There and Back Again

there and back again.

2010-11-24T19:27:00.000-08:00

ok prep for phase 2. first roll out is new name.

bought a guidebook from impulse at coop for $19. looks colorful but it doesnt seem useful yet. after reading the first few pages. need to buy a lot of things.

the list

2010-06-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

A little ranking..

1) Shaoshan, (Hunan)
For obvious reasons. Go google. And don't laugh! Its a beautiful place.

2) Changsha (Hunan)
Must go to Yuelu Park in autumn. Best. And for all the happy people selling street meat. Good shopping too.

3) Chengdu (Sichuan)
For all the friendly happy people. Bestest hostel in the world is located there. Ma la heaven. And how can you forget the pandas.

4) Yongding (Fujian)
Engineering miracles all over, and great lesson on integrating physical and social structures. And its also hometown :)

5) Shuimo (Sichuan)
The admirable spirit after the deadly earthquake. Community-based social work. Marvelous.

6) Lhasa (Tibet)
The scenery, the culture, the monks. What more can you ask for. But altitude and permit / guide thing is a turn off. And the beggars. Though it is a place you must go once in your lifetime. Or twice.

7) Lanzhou (Gansu)
Another must go, though there isn't particularly any interesting thing to do. World's most polluted city! Its a living and breathing attraction. And its free. Travel advisory to stay one day max.

8) Shigatse (Tibet)
A bit repetitive after lhasa, but higher and more exotic. And it snowed there.

9) Guilin / Yangshuo (Guangxi)
Great scenery but full of irritating touts.

10) Macau (Macau)
Greyhound racing was closed. But how can you neglect a money making opportunity?

11) Xi'an (Shaanxi)
Another tout filled place. Hua Shan was legendary. Terracotta was average.

12) Beijing (Beijing)
Modern city, modern manners. Beijing Duck!

13) Xiamen (Fujian)
Not much things to do. Gulangyu island is cool stuff though.

14) Guangzhou (Guangdong)
Not much things to do.

15) Zigong (Sichuan)
Dinosaur museum was a letdown. But great find in the shopping area.

16) Shenzhen (Guangzhou)
Not much things to do and full of cheats and pickpockets. And touts. Its not the best place for shopping also.

Mao Fever

2009-12-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

ok. so made this pictorial since i've been typing too much.

so on my 23rd bday, i went to Hunan, to the holy land of Shao Shan, to satisfy some hedonistic needs. where one man's greatness eclipses everything. i dont normally celebrate my birthday (its a social construct with the purpose of boosting the economy) but what greater celebration than to have it with Mao. and before u start criticism on communism and Mao, please open your eyes and find out what he did in the first place before u even speak a word. true that he may have been a little unethical in some aspects, but certainly china had progress under him. (its very debatable though.) and communism is utopia for social workers if u wanted to know (cos there will be no more FA cases!).

enjoy his epicness.

first stop at li shao qi. some other founding member of the ccp with mao. he was sth like his right hand man i think.

first mao stop. hero worshipping begins.

the horror when he died (look at their faces.)

with Mao's house where he grew up. If you noticed, the camera focuses on Mao's house. What a display of drawing power. Bow to his epicness. lol.

with a bronze statue of Mao. the main statue of worship. lol. plenty of flowers at his feet. there's a great story to tell about this statue, on the day it was erected. mayeb i'll write about it soon. somewhere.

epic photo atop the mountains and with wind blowing

epic statue seating on his throne above the mountains

many vehicles with Mao figurine, some safety charm

found another Mao in Hunan Uni where he studied

缓缓飘落的枫叶像思念,我点燃烛光温暖岁末的秋天
aha. ok finally some non mao stuff. hmm. no wonder singapore doesnt produce emo songs. cos we got no autumn leaves to write about.

i've got Mao Fever.

Dear Friends,

2009-12-01T08:50:00.001-08:00

Hello.

Ok ignore my previous comment about a big post. It will be delayed. Need to write about Mao too.

But anyways, this is a public service announcement. Any social work friends, who wants to come to Sichuan for a little holiday is welcomed to. 3 of us are going to this primary school in Suimo town, and if you want to come along, u can email me.

There are some decently priced flights. (about 1100 ringgit from KL. plus bus/flight to KL, total will be about S$550. by airasia.) good for u if u can find cheaper ones..

Dates are between 21-27 Dec. 3 days will be spent at the school. The rest is for holiday. There's skiing and pandas involved. So if u are interested and have the budget, just email me.

Pictures of the school are in fb (suimo ba yi sch), and we will be helping the social worker's there to run some activities. Living cost during the three days are negligible. Otherwise on other days, spending will prob be less than S$20 a day.

Can't take too many people, maybe one or two, so reply quick if you're keen.

And if you have a bigger budget to splurge, about 2k, you can follow us to Tibet and Beijing after. ROCKS.

akademik

2009-11-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

quick post before a mega post coming up.

"Many Americans, including most students and practitioners in the helping professions, have been socialized to think in a certain way - primarily to understand case situations in individual, family, and group terms, often minimizing the effects of the multiple factors and levels of the social environment on human behaviors and lives."

from a outstanding book i found while doing my essay on social service management comparison between China and Singapore. I so regret deciding to take this topic. Too much to read, too much to write. Should have written on migrant workers in China or something. Spend lesser time on work so can go to China again.. To Hubei, Fujian, and Chaozhou. 3 more places to goooooo....

Social policy intervention. FTW! more reasons why you should take welfare econs next sem.. by Dr. Irene Nick.

Fighting a War

2009-11-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

The watch hits 0129 hours. It has been 37 minutes. 37 minutes since the last mission began. 37 minutes of fidgeting.

Now is the time. The time to check on them. Dropping whatever he was doing, Carl heads on the door. Checks left. Checks right. And left again. Nobody. Stealthily, he ghosts down the corridor, turning the corner before peering into the lift lobby. All's quiet. Taking a quick scan of the area, Carl enters, reaching for the lift control buttons. He pushes it gently, then retreats into a corner where he had a good view of both exits of the lobby, as well as a full view of the lift door.

