The Rally Wars!

1st July is HK's big "We Want Democracy" March. The first ever was in 2003, when over a million folk turned up, and now there's been one every year although it hasn't ever reached that number again.

Since today is July 1st, it's on this afternoon and we will be there although we won't go to Victoria Park. We'll just join it in Wan Chai and march to Government House. And, yes, I'll take photos. I may not have my cute little camera anymore but I've discovered my even-cuter little movie camera has a photo-function.

But, as you also know, the Communist Party of China holds it's own anti-democracy "We Want to be Chinese Communists" March in the morning. It's on now, right outside our window. The rally is held at Southorn Park and it's meant to be bigger, better and brighter, with lots of colour excitement, movement:

The best photo of the morning!

In short, The Ultimate Spoiler!

Well, here's what's happening right now:

THE RALLY


THE MARCH

And the Pro-Beijingers are calling the numbers at 40 thousand.

Oooh, here's something very interesting ... the folks in the yellow shirts are arriving in Southorn Park and then sneaking out the other entrance. I think they're going back to the start of the march trying to boost their numbers.

I'll keep you informed.

It's an hour later and the march still goes on. But here's what's happening:

THE RALLY


THE MARCH

What do you think? Reckon the Democracy Rally this afternoon will beat 'em?

Grandma Jackson, RIP

A truly great lady has passed away: Mrs Jessie Jackson of Savu Savu.

Such a genuinely lovely person and one of my favourite people on the planet.

The Jacksons write:

"She had not been well for quite some time so we were expecting her pass any time. She was extremely well looked after by Vola and Simone (her housegirl and her son) and Ian and Loretta went over to see her about a week ago. We last spoke to her on Sat. and she was so so tired and very ready to go.

Would you please pass this onto anyone else who may need to know.

Thank you so so much

love Carolyn and Rayney and all the family xxx"

Grandma Jackson! RIP! Memories! Such fabulous memories.

I first met Jessie Jackson as a young child, when mum sent me to her house in the Domain, "Delani Koro", to give her a message. I knocked on the door and heard a weird-sounding shout "Come in!" ... and went in to find her ... standing on her head. She told me it was her way of dealing with stress and she was feeling very stressed indeed and so she stayed on her head the whole visit. I decided then and there she was a very interesting lady and that I liked her enormously. And then she gave me a tub of broken chocolate bits and that clinched it.

I have so many strange and wonderful stories about her over the years ... stories that show her calm and her generosity and her wisdom, and I may tell you some of them over the next few weeks, but I'll just give you one for now; this is one she told me and I think about it often because it's such an important illustration of how to deal with life:

Seven generations of Mrs Jackson of Nagaga, Savu Savu, had a curse that made their lives a living hell. On their copra plantation, on the swathe of carefully manicured grass up to the house, was a giant cluster of rocks; pinacles of volcanic rock that rose out of the ground; "The Devil's Rocks" they called them because nothing would remove them.

Seven generations of Mrs Jackson dreamed of having an unsullied swathe of manicured grass on the hill up to their house, so for over 150 years, each in turn had the rocks smashed up and hauled away ... or dynamited and hauled away ... but they just grew back. We know now that it was a lava-plug of a volcanic vent but they didn't know that and so it freaked them out and convinced them they were cursed and all this made their lives a living hell.

But the eighth Mrs Jackson of Nagaga, Savu Savu, Jessie, took one look at those rocks and said "Gosh, that's pretty. The lawn would be so boring if they weren't there." and so planted out the cluster of rocks with orchids.

And it was indeed beautiful and the lawn would indeed have been boring without that rock-and-orchid feature.

So that's the story. I love it. I love the idea of generations of imported British wives fighting against the entire geo-thermal forces of Mother Nature and taking it personally that they couldn't win. And I love that Jessie Jackson, as a young bride from New Zealand, just decided to see it differently.

And that's the wisdom of Grandma Jackson I took away from this story: what others may see as a curse if you use your imagination and put your own spin on it, you can easily turn it into a blessing.

Mrs Jessie Jackson of Nagaga, Savu Savu, lolomas and RIP.

Guangzhou Treasures!

Am currently in "delete photos" mode because the program's running slow so here's an amazing photo I have to show you before I get rid of it.

See, Nikita was telling me how her uncle who lives in Australia discovered that, after his trips back home to Guangzhou, no present for Oz friends thrills them more than the cheap junky stuff he bought in Chinese "five-and-dime" style stores. I knew what she was talking about because never once have I taken a cheap junky Chinese Communist Party cigarette case abroad without someone craving it so much I've given it to them.

So, during my long enforced sojourn in Guangzhou I checked out the five-and-dime stores ... and just look what I scored:

Those yellow diaries are leather and those clip-things on it are brass. Those card cases are also leather, and the green one has the most amazing spring action. Michael, who's a total gadget-guy, was so impressed he's asked me to buy him one, only in butch black or brown, next time I'm in Guangzhou. And that green lock for my suitcase is just so cute.

But here's the astonishing part. You will never ever guess how much I paid for all that! Yup, the combined cost of everything in that photo?

I had change from 20 yuan! No, I'm not kidding.

So that's totally solid advice from Nikita's uncle. When in Guangzhou, shop at the cheap junky five-and-dime stores for your gifts for folks back home.

Molly Moments!

After a decade in Australia, in protest against the burning of Jandamarra O'Shane - which happened as a result of the rising hate engendered by One Nation and Pauline Hanson - Molly left that country to return to live in Fiji.

When I last back in Fiji I asked her if she regretted it - Fiji's wages being so considerably lower - and she said "Not for a single second. Here, at least five times a day, I see something or hear something that makes me feel something. There's always something that makes me laugh, or makes me cry, or makes me smile, or puts me in touch with my humanity. In Australia, I was lucky if I had one of these "Moments" in a month."

She's right. In Australia, probably as a consequence of the safety net of public services and welfare, or just the cushioning effect of relative wealth, you rarely get pulled out of yourself by something happening with or to strangers. One a month is probably being generous!

Hong Kong, however, is more like Fiji. Here, at least once a day, you see something or hear something that makes you feel something. I think I'll share the best of these with you.

We'll call the posts "Molly Moments" since it was Molly who first pointed out to me that these things are infinitely precious because they're life's true treasures.

