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... And everything went well. Haters, pessimistic people, afro-skepticals and journalists looking for sensationalist stories can be disappointed. The first football world cup in Africa was a tremendous success!

After having led one of the most impressive and well-organized Olympic Games ever, China is aiming to blow away the world with the Shanghai 2010 Expo. This 75th universal exposition is being held in Shanghai, the economic capital of China, from May 1 to October 31, 2010. The theme of the exposition, "Better City – Better Life", means a lot of for a metropolis like Shanghai which is one of the most polluted city of the planet. This world fair also "signifies Shanghai's new status in the 21st century as the "next great world city".

According to my friend, Wikipedia, the Shanghai World Expo is the most expensive Expo in the history of the world's fairs. In terms of area, - the Shanghai Expo is located in the widest World's Fair site ever (5.28 square km) and in terms of participants - more than 190 countries and more than 50 international organizations have registered to participate in the exhibition, the Shanghai World Expo is the largest ever. China expects to receive almost 100 foreign leaders and more than 70–100 million of people from across the world to come and visit the World Expo. Having said that, this event has also a special meaning for me.

When people ask me some advice before buying a netbook, I always make a disappointed face. Indeed, from my geeky point of view, netbooks are the worst computers ever created by the IT industry. So, do not even expect from me any positive statements about these gadgets. In fact, I think these devices are useless and are just pushed because of an irationnal and already old fashioned trend. Let me explain to you my point of view.

First and foremost, netbooks are generally cheap (above €400, I consider they are too expensive) but they deliver very low performances. They are dramatically slow because of their Intel Atom processor (which was supposed to be incorporated in smartphones...)

2nd. There is nothing they can do properly. The user experience while using a netbook is so disenchanting, that you fastly understand you can not ask too much to these "baby PCs".

Few months ago, when I was still a junior lobbyist in Brussels, I heard about an amazing project related to renewable energies. This umpteenth new project sounded like an utopia. Conceived by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), an international network of scientists and politicians aiming to solve Europe's energy problem, the well-named DESERTEC, seemed to be the craziest green project I ever heard. "Their vision is to turn desert sun into electricity, thereby harnessing inexhaustible, clean and affordable energy. Under their scheme, so-called parabolic trough collectors collect sunlight like a magnifying glass, the heat is then used to turn water into steam, which drives turbines that produce electricity".

The technology involved in DESERTEC is called Concentrating solar power (CSP) and sounds quite simple and affordable nowadays. Solar thermal power plants have operated successfully in California since the 1980s. Unfortunately, the technology has been held back, because oil, gas and coal have been far cheaper sources of energy... until now. So thanks to the dramatic increase of fossil fuel prices, solar thermal power becomes "trendy" once again. Thus, Spain is also investing in CSP. In the province of Granada, the biggest solar thermal power plant in Europe is being built.

France is changing... Last year, thanks to the creation of the auto-entrepreneur status, the number of setting-up companies hit the record level of 580 193. That means a 75,1% increase compared with 2008. Since january 1st 2009, doing business has never been so easy and affordable in France. Consequently, all the spotlights were focused on this new category of businessmen and businesswomen during the 17th edition of the «Salon des Entrepreneurs» in Paris, which I attended on Februrary 3th and 4th.

As François Hurel (President of the Union des Auto-Entrepreneurs) claimed, it is possible to create an «auto-entreprise» in just 10 min on the website : www.lautoentrepreneur.fr. According to a poll from Opinionway, the most attractive disposals of this new status are the freedom feeling, the simplification of the administrative process and the fact that is not necessary to pay any taxes if the turnover is under or equal to zero.

During his speech, Hervé Novelli, secretary of state in charge of SMEs (Small and medium enterprises), was very pleased that this entrepreneurship freedom is the Key factor of this success story. In a country where people use to get bogged down in paperwork for any initiatives they want to take, and where so many people envy public servants benefits, this successful initiative is a real (positive) cultural revolution.

It's been a while since I was surprised by a TV show. Saturday afternoon, my cousin introduced to me a brand-new (at least for me) comedy-drama series produced by the BBC and the american television network, HBO. In a TV landscape where it is quite difficult to fall on something really amazing, I felt in love with "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", a program inspired by a series of ten novels by British author Alexander McCall Smith.

