First, new work from M.I.A. is eagerly anticipated as she went on hiatus following a tour for her Grammy nominated record, Kaya. I was at the far edges of the crowd with my sister when she told the audience at Bonnaroo in 2008 that it would be her last performance.  Since then, M.I.A. has largely kept away from music creation.

Second, M.I.A. chose to deliver “Space Odyssey” to fans via a twitter update, where she shared the video via TwitVid, a popular 3rd party service for video hosting that competes directly with Vidly.  While M.I.A’s choice of TwitVid as the media player allowed her to use her Twitter feed to deliver new music directly to her fans, it also has forced everyone to listen to this critically important release in terrible quality video and audio.  Check out the embed above.

Most notably, following the surprise release of the song, M.I.A.’s publicist confirmed that “Space Odyssey”  was released specifically in reaction to a recent New York Times story on the Top 31 Places to Go in 2010 written by Lionel Beehner.  In the NYT piece, Beehner acknowledges that the country has been “plagued by misfortune…but the conflict ended last May.” and goes on to suggest that “miles of sugary white sand flanked by bamboo groves that were off-limits until recently are a happy, if unintended byproduct of the war.”

If you are unfamiliar, a brutal civil war was being fought between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).  Leading up to the end of major conflict in May of 2009, many civilians were killed in efforts by the government to put down the rebel group.  The US State Department has issued a report outlining areas of concern (pdf) where International Humanitarian Law is believed to have been violated.

For some time following the end of combat, a quarter million people from the Tamil minority were forced to remain in refugee camps for months.  Between the brutality on both sides during the war and subsequent forced confinement afterwards, Sri Lanka’s international standing is quite low.  M.I.A. is of Tamil ancestry and fled the country as a refugee.  She has specifically decried (see her explanation at 3:25) the violence on both sides of the war.

M.I.A’s made a bold move in connecting her new artistry directly to a major US news publication’s pithy and embarrassing portrayal of Sri Lanka as a top tourist destination.  She did so using her platform of roughly 82,000 Twitter followers, all eager to hear what she would follow Paper Planes with.  M.I.A. has hit upon a near perfect mix of social networking, social action and artistic expression, most certainly setting her apart as an artist to watch in 2010.

The Babson Office of International Programs hooked me up with a Babson MBA student currently undergoing the program and he found me Andreas Berghoefer. It took some coordination, but after a few weeks, we finally hooked up on Skype this afternoon to go over his experience so far. Hopefully, Andreas doesn’t mind me sharing some of the things he told me here.

In brief: Andreas is from Germany, and a part of the two-year MBA program at Babson College. He was involved in a number of clubs at Babson, especially the Babson Family Enterprise Club. One of his main interests going to the Instituto de Empresa was to reach out to a wider European alumni network.

One of my first questions was on how easy or difficult it is to stay connected to the Babson campus while taking a semester abroad. Andreas said that he still receives all of the emails that he would other wise so that is good. However, he misses out on all of the hands-on activities including Buffoonery which is a bummer.

On the academic side, he said that the quality of each class depends largely on the professor teaching it. Sometimes slides are not translated into English very well and it reflects sort of poorly on what is otherwise a well-regarded program.

Another concern was the administration of the program–which he seemed to feel had more red tape and difficulty in changing than what you’ll find at Babson. He has felt this especially with regards to the IT department which sounds like it is in some state of shambles at Instituto de Empresa. Andreas mentioned that many of the group organization has been outsourced to Facebook at this point.

Back to academia, there is an enhanced focus on business plan writing which he didn’t feel was present at Babson. On the other hand there are not asa many electrified students with a start-up mentality in the program.

As far as networking with other students, there are roughly 60 exchange students at Instituto de Empresa. A good number seem to enjoy exploring Europe with many destinations within two hours reach. Andreas is of course from Germany, so he takes a number of weekends home there or visiting his friend in New York. The school seems to offer some opportunities for networking with other students, and it also hooks you up with a “buddIE” or mentor from the first year who you can hang out with.