So, to get us started:

MOLLY MOMENT # 1

We're walking through Wan Chai Markets and pass an elderly hunchback Chinese lady, hobbling along on her cane, singing away to herself. 

We stop dead! "Is she singing what I think she's singing?" I say to Keith. We listen:

Yup, she was! Not kidding, this is what she was singing:



Gorgeous, huh!

MOLLY MOMENT #2

Islama-chic!

Lady Southorn and ME!

Cool news. I'm truly thrilled and I'll go down later and take a photo so you can see for yourself.

What's happened is that a plaque has just gone up at Southorn Park saying that the land was a gift from Lady Southorn "for the children of Wan Chai".


If you're shrugging and saying "So what!" it means you've forgotten the story I told you over a year back; how I got all huffy when developers started talking about Southorn Park and "doing more with the land"?

Remember how I went to that public meeting about the proposal? I promised Keith I'd just go to watch but it started getting so creepy I couldn't help myself and so went all Xena and called the microphone over and told the mass-meeting "You have no right saying any of this. This land was a gift from Lady Southorn to the children of Wan Chai so they had somewhere to play with their feet on the earth and the sun over their heads. All this discussion is illegal and you should all stop it right now!"

And it happened! The meeting stopped dead! Wow, I finally felt I'd earned the right to be my mother's daughter.

Well, that's when I got pounced on by all the media and they all wanted to know all about Lady Southorn thinking maybe I could be her representative ... which, in a way, I was, if you think about it ... so I told them that she was the sister of Virginia Woolf's husband and was a famous writer in her own right. Incredibly, some of the journalists had actually heard of Virginia Woolf and asked me if Lady Southorn had been a member of the Bloomsbury Group and they so wanted me to say yes, I did. And then I compounded it by saying that the Bloomsbury Group had all chipped in to pay for the land and, boy, they were thrilled to bits ... even the ones who previously hadn't heard of the Bloomsbury Group.

Wow, the Bloomsbury Group were also active in HK! How many literary merit points does that earn us!!

Anyway, the plaque has gone up and now everyone knows so there won't be any more discussion about "doing more with the land".

See at the back there?
The bit with the trees?
That's the only part of the park
where children can play.
(Wow, this is an old photo.
See how the old buildings of
Wedding Card Street are still standing.)

All I need to do now is push for the MTR to tear down the buildings they've illegally placed on it ... see them on the left ... and Lady Southorn's legacy will be returned to the children of Wan Chai.

Such a pity the relentless football and basketball fixtures means they're never permitted to play anyplace other than that little bit there!


And just because it's interesting, here's a photo of Southorn Park back in the 1930s:

And here it is today: Note it's all about men playing soccer. Was then: is now!

"In a Mana of Speaking"

Last week, an Old Fiji Friend, Tony, sent me a poem he'd written about the fall-out in his life from growing up in Fiji; as one of "the children of paradise" he calls us! I posted it below.

In it, he doesn't do more than suggest a few possible reasons for why we're all kinda different from folk in the rest of the world - and he's right, we are - so I thought I'd cast my mind around our shared past and try to work out how and why we would be this way!

Here are my thoughts and I'd love other Kai Viti Loma to add to it:

Influence 1) We grew up messing around in boats. We did this from, gosh, the age of two or three? Very young, anyway! How many of us had our own little dingy with our own little one-stroke outboard motor, shared with siblings? Or our own little yacht? Remember our P-Class? I've never come across anyone anywhere else who's heard of P-Class yachts! Was it a Fiji-thing? Or, if we didn't have a shop-bought boat, we'd make our own little canoe out of a folded sheet of corrugated iron? Or a bilibili made from roped-up bamboo? So much fun! And we used to be out there on the sea or on rivers all day, everyday, messing about, always unsupervised ... except for the formal yacht races each Sunday at the Royal Suva Yacht Club, when we were forever giving the duty-boat adults a rough time.

Possible Fall-Out: we all share a confidence in our physical presence in the world. It's not exactly a fearlessness, although others may see it that way. It's more that we know our physical limits and what we can actually accomplish, and we do what we know we can without asking permission. Also, we have no expectation that we won't get hurt but know that getting hurt is just part of the process and so we mostly just shrug it off. And maybe we have a faster reaction time, and when something goes wrong, we probably know how to fix it. And we can usually work out how to rescue ourselves when we get in trouble.

Influence 2) We grew up diving on reefs with sharks and moray eels and other killer sea-life from a very early age. No adult supervision there either, although I remember dad used to always be near-by fishing off the boat, and he'd always come and get us if we saw an especially big shark that looked especially interested in us. Although I recall he never hurried!

Possible Fall-Out: these experiences would definitely make us different from everyone else, but how? Mmmm, maybe this explains why we all have a different alertness. Our eyes constantly move across scenes looking for things that may cause us harm. But we don't do it in a frightened panicky way. It's more just a cool-eyed assessment at all times and in all situations, except when we're comfortably on home ground.

Influence 3) Our parents were enormously admirable and busy folk who did great humanitarian or community-spirit things, which meant we were usually left behind with the house-girls. Gosh, there's nothing nicer than being looked after by an older Fijian women! That almost-preternatural calmness! Remember that? And all that deep-seated, to-the-core kindness? That goodness? That outright sensibleness? And remember those wise eyes and how it was like they could look into your soul and know exactly what you needed at any time?

Possible Fall-Out: Is it that we know how to access an inner peacefulness? Or that we all know the enormous pleasures of being at peace? Or being around people who are at peace? But what is definite is that we all love being around older Fijian women! And we always want to know what they think about things because, yes, they really are wise! To this day, I notice how they always know what really matters in every situation and what they think about things is always - always! - exactly the right way to think about things! (Ah, the stories I could tell you!)

Influence 4) Our housegirls told us Fijian stories and passed on Fijian wisdom, and so, through their wise direction and guidance, shaped us on so many levels into functional-Fijians! What Fijians are, we are! Kinda!

Possible Fall-Out: We read and judge people by their Mana! If you don't already know, this is a Pacific Island concept about the energy people give off; the belief that people carry their own history, their ancestors' history, their own deeds around in their energy. You can see it and you can very definitely feel it. And reading Mana is definitely a trait we Fiji-Folk all have in common, although we definitely, definitely can't do it as well as the Fijians can.

