Let's have a look at Hong Kong...We see some angry protesters..
Meanwhile in Singapore...Owners of The Oasis Complain..
Back in Hong Kong......errr...
Note: I chose these two examples because the way they were reclaimed and condemned for demolishion is very similar. However, we receive two very different reactions to the losing of thes two landmarks. This post took a bit of time cuz I had difficulty getting pictures of The Oasis and protesters for the Central Pier Part. lucky I've put myself on a 2-day break from mugging..If not I think I'l die next week. next week will be the most intensive of all...
Oh and another thing. If the event in frame 10 had happened in reality, the offending policemen will...errr...see lots of colour when he sees his boss..and lawyer...lucky we don't get this in real life..=)
But none the less, we should do some thing to preserve what we have today. Imagine living 50 years from now and you get to see the place where people of Raffle's time lived but not the places were people of your time lived in..how would you feel? Imagine how it feels to have your favourite hang-out place or location being torn down? And how much would your grandchildren understand of your past if they don't get to see where you used to grow up?
Ofcourse, in the modern world, progress must be made. But we must also pay some attention to our heritage or the price tag we pay may be too heavy for our later generatiosn to shoulder.
1:56 PM
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Cafe Le Disastrous:Today was our BizClub handover ceremony and on our first official day at office, we started off testing our "new"coffee machine and syrups. The syrup experiment ended with a whole range of cups with a whole array of colours and wierd tastes. Overall still not bad,given that no one puked. Our coffee experiment was a disaster with foul smelling liquid oozing out of the machine..at least it was still better than our previous experiment at Macdonalds. Courtesy of SiuYin,JianXin and Hendrik plus other not so prominant crazy people.
Cafe Le Disastrous:Le Recipe
Le Objectivo:
To allow our customers to get instant MCs from their tutorials, lectures, exams...teachers included..they can get MC from work and scolding from their bosses.
Ingrediants:
Coffee
Some left over tea
Maple syrup
Grape Jam
Coffeemate(leftovers)
JianXin's saliva
Salt
Pepper
Hotcake crumbs
Butter
Chili sause
Some sugar
Directions:
Just chuck everything into the cup and stir
Allow to cool
Give to unsuspecting victims like our benevolebnt CEO:Wei Qiang..(laughs..XD)
Besides Coffee, Latte, Mocha and Expresso, we also discussed about rearranging the feng shui of our stall. Some members said that the current arrangement of the furniture is bad feng shui..some people even proposed knocking down our wall and removing the air-con..which is quite crazy cuz it will cost us a bomb....Kaboom..
Just a random thought..i just had a little debate with Pau about feng shui last night over SMS...better recall what I said..
Maybe i can come up with a novel idea...Slowly dream bah me..=)
Random thought: Friends 友情...
Love. Friendship.Why do we have different relationships with people? Why do people love each other instead of liking each other. Why do we decide to be friends rather than to be engaged? Why are we enemies and not friends?
Gah..it's alot of questions that we often ask.
Some say its all about fate. Others say its about how well we balance ourselves.
I feel very fortunate to know whoever I know today regardless if the person is a friend or enemy of mine today.
Enemies make you understand hate and sadness. Friends bring you love and energy. I myself have made enemies with many people but so have I made many friends. There are always going to be people who will dislike me and hate me to the core. But there are also people who tolerate me and give me joy.
So what makes people hate or like me? ME.
I make people hate me, or should I say I hate certain people is because I am less tolerant of their personalities, beliefs and behaviour. In the end, my behave in a way that makes the person dislike me. Vice versa, I like certain people because I am more tolerant of them and I behave in a way that make them like me. I'm a selfish person. I know. You know.
Altough hypocracy is often denounced as a sin, every single one of us are practicing it to many different extents. We all behave differently infront of different people. No matter how hard we control ourselves, it still happens.
Maybe this is why life is colourful in the first place. Without enemies, we won't be able to taste sadness. And without friends, we won't be able to taste happiness. And hypocracy is here to stay. Though we should try our best to see people with a clear mind, sometimes emotions and feelings distorts our vision(带有色眼镜看人) and we see people with a certain mindset. Is right,Is wrong,I'll let you decide.
Life is just full of bright and dark.
生命总是充满光灰
Labels: Biz club, coffee, friends
9:42 PM
Monday, June 11, 2007
Why do we work?为什么工作?(中英版本) 
The following was found from a paticular blog which I found interesting. I have translated the contents into English for the benefit of non-Chinese/Cantonese viewers.(Translation's largely accurate. Best viewed with unicode encoding.)--------------------------------------------------Ever since I came into society, I have given much thought about this question:
Why do we work?
