Mayoral election (2)

    There were altogether 15 candidates in the contest. Quite a big number for a ballot of this scale, isn’t it? Each of the three major national political parties fielded its own candidate, with the Respect Party, the Green Party and the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition joining. One candidate ran under the local banner of Bristol 1^st while several others ran as independents.

Mayoral election husting organised by
the Bristol University Student Union, Nov 2, 2012

    I attended two of the hustings (That’s how the people here call election gatherings), one held on our campus organized by the university student union and the other by a construction industry association. According to local news reports at least a dozen of hustings held for this mayoral election, one of them joined by Cameron to support the Tory candidate, but not every debate was open to the public and I didn’t get information about all of them.

    One thing which surprised me a bit was that traffic congestion was the most frequently raised issue at both of the occasions. Many of the contenders took initiative to talk about their solutions to the traffic problems in the city in their opening remarks, while some members of the audience also raised concern over this. I was really surprised because having moved here for two months I had never seen any traffic jam at all! My impression can be quite unfair because where I live is within walking distance to both the university and the city centre but just the fact that I had never seen vehicles in a long line while I cross the roads made it difficult for me to imagine any traffic jam here. (Not long after the election day I experienced a little congestion on the road but apparently it was due to some works.)

    The questions raised from the floor at both debates were quite wide ranging. I was indeed impressed by the student union’s one. Although it was a local poll, a student took the discussion to the international level by testing candidates’ on their views on arms trade from Bristol to countries including Syria and Israel. Labour Marvin Rees, Conservative Geoff Gollop, independent Owain George all gave “unpopular” answers that these arms related industries have brought many jobs to Bristol and the where arms products were sold to after they were manufactured was a national policy and not something the mayor had power to control. Another candidate (I couldn’t see who it was) went even franker by saying that “If we don’t make it somebody else is going to make it” so it would not worth giving up the industry and losing these jobs in Bristol. Lib Dem Jon Rogers appeared to be trying to please both sides, saying this issue was a dilemma.

Mayoral election husting organised by the
 Construction Industry Council, Nov 9, 2012

    Three others, George Ferguson of Bristol 1^st, Neil Maggs of Respect and Tim Collins of Save Filton Runway claimed the moral highland, all condemning the arms trade. Mr. Ferguson, the ultimate winner, gave a good sound bite, “Stop relying on a killing economy and turn into a knowledge economy!” He also scored points by recommending the book The Shocking History of Bristol – showing his local passion and knowledge. I found him and Mr Maggs the two most eloquent speakers at this husting. The latter conveyed a clear anti-privatisation message in his answer to every question and was good at appealing to the audience – He slammed the outsourcing of university dormitories to the Unite company which made students (i.e. us!) pay high rents.

    Another challenge from a student was the controversial question of whether the red light venues in Bristol should be shut down. Most of them on the stage, including the future mayor, gave a definite “yes” while only two, Mr. Collins and Mr. George said no. It was quite disappointing that the Tory candidate failed to give a position. It did not seem that he was well prepared. Given the toughness of the battle for him – his Labour opponent was tipped as the frontrunner, the city council was dominated by Lib Dems, and Bristol had a strong local identity, I think it would be wise for him to clear his stance on every issue  of concern in the constituency. 

Mayoral election (1)

Finally, I witnessed the city’s historic election of her leader by universal suffrage!

  No, unfortunately I am not talking about my home of Hong Kong, where we are still clamouring for full democracy (about which I am quite pessimistic). I am in Bristol, the largest city in Southwest England. The first directly elected mayor here was inaugurated this Monday.

  For those wondering how come Bristolians had never elected a mayor by ‘one person, one vote’ before, let me explain a bit here. Currently English city governments are run under two different systems, the council leader model and the elected mayor model. While the name of London mayor Boris Johnson has been familiar to outsiders, not every city in this country has a Boris Johnson. A council leader, which Bristol used to have and some other cities still keep, is elected among city councillors, who are popularly elected by the cities’ voters. A mayor, in contrast, is directly elected by the general public.

  One may wonder: Who would reject the right to choose the person running his/her city when such a right is available to him/her? Interestingly, voters in nine out of the ten English cities which held referendums this May on whether to replace the council leader system with the mayoral system said NO.

  Bristolians were unique. They were the ONLY ones to opt for the change pushed forward by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in the May referendums.

The other nine cities were Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield.

  By now do you imagine Bristolians as politically enthusiastic and passionately about voting? Intriguingly, this does not seem to be the story told by voter turnouts. Only 24% of voters here cast their ballots in the referendum, with 53% of them saying yes. This effectively meant the city’s move towards a mayoral system was brought about by the wish of just 13% of the electorate.

