Vox Pop on Feb.11

The Earth Day of 2009 is coming on April 22. There are “footprint” notes about environment protecting and energy saving slogans on the floor in our campus everywhere. We want to know how people in Hong Kong understand Earth Day. So we choose one aspect-the energy. Do they have basic knowledge about energy? We interviewed people along the Somerset Way to the station.

Do you know any of the Non-renewable energy?

A middle age man passing through Somerset Road: Non-renewable resources? Air!

Two female college students from mainland on Kent Road: Of course we know! It includes coal, oil, and natural gas.

A road worker resting at the side of Kent Road: I don’t understand. Don’t ask me. I am not educated.

A driver of a kinder garden in Kowloon Tong: body? Gas? Money? There should be many, but I can’t think of it at this moment.

Ms. Lan, a MA student of mathematics: Wood is non-renewable! And I think it also include coal, oil and nature gas?

A housewife waiting outside a kinder garden: my scientific knowledge is quite bad, if you ask me how much my son eats, I can tell you. By the way, you should tell me the answer before you leave.

A female foreigner beside the Kowloon Tong MTR Station: I think it include coal, oil. But as for oil, nobody knows how much they are there, so I don’t know for sure it is non-renewable. May be solar-energy, oh, no, that’s renewable. Because, you know, sun is there.

A Cable reporter in his car on the Waterloo Road near Hong Kong Baptist University: it’s hard for me to think it out…wood? Carbon? What about bull shit?

An elder people waiting outside a kinder garden in Kowloon Tong: I haven’t heard of this name before. I don’t know how to say….

Cambodia Story－Girls in DMC

paying a visit to the students in DMC-by Judith

talking with the girls-by Judith

Phnom Penh – Feb 10 – IJS-Global- On  January 6, we paid a visit to the Department of Media & Communication(DMC) at Royal University of Phnom Penh. Walking to the classroom where we had an appointment, I saw girl－students in the campus mostly wearing white shirt and dark long skirt. Maybe it is the school uniform, I supposed.

The students were having a class when we entered. The classroom was quit simple with no multimedia devices. Only one of the students brought a lap top. We were warmly welcomed. After desks and chairs rearranged, I joined a group where the girls all smiled sweetly to me. Although we have been in Cambodia for only two days, I found the Cambodians like to smile, even to strangers. And the smiles are irresistible, especially when the same irresistible sunshine on their face.

Why do they all wear the same colored clothes in campus? The girls told me it is due to the Clothes Code. They are required to put on light shirt and dark long skirts or trousers. Short skirts are not allowed. Light-colored T-shirt will help to avoid sunburn in tropical environment. “But on weekends or holidays we can wear any colorful clothes.” said Bin Molyka.

There was no text book on their desk but notebooks. The girls said they need to print out what they use as text books. It is different when I was in my second year at undergraduate. We had text books and can buy other supporting materials. They have computer lab course once a week. Few of them can access to the Internet at home.  “We have no postgraduate degree in our university.” said Ngoeum Phally, “maybe I will join the exchange program to Hong Kong.” Another girl Rithy Cheatana said she was applying to internship in the US. All they need is the sponsorship. Their sponsors are also giving financial aid to our classmates from Southeast Asia.

Surprisingly, the students have history course in their first year. They said they got to know the history of Khmer Rouge from being told by the elders. They felt it was terrible even when listening. For this country, not the natural but the man-made disasters need people to bear in mind. Luckily, life is much better for this young generation.The Khmer Rouge was the communist ruling political party of Cambodia  from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people or 1/5 of the country’s total population(estimates range from 850,000 to two million) under its regime, through execution, torture, starvation and forced labor. (Souce)

I can feel how they love their country when they told me the issue of Preah Vikea Temple in the border between Cambodia and Thailand. All the five girls rushed to demonstrate that the temple belongs to Cambodia. “The Thai people are robbing our property.” said the girls. The Preah Vihear Temple is a Khmer temple situated atop a 525-metre (1,720 ft) cliff in the Dangrek Mountains, in the Preach Vihear province of northern Cambodia and near the border of the Kantharalak district in the Sisaket province of eastern Thailand.The 2008 Cambodian-Thai stand-off between Thailand and Cambodia began in June 2008 as the latest round of a century-long dispute involving the area surrounding Temple. Thailand claims that demarcation has not yet been completed. (Source)

The girls were very shy to talk about datings, but some of them said they are seeing someone recently. ” Go to movies or the parks, the same thing as you do.” said Prak Thinda. In the old time, girls at their age would be married early. But now they can go to university, go to work, and make friends themselves.

Talking about China, the girls told me they often watch Chinese tv programs transferred to Khmer language. Rithy said she has many Chinese friends in school, and she feels the Chinese people who have business in Cambodia are helpful to the country’s economy.

I was deeply impressed by those girls in DMC because they are so honest and unsophisticated. Although they are simple, they know much about the world outside. They are eager to study, to have experience overseas. During the trip, I had the same feelings of many Cambodians. This is a country of multiculture, a country for the young generation who have a bright new future plan.

Tang Yuan Market in Ningbo

Tang Yuan Market in Ningbo

Hong Kong – January 30 – IJS-Global -Tang Yuan is indispensable to the New Year’s dinner in my hometown Ningbo. Tang Yuan originated in the Song Dynasty, which is one of the most famous dessert in Ningbo. The Ningbo Tang Yuan is made of white glutinous rice flour for the skin, with lard, sugar, black sesame paste powder inside. It is also called sweet dumplings or rice ball. A long time ago, the Ningbo families had the tradition to sit together having TangYuan on Spring Festival morning. But now Tangyuan is always served as dessert after New Year’s dinner.

How is the Tang Yuan market this year? I went to the largest supermarket chain in our town, Vangurd. At the frozen food counters, Ms. Hu Limin, a sales staff told me that sales of this year is as good as before during the Spring Festival, if not better. “In fact, many merchants promot Tang Yuan at low price to stimulate the consumers to buy.” She said. In the counters she is responsible for, there would be three to four times one day for replenishment. “We also have a number of promotional activities, such as offering to buy more. Send one bag of Tang Yuan if you buy more than five bags. Still, there are dumplings with Tang Yuan selling together. They sell very well.”

In another supermarket RT-MART, which only has opened for a month here, people are crowded in front of the frozen food counters.I found many Tang Yuan merchants offering new taste this year,such as pineapple filling, chocolate filling. They even launched healty taste to attract more customers, such as xylitol low sugar filling.

Traditional Tang Yuan are filled with red bean paste, sesame, peanut. Ms.Zhang Ying, a local customer is selecting Tang Yuan.She said she prefered a new kind of Tang Yuan, which is half size of the traditional ones. “ My parents say this kind of Tang Yuan is easier for them to chew and swallow.It is small but with enough stuffing.” She said.

Mr. Fan Guoqiang, who is in charge of the frozen food counters said he is optimistic about the Tang Yuan sales this winter. “ Although the financial crisis lat year was serious, but you know Chinese New Year is always the most important for the Chinese family. Whether the economic situation is tough or good, people have to relax in the festival. And our traditions can not be ignored.”