(我在社会已不新鲜了,经常反思: 何谓工作??)1.High Salary(薪金富厚)
2.Nice Bosses (老板明理)
3.Good social welfare(福利良好)
4.Nice colleagues(同事合得来)
5.Ample working area(环境宽敞)
6.Manageable workload(工作量适中)
7.Good working environment(良好工作环境)
8.Meaningful Job(工作有意义)
Of the above eight points,if you have picked at least five to be a "Must" for your future job, then you'd better go treat us lunch! (haha..you're not fit to work! XD)
(以上八点,若有人剔出五项以上,就要请吃饭了! 哈哈!)
As I start a new chapter of my life as a writer, what I need most now is a stable income to sustain my life. As a young and inexperienced writer, just writing is no use in supporting myself. (How much can you earn by just publishing a book? XP)
(自从决定展开说故事人的新一页,首要条件,是要有稳定的收入与工作时间的好功.对于秒小又不多产的故事人,版说是吃不饱人的.)
I am a lazy person. To be exact, a super extremely lazy person. I don't have much ambition. What is my dream job?
(我很懒.非常懒. 对前途没有什么野心.何谓好功呢??)
Obviously, I want a good salary and social welfare( which the government happily provides). Enough time to go surf the NET, work that does not make its way to my doorstep,no need to wear uniforms,no need to stand for ages until my leg breaks( like being some sales at some huge department store), no need to get myself all stressed up with my workload,no office politics,no sucking up to my boss,no need to argue with my workmates,no need to work until.....
(所谓好工,当然要:人工高福利好准时放工,有得上网,工作不带回家,但私事可带回公司.不用穿制服,不要站到脚断,不要做别人出气袋,不要离家太远,不要向老板低声下气,不要面对黑面神,不要....The rest I too lazy to type out)
Yea..I know it's alot of "No's"
(太多"不"了)
Is this reality? Or is this just an insane dream?
(这是理想,还是狂妄?)
Just take that I was dreaming in heaven.
(就挡我在仙境中作梦)
So why do we work?
(何谓工作呢?)
We work to pay for our entrance fee to our dreams.
(工作是为了支付梦想的入场券)
~Mya -2007.04, Hong Kong
----------------------------------------------------------
I guess the last sentence means the most. We work for our dreams...=)
And sometimes we do...attain our dreams...like this guy...=)
Sadly, many people ,(especially Hong Kong people.....and myself) toil for hours,days and even years over their work without knowing what their dreams or goals are. And they end up like a heap of mechanic flesh and bone.
Sometimes its no harm saying this twice:
" 放松D啦, 香港人! "
"Relax! Hong Kong people!"
可惜香港人不会放松...
Labels: Hong Kong, stress, Work
9:57 PM
Saturday, June 09, 2007
错过了最盛放的火花:
Happened to come across this book while passing by the "Commercial Press" outside NLB. This publication is a bit long, with 9 chapters and it's sometiems a bit draggy. But the storyline is quite interesting. It's not a love story, though the cover suggests so. The whole story revolves around 4 girls and 4 guys...1 more guy if you count the "ex" of one of the girls. And it basically describes the complexity of the friendship between guys and girls and how people somehow have suddenly "feelings' for each other and how these ' feelings" die down in a matter of hours. This is quite true when it comes to freindship between sexes. Sometimes you really don't know what you want and whatyou hope to achieve by befriending someone of the opposite sex. And there are always questions raised by teens such as:" Do I like her?" " Has she liked me?"" are we friends or something else?" This book looks into these questions..and the views and reactions of some people who experienced it. Some made the right decision while others did not. It also revolves around University life and brings out the fact that there are things that we should do or say before it's too late...like saying "A-I-SHI-TE-RU" to someone...special...So..say it..before it's too late! Visions of Earth:A random Picture:
And guess what I saw on the train today? THIS! This old..err..man? woman? is playing with this?!?! And the most disturbing thing is that he/she is making noises like: "bssht!!baa!! Blam!!!kazaa!!!" omg..I thought most people have stopped doing that since kindergarten. i have released a low-quality picture of this person to mask the identity of whoever this is. We hope no viewers have been disturbed..Labels: Books, Hong Kong, insane
10:49 PM
Friday, June 08, 2007
Biz Club: TrainingBiz Club training was more "snow and ice" than training. Started the day with revising how to cook the various foods and where all the equipment is kept. This was followed by a "role play" where the seniors played a customers. Got "bullied" by the whole lot of them when they stole all the utensils and even a $10 note from the cash register. It was so damned chaotic. It was much to our relief when the whole thing was over and we could pack up and EAT...very nice of the school to sponsor our lunch as we could eat whatever we want from the cafe without paying a cent.