As he waits, each ticking second sounded was like a pounding hammer on his nerves. "It's been 38 minutes now" he muttered to himself. Finally reaching the 9th floor, Carl braced himself as the lift doors slide open. Empty. Breathing a sigh of relief, he enters at presses the button for the top floor.

The doors shut and the lift began its ascend. A moment of respite for Carl as he prays that nobody else will enter. The lift accelerates to its peak speed, carrying Carl closer to his destination. With two more floors to go, he readies himself to expect the unexpected. For all he knew, he could be walking right into an ambush.

As the doors gently open, the familiar blue and yellow doors greeted Carl. No trap. Taking his first tentative steps out of the lift, a cold rush of air met Carl, welcoming him to the top floor. Not taking a moment to pause, he scurried along to winding corridor, entering the brightly lit room at the end.

The humming of the machines filled the background as Carl made his way to the all too familiar machine. The mission had been completed. Opening the machine door, Carl started to check the status of the mission. Searching through the pile and putting it together neatly for quick retrieval, he then realized it happened yet again. It was the 7th time it has happened. "Not again," he muttered to himself. "Damn machines." For the 7th time in 3 months, he had lost a sock. A good quality sock. Shaking his head, he gathered the rest of his laundry and trudged back to his room.

haha! so the bloody washing machine/dryer keeps eating my socks. and thus... i went to buy ten pairs of socks. rockssssss. there was a good deal on them.. buy 4 get 4 free. lol. each pair only costs S$1.80. (bought another two elsewhere) yes. now i have enough ammunition to defeat the enemy - the bloody washing machine/dryer. STOP EATING MY SOCKS! half of the socks supposed to be yours though. for china.. (haha. you know who you are. not going to say, later some people say got some lovey dovey thing going on. HAHA!) well can always go back and buy more... SOCKS!

confusion

2009-11-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

in recent news....

guangzhou sent a team to singapore to study the social work/social welfare system. over the last few years, they have been modeling after HK. upon discovering the singapore model... they realized its so much cheaper than the HK model... and now they are confused whether to follow HK or Singapore.

brilliant hilarious stuff.

the singapore model will never work in china, because of the demographics. china is too big to use the singapore model. classic case of wei ren min bi fu wu rather than wei ren min fu wu.

but this made my day. haha! and yeah it really shows the determination of the govt to improve their social services. rocks. dept better allow us to go guangzhou for placement. need to havoc in school when i come back.

cos we're uniquely singapore.

Self-determination

2009-11-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

在中国社会工作，最大的一个irony是self-determination。self-determination在社会工作，是一个很重要的概念。如果社会工作者在大学选专业的时候没有self-determination的话，那面对客户时，能不能理解这个概念呢？在广州的中山大学，社会工作的学生通常没得选择。他们申请去大学的时候，他们会被派去一所。哪一所呢，就看他们的成绩如何。中山大学是广州最好的大学，也可能是中国南部最好的一所。当学生入到中山大学，就已经是一件好事。很多公司都会请你去他们那边打工。入进中山大学后，学生们要读一个专业。他们会写下他们想要读的专业，能在一个文件写十个，然后排名一到十。通常没人要做社工，因为大多数的人都没听说过。听过社工的学生也不要做，因为薪水太底了。（一位刚毕业的大学社工学生，能赚大概两千人民币。一位中学老师的薪水大概是四千人民币。）但是大学的每一个科目都有极限。大多数的学生都要选business或功臣或政治有关的专业，因为能赚大钱，但不够位。结果，他们被派去读社工。这会保证有社工学生，但是这已经破坏了社工的self-determination概念。中国的社会工作发展真的会令人觉的非常奇怪。

这两个月去中国太多次了，差不多每个星期都去。太多次了。没钱了。也终于要开始做功课和读书了。两个月没做了。哈哈。

为人民（币）服务！

on "corruption"

2009-10-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

corruption - dishonest and fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.

definition according to the mac dictionary.

so.. the chinese people are not really corrupt contrary to popular belief. however, to do engage in some conduct that is not transparent in nature, which may or may not fall under the category of corrupt, depending on your definition. moreover, there is a very valid reason why they turned out this way.

(note. this is more on the government officials, rather than the businessmen. well cos i learnt about the govt officials and not the private sector.)

this is going to be super wordy. (i skipped a lot of explanations to summarize the whole thing. so some parts maybe a bit missing.)

so to describe what it is.. i need to tell you a bit of history. the history would reveal certain aspects of how the chinese behavior today in contemporary china. some of the stuff may be wrong (oops!) but yeah as said before, i'm no expert. just summarizing what i've learned in class and also what i've learnt on my field trips.

so.. a long long time ago... mao was born.

and then there comes a time in 1949, when mao, one of the leaders of the CCP, beat the heck out of the KMT (kuomingtang) and took over control of china. KMT went to taiwan, and are still there. they hate each other's guts, so they're always quarreling (the reason is cos of the previous struggles from 1920s to 1949 - would take another essay to explain this). so mao took over, and ushered in the new communist era.

in a short summary, they passed a law, and everything became state owned. no more personal land, etc. so people are now organized into communes. each commune is kind of like a community. so in the community there will be a factory, and some land. so everyone gets employed by the state, as factory workers, farmers, shopkeepers, etc. everyone earned $36, no matter what position you work as. supervisor earns $36, laborer earns $36. but if u are in a senior position u get other benefits, like getting to go to dinners with big shots, have more clout, etc.

food was provided for, by rationing. farmers work the land and sell the produce back to a central pool. everyone then gets rationed quantities of food. the factory also runs a school, clinics, etc. for the workers' family. so everything is settled by the factory. and the factory is owned by the state. therefore the state provides for everything.

for a period of time this new system did work. grain productivity increased A LOT, and many other benefits came along. however, there are obviously some failures. cos your life is guaranteed by the state, nobody wants to work hard. since if u do work or dont do, you still get $36. along the way, many things happened also, such as the great leap forward, which was quite a failure. but anyway, mao finally died in 1976.

