Musings on Life in Hong Kong

Hong Kong - Mainland War of Words

2012-01-29T14:40:00.001+08:00

Recently (some) Hongkongers have complained that (some) Mainlanders behave poorly in public transport, occupy hospital facilities and other valuable resources unfairly, drive up housing prices, etc. (Some) Mainlanders, on the other hand, complained that (some) Hongkongers cannot speak Putonghua properly, are unfriendly to Mainlanders, require tough laws to keep them in line, do not appreciate the business that Mainlanders bring to Hong Kong, etc.

Indeed, Hong Kong has developed a culture quite distinct from those of the Mainland, Taiwan or other Chinese communities. And it is often a source of mis-understanding or even conflict. However, the protagonists in this cases are largely “barking up the wrong trees”. (Just a convenient idiom - no offense intended.)

Hongkongers and Mainlanders are really not that much different in nature. Put into the others’ shoes, they would probably behave in exactly the same manner. It is the political systems and the corresponding governments that are responsible for the source of much of the conflict.

It is the Hong Kong government that have failed to curtail unlawful behaviour of greedy and arrogant businesses such as D&G. It is the Hong Kong government that failed to sort out who should be able to benefit from the public services, such as hospital beds, financed by Hong Kong tax payers. It is the Hong Kong government that use fear-mongering to prevent a rational discussion of a sensible immigration policy. It is the Hong Kong government who allow the big real estate developers to manipulate the market, restrict the supply, and to sell flats using misleading information, driving up prices.

On the other hand, it is the Mainland’s political system that allows people like 孔慶東 to prosper from spewing hatred and extremist views. It is the Mainland’s economic system that allows low-quality, fakes and poisonous products to flood the market - which drive the buyers to seek safer, high quality products in Hong Kong. It is also the Mainland political system that allows officials to amass fortunes through corruption - which drove them to launder the ill-gotten wealth in the casinos in Macau, and the real estate markets in Hong Kong. It is also the Mainland government that bastardize the Chinese script into unrecognizable simplified characters - ostensibly for the sake of raising the level of literacy. Now, both Hong Kong and Taiwan, which keep using the traditional characters, have much higher literacy rates than in the Mainland - it turned out that the traditional characters is not really the obstacle. The cost of that policy, however, is that generations of Mainlanders cannot read the original scripts in the enormous treasure of Chinese culture.

So, to whom should our mutual complaints be directed?

Our Hong Kong Identity

2012-01-22T18:16:00.002+08:00

Why do so many of us still identify ourselves more with Hong Kong than with China, while we have so many complaints about things in Hong Kong? Is it because in Hong Kong, at least,

We can commemorate June 4 and not be afraid of being sent to prison?
We can criticize the government and not be afraid of being sent to prison?
We can entertain a reasonable hope of universal suffrage in open and fair elections, even though we are not quite there yet?
We can come and go freely without being afraid our passports might be confiscated?
We can openly confess and practice our faith and not be afraid of being sent to prison?
We can be reasonably sure that our police are clean and fair, and distinguishable from thugs?
Our professors do not call other people turtle eggs and dogs simply because these other people do not speak the professors’ dialect?
When we have grievances against the rich and powerful, we can be reasonably sure the courts will judge our cases fairly?
When someone becomes very rich, we can be reasonably sure that she has earned the money legally and not through corruption, even if not always completely fairly?
People line up automatically for buses and do not try to cut in front of others?

Angry HongKonger Game

2012-01-17T14:30:00.002+08:00

How about this as a game? The player, an Angry HongKonger (AngrH), throws things at targets. There are several types of targets.

Greedy Real Estate Developers (GREDs) float across the screen brandishing prices for apartments: “7 million dollars”, “9 million dollars”, etc. The AngrH can throw “bricks” at the GREDs. If a brick hits, the GRED’s wealth is cut by a million dollars. If the GRED floats across the screen successfully without being hit, his wealth increases by 100 million dollars. If his wealth becomes zero the GRED is bankrupt.

Incompetent Government Officials (InGOs) likewise float across the screen, mouthing inane slogans: “let us build 9 floor village houses”, “the URD is doing a bad job ... OOPS, sorry, that is my own department”, ... The AngrH can throw “protests” against the InGO. A successful hit drops the rank of the InGO by one. A successful escape raises the rank of the InGO by one.   The InGO with the lowest rank is fired.

Lazy Functional Constituency Legislators (LaFCLs) float across the screen dozing off. The AngrH can throw “NO” ballots against the LaFCL. A successful hit lowers the LaCFL’s level by one. A successful escape raises the level of the LaFCL by one. If the level becomes zero the LaCFL is out of a job.

Dishonest Supermarket Owners (DiSOs) likewise float across the screen quoting wildly fluctuating prices: “120 dollars for a chicken”, “30 dollars for a dozen eggs”, ...   AngrH throws “price checks” against the DiSO. A hit penalizes the DiSO for $10,000. A successful escape earns the DiSO $100,000.

Now what I need is a good artist to create some cute icons for the AngrH, GRED, InGO, LaFCL, DiSO, ...

The angry people of Hong Kong

2012-01-13T14:35:00.000+08:00

Why are the people of Hong Kong so angry? Compared to 40 years ago, we are much better off. The living standard is much higher. We have much more food (probably too much). We are wearing better clothes. We can afford to travel much more. Many more young people are receiving tertiary education. The police and other public servants are much less corrupt. They are actually more courteous. The streets are cleaner. Yet we seem more angry - at the rich yet ineffectual government, at the filthily rich yet forevermore-greedy real estate developers, at the politically powerful yet uncaring pro-establishment, at the businesses that discriminate. Why? Why do we get more angry even as we get (seemingly) richer?

Was it because people around us then were as poor as we were, so we did not feel as bad? Was it because the rich then were not as visible and not as ostentatious in flaunting their wealth? Was it because the real estate developers were not as powerful and domineering? Was it because there were still decent jobs for those who could not get into university, but not anymore? Was it because we still felt that if we studied hard and worked hard, that we could improve our own station in life, but not any more? Was it because we somehow meekly expected to be oppressed by the colonial British in power then, but do not feel we should accept being oppressed by our own fellow Chinese (presumably HongKongers) who are in power now?

Dog at Bakery

2012-01-12T23:15:00.000+08:00

The dog was not trying to steal from the bakery. It was quietly and patiently waiting for its master who was shopping at the bakery in Yaumatei. I love the dog and envy the master.

Roasted Suckling Pig (燒乳豬)

2012-01-10T21:48:00.000+08:00

I love roasted suckling pig. These are piglets that are 2 to 6 weeks old, still feeding on mothers’ milk. Each weights about 5 kilograms. The piglet has to be cleaned and dressed, the ribs have to be taken out, and the whole piglet hung up to dry for hours, before they can be roasted.

While they are being roasted, they have to be turned constantly, to get it roasted evenly. At one point, the head of the pig was plunged so far into the fire pit that the head caught fire; and then the burnt skin had to be brushed off with a wire brush. Air bubbles formed under the skin have to be punctured to allow the oil to drain. One has to sit in front of the open fire pit for hours and hours, practically being slowly roasted along with the pigs and ducks. It is obviously a lot of hard work that produce such delicious meat. Watching it done boosted my respect for the pig, and the hands that roasted it.

The lesson for me? Skill and hard work are required for anything that is done well.

Congee Inflation

2012-01-04T23:09:00.000+08:00

When I went to my neighbourhood congee shop in Hung Hom on the second day of 2012, the price list looked different.

I happened to have taken a photograph of the price list two days ago, on the last day of 2011. I had wanted to compare the prices with that of my wife’s favourite congee shop in Jordan. Lo and behold, the price of most items had increased by 1 dollar.

艇仔粥 went from $12 to $13. 牛腸 (牛肉腸粉, rice noodle roll filled with beef) went from $11 to $12. 油炸鬼 (油條, fried bread stick) went from $5 to $6. The cost of my favourite big breakfast had gone up from $28 to $31 in 2 days!

Most of the time, actually, I would be less extravagant and order only 艇仔粥 and 油炸鬼, which would cost me seventeen dollars. Now, it would be nineteen, practically a whole twenty dollar bill without change.

Naches

2011-12-30T21:07:00.000+08:00

I learned a new word, “naches”, a few days ago. It was derived from Yiddish, meaning “Emotional gratification or pride, especially taken vicariously at the achievement of one's children”. This is a beautiful word, and I just love it.

My daughter A went with me and my students to Cambodia for a week of service learning in 2010. She worked with White Lotus, a shelter for trafficked girls (former prostitutes) in Phnom Penh, teaching them crafts and computer skills. In the summer of 2011, she went with another group of social science students from the University of Hong Kong to Batanbang in Cambodia, to teach English at local schools for two months. When she came back to Hong Kong, they raised some funds to help one of the local schools pay their rents. Right now, she is back in Batanbang visiting her students during the Christmas vacation.

I have a feeling she probably won’t be making much money in her career. But I would be happy for the naches derived from her sense of justice and kindness.

Subdivided flats (劏房)

2011-12-27T21:45:00.001+08:00

A week after the deadly fire in Fa Yuen Street, I happened to pass by the area, and saw the residents going back to retrieve their belongings. The fire had long been put out, but the aftermath was starkly evident. This was, of course, a huge tragedy with many causes.

One thing that stuck in my mind was that these people are not the poorest in Hong Kong. Those subdivided flats cost $3,000 per month, for a 120 square feet unit. If you don’t have a decently-paid job, you cannot afford to live there. Some of them have respectable jobs that paid $10,000 a month. However, they don’t really have much choice. They do not qualify for public housing. For employment and other reasons, they have to live in the inner city. Yet they cannot afford to rent units of better quality (safety, ...).

Property development is one of the main drivers of Hong Kong’s prosperity. One of the consequences, however, is that housing costs in the city are insanely high. Many of us are forced to live in cramped, low-quality, unsafe flats in order to make enough money to maintain the present “(poor) quality of life”. The people who really benefit from all this nose-grinding labour? The mega-rich real estate developers, of course.

Hong Chi Christmas Party

2011-12-26T15:47:00.000+08:00

Starting from 2006, our students have been going to Hong Chi PinHill Special School to organize Christmas Parties for the children over there. There are actually several special schools and homes in that compound. Their children range from kindergarten to secondary school in age, and their abilities range from severely to mildly handicapped. We had been doing more than these once-a-year parties. We have invited their children over to our university to attend workshops on the Internet. We had also helped them install a wireless local area network. And we will continue to do more, as part of our expanding Service Learning program. Some of these projects may even earn the students academic credits. More on that in subsequent posts.

We are also adding some new elements to these parties. Last year, we invited some refugee children sponsored by Christian Action, with whom we have been working for several years, to come as helpers.    This year, some of their children sang pop songs and performed hip-hop dancing. They were quite entertaining and we all had a great laugh. We also invited the youth fellowship of my church to come along and sing Christmas songs with the children.

It was gut-wrenching to see the state that some of the children were in. Many of them sat in specially-designed wheelchairs. Even then, some of them still could not sit up straight. One kept flinging his head around, banging on the arm-rests and the back. I showed my student how to pad the kid on his shoulder, and to massage his shoulders, which seemed to calm him down. There was this girl with a sweet round face who liked to smile. But she could not talk and her hands were always clenched tight. I showed a girl from my youth fellowship how to massage her hands, to help her relax her grip. There was a girl whose head was only 2/3 of the size of a normal child - but she enjoyed clapping in synchrony with one of my students.   There was this boy that I have known for more than 10 years, who had some special problems which made his lips and tongue blue, who is about 17 but only as tall as a 10 year old. ...

They turn out to be really easy to please, and love the human contact. One cannot help loving them, wanting to do things for them, to make them smile.   I think that is what Christmas is all about - loving, serving each other.   I believe all of us felt that way.

Merry Christmas!

Vaclav Havel (1936 - 2011)

2011-12-20T00:25:00.002+08:00

Vaclav Havel was primarily an eloquent humanitarian playwright, a passionate advocate and practitioner of non-violent resistance to injustice and oppression. His famous motto was: “Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred”.

