Livin la vida pilipino

Hangin around the islands has been a blast, but my dome can’t get past a few ‘improvements’ that could better the quality of life in this seemingly developing world. A few ideas that have come to mind include waste management, street cleaning, and mandatory smog inspections on automobiles.

Island life is rad — total chill laid-backedness. When you need transport, you flag a bus down and it’ll stop for you unless it’s just too full, fruit and snacks are sold on every corner, there are no 7-11’s, the sea is unbelievably clear, sea creatures lurk, the animals run free, the people are friendly as ever, there’s nothing lacking here but a few minor details. Unfortunately, some western models of improvement would put lanes on the roads, cut-out tricycles all together, and install air conditioners in every building (ahem ‘hk’). But those things are not necessary; rather, they take away from what living on an island is all about.

Perhaps my ideas would need a major push as well, but as far as I can tell, they are feasible. Street cleaning can be done with grey water (or perhaps sea water?). Waste management would need some infrastructure such as bins, garbage collection vehicles, and a landfill, but such models already existing in the west could work here as well. And the smog inspection is a major must. Frankly, the streets out here are too narrow for the capacity of putt-putting motos making and idling their ways down the streets. A mandatory filtration system can minimize the exhaust of these vehicles.

Well, I’m heading to Cebu tonight on an overnight boat. Apparently, I get a cot cuz the ride’s a little ove 5 hours. Sorta not looking forward to it, but ready for some rest nonetheless. Once in Cebu, making a b-line to the airport where we’re flying out to Palawan Island. Once there, going to check out an underground aquatic system and other things that dub Palawan the 7th wonder of the world. Stoked!

I hope some more ideas come to mind regarding this wonderful country. Oh, I guess I should add a note about the notorious corruption of filipino politics and authority. Fortunately, I’ve been lucky enough to not have experienced this yet, as the folks here have been nothing but warm and caring.

Maganda!

Voltaic Solar Bags

The Voltaic Solar Bag is a backpack designed to charge hand-held devices through solar power.  The panels are lightweight and waterproof! They produce 14.7 watts of energy and come with adapters that also work with car chargers and usb adapters.

Check it at http://www.voltaicsystems.com/

Smokin!

Heritage-seeking

After being saved by the parents once again, I was able to confirm today that a trip to the Philippines is definitely going to happen for me. I’m totally stoked for this experience.

I would really like to visit the towns that my mother lived in, but am struggling with possibly hurting her feelings (?…). I’m not sure how to put into words, but there seems to be a strange run-around/animosity towards me visiting these places. According to the mother, there’s no real reason to go back to the towns. I toyed with the idea of telling my mom that it would be great for me to get pictures to show her, but then again, she’s told me not to do it because of the “danger of getting caught in the wrong place at the wrong time” (which I’m not sure what that really means anyway…’getting caught by rebels’ perhaps). I, however, wonder what’s really going on in her head about this.

Nonetheless, I’m planning for a pretty amazing trip. I originally started thinking that flying into Cebu then taking the western route through Palawan up to Luzon to ultimately fly out of Manila would work out, but it seems that perhaps the opposite direction might work out better as to swing through the provinces of Isabela and Nueva Ecija where the mother lived. I think even visiting her university might be fun to check out her classrooms.

So in thinking all of this out, I also started wondering about what my Pop’s thinking about all of this. We’ve actually talked a lot about going to El Salvador and he seems way more stoked to check out his home town than my mother does about hers. He’s also planning on visiting the E.S. with me whereas my mom has sort of avoided the idea of going back.

Anyway, I don’t really know what to expect with this trip. It’s going to be way different than any other trip I’ve taken to the South East because of the perhaps not-so-obvious connection I am going to have with the locals. On the outside, I may look like an American-born-half-Filipino, but for a large portion of my life, I was raised like a full-blooded Filipino by my grandparents. I laugh (now) about the things my mother tells me about her childhood and how my grandparents raised her because I was raised the same way by them. Let’s face it, we were both disciplined by a chinella and the meter-stick if we did not finish our sinigang by our nanay (which means ‘mother’ in tagalog as opposed to me calling her ‘lola’ or grandmother like my other cousins).

Which got me thinking that I wish I was going to be travelling with some family so as to hear all the stories of the past. But back to what I was saying at the start of this post, perhaps the past isn’t as romantic and care-free as I imagine it to be. Either way, I look forward to going back to where my mother, my family and I am from.

Epic Change

Last night I finished up two documentaries with seemingly different themes, but ended up being quite similar. They were “Born into Brothels” and “Hoop Dreams.” They’re both pretty classic in their premise, and both reminded me of some goodness going on in the world.

The last place I lived in in the city was a sublet from Mr. Sanjay Patel who was actually leaving to do work in Africa similar to the work done in the “Born into Brothels” story. He and a friend co-founded Epic Change, an organization designed to finance a school that he worked at some years ago. After the school lost money and was on the verge of disappearing, he and his friends got together to try and save it. So, to teach locals skills on becoming self-sustaining, he does what is done in the movie, and teaches the students how to use cameras to produce photos which are in turn sold for financing the school. It’s absolutely brilliant.

