This is something I am quite proud of. Something I have not seen elsewhere. The bird can balance itself on its beak.
In Physics-speak, the centre of gravity of the bird is at a point directly under its beak. The gravitational force is such that when the bird is moved away from its position of equilibrium, the resulting force returns it to the position of equilibrium. Hence it is stable.
The inspiration came from a dragonfly made of pieces of bamboo put together that can balance on its head. From Vietnam, I believe.
My bird is cut out of a whole piece of dead palm leaf of the right shape.
Before my father passed away last year, I made one for him and flew with it to Toronto to give it to him. Four days later, he passed away in his sleep.
Today the bird is perched at the end of a stick in my office. The stick itself is a broken tree branch from the typhoon last year.
When we started going to Cambodia for service-learning projects, i realised that they have a lot of palm trees of different types. These shed a lot of leaves.Some leaflets are used to make temporary coverings for heds.Some women can make a bit of money making these coverings for other people.Indeed we commissioned some to protect some of our projects from the sun. Most of the dead leaves, however, seem to be just thrown away, or burned.
The stems of the leaves reassemble low quality wood or bamboo. They are relatively soft and easy to cut and shape. But that also mean they are not strong, and rot easily. I found that as long as they are kept dry, they can still be useful.
I started making desk lamps with them, inserting LEDs powered by rechargeable batteries. Our partner university agrees that it is a small but promising stop toward sustainability.
I also started making things with them, just for fun. Starting with salamanders. That was easy. The local kids like them. I made many to give away.
Then a fish tail for my desk.
A bend in the stem reminded me of the fluke of a whale sticking out of water.
I realised I could make a whole humpback whale.
A whale sharks has a smilier body, but a huge broad head, a dorsal fin and a vertical tail.
A manta ray is a shark with big flippers and an unusually shaped mouth to funnel food into its mouth.
Adding spikes to a salamander turns it into a crocodile.
These are just animals that live in water, for now. Other pieces will have to await another post.
Between 2008 and 2009, we went to a primary school for orphans in DingXi, in the mountains of Gansu 3 times, with 3 different teams of students. We set up a computer room with 6 desktop computers, wired up the computer laboratory with a local area network, setup wireless networks for 2 buildings, linked up the school building with the dormitory with a fibre-optic cable, computerised their 1,000+ books library with RFID, and ran a number of workshops on basic computer skills, multimedia and robotics.
We went there the first time in the dead of winter, in January 2008. The temperature was around -10 degree C when we were there. Indoor heating was basically not available, and we wore heavy coats even inside, some even when in bed. The hardest thing was washing our dishes with ice-cold water after meals.
In summer 2009, under the threat of H1N1, the team wore masks on the airplane flying from Hong Kong to Gansu. Everyday we took the temperature of the students when they get up and made them take vitamin C pills. With God’s blessing, no-one got sick throughout the project. Protecting ourselves against a virus is not new to us.
Finally, we set up a video conferencing system, and started running weekly online classes on English for the kids in Gansu taught by teachers from Hong Kong. We tested the system while we were at the orphan school.
We taught another class after we returned to Hong Kong.
The teachers from a Christian primary school in Hong Kong committed to teach the weekly English class. That was supposed to be the beginning of a long term eSL/TeSL project (Technology-enabled Service-Learning).
Then the Mainland Chinese government shut down the school.
That was the greatest heartbreak from our SL projects. We were so angry we decided to break out of China and started taking our teams to Cambodia, opening up a whole new world for us. It was almost if God allowed the door to be slammed in our face, to drive us away from the comfort zone which was China, to the strange new world of foreign countries where we do not know the language, the culture, … To this day, however, the photos of all the kids of the orphanage sit on my bulletin board. I took a photo of each and everyone of the 50+ kids at the school for the school’s records. For some of them, that was the first time they had their photo taken.
Today, 10+ years later, in 2020, the coronavirus forced the cancellation of all our offshore SL trips for the year. It also forced social distancing everywhere, making most of our planned SL projects in Hong Kong impossible. Not willing to just give up, we are scrambling to find alternate ways to deliver service. Some are interviewing the clients and the NGOs online, to find out their needs. Some are setting up small classes with the children at home. Some are developing game-like environments for the clients to play/interact with. Some are creating virtual worlds for the clients to experience online, e.g., virtual tours of the university campus. eSL/TeSL again!