In 1968, he was one of the supporters for the Prague Spring - the reform movement against the Communist dictatorship that was brutally suppressed. As a result, he was banned from the theatre. Instead of being cowed into submission, he became more politically active. He continued to write plays exposing the absurdities of life in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule, such as "The Power of the Powerless". His manuscripts could only be published clandestinely in Czechoslovakia. In 1977 he was one of the co-founders of the Charter 77 manifesto, which criticized the Czechoslovakian government of failing to respect human rights. He was imprisoned many times. Yet he never gave up peaceful resistance, nor did he turn to violence.

In 1989, the peaceful Velvet Revolution brought down the Communist government in Czechoslovakia, as the tide turned against decades of Communist rule in Eastern Europe. In December, Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia. He resigned from the presidency in 1992 in opposition to the Slovaks’ declaration of independence. After the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia, he was elected the first president of the Czech republic in 1993. After stepping down in 1993, he continued to speak and work for human rights, and remained one of the most respected and influential figures. He jointly nominated Liu XiaoBo (劉曉波) for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Czech is a beautiful place, steeped in history. Charles University in Prague, found in 1348, was the first university in central Europe. John Hus (1369 - 1415) was one of the earliest church reformers, speaking out against indulgences and other corrupt practices, preceding Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. He refused to recant and was burnt at the stake. Czech was formerly Bohemia.

Perhaps it was this rich heritage of independent thinking, humanist tradition, and strong backbone that produce people like Vaclav Havel. He set an example for all of us. How I wish that we have more people like him here in Hong Kong.

Election - Hong Kong Style

2011-12-13T11:25:00.000+08:00

There are 7 million people in HK, but there are only 1,200 members (electors) in the Election Committee that elects the Chief Executive. Only 250,000 (less than 3.6%) out of the 7,000,000 people have the right to vote, to select the electors.

The election for the electors is divided into subsectors. In the education subsector, 86,618 voters are qualified to select 30 electors (2,887 : 1). But in the hotel subsector, only 101 voters select 17 electors (6 : 1)). In finance, 125 select 18 (7 : 1). In insurance, 135 selects 18 (7.5 : 1). In transport, 201 selects 18 (11 : 1). In Employers’ federation, 122 selects 16 (7.6 : 1). In Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, 321 select 16 (20 : 1). In agriculture and fisheries, 159 elects 60 (2.7 : 1). Obviously, in most subsectors, it is the big bosses and business owners who have the vote, not just anyone who works in the subsector.

In the end, only 60,000 voters (less than 1% of the population) bothered to vote. How representative is such an election?

On a closer look, more than 70 seats on the Election Committee were won by candidates holding key positions in HK’s dominant business, mainly property. It has been estimated that Tang’s supporters (mostly the rich and the powerful) won 300+ elector places, Leung’s supports won only ~100. The ratio is practically the reverse of the opinion polls, which consistently put Leung’s popularity at double Tang’s, making a mockery of the election.

The pan-democrats may have 200, which may allow them to put forward a candidate for the election of the Chief Executive. This may make the election more interesting, even though they have no real possibility of winning. Half of the electors are supposedly undeclared. In reality, many of them are believed to be just waiting for a clear indication from the mainland authorities which pro-establishment candidate to support.

Such is the state of the elections in Hong Kong , one of the most developed, educated, open, dynamic and civil societies in the world.

Ha Pak Lai (下白泥)

2011-12-12T21:59:00.000+08:00

Ha Pak Lai is pretty, both from above and on the ground. It is on the west coast of the New Territories. Many people go there for the sunset. But it was also beautiful under the bright winter sun. We hiked from Leung King Estate in Tuen Mun, over the Castle Peak Firing Range. After an hour or so, we saw Ha Pak Lai below us, to the west.

Just off the shore, floating in shallow water, are numerous oyster fields. The oysters are attached to strings, hanging under the floating racks. You cannot see them, but they are there. I wouldn’t eat these, however, because the water in the Hao Hoi Wan (后海灣, Deep Bay) is quite polluted.

There are many fish ponds, fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and abandoned houses. On Sunday morning, the place looked clean, healthy and peaceful. Dogs lounged and scratched themselves lazily. They did not bother to bark at us.

The scene was spoiled, however. On the opposite shore, across Hao Hoi Wan, was Shekou (蛇口). It used to be a sleepy village, famous only as the jumping-off point for people who wanted to smuggle into Hong Kong from mainland China, in the 1960s and 70s. It is now a highly-built-up city and a big busy port.

The worse is actually on this side of the water, just to the left (south west) of Ha Pak Lai. It turned out to be the largest and active garbage dump in Hong Kong. I have heard of it but did not realize it was so close to Ha Pak Lai. You cannot actually see much of the garbage. Because it is covered by the green tarpaulin as soon as it is dumped by the trucks. The stench, however, is unmistakable.

Political reporting

2011-12-10T13:47:00.002+08:00

The fight between Tang and Leung in the election for the Chief Executive is heating up, generating some genuine interest for the first time. Even though both candidates are “pre-approved”, the process is tightly controlled, and the general public cannot really participate, there is a sense that the two candidates represent different segments of Hong Kong, and that the central government cannot completely ignore public sentiment if it is too lopsided. Hence the interest.

A few days days ago Leung complained that the SingTao line of newspapers had been criticizing him maliciously and unfairly. Two days ago Ho, the owner of the ST group responded with a scathing attack on Leung. In the mean time, the polls continue to show Leung leading Tang by a large margin.

The SCMP published yesterday (9 Dec 2011) on the front page an article commenting on the large lead that L is holding over T, even though the central government appears to be favouring Tang, followed by a lengthy analysis of the polls on page 4. It also reported on the exchanges between Ho and Leung on page 3. It can be said the SCMP provided a fairly balanced report, with analysis.

Similarly, am730 reported on the exchanges between Leung and Ho on page 1, with more reporting and analysis on the election on page 2, even reporting on candidates other than Leung and Tang.

In contrast, the Headline News, published by the SingTao Group, published several articles on pages 1, 2 and 8, completely in favour of Ho and Tang, and continued to dig up more dirt on Leung. The same for the Standard. There does not appear to be any negative news on Tang in either paper.

A little while ago, it became known that Lai, the owner of Apple Daily, was making contributions to pro-democracy parties and persons. As a consequence, there was a big uproar, from pro-establishment politicians and media, complaining that the Apple Daily was biased - as if it was some kind of diabolical secret that the Hong Kong public was unaware of.

This time, when the reporting of pro-establishment media is blatantly obvious, there have not been a beep from anyone. So the lesson is: it is OK for pro-establishment media to be biased, but it is not OK for media to be liberal and pro-democracy?

People have been asking whether Hong Kong has changed since 1997. This is one area in which Hong Kong has changed - for the worse.

Ap Liu Street (鴨寮街)

2011-12-09T00:35:00.000+08:00

In the 1970s, Ap Liu Street was already famous for electronics. We went there to buy vacuum tubes, transistors, resistors, circuit-breakers, etc., to build electronic gadgets. I once bought a kit of electronics components for a two-stage amplifier (pre-amp, and power-amp), an old turntable, two big loud-speakers, and built wooden boxes for them - my first (and last) home-made sound system.

Now Ap Liu Street is popular as ever. Other than the usual electronics, you can also find all kinds of odd, not-so-easy-to-find stuffs there.

Such as old remote controls. They even fix them for you.

Batteries of all sorts, rechargeable as well.

Light-bulbs and LEDs of all sorts.

Remote-control helicopters.

Phone-cards.

Clocks of all sorts.

It is an interesting place to spend an afternoon. You are sure to find something that intrigues you there.

Discrimination in Education

2011-12-05T22:27:00.002+08:00

Racial discrimination in a well-known fact in the education system in USA. Asian Americans make up only 6% of the US population; but they are over-achievers in education. If admission to university is racially-blind, there should be a lot more Asians in US universities. University of California, Berkeley, which is forbidden by state law to consider race for admission, is 40% Asian, compared to 20% before the law [SCMP, 5 Dec., 2011]. This has been attributed to many factors: emphasis on academic achievement in the Asian culture, family support, tiger moms, etc. But the over-achievement is an unmistakable fact.

However, a study by Princeton sociology professor Thomas Espenshade, using admission data to private colleges in 1997, found that African-American applicants with SAT scores of 1150 had the same chances of being accepted as white applicants with 1460s and Asian applicants with perfect 1600s [The Daily Princetonian, 12 Oct., 2009] Asians have to have much better academic results than whites and blacks in order to get accepted in elite universities in the USA.

On the other hand, what is the situation in Hong Kong? You might be excused in thinking that the Chinese should have an advantage in gaining admission to elite schools in Hong Kong. But you would be wrong. Many local families would love to send their children to international secondary schools. But the percentage of local students who could attend international schools (built on government land) is limited at 50%. And the government is planning to further limit it to 30%.

One might find this to be understandable, if not acceptable, in colonial days. But in post-colonial Hong Kong? We could be the only place in the world who discriminates against its own people in its own country.

Apartment Selling - Hong Kong Style

2011-12-01T00:19:00.002+08:00

We were puzzled by a full page advertisement for an apartment complex in the newspapers. It was said to be a landmark in the central axis, presumably of Hong Kong. But tried as we did, we could not find out from the advertisement where the apartments were located.

It did mention a location in Central, which indeed can be considered a really central location. But it was merely the place where one could view a model. It turned out the apartments were actually in Tseung Kwan O. Tseung Kwan O was where Hong Kong dumped its garbage in landfills. So it is now in the central axis of Hong Kong? If it is such as desirable location, why did they try so hard to hide it?

These were also said to be “luxury” apartments. A two bedroom “luxury” apartment? At a closer look, the usable floor area of some of those apartments was only 536 square feet. It was only 77% of the so called “construction” area, another uniquely Hong Kong concept - which includes the lift lobbies, club houses, roof tops, etc.

Judging from the floor plans, it would be difficult to fit a wardrobe and a large bed into the bedrooms. How can such a small apartment be considered luxurious? It is getting ridiculous here.

Perhaps the one thing that could truly be considered luxurious was the price. It has been rumoured that some of those 2-bedroom apartments were selling at ~HK$ 7,000 per square foot; and one larger apartment has been sold at the absurdly high price of HK$ 21,000 per square foot. That is double the monthly salary of some of our fresh graduates from local universities.

This is truly uniquely Hong-Kong-style apartment selling.

The story of M

2011-11-29T11:03:00.000+08:00

The life story of my friend G’s praying mantis, M, in a series of pictures.

(1) M trying to steal a watch.

(2) His attempt to steal discovered, M boxing with the owner of the watch.

(3) Defeated, M begging for mercy.

(4) M preparing to jump to his death when his plea was rejected.

[epilogue: M survived the jump.]

Reading with children

2011-11-25T00:05:00.002+08:00

My wife and I read with our children, literally before they could read. We bought books made with cloth so that we could read with them in the bath. We started with books with colourful pictures and no words; then books with colourful pictures and few words; then books with fewer and fewer pictures but more and more words, ...

When they could start to read by themselves, we sat with them, each of us reading our own books. When we went to restaurants with adult friends, we asked our children to bring along their favourite books. They could then have something to read before the food came, after they finished with their food, and when they were bored by the adults’ conversation.

We don’t have a lot of worldly treasures. The one thing that we have quite a bit of is books. All our three daughters love to read, although they have very different interests in books. One loves her books so much she would get upset with me if I wrinkle up her books. We would like to think that our reading with them when they were young have something to do with it.

I was therefore happy to read that a recent PISA study found that

“15-years-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 then students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all.”
“The performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family’s socio-economic background.”
“Parents’ engagement with their 15-year-olds is strongly associated with better performance in PISA.”
Such parent-child engagements with positive associations include: “discussing political or social issues”, “discussing books, films or television programs”, “discussing how well children are doing in school”, eating main meals together around the table”, and “spending time just talking with one’s children”.