so after him, the next big shot took over. Deng Xiao Ping. So his era started in the 1980s. so when he took over, he realized he had to change the system for the progress of china, by introducing "socialism with chinese characteristics". the commune system was thus abolished. the land was returned to the people, i.e. each family got its plot of land to work, etc. the land was also returned to the local govts to manage. the factories also stopped providing all these services also. Deng also opened up china's economy to foreign investments. so now pple can be farmers, workers, or civil servants, etc. this is still the current system in use, called the hukou system. basically your family is registered in a certain area of china, and that is your hometown. it is some restrictive population control mechanism (can start a debate on this, but shall not.)

so the changes of course were not instant. took like many many years, to develop and slowly change people's mindsets, and to implement change. up till now, many changes are still being made, as this system great influences on public policy.

in this new system, more power was to be transferred to the local people to manage their own areas. so now there is the central govt, and all the various provincial govt. further down the line, there will be the county govt, and town govt, and village chief. this hierarchy was already present, by the system became more institutionalized and roles defined (but still not very well defined). so the central govt sets the policy, and the bottom pple relay down the message, and also implement the policies.

but the thing is, over the years, the govt kept pushing more responsibilities to the local govts, but not increase the budget for them. with more things to do, you need to spend more. but then the govt keep cutting their budget, or not increasing it. therefore in order to survive, the local govts has to look for other sources. which often leads to negative consequences. so some people start charging the citizens very random fees. like all these mysterious admin fees kind of thing, to increase their revenue.

one prime example is the healthcare system. it is a total mess, as kw can testify. if u are a villager and get a serious illness in china, you are as good as dead, because the healthcare system is so expensive. main reason is because of the lowered budget from the govt, the hospital have to look for other sources of revenue. so they start raising prices, recommend patients for unnecessary treatments, colluding with the pharmaceuticals to sell medicine, etc. it is just to ensure organizational survival. however, when they actually made enough money to survive, they get greedy and simple continue their practices. they are human after all, and give in to temptations.

another example is local development of social services. basically at a provincial level, they also face the same budget issues and increased responsibility. with the factories providing lesser services, the govt is supposed to make up for it (as in most developed countries). but the local govts got not enough money. so they have to earn some money first. therefore they rent the land out to factories and businesses to earn the money, so that they can gather capital and than build services like elderly homes, etc. but after many years, they are still developing and rasiing capital, even though the renting out of the land has been rather profitable. so social services are still rather neglected in the 1980s and 90s.

so in a sense, they are not corrupt, cos they didnt take bribes or engage in dishonest practice. it may be unethical to some people, but they have to ensure their own survival. but the only thing is that they become greedy and neglect certain things (there's nothing wrong with being greedy and wanting to earn money. just look at all the ibankers). and the whole concpet about china is that they want to develop and keep developing. so the social and environmental aspects of life are facing the brunt of the impacts of economic development.

great atmosphere, good game, shitty result

2009-10-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

a break from china.

was the game of the season so far. super hyped up for it. and get to watch it with a liverpool fan.

soaking up in pre-match atmosphere.

nervous liverpoo fan and "arsenal" fan. haha.

feel quite sad wearing a fake jersey. hahaha. should have brought mine from home. but it says tevez. argh. prob gonna buy next season's one with the new sponsor. hope its not ugly.

finding more support!

went to a bar in wan chai. great atmosphere. probably the closest to a real english stadium i've experienced so far. singapore is so.. -_- even watching at bars arent really as great as this.

great singing, although i didnt get to video most of it down. every tackle is met with a chorus of abuse, esp bad ones. meeting pple on the street who would congratulate you and take pictures with you cos we were wearing liverpoo and united jerseys. smiling and making small talk with any random people on the street about the match. the bar fight/argument that didnt evolve into a brawl (would have been awesome if it did.) and this weird french researcher he met on the bus home. he said "what a shame. liverpool lost to lyon. and just this weekend lyon lost to the shittiest team in france. man u are lousier that even the shittiest team in france."
idiotic logic. -_- couldnt be bothered to argue with him. what football does he watch.

didnt manage to take other videos, had a lot of pretty good songs.

owen <3 but he didnt score. would have been epic if he did.

school social work - part 3

2009-10-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

ok. so was following my prof to this primary school. my prof had started a ngo in guangzhou and they have been existing for quite awhile. so when the earthquake thing happened, they moved in to help the area. (in depth explanation later.) so they started an office at this new school. currently, they employ 3 full time social workers that are stationed at this school. they serve the student population of 700 odd fellas and about 80 staff.

as u read, keep in mind that most of the students and staff, stay in the school hostel. they only go home on weekends. so the school is kind of 24/7.

name of the ngo...

p.s. if u want to work here.. its 4000 RMB a month salary. (if u work for the govt, its twice the pay.)

so what do they do? kind of similar to what they have in singapore. they run an afternoon youth centre. like when the kids have no sch, they can chill out at this room. (i didnt see it, so not sure how big it is.) and under the supervision of the social workers.

they also provide counseling services for the kids, if they have any issues. so services include individual or group work, where they run groups. duh. hahha. topics not very certain, but can be a wide range of things, like discussing them about school stress, etc.

weekends, when the social workers are free, they do homevisits. this is for them to get a picture of the kids' home setting. so to ensure they are serving their needs. they might do homevisits during the weekday if is urgent, i.e. some kid has some issue, and they need to talk to their parents as well. (so they do do family work. which is cool. much better than sg.)

once in awhile, they'll run enrichment classes. those kind that u learn non-academic stuff.

and of course. any other jobs that help improve the lives of all the kids.

so while we were there, did some tasks that can be classified as others. the first night, we walked around the kids' dorms and helped them take pictures. so they can paste their pictures on their dorm doors. this is part of the slow but moving plans to make their dorms look nicer and personal.

next morning, we helped to design this notice board for the kids. cos they cant really draw well, so we drew the shapes and they cut it by themselves. words are by them too. this is some eco-firendly message type of deal on the notice board.

