It's the first day of school today, and already I missed a class. It was a class on the Psychology of Women at 11am this morning. Intrigued? I'll get back to this point later. I actually got up relatively early, all pumped up to face the incoming rigors of the academia (and to wear the Timberland boots I just bought yesterday) but then Bobo was in the bathroom. I ended up going back to sleep again and was jolted up by the shocking realization that it was already 10am. By the time I was ready to go out of the house, it was about 10:15am, and instead of driving, I decided to take the bus, thinking that there was a slim of getting to campus on time. Well, I was wrong, and I got to campus at about 11:15am. I could have gone to the class despite the tardiness, but I decided to go smoke cigarette and drink coffee instead.
Anyway, I'm taking the Psychology of Women class just for the hell of it. It sounds interesting enough and I'm just curious to find out more about what lurks in the deep recesses of a woman's psyche. I'm also taking three other Political Science classes: The Development of the Western Political Thoughts; European Integration; and an Independent study class, where I get to pick my own research topic and write a publishable paper on it.
I was thinking of doing a comparative study of ASEAN and the European Union (EU), and can ASEAN be compelled to achieve the current status of the EU? By which I mean, can ASEAN be transformed from its merely titular organizational status to a more encompassing, substantive, and harmonized supranational entity that is the EU? Is it possible to integrate the vast and disparate expanse of the SE Asian region into one that shares the same trade, economic, monetary, foreign, labor, environmental, social and defense policies, among others, and also not to exclude, one unifying Constitution? Well, the EU has been grappling with these issue for the past fifty years or so, and I want to explore the possibility of ASEAN to successfully emulate the relative success of the EU.
I just spent some time at Dr. John's office today talking about my research, and whose European Integration class I'll be taking this semester, and it seems more clear to me that, absent of certain essential ingredients that can spur the creation of such entity, it is virtually impossible for ASEAN to become a supranational state that does not just facilitate free movement of capital, finance, and labor, but also compels its member states to adhere to laws and common practices that respect human rights, democracy, civil liberties, the environment and others. I'm not saying that the EU has achieved all of these lofty goals but at least there are a lot serious discourses about these issues. Given the current pathetic nature of ASEAN, it's hard to see it being more than what it is now.
Anyway, it's looking like it will be a good and intellectually fulfilling semester. A big chunk of my time will be spent on the research paper and it well better be the best damn paper I will have ever written.
Also, I happened to stumble on this website today while trying to refresh my memory of European geography. Check out this website if you feel like testing your mettle on World Geography.
No comments:
Post a Comment