[The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide evaluation in OECD member countries of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance.]

金錢雞

2011-11-23T00:46:00.000+08:00

Literally, it is Gold Coin Chicken. But there is really no chicken in it. It is pieces of pork lard (肥豬肉), pork liver (豬肝), Char Siu (barbecued meat, 叉燒) stacked together and roasted like 叉燒. The lard added flavour and juice to the relatively dry meat. Quite tasty and worth a try. Throw away the lard if you are health conscious.

It was common at 燒臘店. But it is quite rare these days. I found these at a 燒臘店 in Hung Hom.

Primary School Examinations

2011-11-17T00:01:00.001+08:00

When I finished primary school, decades ago, we had to take the Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE), or 中學入學考試, if we wished to go on to attend secondary school. The SSEE tested Chinese, English and Mathematics. At that time, secondary school was neither compulsory nor free. Everyone of us wanted to get into secondary school. But some could not afford the fees; others did not do well enough in the SSEE. So there was pressure. But there was also a clear sense that if you were smart and work hard, you would get into a good school and improve your prospects in society. It was a kind of meritocracy. I did well enough in SSEE but had difficulties with the school fees. Eventually I got a government scholarship to attend Aberdeen Technical School (ATS), a boarding school run by the Salesians for under-privileged students. I remain grateful to the government, and the Salesians.

People complained that the education system was elitist and too-heavily examination driven. Many waves of reformation were carried out, year after year. So what do we get now?

There is no more SSEE. Supposedly, progression to secondary school is no longer dependent on the student’s performance in a single examination such as the SSEE. The students have to take the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA), or 全港性系統評估. The TSA tests English, Chinese and Mathematics, to give schools feedback on the effectiveness of their teaching.

They also have to take the Pre-Secondary One Hong Kong Attainment Test (Pre-S1 HKAT), or 中一入學前香港學科測驗 (中一編班試). The Pre-S1 HKAT is used by Secondary Schools to assess the performance of their Form 1 entrants in Chinese, English and Mathematics. It is also used to scale the internal assessment results of the Primary 6 students proceeding to Form 1.

Theoretically, a P6 student’s results in the TSA and the Pre-S1 HKAT do not affect directly the secondary school the student is placed into. However, the students’ results determines to which class in the secondary is the student placed. The results also affect the ranking of the primary school. Just try telling the students that they are not pressured to train for these examinations.

There are, of course, internal examinations (升中呈分試) at the Primary School, the results of which are used to classify the students into one of three bands, for the lottery which allocates F1 places to the P6 students.

You tell me now, is this an improvement over the SSEE?

Australia Dairy Co. (澳洲牛奶公司)

2011-11-15T18:58:00.001+08:00

This place is a true phenomenon. Its name says diary company, but it is in reality a 茶餐廳., but a very popular one. It does serve diary products such as 燉奶. But many people go there for popular items such as scrambled eggs on toast (炒蛋多士), etc.

At any reasonable hours of the day, there is always a long line in front. Your orders arrive unbelievably fast. And you are also expected to eat unbelievably fast. The waiters are not shy in letting you know their impatience.

Many customers, most of the time one-timers or tourists, complained about the service. But there is always a long line in front of the restaurant. And they have no lack of repeat customers.

Air-dried Meat in Yaumatei

2011-11-11T00:09:00.000+08:00

Air-dried whole ducks, duck legs, boneless duck breasts. Air-dried pork bellies. Pork sausages, duck liver sausages, goose liver sausages. Yummy.

The only thing missing is gold and silver liver 金銀膶 - pork liver stuffed with translucent lard.

Old Yaumatei

2011-11-09T22:57:00.000+08:00

When I was small, people used to comment on the growing number of banks this way, “There are more banks than rice shops (銀行多過米鋪).” The assumption being that rice shops were numerous. Nowadays, however, they are quite hard to find. Here is one in Yaumatei, between Jordan Road and Austin Road.

It still sells rice by the catty, just like in the old days. But the rice is now stored in small plastic buckets. Not huge, three-feet tall wooden tubs. And there are pitifully little rice to sell. Partly because we eat much less rice than before. The 7 million people in Hong Kong eats only 26,000 tonnes of rice a month. It amounts to about 8 pounds (6 斤) per person each month. But the bigger reason is that we tend to buy our rice from supermarkets nowadays. So these rice merchants are doomed, unless we give them more business.

This one, at least, retains an old style balance, which is still in use. This, in itself, may be reason enough to shop here.

Here you can get your knives and scissors sharpened.

Or buy traditional herbs stored in big glass jars and small drawers.

The old Hong Kong is fading away quickly. It is getting more and more difficult to find. Soon it will disappear completely.

John Nash in person

2011-11-02T22:18:00.000+08:00

Went to listen to John Nash’s seminar at our university on Monday. He is, of course, the famous mathematician known for his work on game theory, and also because of the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, loosely based on his life.

This time he discussed some of his recent papers which tried to explain how seemingly cooperative, even altruistic, behaviour can arise out of self-interest in game theory. During the question and answer period, I asked him, based on his work, whether he believed that there were no truly altruistic behaviour, that all such behaviour can be explained by motivations of self-interest. He answered at length, at one point mentioning the economic and market situation in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, I was sitting too far from him to hear his answer very clearly. But I believe he was rather critical of some of the things that he observed in the market.

It was quite an experience to hear him speak, even though much of the mathematics was quite difficult to follow.

Mantis infestation

2011-10-29T16:12:00.001+08:00

My friend G’s mantis population has expanded 300% (from 1 to 3) in 2 weeks. Before this, I thought mantises were all spindly green. It turned out many of them mimic flowers by growing spikes and patches, putting on fanciful colours, and swaying their bodies rhythmically.

These mantises, at about 1-2 cm, are only babies (nymphs, to use the proper terminology). They are probably only a month old. In a few months, they will grow into adults, after a number of number moltings. They will be several inches long, similar in size to the more common mantises that we see around Hong Kong.

These tiny monsters are already voracious eaters.   They grab these fruit flies, sometimes one in each claw (foreleg), in lightning-fast strikes. They start eating the fly from the head, alive. I don’t like flies, and insects in general. But I can barely stand watching the process, particularly at close-up.

Their compound eyes sometimes give the impression that their eyes have small pupils, or perhaps even that they are blind (where are the eyes?).

The green guy was really aggressive. He would wave his claws menacingly whenever anyone came close.   At one point I pushed my camera to may be within 2 inches of him to get a close-up. He jumped onto my lens, and I jumped.

It is said that the female would eat the male after mating, and sometimes during. This behaviour had actually been observed in laboratories. Subsequently, other researchers claimed that the behaviour could not be observed in natural settings, and speculated that it might have been induced by the stress generated by the laboratory setting. In any case, the world of mantises is a strange one.

The world of nature is full of wonders. It is hard to imagine that it all just happened without a purpose.

McDull (麥兜)

2011-10-26T23:14:00.001+08:00

Saturday morning, I was running on the TsimShaTsui East Promenade towards the Star Ferry when I spotted something in the distance on the Avenue of Stars. At first, I thought it was the statue of Bruce Lee. But it looked more rounded, more like a big ball. But why would someone put a ball on the Avenue of Stars?

As I got closer, I realized it was a bronze of our favourite lard ball. McDull was truly created in Hong Kong, by artists educated in Hong Kong. He is not very smart; and he almost always fails. But he has a good heart and many dreams, just like most of us. He is easy to identify with, perhaps - a bit like Charlie Brown of the Peanuts comics in the USA.

Life is really unpredictable, even for cartoon characters. He started as a supporting character in the McMug comics; but has since acquired a huge following. Now he has even got a bronze on the Avenue of Stars. Who would have predicted it from the beginning?

Is it OK to accept donations from Jimmy Lai?

2011-10-23T16:21:00.000+08:00

Some have criticized Cardinal Joseph Zen for accepting donations from Jimmy Lai. Jimmy Lai is the publisher of Apply Daily (蘋果日報), and the “free” Sharp Daily (爽報). Because Apply Daily and Sharp Daily often publish photographs and articles with sexually explicit content, many people would not want to be associated with him. Hence the criticism of Cardinal Zen for accepting donations from a man of such dubious character.

Personally, I do not like this aspect of Apply Daily, and I blame Jimmy Lai for it. But I would not criticize people who feel it is OK to accept his donations. The situation may be similar to the situation of something like the Jockey Club. It promotes gambling, which causes many social problems. But many people accept the donations from Jockey Club. Perhaps they take the position that some good may still come out of something bad? Or: the bad has already happened, we might as well try to do some good from the proceeds? I don’t really know.

In fact, I don’t know which is worse. To publish sexually explicit material or to promote gambling. Both are lawful. Both are morally offensive and both cause social problems. The turnover of the Jockey Club is a staggering HK$ 129 billion in 2010-11. The Jockey Club has a monopoly on gambling in Hong Kong. Hence it can be said to be largely responsible for much of the social problems caused by gambling.

On the other hand, Apply Daily is only one of the many major newspapers that publish sexual content. The “free” Sharp Daily, is also only one of many, albeit possibly the most explicit. It does not excuse Jimmy Lai from the responsibility, of course. But their impact may not be that high.

So what is worse? Accepting donations from Jimmy Lai? Or the Jockey Club?

I just do not think it is such as a bad thing for Cardinal Zen to accept the donations from Jimmy Lai and to use them for good causes. Given the sensitive situation of some of the people that he has been helping, it is perhaps not appropriate to make public all the details. Among the people in the public eye, he is probably one of the most respected and trusted. He is accountable to the Salesian Brothers, the Catholic Church, and ultimately, to God.

A Modern Family

2011-10-21T16:25:00.002+08:00

A young couple was sitting in the first row on the upper deck of a double-decker airport bus. A plump boy about 3 years old sat between them, playing some game on a hand-held machine. It was not quite clear what kind of game it was, but it was loud, with violently-flashing graphics. Strictly speaking, the boy was not really playing the game. He pushed the buttons randomly and shrieked loudly for a while. Then he lost interest. But the machine was never shut down, and the annoying sound was never turned off, or even turned down. This went on for an hour, until the bus arrived at the airport.

The upper deck was 2/3 full, and naturally, everybody was getting off at the airport. The family was sitting close to the stairs and was among the first ones to descend. The father went down first, followed by the boy, and then the mother. Apparently the parents wanted the boy to practise walking. The boy was small and the steps of the stairs were steep, so the mother had to bend over forwards to hold the boy’s hands, in order to prevent him from falling. Obviously, they were quite slow. The people waiting behind the boy-and-mother tandem were visibly impatient, even though nobody said anything.

The young mother was wearing a pair of jeans with a low waistline. When she bent over to hold the boy’s hands, the jeans went even lower. As the boy descended the stairs, she had to bend over forwards even more, ...

Obviously, this is a modern family that believes in child-centered rearing, where the boy has to be given top priority and the freedom to do whatever he wants; the parents’ role is to support the boy at all costs.

If our children turn out to be self-centered, undisciplined, taking things for granted and unmotivated, it is not necessarily the children’s fault.

Praying Mantis

2011-10-18T15:31:00.000+08:00

This is my friend Dr. G’s new pet. It looks mean and its claws look sharp. I was told it can eat 7 stupid fruit flies in one sitting. Fortunately, it is only 1 cm across.

Dr. J Requiem

2011-10-16T16:57:00.001+08:00

450 people attended the requiem mass held for Dr. Jenny Chung at Rosary Church. Every seat in the church was taken, and many people had to stand. Her whole family was there, as were colleagues, students, friends, fellow church members, ... She is gone now. But she surely touched many lives while she was here.

I only got to know her better in the last year, when we started working together on a research project, and service learning. As fate would have it, I actually got to know her better as her health got worse. I shall always remember how we held hands when I prayed for her in the hospital the day before she passed away.

At the mass, as we sang, the priest preached, and family, friends, students, colleagues shared about her, I had the strongest feeling that she is still there, somewhere, even though we could not see her. Surely she was watching all these with interest. She would have been pleased that we were all there.