  Also paradoxically, merely 28% of voters exercised their new right to choose the candidate despite it sounds exciting, at least on the surface, that people here could directly choose their political leader for the first time…  (To be continued)

Remembrance Day

For someone who was born in an epoch and a place of peace like me, the concept of war is remote.

The Remembrance Day, a day widely observed in Britain, alerted me that wars were in fact not so far. In the past two weeks people in the streets were seen wearing poppies on their lapels, while troops from this country were fighting in Afghanistan and some might be sent to Syria in the near future.

On Remembrance Sunday I happened to read two newspaper articles from different parts of the world, which together caught my attention. One was a piece by British Prime Minister David Cameron published in the Daily Telegraph, giving a sentimental narration of his past visit to a battlefield, followed by his administration’s plans to commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War and pledges to improve the welfare of servicemen and veterans. He wrote,

  "Remembrance Sunday is a time not just to look back, but forward too – to what more we can do for those who serve in our Armed Forces today, and for our veterans. This government has taken the Military Covenant – which was frankly gathering dust on the shelf – and made it something meaningful, writing its principles into the law of the land."

  A voice from my home city of Hong Kong, which appears to have nothing to do with wars at present, emerged in the local Apple Daily on exactly the same day. It was a story about a retired British-Chinese soldier’s recent visit to London to lobby Members of the Parliament on his peers’ right of abode in the United Kingdom. Some of his fellow former servicemen had taken part in the Korean War and some had been sent to Cyprus to join the UN’s peacekeeping force, all under British Crown, but only those of higher ranks were given right of abode in the UK after HK’s handover to China.

  “Now hardly anyone knows of our existence,” said the campaigner. What would he to the Prime Minister had they met on this trip?

  Feeling even closer, since I came to Bristol I have met a retired nurse who worked in the British army in HK in the 1960s, and the granddaughter of a Canadian veteran who had fought to defend my city in the Second World War. These all make the Remembrance Day more meaningful to me.

On studies (2)

So in the second Research Methods lecture someone told our professor that he could not find any of copy of the book on the “required reading” list in the library shelf because all had been checked out. I had a hard time looking for it too and realized that the library had seven copies of that book while there were some 50 students in my class, not to mention those doing similar programmes who might also need that book. Our lecturer's response to this problem was that he could not make photocopies for us due to copyright laws. He told us we really needed to compete with one another for the books and that looking for reading materials was part of our training!

Fortunately the book fight did not last long. After some panicking in the second week, I went to the library earlier to look for the books for the third week. Not every book on our reading lists was there but at least I managed to find some. And as the programme proceeded, book availability improved! I realized that it was just impossible to do all the reading on the lists of the three courses and one lecturer assured me that we did not actually have to read them all. So I reset my target to covering some reading materials of each the three courses every week, instead of unrealistically expecting myself to read all of them given the limited amount of time. I also realized that some reading items in fact had duplicating content so there could actually be some strategy to skip through. Another way to get around the book fight was to read eJournals instead of paper books. It did not only make access to academic materials easier but also saved me from carrying loads to and from the library every day!

Given the book fight at the beginning, one would think the whole class was really enthusiastic with doing all the reading required by the lecturers. Quite the contrary it did not seem to be the case. Well, at least not for the Research Methods class. When our lecturer asked on a later class how many had read the required articles for the discussion topic on that day, only a few raised their hands. Chitchats outside of the classroom confirmed that many of my colleagues were not withholding their hands out of shyness but had really not read the book chapters. That made me relieved… I am not suggesting that I don’t have to study if others don’t. In fact on a few occasions I felt irritated by those who did not do any reading yet then complained while walking out from the classroom that he or she did not understand anything in the lecture. (Sorry if this sentence offends anyone but since this is my personal blog I reserve my right to be candid here) However, learning that I was not in a peer group with everyone super studious did relieve me from unnecessary competitive pressure and enable me to study in a relaxed manner on my own pace.

  Upon the brilliant suggestion by one colleague, four of us formed a reading group which meets every Friday. A fifth member later joined. It was set up because we found it would be useful to divide reading among ourselves and exchange what we have learnt from different articles with one another as it was impossible for each of us to cover all the necessary materials for the class (not to mention “extra-curricular” reading). At first I hesitated a bit, worrying it might be inflexible. But the first meeting proved it was extremely rewarding and had exceeded my expectation. With colleagues from different countries - Korea, China, Pakistan and Mexico, chemistry was generated as each of us contributed not only what we had read but also what we had seen in our parts of the world.

