Sunday 31 May 2009

We've come a long way since 20 years ago. Really?

It rained hard last weekend. We were housebound and the weather brought me down memory lane. 20 years ago, students in Beijing demanded for democracy. Tian An Men Square may be a big place but there was not an empty spot that summer. People in Hong Kong went all out and there were over 1 million people on the street, voicing out their support for the students. The rain didn't stop people from making a strong statement, hoping that the officials sitting inside Zhong Nan Hai can hear what the people had to say.

20 years passed and I am no longer the same young student with lots of dreams in my head. Did I forget about what happened 20 years ago? Hell no! How can I forget about the scene of a man trying to stop a tank from moving forward by standing in front of it? How can I forget about grannies going up to military trucks to tell soldiers that they should go home instead of going into the city? And the same tricycle that people used to transport water melon in the summer time was used to transport injured students and supporters out of Tian An Men Square for medical help. It was bloody. You can almost smell the blood through the TV screen.

I suppose there is some medical advancement in this world that I am not aware of? Perhaps there's some truth in the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"? Some people in Hong Kong are trying to convince the others that May and June never existed back in 1989. I found it appalling that the Chief Executive of Hong Kong "represented" the people of Hong Kong when he was asked about 1989. Let's see, either I am not "people of Hong Kong" or he is talking BS. The CE must have been great at Dodgeball. He told everyone to focus on the economic development in China over the last 20 years. The standard of living might have improved in costal cities but I see a decline in the core values that make us people. The friendly neighbourhoods are disappearing. You can live next to your neighbour for 20 years without knowing who they are. Young people on public transport either pretend to sleep or focus on their video game when someone who needs a seat shows up. Can the CE crosses his heart and say we should all be pleased with the progress?

What scares me more is there are a bunch of youngsters who are the same age as I was when I marched to the race course in Happy Valley. They said the student movement was a riot and the students were armed with weapons and that's the reason of the PLA going to Tian An Men Square to protect the innocent. As I always say, the most powerful "Weapon of Mass Destruction" is people's mind and selective amnesia is spreading like wildfire.

Do I love China? I do because that's where my ancestors are from. Do I care about the Chinese government? Yes! My great grandparents and grandparents sold most of their asset in Hong Kong to help the party to build a new China like lots of other patriotic people back then. It pains me to see if things are not going well. What am I seeing now? Some zealots without a brain is trying to erase part of China's modern history. I am rereading "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" and I get cold sweat when I think of some news articles and speeches given by those important elites of Hong Kong about June 1989.

I don't think it is possible for anyone to always make the right decision. History is a subject for us to learn from the past and reflect on the present. It is wrong to deny the history and it is "wronger" to teach fabricated history to the next generation. I am just an average mum but I am not going to allow my children to be brainwashed into a brain dead.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Rash rash!

When I see Changunnie suffering, no matter how "minor" it is according to the paediatrician, my heart bleeds. It is worst then having me chained to a wall, starving me for 7 days and having all my favourite food within my sight and yet just out of reach.

It's been an eventful two weeks (and thus my disappearance from writing anything). Changunnie got a flu from our maid (thankfully not swine flu!) and that turned into sinusitis. Changunnie was pretty good with the sudafed and panadol but it was a fight to feed her the antibiotis. In fact, she took the other medicine on her own (a little master of using the syringe) but it took 3 adults to pin her down to feed her antibiotics. She would have been an excellent revoluntionary as she kept her mouth shutted and I needed to pinche her nose to force her to breathe through her mouth. At one point, she shivered under a high fever and it was a night when no one got any sleep.

Now that the sinusitis is coming down, she is suffering from heat rash and another unknown one on her backside. I can tell from the way she scratched herself how itchy it must be. She doesn't want to put on any clothes and definitely no nappy. What can I do?

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Farewell?

Since my accidental stroll into the candy story of lunatics last week, I have been thinking if I should move on with my life. In this kind of market, some people might think I am behaving like a spoiled brat to leave a job. I will never ever be able to explain it to the general public but the mental abuse that I have to go through is something only past victims can sympathize. Perhaps the title of this blog can change into "The Diary of a Former Working Mum" and I can embark on my other projects like kill all the rats in the area (that could take a life time as we live right next to the country park), build my own furnitures, take kung fu classes with Changunnie....

Sunday 3 May 2009

A fine day out



Weather on Saturday was nice and we decided to take Changunnie out for an excursion. Lots of people became health concious and didn't want to be with the crowd because of swine flu and flocked to Sai Kung.

We went to the beach on an outlaying island and it was nice. It's been a long time since I last saw clear water in HK. It was so clean that I could see the rocks on the bottom around the pier which is about 15 feet deep.

I don't think I can describe how nice the trip was better than what Changunnie did with her expression here