finished product.

the social worker who brought us around! outstanding hospitality as usual.

so it is much more impressive then singapore. this is total immersion into the community, and servicing the people. cos the social workers live in the community and are part of it. they dont come from sichuan, but they've picked up the dialect and are almost able to pass of as a local sichuaner. it is comm-based work, which is really much better (biased perspective here) than what they do in singapore. which is what social work should really be (not these bloody c&c-ers). some family work is done too, but their main target is the school children.

ok. so for some explanations. early part talked about this ngo moving into shui mo. (the town name, if you forgot.) so when the earthquake happened, obviously the govt has to respond, to help provide aid to the area, and also to rebuild back stuff, etc. so one interesting thing they did, was that the central govt, divided sichuan into different areas. and each province in china, was in charge of a certain area (not sure whether all the provinces take part, or whether its only the rich ones). like shanghai was in charge of this area, beijing another area, etc. so shui mo was under the jurisdiction of guangzhou (guangzhou is very rich). which is where my prof's agency is located. if not there is no way a ngo (esp foreign ngos) can enter this area to provide aid. so very cool about the way they divide and help each other. to serve your fellow country man.

为人民服务！

the other end of the spectrum - Part 2

2009-10-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

so we've got the yy experience. thought that was enough to prepare me for what to expect at a town/village school. the only prior knowledge i had of the school was that it had 700 kids. cos when i was arranging with my prof, she asked me to plan some activities for them, and when i asked her how many were there so that i can plan properly she said "There are over 700 children at the school. You can have as many as you want." fwaa. 700 kids. with 17 pple at 100 plus per school, it was already more than enough for us to handle.. now got 700!

so when i reached the primary school, i got a shock of my life. it was an 80 million yuan school (according to the vice-principal. might be exaggerated figure). The story of the school was that everything was flattened. so they combined two village schools and put it in the town. (equivalent of combining Gan Tang Zi and Tang Fang, and relocating them into the Xing Jie Town) plus other random students, the total student population was 700.

the thing about the school was that the facilities are by far many times better than a singapore school. amazing stuff. before the earthquake.. there were village schools that were similar to the ones in yunnan. now they have took a technological leap of 50 years to arrive at this new school.

so.. intro u the sch first.

name of school!

main building of the school and assembly area. this is only half of the main building. the other part is on the right. cant take it in the photo cos its an l-shaped building. (if you look closely they even have a monument at the base of the flagpole.

they have a 5 lane track...... with 2 basketball courts on it. building in the left.. is a INDOOR MULTIPURPOSE HALL.

canteen is a multi-storey building....

the building at the far end is a hostel. all the students and teachers (except those who live nearby) stay there.

hostel room... staff get one room to themselves, although there are 8 beds in in there.. haha. students get 8 to a room. the hostel is big enough to accommodate about 700 kids.. and about 80 staff. outstanding.

corridor lights. and stairs lights... ARE AUTOMATED. WTH. so the part that you walk will be lighted up. and it will off automatically. every fllight of steps have one sensor at the start and one at the end. and the building is like 5 stories. whole corridor is filled with those sensors too.

stack of books tt jsut arrived that are yet to be sorted. massive stack. the mini stack (like 1/20 of the stack here.) we bought for the sch in yunnan was like 4000 yuan? these must have cost a lot more. and the best part of it... is those are the unsorted ones.

there are already 3 FULL shelves. (all double sided) and quite long. like nus book shelf length. ALL BRAND NEW BOOKS. and they even have a security system thing. the piece of barcode thing that is hidden in everybook and beeps if u try to steal it when u walk pass the sensors at the door. WTH.

ALL classrooms have a HDTV. (sch has 700 kids. each class has about 30 kids. you can do the maths yourself.) goodness me. what kind of tv programs do they have to watch. chalk board is brand new as u can see. and they all have proper tables and chairs.

school is powered by lenovo. brand new computers.. all dual core kind. and there are many many many many sets of them around...

and well the last thing...

our beloved toilets. despite the advancement (its a very big toilet. they have working taps. proper cubicles.) ... the smell is still the same. :)

so a little introduction of the school. a very different face from the village schools we visited in yunnan. some questions that you may have in mind.. will answer/explain two things here.

1) the thing about the chinese that is really interesting is that.. they like to build infrastructure (i'll explain this another day if i have time.). so they build this new 80 million yuan complex. (the secondary school costs 100 million yuan.) this primary school is way more advanced than any pri sch in singapore. maybe even better or comparable to a JC standard. everyone is excited. this great new school to go etc.

but.. the people are still villagers. they are farmers at heart. the biggest problem they face now is that they don't know how to fully utilize the technology. also, all the money has been spent on the infrastructure, but almost none on the heartware. all the teaching material, style of teaching, quality of food at the canteen (malnourishment for the kids.) remain the same. moreover, the principal has never managed such a large compound and this big a number of people. he gets headache everyday trying to solve the problems.

so in a way.. the chinese are a real mysterious lot of pple.

2) so.. 80 million yuan.. where did it come from? the money was donated by the 2nd artillery division (or battalion? not too sure.) of the People's Liberation Army (china army). so then. why does the defense ministry have to pay for such rebuilding works????? and also.. usually the civil servants always say they do not have much money, in terms of salary, etc. and they are also forever trying to push the central govt to increase their budget so they have more money for operating.. so second question is where does the money come from then?

speculated answer: the army unofficially runs a side business. like they invest in stuff, and therefore are quite well off. so helping to rebuild the school is a show of generosity of the 2nd artillery division, because education is very important. also creates the image thing. may include some altruism elements too.

to be continued..

in the beginning - part 1

2009-10-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

so. i went to sichuan. in search of the rural scene again. (part hidden objective is to scout for new place to do a yes! project on.) followed my HK prof to wenchuan county, shuimo town. which was right smack at the epicenter of the earthquake. learnt many points about the chinese social welfare system and the social work scene there..

note: click the photo for hi-res. so you can see clearer. haha. if u didnt know.

so yes. this is dedicated to the yy pple, especially if u are interested to know more about china's rural scene. you might be able to do some comparisons, especially about the school.

