Who supports the strongman invader?

While the invasion of Ukraine is horrifying and deplorable, it can also serve as a touchstone.  What position does people take on it, and why?

Just days before the invasion, while much of the world hoped and prayed that war could be averted, some commentators were condemning the countries predicting war for war mongering, that Russia had no intention of invading Ukraine, that it was the western countries that wanted to instigate an armed conflict, applauding Russia for announcing a withdrawal while some western countries were predicting imminent invasion, saying that the western countries were exposed as lying and were losing face. 

When the Russians started bombing Ukraine, and their army started to attacked cities in Ukraine, much of the world were saddened by the loss of peace and damage to the country, and outraged by the loss of lives, particularly that of civilians.  

But many applauded Putin for calling Biden’s bluff.  And seemingly for asserting his power. 

Some mocked the feminine gender of some of the defence ministers of Western countries. Some likened Ukraine to an unfaithful wife, and Russia to the rightly wrathful husband.  Really?

One media personality, in response to public outrage to her posting of the “unfaithful wife” allegory, subsequently apologised.  But most who posted/forwarded the same or applauded, or expressed similar views have not, so far. 

Many of the people applauding the Russian strong man seem also to be pro-establishment, based on their pronouncements during the past years.  There seems to be a common thread between the two positions - there seems to be a common prioritising of power over care, might over justice.  

It is a sad commentary of humans.  God have mercy on us all.  

Being Positive during the pandemic

During the pandemic, there is much to complain about:

1. the coronavirus itself
2. the initial cover up and denial which most likely made things worse 
3. the lack of accurate information and abundant, pervasive misinformation 
4. the lack of effective and coherent strategies and the courage to bear responsibility
5. the social distancing, some of which making little sense
6. the damage to jobs, businesses, livelihood, physical and mental health, …
7. the people making tons of money from the pandemic

…

It is just way too much, with no end in sight, at least in Hong Kong.

In the mean time, there is also much to be thankful for, including:

1. the huge and vastly diverse community of medical professionals taking care of the sick and fighting the pandemic
2. the small business (e.g., restaurant) owners keeping their money-losing businesses open so that the employees can still have a job
3. the people who deliberately give more business to such small businesses 
4. the people donating and distributing much needed food and material to the poor, the elderly, and those in need
5. the people keeping company with those isolated to help them avoid feeling isolated
6. the people actively mobilising their friends and communities for positive thinking and action 
7. the people helping the needy to access and understand accurate, helpful information to deal with forever-changing vaccinations, tests, social distancing measures, … 
8. the people who are extra kind to each other to counter the gloom and doom

…

Let us all try to be the solution, not the problem. 

Cold Run

This is the coldest day of the winter so far.  8 degrees Celsius.  And it is raining.  I almost decided not to run.  I actually started to run on the sheltered pedestrian walkway.  When I ran out of walkways, and the rain seemed to thin out a little, I ventured out.  

Even the sparrows and pigeons were sheltering from the rain.  They hardly move even when one gets close.  The cold was worse than the instinctive fear of the big monster.  

I was a bit surprised to find that it did not feel as cold as I feared.  Perhaps because the rain was light, and there was little wind.  Nevertheless, there were very few people on the waterfront.  Normally there would be dozens of people running.  Today I saw no more than 10.  

When I got home after an hour and a half in the cold and rain, my fingers were too numb to turn the key.  I can imagine how the sparrow and pigeons feel.  Same with the homeless, and those waiting in the open to be tested, to be admitted, or other reasons. 

Lonely in Pandemic 不見恨

無聊恨上酒樓

嘆蝦餃

寂寞寡人劏房鎖三秋

切不斷

擋不住

清不零

只剩兩餸飯盒踎街頭

Longing to go up a dim sum restaurant

to enjoy shrimp dumpling with friends

instead, being locked up alone for years in a divided flat 

The chains of infections cannot be cut

imported infections cannot be blocked

lost hope to clear all infections

Left with nothing but a box of rice on a park bench

Thank you for Being Here … and There … and There

Thank you for being here - to keep me company when I cannot sleep.

TYFBH - to stretch my leg when it cramps.

TYFBH - to wrap my foot like an ice cream cake when I broke it.

TYFBH - to fix my head when an ear stone made the world swirl around me. 

TYFBH - to indulge with me in our favourite durian, both fresh and as dessert. 

Thank you for being there - to tie us over when I lost my job in Toronto even before I could start. 

TYFBT - to set up our dream house in Ottawa. 

TYFBT - to bless us with our first, elegant, diligently smart engineer daughter. 

TYFBT - to honour us with our second, beautiful, fiercely passionate lawyer and farmer daughter. 

TYFBT - to gift us our third, lovely, pleasantly caring accountant daughter. 

TYFBT - to track the powerful pharaohs lost in history in Egypt with me. 

TYFBT - to walk the Star Wars drenched desert in Tunisia with me. 

TYFBT - to look for the monster minotaur on the island of Crete in Greece with me. 

TYFBT - to get lost in Cyrus’ humongous 2,500 year old Persepolis in Iran with me. 