Please peep them at http://www.epicchange.org

USB cell

Yussef just showed me this neat invention: a rechargeable USB battery.

Read more at http://www.usbcell.com

EV71

Last week, I read a blurb on msn.com about EV71 spreading in China. At the time of reporting, there were 22 children dead and about 1,500 infected. I was really surprised that I had not heard about this in local news. Then as the days went by, the number of infected rose dramatically as reported by big media giants. Today, nearly a week later, googlenews is reporting the total has gone up to 16,000 infected from the original reporting at the end of April. (Today is only 8 May) Something fishy is going on in the media.

Here in Hong Kong, I depend on The Standard for current events. Although this isn’t the most reliable source of news, I certainly expected to read about deadly viruses occurring right across the border. My cynical side says that the Chinese government is holding back information as they did with SARS, but I also believe that that can’t be possible. Perhaps the people don’t even realize they have the virus and they’re just spreading it like a bad STD (or is it ‘STI’ these days?) Never the less, HK media I feel has not been doing a great job at reporting this topic. Surprising in a society that talks about good hygiene so much.

Promoting Campus Sustainability

As JUST mentioned, I have finished my semester in Hong Kong as well as my first experience of living in a dorm. This gave me an idea: promoting sustainability in school dorms.

The dorms can be equipped with composting and recycling bins, incentives for turning off lights (or timers and sensors, but I think this concept needs a little more research), low-pressure water spouts and heating, bike racks to promote cycling, and paying for air conditioning.

I’m sure there’s more ideas out there, please feel free to add!

Reflections on a Semester in Hong Kong

Today marked the last day of classes for me in Hong Kong — I turned in the last of my final papers. I’m pretty stoked on the topics I wrote about. They are:

1. A case-study of CSR and mining in the Philippines. (this one was a joint paper with Yussef)

2. China’s move up the value-chain and how this affects other south east Asian countries.

3. How Hong Kong is not an effective democracy.

4. Ecofeminism in the context of e-waste and women in China.

I’ve got to say that I’m quite impressed on the breadth of topics I was able to cover. The semester was quite discouraging for me considering the way classes were conducted. To sum it up, there was little participation from my peers, very few of the locals seemed to actually be interested in the things we were talking about, and most of my professors didn’t seem to mind.

But studying in Asia has definitely been a learning experience. For one, I guess I never really knew how different it is from Western culture. Just going back to the CSR paper: I feel that the things companies get away with out here would never fly in America, but this is certainly changing. In the Philippines, where this mining company is setting up to do major damage, community groups (other than the militia) are very well-organized in getting their concerns out there. Certainly, there still are the typical obstacles that they must overcome (corruption in government, greed), but they’re working hard to achieve what they want. By taking the CSR course at CityU, I learned that companies are becoming aware of this issue in Asia, and that Asia isn’t just going to be the world’s sweat factory of products, raw materials, and other exploitative means.

By the resources made available to me in this CSR course, I also found out that China is working to move up the value chain. They’re shutting down factories and banning the processing trade in their country. This ultimately means that these factories are looking to other places such as Africa and south east Asia to remain in business. I think in being an environmental studies student, my initial reaction to this was quite cynical — that the businesses are just moving their filth across the border. But I was pretty surprised to find that countries, especially Vietnam, are aware of the potential harms that factories bring, and they’re taking steps to prevent this through committees on green business. I’m going to be keeping my eye on this topic.

The next paper had to do with something completely out of my realm, but I developed some keen insights on democracy. HK is working towards universal suffrage and democracy, a major no-no in their one-country-two-systems establishment with the PRC. But a timetable has been set and the Hong Kong people and politicians are taking notice and really working to make it happen. They need some changes first (i.e. voter turnout), but just yesterday I read in The Standard that some members of the Pan-Democrats are stepping down to make room for fresh faces. Such a great move to keep the momentum going, I think. All of this, however, made me question the importance of democracy. Without sounding too much like a traitor to the good ol’ U.S. of A., I don’t see what’s so important for them to do this. Democracy isn’t all that it’s cut out to be unless it’s an effective democracy (something HK, nor the U.S. is might I add). But HK is young and ever-evolving. I say do what the people want! Go socialist! (just kidding about the socialist part)

My last piece had to do with women of course. Newsflash: women are being oppressed in China! I don’t think that the PRC is outright doing this on purpose because they certainly have many laws that protect women to make sure they don’t end up working in the slums of e-waste. But as in many patriarchal societies, money comes before the ladies. Bribes and corruption are still prevalent in China and government officials find many more benefits in cash than making sure little Xu isn’t burning old parts of computers. I couldn’t come up with tangible solutions to this problem, but personally I feel that it will definitely need to incorporate elements of development, technology, and women to fix this.

There’s many more things I was exposed to while studying in Asia, just to name a few: peak-oil, Chinese bloggers, setting land aside in Hong Kong for shipping containers, the possibility of putting patches of grass on the roofs of cars to alleviate pollution, one cargo ship in Victoria harbor gives off the equivalent of 10,000 cars of exhaust, “Hong Kong people are pragmatic,” the PRC can be referred to as ‘grandfather,’ Tai Chi and the watermelon exercise, foot-binding was eliminated in one decade, and stakeholder dialogue is key!