There seems to be ample opportunity for social activity and enjoying life there. Andreas mentioned that he had heard from second years here at Babson in Wellesley that they have much more time on their hands compared to the first year. However, he felt that there was even more time for independence in Madrid. Part of this, it seems, comes from Madrid lacking all of the business involvement activities that are unique to Boston. This includes cross-campus activities and clubs at Harvard and MIT.

As for the basics, such as living–it seems to be a bit difficult to arrange for three months of rent in the city as most housing operates on a one year lease. On cost, the tuition is the same, but the cost of living is more expensive because of the weak dollar against the Euro.

My impressions

My desire to be in Madrid stem largely from my experience there in 2003. I was backpacking Europe on my own and ended up taking a week in Madrid thanks in part to the need to attend Radiohead’s performance at the Plaza de Toros Las Ventas on July 16th. I enjoyed my time there, spending entire afternoons smoking, reading and people watching in Plaza Mayor, it left a great impression on me.

However, I’m not going to be in the same place as I was in 2003 come fall of next year. I will be actively trying to complete a heavily invested MBA program. It sounds like I would have plenty of opportunity to hang out in Plaza Mayor, but what of the disruption? How badly will this interfere with a startup push, or attempts to find a job at that point? How much will I be missing out on if I decide to take three full months away from Boston?

It seems there is a heavy focus on living the life in Spain. There is ample opportunity to really enjoy the country for what it is. On the other hand, if I were to go, would I be treating it more like an MBA program, or an extended vacation abroad with a strong professional component? Which do I want? Does it matter? Will I get another legitimate opportunity to live in Spain or any other country for three months?

Conclusions

I think that I’m going to have to speak more to people who are going abroad in general. People who are interested in an entrepreneurial focus like me, and made the choice to go away anyway. Overall, I think that Andreas was able to give me an unvarnished description of what it is really like and I really appreciated the talk. He also mentioned that I might want to look at the Paris, Barcelona and Switzerland programs as well.

I don’t have a family business that I’m going to be operating when I get out of school, I want to go entrepreneurial if possible. Will losing those three months of being here in the states working on my project be detriment? Or will things in generally carry on much in the same way as they would have if I had stayed, only I will have regretted not taking the chance to leave the United States when I could.

I think that I’ll have to do a lot of more consulting in order to make a good decision on this.

I picked the Mylo up from Fry’s Electronics, if I keep it the cost will be ~$282 after the rebate. After playing around with it, I’d say it is worth probably actually worth around $150 to me.

The Mylo does not have access to universal connectivity over a 2.5g or 3g network like so many wireless PDA’s, but it does connect to wi-fi. It has Skype embedded in it, so it potentially could work as a phone anywhere there is an open wireless internet connection. It comes with one full year of T-Mobile hotspot access (Starbucks wi-fi), which costs $29.99/month anyway–however you can only use it via the Mylo device not your laptop as well.

My ultimate goal is to drop my cellular carrier and only take and make calls where there is wireless reception. I think that more and more free wireless will be made available in the near future, and am willing to give up the connectivity for free and new. The Mylo is a good first venture into this area.

This weekend I’ll be using the Mylo to upload pictures from my Sony camera (both devices use ProDuo memory). I’ll also probably do some email and forum posting while away. If things go real well, I may attempt to update the main page of my dave site from the device. We’ll see.

These times passed very slowly as we sat around a table, played dominos and cards until late having a very mellow party. Near the end of my stay, Herman took me up into the hills of Treasure Beach to see the house he was building. It turns out Herman’s father used to own a lot of the Treasure Beach area. Today it is owned in small and large lots, by the likes of the Kennedy Family.

The inn keeper told us a story about how Herman had once recieved a letter from another part of Jamaica that was addressed simply: Herman Treasure Beach, Jamaica It somehow made it into his hands.