TYFBT - to sleep in the caves and gaze up the ceiling of Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia in Turkey with me. 

TYFBT - to touch the breached Berlin Wall with me. 

TYFBT - to be touched by the horrifying Auschwitz in Poland with me. 

TYFBT - to brave the icy winds in the majestic fiords of Norway with me.  

TYFBT - to run in Hyde Park in London with me.  

TYFBT - to glimpse the mysterious monks at the mystical monasteries in Russia with me. 

TYFBH - to strive all our lives to know the truth with me. 

TYFBH - to make the sacrifices so that I can chase my dream and calling all over the world. 

TYFBT - to study and discuss making our faith relevant to the real world with the Book Club.  

TYFBH - to live authentically despite all the ugliness, small-mindedness. selfishness, … around us, to put our trust in the One True God.

TYFBH - to do our best to support each other in the community to live authentically, with courage. 

Thank you for being here, and there, and there, and here.  

Victims of the Pandemic

Thousands and thousands in Hong Kong have caught the virus. Some of whom are in the hospital, many are waiting to be admitted to the hospital, and an unknown but definitely large number are lying low, hoping that the infection will go away by itself.  

Many thousands are lining up, many hours at a time, just to be tested to see whether they are infected.  Most of them have no symptoms, but they have to be tested anyway.  

Many small businesses have been forced to close.  Many people have lost their jobs.  Many are scrambling to find any part-time, temporary jobs in order to survive and feed their family.  

Many, particularly the elderly and infirm, cannot be vaccinated.  They are living in fear.  Many are suffering from depression, because of the anxiety and separation from their loved ones.  

A million students at all levels cannot go to school.  Some are making do through some form of online classes.  Many do not have the hardware, software, bandwidth, room, suitable environment to participate meaningfully in online teaching and learning.  They are falling seriously behind in their studies.  Many are suffering emotional problems because of the social isolation and lack of stimulation.  

Most of these people are the poor and underprivileged.  onThe rich can pay to go to private hospitals and avoid the public ones.  They can pay to be tested, instead of waiting for 5 hours in the cold and rain to be tested.  The rich have deep pockets to tie them over the pandemic.  They can even make tons of money selling tests, test kits, vaccines, services, products of all kinds through the pandemic.  The rich’s kids have all the computers, bandwidth, science and robot kits, and whatever is needed to keep their children educated and entertained.  Social distancing does not bother them as much.   They can stay in their spacious accommodations and when they are bored, fly away to sky and swim as needed. 

The pandemic and many of the measures taken to tackle it is making the digital divide, and all the other divides worse.  The poor is doing worse.  The children of the poor are falling further behind.  Whether by design or not.  

This is the reality.  But it does not have to be like this.  Human beings are not always condemned to be the prisoner of circumstances.  Humans have the capacity to change the course of history, to be compassionate, to be generous, to empathise with the less fortunate.  It is up to us to change the reality.  It is what God desires.  It is also what we should desire.  It is up to us.  Are we up to it?

God bless us all. 

 

Sakura 樱花 Run

Upon advice from my friend L, I took one of the longer runs since I broke my foot, to Mei Foo to see the sakura.  I was slow, but I made the 12 kilometre run.  And it is worth it. 

Along the way, I also got to see and smell many interesting flowers and plants.  There are the Bauhinia variegata 宮粉羊蹄甲.  They look like and are often confused with the Bauhinia x blakeana 洋紫荊 - which is generally more purple in color, flowers in autumn instead of spring, and cannot produce seeds. 

There is also the common sight of a strong-willed banyan tree trying to dig its roots into cracks in stones, bricks, concrete, creating intricate patterns.  

Carefully crossing many streets, stepping up and down sidewalks, making sure I do not fall, I arrived at Lai Chi Kok Park.  The sakura, or Japanese cherry blossom, does not disappoint. 

The strong sweet fragrance of the Osmanthus fragrans 桂花 was a pleasant surprise.  There is a lot of them.  Lovely. And so enjoyable.  

Running is so rewarding.  Flowers are just one of them.  

Vegetarian Buffet

A place that serves a vegetarian buffet - My Meat Run Buddy 走肉·朋友 in Tai Kok Tsui 大角咀 - is closing soon.   My wife and I, and a good friend, went there one more time before we run out of time.  

I am a meat lover.  For me, a meal is not quite a meal if there is no beef, pork, chicken, or some other kind of meat.  At least there has to be fish or some other kind of seafood. 走肉·朋友 is one of those few vegetarian places where I feel I can have a proper meal, for a reasonable place.  Our daughter A who took us there the first time, and I am grateful.  

I like particularly deep fried lotus root (炸蓮藕) and fried sweat potato (炸番薯). The “sweet and sour deep fried ribs (糖醋排骨)” made actually of fried dough (油炸鬼) does look and chew like ribs - I think the sauce helps a lot.  

The snake soup (蛇羹) also does look and taste like snake soup.  The shredded lemon leaves gives the soup that distinctive look and taste. 

There are many salads. There are, naturally, many dishes made with tofu (豆腐).  

It does make up a satisfying meal, even for a meat lover like me.  

