Responses to my fans ;)

In response to some comments on my previous post... btw, I looooooove getting comments. Makes me happy to see that my friends are reading this.

Still don't know where I'll be for the summer. Hope to know by early next week. Illinois is looking less likely, as I have two job opportunities that are both looking promising. Of course, no offer letters yet... But think good thoughts on Friday at 2pm CST - I've got a BIG interview then.

The guy on the plane was a little more robust (in a fit old man sort of way, as opposed to frail) looking than Ross Perot. And didn't have big ears. He did have glasses. And used to be a scientist at Lawrence Livermore Labs. No crazy Einstein hair, though.

And I DID get out yesterday! I hadn't exercised since last Monday - unless running around the mall in search of the perfect dress and shoes counts as exercise. My knees were starting to bug me and I couldn't focus... so I went for a run. It was great & I feel a lot better today. Well, maybe not so much the calves. There's a section of 123 stairs on a trail near my house. I decided to go up it a total of four times. Yeah... thems are some sore calves.

And some knowledge...
We're talking about globalization in my Macroeconomics course and needed to discuss a recent article. I found this little article about the G8 summit - http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=7793. Here's what I said:

In economics terms, it is very easy to forget about the "other" dimension of sustainability - the social, or people aspect. The article "G8 ministers to do more for social aspect of globalization," from EUX.TV discusses how there are plans to incorporate more social benefits to globalization.

The article mentions social aspects such as security, more and better jobs, CSR and "improving social protection systems" in developing economies. There is not a definition of a "better" job, but when tied with CSR, we can hope that this means safe, and at least minimally satisfying, work.

The EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Vladimir Spidla also pointed out that social benefits do not appear out of nowhere. They have to be deliberately included in the discussion and industry must go beyond legal mandates to help improve education, social issues and environmental regulations.

This whole concept is called "globalization," but what was also clear from reading this article, is that it's not really "global." There are definitely key players - the G8 members (US, Japan, Canada, France, Italy, Britain and Russia) were specifically called out. According to Wikipedia, these eight countries represent 65% of the world's economy.

From a social sustainability perspective, it seems like the ROW not included in the G8 is the group that should be most interested in getting the G8 on board with social responsibility - just as the G8 holds the majority of the economy, the non-G8 holds the majority of the people - the people most affected by decisions made by the G8.