Group of Zero

It rained again all Thursday. I chose the cloudy week to visit Hong Kong this year. Mom, my brother and I went for lunch at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. It is one of the exclusive clubs in Hong Kong. We had lunch with a family friend. It was a nice gathering.

The streets were very busy. Hong Kong is a city that never sleeps. There are so many shops for luxury brands. Money seems no object for many locals and tourists.

The hot topic here is the National Education curriculum. The education department demanded a National Curriculum to promote patriotic attitude to the pupils from grade one through high school. The government claims that pupils need to learn about the contribution of the Communist Party in order to love their country. The opposition claims that the curriculum is one-sided with no mentioned of the June Fourth Massacre. It proclaims that the Community Party is the only legitimate government of China. Various groups are organizing mass demonstration this coming Sunday.

I planned to go to Lantau Island today but the rain spoiled my plan. I went to lunch with my cousin who was visiting Hong Kong from Toronto. The only reason we visit Hong Kong in the summer is because it is the only time we can take our vacation. It is just too hot here and the weather is not stable.  Typhoons occur frequently. The airport is chaotic whenever a typhoon hits. Flights were cancelled and some passengers had to wait for days to rebook. It is no difference when a snowstorm hit North America during winter.

Mom and I went to a Shanghai Restaurant for dinner. It is the best restaurant I visited since I arrived.

I went to Central with my friend Lawrence and took some pictures. He brought a used Sony Alpha 77 and was trying it out. Central is the busy commercial centre of the city. We then walked into the Apple Store and it was filled with people. Most of the people there spoke Mandarin. We went to the Starbucks for a coffee. Starbucks in Hong Kong sells not just coffee and snacks. It sells full course meal and even Mooncakes. This is what I call cultural adjustment.

I watched some time watching news from TV because of the rain. I discovered the discussion in the political ideas is extremely polarized in Hong Kong.

On one side of the spectrum, there is a cry of universal suffrage. They loudly demonstrate against the government and its policies. They highlight the huge gap between the rich and the poor. The government responded by giving each residents $6,000, lowering cost of public transit for the elderly and students, increasing land supply for low cost housing, increasing minimum wage, trying to provide better health care… The demonstrations have not subsided but only increased. It is the “gimmie” generation. The public wants more freebies.  This group wants democracy but their mass protests do not help their cause. One thing this government cannot provide is a government that is fully elected by all its residents.

On the other end of the spectrum, this group is afraid of democracy. They see that all these demonstrations bring chaos and destabilization. In their view, multi-party political system bring disharmony. Any voice that points out the elephant in the room is insensitive and disrespectful. In the ongoing debate on the National Studies directive, it promotes national pride (nothing wrong with that), but it does not mention Tiananmen incident (among other taboos).  In their view, as long as the people have enough to eat, democracy and human rights are luxury that people should live without.

It is a very hot day. I checked the weather network. It posted the temperature is 35C but it felt like 47C. The Hong Kong Observatory issued the Tropical Typhoon Signal No. 1 and the thunderstorm warming. It is so hot that a typhoon is brewing.

Mom and I went to have lunch with my cousins’ family. I have not seen these cousins for a few years. It was a great time we can catch up. I discovered there are a few hot topics.

What’s HOT?

Real estate – house prices have been rising with no sign of slowing down. Most people still believe one can never lose money on real estate. It is the talk of the town on TV and newspaper. I just wonder what happens when the bubble burst.

Samsung Galaxy S III – everyone seems to either have a iPhone 4S or switching to the newest model of Samsung Galaxy S III. A lot of people are using the Samsung Note. They like the big phone screen because they love to watch movies when they are traveling on the subway.

What’s NOT?

The Chief Executive – Leung Chun-ying is the person in charge of Hong Kong. A committee of 1,200 pro-Beijing individuals elected him. One of his appointed ministers resigned after twelve days in office because he was accused of misleading the government of his rent subsidy. Leung admitted to have an illegal structure built in his condo. He is questioned about his integrity daily.

