Group of Zero

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.

It is a HOT day. Mom and I went for lunch in a Shanghai restaurant. I had my favourite Dan Dan noodles.

Dan Dan noodles

The restaurant is in a big shopping mall and condo building overlooking the harbour. These luxury condos are popping up everywhere in Hong Kong. One condo of one thousand square feet can cost over two million Canadian dollars. The real estate here is quoted in dollar per square foot. The footage quoted is not even the “useable” area in the apartment. It also included the shared common hallway, walls, elevators and lounge… The area inside the apartment may be just 70% of the quoted area. The price of a parking spot can buy me a decent house with front and back yard in Halifax.

Today is the day that the high school graduate receives the result of the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination. The grades they receive from the exam will determine whether they can apply for university or any further post secondary. It is the front-page news. TV, radio and newspapers report the names of the students who receive top marks. TV newscast shows students with tears of joy and also disappointment. The top students are praised like national heroes. The schools that produce the students with the top grades are named with honour. The reporters treat this news item like reporting horsing racing. The students face extreme pressure to do well. It is not only that their grades will determine their future; the examination result will also bring honour to their parents. The relatives will praise the parents, “you have raised your son or daughter well.” One can imagine the unspoken comments of the noisy relatives if the child does not do well in the examination. Students trained by this system is very focused and determined.

My cousin invited me and other relative to go on a harbour dinner cruise. Hong Kong harbour is beautiful with all its bright lights and tall buildings. There is a light show with lasers beams and other spotlights from various buildings. I did not eat much but I took more than three hundred pictures. I met a group of Canadians on the boat. They are high school students from Toronto finishing their one-month course in Hong Kong. It seems like Canadians are everywhere.

Hong Kong Harbour

IFC

Hong Kong Convention Centre

Bank of China Building

Hong Kong Convention Centre

Hong Kong Convention Centre

Singing on the cruise

I had to renew some of my documents at the China Travel Service today. I took the bus to Nelson Street and walked to the CTS office in Mongkok. Mongkok is the most densely populated spot in Hong Kong. People jammed in the streets walking shoulders to shoulders. One middle-aged woman suddenly stopped walking. The woman was pushing a baby stroller behind her. The stroller lightly hit the middle-aged woman. She turned to the lady who was pushing the stroller screaming and swearing with a Mainland Chinese accent. No wonder the local Hongkongers do not like the mainlander Chinese swamped the local hospitals, malls, schools and the housing market. There is definitely a cultural crush and social tension brewing. I hate to see what will happen when it boils over.

The CTS office was packed. I lined up for over half an hour just to get a form and a number for my papers to be process. The ceiling was low in that office and it was noisy. Most of the people stood in line in an orderly fashion. There were some, especially elderly women, extremely bossy. Some tried to jump the queue. Some just elbowed themselves to the window and asked questions even though the clerk was serving another person. I was told to come back after 4 pm to hand in my completed form. I still had to wait for over an hour when I came back at 4.  There were many children there. They were running around without much supervision from adults.

The weather became very unstable.

Thunderstorm brought some temporary relief from the heat. I learned from the weather forecast that the heat will continue tomorrow.

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

I exchange the netbook this morning. It may be difficult to find help. The tech guy came and took a look at it. Yep, it did not even boot up. He said it was a software problem. Well, I know that.

“Do you have the recovery discs?” he asked.

“No, they do not give out system discs now.” I answered. I thought techies should know that.

“It is a software problem. I have other things to do.” He left without doing anything. I stood there for a while. A older gentleman from the computer section asked me whether he could help me. I explained the situation. He asked the person at the customers service why the tech guy did not finish his job to fill in the paper work and give me a new netbook.

This older gentleman is from Indian decent. He said to me, “Only immigrants like us have any work ethics. These young folks do not work!”  He obviously saw that I am an immigrant too.

It seems he is correct in this case. The young techie cared less about customer service. It may not be his job description to file the paper work or go to the back to fetch a new machine for me, but he did not even ask people from those department to help. He tried to avoid any work that he can avoid. he might have thought, ” I am hired to fix computer hardware. Since this is a software problem, not my department.”

It is the people skills that get people hire. Some generation Y does not understand responsibility and hard work.

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.

In the mind of some Christians, their beliefs and understandings of God are the only correct ones. If anyone has a different image of God, they will all end up in hell.

I was searching in youtube on the opinions of the book “The Shack”. I cannot believe those negative comments. “How can God be portrayed as an African woman?” “How can Jesus be seen as a Middle Eastern man?” “How can god be so friendly with us?” Folks, it is a novel! William P. Young never claims it is theology! No wonder why the media portrays Christians as a close minded bigots. God is bigger than anyone of us can quantify. For those critics, give it a break, relax and have non-combative day!

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?