The main character, Mma. Ramotswe, is performed by Jill Scott, a very famous and respected american soul singer. The detective agency is located in Gaborone, capital of Botswana, and the 7 episodes were all filmed on location in this beautiful country which welcomed for the first time a major film production.

Have you ever noticed that when you start a discussion about Asia, most often people spontaneously mention a short list of over mediatised countries. So when I first announced to my relatives and my friends that I was planning to move to Asia, they first think I will go to China. Obviously it was not a bad suggestion, all the more so I already studied a bit of Chinese (mandarin). Others evoke Japan, India or Singapour (for the most ...). Finally, when I admitted that I would rather go to South Korea, they were quite doubtful. However, after some explanations they realized that my interest in Korea was quite judicious.

I always been attracted by Asia and that is why I started learning chinese (mandarin) two years ago. To my mind, Asia, cradle of millenium civilisations, is the most attractive and inspiring places around the world. Now, among the Asia-Pacific countries, South Korea is the eighth largest trade partner of the European Union, but it is still little-known by European people. I think that has to change. If I want to go to Korea, that's because first I already have some friends and professional contacts mainly located in Seoul.

Like thousand of other brave Apple fans, I was this morning among the first customers of the first Apple store opened in France. I was so exciting by this inauguration that I decided on the fly to go to Paris from Brussels... in carpooling, for the first time (thanks Maya).

Finally, I was not disappointed... this opening was just impressive : 1,5 km of people standing in a queue, around 5000-6000 people waiting for discovering this brand new Apple store at 10 o'clock, 150 employees for supporting or advicing customers, 5000 collector t-shirts (in a magnificent - pyramid - package) for the first customers, some french famous people (Yvan Attal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Luc Besson, Vincent Cassel) in a sumptuous area... the Carroussel du Louvre.

Tonight I am the happy owner of a brand new Apple remote in aluminium, a beautiful collector T-shirt and many photos of this "historic" event. I will post more items as soon as possible, but for the moment I need to rest in order to recover from 3 hours of standing in line, in a quite cold weather. Anyway, this Apple store is a very charming and pleasant place and will surely succeed in attracting many visitors and customers.

If you want to see more photos, check out the blog of my friend Nathalie : www.theparisienne.fr

On october 2009 5th to 8th was held by the regions comittee and the European Commission, the 7th edition of the Open days. This annual event is dedicated to growth and innovation issues from a regional scale. There were plenty of great conferences and debates during all the week, however for professionnal purposes and booking issues (too many applicants but limited places) I finally attended to only one conference. The talk was focused on Clusters and innovation in regions and was very interesting.

The most captivating speaker was Dr. Schuurmans, former professor of Solid State Physics, former Executive Vice President at Philips Research / Philips Medical systems, and currently Chairman of the International Advisory Board to the Biomedical School of Information Engineering in Shenyang. His message was clear and very meaningful : compared with Chinese, Indian or US education system, the European systems is globally far behind in terms of innovation and R&D, and our education system is not enough pragmatic and efficient. Too much theory and insufficient practical knowledge and ability. Another element was enlighted during the debate: the obvious lack of synergy between European regions. I totally agree with this analysis, and really hope things will change quickly, if not European competitivity and attractivity will decline dramatically.

Since the beginning of may 2009, I have been a lucky intern in a consultancy cabinet - EURODOM - located in Brussels and focused on european affairs. Our main activity is to defend the economic interests of the European outermost regions, mainly the French ones (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Réunion, etc.). Working in this area is very exciting but also very compelling. Most of the time, you work on macroeconomic issues and deal with politicians or high level experts. In the European affairs microcosm, there are few vacancies but many applicants... Indeed, I met a lot of overqualified and high skilled people who are looking for a job - since months - in the european affairs field. That's the reason why I feel very lucky to do my trainee period in this area.

Moreover, lobbying is a controversial activity which triggers many fantasies. Some are over-exaggerated and other are quite true. However, it is something more natural and transparent than people think. In Brussels, which is the second most important city in terms of lobbying (behind Washington), most European affairs cabinet are registred in a special register for transparency purpose.