We all are here on earth for a purpose. We have one life and one chance to make an impact. Surely we don’t just want to leave behind mounts of money, great titles, tons of academic papers, or even positions of tremendous power. Surely it is more satisfying to leave behind beautiful relationships, fond memories and deep respect. In the end, it is love that endures.

Tea (of unknown type)

2011-10-13T23:27:00.000+08:00

A colleague gave me a package of tea, which was given to him by someone from mainland China. The package was big and nice-looking. However, try as I did, I could not figure out what type of tea it was. It was not marked on the outside of the package, not on the inside, not on the two smaller boxes that actually hold the tea, ...

When I actually brewed the tea, I found that the tea leaves were misshapen, broken, had holes in them, and some were even burnt. Even after drinking the tea, I still could not tell what kind of tea it was.

It is symptomatic of many things from China. It looks good on the outside, but the inside is of poor quality. It is true of the high speed trains that crash because of the problems with the signal systems. It is true of many hotels that are poorly maintained. It is true of many schools that were built at great cost but poorly used.

I remember distinctly one high school in Hubei that we worked at a number of times. It looked elegant from the outside. The grounds were paved with smooth stones that looked like marble. The walls of the buildings were covered with ivy. It had the looks of an elite school. Some of the classrooms, however, were flooded with water draining from the air-conditioners. The computers were covered with dust, and looked like they were never used. There was a showroom with many scientific specimens which was locked up all the time. The worse, as is common in many places in China, were the filthy toilets, that we dared to use only for emergencies. We had to hold up our breaths and tried not to look. It was especially hard on the girls.

In Chinese, we say 金玉其外，敗絮其中. With money, it is relatively easy to modernize the hardware: the buildings, the trains, the machines, and the clothes. But it is much harder to modernize the software: the people, the culture, the behaviour, and the mind. Indeed, it is very true that the revolution has not yet succeeded - 革命尚未成功，同志仍需努力.

Chung Yeung (重陽節)

2011-10-12T19:09:00.000+08:00

On Chung Yeung Festival, I went with my relatives to the cemetery to pay our respects to my grandparents. As I walked around the cemetery waiting for my relatives to arrive, I noticed that, in the old days, it was lawful and quite common for a man to have two wives.

Nowadays, in Hong Kong and most other places in the world, it is illegal to have two wives, or two husbands. (With the major exception of certain Muslim countries, of course.) Most people would consider this to be a sign of progress, the recognition of equal rights between men and women in marriage. This is also one of the many changes associated with the Xinhai Revolution and the modernization of China.

I also paid my obligatory visit to Cai Yuan Pei’s (蔡元培) grave. He was a successful scholar in the old Qing Dynasty. But he was deeply disappointed by the ruling class and turned into a revolutionist. He was studying in Germany when the Xinhai Revolution 辛亥革命 broke out. But he came back to China immediately to participate in the revolution. He was the first Minister of Education 教育總長 of the Republic of China.

Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命)

2011-10-11T00:54:00.000+08:00

A hundred years ago today, the first shots were fired in Wuhan, which kicked off the Xinhai Revolution. In January 2007, I visited the headquarters of the first revolutionary government set up in Wuhan, together with 2 other colleagues and 3 students. We were on our way to visit high schools in Huangshi and Yangxin, in preparation for a service learning project that summer.

The Xinhai Revolution eventually led to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, and the establishment of the first Chinese Republic. China today is much stronger than what it was in the late Qing Dynasty. The society is much more stable. And a significant group of people have become quite rich. But a lot of people are still suffering terribly. There is rampant corruption. Liberty and democracy is still no more than a dream.

Perhaps a violent revolution was inevitable, given how ignorant, inept, stubborn, selfish and cruel the Qing rulers were. Perhaps the populace then was really not ready for true democracy. But I could not help but try to imagine what would have happened had a constitutional monarchy been allowed to develop.

Perhaps the monarchy could be retained as a unifying power, while citizen’s rights could be introduced gradually. Perhaps there would not have been so much violent conflicts. Perhaps China would have developed more gradually and peacefully. Perhaps there would not have been so much suffering.

Steve Jobs and Apple

2011-10-09T00:53:00.001+08:00

I used a first generation MacIntosh when I was a research student in the 1980s. Subsequent products from Apple simply did not seem as attractive. Several years ago, after Jobs returned to Apple, their products started looking interesting again. Four years ago my eldest daughter bought an old MacBook. I could not resist it any more and bought my first MacBook Pro. Now my whole family use Macs.

Steve Jobs was no doubt a most creative and influential person. It is fitting that a stroke of creative genius is now wildly circulating in the Internet in tribute to him. I am honoured that the young man who created it is a student of our university.

Dr. J

2011-10-04T11:35:00.000+08:00

Dr. J was an outstanding professor. She was pretty, elegant, kind and compassionate. She was devoted to her work and her students. Her life of service was recognized by many awards.

Several months ago, she was diagnosed with a rare kind of cancer. Many of her colleagues, friends and students came to visit her. Her family surrounded her with love and care. A few days ago she passed away. The Facebook account set up in her memory is quickly filling up with condolences. She obviously touched many lives.

Her university is faced with many challenges: pressure to do research and publish; competition for resources to do research; the government gave her university with far less resources for research than some others; obsession with rankings inside and outside of the university; competition for good students; competition for publicity; ... I can’t help but feel that these pressures might have something to do with her health problems.

Sometimes it feels like true scholarship and education has been losing out amid the pressure to compete. It takes very strong faith and convictions to insist on living your life your own way. And not to conform to others’ expectations of you - even those out of good intentions.

There are signs it is changing in the right direction, putting teaching back at the right place in our university. For the sake of the students and their professors, let us pray that the changes continue. In the mean time, we shall remember Dr. J.

Hebron

2011-09-30T01:42:00.002+08:00

The Cave of the Patriarchs in the heart of the old city of Hebron is considered the second holiest site for the Jewish people. This is where Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebecca, as well as Jacob & Leah are buried. The fortress built by Herod the Great around the caves 2,000 years ago is still standing today.

For several hundred years after Jesus, this place was under Roman and then Byzantine control. Then the Persians conquered it. Then the Muslims converted it into a mosque, the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Hebron, like Bethlehem nearby, is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. Until 1929 Jews were forbidden from entering the site. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel regained control of the area for the first time in 2,000 years.

There have been numerous conflicts over control of the site since then, causing many deaths. The latest agreement, in 1996, left Muslims with control over 80% of the site, and the Israelis, 20%. Hence the strong presence of the military. I had to leave my pocket knife with them when I entered the fortress. But they returned it to me politely afterwards.

The actual caves are inaccessible. Instead, six cenotaphs (empty tombs) have been set up, dedicated to the patriarchs and matriarchs. Many people visited, prayed and studied there in the Jewish section.

Including a family with several kids and one very cute baby, with huge eyes and a round head.

Jews, Christians (Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants) and Muslims are all descendants of Abraham, genealogically or spiritually. There are an estimated 3.8 billion of them, 54% of the world population.

Abraham is probably turning in his grave watching his descendants fighting and even killing each other.

Shechem - Nablus

2011-09-28T00:29:00.002+08:00

We were standing on Mount Gerizim. Down below our feet, to the north and east, was the Palestinian town Nablus. To the north of us, across Nablus, was Mount Ebal. We were in the heart of the West Bank of the Jordan River. In 1947, the United Nations resolved to partition Palestine (then administered by the British) into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The West Bank was supposed to be part of the Arab State. But it was seized by Jordan in the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, when Israel declared independence. It was subsequently captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Nablus was also the Biblical Shechem. Abraham built an altar to God here when he first entered Canaan. Later, Jacob’s sons massacred the city’s inhabitants to avenge the rape of their sister.

Joseph bones, which the Israelites brought up from Egypt, was buried here - Jacob’s Tomb. Before he died, Joshua assembled the Israelites here, and said to them these famous words, “... choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, ... But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” The Israeli tribes replied, “We too will serve the Lord.”

In the New Testament times, Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman by a well dug by Jacob - the famous Jacob’s Well, here. Some of our students who went with us to Cambodia may remember Jacob's Well restaurant in Phnom Penh. Well, the original Jacob's Well was down there in Shechem.

Today, the inhabitants are predominately Muslim, with small Christian and Samaritan minorities. But the Israeli continue to refer to it as Shechem. Nablus - Shechem remain a focal point of conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. Will they find a way to live peacefully with each other?

Campus worship

2011-09-25T18:27:00.000+08:00

Several Christian groups on campus jointly organized a worship service at the start of the new school year. More than a hundred people attended the service at a renovated square. The speaker, Dr. Philemon Choi, is an experienced and respected leader in working with the youths, not only among Christians but also across Hong Kong, and, more and more, in mainland China. He exhorted the gathered students to go beyond academics - broadening into a truly holistic education, and among other things, moral intelligence in education.

What he said is very much in line with the sharpening focus in our new 4-year programs: leadership (really psycho-social competencies), and service learning (civic responsibility and community service). More can and needs be done. And I am quite distressed by the lopsided culture at our university that puts research way above teaching. But I am quite proud of both (1) our vibrant Christian community on campus, and (2) the encouraging developments towards a truly holistic education.

New Newspaper

2011-09-23T00:17:00.000+08:00

A new “free” newspaper started publishing a few days ago. Immediately, many people and organizations started criticizing it for publishing adult content, including photographs of skimpily-dressed young ladies and sexually-explicit articles. One of the older “free” newspapers that was available at our building also had an article reporting such criticisms. Ironically, this older newspaper is itself infamous for publishing similar content. Isn’t this a case of “the pot calling the kettle black”? Or “五十步笑百步”? Some might even say hypocrisy. Would you recommend it to your children? Probably not.

A Plump Fox

2011-09-20T22:58:00.000+08:00

Look out for a plump fox roaming the streets of Hung Hom.

Of course it is a Shiba Inu rather than a fox. It is just so cute.

How many HK students enter unversity?

2011-09-20T01:46:00.001+08:00

Only 14,500 (18%) of Hong Kong students can find a place in the first year of a government-funded degree program in a local university.

How many enter a university overseas? According to my own study 2 years ago, it is about ~8,600 (11%). [“Hong Kong Students in Overseas Universities?”, September 21, 2009, http://stephencfchan.blogspot.com/2009/09/hong-kong-students-in-overseas.html]

In addition to that, it is estimated there are ~3,000 (3.7%) self-financed degree places, ~8,000 (10%) associate degree places, and ~9,000 (11%) Higher Diploma places.

Altogether, there is an estimated 54% who can enroll in accredited post-secondary programs. But only 29% are in degree programs (local and overseas).

The total number in local universities (both government-funded and self-financed) is ~17,500 (22%). In comparison, it is 50% in New Zealand, 41% in Finland, 37% in UK, Denmark and Norway, 30% in Canada, ... We still have a long way to go to catch up with other developed countries.

3-3-4 in 2012

2011-09-18T09:37:00.001+08:00

The education systems in Hong Kong is undergoing a major change. Currently it is a 5-2-3 system: 5 years of secondary school, 2 years of pre-university courses, and then 3 years of university leading to Bachelors degrees.   It is now transitioning into 3-3-4: 3 years of junior secondary, 3 years of senior secondary, and 4 years of university. In 2012, there will be two batches of students entering university: (1) the last batch of those taking the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examinations (ALE), who will be entering 3 year degree programs, and (2) the first batch of those taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE), who will be entering the 4-year degree programs.

The 4-year programs are quite different from the 3-year programs. There are two sets of places reserved for the two batches of students, with different entry requirements, obviously. They are not competing for the same sets of places, but some of the students and their parents are not full aware of that; consequently there is a lot of confusion and anxiety. Our university is holding 2 separate information days for applicants over this weekend: Saturday is for DSE, and Sunday for ALE. We have to do more work, but it is better for the students.

This is just the beginning of the big crunch. From 2012 to 2015, there will be an additional batch of ~3,000 students on campus, in addition to the ~10,000 full time students (and another ~10,000 part-time students). We will need more class rooms, teachers, dormitories, canteens, everything.

