Why does the dictator need a narrative?

A dictator typically rules by power and fear.  He kills persons who oppose him, puts them in prison or drives them into exile.  These threats in turn silent the others.  Sycophants compete to demonstrate their loyalty, and help to subdue the population.  The dictator’s power appears to be unchallenged.  

Why, then, is the dictator is so eager to promote a narrative - that his monopoly of power is good for the nation?  That he alone is bringing prosperity?  That anyone who opposes him is an enemy - not only of him, but of the nation?  That anyone who voices dissent must be doing it out of bad motives?  Why does he feel a need to justify his position, since his power seems to be so absolute and secure?  

Perhaps a dictator is not so secure after all.  Perhaps he needs the support of a strong army who monopolise the weapons and the support of high-ranking officials - whose support can be bought only with benefits to their group.  Perhaps he also needs the passive support of the general population - whose acquiescence can be bought with material prosperity.  Perhaps he needs a narrative that the nation is prosperous, that the prosperity is due to him only, that his way is the only way to prosperity, that to achieve his version of prosperity other values - and many people - must be sacrificed.    

Perhaps, deep down, in his heart, he also needs to assure himself of a high-sounding narrative.  That he, like the rest of us, also has a conscience.  To continue to suppress others to consolidate his power, he has to deceive his own conscience with a narrative - high sounding even if it is wrong.  Perhaps the prosperity is false.  Perhaps the prosperity is enjoyed only by some but not others. Perhaps the prosperity is not due to him but others.  Perhaps there are better ways to achieve prosperity together with other important values, for everyone, not just a select few.  He does not care that it is wrong - as long as it assuages his conscience, for the moment.  

Since the narrative is so important, we have to ask: is the narrative correct?  What are the facts? What are the true cause and effect?  What are the authentic experiences?  What are the values that truly deserve preserving and working for? How then should we live?  Under an authoritarian government, it may be risky to live truly authentically.  But we have to believe that there is a way.  There has to be a way.  There continues to be people who retain the hope.  There has to be hope.  Without it the world is truly miserable.  

THE Asia Award

PolyU was recently given the THE Asia Award on Teaching and Learning Strategy of the Year, 

for our work on Service-Learning.   

More information on the THE (Times Higher Education) Asia Award can be found here: https://theawardsasia.com/2022/en/page/winners

For more information on service-learning at PolyU: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/sllo/

Infinites and absolutes

We are fascinated by extremes, yet we hardly understand them.  Perhaps that is part of the fascination.  

In mathematics, infinity is that which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number.  That sounds like something that we understand; but do we really? If some number is added to infinity, the result is still infinity.  But the two are obviously not the same; or are they?  What is the result of subtracting one from infinity?  Still infinity?  Subtracting infinity from infinity gives you zero?  Unknown?  Dividing infinity by infinity gives you one? Unknown again?  Why so many unknowns?  If infinity is not really a number, what is it?  Does anyone know?  Can we ever know?  We have similar problems with the infinitely small - infinitesimal.  

We do not seem to have the language (and the associated concepts) needed to describe and understand extremely large and extremely small numbers.  We have similar problems with extremes in many other dimensions: power, desire, revulsion, love, hatred, …  We humans have great difficulties dealing with all kinds of extremes.  

What does it mean for a god/God to be all powerful?  All wise?  Everlasting? All loving?  Fully just?  It is particularly tricky when we have to put these qualities together.   An all-loving God probably would not want anyone to perish even if that someone has been naughty; but how can God be fully just if He does not punish the wicked?  If God is all-wise, why is there so much evil in the world that He created?  

Perhaps there are some irreconcilable contradictions somewhere in there.  Perhaps it is our understanding of some of these concepts that are not up to standard.   Is our language, developed to deal with our own limited existence, fully capable of describing a transcendent God?  How can we be sure that our description / conception is correct?  