On the one hand, we are forced to improvise in response to the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus - while hoping that the virus will eventually go away so that we can return to our normal Sl projects.
On the other hand, however, we are preparing for a new reality. Social distancing and gravel restrictions may be here to stay. Even without the new reality of global pandemics, it is not practical to send large numbers of students offshore for extended periods of time. If we are to scale up the number of student involved, and the duration of the service projects, we have to turn to technology so that we can deliver some service remotely. After all, with so much technology available, it almost seems a crime to not make use of the technology.
Yesterday, our G4 (Gang of Four) Yellow Food Running Team was in action again, roaming from Yaumatei to Shumshuipo.
In addition to food, we were also investigating into various mask making methods, source of materials, etc. While my own interest in masks cannot compare with my G4 teammates, or my own interests in food, I found the action rather educational.
Some friends have been asking for information on the eateries. I am posting my photos of the store fronts of some of the eateries that we enjoy. It should be easy to locate them. One is in Yaumatei near Kwong Wah Hospital, and the other is in Shumshuipo, a couple of blocks from ApLiu Street. There are also good apps such as “和你 eat”.
While we are eating our noodle, my wife suggested that the young activists should study some more. I cannot agree more. We are happy to see a lot of passion, intelligence and creativity, particularly among the young activists. In the mean time, we are facing a tremendous dark force, with much meanness, ugliness and overwhelming power, who are determined to keep and even grow the deeply unfair and unbalanced advantage they have managed to amass against the rest of society.
We have a long fight for freedom ahead of us, and many of us are not very optimistic, at least for the short term. It is therefore extremely important that we understand the nature of the dictatorial tendency that we are fighting. We need to understand better the history of their development - what is Communism and where does it come from? Why is it such a potent combination between materialistic Communism, the dictatorial tendencies in Chinese culture, and naked capitalism? How does economics actually work? How do the capitalists (whether they are Communist, nominally democratic or otherwise) gain and maintain their power? What psychological and social processes are driving the ugliness, and what psychological and social processes can help us fight for freedom? What is the scientific truth behind the corona virus and what are the proper science-based actions that can help us deal with the virus? Why are our political system so exploitative and what are the possible ways forward? …
We can study by ourselves, through practice and reading. We can also learn together through discussions, debates and joint action. For most of us, however, we also have to learn by going to school, going to university, getting an advanced degree, learning to do rigorous research through a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
We need food for our minds as well as our bodies. Most of us have learned to enjoy eating. We need to learn to enjoy learning as well.
Advertisement: Service-Learning is truly a great way to learn.
Wind howling in your ears, rain drops stinging your face, the cold tormenting your body and your feet yelling for relief - if I can manage to keep going, I can overcome a lot That is how I push myself to run in the rain.
The rain drove everyone away. So you feel you own the place - you are King of the Road. I alone am here, despite all that. It is an easy and inexpensive way to feel different.
The rain clears and cleans the air. So there should not be any virus to catch. Automatic social distancing.
You do get wet. However, you get wet with any serious exercise. So that is no big deal. Sweating is, in fact, cleansing.
Once you get home, take a shower, make a mug of milk tea and put up your feet, you are King of the Sofa. You are entitled to feel good for a minute.
At first, my wife and I started eating at “yellow” eateries because we agree with their stand against institutional injustice. In particular, we admire their courage in taking a public stand, and the price they are paying - some of them have been targeted by the police and other pro-establishment types. Conversely, we didn’t want to spend our money on businesses and people who make unfair and unjust pronouncements on the idealistic youths. It can even be said that sometimes we eat there despite (the relatively low quality of) the food in some places. Fortunately, we do find palatable food in every place we go.
Increasingly, however, we are finding that the food in many of these places are really quite good. That the food is particularly good value for the money one has to pay. That the staff are courteous and friendly. That the clientele are polite and agreeable. That many businesses are worthy of the descriptor 良心小店. Now, we are often going because of their colour as well as the food.
For this Spring term, we are teaching a class on Global Leadership through a global virtual classroom. Some classes have to be taught online because one group of students is from PolyU (in Hong Kong) and the other group is from University of Maryland (in USA).Th original plan was for the PolyU students to meet on their campus and the UMD students meet on their own campus, and the two groups to meet online through some video conferencing system.For group discussions and projects the small groups meet online separately. This was complicated enough.