On this subject, let me tell you one story to illustrate: when we lived in Australia, I was telling our Fijian neighbour, Clara, how I couldn't stand the teenage boy who was briefly staying with us - we took in at-risk children for a while - because he had such bad energy.

"Be nice to him, Denise. His dad's in jail!'
"How do you know that?"
"You can see it. Just use your eyes."
"OK, Miss Smarty-pants - and know that I'll be checking up on this - you tell me what his dad in jail for?"
"Mmmm, from his Mana I'd say domestic violence. I think his dad stabbed his mum repeatedly in a fight."

And what do you know! I checked! Clara nailed it!

So, from that story, you can see for yourself that Fijians read Mana to astonishingly high degree, wayyyy better than anyone else can ever hope to do it, but, nonetheless we Fiji-Folk all read Mana. That means we don't judge or even notice what a person owns, we don't react to their status, we ignore their appearance: what we do see and judge people on is their Mana!

Influence 5) As Tony points out in his poem, we grew up surrounded by many different races all living in close quarters. We all played together from a young age and so ingrained into us is a knowledge of others' cultures. "A bride wears red!", "A bride is wrapped in tapa.", "A bride changes her clothes a dozen times during the wedding ceremony."; all are as fundamentally valid to us as "A bride wears white." Diwali and Ede, Chinese New Year, all are equally held along with Christmas and Easter because we celebrated all these along with everyone else ... although ... remember how much fun the Fijian contribution to those festivities always was: those bamboo cannons! That throwing flour and water over others! Remember how it would be dry by the time you got home and you'd have to scrub so hard to get it off? Yup, no matter what the festivity I'd usually end up playing with the Fijians. Fun, fun times!

Possible Fall-Out: Race doesn't faze us. We know and appreciate the deep underlying humanity of all people and that others think and feel the same things we do, only often expressed differently. This means we don't pussy-foot around the subject of race and talk about it frequently, often vigorously but never judgementally or assuming we're the ones in the right; we just see it as folks being different from other folks. And we have no expectation at any level that other folk should be like us. We also know that other races and other cultures are vigorous and unfragile, and that that's the way things should be. And we never ever would be apologists for our own race since we see ourselves as simply one race among many, all equally valid (although Banaban Island culture, mmmm!) and we all actually cringe when other western folk do this.

Influence 6) We frequently shared no language in common with the children we played with yet it never stopped us.

Possible Fall-Out: We all learned language wasn't important; just about everything can be conveyed in various forms of Meta-language! And I must say that nothing has stood me in better stead my whole life!

Influence 7) We grew up playing with Fijian kids which was definitely something different from playing with kids of other races. Fijians all possess that enormously adept physicality - probably as the result of at least three thousand years of breeding a race of warriors - and could always do everything and anything, usually on their first try. Oooh, that was annoying! But we would never let our side down and so would try anything and do anything, usually badly, in order to avoid being seen as "Savi and Vulaci!" (weak and white), which was the usual Fijian pronouncement on those new-comer western kids who weren't raised in Fiji!

Possible Fall-Out: Actually, I think this only left us with an enormous admiration for the Fijian people! Damn, they were so good at everything. Annoyingly so. The stories I could tell you!


So that's a start on my assessment on what we Fiji-Born, Fiji-Raised, Kai Viti Loma share in common and how and why we're kinda different from every one who wasn't lucky enough to be "Children in Paradise"!

Please feel free to add to it.

Influence 8) Keith points out that all of us tell stories! We all do, don't we! Guess that's another Fijian-thing we learned as children from when we went to stay with our housegirls at their village, sitting around the yaqona bowl with all the men-folk. Or just sitting on the laps of our housegirls! (Hey, remember how they always smelled of coconut mixed with mokasoi oil! Ylang Ylang, they call it in the west. Gosh, that was wonderful, that warm spicy smell, and to this day I always associate that aroma with a deep sense of peacefulness.)

Influence 9) Lyn sent the comment ... actually I'll post a copy of what she said up here:

"I think another thing we took away from our Fiji upbringing was a distaste and almost ennui for all things mediocre. Growing up in Fiji was almost an assault on the senses; sights, sounds, smells, tastes etc were so exaggerated and became an expectation and a comfort. I think it made us "passionate" about things as well as inquisitive and empathetic. It's almost as if we had been empowered rather than inhibited by our upbringing on our tiny little speck of an island and I know that, for me, "ordinariness" has always been hell boring!"

Theft Fantasies!

Got to tell you, yesterday at Immigration, during the thousand year wait to be interviewed for new visas, by chance I was sitting next to the sweetest young British guy and we got talking.

Turns out he's a fellow theft victim: one of us! His story goes that he's currently traveling around the world on his gap-year backpacking journey (I'm meeting lots of these folk these days, aren't I!) when he was robbed in Hong Kong; lost his entire backpack including all his tickets and money, credit cards and, yes, his passport.

And yes, he thought it was stolen by an Arab-looking guy ... which makes it three people including me who thinks they were robbed by Arabs/Pakistanis (and remember how the Redoubtable Walkers foiled an attempted robbery of Mrs Walker's purse by a young Pakistani-looking guy so let's make that FOUR) ... so, since I can't possibly be meeting ALL of the folk robbed by Islamic-types, there's obviously something afoot in Arab world that needs to be looked into BIGTIME!

Anyway, young British guy - I never got his name - said he'd known nothing but kindness from everyone since the robbery, so his experience wasn't anything like my awful one up in China, and that he'd been taken in by a kindly family who were paying for everything so it hadn't cost him much at all (Keith says this entire robbery-thing has cost us nearly HK$30,000 so far and that doesn't include the stuff that was actually stolen!)

But that isn't the part I wanted to talk about. What was really, really interesting was that we had so much in common in the "theft fantasy" department: we both had been doing lots of "god bothering" to get our belongings back, we both hate the idea of people tossing aside our special items as "valueless", AND we both shared this stupid idea that one day in the near future we'd be standing in line someplace and the person in front would give their name and it would be OURS! Yup, that we'd stand right behind our Identity Thief!

We then talked long and hard about what we'd do next.

And that's when we got very silly with it: both picking really ugly people around the room and going "That's you!" and ending up with the giggles. I know, I know, I'm far too old for this sort of childishness but it's the type of thing that happens when you have to wait a thousand years for an interview.