I shudder when preachers use terms such as: “absolute faith”, “absolutely sure that xxx is true”, “absolute dependency”, …, while discussing matters of faith.   Do we even know exactly what those terms mean?  I am sure we have a reasonably good understanding of those terms; but “absolute”?  How can limited human beings be “absolute” about anything, when we have such poor records in understanding extreme qualities and quantities?  The consequences of such arrogance can be dire, when people declare each other wrong, heretical, and worse, often worthy of condemnation and death.  If we are not so sure, perhaps we should cut other people some slack, when their understanding differ from us? 

Mathematicians cannot avoid using concepts such as infinity and infinitesimal; but they show humility in professing that answers to many questions are “unknown”.  I suggest that we demonstrate the same humility when it comes to matters of faith.  We should not stop seeking better and better understanding about transcendent matters; but we should profess that there remain many things on which we are not so sure.  

  

Father

My father passed away in April 2019.  Yet sometimes it still feels he can walk through the door with a big fish, shrimp and roasted pork, and we will proceed to have a big dinner with my mother, my wife and our three daughters in our apartment in Hong Kong.  

He can do wonderful things with his hands.  He used to make beautiful vases with cow’s horns, and give them to relatives and friends.  I used to help him polish them.  He then proceed to make sharks, sailboats, ocean-going ships with multiple masts and sails.  He made bunk beds, one for each of our 3 daughters, just like those that they slept in when they were small.  He made models of our house in Ottawa, using scavenged materials, which can be disassembled and re-assembled, and carried them to Hong Kong from Canada.  

Before he passed away, I made him a bird from a palm leaf, that can balance with its beak on his finger.  He was happy with it, even though it was nothing compared to the wonderful things that he made.  

He grew up poor, and went to school for no more than a couple of years before he had to start working for a living.  Yet he was so good at his job that his supervisors promoted him several times even though he didn’t know English, a basic requirement.  As a foreman, he would finish the job well, and his subordinated would write the report in English for him.  When I was in primary 2, I struggled to learn English.  His superiors  would take turns to tutor me to learn English.  That’s how I learned “mathematics” is “咖哩勿食”.  He was friends with everyone: subordinates, superiors, colleagues, clients, strangers, …  He could curse as well as the butchers; but he never used those words with us at home - although I did learn much listening to him talking with other people.  

We were poor; but my parents never let us feel poor.  We never lack food.  We didn’t have a lot of fancy toys.  But my father made us miniature but functional cooking sets out of scrap metal.  We make our own lanterns for Mid-Autumn Festival.  He taught me to make pea shooters out of bamboo, using wild peas as ammunition. He taught me to whistle by blowing against leaves pulled taut.  From him, I learned to look at nature as full of things useful and fun.  

Even though my parents had little or no schooling, they work hard to put us through school, to grasp any opportunity to study, to attain the highest level as we can.  He wants us to make our best effort in everything we do.  When we were living in Canada, he often chastised me for not maintaining our family car in the best shape I could.  

After he retired, he worked on part time jobs, volunteered at nursing homes, churches, non-profits.  He can fix almost anything.  His attitude to family, relatives and friends, to life in general, made him many admirers.  He was, and still is, everyone’s favourite uncle.  

He is my father.  

  

Nga Tsin Wai Tsuen (衙前圍村)

Several years ago, I was able to enter the village, walk past some of the inhabited houses, visit the temple in the middle of the village, and buy things at some of the shops at the periphery of the village.  I saw people, talking birds, old tools, well-maintained houses, ., and lots of things of interest.  I had been back a few times since.  Each time fewer houses standing, more were blocked off, fewer and fewer people and business.  I never saw that talking bird again.  

Today it appears that all people have been driven away, and the whole village is fenced off.  The few houses remaining are allowed to deteriorate.  Soon there will be little that is salvageable, even if people do want to savage it.  Another village bites the bullet. 

