Training for Rwanda

This summer, in July-August, we are planning a very ambitious project.  We will send a team of PolyU students and staff.  They will be joined by students from several of our partner universities from Mainland China and a number of foreign countries.  There will also be a number of students and teachers from some of our partner secondary schools from Hong Kong. On the ground they will be joined by the staff and local volunteers from our partner African Evangelical Enterprises.  And yet another small team from one of our partners from Tanzania, who will be getting warmed up for the upcoming project in Tanzania.  And then, of course, there will be youths from the villages where we will be installing solar panels.  All together the team will consist of more than 100 people.  

It is expected that 400 households will be provided with electricity through solar panels to be installed in a number of configurations.  The electricity will power a wireless self-contained local area network supporting a number of applications being developed by our students.  And this is just a very brief skeleton of what we are preparing.  Lots of details have been left out.  

Our students have already gone through 3 months of lectures, workshops, reading, and planning to get ready. This year we have Dr. Z in our teaching team.  Dr. Z, when he was still an undergraduate at PolyU about 10 years ago, went with us to Cambodia and Rwanda.  He climbed on the ladder to install the first solar panels that we set up in Rwanda, together with the Dean of Engineering.  

Today, Dr. Z has gone on to obtain a PhD from Oxford University.  He will be a professor somewhere soon.  He is spending the summer helping us train a new generation of students to serve in Rwanda.  Service-Learning has come full circle.  One of many amazing developments that we have witnessed and have the privilege to be part of.  

The journey is so wonderful!  We couldn’t imagine that this is how it would turn out  when we got started, more than a decade ago.  It was an act of faith, backed up by a little knowledge and a lot more hope.  And we are nowhere near finished.   God willing, we will continue for a long time yet, seeing the good that has come from it, and so much more to come.  

Consciousness and Soul

Our Spring Book Club has just concluded a 4-session study on “Consciousness and the Soul”.  

In Christianity, we believe the soul is all-important.  The body may die and rot away, but the soul may survive beyond death.  Yet how much do we know about our soul?  Is our soul separate, or separable, from our body? Is our body still needed as part of us, in some form?  Many tout the body-mind-soul model of a person.  Is this tripartite model truly Biblical?  How does the soul differ from the mind?  

On the other hand, scientists are increasingly interested in consciousness. Earlier, scientists generally felt the topic too subjective to study through scientific methods.  Advances in neuroscience are providing more and more sophisticated tools to study the brain, leading to better understanding of brain functions and consciousness.  For example, it is now possible to determine whether a person is conscious through non-invasive sensing of signals from the brain, without having to rely solely on subjective reports.  Many now believe that consciousness arise from processes in the brain.  Or, at least, the two are co-related.  

There remains, of course, much to study.  Is consciousness fundamentally cognitive?  Or affective/emotional?  Is it a fundamental property of matter?  Is it a better of information?  Can consciousness be separated from the brain (body)?  Can we create consciousness artificially?  …

Scientists are generally not interested in the soul, considering it a matter of religion, not science.  However, can better understanding of consciousness help us understand our soul?  Can understanding of our soul help us understand consciousness?  

Those are some of the questions explored in our sessions.  We could not truly say we have concluded anything.  We read many books.  We should admit we have brought up more questions than answers.  We do feel we have understood more.  At least, we have a better understanding of what some of the questions are.  Some of the issues will be addressed in other follow-up posts.  

West Kowloon Harbourfront

The West Kowloon Harbourfront barely exists.  It is, of course, there.  Kowloon is a peninsular, surrounded by water from three sides: east, south and west.  But the west side of Kowloon is practically inaccessible to pedestrians.  

Yes, one can walk and run along the water outside the West Kowloon Cultural District, with an unobstructed view of Hong Kong Island, and further to the West.  

But then as you turn onto the West side of Kowloon, your way is blocked by the New Yaumatei Typhoon Shelter.  The public is not allowed into the loading docks there.  

You are forced to cross over the West Kowloon Highway and come back into Yaumatei.  At least until you reach Tai Kok Tsui.  

If you can manage to find your way to cross over the West Kowloon Highway again, you may be able to reach the short stretch of harbour front at How Fai Road Promenade. 

Then your way is blocked again.  This time by the Wholesale Fish Market and Vegetable Market.  

