Hong Kong Mini Bus

Today was a gorgeous day in Hong Kong. There is a Web Cam mounted on the side of my office building, about 15 floors below me that captures the view.

After work today I had to go to a specialty store to buy some groceries. The place is about a fifteen minute walk across a park from where I work.  The district is called Causeway Bay, and is notorious for having maniacal crowds.  I thought today, being a working day, would be different.  Normally it is busiest on weekends.  Well, I was wrong.  It was PACKED, and impossible to walk along the streets quickly because the sidewalks were busting at the seems with people.  I get very impatient in situations like that.  Many pictures of "masses of people" crossing streets are taken at a certain HUGE crosswalk in Causeway Bay.  Now I am used to it (albeit a bit anxious at times) but often wonder what it would be like for someone to come over from Canada to witness the crowds.  Even on a less busy day David Brightling marveled at the mobs of people.

Anyway, I picked up the groceries, slipped into a bookstore to buy two el' cheapo books for myself and a People magazine for Tess.  The shopping mall I was in is also a ritzy office tower complex housing mega-companies' Asia Pacific headquarters.  Companies like Coke and Hewlett Packard can be found here.  On the side of one of the towers is a gargantuan state of the art TV screen, that takes up 2 - 3 floors, with laser/halogen light bulbs.  It projects an extremely clear picture.  This complex is called Times Square and also houses a high-end store called Lane Crawford (read big Holt Renfrew).  They often blast sophisticated Nat King Cole, or Frank Sinatra music, into the street.  They have one song, "O the Good Life" which you may know that I like a lot.  Again, the sound is incredibly clear and fills the surrounding streets.

To get home I hopped on a 16 seater minibus.  To give you an idea, many expats in my office have never been on one of these minibuses.  They are very local (the minibuses - not the expats!)  The drivers rarely speak English, and you need to know a few words of Cantonese to get around.  Typically the drivers are crazy, too.  They will pick-up passengers wherever they can legally stop (and elsewhere, too) and drive very quickly.  Once in February two of them collided, with me sitting right where the collision took place.  The broken glass from the rear view mirror showered all over me through the open window. (Now I always close the windows.) The driver didn't care.  The two drivers exchanged words and were on their way again.

So tonight I got on this one bus, which started speeding its way through HK.  Soon he took a turn up towards Mid Levels and I thought, "O no... WHERE is this guy going now?"  I recalled I forgot to check the sign on the front of the bus, too!!  Eventually he turned back onto the normal route.  (That is the other thing about the minibuses - they will go off the beaten track to drop people off.  Sometimes you never know where you are going to go!!)

As I approached our street I said, "Soy GUY, m-goy!"  This means "Water Street, Please."  Several of the other passengers looked at me curiously (my tone tonight was poor -- or maybe it was good and they could not believe a gweilo could speak like that!) as the driver stopped to let me out.  I gave him a $10 HKD coin and he gave me $4 change.  So less than a buck CDN to get home from Times Square.  A taxi would have been about $45 HKD ($9 CDN).

The walk from the designated stopping point (as designated as they get on minibuses) to Fung Shing Building is about five minutes.  As I walked along I encountered an older Chinese man walking his two dogs.  One was a German Shepherd, the other mixed Labrador.  Amazingly, the German Shepherd had the lab's leash in his mouth, leading the three of them.  The Chinese man walked about a meter.  The lab stopped every few meters for guidance from the owner to make sure the German Shepherd was going in the right direction.  It was one of those situations where one knew the two dogs were very well trained.  They looked healthy, too.

Now I am home typing this e-mail, and I think it is time to study statistics!

By the way, never doubt we don't have intelligent cats -- during the course of writing this e-mail, Cee Cee, playing with a bright pink ping pong ball given to her and Olivia at Christmas, played fetch. NO KIDDING... I threw the ball, and she returned it, about six times.  Here is the amazing part.... she regularly does the same thing with items she is able to put in her mouth.  A ping pong ball, on the other hand, she has to paw handle back to me.

Indonesia Falters, Jakarta Shakes

I walked into the last day of a week of annual planning meetings at Rockwell Automation in Hong Kong Friday morning to discover that the truck in the above picture belonged to one of the company's distributors in Jakarta. Courtesy of the French press, it depicts rioters and looters in Jakarta. Rockwell's only expat in Jakarta is holed up in his flat until Tuesday when he will manage to leave the country. He described to me how, looking out from his balcony, he saw buildings on fire and troops being lowered by helicopters onto building rooftops.

The following reports come from friends in Jakarta:

Yes, Jakarta is on fire. The place went NUTS yesterday, two shopping malls, numerous buses, a police station and movie theatre less than two minutes walk from my house were looted and burned in the late afternoon. Last night, a friend and I took a stroll to view damage and saw people streaming down the streets carrying everything they could manage. The most surprising included a ceramic salon chair used to wash patrons hair, a toy-house that children ride after paying a quarter and two teenagers trundling the remains of an ATM machine. Chaos reigns in the streets of Jakarta.