Actually, regarding standing in line behind someone who turns out to have your exact name has happened to Keith, although the context was different. Yup, when we lived in Townsville, Keith was standing in line for a renewal of his driver's license, when he heard the person in front of him give his name and it was all Keith's. Naturally Keith got all excited and, the minute the other guy was free, introduced himself ... only to have this barrage of hostility directed at him! Turns out the other K.W.R. had his wallet stolen a few years earlier and thought Keith was the identity thief ... and the sad part was that he wasn't interested in establishing the truth; just said lots of rude and threatening things and stormed off.

When Keith got home and told me about it, we both decided it was too mysterious to be ignored, so pulled out his family tree (thank you Helen for all the work you put into getting it together) and it turns out that a branch of Keith's family - a couple of his great great grandfather's children - had moved to the same town the OTHER K.W.R. had given as his address.

Ever since he'd seen his family tree, and realising there was an Australian branch of cousins who lived only several towns down the coast, he'd talked about getting in touch with them ... but after all that nastiness we decided if this ghastly OTHER K.W.R. guy was anything to go by that we really hadn't the least desire to meet them! Like, not EVER!

Update on the Robbery!

You know how I've been carrying around my copy of the Guangzhou police report? Although I had no idea what it said, I was thinking of it as something like a talisman against such a time as I'm arrested as a result of something criminal done by the person who'll end up being me when those Arab guys sell my identity off to someone felonious and evil?

Well, at Immigration yesterday (yes, it's more than a month later and I'm still putting together my documentation) (gosh, I detest those thieves!), I hand over a photocopy in order to explain why I need reissuing of all my visas, and the woman behind the desk reads it, gasps and says "You can't use this!"

She translates it for me: nasty desk sergeant has written that I reported a robbery to him and that Guangzhou police investigated and discovered nothing in it!

Yup, it basically says I lied! This is undeniably evil, isn't it! There was no investigation. We were told there would be no investigation. Yet, this is what the police report says! That they investigated and discovered it didn't happen!

Wait a second ... why is this the first time I've been told that this is what is says in this report? I used it all through my Travails in the China Official Labyrinth and no one said a word!

Maybe they're all used to it, know the police reports lie, and just know to read between the lines!

China! China! China! Dear oh dear! Our Northern Brethren sooo need to translate and print Rousseau's "Social Contract"! Things can't remain like this. It truly is an evil country, isn't it! I don't want to think this, but when they have officials who do things like this, and get away with it, I can't think of the place any other way!

What Kills Us This Week!

Ever since that visiting sociologist named the possible reason for HKers tendency to large-scale panic over stupid things as the result of a deeply ingrained biophobia, I'm no longer finding this tendency to Ahhh Threatdown! either funny or cute!

The latest has just made me cross. Two things:

1) Here in HK, we're on full Level 6 Pandemic Mode for H1N1. That's the highest the scale goes! Since no one is dying from this early strain of Swine Flu - folks are saying they've had colds that were worse - this really makes a mockery of Level 6, doesn't it! What happens when this strain morphs into the killer variety (my prediction is March next year!)? We'll have to call it Triple AAA Superplus Level 6!

But the thing that actually does worry me here is that Australia is currently developing the vaccines and they're breeding them in chicken eggs and since HK scientists have proven that Avian Flu gets into chicken eggs and no one in Oz is checking for it in the eggs they're using, I'm thinking that THIS is exactly how Avian Flu will breed with Swine Flu and thereby start this hideous killer pandemic everyone's talking about. You'll forgive me, won't you, if I choose NOT to get vaccinated.

I'm also hoping I catch this early strain because they're saying that folks who get it now will be naturally vaccinated against the killer strain ... so cough on me, everyone! Please!!!

2) Three girls were caught using ketamine at one of the local schools and HK again went crazy, and now they're introducing random drug testing at all the schools. It started out as "compulsory", but then Civil Libertarian Lawyers got on the case and said they legally couldn't, so now the schools are saying it'll be voluntary ... only they'll expel any student who doesn't!

Since HK Law is based on British Law, in which everyone is "assumed innocent until proven guilty" - and I will fight for this principle because I believe in it - you can see why I'm so cross about it! We obviously need a little more action by those nice Civil Libertarian Lawyers!

And I'm also worrying about the legality of accompanying a kid into the toilet to watch them pee into a cup! I'm a high school teacher myself and I know this is a real no no! Such a no no, it simply can't be done! So, mmmm, guess there's about to be a big market for piss in our fair city.

Was going to make a joke about how HK kiddies are big into ace-ing tests and how this one will be no different, but it's so obvious I'll let it pass!

So those are the two areas of stupidity that HK is currently all Ahhh Threatdown about!

But there's a real reason for panic in the background which everyone is ignoring ... possibly because it's something from the "too hard basket": HK police uncovered a possible Mainland Chinese plot to assassinate Martin Lee and Jimmy Lai.

If you don't already know, Martin Lee is like the Atticus Finch (the father in "To Kill a Mockingbird") of HK politics: a totally decent, honourable, moral man who works quietly behind the scenes for HK Democracy. Jimmy Lai is the more flamboyant publisher of "Apple Daily", the Chinese language pro-Democracy newspaper.

Guess Mainland China wants pay-back for our Tiannaman Square Massacre Vigil three weeks ago! That means my choice this week has to be:

THREATDOWN

Immature politics up North!

"Orbs"

You know about "orbs", right? If you don't, these are the strange round shapes that turn up on photographs.

Baby Jane is into them these days. There's a young environmental scientist recently come into her life who is studying them for some type of thesis. He was telling Baby Jane he thinks they're caused by the presence of radiation and, if he's right, could be a cheap way of "assaying", if that's what it called, for uranium ... so she took him "out bush" to where, according to local rumour, there's supposedly uranium deposits - won't tell you where, obviously - and they walked around photographing the site without seeing a single orb in any of the pictures ... and then, suddenly ...

Odd, huh!

I always thought these things were caused by mould inside the lens, but only the photographs taken in this immediate area produced these odd shapes. Off the area: no orbs; in this field: orbs!

What do you think? Young Environmental Scientist is onto something?

Scary Mary!

Loving this:



Amazing, huh!

Gosh, I do spend waayyy too much time in youtube, don't I!

Aussie Christine's Cuban Adventure

Aussie Christine has written up her Cuban holiday and you can find it for yourself right here:

http://cubausamarch2009.shutterfly.com/cuba

Don't you just LOVE the Cuban cars! Wow, I sooo want one.

