6 Million Others - Happiness

I watched this program on one of the English TV Channels.

6 Million Others is a simple yet profound project where the people around the world are interviewed on simple topics like happiness, love, family.

One of the clips about happiness, the woman said "I am happy because I have water." Are you happy? Why? And why not?

You can watch the testimonials on the website as well. It can make you rethink your life.

Mimosa

One thing we see less and less in Hong Kong, apart from the old buildings (as from my previous post), is -- MIMOSA!

I don't know if you feel the same way, when I was a kid, I used to see mimosa everywhere in parks, along the pavement, even in urban areas! My grandmother used to bring me to a park near my kindergarten quite often after school, and I could find mimosa along the way.

Some people told me mimosa can only survive in places with air quality that is not bad. I guess that is why I don't see mimosa all that much now.



I thought this wasn't mimosa when I first saw it, I was fooled too many times by plants that looked like mimosa but wasn't, but it really was, and there were lots of them nearby!!

This picture was taken in Yuen Long last month, just wondering when mimosa will disappear from the New Territories as well...

Edited Kowloon City Photos

If you want some photos like this, check this out. (I found this out from a colleague!)

See the original from my previous post.

Kowloon City Snapshots

I went to this shop quite frequently when I was a kid, but I have never noticed the star on the top of the building, nor the balconies.





I think if this building can be renovated, it can be a local attraction.





I don't see buildings like this with pillars in front much these days.



These snakes shops are hard to find now.

Carbon offset

I'm surprised that so many people has never heard of carbon offset or has never thought about the damage we did when we flew with planes.

Whatever you do to save the planet, with one long haul flight, the amount of damage you did could be much more than what you did to save it in a year,

Last time, when I went to Australia, I was too busy (in studying) to search for carbon offset options, even though I wanted to do it.

Some of the airlines allows you to buy carbon offsets, that is to give money to do things like plant more trees/support renewable energy to compensate for the carbon dioxide you produced with whatever you did, like flying, or driving.

Examples can be found here.

I have tried searching for a similar organisation in Hong Kong, but couldn't find one. hmm... maybe I should just try to buy carbon offset from overseas companies/organisations, or maybe I should just donate more money to environmental organisations??

(From Carbon Catalog, I can only find one in Israel and one in Japan in the whole Asia!!!)

And I started searching for environmental organisations in Hong Kong, this is the most comprehensive list I found.

WWF is using too much money for administration, more than 20% on admin, membership management, promotion, etc!!!

Greenpeace, is it too aggressive at times? A bit like LSD on environment instead of politics?

The others, I don't really care much about... hmm... Anyone with any good suggestions?

(btw, you can calculate your carbon footprint here.)

Legco Election Day- Observations

1. Volunteers

I ran into a group of DAB and FTU volunteers immediately after leaving home today very early this morning. Then as I walked towards the polling station, there are more and more DAB/FTU people, I just saw small groups of Civic Party/Democratic Part/LSD volunteers at the exit of the MTR station, and then more FTU/DAB and FTU/DAB people all around.

From this you can see why Beijing Olympics got so many volunteers =P, these pro-China groups have the tendency to draw more volunteers.

What I don't understand is why some relatively young people (I think they look like university students) are working for DAB/FTU!!!! Unlikely to be forced by parents at that age... Maybe easier to get promoted in these parties? coz a lot less young people? hmm...

2. District Councillor

My district councillor was/?is from the FTU (I did not vote for him!), but this time he supported the DAB... why did he betrayed the FTU? More financial support? I really don't like him.

3. Leung Mei Fun

The same thing happened like last week, Leung sent someone to distribute pamphlets right outside my church (which is in the Kln West District), and according to some of my friends, she got 3 different versions of pamphlets for DAB/church/?general? not sure.

Let's see her supporters. Really got to say "king", she could find so many "star" pastors/leaders in the HK Protestant Circle to support her.





One of the supporters gave the sermon today in my church, I guess after what happened to So Wing Chi, NO ONE dare to say a thing about the election =P haha!! So nothing at all about the election.

Some details about her background and how So supported her and why can be read here. Ignore the Bible/theology stuff, I think parts of it are wrong.

Another interesting post on separation of church and government.