They haven't targeted "bules" (as Caucasian foreigners are referred to), there seems little malicious intent towards foreigners. However, being worried about being caught in the crossfire, I am attempting to get out.

Think its best to be away from the action and stray bullet and fires. Besides, when their are no more shops and malls to loot, the next targets are vehicles and house.

So, I have packed my guitar and backpack and am heading for Australia and then Africa on safari and look for my roots. With any luck I will be airborne Saturday (16th) night. (Sent Friday, 15 May 1998.)

~~~

Thanks for the concern. The situation today was one of tension and apprehension. Hundreds of families are being evacuated tonight by the US embassy. I have not left yet but will try to get to the airport either tomorrow or Sunday.

I'm keeping in touch on the go with my fancy Nokia 9000, mobile phone, email and WWW terminal, fax machine all-in-one. Should be standard issue for Cap students, always in touch (of course it works any where in the world except North America!).

Anyhow, the latest is that the American evacuation has been postponed until tomorrow (Saturday) night. Hundreds were left stranded waiting on buses then were told to go home and come back tomorrow. I'm glad I wasn't there with my 18 month old twin sons at 1am. I may be there tomorrow though, depending on the situation. I'll try to find out from the other alumni and report back. I feel like Mel Gibson in TYOLD. -- Later, name withheld. (Sent: Sat, 16 May 1998 1:57.)

~~~

(Photo courtesy of South China Morning Post) I would like to inform Canadians about the actual situation in Indonesia. I have recently fled the country that is in the news and have stories about living among these people and seeing their plight first hand. It is a sad story that I have witnessed and choosing to share it with others was a difficult decision.

The way in which the rioters are being portrayed is a travesty. One must understand that these people are being oppressed from all angles. The government that claims to work for the people in actuality is so segregated and removed from the citizens that it probably gains information from CNN like everyone else.

In reality, the Indonesian people are the warmest and most inviting people that I have ever met, they have such a desire to talk to the ex-patriots in the country. It is important to understand that these people are very religious and very proper. They attend church and they do all of the things that we do here in North America. These wonderful people are absolutely suffering.

In respect to the riots and the unrest, it is due to ridiculous rises in prices. While I was there, the price of petroleum gasoline rose by seventy percent. It was too much for the people to bear. The riots began on the campus' of the local universities. For weeks it was said that the riots were contained to the campus, when in actuality they were on the streets. I was attacked in a taxi cab, inadvertantly, when the rioters on one side of the street began throwing rocks at the army that were gathered on the other side of the street. Although the people would never target foreigners (other than Chinese), it is a great possibility to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The animosity that the Chinese and the Indonesians, in general, have towards each other is purely based on economics. As a teacher in this country, one gets to see things that others may not observe. I taught classes mixed with both ethnic backgrounds and one can see the difference between the two groups of people. Also as a teacher it was my job to unite these people and they seemed to get along with each other when they can get to know each other.

The rioters are tired of being oppressed and are demanding Suharto's resignation, but on a grander scale they are screaming to the world that they are people too and are a force to be reckoned with.

I have much information about this topic and anyone wishing to know more can contact me at hall.family@sympatico.ca Sarah Hall

Mid-Autumn Festival

From guest blogger, Tess... I had the most wonderful time the other day.  As Public Relations manager of Hong Kong's largest hotel, the Panda Hotel, I receive all the requests for donations from the various organizations and charities in Hong Kong.  The guidelines I have to operate within are that anyone we support has to be located in the New Territories, preferably in Tsuen Wan, where the hotel is located. 

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, we received countless letters from organizations requesting cash donations.  Given the disastrous room occupancy (32%) since the handover, we are no longer able to donate cash.  So when I received a request from an old folks home three blocks away for some money to purchase Moon Cakes (Moon Cakes to the Chinese at this time of the year, are like Pumpkin Pie to North Americans at Thanksgiving) for their elderly residents, I called the organization and said that  our hotel was willing to donate the Moon Cakes instead.  I wanted to help this group.   The elderly at this home are generally pitied by the community because their children don't have them to live in their homes or have not paid for them to stay in a deluxe retirement home. The officials agreed and asked if I would attend the Mid Autumn Festival celebration they were having to present the donation.  The celebration would be games involving the elderly and tea afterwards.

I was a little hesitant.  Having recently moved to a very Chinese part of Hong Kong (Sheung Wan) from the rather "expat-y" area of Mid-Levels, I have been really noticing how gweilos (meaning expatriates, but the literal translation is "foreign devil") aren't too popular.  For example, every morning when I take the tram to catch the bus to work, the seat next to me is always the last to go.  In addition, pictures and stories always depict Chinese elders as stoic, not jolly and rarely displaying affection or laughing, unless it is during some mystical Chinese game or cackling at someone else's expense.  Finally, 99% of these people would be Cantonese speaking, not English speaking. I didn’t know how much fun this would be.