After that, it is the West Kowloon Refuse Transfer, Sewage Treatment Works, Marine Police, Government Dockyard, PLA Garrison, Container Terminals, …

For most people, the only view of the harbour that they are familiar with is that from the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, near the Star Ferry and the Avenue of Stars (TST East).

Otherwise you really have to know your way to the waterfront through some of the obscure tunnels, elevated walkways, etc.  Very often, you can see the really elevated walkways but it is impossible to find the entrance to the walkways.  

Why is it like this?  It almost feels someone in power does not want us to reach the waterfront.  Except at certain access points designated by the authorities.  

It wasn’t like this.  The ferry terminals at Yau Ma Tei, Tai Kok Tsui and Shum Shui Po were vibrant, busy focal points.  There were lots of traffic and businesses nearby.  The Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter had lots of fishing boats.  Access was open, and there were always lots of people.  The fishing-related festivals were lots of fun.  The Shum Shui Po Ferry terminal was also a bug fish market.  

The waterfront used to be a centre of life.  People travel through it, do business at it, relax on it.   Now it is a sterile place.   

Now the harbour seems to be good for pictures, and little more.  Was this planned?  Intended?  Or did it just happen, without the “authorities” being aware of it?  In any case, it is so sad.  And such a pity. 

Tseung Kwan O Short Cuts

It used to be 20 kilometres running from my home in Hung Hom to Loha’s Park in Tseung Kwan O, at the eastern end of the MTR line.  Today it only took me 17 kilometres.  Thanks to two short cuts newly available.  One is the new road cutting through the old Kaitak Airport.  The other is the new TKO bridge.  Together they allow me to cut 3 kilometres from the run.  

Along the way, there were many interesting sights. Some of them are fun and pleasing sights. But others can be sad and maddening.  

There was this epic fight between a human and a big crab, on the waterfront near the Kowloon City Pier.  

Then there were these squatters’ huts on a pier in Kwun Tong.  The government is trying to remove them.  But the squatters are not giving up without a fight.  Where are they going to go when they are evicted? 

There are also Cha Gwo Ling Village, where the houses are said to be facing demolition.  What is going to happen to the houses and the people living in them. They are demanding resettlement at the site.  Will that happen?  How?

Just outside the village, people are setting up to celebrate the Festival of the Queen of Heaven at her temple.  What will happen when the village is demolished? 

Running half way up Devil’s Peak, on the way through the TKO Cemetery, there are beautiful views of the Victoria Harbour from an unusual angle, from the east looking towards the west. The running up the hill is very hard.  But the sights are worth it.  

Many people were walking or driving up to the cemetery.  I shudder to think what was going to happen to them later when the rainstorm hit. 

From the cemetery looking west, one can see the new TKO bridge, and the many landfills, old and new.  It is said they are going to be full soon.  What will happen to our garbage then?

Running in Hong Kong can be enjoyable as well as thought provoking.  

Pandemic Aftermath

Travel restrictions have mostly been lifted.  Mainland tourists are flooding into Hong Kong again.  On Labour Day, Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui was a madhouse.  People queued up in long lines just to enter the stores of global luxury brands.  Based on the way they speak, their appearance, and the wheeled cases they are lugging along, much - if not most - of the crowd are from the Mainland.  

Business is blooming. Business owners are talking about a shortage of workers, that there is a need to import workers.  Surely owners of the luxury stores are enriched further.  Drug stores (that sell everything, particularly cosmetics, but little real medicine) are retiring in force.  Hotels and restaurants that cater to tourists and travel groups are doing good business.  

But step away from TST, to Yaumatei, Mongkok, Hung Hom, and always everywhere-else in Hong Kong, streets are quiet at night, shops close early because of a lack of business.  In fact, many businesses have gone out of business.  This is particularly ironic.  Many small businesses have managed to survive the terrible downturn caused by the pandemic.  Yet, just as the travel restrictions are lifted, and business is returning, they are closing.   Looking deeper, it is no surprise at all.  Many landlords are taking the opportunity to raise the rent by 30%, 50%, 100%, or more.  This is happening even before the business has actually improved much, before the small businesses are making money again.  Many simply cannot afford to continue, and are forced to close.  What happens to the people that they employ?

Hence the aftermath of he pandemic is decidedly mixed. Some business owners, typically the big ones, and the big landlords are making a windfall.   Yet many small businesses, together with the people who work for them, are suffering and failing to survive.  Such is life in Hong Kong.  Some people are claiming that Hong Kong is returning to good times.  But for whom?