Obama Speech 4 Nov

If you haven't heard it yet (I watched this live), you have to watch this. The guy is so charismatic. It is so moving, makes you feel like he's really gonna change America. I am not sure if he can. I guess the first step of doing anything is to have a dream.

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?

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...

Legco Election

Legco election will be held next Sunday. This year's election is special in a way that it is so near the Beijing Olympics. I am the kind of person who is used to watching most of the debates, reading the pamphlets, gathering some information before I cast my vote. This year, it is difficult.

Most of the people I know are going to vote for the Civic Party. I am no exception. (I still haven't made my decision on my functional constituency vote yet.)

Most of the candidates concentrated on universal suffrage and poverty in the debates. Poverty is a very important issue, I agree. Universal suffrage is also important.

What about the environment? Some of them do have a few suggestions like stop building "barrier buildings" (not sure of the term in English).

Even if I wanna vote green, I don't know how to choose.

Escape from Iran

I don't know how much of this news report is true or if it is propaganda for the US against Iran...

It's just shocking to read this story about a guy who's only slightly older than me. And the story about how he survived all these tortures in prison and escaped to America is stunning.

I have some questions about the story though. The guy could leave the prison for exam for a degree and escaped with a video camera, Dell laptop and withdrew cash from an ATM machine???!!! Is this real??? I don't understand how this can happen...

The last part of the report sounds like propaganda, if not for the last paragraph.

When his flight from Vienna landed at Dulles Airport near Washington in late June, Batebi was astonished to see that the airport worker waving the jet into the gate was a Muslim woman wearing a tight head scarf.

Batebi was enthralled, sensing a casual tolerance that was exactly what he had longed for in his own country. "It seems to me that people here are free to live their lives, as long as they do no harm to anyone else," he said.

There are more distinguished figures in the Iranian opposition - people who have spent decades in the struggle - as Batebi is quick to acknowledge. But he is discovering that few are so recognizable. For the Iranian diaspora, The Economist's 1999 photo remains an iconic image.

Batebi was a little nonplussed, Mazahery said, when an Iranian-American woman outside a Washington grocery store walked past him a few days ago, did a double take and called out his name. When he said that, yes, he was Batebi, the long-imprisoned dissident, she burst into tears.

Zahir Janmohamed of Amnesty International USA called Batebi "grounded and humble" about his role.

......

Batebi speaks of working from afar for peaceful change in Iran. He recoils when asked about the possibility of U.S. military action against Iran, saying that if the United States attacked, "I might go back and fight for my country myself."

I don't doubt that parts of the report must be true, and it makes me treasure the freedom I have even more.

Political Correctness?? Or what??

I've been sponsoring a child in Sri Lanka for a few years through World Vision. They send us blank Christmas cards every year, so that we can write something for the kids.

I was really disappointed when a woman called me today and told me what I wrote on the card had to be deleted. Guess what I have written down??

"May God Bless You."

I told her I wrote this in the card EVERY YEAR. She didn't seem to be sure how to answer my question, and just said the condition in Sri Lanka have changed. I don't know a lot about Sri Lanka apart from the tsunami a few years ago and Tamil Tiger, so I couldn't argue with her, and I am sure she was under some order from above.

I seemed to remember Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country, if it were someplace like Iraq, or any Muslim country, I think I would understand this. It's Buddhism!! And Buddhists ,in my impression, are generally more tolerant to other religions, and honestly the term "God" can be interpreted differently by different people.

I did an internet search, and found that I am right. (I copied this from the Sri Lanka tourism site.)
Sri Lanka is a multi-religious society. Though Buddhism is the major religion, other religions such as Hinduism, Christianity and Islam are also followed.
Of course, I don't know the current condition in Sri Lanka, it could be really volatile.

I just can't help wondering if this is some kind of an attempt of political correctness. Just like what they're trying to do in the Western countries, avoid the term "Christmas", and use the word "holidays" instead... it's really stupid to send a Christmas card and avoid the term "Christmas" like plague...

World Vision is a CHRISTIAN organisation... I think I have expected more from them. While I don't think it is a good idea to antagonise the local people by religion like the South Korean missionaries, neither do I think it's good to do some sort of self-censorship automatically.

I am really disappointed by this.

(Note: Please tell me if you know more about Sri Lanka, any conflicts over religion or politics.)

District Council Election yesterday...

As expected, Candidate number one won... he got double the number of votes of candidate number two... sigh...

To see the results of all districts, see here. (I don't know why I can't find this page on google... I had to go to other sites and find a link to this site... on google, I can only find the link to the results of the election in 2003!!)

District Council Election TODAY!

I left home early to go and vote for the District Council election today. As I have said before, there are two candidates in my constituency. Number one is someone claimed to be independent BUT got support from leaders of the DAB. (Yeah, you’re REALLY independent.) He won last time because of all the gifts, cheap tours and befriending elderly in the district. (I met him TWICE this week, he never even looked at me, nor talked to me, but I saw him talking to all elderly people, urging them to vote for him. I guess he KNEW young people are not going to vote for him.) Then there’s the other candidate number one who has recently lost his wife, he lost in the last election, even when he’s on the democratic side (and July 1st effect was really significant last time).

This morning, as I was walking to the polling station, I noticed one thing, the assistants for candidate number one are mostly elderly people or middle-aged women. For candidate number two, there are far less assistants but most of them are middle aged men or young people.

I don’t know if it’s because of the time (I voted before 9am) or what, I was the first female in my age group (and around the same ID number) to vote =P, hope there are more young people voting later, otherwise candidate number one will won in a landslide. (I think he’ll win anyway, but I don’t want him to win too easily.)

After I have voted (for candidate number two of course, though I never sought help from District Councillors, I just hated candidate number one, and don’t want him to win.) and left the station, there was this girl doing a station polling survey. She asked me which candidate I voted for and why. A) political party B) service C) I don’t remember D) Others… I chose A… but the fact is I really don’t like candidate number one. =P