I'm feeling slightly shafted out of the entire intern experience, and I blame the World Health Assembly. It's kind of hard to work up the energy to get out to a bar that's 20 minutes away (that's gasp-worthy for my New Yorked self) at 10 PM when you finished a 9 to 8 PM day. And then went grocery shopping, because Thursday is "shopping day" and the only day stores are open later than 6:30 PM. Most annoying.
On the other hand, I get to listen to great talks about international patent law and bond with supervisors outside of my department -- I hope I'm not giving away the fact that human rights isn't exactly my area of expertise too early in the game, but trade agreements are kind of interesting. Not to mention that human rights doesn't leave much to debate. I learned this on the bus this morning in conversation with an MPH/MSW masters student interning with the HIV/AIDS group. Whoops.
This is why people like this don't do so well at the UN:
This what I spend most of my day doing; hanging around conference rooms listening to health ministers and policy experts talk about issues. The guy in the middle, however, is a Merck representative that was sent to make a fuss about intellectual patent protections during yesterday's talk on TRIPS and IP trends. I'd have (silently) applauded him for his guts if he hadn't decided to be an utterly rude prick while doing so. (Silence would be necessary because I am but a lowly intern and have been told I am not to be heard from. I steal postcards and graph paper notepads in retribution.) There was a nicer Merck lady in the R&D talk today.
So, I typed up notes, e-mailed the NYU reference librarian for help researching the African charter, sat in on talks about a proposed R&D treaty and WHO's work in humanitarian crises, watched a pile of paper for 4 hours, bonded with a health & trade specialist and read a ton about tobacco and AIDS today.
Cool.
On the other hand, I get to listen to great talks about international patent law and bond with supervisors outside of my department -- I hope I'm not giving away the fact that human rights isn't exactly my area of expertise too early in the game, but trade agreements are kind of interesting. Not to mention that human rights doesn't leave much to debate. I learned this on the bus this morning in conversation with an MPH/MSW masters student interning with the HIV/AIDS group. Whoops.
This is why people like this don't do so well at the UN:
This what I spend most of my day doing; hanging around conference rooms listening to health ministers and policy experts talk about issues. The guy in the middle, however, is a Merck representative that was sent to make a fuss about intellectual patent protections during yesterday's talk on TRIPS and IP trends. I'd have (silently) applauded him for his guts if he hadn't decided to be an utterly rude prick while doing so. (Silence would be necessary because I am but a lowly intern and have been told I am not to be heard from. I steal postcards and graph paper notepads in retribution.) There was a nicer Merck lady in the R&D talk today.
So, I typed up notes, e-mailed the NYU reference librarian for help researching the African charter, sat in on talks about a proposed R&D treaty and WHO's work in humanitarian crises, watched a pile of paper for 4 hours, bonded with a health & trade specialist and read a ton about tobacco and AIDS today.
Cool.