Part A - the earthquake.

this is to give some background about the area. so it starts with the earthquake. it happened and it was rather bad (duh.) what made things worse was that there was a combination of many things. the area is mountainous (just like yunnan kind of mountains.) so there were rock slides, which send boulders flying down the mountain onto villages that were by the foot of the mountain. boulders are house-sized. so yeah.. imagine hdb flats being dropped on you.

e.g. of a boulder.

lol! they used it as a memorial monument after that. had a random transport that was sending us to dujiangyuan, he made us stop and take picture with it. lol. but we didnt mind anyway! but the driver couldnt take proper shots..

this was a school. the remains are still there after one year, cos they are preserving it as a tourism sight in the future.

so the town where the school was, completely flattened. as you can see in the picture below, there is another building on the left of the school. totally caved into the ground. if u stare hard enough at the mountain, there are brown patches. those are the rock slides from the mountains, which hurled dirt, pebbles, stones, rocks, and boulders onto villages down below.

the light blue roofs are temporary housings for the affected people.

so in the entire area, buildings disappear, 4-storey buildings sink into the ground and become a roof only, rock/land slides buried entire villages (imagine gan tang zi totally covered with soil!) in that area above, estimated 10000 pple died. they didnt even find the bodies. because villages were covered entirely. they dug out bodies after bodies and after awhile they gave up. cos there were simply too many.

even transport was a problem. bridges collapse like the photo below.

this bridge (its quite long!) was one of the main arteries into a section of the county (where shuimo was, plus other towns.). So the earthquake literally cut them off form the rest of the world.

the place (shuimo) now is just one mega construction site. the school was built finish first so everything else is still under construction. locals say need another 2 years before it can be a proper town again.

story 1: so immediately after the earthquake happened, there were announcements over radio, etc. that a very bad earthquake happened. and one very amazing thing that happened, was that thousands (or maybe just a thousand) of taxi drivers drove out of chengdu, into the affected areas to help to look for survivors and give any form of help they could. and they provided very significant help cos they had a vehicle which can transport aid in and casualties out. all these happened out of total altruism, and it was UNORGANIZED. nobody ordered them to. they just went out of service to their countrymen. really great story. and example of the wonders of the china spirit. touched my heart. honest! (and if u know me well, you might know hard it is to do so!)

to be continued...

china, the msyterious force - Part 0

2009-10-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

there are too many things to write about the sichuan school thing.

too many things to write about the china social welfare system.

too many photos to share.

hmm. recently taken a huge interest in china affairs.. the social work scene there is just starting and it has been a super exciting journey for the chinese social workers. yy kind of started some general interest, but that was the appetizer. now is the main course. taking a module on social welfare systems in china, and also the recent visit to sichuan, has really taught me a lot. and i can explain lots more things tt happened during yy! (tyt can testify. haha. gave her some samples.)

the chinese are an interesting lot of pple. i'll break the post down into various parts to make it easier reading.

cant wait for guangzhou visit!

here's a cool picture that our driver forced us to take. didnt mind! lol.

this was near the epicentre of the earthquake. rocks. and exciting.

p.s. i might try to do a seminar in nus! haha. if the department allows. hmm. in year 4 sem 1. about china.

dota talk.

2009-10-13T00:27:00.000-07:00

for the dota players (taken from http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2530513) :

Today is field camp day 3, and i'm taking charge of platoon 4 of some company...

Today the OC ask the company, during a session on evacuation from a firefight. He ask,"Soldier, shot on right wound. Section I/C, what do you do?"

The section I/C answered,"finish him with my SAR-21."

The OC ask,"Why you kill your own soldier??!"

The I/C answered..."coz i wan to deny kill"

LOL. what a classic. the floor guys play dota like every other night. and on the other night, they play N64. haha. no need to study one.

gg to sichuan to steal 700 kids. see u.

p.s. if u happen to see rem around, do inform me! (guy missing from my floor. been missing for almost three weeks alr! its quite cool... and creepy.)

EPIC FAIL

2009-10-09T20:56:00.001-07:00

so here my adventure begins. the pictures can explain a lot.

getting all set up with my stuff.

hooooooo! nigga gone fishin' in fake man utd michael owen jersey.

fail no.1 - the fish kept eating my bait, but didnt get hooked. AHHH. not even a small one. FISHING 1 XJ 0

fail no.2 - i caught sth. (evidence in the photo!) after enduring for ten minutes, the line snapped. knn. so i lost two hooks and sinkers. RARRRRRR. FISHING 2 XJ 0

fail no. 3 - after that ten minute fight. my reel died. the handle dropped out.. the consequences of buying a cheapo rod. and the best part... after trying to fix it. i tilted it the wrong way.. and it fell into the drain. wth. WAHH. FISHING 3 XJ 0

fail no. 4 - the drain covers were sealed into the pavement. so couldnt take it out. the hole was too small for my hand. and it was too deep for my fingers. so i made this homemade hook apparatus to hook it out. after 15 mins, the result was obvious. baaahhhhhhh. FISHING 4 XJ 0

so plan b. i used my rod to prod/dig it out. after ten minutes, finally got it out. although my reel handle came out, it was possible to fix, and i managed to recover it. so YAY. FISHING 4 XJ 1

fail no. 5 - so decided to call it a day and attempt to go fix my rod. walked around kennedy town looking for a screw that could fit that size. went to all the hardware stores, no such size. ZZZZZZZ. FISHING 5 XJ 1 (although this nice shop uncle gave me two free screws. but they dont fit anyway. cant do anything with those screws.)

in conclusion... EPIC FAIL. ok at least i got to practice throwing out the line and learning to position the bait on the hooks properly. and also getting used to the rod and the feelings when the fishes attack your bait. yay. also learnt what screw is in chinese/canto! haha! luo si! (excitement level 8/10) picking up skills is fun. next time i'll catch a giant squid.

