Much like last year, we had our inzemi (although it seems like I didn’t blog about it). Last year, the Industrie 4.0 team didn’t take part, but this year, the Pokemon Go team did (although the fourth years didn’t have to present).

The Pokemon Go team made a lot of good progress and I’m very proud of them for that. We had a practice run the day before, and when I compare the actual presentation to that, they made a lot of progress. In the end, we placed 6th out of 9. Our other team managed to place 1st, so our sensei was very satisfied overall.

Most of the teams were really interesting, although I quite disagree with the one talking about migrant labour in Thailand and Myanmar. Their proposal was to restrict the flow migrants from Myanmar to Thailand (and eventually stop), but I think to clamp down the legal flow will only increase the number of illegal immigrants, which in turn carries a higher risk of human rights abuses. So I asked them about it, but their reply was:

We’re economic students so we decided to ignore the human rights issue.

Good thing I had a mask on because I was definitely not making a nice face. I think that when you’re talking about developing countries, you have to consider the country as a whole, especially since such issues will affect the economy (plus not to mention the shadow economy). It’s hard, to be sure, but a good guesstimate will be better than completely leaving it out of the model.

Plus, when you’re talking about Tier 2 Watchlist and Tier 3 countries, there’s even less excuse to consider these factors.

Apart from that, though, I found that most of the presentations were really enlightening. It’s always interesting to see what other people are studying since my zemi has a very narrow focus.

And just in case I don’t post before the new year, I hope everyone has a happy new year!