The National Education Curriculum – The Education department is forcing all the schools to implement a curriculum to teach national pride and the great achievements of the Chinese Communist Party. The curriculum dictates the teachers to teachers to teach students that the Chinese Communist Party is the only legitimate political party to rule China.  “Love your country” means “love the Party”.  Some teachers call it “brainwashing”. The Catholic and Protestant schools oppose the curriculum. The Buddhist and Taoist schools they will implement the teachings set up by the Chinese Communist Party.

This is my first full day in Hong Kong. It rained last night but the relative humidity is high. Heat, humidity and crowds are the three factors that I do not enjoy.

Hong Kong is very different from Mainland China. It used to be a British colony. The Imperial China lost the Opium Wars against Britain in 1841. Subsequently, after the Convention of Chuenpee, Treaty of Nanjing, Convention of Beijing and the Second Convention of Beijing, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories became a Colony under the British rule. It sovereignty reverted back to China on July 1, 1997. It retains a high degree of freedom of the press, religion, and expression. At least, I can use Facebook here. It also has an independent judicial system. The head of government is called the Chief Executive (CE) elected by a pro-Beijing committee of 800 and approved by the Beijing government. Free speech is tolerated.

The newly minted CE is fighting off scandals from his appointed cabinet. I do not want to go into the details of those scandals. The CE and his government do not seem to be popular among the press or the locals.

Food is THE culture here. Not only that it is a necessity of life, it is also a lifestyle. There are all kinds of food related TV shows (not just cooking), restaurants of all various cuisines, and people just pack into restaurants.

The economy seems booming as long as the Mainland Chinese tourists continue to come to Hong Kong buying luxury brand name items like LV, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Prada, and Burberry, not to mention they also buy up luxury condos and driving up real estate prices. The party is still going strong. I am just afraid what will happen when someone takes away the punch bowl.

June 28

We got up later today. The morning was more leisurely. We were both tired.

We walked towards Wenceslas Square and stopped at the Museum of Communism. The museum is housed in one floor of an older building. It is a small museum but we spent over two hours there. Ironically, it is located on the second floor in the same building as a casino. The ground floor is a huge McDonald restaurant. Lenin, eat your heart out! Karl Marx, you gambled and lost!

The museum occupies only half a floor (the other half is a casino). It is packed with information about how the communists took over Czechoslovakia after the Second World War, what life was like under the communist regime, the attempts for change and reform by the Czech people, the subsequent brutal crackdowns/invasions by the Soviets, the Prague Spring movement and the Velvet Revolution in 1989. There were several statues and busts of Lenin, Stalin, and Marx that had been removed from public display. Well, they were all busted and relegated to stare at each other in a small room indefinitely.

There is a short documentary about twenty minutes portraying the oppression under the Communist regime before the Prague Spring in 1968 and subsequent crackdown in 1969, the hard line leadership of President Hasek, Charter 77, and the events leading up to the student demonstrations in 1989. It shows actual footage of thousands of people crammed into Wenceslas Square and the police brutality towards the people resulting in many arrests.

We then walked around the corner and looked up the 750 metre-long Wenceslas Square (more like a boulevard with a median). At the very end is the very impressive National Museum. This street once bore the tank tread marks of more than one Soviet invasion, witnessed demonstrations by long-oppressed Czech people shouting for change, was the site of Jan Palach setting himself on fire in protest (a memorial has been set up in his honour), and was the birthplace of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Today it is a bustling avenue of businesses, shops and boutiques, banks, hotels and restaurants. What a huge change in 20 years! It was hard to imagine the events that led to their freedoms they enjoy today.

As my personal reflection, repressive regime will eventually fail. No government, ideology or religion can dictate what one should think or do. Enlightening others to do good is great, forcing others to do what one think it is good is a great sin.

After returning to our hotel for a short rest, we ate at a Czech restaurant nearby – James tried roast boar, a Czech specialty. Then it was off to see Swan Lake ballet just down the street at Hibernia Theatre. It was really good. By the way, we forgot to mention how good the marionette performance of Don Giovanni was. It was quite comical with puppets about 3-4 feet tall. James was really impressed watching the puppeteers handling of the marionettes (you could see their hands and forearms at times).

