Hello InLawGrrls Readers!Where has the summer gone? Just a few short weeks ago, I set out for some much needed R&R. I landed in Westport on California's moody, foggy, cold, craggy, and oh-so-beautiful North Coast. Westport is a town of about 200 inhabitants with a claim to fame nearly unheard of in the modern age: I couldn't get internet access! I confess at first I was perturbed at the thought. No access? Whatever would I do without the "civilizing" influence of the internet, Starbucks, bookstores and all that noise that accompanies modern life? What did I do? I went native! I quickly gave up on the thought of driving 20 miles down a steep, narrow and winding road to get my fix. Instead, I walked on the beach, read, walked my dogs, slept and wrote a little (my rented house didn't even have a television and my cell phone got no reception to boot!). As with any addiction, the first 72 hours were the worst. After that, it was simply amazing. I only wish all of you had a chance to rejuvenate as well. (photo credit)
Alas, back to reality! Upon my return to civilization (ok, I confess to pouncing on my email like a starving water buffalo set free on the range) I was met with a pleasant surprise: my fifteen minutes of fame had arrived! Diane was kind enough yesterday to highlight the publication of my essay, which won the American Bar Association's Ross Essay Contest. I owe a debt of gratitude to all of you for the win. I first wrote about that conversation with my father right here on this blog. I don't believe I would have written the same essay without the trip down memory lane I first took with all of you. Thank you. Let's see, to date my blog posts have led me to: (1) write an op-ed piece published in the Sacramento Bee, (2) write an award-winning essay, and (3) launch my own website. Wow! I look forward to seeing what this (academic) year's posts will bring!Of course, plugging back in to civilization also brought its share of bad news. Once again, trade negotiations that would have completed the nearly eight year old Doha Development Round collapsed at the eleventh hour. If I did not know better, I would say this round was cursed. We had a miscarriage in 1999 with the "Battle in Seattle," when developing countries refused to agree to a launch. It wasn't until just a few weeks after September 11, 2001, that Doha was born--as proof of Presiden't Bush's commitment to business-as-usual so as not to "let the terrorists win." An inauspicious beginning for a trade negotiation, you'll have to agree. Then came the "Cancun Crisis," where delegates failed to meet a crucial deadline and everyone said the round was DOA. And now this . . . The "Doha Disaster" as I've dubbed it (if I were keeping up with the parallelism, I would have to find something to rhyme with "Geneva," which is the city in which the current negotiations fell apart. Try as I might, my rhyming skills just were not up for it, so I took the easy way out!)
Is this really the end of the round? Maybe. Nothing will happen before the U.S. Presidential
election; and having failed so spectacularly at the eleventh hour, it will take a great deal of U.S./EU leadership to bring things back on course--not to mention India's support. I cannot see a new president using his early political goodwill for something that is admittedly so controversial (and particularly not if that President is Obama--who is my choice despite our differences on trade policy). If Doha is not dead, it is going into a very long hibernation.