Back to the question of whether my programme was “too relaxing”, I must firmly tell those who hold such suspicion that there is never a “too relaxing” learning opportunity. I buy the idea of what I’d call the adult mode of learning. Everyone is free to choose the style and pace of learning which best suits him/herself and is responsible for his/her own work. How much each person gets out of the university, I believe, is the choice of each individual and there is no point to pack grown-ups’ schedules with heaps of classes, tests and exams to ensure they “study” as schoolchildren do. Next time when someone asks me whether my study is busy, I will probably say, “Yes and no”.

On studies (1)

  I have classes only on Monday and Wednesday mornings and the whole days of Tuesdays. That translates into 8.5 hours per week. I say “only” because the class hours are short compared with other programmes in the university, and compared with what many of my friends and I would expect.

Upon hearing this you may find my masters programme very relaxing, or TOO relaxing. One can procrastinate or play a lot. One can spend a great deal of time on a part-time job. One can travel frequently even during term time. Etc, etc. Indeed I once thought before formal classes began that I could make occasional short trips using my consecutive days off from Thursday to Sunday (four days!) and that I could do quite some freelance journalistic work. I totally disbelieved it when our lecturer told us in Week Zero that we had to do the course as a 35-hour-per-week full-time job. (I worked far more than 35 hours per week when I had a full-time job!) But upon receiving the reading lists in Week One I found the workload was in fact much more than what it had appeared!

 

Every alumnus told me “Don’t study too hard” and even our lecturer told us not to read the two articles when she dispensed the photocopies to us in Week Zero. “Just relax and don’t worry about reading anything. I don’t expect you to know anything when you come to the first lecture,” she said. Out of curiosity I did read those two articles (which were planned for discussion in later parts of the term) before the first class, finding them extremely abstract. But I didn’t check the reading list for Week One. Then after the first week of lectures and seminars I suddenly discovered that we were supposed to do the readings for Week Two before the second lectures and classes of each unit - which effectively meant I had lagged behind the timetable for Week One readings! Suddenly I had to catch up with two weeks of reading within a few days. But what was even scarier was that when I went to the university library to look for the books on my reading list, I discovered that the majority of the copies were checked out. So do all my colleagues study so hard that I am the last one to reach the bookshelves? I can’t quite believe I’m the laziest among a class of 50 people… (To be continued)

Lost in the artistic Bristol

  “Which is the right way?” A driver driving through this street eastward sees this question hanging above his head. Well, but this street is short and straight and seems in no sense particularly confusing. Or… is it in fact confusing?

  Then comes another driver, heading westwards. The question posed to him is even more intriguing: “Which is the wrong way?”

  Wait, who would ask for the wrong way? Is it an absurd question to raise? But no, isn’t it logical to ask which the wrong way is after asking which the right way is?

  As the eastbound driver looking for the right way hesitates and wonders, a naked woman catches his eyes.

  The westbound driver, meanwhile, is warned by two big signs - printed “See no evil”. Looking for the wrong way is he, this man does not have the fortune as the other.

  One just having sinned and one just being enlightened, both men turn their heads, the sinner to the right and the enlightened to the left. Each finds Jesus Christ by his side.

  God created the Universe. He created this galaxy. Did He also create this seedling which is bigger than the whole tree? Why did He create this ugly four-eyed monster? Or is this creature called a human being? God never promised that many flowers will always be in bloom. So it this blossoming flower growing on a black plastic rubbish bag a creation of the mankind?

  Welcome to the artistic and philosophical Nelson Street!

 

Fresh? Frozen

(There are so many interesting things to write on but since I have started the discussion on food on Facebook I decided to elaborate on it in my second journal piece in Bristol.) 

  Despite living in this developed country called the United Kingdom, eating fresh food has become a luxury for me. Believe it or not, I eat expired food almost every day here... Or, well, technically speaking those food items have not yet "expired" but have gone beyond their "best before" dates. But I still suspect this living quality indicator might have put me under the unofficial poverty line laid by NGOs in my home city of Hong Kong...