That seems to be the story of Hong Kong.  Another old village purposely killed off.  Or simply allowed to deteriorate to the point where it is no longer salvageable, then mercifully killed to avoid necessary suffering.  To make way for development, of high rises, public buildings, …   

In Hong Kong, it is all about money, power, advantage, carrying out the will of the master.  Never truly about culture, respect, values, the will of the masses.  

Don’t blame the younger generation.  It is their parents’ generation - those who hold the power - that taught them that.  

  

Calligraphy Graffiti of the Emperor of Kowloon (九龍皇帝)

There is no doubt that the “Emperor of Kowloon” is a part of the cultural heritage of Hong Kong.  Few people, if any, take the claim of Mr. Tsang Tsou Choi (曾灶財) to be the owner of much of Kowloon seriously.  But his decades-old habit of writing on the walls on the streets of Hong Kong has won over a large section of the population.  Sadly, practically all his calligraphy have been painted over. 

In the end one lonely pillar at the Star Ferry is spared.  It is now surrounded by a layer of clear plastic.  The original writing was done in black paint on a grey, circular pillar.  It sits in a place in front of the Star Ferry which is not illuminated.  The plastic is transparent but dirty and reflective.  The combined effect makes it difficult to read.  There is also nothing to explain the background and significance of the writings.  I have never observed anyone looking at them.  

Recently, some of his calligraphy re-appear on a wall under a railway bridge over Boundary Street, generating quite a bit of excitement.  I went over to have a look this morning.  The writings were done in black paint on a grey surface as was his habit.  The writings seemed to have been painted over at least twice.  The first time by a thin layer of light beige-coloured paint.  The second time by a very heavy layer of light grey paint.  Apparently, in some places, both the light beige paint and the heavy grey paint have peeled off, exposing the calligraphy again.

I examined the covering layers to see whether it is possible to remove more of the beige and grey covering, to make more of the original calligraphy visible.  Unfortunately, some of the black paint seem to stick to the beige layer.  It seems difficult to remove the beige layer without also removing the original black writing.  Perhaps experts in restoration can do better.  

Of course, there is no guarantee that the authorities would not paint over them again, or try to “preserve” them in a way that make it worse, or declare them to be unsalvageable.  Perhaps the best that we can hope for is for the authorities to just leave them alone. 

  

Generosity and Selfishness - both are Hong Kong

My wife and I were standing in a MTR carriage on our way to our favourite dim sum restaurant in Tsuen Wan.  She spotted a couple of seats became available on the bench behind me across the aisle.  She took one and motioned for me to take the other.  At the same time, a young lady in front of me, who was facing the seats, saw them before I did, moved cross and took the seat next to my wife.  When I realised what had happened, I stopped.  What else could I do?

In the mean time, the young lady saw my wife signalling me, got up from the seat, and graciously stepped aside.  I was very grateful and took the seat.  Later, I thank the young lady for her generosity.  She seemed embarrassed.  

When we finished a sumptuous meal of dim sum, we went across the road, to wait for our bus in front of a public wet market.  There were two lanes for the traffic going back into the city and vehicles were able to move normally, despite some of the cars stopping at the curb in front of the market, presumably to drop off or pick up some of the customers.  Suddenly, we realised that the traffic had practically stopped. because of some blockage just meters up the road from us.  I stepped onto the road to see what happened. 

It turned out that a car had double parked, in the middle of the road.  The effect is that the “slow” lane was completely blocked.  Even the “fast” lane was partially blocked.  Big double decker buses had to squeeze gingerly through the partially blocked fast lane, and then pull sharply to the left to get to the bus stop, and stop at an angle to the curb to pick up passengers.  

In a short couple of hours, we witness both heart-warming generosity and annoying selfishness.  Both are Hong Kong.  Is it a simple coincidence that the act of generosity took place on the MTR, which “common folks” travel in, but the act of selfishness took place among car-driving people who are presumably more well-off (some of those cars are definitely quite posh)?