PEEEEEENINGZZZZZZZ! just for you. haha. after the epic failure, i decided to indulge.

cool shit.

2009-10-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

hoho. typhoon time again. this time got double typhoon! just like mooncakes have double yolk.

damn typhoons. reminds me of good old "all-weather trained" recce days. argh. left us out there to die. damn army. anyway argh! typhoons. make it rainy so cant go out. already had two typhoons now got two more.. in a row too! all the best for the sporeans who are gg taiwan. they'll be so soaked.

some cool stuff learnt in geography class: the typhoon on the left is stuck. cos of the bigger typhoon on the right. so it will loiter around between taiwan and philippines for a few days. the weather guys cant even predict where its gg to go. cos of the double egg yolk. which is quite rare. cool shit.

the flow of money.

2009-10-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

spent china national day at the royal hong kong yacht club. wonderful lobang my roommate had. good food, open bar, atas dining, and best spot to watch the fireworks (some rock platform thingy in the middle of the harbor).

as usual. china's showmanship was outstanding. they even got "zhong guo" shaped fireworks. and flower shaped fireworks. the flower supposed to be hk national flower i think. many other types that i have never seen before. impressive 23 min show.

flower thing - supposed to be buahiania or sth like tt. dunno how to spell.

the zhong word if u can see. didnt take a decent shot.

and. in beijing... the stuff they put on is just too much. apparently they celebrate big every 10 years. and this year is the 60th year since mr. mao took over. the budget for the fireworks was twice that amount spent on the fireworks for the beijing olympics opening ceremony. they even zhng the weather so tt on that day will have clear blue skies and to ensure it doesnt rain on tt day. zhng the weather. wth. got like tens of thousands of pple on parade and they staged the largest ever military exhibition ever. lol.

some pics koped from the net.

some crazy stuff going on. so anyway. they spent a hell lot of money. which kind of sucks. cos after taking two modules on china, you will come to realize how shitty and messy certain aspects of the country are. the social welfare system is very messed up and the environmental aspects of china is like dying. and here they go spending so much money on their celebrations. the poor and the farmers are suffering out there, the environment is taking so much shit from the pple, and the work done to restore/help them are so... ineffective. not really the central govt's fault anyway. i bet nobody in the world can solve the mess they are in now effectively, or without other consequences. my prediction is that china cannot become a global superpower. cos no matter how developed your big cities are, the tail end of the line will drag you down. and the tail end of the line.. happens to be the majority of the population at 782 million (or 935 million, depends on which counting system) out of the nearing 1.4 billion pple in china. shame on you. go serve this pple like mao did.

为人民服务！

i went to ocean park to marry a ghost.

2009-10-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

ocean park. halloween bash! its called "haunt kong". lol.

but it's @#$%ing good. (excitement level 8.5/10) got 8 haunted houses specially designed for the halloween thing, and the park opens till late. and all the haunted houses are asian horror themed. so super cool!! (its different from the night safari one. this one they specially create 8 haunted houses, plus all the deco and many many many many many random ghosts wandering around the park tt will disturb you.)

jiang si scarecrow! the haunted houses got all kinds of themes. jiang si, underworld, haunted campus, japanese house, shopping malls, train station, etc. many many professional standard haunted houses. i'll say its a must go attraction if you come hk. but it only happens in oct.

i had to post this. cos its the first ever real panda i saw. super cool. but yes the tiongs... (not aik tiong.) had to spoil everything. squeeze here squeeze there. elbow here elbow there. had some fun elbowing back.

ok. story time. so.. during the night, and walking around... i chanced upon this ghost in a wedding dress and holding a bouquet of black roses. lol. so there was some other pple taking photo with her. so... while waiting in line... i pointed my camera above her and took picture of a tombstone deco which was above her. (you can see it in the pic below! but dont look now!)

so when i lowered my hands after the shot... she was staring at me! cos just nice the other group finished taking and left. chua number 1. then.. she was like :"that tombstone!?!? you took picture of that tombstone and dont want to take me!" chua number 2. so.. i was like "oh oops sorry" (cos she was speaking in canto.. but i understood what she was saying. but then.. my canto is super chui.. so i dunno how to respond to her. so just mumbled some "sorry sorry") so she made me propose to her. lol! she was like "gui xia lai!" (the canto version.) she started acting a bit princessy etc. and later if i dont do... she call all her ghost friends to come disturb me. lol. so yeah i did it. argh.

and yes. although ocean park rocks (it would have been better if there was no such thing as tiongs), shenzhen rocks too. why? cos SUPER CHEAP FOOD. i ate cabonara, clams (the lala kind.), free flow drinks... only S$4.50. OMG! i could have stayed there the whole day and ate all the dishes.

yes. and i descended into the kingdom of fake goods. dove into the abyss of lousy fan-dom. i bought a fake man utd jersey. oh my oh my. what have i done. oh well. at least he came on a free transfer.. why do i have to pay for his jersey?? (ok well the club pays his wages.)

The Resistance.

2009-09-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

'Tis the season for the Resistance. Physical distance shall not be a restriction for anyone. And as the VC meeting approaches, the Resistance lieutenants need to be readied for the fight.

Coincidently, one of the best bands of all time, Muse, just released their latest album, entitled - The Resistance. LOL! So their album launch has brought us some images for the cause.

Also, there is now a theme song! Which is the main single for the new album.
Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EtkuHzBVFM
top quality song. google the lyrics too!

So here are some cool awesome pictures.

album cover.

please join now.

my favorite two pictures.

so. preparing notes for the VC meeting is draining. balancing traveling, photo uploading, blog updating, school work (i have only done one reading so far, and slept during all my business classes.), making traveling plans, joining HKish activities. too many things.

need some motivations to resist. argh. its going downhill. writing has gone off. dont feel like doing anything anymore. ahh.

resistance report coming out soon, those who want a copy of the draft, say aye on the chatbox. lol.

this is where we hold them! this is where we fight!

