andar. Recinto onde ficam jaquetas e sapatos sem dono. Local de se tomar uma cerveja e fumar um cigarro ao cair do dia, onde se joga conversa fora e se debatem importantes teorias. Onde se fala de política, de religião, de viagens. Onde se reclama do tempo, dos professores, das aulas. Onde se debate o sistema de saúde americano, o ano novo judaico, a cidade de Boston. Onde se fala de sonhos e decepções. Onde se criam esperanças e se analisa o passado.
Blakeley é o dormitório dos alunos da Fletcher, onde fiquei hospedada no primeiro semestre. No meio do prédio, tem um delicioso jardim, palco de conversas e aventuras. Foi lá que Ivan nos brindou com um delicioso churrasco. Ops, com um delicioso churrasco americano. Agora sim. Pão, tomate, queijo e um mega hamburguer. Catchup e batata frita para acompanhar. Calma, calma, tinha uma super salada de folhas verdes, azeitona e tomate. Tarde agradável. Na frente do prédio tem uma quadra de baseball, onde bixos e veteranos arriscaram uma partida de futebol.
Alunos orgulhosos e receptivos que somos, transformamos o porão em pista de dança e abrimos as portas da casa para nossos calouros! Jordan (roommate #1) comandou o Mac, ligou as caixinhas de som e fez os futuros diplomatas se requebrarem! Recém-chegado à HoT, aquisição celebrada pelos antigos moradores, que agora têm um carinho especial pelos tão difamados MIBs (Master of International Business). Nicholas (roommate #2), um dos únicos que eu conhecia antes de ser selecionada para habitar a HoT. Foi essencial na minha escolha para ocupar o quarto vazio do primeiro andar. Morou no Japão, mas tem as raízes na bela cidade de San Francisco, do outro lado do continente. Aparentava ser um pouco mais reservada, Caroline (roommate #3) foi uma das primeiras pessoas com quem eu conversei logo que cheguei em Medford no semestre passado. A pista de dança ficou pequena! E HoT house even hotter!
Diretamente da Wikipedia:
Beer Pong (also known as Beirut) is a drinking game in which players throw a ping-pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end. The game typically consists of two two-player teams and multiple cups set up on each side set up in triangle formation. There are no official rules, so rules may vary widely, though usually there are six or ten plastic cups arranged in a triangle on each side.
The goal of the game is to eliminate the other teams' cups before one's own cups are eliminated. When a ball lands in a cup, which are generally 1/4 to 1/3 full, that cup is eliminated and the defending team must consume all of the beer inside that cup.
The losing team must consume all the beer remaining in the winning team's cups. The order of play varies – both players on one team shoot followed by both players on the other team, or players on opposite teams can alternate back and forth.
O último capítulo da série "Kika Caminhando na Índia" coincide com o dia da independência de nosso querido país.
Ivan, companheiro da Fletcher, veio nos visitar acompanhado de sua namorada, Amie.
Começamos com um típioco filme de Bollywood, Love Aaj Kal, cujo elenco conta com a brasileira Giselle Monteiro, modelo de 19 anos. Música, dança, ator bonitão que canta sem camisa e corre na chuva, a mocinha linda e perfeita. Filme que mostra o contraste entre o casamento tradicional indiano e a nova realidade dos jovens. Triste, bonito, engraçado, piegas.
Seguimos para um delicioso almoço de aniverário no Qba, um dos meus restaurantes favoritos em Delhi.
Enquanto Ivan e Amie expolaravam o cair da tarde no romântico Qtub Minar, Pankaj e eu fomos atrás de um bolo e velas chinesas. Sim, o Ivan adora uma flor que se abre com o calor das chamas e toca Happy Birthday to You.
Todos reunidos em casa, a noite foi agradável e nos divertimos com a felicidade do aniversariante diante das velas animadas.
Os Sikhs, frequentadores do Golden Temple em Amritsar, são reconhecidos à distância: não cortam cabelo nem barba (por isso o turbante), e levam um pente pequeno para desembaraçar as longas madeixas, carregam sempre um punhal (ou uma faca) para se protegerem, usam uma calçola comprida e tem uma pulseira no braço direito. Cerca de 40.000 seguidores e turistas visitam o templo diariamente, onde homenageiam o livro sagrado, cantam, rezam, meditam, almoçam, banham-se nas águas sagradas ao redor do templo e dão uma cochiladinha no fim do dia. Juntamo-nos aos demais 39.996 e passamos algumas horas no templo. Tivemos o privilégio de ajudar na cozinha, onde Adam, mais audacioso, sentou junto aos cortadores de côco. Os demais, ficamos na ala das louças. Foi o mais próximo que me senti da linha de produção que estudei nas aulas de economia. Impressionante a organização, dependente de voluntários e fiéis.