And those gorgeous buildings! That architecture!!! You know, I think the best thing that could have happened to any country was to have been stuck behind The Iron Curtain since the 60s. So many stunning cities - yes, like Hong Kong - and places like Manchester in England - I saw during my childhood travels! So breathtaking in my memory, but when I look at what they have become today, it's heartbreaking!

Let's say this: all architecture since the 50s have been acts of pure vandalism!

I'm so sorry I didn't go to Cuba with Christine! But we will go! Keith has promised!

The Best Photo I've Ever Taken

I'm so thrilled with this photo I took yesterday at Cheung Chau. Isn't it just terrific. Not only is it a picture of the world's smallest fire engine, it's also very action-packed and evocative:


In fact, it's so good I'll show it to you twice.

Cheung Chau, HK

I really, really like Cheung Chau.

Astonishing! I didn't expect to!

All I really knew about the place was that it was famous for its buns ...

Cheung Chau buns.

... and its annual Bun Festival wherein all the young men - and increasingly women - of the town scramble up a tower of buns in order to grab the special one at the top.

When Fiji David suggested we go over yesterday for the day I didn't relish the idea because ... well, I hate to admit this, but I'm a little over Tanka Fishing Villages! Done it too often!

It's a thing you do in HK on weekends: catch a ferry over to yet another of HK's 260+ little islands, walk through a tiny Scottish-looking fishing village, stroll along the seafront promenade, visit the local Tin Hau temple - which usually contains a singular object, like a deformed stuffed fish in a glass case - walk over a hill to a little cove for a swim in summer or hike around the island if it's winter - and then select a seafood restaurant on the waterfront and spend the rest of the afternoon eating a delicious range of all sorts of fish, clams, lobsters, squid, and other less well known sealife (avoid the jellyfish. It even defeats the Cantonese to make it taste anything other than YUCK!!), watch the invariably wonderful sunset, then sit around drinking a bottle of wine and talking until it's time to catch the ferry back to Central.

For several years, this was a simply wonderful way to spend a day only ... I'm now, yes, a little over it ...

... so when Fiji David suggested we go to Cheung Chau yesterday to do all this, I was all sorts of "mmmmm!" It was only the prospect of their specially lovely company that made us agree.

But Cheung Chau is different:

It's less of a Tanka fishing village and more of a town, and it's so pretty ...


... with some gorgeous architecture ...

... a beautiful temple ...

... fabulous beaches ...

... and has stunning views ...

Very like Suva Harbour or Cairns!

... and there's so much to do and see and quite a bit to buy ...

Wholesale incense.

... and the row of seafood restaurants along the waterfront has wonderful food that is so much cheaper than elsewhere ...


... all freshly caught by these guys:

OK, liked this photo so much
I just wanted to include it.

Actually, the fish comes from these guys!

A flotilla of deep sea fishing boats.

Although I'm sure a lot from these small-scale Tanka fishermen!

The dingys to take
Tanka out to their sampans.

Hey, we actually ate squilla. Know them? They're these sea-creature-things that look like huge cockroaches - no one thanked me for that description while we were eating - only with knife-like talons at the front and back. They used to be all over the reef by the shore in Deuba but I had no idea they'd be so delicious; cooked in oil with garlic and little shreds of lemon grass. Yummy! I've only ever had my hand sliced open by them before, so yeah! Revenge!

Oh, have to tell you because it's so odd; there's so much going down in Cheung Chau: disaster-type things; like, all day there was this constant police action ...


... ambulance action ...

and rescue helicopter action ...

... and we saw the convoy of fabulously tiny firetrucks, sirens blaring ...


... on four different occasions. Fiji David said it also happened another time he came as well. Curious, huh! Aging population? Dare-devil population? Shonky electrical wiring? Old woks that explode while cooking?

But you want facts and figures not speculation:

Like on other Tanka islands, only rescue vehicles are allowed on their tiny roads so you have to hire bikes or rickshaws or walk to get around. But that's part of the fun.

Anyway, the Ferry costs HK$22.50 each way. Bike hire: not sure, but it's only really pocket change.

So, there you go. If you're the more jaded type of HK resident, Cheung Chau is the place for you, even when they aren't having their annual Bun Festival.

Na Vosa Kai Loma

A Old Fiji Friend, Tony Snowsil, sent me this poem in which he tries to explain what it means to have grown up in Fiji. He nails it in this, although there's more he doesn't quite reach. I'd try only ... I don't think I can. Let's just say it's inexplicable and indefinable. All I can say is that there is NOTHING more wonderful than growing up in Fiji, and it's something I would wish on everyone.

OUR FIJIAN AFFINITY.


Yes, we have a great affinity we of Viti, of Fiji.
An affinity that others cannot comprehend.
An affinity others do not share with their friends, new and of long ago.
An affinity which we Kai Viti’s can re-establish in a moment
despite years of separation.
An affinity that surprises others because men can gently touch
and hold hands with fellow men , or women
as a sincere expression of affection.


This mysterious affinity we possess has to do with-
being comfortable in the company of fellow Fijians.
knowing that such friends come from similar backgrounds
that have been molded by our similar childhood experiences.
knowing that these friends do not seek to categorize you
because they already knew you, or, of you,
and maybe, but not necessarily, your family.
something akin to a blood relationship
- a family bond -
a kinship
which allowed for freedom of thought.
knowing that one would not be judged forever
on what one thought and spoke about on a particular day.
being compassionate and sensitive to each others needs and aspirations,
a deep-felt yearning to be with each other,
to communicate with each other,
to affectionately touch and embrace each other.

This affinity causes us a relentless pain deep in our chests, in our hearts
when we cannot do these things.

Yet, this affinity, which is so difficult to define
also involves a certain “Mana”
derived from our Fijian influenced lifestyle
of our early association or upbringing-
the mixing of races in a confined area-
similar community interests as youngsters-
a relationship of shared understanding, and
within certain confines, trust and understanding between
people and peoples
who were children together in Paradise.
This Mana is a relationship of affinity or harmony
between kin where whatever affects one, affects the other.
This Mana/Affinity is a natural rapport, resonance, and sympathy
of feeling,
all working together to affect our kinship.
We are kin, matagali.
Our village lands are the Fiji Islands.