After lunch was the fun part: Ice fight. Thanks to the absence of human beings at the cafe for the past week, the ice in the freezer has grown to a phenominal thickness of 2 inches. And the ice is not just ANY ordinary ice, but really rock hard, high density solid ice. So Joanna taught us how to hack off the ice and..err...how to play with it after you hacked them off. So jack Neo went to hack off the ice since "he asked for it". While the rest of us happily passed the ice to the seniors whom, started to whack each other with sticks of ice. they really looked like little kids who've just been released into some kinda winter wonderland...like the kind you get at the Hong Kong winterfest. it was damned crazy. Then Daniel, that long time haven't grow up guy, went to join in and spalshed powdered ice onto people's shirts. as for the remaining 4 of us....we stood in ready position at the freezer and had our window as our plasma screen as we watched the naive seniors continue with their little war of ice...hehe..
This was what heppened when we hacked off the longest bar of ice for the day...
This also demonstrates how we punish misbehaving kids like Daniel...yupp..we freeze-em! =)
Can't wait for operation dpt training next week!
一国两制:
It haas been a decade since Hong Kong returned soviernity to China. Through these ten tumultonous years, there have been quite a number of voices from the public as well as the international community( including Singapore Media) questioning whether China really did what it promised. I am no expert in this but this is what I feel. After viewing some reliable resources such as TIME magazine, local news papers and TV, as well as western references, it can be concluded that China's influence on the territory is actually very minimal. Except for a few high profile cases, the influence of beijing on Hong Kong's internal affairs has been and still is almost non-existent.
Politically, Beijing has to some extent exerted a small degree of influence on Hong Kong, especially during the Article 23 saga. but if you were to look at the biger picture, you would find that beijing has sdone little in suppressing the "opposition". Look at the freqeuncy of the Pan-Democratice party protests and marches and look at what the police were doing. All thye did was stand around and watch. One would seldom see the police interfering with the protestors. Only when the protestors "pose a threat to publice order" or break the law do the police stop the marchers or arrest protestors. The recent example of the police arresting 10 protestors can be easily explained because they broke into the residence of an official. if anyone were to put themselves into the shoes of the police,they would do the same thing.
Hong Kong has a high degree of freedom compared to China and many of its neighbours. Some pessimists have predicted interferance from Beijing to the economy. This proved not to be the case. Hong Kong has been the world's most free economy for 13 years. Including the ten years it has been in China. While China is still lagging behind by a considerable distance. Does that not prove the negligible influence of Beijing on Hong Kong's economy? Besides, Hong Kong's education has also recived zero interference from Beijing. Hong Kong's A levels is infamous for being the toughest in the world( be happy you're in S'pore..HK ppl mug more than we do) and it still is. At the same time, propaganda from China has yet to seep into the system( Propaganda itself is losing appeal in China).
Hong Kong actually gets a bit more than Beijing officially promised. An interview with former Chief Executive, Tung Chee hwa actually reviewd that Beijing did not restrict Tung much in terms of foeign affaris. Mush of the planning and carrying out was actually done by Tung himself instead of Beijing.
The existence of the PLA in Hong Kong is also rarely seen with the exception of the PLA base open-houses where residents get to visit and toy with the artilary and equipment. The PLA has to date done nothing to interfere with any aspect of Hong Kong life excluding the open houses ofcourse).
Beijing's attitude towars Hong Kong can be quoted from the TIME magazine:
"Don't cause trouble"
That was what Beijing wanted all along. As long as the people of Hong Kong do not pose a threat to the political power in Beijing and Hong Kong does not become an economic burden to China, the Central Government would tolerate Hong Kong to do "Whatever it likes".
Besides what I've stated, there's just an overwhelming amount of evidence to debunk the myths of Hong Kong's political system being over-run by China's. It also proves the successful implementation of "One Country Two Systems' where Hong Kong has a high degree of seviergnity over the territory. However, one must bear in mind that the power given to Hong Kong people is issued by the Central Govenment and the ultimate control of Hong Kong still rests in the hands of Beijing. especially in times of 'crisis".
Labels: Biz club, Hong Kong, perkafe, Reunification
9:25 PM