Then the coronavirus hit Hong Kong, and the PolyU students have to stay home, and appeared as more than 2 dozen talking heads on screens. Then the virus hit Maryland and the UMD students also have to stay home and we ended up with several dozens of talking heads on screens. This has created many additional challenges, but the students are taking them in stride. In fact, the added complexities pose many challenges for them to practice what they are learning - leadership.
The coronavirus pandemic poses many more very visible case studies for the students in the study of global (public) leadership. Fortunately or unfortunately, the failures seem to be much more visible than the successes. There are plenty of honest, capable, courageous people making heroic sacrifices in tackling the coronavirus. Unfortunately, their efforts are often overshadowed and even negated by the very public failures.
First of all, it is incredible that so many highly placed and highly paid leaders made so many incredibly inane policies and pronouncements. Such as telling people to not wear masks. Some claimed that there is no proof that masks reduce the transmission of the virus. Really? Others want the civilians to save the masks for the medical workers. Some even forbid medical doctors who are not dealing directly with the virus to wear masks. If the concern is truly that surgical masks be saved for the front line medical workers, can’t people not wear masks that they make themselves, or masks that are otherwise not suitable for frontline medicals? What muddleheaded thinking! To think that these people are paid millions of dollars to make decisions like this. It would be laughable if the consequences are not so tragic.
Then there are those who sat on the sidelines watching other countries suffer for months, without doing anything to prepare for the eventual arrival of the virus on their own shores. Some gloated. Some are confident that they are spared or protected somehow, perhaps of their genius, faith or simply good fortune. When they are warned of the danger, they accused the whistle-blowers of exaggeration, rumour-mongering, panic causing, conspiracy-conspiring and worse. In the meantime, they did nothing to prepare for the virus; they do not mobilise their own medical systems, people, resources.
Then when their own people are dying by the thousands, these “leaders” have the gall to claim that they have not been informed, that other people are hiding the truth from them. While the frightening pictures of death and panic had been plainly visible for the whole world to see for months. When their own people have been warning them for months.
None of these “leaders” have admitted to their mistakes. Instead, they blame other people in their own countries, other countries, and more and more, conspiracy-conspirers. Conspiracies are a very convenient target. By definition, they are secretive, and it is impossible to prove that they do not exist.
The world, evidently, are full of “leaders” who make stupid mistakes, refuse to take responsibility, refuse to admit to their own mistakes, blame other people for their own mistakes, and hide behind easy scapegoats such as conspiracies. What is this teaching our students? That leadership is definitely not a post/position that people occupy? That being highly placed and highly paid is no guarantee that one is a good leader? That there are really tremendous need for good leadership everywhere?
Of immediate and very dire concern for us all is this: the whole world is paying dearly for very public failures of public leadership, on a global scale. If they fail so miserably in exercise leadership in such a public manner, how can we trust them to do well in other matters of governance? How can we trust in their judgement?
One of the very distinctive icons of the protest movements are the Lenon Walls of little, mostly yellow, post-it notes. Most of the Lennon Walls in public spaces have now been removed by the government. But they have lived on at the many “yellow” businesses, mostly eateries.
Who would have thought that little squares of sticky yellow paper from 3M in the USA would have become a distinctive means of social engagement in Hong Kong? In some other countries, people may write letters to their congressmen. Here we write little yellow pos-it notes and paste them on the walls of yellow shops.
Now eating out has become another way to send a message to the establishment, a very enjoyable Chinese way of expression.
The coronavirus pandemic is very depressing. Not only because it infects and kills so many, threatening practically everybody in every country in the world.But also because it exposes so much ugliness in the world.The fear and the panic are understandable human instincts. But the consequent hoarding, fighting for resources, profiteering from shortage of materials, hiding of inconvenient truth, mean spirited accusations of culpability, turning against foreigners, intentional spread of rumours, false claims of credits, use of the suffering to hurt, self-centerness, using the human suffering to make political gain, …, and so much more, are so much more depressing.
In the middle of this pandemic, Good Friday and Easter arrive. Many very smart and well-learned people may feel that there is no God. Many don’t even believe in the soul, or anything spiritual for that matter. Not even free will. Some believe that all human thoughts and emotions are results of electrical and chemical activities in the brain, and hence deterministic. Hence there is no free will. The fact that we do not know how our thoughts come about does not mean we are free. All religious beliefs, spiritual matters, and ultimately, God, are created by man. If this is true, it is doubly, triply depressing. We live in an ugly would with so much evil, and there is no way out.