So it is that our Mana goes beyond our conscious understanding.
Our Mana –
binds us together as we have a sub-conscious conceit or pride
and an unconscious sense of belonging to each other.
allows us to give off an unconscious positive influence
upon our fellow Fijians
and provides us with a certain “magic” between us all.
provides us with a mutual sense of
prestige, power, pride, identity
and a sense of “one spirit”
because we are of similar nature, upbringing.
is a spiritual power or magical energy
and a force which works better
when we Kai Viti’s are together,
communicate or reminisce.
provides us with a self-esteem
which few outsiders can comprehend.
has given us a dignity,
instilled by our Fijian upbringing,
to which,
we as Kai Viti’s,
must not only aspire, but achieve,
to find fulfillment in life.

However, above all, our affinity and our Mana allow us
to laugh at each other and laugh with each other
and to express deep personal thoughts to each other without
fear of being unfairly judged
for what we say and feel.
Our affinity allows us to
reminisce and comprehensively communicate with
each other devoid of fear
of feeling awkward or misunderstood.
We are one tribe/matagali
married in a harmonious relationship when it
comes to communication between each of us.

Interestingly, often we cannot successfully
live with each other in marriage.


Our affinity allows us to express our togetherness;
hold hands in friendship, touch sensitively and affectionately,
be we male and male, or, male and female;
to express our deep felt emotions together, and,
importantly, to cry unashamedly together;
to truly feel each others losses and happiness.
And we need each other, our association our time together to reminisce
to help us find contentment in our lives.


And we do cry together,
not always with tears
but deep in our self, in our hearts where the pain is greatest.
And it is the same for males and females.
And the pain can destroy us.


Our parting is best summed up
by saying one word which I leave to you
to translate because I can find no English words which
fully convey the full sense of emotions
this single word expresses.
Like Isa Lei this word has boundless meanings.
Personal meanings to each of us.
Meanings which our native land,
Fiji,
has instilled in and upon us,
We of Viti…
the Mana of Viti
being within us helping us
to understand this single word and its depth of meaning.
A word filled with joy and longing for an ongoing
friendship which we cannot ignore especially once it has been
re-kindled after many years of our being separated.

And that word being
“Lolomas”

Tony Snowsill


The words of Kai Viti.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“As a man thinks in his heart so he is”. R.E. Burns.

Me and Switzerland!

Emue asked if I've ever been to Switzerland and the answer is yes, once, and it is a country I detest before any other and is totally on my "To Be Boycotted For All Time!" list!

What happened to me in Switzerland to make me hate it so adamantly? It's a horrible story.

Back in 1970 when Fiji first got Independence, I was so thrilled and proud of my country I took out a Fiji passport.

Shortly afterwards, when we were in Europe, we caught the overnight train from Milan to Paris, which, as you know, crosses through Switzerland.

On this overnight train, you hand in your passport before you go to bed so the wagon lit conductor can do your border formalities for you, so that's what I did. But then, in the middle of the night, I get dragged from the train at the Swizz border. Honestly! I'm eleven years old and these Bastard-Officials drag me from a warm bed and off the train.

Turns out, back in 1970, the Swizz hadn't let anyone know they recognised Fiji as a country so I wasn't allowed to pass through.

So there I am, standing on the platform wearing nothing but pink cotton baby-doll pajamas, it's the middle of winter, there's snow all around, I'm not wearing shoes, the winds are Arctic-cold, so-brutal and to-the-bone-chilling ... and they tell the train it can go.

They were going to get the train leave without me. Can you believe it? I still can't!

I remember thinking "This can't happen. No one acts like this. I want to wake up now." because it was a genuine nightmare.

Luckily, the sweet elderly Italian wagon-lit conductor was sane so raced onto the train and woke my dad, who came out, rightly furious! Boy, did he blast the living hell out of them! Called them all sorts of names, like Nazis, and Insane! And then he forced them to ring someplace United Nation-ish and spoke to them, told them what had happened and made them tell these Bastard-Officials that Fiji was indeed a Nation and one that was recognised by Switzerland too, and then shouted at them that they bloody well should update their records more often ... called them Insane Nazis several more times, made them apologise to me, and then took me back onto the train.

I rarely got on with my father but at times like this, when he used his powers for good, boy-oh-boy, he was magnificent and I loved him so very, very much!

And the aftermath of all this was I lost my core temperature and simply couldn't cope with rest of this European winter. It should have been a wonderful holiday, but I just sat in hotel room after hotel room, in all these wonderful cities, still chilled-to-the-bone, shivering and crying!

Unforgiveable, yes! Switzerland sooo owes me a trip through Europe!

And I'm sure you understand why, to this day, I cheer whenever stuff comes out about how the Swizz weren't neutral at all during WWII since they were all secretly Nazi supporters. That's definitely the face Switzerland showed me that night and so I simply refuse to return!

So, Emue, that's my Switzerland story!

Letter from Europe

Found this letter from Emue about her holiday in Europe. Meant to post it ages ago. But, better late then never:


You been to Switzerland and Germany?

Switzerland is undoubtedly a very beautiful and peaceful country. Very high standard of life. But really --- too high. Things are crazily expensive. You can never have a HK$ 25-40 proper lunch there. For a proper lunch, you have to pay HK$150 and the food is nothing extraordinary!! We had a Thai curry dinner at Zurich and got the same thing we always have in HK but ended up paying HK$400 instead of HK$150, which is the amount we always pay at the Foreign Correspondent's Club. Crazy!! And a Filet-O-Fish burger at McDonalds is four times the price it is in HK!!! Crazy!!!!!

And the taxi fares!!! Traveling by taxi is a luxury there. Just like the distance between Central and Wanchai, you will lose an arm and leg to afford the price.

Michael had to work for the first three days so I toured around Lausanne on my own. It's a very beautiful little city indeed! And, compared to the French, the Swiss are much nicer. Remember how, when we went to France two years ago, we came to hate the French because their manners sucked and they were all arrogant bastards. In Lausanne, they aren't like that at all. Swizz people have good manners, enjoy life and the pace of life compared to HK is entirely different. While they relax, we always rush.

The weather sucks however. I was also really lucky becasue I went to see the lake on the only sunny and warm day the whole time. :-)

Then, after Michael's business was over, we went to Zurich. A busy and gorgeous city but we came at the wrong time because it was completely overwhelmed with Euro 2008 fever!! Fans all over Europe could be found at the stadium and they raised the roof there! We were told that most of the hotels have been fully booked. But the weather was quite terrible. Raining most of the time and SO COLD to me. You can't make me believe that it's SUMMER when the temperature is around 14C.