These are just the logistical, quantitative challenges.   We are also moving towards more broad-based admissions. Many students can be admitted to a broad discipline, say Computing. Then they can take 1, 2 or even 3 years to decide whether they wish to major in Information Technology (more technical, hardware related stuff), Computing (mainly software design and development), or Enterprise Information Systems (more business oriented). We have to be much more flexible in the program design, and operation.

On the other hand, the additional year also allows us to design unique and university-wide characteristics into our programs. These include exciting introductions to the broad discipline, personal development and leadership, and learning through services. I am happy (and anxious) to have a role to play in these new challenges.

The New Science of the Teenage Brain

2011-09-15T21:45:00.000+08:00

It is generally believed that our brains undergo a massive reorganization between the ages of 12 and 25. The axons (connectors) between neurons become better insulated with myelin. More heavily used synapses (junctions) strengthen, and the little used ones wither. The result is a faster, more sophisticated and more specialized brain. We become more balanced and more sensible. While the brain is thus maturing, we may be easily distracted, excessively sensitive, take unnecessary risks, etc.

New research has illuminated the teenager brain from a different angle (National Geographic, October 2011, p. 36-59). Recent research have found that the teenager brain is more sensitive to dopamine. As a result, it learns quicker, and values rewards (against taking risks) more than the adult brain. It is also more sensitive to oxytocin, making social connections more rewarding. Hence they prefer the company of their peers more than adults.

All these make teenagers do more foolish and dangerous new things with young friends.

On the other hand, they also make them more interested in making friends, more adaptive, more likely to leave home to strike out on their own, and invest in the future rather than the past. These are traits that make us more social and more successful in life.

Bethlehem

2011-09-13T12:56:00.000+08:00

Bethlehem was where Jesus was born. It was certainly a Jewish town in those times, some 2,000 years ago. It was captured by the Arabs in 637 AD. The Crusaders took it in 1099. Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria, captured it again. Later it passed into the hands of the Turkish Muslim Ottoman Empire. Today it is a Palestinian city in the West Bank (of the Jordan River), under Israeli control.

Many tourists visit the Church of Nativity, which commemorates the birth of Jesus. There is also the Tomb of Rachel - the second wife of Jacob. Ruth, of the Book of Ruth, gleaned the fields to the east of here. David was born here, and was anointed to be the second king of Israel by Samuel here.

Today the population is mainly Muslim. It also has a sizable Palestinian Christian community - which is shrinking due to emigration. There are no Israelis living here, as far as I know. Our Israeli tourist guide was not allowed in Bethlehem.

Tourists who come to Bethlehem have to ride in buses with bullet-proof glass windows, because of the frequent violence - rocks, bombs, etc. Recently, the Israeli government built a snaking wall to separate the Palestinian districts from the Israeli districts - supposedly to prevent further conflicts. This wall restricts the freedom of movement and hurts the economy, leading to further resentment.

This labyrinthine mixture of history, culture, religion, human rights and economics is probably impossible to dis-entangle. I do know personally, however, one Israeli who is partnering a Palestinian in business, not because of some noble cause, but simply because both find it profitable. I also met a Jewish rabbi who actively engages Christians (and presumably other people) in dialogue seeking mutual understanding.

Isn’t it better to try to work together so that both can prosper? Or at least to “live and let live”? Rather than mutual destruction?

The Cost of 911

2011-09-11T21:42:00.000+08:00

Ten years ago, four airplanes were hijacked in the USA. Two of them slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both towers to collapse.

According to the South China Morning Post graphics, the 911 attacks killed ~3,000 people. They also led directly to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and indirectly to conflicts in Pakistan and elsewhere, killing 224,000+ people, including soldiers, insurgents, and civilians in the countries affected by the conflicts. That is roughly 75 times more than the direct casualty in the original attacks.

On the financial side, the 911 attacks cost the USA 100 billion US dollars. But the following wars were estimated to cost ~4,400 billion - to the USA alone. That is roughly 44 times the direct costs of the original attacks. It does not even start to account for the costs to the other nations.

The 911 attacks were due to previous conflicts. And the current conflicts will not stop today. As rich and powerful as the American military is, it will not be able to truly subdue its enemies. It does not even know exactly who the enemies are, let alone where they are and how to stop them. Its enemies are not going to stop themselves either. As angry and determined as they are, they are not able to really destroy the USA in the foreseeable future. If anything, the conflicts will continue and just get worse, the way it is going.

What, then? If neither military might nor devious terrorism can provide the answer; can people come up with better ways to get us out of this killing frenzy? Can people at least try to identify the vast majority of the people who do not really want to kill each other, distinguish them from the die-hard incorrigible extremists, and see if something can be done to help those who simply wish to live in peace?

For the sake of the human race, would you please try? For practical reasons, would the ones with the power, the upper hand, take the initiative to find a better way? For those who believe in God, whatever you call Him, wouldn't God want you to do that?

Cats of Israel

2011-09-09T21:55:00.000+08:00

Before I went to Israel, I was told there were lots of cats there. Indeed there were!   There was, of course, this cute black cat in Jaffa.   There was also this lazy cat in Capernaum, hiding under a church built on top of supposedly Peter’s home, where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law.

It did not even move one whisker when I poked my camera practically right into its nose.

The first evening we were in Jerusalem, my wife and I were walking back to the hotel when we were startled by sharp squeals. It turned out a black-and-white cat was being chased by a white-and-yellow cat. Even when the B&W fled to the other side of the street, the W&Y would not quit.

Even when the B&W ran and ran and finally stopped in a flower bed to catch a breath, it turned and looked backwards with perked-up ears.

There was this one on the Via Dolorosa, which checked out the scene around the corner wearily before walking out under the sun.

And then there was this one with gummed-up eyes at a kibbutz hotel, eating a cheese sandwich. The life of a cat in Israel is not necessarily easy.

Curious Black Cat of Jaffa

2011-09-07T22:15:00.000+08:00

A bunch of tourists were standing in the square of the old city of Jaffa, Israel. Jaffa, or Joppa, is said to be the port from which the prophet Jonah got on a boat to escape from God’s assignment - to preach to the city of the hated Nineveh.

A black cat walked by the group of tourists, nonchalantly. It did not look at the crowd of 30 people. Not even once.

After going behind a post, however, it couldn’t help bending over backwards to poke its head around the post.

GOTCHA! The cute black cat was curious afterall.

Where do you sit in class?

2011-09-06T00:50:00.000+08:00

I was asked to go to speak to the incoming class of freshmen at their orientation. When I go there, I found them sitting in the usual pattern. The last rows at the back of the lecture hall were quite full, while the first two rolls in the front were completely empty. They were behaving exactly like a normal class of our university’s students: the majority of the students prefer to stay as far away as possible from the lecturer.

Before I spoke about Service Learning, my assigned topic, I sketched on the board the result of a study that I did two years ago, on my database class. It was a graph plotting the final grade of each student (y-axis) against the distance between the student and the lecturer (me) at the first class (x-axis).

There were a lot of fluctuations in the curve, as expected. But there was also a easily discernable negative correlation between the grade and the distance: the further away the student was, the lower was the final grade. The study did not look into the cause, but the negative correlation was obvious. I wonder whether they might behave differently this year.

New Hung Hom Promenade (紅磡海濱長廊)

2011-09-04T21:57:00.000+08:00

Probably few people have seen these images. This is the new Hung Hom Promenade. The photographs were taken Sunday morning, 3 September, 2011, before the official opening that afternoon. In fact, right after I have taken the photographs, I was ushered off the promenade by a man in a uniform.

If you start from the Avenue of Starts on the Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade, and walk eastwards towards Hung Hom, you can go up the slope leading to a footbridge outside the Hong Kong Post International Mail Center. The footbridge takes you over and across the piers of the International Mail Center, and the piers linked to the railways. Then you can go down another slope right next to Harbourfront Horizon, to the western end of the new Hung Hom Promenade.

In the distance in the east is the Hung Hom Ferry Piers.

Now you can walk (or run) from the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Piers (尖沙咀天星碼頭) to the Laguna Verde (海逸豪園) and Fishermen’s Wharf along the waterfront, without having to cross any roads. It is about 4 kilometers in length, and quite a nice run. The only problem is sometimes you have to fight through the crowds of tourists at the Avenue of Stars.

I have a dream, that one day I can run from Lai Chi Kok (荔枝角) to Kwun Tong (觀塘) along the north side of the waterfront. And from Kennedy Town (堅尼地城) to Chai Wan (柴灣) on the south side.

Wailing Wall

2011-09-01T22:55:00.000+08:00

After visiting Jaffa, Caesarea, Mount Carmel, Meggido, Galilee (Sermon on the Mount), Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Mount Arbel (Great Commission), Golan Heights, Mount Tabor (Transfiguration), Caesarea Philippi, Dan, Shiloh, Shechem (Nablus), River Jordan, Jericho, Dead Sea, Qumran, ..., we finally arrived in Jerusalem.

It was late afternoon when we arrived at the hotel, several blocks outside the West Gate of the Old City. After dinner, we went straight to the Wailing Wall. I was wearing shorts, but relatively long ones. But I did not have head cover. Fortunately, there was a box of skull caps there. So I borrowed one (I did return it later), and walked gingerly through the entrance to the men’s section in front of the Wailing Wall. All the time, I was prepared to be stopped. But no one did.

All around us, men in black suits, black coats, and black hats rocked back and forth, left and right and every other way. Some stood with their noses to the wall. The cracks were stuffed with papers carrying payers. Just like what I have read before.

It was prophesied in the Bible that the Temple would be totally destroyed and it was said to have been fulfilled when the Romans put down the Jewish rebellion about 40 years after Jesus’ death. So what is this West Wall, or so called Wailing Wall that is still standing? It turned out, of course, that the Temple was destroyed, but part of the foundations of the Temple, the so called Temple Mount, survived. The West Wall that we see today is actually a small section of the western wall of the Temple Mount.

This series of photos of a model at the entrance to the tunnels underneath the west wall illustrates the construction very well.

(1) The site was originally a mountain.

(2) A massive foundation was built on the slopes of the mountain.

(3) The Temple was built on top of the foundation. The First Temple built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians. The Second Temple, renovated by Herod, was destroyed by the Romans.

(4) A mosque with the golden dome (Dome of the Rock), was built at the site - it is still there now.

The last photograph shows the golden-domed “Dome of the Rock” mosque sitting on the Temple Mount, and the West (Wailing) Wall of the Temple Mount.

Jerusalem, and particularly the Temple, testifies to the reality of God, the uniqueness of His interactions with the Jews, the strength of their faith, the amazing resilience and recovery of the Jewish people, and the ultimate reliability of God. There is truly no other like Him.

Dead Sea Scrolls

2011-08-31T00:56:00.000+08:00

Around the time of Jesus, a Jewish sectarian group of about 200 lived at Qumran near the north-west shore of Dead Sea. They started settling there during the reign of John Hyrcanus, about 100 hundred years before Jesus was born. They might have been the group that was called the Essenes.

They practiced the Jewish religious rituals, studied the scriptures, copied the scriptures and other religious materials, and wrote their own books. They stored the books in the form of scrolls in clay jars in the caves.

The settlement was destroyed around 68 AD, when the Jews revolted against the Romans. Jerusalem and the Temple was destroyed and Jews driven away. The books laid hidden in the caves until they were discovered in 1947, the year Israel became independent.

These are the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. About 40% of them are copies of the Hebrew Bible, the “Old Testament.” About 30% are Apocryphal books such as Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, ... And then another 30% are sectarian books such as Community Rule, ...   The most important were the OT books, of course.   Some of the OT books were written only a few hundred years before they were copied and stored in Qumran. They were as close to the original as one could realistically get.

They are extremely important for many reasons. They are the oldest surviving copies of the Bible. Their discovery helps to show that the Bible has been preserved essentially unchanged for thousands of years. They were hidden when Jerusalem and the Second Temple was destroyed. They laid forgotten for almost 2,000 years. They surfaced again when the modern nation of Israel regained independence, which was a miracle by itself.