2009-09-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

sunday. the day of days. the most awesome day of excitement thus far.

this is one of the reasons why you should and ought to come to hk. but you may not see this while u are here. it was not only a strike, it was a social work strike.

the sw students from hk chinese u.

news reporter also come.

block the whole street! this is only the tail end. the majority of the pple are in front. estimate about 1k plus pple. maybe even more.

i want to be that guy shouting. best job in the world.

YWCA no backbone!

the reason for the strike:

background:
apparently the govt was involved in pressuring YWCA about a social worker who was doing some work in the area of Tai-O (a fishing village). Cos the local district officers were not happy with the work tt the swker was doing. saying it was disrupting the harmony (sounds like a kind of excuse the chinese govt always gives). So there was some pressure from the govt on YWCA. So YWCA transfer the swker into another department. Not satisfied, the swker quit his job.

so.. cos of this. the swkers in hk, sw students from the universities, and probably some affiliated workers all went on strike. about 3 main issues:
1) unhappiness about political interference with the profession
2) YWCA's lack of backbone - i.e. bowing to govt pressure
3) there was one more but couldnt read the chinese words. (not me! MR!)

so, there's a write up about it here.
http://edu.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/show.cgi/15/1/4/41101/1.html

pretty awesome to get the whole profession, including students to strike cos of you. most of them were students anyway. like each uni sent bout 50 pple? there was hku, city u, chinese u, poly u, and other schools and organizations. naturally, i joined in to represent sw from nus. woo! but i didnt wear my sw hand shirt. damn. should have worn it.

so they marched from wan chai to the government house in central. (sth like walking from dhoby ghaut to padang distance) at the government house they "cooked" a crab. (fake one.) cos this whole issue is called river crab. The chinese word, hexie, sounds like harmony. so its about the govt's reasoning of "disrupting the harmony."

most of the chants and shouts were in canto so i dont really understand. only words i can pick up are "sei gong" which means social work. and some other random words. so although i did join in, couldnt really shout with them.

if only we could strike in singapore. would have been awesome for the resistance. cos the social work profession has been too mild in singapore. everyone (generalizing statement) wants to keep it safe and do what the govt wants, cos that's where the funding comes from. shouldnt the social workers be the ones telling the govt what to do, based on their professional knowledge?

whole street of pple!

songs!

police reinforcements coming.

then there's also this camel thing. which has a deep meaning.

for some of the meanings behind the camel and river crab, you can check out this youtube vid. rated M18.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKx1aenJK08
p.s. if u did watch it, click the read more option at the side, which would provide more explanations.

so its another great lesson on true advocacy. to be able to fight for your own profession. the social work profession. and to keep it free from political influence. i guess you may not be able to apply this in a singapore context, cos of the slightly different system here. but totally agree social work should be free from political influence. the key issue here is that even if the local district officers are not happy with a social worker's work, they should resolve it between themselves and not through engaging political pressure.

EXCITING! (9.5 out of 10 stars)

credit to MR and HX for some of the info.

DISCLAIMER

2009-09-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

HELLO.

DISCLAIMER: (in relation to the bottom post.)

To prevent further discussion on the topic of lust. I, hereby declare that I DID NOT ENTER ANY OF THEM! ahaha. Was just wandering around.

Don't anyhow anyhow.

gone fishing.

2009-09-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

adventure comes yet again. this time, i searched hk in search of doing sth crazy... haha! i needed to buy some stuff.. so i ended up at mongkok. ended up at a nice little quiet street of street shops which i havent explored yet.

its much more peaceful and less stressful then kang kong street. cos its wider and seems more relaxed. but the stuff there aint attractive. anyway. continued wandering around. still couldnt find it despite combing the whole of mongkok.

however i did find some good finds.

egg tart - HK$2 (S$0.40!!), the sticky chewy red bean thing - HK$3. the portion was smaller (tt's why cheaper.) BUT. they were fresh out of the oven. so ULTRA shiok. egg tart is super nice. its the milky kind which i like. but the shop is too out of place to go back again. damn.

so i walked on. and was getting dark, cos i went there after class. and i wandered into... *ahem* area.

i took a photo of this.. and ran away! (ok i didnt run. walked very fast. retrograde. smoke out and run. just like the good old recce days in army.) cos i was super scared some parang wielding triad member would come after me demanding compensation for the photos. lol! it was a not very bright area of the street. and the darkness was coming. was full of adrenaline. rocks... (more pictures will come in fb. coming! after i upload other stuffs.)

anyway. let me attempt at some excellent chinese if u didnt understand the poster. it says:" beautiful women like clouds, free to sth (i cant read that word) free to choose, first rate service, all day special price." haha. my chinese rocks. and yes it's prob a guy's handwriting. i bet if u get a girl to write it in nice-ish handwriting, you could increase your revenue by 30%.

amazingly, china fetches quite a price. its equivalent to a local girl. which is kind of interesting. and russia.. according to life stories from friends.. apparently they er.. are supposed to be quite cheap. so here it was like twice the price. so kind of stunning. but anyway. i think its a scam. they didnt say for how long. like whether it was short time/long time or whether it was one hour or sth.
(Note: Yes! they do have meanings behind those phrases! e.g. "long time." er means to secure services for the entire night till the next morning." so if someone says "let me love you long time." means she/he wants you to pay for her/his services for the entire night plus morning included. short time is 2 hrs i think. learnt this from a friend who had life experience. lol. maybe applicable in certain SEA countries only though.)

so i ran away quickly. and found another one later on. similar prices.. i was so scared cos of a guidebook tt i borrowed from hku library that says the brothels and the sleazy KTVs in the area are run by the triads. and saying you'll get ripped off once u go in. and they'll threaten to beat u if u dont pay or sth like tt. so took photo of the KTV (above photo.) and scooted off. many KTVs along the streets. but they look less intimidating than the brothels. but the lousy guidebook was written in 1999, so i dont really trust it.

so.. while running away, i found yet another good deal. bananas! HK$5 for 4 big ones. so its like 25cents per big banana! rocks! and found a loaf of bread for HK$7! the whole loaf, super soft kind (sth like tt holland v one).