After Zurich, we went to Germany and headed to Mosbach. I was very excited to go see this little town for three reasons:

1) It's Michael's hometown. He's born and rasied there. I've long wanted to see what it looks like.
2) I longed to see Michael's mum again. She is indeed a very nice and kind and motherly lady. A second mum to me. Everytime she phones Michael and asks about me I really feel very warm inside. Was very moved when I received her call on my birthday.
3) You know Michael's dad passed away more than 20 years ago in a car accident. I have always wanted to visit his dad's grave. It's a silent respect to the dead though he never knew me.

So there we were, in Mosbach finally!! Received a big hug and bunch of flowers from Michael's parents at the train station. Michael pointed where the graveyard was and I was really surprised. Do you know that Chinese do not like to live close to places like graveyards? We believe that it will bring bad luck or feel uneasy with the kinda haunted place. Well, I could not believe the graveyard was just a 30 seconds walk from the train station and only 2 minutes walk from Michael's home!! I did not have any uneasy feeling but it's an eye-opening experience having such a big cultural difference.

We spent a week there. Every day we drove mum to her workplace and then we used her car to tour around.

Of all the places I saw, the one I loved most was Heidelberg!! I fell in LOVE with Heidelberg. It has classic beauty. Old but absolutely beautiful. Perfect. And there's a university there and really enjoyed seeing young people enriching the life of this city. We went to visit the ruins of a castle there. Heidelberg is the must-go city in Germany. Most of the time we went the sauna and spa there. Very relaxing and and area is sooo big. Everybody has to be naked in there and I think that's why Michael likes this place soo much :-)

Ate a lof of homegrown berries. Maybe nothing special to you but it's the very first time I got to eat homegrown fruits!

Thanks so much, Emue, for letting me post this! Lovely letter and I now have Heidelberg on my Must-See list.

"Idi Idi Idi Amin"

I just LOVE youtube. You will never guess what I've just come across! Another smash hit from Radio Fiji One in the 1970s.

Remember this one, Fiji Folk?




Total blast, huh!!!

Shoe Shopping in Guangzhou

I'm sorry, I have no photos to go with this post. My camera was stolen. Nonetheless ...

The Shoe District of Guangzhou is somewhere along Zhanxi Road, although I cannot say which suburb of this giant mega-city that's in. A taxi driver should know, especially if you get someone to write the calligraphy (Chinese writing) for "Zhanxi Road Shoe Wholesale District" beforehand.

Like Handbag World in Jiefang North Road ...



(Although this is Handbag Heaven, the layout of shops is almost the same)

... the shoe wholesale district consists of several giant buildings filled with aisle after aisle of untold numbers of tiny shops all dedicated to shoes. Fabulous shoes! And the biggest of all these buildings is Huan Qui Shoe City; the only one I went into. It would take more than a week to do them all.

(I took footage of Huan Qui with my nifty little movie camera and since that wasn't stolen - being in my tote - I will eventually download image into here ... when I finally figure out how to download film footage onto this computer.)

However, I do have to warn you, although this should be Heaven on Earth, if you're shopping for yourself it actually isn't worth going to all the trouble of finding the place - except for the prices which are "rock bottom then dig" - because these giant megastores are mainly designed to hold zillions of little showrooms for wholesalers and not regular shoppers. Shops divvy up their wares into "Sample" and "Stock" - and, yes, they use the English words - and only "stock" is for direct-to-public sale. "Sample" can only be ordered in lots of 20 or more.

And you should know that hardly anyone carries "Stock". Oh, and that if they do have "stock" they put them on trestle tables outside their showrooms, all blocking the already narrow aisles.

So, not a great deal of choice, although, well, there was one pair of boots that were so very gorgeous and the price for 20 was about what you'd regularly pay for a single pair, so I said yes, and began ordering the colours I wanted ... but everyone's going "Mo! Mo!" and it turns out that you have to order 20 identical pairs, and, despite rationalising long and hard, in the end I simply couldn't justify it.

Also you need to know that very little is "Stock" and also that "Stock" is never in the same league as "Sample" as the former seems to be the samples they don't want anymore because no one wanted to order them, mostly with good reason. Although ...

Insider tip: when you see shoes you totally love, point and say "Stock?". Although the answer is almost always "Sample!", occasionally, if you look really pitiful and say "Mo, mo!" they will sell them to you, but only if they have more than one pair in stock.

Nonetheless I got six pairs that were absolutely fabulous, although only one pair I think I'll actually wear. The others? Mmmmm, so unbelievably gorgeous I couldn't not have them, even though I can't see I'll ever have an opportunity to wear them.

And the very best parts of Huan Qui Shoe City?

1) All the sales assistance wear the most fabulous shoes. Like, seriously SERIOUSLY fabulous! Every pair everyone's wearing you just want to rip off their feet. Except, well, the younger girls all seem to currently wear theirs in two different colourways. Yup, one shoe in, say, green and the other in maybe red or black or pink. Could just be a passing fad but ... Show offs!

2) On the 5th floor, right in the heart of Huan Qui, there's a really nice cafe where they let you smoke. It's run by a multi-lingual French girl who's very sweet and they have lots of huge comfy armchairs and make a really fine pot of English tea. And the really ironic part of this is I left all my belongings in here when I went off to find a loo, and they were all exactly where I left them when I came back. It was later on in Starbucks where I was being so careful that I was robbed.

So that's Huan Qui Shoe City. If you own a shoe shop I'd recommend it very highly, but if, like me, you're shopping for yourself ... give it a miss!

Black Rose!

Yeah, that's the problem with youtube: you go in to look for something and end up spending all day in there.

Today, it's been a day-long haul of tramping through the latest Fijian music.

Started to worry me how "American Street Gang Cred" Fijian band "Black Rose" was becoming. Like, check out this:




Kinda a little bit worry, huh?

And then I found another new song ...



Nah, nothing to worry about! These guys really "rock their roots" and that's the most any of us can ever hope for.

It's a Mana thing!

What Kills Us This Week! Explained!

There's a sociologist in HK at the moment trying to discover exactly why Hong Kongers have this marked tendency to THREATDOWN!! That is, as you know, the tendency to instantly panic over the smallest thing!