I felt privileged to have been able to see the settlement, some of the caves, and some of the scrolls themselves - even though I could not read the writing, which was in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

The 818 Incident at HKU

2011-08-27T13:40:00.001+08:00

The facts of the incident is now well-known. The police certainly used excessive force to prevent some slogan-bearing students from getting anywhere close to Vice Premier Li Keqiang. The students seemed intended to do nothing more than to show off their T-shirts with slogans and to shout loudly. But they were treated as if they were enemies of society and violent rioters.

HKU was not wrong in inviting the Vice Premier to their celebration - other universities would probably love to do the same. But there is something unsettling in HKU’s handling of the whole event. It is unbecoming for a university to bend over backwards to try to please the powerful, the rich and the famous, at the same time slighting its own alumni, staff and students. The obvious message is: what we care about is power, money and prestige, not knowledge, character and justice.

The saving grace is that some HKU students, staff and alumni have come out strongly against the incident, and that Prof. Tsui has now stood up bravely on the side of the students. Even people in important positions, such as the head of a university, can make mistakes. In fact, the higher the position, the bigger may be the mistake and the impact. He should be criticized for allowing the incident to happen, but equally, he should be applauded for standing up to rectify the mistake. He, and HKU, should be watched to see if the remorse is genuine.

The police and the government, on the other hand, is truly disappointing and disgusting. They seemed determined to show Li that they are in control - powerful enough to prevent any criticisms and contrary opinions from troubling their master. Their motto seems to be: (1) the master should see only positives, at all costs, (2) we don’t care about the citizens, particularly those with contrary views, (3) never admit any mistakes.

On the other hand, we may simply be naive to expect otherwise. We are deceiving ourselves when we believe that the police in Hong Kong is here to protect its citizens, to maintain the law and order of society. We are equally wrong to believe that the government would at least try to represent and serve its citizens. The reality is: they serve their masters in Beijing, not us.

In this incident, there are lessons for us, particularly those of us in universities, but also for us citizens of Hong Kong.

Dead Sea

2011-08-25T22:49:00.000+08:00

Let me now return to our tour of Israel. After dipping in the Jordan River, we drove down to the Dead Sea. Along the way, we could see Mount Nebo in the distance, across the Dead Sea, in the Kingdom of Jordan. That’s where Moses stopped to look into Canaan more than 3,000 years ago, after he had led the Israelis out of Egypt. He died without getting into Canaan himself.

The Dead Sea is drying up because of a lack of water. The smaller southern section is now cut off from the bigger northern section, and is in danger of getting completely dry. The northern section is still relatively OK, being continually fed by the River Jordan. Hence canals are dug to channel water from the northern section into the southern section, so that the tourist resorts in the south do not have to go out of business.

The Dead Sea is really dead, completely devoid of vegetation or fish. It is also pristinely clean and calm. The myriad hues of the blue water, yellow sand, red earth, and white salt combine to create captivating scenes. I felt I could watch for hours and hours. Unfortunately, I had to follow the group. I wonder whether, one day, I could come back with just my camera.

The water felt strange. It did not feel like normal water. It felt “wet” and thick. It was a bit like molten jelly.

The water was clear, however, and one could really float comfortably in it. Unfortunately, the water was also 30% salt. That meant every little cut or scratch, even those that I did not know exist, would now hurt terribly due to the salt. I took a little sip without thinking and regretted it. I shudder to think what would happen if I should put my head in it.

They said one should not stay in the water more than 10 minutes at a time, otherwise one would get de-hydrated. I wasn’t sure what that meant. I really would love to stay longer, to really take in the scenery and the strange but rather comfortable feeling of the water. Unfortunately, I could not. All I am left with are photographs now. It was a stark kind of beauty, but it was really beautiful.

Releasing Life (放生)

2011-08-23T18:01:00.000+08:00

On Sunday morning, I was running by the Hung Hom Pier when a small crowd piqued my curiosity. It appeared to be a nun leading several people in prayer on the water front. There were also several big buckets around them. I suspected they were Buddhists doing a “Releasing Life” ceremony.

A peek at the contents of the buckets confirmed my suspicion. There were fish, crabs and scallops in those buckets. It is a compassionate and commendable act to save lives. But this particular situation did not look very promising. Some of the fish did not seem to be in good shape - some were doing “back-strokes”, floating upside down, already. They might not survive even if they were released into the water. None of the fish, crabs and scallops were from the area, and the quality of the water in the Victoria Harbour is notoriously bad - it is very doubtful that the fish and shellfish would survive in the harbour. And then, ironically, there were all those people fishing on the water front, only meters away from the release site.

Surely there are other ways to do a good deed?

Japanese Temples

2011-08-20T01:13:00.000+08:00

The Japanese Buddhist temples are rather distinctive. The torii (鳥居, literally bird perch) is a gate that is simple, elegant, and ubiquitous. The giant torii at the entrance to Meiji Shrine (明治神宮) in Tokyo is one of the largest. The second one on the way to the shrine is said to be even larger, but I could not really tell the difference between them. They are both huge.

Kencho-ji (建長寺), a Zen temple in Kamakura (鎌倉市), is almost 800 years old. Chinese Buddhist temples are usually painted bright red and green. The wood of Japanese temples, on the other hand, are usually stained grey or black but not painted - such that the wood grains are clearly visible. The sanmon (山門) of Kencho-ji was very well-preserved and impressive. In Chinese temples, the first main gate is often protected by statues of the 4 heavenly kings (四大天王). They don’t appear as often in Japanese temples.

In Japanese temples, there is much less candle and incense burning.   There are usually more trees, flowers, ponds, and beautiful gardens - much more peaceful.

At the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū (鶴岡八幡宮) in Kamakura, banners remind people to pray for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Everywhere we go, most of the tourists seemed to be Japanese - foreign tourists were still shying away.

We don’t like the Japanese aggression and cruelty against the other people in war.   We don’t particularly enjoy their popular culture. But we have great respect for their preservation of culture, courtesy, artistry, and insistence on quality in many aspects of life.

Segregation by Education

2011-08-19T00:49:00.000+08:00

The debate about the subsidy for English Foundation Schools has flared up again. Other than the question of subsidy, shall we ponder, for a moment, the question of segregation?

The ESF is subsidized by the government (tax payers, really) but is not monitored by the government like other local schools. They do not follow the local curriculum. Their students do not attend local universities. In the past, most of their students were British. They do not return to HK after they finish university. Nowadays, there are a lot more Chinese in the ESF population. Most of them still do not attend local universities. Probably more of them would return to Hong Kong, but it is not clear how many.

Many of the ESF students learn little Chinese, since Chinese as a subject is much less important in ESF than in other local schools. Even when Chinese is taught, it is likely to be in Putonghua, not Cantonese. An ESF student is very different from a student in other local schools. It is much more than the use of English. It is in the culture, the outlook, the sense of identity and belonging to Hong Kong, and much more.

The ESF population, prior to 1997, was British. Since then, there is a lot more Chinese there. But they are still effectively segregated from the population that attend other local schools. It is good to provide a broad range of options in education. But, should we have school systems that encourage segregation?

Permanent residency for maids

2011-08-18T00:44:00.000+08:00

Should foreign domestic workers (mainly Filipino and Indonesian maids) be allowed to apply for permanent residency in Hong Kong after working here for 7 years? On the principle of equality, they should. If Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc., who have worked in Hong Kong for 7 years can apply for permanent residency, why shouldn’t Filipinos be allowed to do so?

Some cite the problems of large numbers of Filipinos who may then want to move to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Employers of Domestic Helpers Association claimed that the number can be as many as 400,000 domestic helpers and their family members. That is quite certainly scaremongering. The method that was apparently used to come up with those numbers did not look scientific at all. Why doesn’t someone conduct a scientifically-sound study of this issue, since this estimate seems to be an important factor in the controversy?

If the number of potential immigrants is really large, indeed it may pose serious problems. But even then there are ways to deal with that problem. Many countries have established quotas, priority systems, selection criteria based on their own manpower needs, etc., to handle those problems. Perhaps this is a good occasion for Hong Kong to clearly debate and articulate our own philosophy and policies on immigration.

Puffer fish (河豚, 雞泡魚)

2011-08-16T23:25:00.000+08:00

One evening we went into a restaurant in Tokyo that specialized in eels. One of the kimono-clad lady servers taught us how to eat the rice 2 different ways. First bowl - mix the eel with rice. Second bowl - add the soup, wasabi and strips of seaweed to the mix.   That was fun. The eel was so good that it practically melted in our mouths.

My wife also spotted a dish of deep fried puffer fish on the menu. Of course we had to try it.   For 1,200 yen we got a puffer fish, probably about 8 inches long, chopped into 3 pieces and then fried golden yellow. The meat was white and firm, yet tender and tasty.   Perhaps more importantly, none of us got sick from eating it.

I heard that the poison is mainly in the intestines such as the liver and the ovaries, and sometimes in the skin.   Puffers are not believed to produce their own poison. The poison comes from the shell fish that puffers eat, which are then stored in the puffers’ intestines. Puffers kept in farms or ponds with controlled diets are not poisonous. Prepared properly, even wild-catch puffer is OK. In this regard, we believe we can trust the Japanese in doing a good job.

A few years ago, I had eaten the skin of a puffer fish in China. They skinned the fish, without removing the scales from the skin. The skin was then folded inside out so that the scales were wrapped inside. And the whole skin was just swallowed. Looking back, it was probably a little reckless.

Eating fish in Japan

2011-08-16T00:54:00.000+08:00

We in the south of China pride ourselves in eating seafood. But we can still learn a lot from the Japanese, who have turned fish eating into a fine art.   The Tsukiji fish market is whole sale, where the fish are laid out in big buckets on a grand scale. It is bloody, messy, and wet.

On the other hand, the seafood halls in the department stores lay out their fish cleanly and neatly. There is no blood, unlike wet markets in Hong Kong, where blood is purposely smeared onto the fish to make them look fresh. Here, they are as pretty as paintings. To me, it is an art form closer to my heart, and stomach.

I admire particularly the way they turn small fish into delicacies. They are very good in cleaning, de-boning, and slicing up small fish just a few inches long, and eating them in myriad different, delicious ways.

Outside Tsujiki fish market, we wondered about some small fins laid out to dry. What is the point?

Minutes later we had the answer.   They are consider good snacks to go with wine.   1,000 yen is roughly 100 HK dollars and about 12 US dollars. It is quite a bit of money for just a few pieces of fins. No wonder people are willing to take the time and effort to clean and dry them.

And then, at the other end of the scale, there are these huge fish eyes, each about 3 inches across. They look interesting. But I have no desire to eat them.

Tsukiji Fish Market

2011-08-13T00:36:00.000+08:00

I have to interrupt the postings on Israel to share some photographs on Japan fresh off the camera. I will return to the theme of Israel (and then Cambodia). Promise!

Tsukiji fish market is my favourite place in Japan. Nowadays tourists are not allowed into the fish market until 9AM. By that time the auction on tuna is already over, and most of the tuna are already cut up and shipped off. But one can still see quite a few of the tuna lying around. One that we saw, at 85 kg, was a mere baby, or at most a juvenile, because they could grow up to 500 kg and more - as big as a cow.

There were also big fish heads being cleaned, frosty chunks of meat just cut up with electric saws, and, of course, succulent pieces of deep red tuna. I heard that hundreds of these big tunas are sold here every day. Since no one has figured out yet how to farm big tuna in a large scale, this rate of consumption is not sustainable. It is evidenced by the fact that big tunas at more than 300 kg are getting rarer and rarer.

As much as I like to eat tuna, I like it more to see these majestic giants zipping along in the ocean. If that means giving up eating tuna, so be it.

They have much more than tuna, of course. Huge scallops. Monster octopi - just look at the size of those suckers on the right, and imagine the size of the octopus that those suckers belong to. You don't want to encounter them in the water.

Lots of lots of funny looking fish too. I love this place. I could stay here for a long time, just watching.

