Posts

No tourists in Hong Kong

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As the title suggests things are looking a little grim in Hong Kong regarding the tourism industry, but that is only a given, considering the protests that happened last year (which seemingly are picking right back up now that the quarantine situation is slowly relaxing) and the Coronavirus pandemic, worked together in reducing the amount of tourists that wanted to come to the region in the first place. Now with the quarantine measures slowly relaxing in different countries things are slowly going back to normal, which means that the protests are apparently starting right back up again, which most likely will not entice tourists to actually want to go to Hong Kong for a visit. There were only about 4,100 arrivals for the month because of the global lockdown, the Hong Kong Tourism Board revealed on Friday. That works out as about 130 on average each day. There were 5.57 million arrivals in April 2019. The article goes on to look at the gross domestic product (GDP) of Hong Kong and said
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The Price of Schools

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I found an article that I personally found interesting and thought provoking; how much outside help should international schools around the world be given by the governments of the country they are in? In Hong Kong this issue was discussed and it currently looks like the Hong Kong government does not want to help out more than they need to. Their argument is that they want to focus on the local schools who need the help as well. Their argument is sound, international schools tend to cater to wealthy families and their children, who pay large annual fees as well as asking for debentures for the students to get a place in their school, all of which should cover a large range of things. The question then becomes where does the money go? Salaries for all employees: teachers, cleaners, maintenance workers, other staff members, etc. most likely takes a large chunk out of the money the school takes in each year. School supplies, general maintenance of the school and its grounds, as well as a
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Pink Supermoon

So this week like most other weeks since the outbreak of the Corona Virus 19 (CoVid19; and doesn’t that sound really harmless?) there seems to be virtually nothing other than news stories regarding the outbreak and its effects around the world. Finding a news article that doesn’t mention the virus is like finding a needle in a haystack, and finding a news story that doesn’t involve doom and gloom of some sort, as well as not mentioning the virus is like finding a Paraiba Tourmaline (a very rare gem stone) in a haystack. Well it seems that one of the biggest things that happened outside of the virus is a ‘ pink’ supermoon last Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on which article you read). But even in this article the Corona Virus made an appearance and therefore lending the whole article a rather sad tone overall. According to the article a supermoon happens when the moon comes 10 percent closer to the Earth than normal, meaning that it essentially looks bigger to us when we see it. Ther
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Reactions to Covid-19

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This is another article a different friend of mine sent me a while ago where the writer talks about his experience regarding the different methods certain countries around the world use while dealing with the Coronavirus 19. In it Mr Robert McKenzie says that he visited 3 different countries (Italy, Malaysia, and Hong Kong) and talked about the different ways people are dealing with the virus, ranging from unconcerned scepticism to paranoia and stoicism. The coverage was not in the least informative, it usually featured panels of people shouting over one another, or interviewers who valued conflict over clarity. In the article he describes how in Italy the people viewed the virus as little more than something like the flu (real name is Influenza ) and overall this was fuelled by the country’s coverage of the Virus, which seemingly was limited to talk shows filled with people shouting at each other. I personally cannot confirm nor deny this account of events though looking back at h
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Losing Culture

What does losing culture mean to you? I personally think it is a mix of different things coming together and either changing something old into something new or this something old completely dying out. There are probably many different interpretations to essentially the same thing, and I have most likely not thought of or forgotten something that others would find important to define loss of culture. Whatever your definition for this phenomenon is we can all agree that it is happening and it is happening at an alarming rate. Just for clarification change is not inherently bad and keeping traditions alive is not always good. Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to an article written a while back about the loss of traditional songs sung by people living in different villages on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The article mainly focuses on one village in particular called Shui Hau, where a lot of the elderly people have lived their entire lives and are among the last people alive who sti
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Fake Passports

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There seems to be a distinct rise in fake passports around the world, with the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU), the United States (US), and many more countries reporting increased use of fake passports to try to cross their borders. Simply googling the phrase ‘Fake Passport Statistics’ will bring up several pages of results, which go back as far as the early 2000’. Here in Malta it seems relatively common for someone to be caught with a fake passport; every year there are a couple of people who get caught with them either trying to sell them to others or trying to use them while either entering or leaving the country. It has become a very serious problem, and it seemingly is impossible to stop those committing the crime. “There is a global racket of passport selling and we’re a part of it,” presiding magistrate Joe Mifsud said. “I don’t exclude the financing of terrorism with this scheme.” My question is what is being done to curb the making, selling, and use
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Gweilo

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Hong Kong and racism , sounds like something that happens only through the expats coming to Hong Kong. At least that’s what most people will probably assume, because the only people who can be racist are “white” people. Sorry to burst your bubble but Asia as a whole is extremely racist, towards other countries, be they white people, other Chinese people or other Asians, and they blatantly show their favouritism in their laws and in public. In Hong Kong for instance there are several names that get used by Hong Kongers to describe those around them who aren’t Hong Kong Chinese, such as gweilo meaning to describe a white person. The funny thing about that is the fact that that word has now been adopted by those who it used to describe and make feel bad about themselves. I personally say to my friends when I’m at home that I am a gweilo and it has become part of a joke, “who is that gweilo I see?”, “oh it’s Milena”, I own the word, but the word does not own me. There is nothing more inf
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