What he's discovered so far is that two out of five folk are deeply Biophobic! Like, deeply, deeply scared of Nature. Trees terrify them, being off the beaten track frightens them, and even the thought of getting mud on themselves fills them with anguish and they instantly break down into tears.

Two out of five? In a population of 7 million, that's ... what? You do the maths, but I know that's over 2 million people out there who are These Sorts of People.

You'll recall that Lady Southorn predicted it: she said, back in the 1930s, that nothing good would come from raising children in high apartment blocks away from Nature and that's why she bought three city blocks in Wan Chai to build Southorn Playground ...


... so the children of Wan Chai could play with their feet on mud. But, as you can see, the authorities instantly paved over the ground, so no doubt there was already a Cult of Biophobia already existing back in the 1930s.

Let me tell you two quick stories, although neither are set in HK:

1) When I was at university in Australia, back in the 80s, I was walking along the side of Brisbane River with my friend Teri when her cap blew off and landed on the mud flats below. She loved that cap and was looking distressed, so "Come on" I said, kicking off my shoes and rolling up my jeans. I slipped over the wall, down onto the mud, and walked over to the cap - all that delicious squelching with each step - picked it up and started to walk back. That's when I noticed Teri had joined me on the mud but had only taken a single step. She was standing there frozen with tears streaming down her face.

"What's the matter?"
"I've got mud on my feet!"
"There's a tap right over there in the park."
"No, you don't get it. I've got mud on my feet!"
"It washes off!"
"No. It's mud. It's on my feet!"
"And ...?"

But, alas, she couldn't explain. I didn't get it either. Here she is, totally amidst "A dog ate my baby!" level breakdown, deeply distressed and acting like she'd been deeply violated ... and it was over MUD ON HER FEET! It washes off, you know! I thought it was the oddest thing I'd ever come across and wondered why we'd become friends in the first place.

2) When I was about ten, I was walking along the waterfront of Suva Harbour from the Civic Centre to the bus stop.

This particular stretch of 
Suva waterfront.

Photo stolen from Jon

It was about fifteen minutes after a storm ended and the sky was still gunmetal grey and the sea was still choppy. Walking along, I noted there was a cruise ship in port - P&O's Canberra - and tourists were only just coming ashore, obviously staying aboard to avoid the storm.

I'd been rehearsing for some ballet-thing, and had thrown my dress on over my leotard and stockings and was wearing my beautiful brand-new cork-soled platform shoes; the first pair ever in Fiji, and I was just so proud of them.

Anyway, trying to avoid puddles because I'd been told the cork would disintegrate if it got wet, I noticed a tourist boy about my age standing on the sea wall with all the British adults around saying "Get down off there, Anthony. It's dangerous."

Yup! Eye-rolling stupidity! And then, suddenly and inexplicably, Anthony falls off the wall and into the water!

The tide was only half-in which meant the water was only waist-deep, and there was a set of stairs only three paces away, so he was in absolutely no danger whatsoever: he just had to stand up and walk to the steps.

But these British tourists had started to scream hysterically. Huh? I was about to walk past these ridiculous folk, snorting contemptuously, when I realised Anthony was about to drown. No, I'm serious. Here he is, in no danger whatsoever, and he's in the water flailing around in a panic and these adults are flaming his fear with all their ridiculous hysterical panicking, and, yes, he's about to DIE!

But I'm wearing my new cork shoes! I cleaned windows for two months to pay for them!

I keep waiting for one of the adults to pull themselves together enough to do something but they are completely gone; completely fallen apart, so I actually think for a moment that they're all so stupid they deserve this, before - yeah! yeah! - thinking I should save my shoes by kicking them off, but ... there's broken bottles down there and I'll get cut feet and, worse, ruin my stockings ... so I go down the steps, lower myself into the water, walk the three steps to Anthony, grab him by the hair - I could have grabbed his shirt but I was so angry - and drag him back to the steps.

Then all these ridiculous adults are crying all over me and calling me a hero and I can feel my cork heels crushing under my feet and I'm just so furious and thinking "Less of this hero nonsense; more of bringing out cheque-books and paying for my destroyed shoes." but they were too stupid and ridiculous to even think of it.

And then, when I got home I got in trouble for ruining my shoes and stockings, and I just wished I'd left Anthony to get his come-uppance, the ridiculous boy; my own age and unable to even save himself when he wasn't even in any danger whatsoever.


Anyway, those two stories are increasingly coming to mind and what fills me with such horror is that THESE are the exact same folk who people HK! And instead of being treated with the derision and contempt such stupidity richly deserves, they are actually the folk who RUN HK; yes, these ridiculous folk who fall apart when they touch mud, AND who panic when there's absolutely no reason to; who just stop thinking in the face of the tiniest hint of a crisis!

No wonder we're all on the verge of losing outdoor dining! Gosh, they make me so cross! And here's the petition for us to sign to attempt stopping this ridiculousness from happening:

So that's my choice for this week:

THREATDOWN

Biophobes running a country!

HK Redux!

You'll never guess what happened yesterday!

Keith was out at lunch at Deli France with The Redoubtable Walkers, and they were actually in the middle of talking about my robbery when they noticed Mrs Walker's bag slowly inching along the ground. Dave immediately grabbed it and the young Pakistani-looking guy, with a black open backpack, at the next table, instantly ran off.

Talk about a graphic illustration, huh!

For All Fiji Folk!

You will never believe what's just gone up on youtube? The single song the Rest-of-Fiji hated above any other; the song we had to listen to for over 30 years; the very song that summed up exactly why we all hated it so much when Radio Fiji One merged with Radio Fiji Three; the song we all detested so much every one of us knew all the words and sang it whenever anyone said anything good about the merger!

Here it is, Mai Kai Loma! THE WORST SONG IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!



All we have to find now is that Hindi song about the dove on the washing line being killed in a hurricane!

Masais!

In between "travailing within the HK labyrinth" trying to replace documents - and fuming that any thief would be so inconsiderate as to thrust someone into this position - I'm currently "doing a Denise" and trying to discover if all Masai have freakishly long arms.

Here's the closest thing I can find:




I realise that, thanks to their clothing, it's hard to answer this question, but, from the glimpses of arms you DO get, I'd say ... I couldn't say for sure but mostly NO!