Beaucoup d'amusement (Lots of fun)

1. The Fair

I had a blast last night. Myself, Stef, Sophie (two UNSW people) , Abbey, Beth, Sebastian (3 UK people), Daria (an NZ person) and Martina (a Parisian) went to a random fairground at 9pm. It was particularly random because it only opened at 9pm, and even more random because it was next a giant cemetery. I don't know many fairgrounds that only open at 9pm and are situated next to cemeteries, but anyway...

I went on two rides when I was there; the first called 'The Boomerang' which was kind of like the Pirate Ship, but didn't have the same fixed axis like that ride. This one swung around much more violently and seemed to have a 3-Dimensional rotation axis, meaning it was a lot more fun. It didn't go upside down unfortunately, but it did swing to nearly 90 degrees off the ground, and we did feel those wonderful moments of weightlessness which make the whole experience worth it.

The second ride I went on was called 'Shaker Dance' or something silly like that, but it was by far the most terrifying, thrilling ride I have ever been on. It didn't look like much from the outside - it's not very big, was on only a slight slant, and had about 5 octopus like things on it. The octopus things had a metallic column in the centre, and emanating from this centre were 4 support beams, and at the end of each of these support beams was a cage where two people could sit. I thought the floor would rotate quickly and that would be the ride, but I was very wrong. Not only did the floor rotate extremely quickly, but the central column of each octopus spun us in the opposite direction to the floor spin at an even faster rate. Further, the support beams went up and down, and to top it all off, the cages spun 180 degrees at exceptionally fast rates. Basically, it was like entering a washing machine. While we were strapped in quite securely, our heads were not, and with all the twisting and turning my head was continually slammed from side to side and I thought my ears were going to bleed. There were wonderful moments in the ride when it felt like we were being hurled directly at the floor ( in fact we were, but it was our harnesses which stopped us from smashing our faces into the floor), and most of the ride was a giant blur because of the high speeds of everything turning.

As comparison, I have been on Lethal Weapon at Movie World, which is said to be one of the most frightening in the country - imagine going on a ski lift, upside down, at a massive height, at 100 km/h. That was nothing compared to the ride I went on in this random little French fair. Cheers to it being small and amazing.

2. Confidence

I seem to have rediscovered my confidence, having lost it in my last post. I know my contribution should be measured in drive, not particular ideas. I think I am starting to feel at home here in Aix. Another reason for this surge in confidence comes from the two courses I am taking in English right now on Globalisation - I am concentrating harder than I have ever concentrated, by virtue of the fact that it is in my native language. Absence makes the heart grow fonder - a cliché, but definitely a valid one.

The professors of these courses are interesting people, but one in particular, Professor John Rapley, deserves a bit of a description. A very confident, charismatic lecturer - born in Canada (and with a Canadian accent) but now lives in Jamaica. He reminds me of a history teacher I had in high school, Dr Gaunson - the whole lecture is basically a string of very interesting anecdotes. For example, he once told us about how he met with a local drug baron in Kingston, Jamaica, and the drug baron was complaining about IMF structural adjustment because now the government was too weak to give him financial support to do their dirty work. Extraordinary.

I have learnt a lot about Globalisation recently, and my opinion for now is that I am a fan of state intervention - particularly for poorer states. It is interesting to note that all the big winners in globalisation have been states who started off highly interventionist - the USA, Western Europe, India, China, Taiwan, Singapore...Etc. Countries that have done well out of globalisation but got massively knocked by financial crises are ones like South Korea, whose liberalisation was slower than is preached by the neoliberal crazies, but still haphazard and without proper controls. Countries that have done the worst out of globalisation are those that were not interventionist until they reached a reasonable level of wealth - Russia, African countries, many Latin American countries, etc. Mr Keynes had it right. And all this stuff about scaring away foreign companies by high barriers - well if you are trying to develop local industries, isn't that the point? Let the electronic herd go elsewhere.