Road sign to the Museum of Communism

Statue of King Wenseclas

Wenseclas Square

Lenin pointing to nowhere

National Museum

It has been a while since my last blog. Many things happened since then. School started. The union called for a strike. I had my first taste of protesting in front of the Provincial legislature. It was then called off at the last minute since a deal was struck. I have to vote to accept the deal tomorrow. It was a very stressful fortnight. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1148436.html

The claim to be labour friendly NDP government gave over 341 million to the universities a year before they need to. They also set in the budget more than 80 million to buy back land that no one wants. This mismanagement leads to a big budget deficit. In turn, the NDP then claims there is no money to give a cost of living adjustment even though they gave all the teachers in the province a 2.9% increase. The number just does not add up. The NDP depends on the support of labour unions and public sector unions. I doubt that it will ever get a second term four years from now.

Well, at least I am still working this week. It would not be nice if I have to walk the picket.

I gave not much thought about Obama after he won the election. It is different this time. I do not quite understand the ruling of this judge. It just defiles any logic I know. If the news is reported correctly, she rejected the result of the examination just because one racial does not come out on top. The ruling did not find any evidence that the examination is racially biased towards one race or the other. The ruing only deals with the outcome of the examination simply does not fit the racial balance of the expectation of the officials and politicians.

I thought the judges are supposed to obey the existing laws and leave all politics aside. Apparently, the judges did not do that. If her logic holds, do the judges have to have quota to convict a predetermined percentage of blacks, whites, Asians, and Hispanics? If the outcome of convictions do not meet the criteria of the political taste, does the court have to throw out all its verdicts?

Examinations for a position are supposed to select the best of the candidates. If the examination is fair, one should accept the result. If the officials have to retest and retest until they achieve their desired racial mixed, than the examination becomes unfair because there is an inherent racial bias. The citizens have the right to demand the unbiased top achievers to be promoted, not a predetermined outcome.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354041637563491.html

The media made Obama the savior of the world. The media agrees and praises everything he said. The multi-trillion budget which the US government will spend whatever they do not have to buy up failing banks, insurance companies, auto-makers, etc. is considered good government policy. The democrats preached against Wall streets, big banks, or any big businesses are bad for the poor people. They are the ones who are subsidizing the big guys now. People forget that US already has multi-trillions of debt before this recession. The extra debt will be added on to the existing debt. Does his administration really know how to handle the debt bomb?

I cannot imagine what 3.6 trillion of spending power and 1.75 trillion of deficit. It seems the Americans have no problems about the spending that kind of money. Obama is still hailed as the biggest hero of out times because he has the courage to spend all the money that the country does not have.

He is not afraid about the lender, mainly the Chinese. Usually, it is the rich to lend to the poor. This paradigm has shifted. The majority of the Chinese population is still poor. They are the ones who are financing the reckless spending and waste of the Americans. It does not matter the Republicans or the Democrats, the budget and trade deficits keep on growing.The government and the people just cannot cut the habit of overspending.

GM and other American automakers are asking to bail out again. The government has not choice but to cave in and hand out billions again. No matter how much the automakers take, it will not revive that sector unless they solve their structural problem – labour, pension, and health care cost are just too high.

It will take a structural reform for the society to change the spending habit. The generation Y believes the society owes them a good life. This may be a good time for them to learn they have to do something to make a living.

The Gaza situation is not getting better. Israel got blame for attacking Hamas because the was firing rockets into Israel towns. There are protests around the world by the Palestinians groups and supporters in various cities against Israel. The United Nation sends help to the Palestinians. The BBC reported that the UN aid is now seized by the Hamas.

Where are the people who were protesting against Israel now? If they are truly concern about the the Palestinians who are suffering in Gaza, should they be protesting against the Hamas? If it is a war crime for Israel to attack Hamas, should confiscating food and medical aid from the Palestinians by the Hamas be the real war crime? I have not heard of one protest against the Hamas yet.