I have been looking for answers in practically all the major religions in the world. I have come to the conclusion that there has to be an answer. I refuse to believe that we live in a world that is devoid of meaning, that there is no way to escape from the ugliness, injustice, and evil. Such pervasiveness and depth of evil have to be redeemed by a supreme act of heroic sacrifice - one such as performed by Jesus Christ by dying on the cross on Good Friday.
And if there is to be any hope in the world, it has to come from a supreme act of power - one such as performed by God in resurrecting Jesus Christ from the dead on Easter.
It is impossible to prove that the death and resurrection of Jesus, as well as the other elements of the Christianity story, are historically factual or actually more allegorical or somewhere in between. But there is enough evidence that something miraculous has happened. Not the least is the amazing history of the Jewish people. They have managed to not only survive as a people with a distinctive culture and faith, but, completely against expectations, to rebuild their country after having lost it for almost two thousand years. Then there are these early Christians. Having witnessed the humiliating and agonising death of Jesus Christ, they managed not only to retain their faith in Him, but to preach the Gospel even more fervently and defiantly, ending up converting the Roman Empire and beyond. The more the faith is persecuted, the more it seems to gain in strength and purity. When it is powerful and prosperous, it actually corrupts. The message itself is counter-intuitive enough. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. ..” Who would have thought that these are the truth?
So it actually seems apt that Good Friday and Easter arrive in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. There is much ugliness, injustice and evil in the world. But there is goodness, love and hope in Christ Jesus.
The question for us is: What is our response? How then should be then behave?
When the corona virus hit us in January, we scrambled to find masks. Beginning in Hong Kong, then online, then through friends and relatives in USA, Canada, …, all over the world.A student from Indonesia helped us ship hundreds of boxes (50 masks each) from Indonesia to Hong Kong.At one pint, I was part of a team that owned 20,000 masks. Within a couple of weeks, they were mostly gone, to family, colleagues, friends, students, janitors, and anyone who need them.
Soon, the virus hit Italy, Europe, …, USA, and essentially the whole world is crying out for masks and other forms of help.
From the beginning, my wife felt that single-use masks is not a sustainable way to deal with the virus. She started to make her own multi-use cloth masks, using my old shirts, T-shirts, and other material. I learned that the outer layer should be made water resistant, with wax. The middle layer is the filter. The inner layer should be soft to the touch - cotton. There needs to be a stout yet pliable wire to fit the nose bridge. You also need elastic bands of the right shape and strength to tie the mask to the ears. Everything has to be sourced and tested, repeatedly until it is perfect.
Our living room has turned into a mask factory. At least a workshop.
But now we can supply our daughters and relatives in the USA with multi-use masks. And just in time. Where some of them live, masks are forbidden - even for medical doctors. It sounds ludicrous but is a fact - I learned from my sister-in-law who is a medical doctor. Presumably the authorities want to save the masks for the frontline health workers dealing directly with the patients stricken with the corona virus. Hopefully, people are allowed to wear home-made masks since it will not affect the supply for those on the frontline.
I cannot sew. But i can help with cutting up my shirts and the metal wires. We are doing what we can to fight the virus. It feels good to be able to do something constructive. Surely God wants us to be positive and constructive.
One can run from Whampoa to West Kowloon without having to cross too many streets. Most of the time, you are on the waterfront or close enough to see the skyline of Hong Kong Island.
Even on a cloudy day, the views are spectacular. It is particularly interesting to contrast the views from the east end of the harbour against the views from the west end. You see pretty much the same buildings but with different perspectives.
From some angle, one is bigger and taller than the other; from a different angle, it is the opposite.
Some really tall buildings, and many mountains, are disappearing into the clouds.
There are fewer people on Canton Road, along the posh shops, than on the waterfront. A young mother is either trying to entertain her child, or simply exercising.
A lady is shooting something.
Some people are wondering: who would go on a cruise boat these days?
A man is fishing in the harbour. There is no way to catch a virus this way, is there?
With so much open space, and relatively few people, it is not difficult to keep your distance from other people, while enjoying your run.