  Shopping for food is a real headache. Packs are either huge or of unreasonably high prices. The first loaf of bread I bought in Bristol took me more than a week to finish. How come? Sparing no efforts to finish it before the "best before" date, I was seen making sandwiches in the kitchen day after day while my flatmates stir-fried delicious dishes. I also occasionally had a slice during afternoon tea time when feeling a little hungry. Yet reaching the last slice seemed a remote goal. I asked my flatmates whether any of them wanted to share a loaf with me when shopping next time so that each of us could eat fresh bread. This appeared equally difficult. One said she didn't eat bread that often and the other said she preferred white bread but not the wholewheat bread I ate... (Luckily one later changed her mind and shared a loaf with me.) But bread was only one of the food items I struggled with and the others were worse. My tomatoes, carrots, hams and turkey meat all went beyond "best before" dates but I continued to consume them anyway. I felt so helpless but it is understandable for people sharing a flat to have different eating habits and it is hard to share food like a family does. Perhaps I should immediately marry someone here so that I won't have to bear with "worse after" food for the whole year...

  I posted the bread story onto my Facebook wall and subsequently several friends who have studied in the UK before responded that they also used to eat expired food here and gave me an unanimous advice of using the mighty invention called the freezer. So I just followed their recommendation. A piece of good news is that I still manage to drink "still best" milk every morning.

  Since moving here I have thrown away some carrots, one third of a cucumber and two slices of ham, all of which having turned bad despite refrigerated. I feel so sorry to the environment for the food waste I generated but my flatmates have encountered the same problem. While we were all complaining about the short lives of British food products, one asked the intelligent question of whether those we ate at home contained too much preservatives!

  As I wrote this personal story today the UN has warned of a possible worldwide food crisis next year. So I'd better stop complaining and be thankful for the food I have. ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/oct/14/un-global-food-crisis-warning )

  P.S. I am trying to write down some thoughts or experiences every week. Any feedback from friends will be an encouragement for me to keep it on!

So how are you in Bristol?

  For my friends who genuinely want to ask me the question of “How are you in Bristol?”, please bear with me for this lengthy answer and going back to some pre-Bristol talk.

  To begin with, I very much wanted to write something for myself in the few weeks before leaving Hong Kong. Physically I wasn’t as busy as I would expect with preparations for my adventure. However, an outpour of thoughts and feelings kept my mind occupied. As some of you know, I allowed myself only ten days between my last day of employment and my flight. It was a very short time. There are many good friends with whom I didn’t manage to catch with before parting. Some didn’t even know I was going to study abroad, I’m afraid.

  Saying goodbye is an art. How should I meet with the maximum number of buddies in ten days while ensuring I spend substantial time with my family and have enough time for all the necessary preparations before flying? The answer is simply impossible. In the end I concluded that had I taken a longer break, I would still never be able to say goodbye to everyone I wanted but instead I would only end up telling of my not-yet-realised study plans to more people and repeating answers to the frequently-asked-questions for more times. So why don’t I go for a clear and cool departure? After all, I’m not “unfriending” you all. I’m just going to be physically away for one year and you guys can always find my online anyway.

  But I did write a goodbye note to my work contacts, because these are people I may or may not see again. There are quite a number of them to whom I truly wanted to thank and with whom I really enjoyed exchanging ideas. The relationship between a journalist and her sources can be intriguing. I know they want to spin me and they know I am there to challenge them and get stories from them. But as time goes by both sides would be able to tell whether the other is sincere and worth befriending with or not. I was surprised to receive some really warm phone calls and e-mails in response to my goodbye e-mail, some from people I hadn’t expected. Four days after officially quitting my job, I returned to the newsroom to give out farewell cakes and to pack things up - realizing that it could take several hours to clear my desk and drawers! (Clearing my place in the newsroom was another nostalgic experience but I’d better skip it here.) With the help of two colleagues and a warm gift from my editor, I literally left the HKEJ, with a big backpack and a full suitcase.

  So the departure day finally came. It was not at all an emotional but was just like any other day when I was off from work and stayed at home with my parents. Mom didn’t cook a particularly big meal. I went out to shop in the afternoon for some daily stuff like any usual Saturday. Everything was so usual that I started to doubt: Am I leaving for one year today or am I dreaming? The only unusual thing I did was giving each of my parents a big kiss as they sent me off at the airport. And that was all.

  Compared with that of other students studying abroad, my luggage is not that much. One suitcase, one laptop bag, one knapsack and one small bag for a few handy items like passport and wallet, all fully packed. Again, every one of my friends felt suspicious after hearing of my baggage load: “How can you go with so few things for one whole year?” I still remember pulling one suitcase and a giant bag at the same time when I went to the US for my exchange programme. They were loads and looking back I really don’t understand how I managed to move them by myself from the San Diego airport to the residential blocked where I would stay. Perhaps it’s because I am now more mature and have more travelling experience, for work in particular, I now know what I DON’T need to take with me.