The place has been around for many years.  Every time we come here, it is full of people.  I am not sure why it is closing.  Perhaps, like so many independent, small eateries without deep pockets, it simply cannot manage with the loss of business due to all the restrictions imposed by the government in the name of the pandemic. 

#food, #chineseculture

Master Dim Sum 匠心

My wife and I had been eating at our favourite dim sum place in Hung Hom up to 4 times a week for a year.  Naturally we were not happy when it moved to Tsuen Wan at the end of last year.  It takes roughly 45 minutes to get there.  But we have already eaten there twice since the beginning of the year. 

Recently a new dim sum place opened at the vacated site in Hung Hom.  Naturally we want to try it. 

The first time we went, just a couple of days after it opened, the food was decent, but could be better.  We thought perhaps it was at least partly initial growing pains.  We struck up a good conversation with the young man who opened it.  We were impressed by his passion, determination, and openness. 

Today we went again, and found the food much improved.  We both like the shrimp dumplings (har now, 蝦餃), with very good, plentiful shrimps inside.  

The cha-siu-stuffed bun (叉燒包) has exactly the right kind of bun/skin - white, fluffy and tasty, and plentiful cha-siu inside. 

I also like the sweet crystal bun (水晶包). 

We can see that they have made great effort to improve the quality of the food. 

We learned a lot from speaking with the young man, about the dedication needed to run the restaurant, the fine art of making good dim sum, and more.  

These days, with the social distancing and damaging restrictions to dining out, it is hugely challenging to operate a small restaurant, without deep pockets.  But this young man and his team deserves a chance.  

#food

Beautiful Sea Shells

Sea shells can be so beautiful. All sea shells have naturally beautiful shapes, curves, geometry, topology, structures, colours and intricate patterns. There is much sophisticated mathematics in them.  

It is hard to image that there is no intentional design behind such beauty and intricacy, and that they serve no particular purpose.  

It is hard to image that they just happen, like an accident.  That there may be how, but no why. 

It seems more reasonable to believe that someone, some intelligence, willed them to happen, that they should like like this, that they should be born, live and die, and perhaps evolve, for some reason.  That there is a purpose for every life, for everything that exist.  That they should all be so beautiful. 

Lunar New Year - Dim Sum

My wife and I celebrated the third day of the Lunar New Year at our favourite dim sum place.  They moved from a site two blocks away from our home to Tsuen Wan about a month ago.  

The food is just as good as before.  The steamed siu mai 燒賣 is succulent, with a good balance of shrimp and pork. 

The white radish cake 蘿蔔糕 is perfect.  Chunks of radish embedded in the smooth cake, browned exactly right. 

The steamed pork ribs 排骨 have plenty of tender meat on the bones. 

The steamed veg shoots dumpling 菜苗餃 is bursting with shrimp and extremely tender shoots from the bean plant.  

The sesame buns 流心芝麻包 have flowing flavourful sweet sesame paste. 

The taro and purple rice sweet soup 紫米芋頭糖水 is new, with very generous portions of chewy purple rice and flavourful taro.  

The staff are friendly as ever.  Two of them we have actually known for a year, from Hung Hom shop.  

customer: we are waiting for one dish of stuffed bean curd in soup.  

staff: it is a follow-up order, correct?  I am afraid it will take a bit of time.

customer: is it OK if we stay to wait for it?

staff: sure. It will just take a bit of time.

customer: are you sure it is OK?  We don’t want to occupy the table while other people may be waiting outside. 

staff: surely there is no problem in this case.  

The staff here make you feel welcome. Part of the reason why we used to go to the Hung Hom place sometimes three times a week.  Also the reason we decided to come here on the third day of the Lunar New Year even though it takes almost an hour to get here. 

We will surely be back. 

Lunar New Year - Culture Walk

My wife and I celebrated Lunar New Year by taking a walk with friends on the south side of Hong Kong Island, to take on a bit of the local culture. 

We started at the rock carvings at Wong Chuk Hang. They are estimated to be 3,000 years old, similar to those at other sites around Hong Kong.  Not much is known about them and the people who made them.  Which is a pity, because it is clearly a part of local history.  I, for one, would like to know more. 

We then got down to the waterfront next to a rocky beach to start the walk towards Deep Water Bay.  When I was in secondary school, we used to be able to walk by the fences of a private club to go down to the rock beach - where we would fish, look for small crabs, shells, and otherwise have a fun day.  Now the club has blocked off access to the rocky beach, in effect making the beach private.  This is really annoying. 

Along the waterfront, we saw beautiful wild flowers, butterflies, bees, …  They more than make up for not being able to get to the rocky beach again.  

A resilient tree taking over an old defence bulwarks.  Its will to survive is admirable.  Something that we can learn from.  

I was happy that I could still skip small stones on the water.  That’s something we used to do on the rocky beach.  

We ended our walk at Repulse Bay.  Specifically at the benches commemorating Eileen Chang - who spent some time in Hong Kong during the Second World War.  

Some scenes in one of her popular novels took place at Repulse Bay.  

All in all, an enjoyable way to spend the second day of the New Year.