The River Jordan

2011-08-06T02:14:00.000+08:00

Leaving Galilee, we moved towards Jerusalem. But we stopped at a few places before we actually arrived in Jerusalem. We were driving through the famous West Bank (of the River Jordan). The West Bank was under Ottoman rule for 400 years until World War I.   Following World War II, the UN allocated the area to the future Arab state for Palestinians. In the war between Israel and Arab states following the independence of Israel in 1948, the area was captured by Jordan. From 1948 to 1967, it was under Jordanian rule. Then it was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

It is complicated history. Will it become part of the Palestinian State, if and when it becomes independent? Who knows?

We stopped at the place where people believe Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. The river is quite narrow, no more than 20 meters wide. Perhaps even less. It separates present day Israel and Jordan. The west side of the river belongs to Israel, and the east side, Jordan.   It looked like I could easily wade or swim across to the other side.   But I didn’t try. I didn’t have the visa for entering Jordan.

The border is sensitive area. We had to pass through picket fences and a check point to get to the baptismal site. The site had actually been closed for a long time, and was re-opened only a week before we got there.

Much of the land on this side of the river is wilderness and desert. There is very little water besides the River Jordan, and the land is dry and infertile. John the Baptist was said to have been living in this area. It must have been a difficult life.

When I was about to leave, a soldier (Jordanian, I believe) came to the opposite (Jordanian) bank and seemed to be just looking around.

Within a minute or two, a soldier (Israeli, I believe) came down our (Israeli) side and began to take pictures.   They were looking at each other, peacefully, more like tourists than soldiers. Amazing. When will this become the norm rather than the exception, between Israel and all the Arab countries? Israelis want this area as historical Samaria and Judea. Palestinians want this area as their own ancestral homeland. How can this be resolved?

Golan Heights

2011-08-04T23:05:00.000+08:00

We drove up the Golan Heights to see the northern edge of the land of Israel. The plateau is strategically very valuable to Israel. It overlooks the plans of Galilee, provides a significant amount of water to Israel, and is the source of a large portion of Israel’s agricultural output. Immediately after the Second World War, it became a part of Syria. Israel captured most of it in the 1967 Six-Day War, and has been keeping it since then.

We started at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, and had to drive up steep, winding roads to get to the Golan Heights. For the first part of the drive, we were skirting the border with Jordan. There were fences and guard-posts everywhere. At some points, we could see Jordanian villages in the distance across the valley.

Once we got on the plateau, the land became relatively flat. There were cows, fertile green fields, bee-hives, milk trucks, ... It looked quite peaceful, in fact.

Along the way, we passed a road sign pointing to a place named Bashan. This whole region was in fact called Bashan in Old Testament times. When Joshua led the Israel people into the land Canaan, they passed through here and two tribes started to settle down. Many battles were also fought here with the Amorites when they settled in the Promised Land. At one point, the Israelite defeated a king Og of Bashan.

We made a stop at an observation point very close to the border with Syria. We could actually see some Syrian flags in the distance, across green fields, lines of trees and villages. Can you pick out the Syrian flag (to the left of center of the photo)?

We then drove to the northern border to see the land originally assigned to the tribe of Dan. Here, we are almost at the extreme north of the current state of Israel.

Among the ruins, archeologists have found city gates, houses, and an altar. It was believed this could have been one of the altars set up by the northern kingdom of Israel after the death of King Solomon. A golden cow was installed in the altar for the people to worship, to prevent them from travelling to worship at the Temple at Jerusalem, which belonged to the kingdom of Judah. It was worship of idols such as these, and other sins, which incurred the wrath of God, and caused the destruction of both kingdoms.

Just a little beyond the ruins is again Syria.

No one knows where and who are the descendants of Dan now. In fact, I was told that no Jew nowadays can trace their roots back to the original 12 tribes. Thousands of years of wars, exiles, returns, inter-marriages have blurred the lines. Some are now talking about tracing their lineages through DNA analysis. Not sure how successful that is.

Nazareth

2011-08-03T00:49:00.000+08:00

2,000 years ago, Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a very small town in those days.

Today, other than a few churches, it is a city of Palestinian Arabs.

We visited the Church of the Annunciation, said to be the place where the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to give birth to Jesus.

Great Commission - Mount Arbel?

2011-08-02T00:49:00.000+08:00

Some people believe Mount Arbel was where Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission - “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Mount Arbel is on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, rising gently to the north of Tiberias. We could see it to our west when we got in a boat and cruised around the Sea of Galilee. We could also see that it drops off almost vertically on its northern side.

Later on, when we got to the top of the mountain and walked gingerly (as least I did) towards the edge of the cliffs, the views of the Sea of Galilee and the plains were truly dramatic and impressive.

What is more important, of course, is the commission itself. It is from here, or another mountain like this nearby, that Christians spread the good news to all nations. The process is not yet complete. But one day it will be.

Mount of the Sermon

2011-07-25T03:26:00.000+08:00

We spent a lot of time around the Sea of Galilee. Because Jesus lived around Galilee and spent a lot of time in Galilee. One of the places we visited was the slopes where Jesus preached the "Sermon on the Mount". According to legend, it was the slopes to the left of the photograph. Was is really this place? Perhaps it does not really matter where it was. Jesus did preached the Sermon on the Mount, and the impact is still being felt today.

About some of the places, such as Sea of Galilee, there is little doubt that they exist, and that they are where people think they are. I am, however. rather skeptical about some of the locations said to be the places mentioned in the Bible. To me, it does not really matter where people found all the places mentioned in the Bible. Their existence (or the lack of such) does not prove or disprove the accurateness of the Bible. They do, however, make the images of the events in the Bible that much more vivid. Now, whenever I open the Bible, images of certain places jump to mind, making the stories, places, and people that much easier to visualize and appreciate.

Caesarea, Israel

2011-07-24T03:26:00.000+08:00

We have just arrived at Tel Aviv in Israel, and after making a quick stop at Jaffa (Joppa), our first major site is Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea. Caesarea was built as a harbour and grand Roman city by Herod the Great, on the foundations of a small city.

Paul was imprisoned for 2 years here after he was arrested. He was interrogated here several times until he was sent to Rome because he appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen. Hence it was quite exciting for us to come to this place. Both for the historical and cultural significance of the place. But particularly for its place in our faith. I can't help but to imagine Paul stating his faith in front of the Roman governor and Jewish accusers. What he did was nothing more than believing in a reasonable and loving God.

One of the many interesting things was an inscription with the name of Pilate. His name was in the Bible, and for a long time, no where else. This discovery is just one of the numerous archeological evidences that the Bible and its contents are real.

[By the way, I am not done with Cambodia yet. I will post more on it when I can get around to it.]

Amazing New Life Center

2011-07-20T01:19:00.000+08:00

New Life Center is an amazing place. It is a network of community centers, churches, development agencies, all rolled into one. As far as I understand, it was started by an American missionary many years ago, who remains the senior pastor. But the place is now run by a bunch of energetic young Cambodians.

It offers training in office skills, English, information technology, and others. V is a graduate from its English program who speaks English like an American. He is graduating from university with a bachelor’s degree in IT, and is already running its IT training program. He used to a street kid who ran away from home and school. He came to New Life to learn English, found his faith and a truly new life for himself. Now he is helping others.

New Life runs outreach programs at the slums and at the garbage dump. It bathes the kids, feeds them, teaches them to sing and to pray. It digs wells for the villages. It builds community centers in the city as well as the provinces. It lends cows to families in the villages, lets them keep the calves, and then lends the cows to other families, to give them a way to make a better living. If there is such a thing as serial cow-loaning, this is it. It also builds churches all over Cambodia.

It sets up dormitories in the city so that orphans and young people from the provinces have a place to stay. It gives scholarships to young people so that they can continue to study. It set up a transportation company as a social enterprise so that a bunch of young people can make a living and to learn to do business.

CN is an orphan from the provinces. He learned to speak English at New Life and became a Christian. He lives in their dormitories and is helping in their youth programs. He drives a van for the transportation company. He is always reading a book in English when he is not driving. In October, he is going to university with sponsorship from New Life. I will certainly be praying for him. His boss CL is a young lady who is very smart and well-organized, who remembers our travel itinerary better than we do. They are people that we feel we can trust.

There are so many other projects that I am barely scratching the surface. We are so privileged that we can work with the young people at New Life. Our students taught video making and editing, and basic IT skills. We also went with them to the slums to help in their outreach programs, helping in bathing the kids, and then in the singing and games. We cannot help but be infected by their unbounded enthusiasm and dedication in serving others.

Tapioca (西米) Production at the Slum?

2011-07-17T21:56:00.000+08:00

A few days after the outreach event with New Life, we went back to the slum behind Sovanna Shopping Center after the rain.

A van was unloading bags of a root that seemed to be cassava (木薯), the raw material for tapioca. Tapioca is, of course, the main ingredient for tapioca pudding (西米布丁), 西米露, bubble milk tea 珍珠奶茶, and many other delicious foods. To be exact, 西米 should be sago, which is extracted from sago palm 西谷椰子. Sago palm is relatively expensive. Hence most of the sago products nowadays are actually made of tapioca extracted from cassava or other similar roots.

The cassava were peeled and cooked in big pots to extract the starch, to make tapioca pearls and other products. What I saw the big pots for the first time, I was wondering what they were for. Perhaps this was their communal kitchen? Now I know. Seeing the condition in which the tapioca was extracted, one can only hope that these products do not get into our pearl milk tea and tapioca puddings.

While the adults were working hard, many of the kids were having fun in the pool of rain water in the middle of the road, right in front of the entrance to the slum. This was obviously not normal, clean rain water. But the kids seem genuinely happy, and oblivious to the garbage and the filth.

Dan Ariely’s book “The Upside of Irrationality” discussed the great ability of humans to adapt to almost any situation. Perhaps this is what he had in mind? The children were probably born into this situation, and knew no better. How long did it take for the adults to adapt to it? Perhaps they were also born into this? If we were to be thrown into it, how long will it take us to adapt? And why were they born into this, but not us? Now that we have seen this, how do we respond? What would God want us to do?

At the Slum with New Life

2011-07-16T17:03:00.000+08:00

One Thursday afternoon, we sent a team of 10 students to go with the New Life Outreach team to a slum behind Sovanna shopping center, in the south west of Phnom Penh. Most of the “houses” were no more than a bed in a shed, sitting on top of files of garbage. This is not the notorious “garbage mountain” of Meanchey - more about that later. These are just “normal” garbage. The bed is where people (and dogs) sleep, eat, and do everything else.

The filth, the stench, the garbage, the state of dress (undress) of the children was overwhelming. The New Life team had to bathe (hose down) some of the kids, and clip their nails before letting them join the gathering. This is part of their program to teach the kids basic hygiene.

At first, we were wondering where they would find the venue for a gathering of about 50 kids. The day before, we saw them cleaning a big tarpaulin and wondered how they would use it. It turned out there was an alleyway less then 10 feet wide running through the slum. The New Life team simply laid the tarpaulin down in the middle of the alleyway, and let the kids sit on the tarpaulin.

Then they taught the kids, gave them some food, and pray with the kids. Our students led the singing and games. The kids were really lively and a lot of fun, despite their state of poverty.

Half way through the program, wind picked up and heavy rain came. We tried to continue. Eventually it became so bad we had to retreat. A lady living there offered to let us shelter in her shed - those we tried to help ended up helping us. The rain did not stop, however. And some of our students who got wet started to get cold. I had to order them to retreat.

I went out to the street to get some tuk-tuks with the help of the leader of the New Life team. Then I went back to get our students. By then I was completely soaked from head to toe, my only protection being a totally wet hat. But my main concern was the safety and health of our students. Thankfully, we went back to the hotel safely and nobody got sick.

Flooding at Emmanuel School

2011-07-09T03:52:00.000+08:00

We are in the rainy season in Cambodia. The day normally starts bright and sunny. By mid-afternoon, however, clouds start to gather. By late afternoon, heavy rains start, which last for an hour or more. Flooding is very common in Phnom Penh. On Wednesday morning, the school was flooded.