4. Functional constituency

If you're a voter of the functional constituency, a letter representing the group you belonged to will be there on the sheet of paper they have in the polling station.

As they were searching for my name on the list, I noted there are like just 2-3 people with letters in front of their names on each page (like more than 40 names/page I think, not sure because I didn't count). Really small circle election. And the people with ID numbers around me are all young people already, if you go to the elderly group, I bet there might not be a single functional constituency voter in the whole pile of papers.

Legco Election- Change of Mind? (2)

I can't decide who to vote for even this morning, see previous post for detail about why.

I got up early in order to vote before going to church, and I went to the 2 final candidates' website to read their platform of election. It's a lot more detailed on their website than on those pamphlets I got!

Andrew To

Alan Leong

Then I checked the part on environmental protection, since this is the part I can't find in any pamphlets/debates. And all the other poverty reduction/economy/education/democracy stuff are pretty much the same.

One candidate got this:
環境

1. 空氣污染(施政報告2.5.15)
1. 引入再生能源，要求發電廠加設除硫設備
2. 政府應與珠江三角洲地區政府合作，解決廢氣南下的問題，以減輕本地空氣污染
3. 早日立法規管停車熄匙
2. 噪音問題
1. 改善航機噪音及道路噪音問題
3. 固體廢料問題(施政報告2.5.15)
1. 制訂固體廢物處理政策
2. 加強監管鄉效地區土地利用，防止荒廢農田被用作堆填區
3. 推動政府引入新技術，透過循環再造的方法處理有機廢物
4. 生態環境(施政報告2.5.16)
1. 城市規劃應重視自然保育
2. 全面綠化山坡山脊及斜坡
3. 爭取種植樹木應以本地品種優先

Another this:
採取世衛組織的空氣標準，改善本港空氣質素；立法管制屏風樓，評估新建樓宇對附近環境的影響；增加綠化和休憩空間。

I know it doesn't mean anything what they promised... but if they didn't even mention it in the platform of election, then it's unlikely to get done... hmm...

Legco Election- Change of Mind?

I have made up my mind who to vote for very early on... It's just that when I read all these controversies, whether you should vote for who you want most, or whether you should try to vote for some candidates who may get the seat (if you are sure that the person you wanted to vote for is gonna get the seat)...

There are 6 lists in my district, but only 4 seats. I won't vote for the DAB or the Federation of Trade Unions for sure =P I don't like the Democratic Party all that much, they have two lists. And then there's a list with the LSD (I can't believe it actually got the short form called LSD! I just found their English name from the web!) And one with the Civic Party.

I want the DAB list out for sure. Though I won't vote for Chan Yuen Han, I admire her for leaving the DAB, and stood apart from them on certain issues. =P

Actually the votes of two last democrat lists (according to the polls) combined together should be similar to that of the DAB! Should I change in the last minute and who should I vote for if I decide to change?

The last two lists are both selling their young and energetic image. Let's take a look.

There is this "boring egg" candidate.



And this is NOT my hands being shaky! This is actually the pamphlet I received in mail!



I really can't see why I should vote for a "boring egg" candidate, I can't even imagine why he would call himself a "boring egg"!!!

Then the second possibility from the LSD. His pamphlet is the best among all I have received! And the image is real good.









He looks professional, young and energetic, really like the kind who will fight for the people. And there's tear-jerking story from his wife, wow!



The only problem with the list is the LSD... I really don't like the way they try to get things done.

Or is the crazy way to do things the way real revolutionaries do? or maybe like what Jesus did when he turned all the tables in the Temple =P?

Google Chrome

Google has launched its own web browser in an attempt to get the market share of Internet Explorer =P, but I don't know... I think most of the people who don't like IE changed to Firefox already, so don't know how many people are going to try. =P

According to a newspaper article I read, it's extremely fast... Anyone tried it?

Here're the 10 features of Google Chrome:


According to this video, really seemed faster...

Legco Election- Vote Green??

My previous post on Legco election is partly triggered by a survey of the candidates on their view on homosexuality. Frankly, I am not that much concerned about homosexuality =P.

Actually Greenpeace has done a survey on the views of the candidates on environmental protection.

The results are here. (Chinese only)

hmm... the candidates I want to vote did not respond... hmm...