  Having said that I now had more travelling experience, I still forgot one important thing at home – the adaptor for my beloved laptop! I almost wanted to cry when I found that they were absent as I was queuing up to board the plane. How could I be more careless than when I was an undergrad? I blamed myself and immediately called up my parents and asked them to mail it to my dorm as soon as possible, feeling home sweet home before the flight even took off… (Fortunately one of my new roommates used a laptop of the same brand and a similar model to mine and her adapter suited my computer so I managed to survive the first few days by occasionally borrowing her adapter when she didn’t need it.)

  Moving into my new home in Bristol involved much more efforts than I had expected. It was not until last week that I really learned to appreciate how much my Californian roommates had set up for me when I moved into their apartment nine years ago. I have known all along that they are very nice but now I feel even more grateful to them as I come to understand how fortunate I was to move into a flat with everything ready once I arrived in a foreign place.

My current dorm provided nearly nothing. There is a substantially big kitchen with three fridges for the five of us living here but we had to buy our own pots and pans, let alone other utensils. There are two lights in my bedroom but they are rather dim so I had to look for a lamp. There is a landline telephone on the desk in my bedroom but I had to register and pay before I could use it. (I ended up not using it anyway.) If one wanted to use WiFi in the dorm one had to register and pay, etc. On the surface it seemed early to arrive in the city 5 days before the induction week started and 12 days before formal classes began. But shopping for the necessities to set up my new residences kept me really occupied in the initial days. School registration procedures were efficient, on the other hand. In the first three days here I found myself like a full-time housewife, taking two full huge shopping bags back to my apartment every day… One note to add is that my shopping load had already been reduced with the help of an alumna who finished her studies here last month and left me with some of her utensils. Thinking of this I felt lucky and thankful again!

  Five of us live together in one flat, each having her own bedroom and everyone sharing a kitchen-cum-common room, a water closet and a bathroom. My roommates are all from mainland China but from different parts. One of the girls was travelling outside when I moved in so in the first few days there were only four of us. My roommates are very friendly and I was surprised by how long we talked on the first few evenings after I met them! We would sometimes visit each other’s rooms and I would say hello and introduce myself in the lift to someone who lived on the same floor as I did – the “hall etiquette” taught at HKU residences which I did not feel comfortable complying with as a little freshman back then. I now think as the community is smaller and when one is not compelled to socialize with anyone, socializing in this way just becomes natural.

  By the way, sorry for those who have read so much up to here here but still don’t know what I am studying in Bristol. I will be doing a taught masters degree in public policy. On my third day here I took a campus tour and was thrilled by the academic buildings converted from residential houses. It was so tranquil, so peaceful and so green along Woodland Road, which houses arts departments. There is also a pleasant lawn which would be a nice place for picnics, reading or simply procrastinating – when it is sunny. The School for Policy Studies (i.e. my school) buildings also pretty houses, too.

  After being three days of a full-time housewife I felt somewhat tired of what I had been doing and I asked myself: Did I come here to study? So on the first Saturday here I decided to go to the library to get myself familiarized with it and to do a little bit of reading, although not really into it. Sounds boring? Indeed I almost fell asleep as I tried to read my first textbook which was full of theories…

  Then came my first Sunday here. I joined a picnic on Brandon Hill organized for international students and made some new friends there. I was really happy to finally meet someone from my class! By the way, it was the Mid-Autumn Festival (I didn’t realize it until my mom reminded it of that when I called her up on the day before), a Chinese festival for family reunion. Despite my family not currently with me, I was really touched to see my two SCMP brothers coming from London. (Note: My colleagues in the Post political team would call each other brothers and sisters) Good to have them visiting although the date was just coincidental. Do you guys want to make me homesick before my university term starts?

  So much for now. These are my first five days in Bristol but I definitely have much more to share. Classes will start tomorrow so I’d better switch my mind to the academic mode this afternoon!

記者們向暴力阻撓採訪說不！

　　跟我稔熟的同業們都知道我不參予示威，就算大家休班去七一遊行、反替補機制遊行，我從來也只是採訪去，因為我覺得記者應保持獨立身份，避免參與自己採訪的事情。

　　但有兩次，因為直接與新聞自由和記者的人身安全有關，我不能不示威了。上次是我有舊同事在新疆採訪期間被毆。這次呢？今天我極不願意又再去中聯辦門外，因為我又有舊同事在採訪期間被毆了，在深圳。

　　近日很多人討論中港矛盾，有些港人在網絡上高呼「我係香港人，唔係中國人」。我是不喜歡搞族群矛盾的，我是香港人，也是中國人。正因如此，我希望中國能進步、能文明，能做一個真正的禮義之邦。不要再以暴力阻撓新聞採訪了！我不想再要去示威！