Tom@ISM... Tomatism? 🍅ism!

Well, sorry for the quality of the picture. It is straight from Instagram... Speaking of technology, on Tuesday (13 November), Tom gave an open lecture on Tesla and corporate governance at ISM. Despite the cold weather more than 70 people came to the lecture... (Mr. Musk, I did not talk anything bad about you... just about your Twitter posts and the settlement with the SEC...) It is aimed to those who are not well versed in finance. Why did the SEC accused Mr. Musk for decreasing the value of company? What does it mean to be an 'owner' of a company? What do 'independent' board members do? These are some of the questions answered in this short open lecture.

Tom Hashimoto: Here, we have Dr. Maik Huettinger, Associate Professor in Economics and Ethics and BA International Business and Communication Programme Director at ISM. Maik teaches an ethics course for MSc Financial Economics programme. I heard that you went to France under the Erasmus scheme.  Did you notice any differences in terms of teaching and learning environments between France and Lithuania? Maik Huettinger:  Well, I have been only a couple of days in France. Therefore, it is very hard to make any judgment. Generally speaking, students in France are very polite, however their level of English is not comparable to the one of Lithuanian students. TH:  (Wow! That's an encouraging statement!) Ethics has been emphasised in many programmes, especially in the EU and the US. To be honest, I have rarely seen an 'advanced' ethics in business and economics programmes in other parts of the world. What makes ethics course so important these days? What kind...

On Thursday 18 October, Tom Hashimoto (yes, me) led a seminar on English law at the University of Warsaw in Japanese . At the UW, the applied linguistics departments (e.g. Japanology or Japońistyka) have introductory courses on law or economics in each language. So, it truly APPLIES the languages. As a part of this law course, Tom spent one hour talking about English law from the concept known as 'equity' to the principle of self-help in contracts. Tom highlighted that it is sometimes difficult to translate concepts of English law into Japanese as the corresponding words may be misleading. Even the very word 'イギリス法' can be understood as 'Law of the United Kingdom' or 'Law of England' depending on the context. (By the way, the Law of the UK is the Law of England & Wales + of Scotland + of N. Ireland.) 'Equity' is translated as '衡平法' but the Katakana version 'エクイティー' is often seen as well. A seminar on English Law ...

As EU Economics (BA) course nears the end, we are engaged in the model European Council (an official meeting of the Member States). The topic was whether the EU shall continue sanctions against the Russian Federation given the allegations made by the United Kingdom in relation to the Skripal poisoning case. The Italian delegation was late to the meeting (were they acting?), and the Secretariat holds the name card anxiously (left). The UK delegation is making their speech (centre) while someone whispered 'Brexit' (right). On the second day, the delegates were negotiating each other to find compromises. Today, friends in the real life can be enemies, representing different countries... One delegate asked 'is it even legal to do such a thing?' responding to one of the proposals. Another replied, 'well, it's politics...'

After six weeks of slightly intensive training, Tom Hashimoto just received the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme certificate. This programme is developed by Said Business School at Oxford and operated by a South African company, GetSmarter. Of course, it is incomparable to an MBA or other executive programmes, but still, it has been a stimulating endeavour! The course focused more on the blockchain technology and business strategies surrounding it, rather than cryptocurrencies. This made the contents more relevant to a wider range of audience, beyond financial markets.

This is a bit old story, but I attended the UACES 48th Annual Conference in Bath, UK (2-5 September). UACES stands for the 'University Association for Contemporary European Studies' and it is one of the leading organisation for academics, students, and policymakers. It publishes the highly-ranked  Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS) and the open access Journal of Contemporary European Research  (JCER). It also coordinates the Contemporary European Studies Series by Routledge. So, this annual conference is important for networking as well. I hosted two sessions dedicated to teaching and assessments in European Studies. I also presented a paper in which I argued that Euroscepticism today is like a Christmas tree on which everyone hung their favourite ornaments (policy objectives). Inevitably, the so-called Brexit dominated the conference. It would be sad to see if organisations like UACES are cut from research fundings and opportunities in continental Europe... (It...