The day arrived and the hotel car took the hotel's six foot Panda mascot, the 400 Moon Cakes and myself to the social centre where the celebrations were to be held.  The panda was hustled to the back where he would appear when the Moon Cake presentation was held (for the benefit of the Chinese press in attendance).

The minute the panda appeared, the audience, who had been pretty noisy, simply erupted.  One fellow grabbed a social workers hand and pointed to the panda while he asked a question.  The social worker came to me and asked if the panda could pose for pictures with a few of the residents.  I agreed and the fellow jumped out of his seat and beelined it for the panda.  The panda suit, typical of most those suits, is unwieldy and hard to see out of.  When the gentleman reached the panda he skidded on the shined floor, bumped into the panda and then screamed with laughter as the panda fell to the floor.  So did everyone else.   And then it seemed everyone wanted to have their picture taken with the panda.

When it became apparent I was the one responsible for the Moon Cakes’ appearance, everyone made a real effort to include me. This included  touching me, smiling and speaking their gratitude.  Then they started playing organized games, where four social workers stood in the rows and a fifth at the beginning of the room would call out in Cantonese, "The first ten cent piece that has the queens face on it!" and then the room would erupt as these excited elders would try to prevent their neighbours from finding the coin while digging up their own, handing it to the social worker who would then dash up to the front of the room and exchange the coin for a small prize.  The hysteria was high and the happiness overflowing.

Even though it was now 7:00pm, there was no way I was leaving.

Another lesson for me.  No wonder I am treated like an observer if I am only going to observe.  Getting involved, pouring tea, ripping off the plastic from the Moon Cakes, I was part of it, and including myself resulted in a feeling of belonging that eradicated any language void and transcended any cultural barrier that may have existed.

A truly wonderful day.  Of course, I cant expect the tram behaviour to change, but I can remember the faces and the laughter and the touching.  And I can volunteer there, soup kitchen detail, twice a month.

Have a great day.

Tess

Hong Kong: Business As Usual

You may have noticed there has been no e-mail traffic from me since the handover.  And that just about sums up what is happening in Hong Kong: nothing.

As far as political transitions and changes since Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to China there are very few.  Seriously, since July 1st it has been business as usual.  There is no evidence that anything has changed, other than the flags. Life under Chinese rule, at first glimpse, appears to be just the same. The only thing happening that might suggest a change is the bickering in the local media about laws... but even THAT has died down in the last month.  Meanwhile, the Monetary Authority has been fighting off speculators (which many other Asian countries have been unable to do) and children in China with one parent in HK are allowed to slowly but steadily come to HK.  (That was one of the things in the media.) 

Some of you, especially those CLOSELY watching the law bickering from afar, may call me naive to think there are no changes.  Naturally, there will be changes  over time as a result of immediate events (like the outcome of the law bickering) but these changes will be subtle.  There is not a single sign of the PLA.  If you want to see them you have to hunt them down.  There is not a single soldier wondering around... they are less evident than the Royal Forces were. 

When the Royal Forces were off duty they were permitted to wear their uniforms. They often did, and while crawling from pub to pub in Wanchai, would be denied entrance to establishments because of their rowdy reputations.  In contrast,  the PLA must wear civvies because the Chinese government wants them to be low key.  In fact, the PLA has been SO low key, that they have been criticized for not "building ties with the community."

As far as freedom of the press, there appear to be no changes from my own research.  I am only able to read the English papers, and their reporting seems to be the same.  I have not heard whether this is the case for the Chinese newspapers.  The only thing I have heard about them, are stories they ran that Princess Diana was six weeks pregnant when she died.  That never made it into the English language papers, though.  There have also been over forty official public demonstrations since July 1st.

The mood on the street is business as usual.  Perhaps there is a little bit of "post-handover blues", and economic growth has slowed slightly this past quarter.   At the same time, however, economic growth is slowing across the region, but still enviable statistics with Malaysia, for example, expected to grow at 7.8%.

Perhaps the greatest indication of what is happening in Hong Kong comes from what all of my friends are doing -- working.  In the last several months I have looked for new employment, moved flats, completed several training consultant projects, rescued a stray cat, nursed it back to health and generally been very busy.  Interestingly, my friends were conspicuously absent.  A few phone calls revealed to me that most of my friends had not seen each other, either.  Many are away on business, working long hours and some on holidays.  In other words, people are busy in Hong Kong and forging ahead into the future.

The Chinese Government recently gave the Hong Kong SAR Government a vote of confidence, and I will send excerpts of that article in another message.

In the next few weeks I will be posting a number of  fantastic pictures from the handover onto my web site.  Be sure to check back and have a look at them.

That's the latest from Hong Kong.