so the night ended inconclusive. i didnt find what i wanted to find. so went back cos quite tired already..

so, i decided to abandon wandering and return to the 21st century and make use of IT. managed to google a shop out. turns out there was one near my hall. a 15 min bus ride away.. and so went out again the next day after class. finally found it after a bit of difficulty.. cos the shop entrance was so small..

so.. excitingly... i decided to buy this! rocks!! it's a beginner set up.

yes! finally can get some fishing done. (ok yes, i was looking to buy a fishing rod.) although i need to first figure out how to use it. lol! perfect time to make use of the internet.

side story: i asked one of the shop attendants whether they knew of any "lessons" kind of thing that was gg on in hk. guess what he did? he said no need. then he walked me to the window in the shop, open the curtains. then he pointed at the pier. "just go there" "see that place beside the bus stop?" "yes go there." and didnt know what to reply him.. lol. basically he just told me to go to the sea and fish. lol.

ok so.. i shall attempt some fishing soon. YEAH! this nigga's gone fishing!

p.s. last line reminded me of this video. for your own entertainment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgjwjaBJ5Do

the high life

2009-09-13T00:55:00.001-07:00

choosing...

roasted pigeons.

baby abalone.

the red fish on your dinner plate.

soup.

comes from a humongous container.

sago dessert

fruits.

you can go broke eating like that every day.

i need a bigger budget. lol.

HK$100 per day. rocks.

2009-09-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

the health care system in hk really rocks. as a citizen, you pay HK$100 per day, inclusive of any operation done. yes, and cos of my hk student visa, managed to pay only HK$400 (about S$77) for a 3 night stay plus an operation for appendicitis. it probably would have cost S$1000 back in sg. ministry of health please wake up your idea.

a satisfied customer.

anyway. i was at queen mary hospital and it rocks! they all speak english and quite decently as well. so was not bad. and for a c class ward it was kind of equivalent to a b2 in sg. the standard of the hospital was prob like ttsh or sgh standard.

adventure 1.
first night i met a super chio doctor. (but she was wearing a mask, so cant see her full face.) and she was the same age as me!! so she prob jsut grad or sth. and she was rather noob in putting the iv drip on my hand. she put the tourniquet for too long until my fingers were purple. and she didnt really do it properly cause my blood was flowing up the iv tube. lol. and she was a bit panicky, asking me not to worry, etc. so i kind of laughed at her and she laughed at herself. shouldnt the nurse be doing this kinda things? haha. anyway after all the mistakes she made, she finally set it up.

unfortunately, after 1.5 days, my vein died or sth, my hand swelled a bit, prob cos the needle wasnt nicely placed. so in the end, had to poke the other hand for the other 2 days.

then there were air bubbles. after she left i saw this humongous air bubble going into my vein. i tot i was gg to die. cos in army, during the iv drip tt we learnt, they told us must never ever ever have air bubble inside, cos it might kill the person. i guess the army is full of shit. anyway i asked the nurse later on, after many more bubbles went in and they said it was fine.

when she returned later to get more info, manged to make a joke then she laughed at although i didnt think it was funny. but then they transferred me to another ward and i never saw her again. damn.

adventure 2.
at the new ward my miserable life began. i had to wait for my turn in line for the operation theatre so i couldnt eat. they didnt let me eat since i checked in. so in total i didnt eat for about 49 hours. they had a sign for me.

so i had to survive on drip. which made my mouth super itchy. i must kfc when i fully recover. but after the op i got upgraded to fluid diet. which was rice water. what POWs eat. then upgraded to soft diet. which was what oliver twist ate. and finally my last meal was normal diet. i got upgraded much faster than the granny who was sitting opposite me. when i was on drip she was on fluid diet. when i made it to normal diet, she was still at soft diet.

in the new ward, the average age was like 70 years old i guess. cos it was the intestine/colon/rectum problems ward. so pple were doing their business in the ward itself (with the help of pans/bottles/nurses). wondered if i'll be one of them when its my turn to be old.

so. here concludes my adventure in queen mary hospital. conclusion: khaw boon wan needs to shape up.

entertainment. the princessy show thingy. in canto.

my faithful walking stick/iv drip holder buddy. never left my side. and my lunch was hanging on it!

hongkonggooddeal.com

2009-08-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

hong kong is super expensive. standard price of food is HK$25-40 (abt S$5-8) for a meal. and the same stuff costs 3-4 in sg... but! after a few days. i've got ultimate bargains.

wanton mee for HK$10 at Kennedy Town. Plus soya bean for another HK$5. Equivalent to about S$2.80 in total. good deal. wanton got whole prawn inside plus meat. soup is rather tasty but not sure whether it's msg or it's really good. cant complain for HK$10.

catch of the day. xiao long bao. 4 for HK$10. so its about S$0.45 per piece.
Restaurant standard. not as nice as crystal jade but still quality stuff and bargain price. (actually found similarly cheap ones in shenzhen but then, its china... and maybe the quality not so good.) this was at a restaurant along mongkok. offer is only valid from 11.30 - 19.00. i found it at 18.40. rocks.

free cd from some people doing street evangelism in mongkok. ok its not food. but still, its free. maaybe i'll give to ky. and they were friendly and nice pple.

zha jiang leng mian. (han yu pin ying maybe wrong. lol. what do you expect.) This is from shenzhen. RMB9 which is about S$1.90. when i entered the eatery i didnt realized it was halal. (saleha can eat this!!) which was quite cool. so they used beef instead of pork. so it tasted like spaghetti. super bargain cos it could feed 2 people or 3 1/2 selinas. couldnt finish it. looks small in the picture but the plate is super big. bigger than the standard red plates that they used at the arts canteen. like 30% bigger.

sch starts tmr. crap. facebook is being irritating, cos got some problems uploading photos.

A Happy Journey Starts Like That

2009-08-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

A Happy Journey Starts Like That... With Packing! hate packing.

body armour.

everything out. pack 1-7.

it's 17kg. still lighter than FBO (army field pack.) rocks. its taller than my head. i feel like i'm carrying a house.