Harvard Business School - Day 12

Friday 18 Sep 2009


We are only part way through the morning, but have already had some entertainment.

Our first class was part of the Business, Government and the International Economy (BiGIE), with the case and discussion on India (Singapore yesterday, China tomorrow).

Part of the discussion was around the geopolitical political issues in the region and of course covered the Jammu Kashmir region.

Prof. Vietor did a nice job of gaining both Indian and Pakistanian insight into the issue. He stated that there was one art that was under Parkistan control, and one part that was under Indian control but this was disputed by Pakistan.

The Pakistanian guy says this is wrong that the whole area was Pakistanian, while the Indian's counter that with the fact that when the British left (they both agree they can blame the British for most things that are wrong and unfair in their respective countries, the fact that they are having the argument in English seems to be lost on them) they did not make a determination on the Jamma Kashmir region, and the sheik (or tribal ruler) of that area decided after due consideration to pitch his tent with the Indians.

This was starting to get a little interesting (although conducted in good humour), when this Chinese guy (who has never said anything in class to date) stands up in class moves towards the Prof. and starts ranting on about this class being about economics not politics while waving a piece of paper around (which turns out to be a map). He was very passionate and not very articulate (it is very hard to be articulate when English is your second language).

He demands the Prof. put the map up on the overhead, which he duly does. It turns out his issue is that, while the map the Prof. had up showed some of Kashmir as being under Chinese control, it missed (or didn't provide enough granularity to show that part of the northern area shown as India between Nepal and Butan, was in fact also under Chinese control.

It certainly made for a bit of entertainment.