The school used to be a big leather factory. It is essentially a cavernous hall bordered by 4 classrooms, slightly elevated from the crumpling cement floor.   Since there are 6 classes from primary 1 to 6, Two have to meet in the hall, set off by a simple partition.

In the morning, the hall and 2 of the classrooms were flooded. So the 6 classes squeezed into 2 classrooms. I am proud of our students for continuing the teaching despite having to wade through several inches of dirty water.

By the time I got there in the afternoon, the water has receded quite a bit, but there were still much standing water in the hall. And we had to get to some of the classrooms by stepping on strategically places stones.

Upon closer inspection, some of the stones turned out to be coconut shells. I have never heard of stepping coconuts.

There were two main reasons why the flooding was so bad. Firstly, for an insane reason, the floor of the old factory was set lower than the road outside. Secondly, there were several gapping holes in the roof.   So we made a couple of suggestions to the school: fix the holes in the roof, and to install a water pump.

The flooding actually made the service that much more memorable.

Service Learning at Emmanuel School

2011-07-07T01:48:00.000+08:00

Emmanuel Christian School is a primary school set up by a HK NGO. Primary education in Cambodian government schools is free. However, the teachers are paid such low salaries (less than 100 USD a month) that they collect various fees from the students to supplement their income. Many students cannot attend government schools because they cannot afford to pay those fees.

Emmanuel was set up to give these poor students a chance for an education. The school building was an old leather factory given by the government. Not only does the school not collect any fees, it even provides the students with uniforms.   Even then, many of the students cannot afford shoes.

Besides the Khmer teachers, they have a Chinese from Hebei teaching Putonghua, and 2 Kenyans teaching English. Besides the prohibitively expensive international schools, there are probably not too many schools that can provide this level of teaching. What motivated the people who set up the school? The love of God, of course.

Our students are teaching digital photography, shooting and editing videos, collecting and writing stories. Many of the students have never seen digital cameras and computers before. Naturally they are very curious and eager to learn. By the end of the first day, some of the kids have already become so attached to us that they were reluctant to go home.

Each of the 6 grades is supposed to have about 20 students. We notice that the higher the grade, the smaller is the number of students in the class. The class list for primary 5 has 14 students, but there was only 6 in the class. There were only 3 in primary 6.   It turned out that as the children get older,
their parents want them to stop attending classes in order to go to work.

Outside the school there is a fairly well-equipped playground built by the government. On closer look, however, it is strewn with garbage, as is elsewhere in the village.   Few children play in the playground, besides a flock of scrawny chicken. There is this young boy, however, who was carrying a baby. Probably one of those skipping classes to work?

On Wednesday, the school was flooded because of heavy rains the previous evening. My students have to wade through dirty flood water several inches deep to get to the dryer classrooms. I happened to have gone to New Life Fellowship, and missed it. But I am proud of my students who insisted on carrying out the work despite the flooding. And I would love to have been there with them.

Such is the state of the poor in Cambodia. And practically all of it man-made. Why do man insist of making each other so miserable?

Anger among July 1 Protest Marchers

2011-07-04T01:22:00.000+08:00

I went with my wife and daughter to the footbridge outside Police Headquarters around 2:45 PM to watch the July 1st Protest March. Reporters from TV stations and newspapers had already set up their cameras there way before I reached there. There were also a group of students from HKU there to count the number of marchers. However, I haven’t heard what their results were.

The head of the march reached our position just after 4:15 PM. By 6:30 PM I went with my family to Pacific Place to have dinner. By 8:15 PM, when we came out of Pacific Place, people were still marching and we could not see the end of the march. Certainly there were a lot of people marching. My estimation was that the march went on for more than 4 hours. I noted that the number of people who marched past my position ranged from less than 100 to more than 400 per minute, with an average of 200-300. Based on these numbers, my rough estimate is that there were about 100,000 people in the march.

Some of these people were angry about the proposed rules for the Legislative Council By-elections. Some were angry about the domination of the Hong Kong economy by real estate developers. Some were angry about the lack of democracy and true elections. Some were angry about the heavily-biased so called civic education curriculum. Some were angry about incompetency of certain government officials, in matters of distributing the promised 6,000 dollars, lack of beds for maternity wards, lack of space for burials, etc. The demands varied. But the common sentiment was anger. The marcher was peaceful. But the anger was palpable.

Whether there were 50,000, 100,000, or 200,000, there were certainly a lot of angry people out there. Why did they spend their precious day off sweating in such hot and humid weather? If the government was truly listening and responsible to the citizens, shouldn’t there be some evidence of self-reflection and real action in response?

COMP397 Service Learning in Cambodia

2011-07-01T12:09:00.000+08:00

This is July, I am going to Cambodia, just like last year.

Together with 2 other colleagues and some helpers, we are taking 30 students from our university to Cambodia this weekend. We will be splitting into teams to work with these 5 organizations for about 7 days:

(1) Emmanuel Primary School, for children in poverty near the city garbage dump.

(2) Human Resource Development Center, a vocational school operated by a HK NGO. They teach certificate level IT and English courses.

(3) New Life Fellowship, a large church run primarily by local Cambodians. They offer English and IT training, among much other work.

(4) House of Rainbow Bridge, operated by Happy Tree, a HK NGO. It is a hospital for 70 HIV-positive children.

(5) White Lotus, a shelter for trafficked girls run by 2 American lady missionaries.

We will be doing mainly teaching and training involving IT and English, for the local kids and young people. We will help with the computer support and training for the NGO and church staff. We will also help with New Life's outreach work at the slums and the garbage dump, by leading singing, dancing and games. It is going to be very challenging.

My friends: please remember us, the students, and the people that we will be working with.

Blood Donation. Why?

2011-06-27T00:52:00.000+08:00

On Father’s Day, I went with my wife to an event organized by the Read Cross, to honour those who have given blood 25 times, or its multiples. It turned out there were ~2,500 people who have given 25 times in HK, like me. In fact, I have given 10+ times in USA, and another 10+ times in Canada. So I have given roughly 50 times in total, just about enough to qualify for the next step up. I looked around, and we were all sorts: old, young, men, women, well-dressed, casually-dressed, trendy, old-fashioned - quite a cross section of HK.

It was a nice gesture of the Red Cross. However, we certainly did not let them stick a needle in us to take 500 CC of our blood, 25 times, just to get a nice lunch, a small towel folded in the shape of a wine bottle, and a pin. So why did we do it? For the satisfaction that someone who lost a lot of blood through surgery, child birth, ulcers, internal bleeding, etc., would survive, maybe? Why do we give others our blood, time, and other precious things? For no apparent benefit to ourselves? That does not sound very rational, does it?

Just now, we were watching the movie “X-Men: The Last Stand” on TV. Towards the end, Jean Grey’s uncontrollable alternative personality “Phoenix” began a massacre with her terrible power. Trying to stop her, Wolverine himself was at the brink of being killed by Phoenix. At that point, Phoenix asked Wolverine whether he was willing to die for “them” - perhaps referring to the other mutants and humans. Wolverine told her that he was willing to die for her - meaning Jean Grey, apparently.

Whether Wolverine was willing to die for other mutants, humans, or Jean Grey, why do we humans think that sacrificing for someone else is such a noble and desirable thing to do? It is certainly not rational. Unless there is an implicit assumption of immortality - life after death. Even then, there must be love involved. Where does that come from? Where else but God Himself?

Saxophone-playing puppet in Vienna

2011-06-19T22:39:00.000+08:00

I saw this young man with his tremendously entertaining puppets in Vienna last summer (2010). And I just uploaded a video of his saxophone-playing puppet to youtube. In fact, I wrote about him and his puppets here, sometime last summer.

The video is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAv5XuIkCDs

Enjoy!

June 4 Judgment Justifiable

2011-06-19T00:55:00.000+08:00

I sent my earlier post “What happened in 1989?” to the “letters to the editor” section of a local newspaper. But I did not really expect the editor to publish it, because of some of the fairly strong words in there. Several days later, my letter was actually published. It was toned down significantly, but with the main conclusions intact. To some extent, one can still say what one wants to say in Hong Kong.

==============

Upon request, I am attaching the original post below, so you can see what had been changed by the editor.

======= original post =======

What happened in 1989?

Some people say this is not yet the right time to make a final judgement on June 4, 1989. In fact, it is amply clear, for anyone who care to look, what had happened. A large number of young people stood up to demand peacefully that China open up both economically and politically. A lot of people across the nation agreed with them. It was a great opportunity for China to take a big step forward towards modernity.

Unfortunately, some people who were in power but were small-minded and selfish were afraid of losing their power. They convinced DXP, who held the ultimate power, that his position was threatened, that chaos and violence were imminent. If DXP had sided with the reformers, he would have been the hero who opened the door for China at a pivotal moment in history.

Instead, he sided with the small-minded LP and will forever be known to be lacking the courage to take China forward when the opportunity presented itself. Instead, he ordered or at least agreed to the massacre. He failed the test when it counted.

God likes us to be released from oppression, whether it be physical, economic, political, or spiritual. People who work for liberty and respect for humans are on God’s side. Small minded and selfish people who exploit and oppress others are despised and will eventually be discarded by history.

Lunar Eclipse （月食）

2011-06-16T08:43:00.000+08:00

Early morning, starting around 1:30 AM, Hong Kong. As a result, I didn't sleep much last night. But it was fun trying to sneak a glimpse of the lunar eclipse through the thick and moving clouds. At these times, I wish I had a better camera.

What happened in 1989?

2011-06-10T01:04:00.000+08:00

June 4 Candlelight Vigil

2011-06-05T20:26:00.000+08:00

On our way to the Candlelight Vigil, we heard from our friends who were already there that the grounds were filling up. We could not find out whether it was full already, and were worried that we might not be able to get in. On the one hand, it was encouraging to hear that a lot of people were attending. On the other hand, it would have been disappointing for our group, particularly those who were looking forward to attending for the first time. When we came out of the MTR station in Causeway Bay around 7:45PM, the streets were crowded with people moving in the direction of Victoria Park.

We decided to move in the direction of the football fields. When we saw that the crowd was moving forward, even though it was slow, we felt encouraged. Finally, after an apparent eternity, we entered the last football field, and sat down at a spot where we could see the stage, albeit from a great distance. 5 minutes after we settled down, the last football field was full. It was not yet 8 o’clock. Later, we heard that people were filling out the lawn, and the basketball fields. Many on the street could not get in because of the roadblocks and detours.

For the first time, Szeto Wah was not there in person. But he still appeared in a pre-recorded video. He did not live to see the massacre rectified. Will we? I don’t really know. I hope we do. But even if I don’t, I will continue to come because it is the right thing to do. I believe many people feel the same way.

For many years, it was older folks like me who attended, people who watched the events unfold, who were hopeful, worried, and then disgusted at the massacre. For many years, we did not fill up the 6 football fields. And we worried that as our generation die out, lose hope or interest, there might not be enough of us to sustain a credible remembrance.

It is therefore heartening to see so many young people showing up. Not the least the young people from our church. Many of them were not even born in 1989, or too young to have understood what happened. In them there is hope for the future. The generation of 1989 was not alone, nor unique in the history of China. They did not start the movement towards a more modern and open China that treasure the universal rights of human beings. Nor will the movement end with them. In remembering what happened on June 4, 1989, we are carrying the torch forward.

Then there were those from mainland China. Some, like my former student, were from the mainland, but are now living in Hong Kong. And there were many who came specifically to remember the event. Hong Kong can be proud to be again playing a significant role in the opening of China.

Eventually, and hopeful, we will also come to realize that the foundation of respect for human beings is knowledge of and faith in God, the creator of the universe. Without Him, there is no basis for true respect, compassion and love for each other.

June 4 Candlelight Vigil

2011-06-04T00:07:00.000+08:00

This is the program of the Candlelight Vigil on the 20th anniversary 2 years ago. This time it will likely be similar. I have several friends who will be participating for the first time. Come and join us.