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Published: October 7th 2007
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Hong Kong Metro
Ah, right, you are not in Kansas (or China) any more. This is available over the counter here in a society that remains rather repressed on matters of the body This has been an unusual interval since the last communication, with classes hitting a certain stride only to be interrupted by the week long National Holiday, commemorating the 58th Anniversary of the Communists seizing control in Beijing.
We celebrated the anniversary with a gala at the posh Garden Hotel; most in attendance were Western business types but we did have some revealing conversations with some others who were teaching in the area. The ceremony consisted of a line of officials lined up in front of the crowd, being introduced one at a time, standing forward and bowing slightly, and then stepping back. The Governor then spoke and his speech was about $$$, the amount of direct foreign investment, the increase in the GDP, etc. "Hey buddy, take a deep breath outside and get a lungful of the toxins in the air" (not).
Among the guests was a very dynamic man, a contemporary, who when he finds out we are from Vermont says “you don’t happen to know…” Now before I get to the punch line, those of you reading who are NOT from Vermont need to remind yourselves that it is a small state, that Ellen and I have
Hong Kong Harbor
Ok, it is no longer in the top five busiest seaports, but lots of merchandise moves through here, much of it manufactured in southern China, here comes another load of valued barbecue utensils!! been living there for nearly 35 years, and that we both have had extensive state-wide contacts. So when we get that question we are ready to surprise the person with our affirmation. Now, back to the celebration and the query “... Donny Osman?” Right Donny Osman, our former State Representative and a well known clown (no I mean it, the Brit in front of us had gone to clown school with Donny in Paris in the 70’s, hadn’t heard much from him since, so we gave him a good update.) Thanks to the Maoist march into Beijing! Someone please forward this to Donny, we have a private message for him!!
The aspect of being here that is so intriguing is they way that we represent, accurately or not, a broad range of expertise to our Chinese students and colleagues. One experience that repeats itself in endless permutations, is being asked to consult on a matter about which we might have indicated some knowledge which has been elevated by our friends here into world class expertise (or at least as close to that as they are going to get). Last year it had us working on a suicide prevention program
On Lantau Island
Virtually alone on an all day hike, we would encounter many scenes like this as we hiked along the coast of this Special Administrative Region island. for the city of Guangzhou, population 14 million. In the instant example, I had a brief conversation with a couple of Ellen’s students who were here for a 5 hour special seminar last Sunday. At some point the question of autism came up and I, sitting nearby attending to some work, made a few general comments about the nature of the disorder and some of the current thinking about best practices (this was about 50% of my fund of knowledge on this difficult and complex disorder). A few days later, Ellen receives and email from one of the students who lays out the problems of her nephew, described as having autism, and the need for some consultation with her brother on treatment options. This afternoon the student, along with her brother, sister-in-law, nephew and fellow student translator showed up for a consultation.
Now we might have been expecting really treatment naive people and saw our task was to orient them to the basics of autism; but they had spent much time, money and effort in identifying resources for their seven year old and had come up empty handed. Their story was one of being told that their son could
Big Bhudda
The Chinese have a great penchant for labeling and ordering so for the record, this is the largest, seated, bronze, outdoor Bhudda in the world. Actually, despite the crowds, it was captivating. Buddhism, in China, is mostly a ritual of the old, having been targeted during the Cultural Revolution as one of the Three Olds. not attend the local public school even though the law prohibited the school from refusing to serve him. These sophisticated, well-financed people just shrugged their shoulders and accepted the verdict, acknowledging to us that there was nothing to be done (this sort of lawlessness occurs frequently here; China has the best laws in the world on a variety of issues, but they are routinely ignored by all levels of government.) Other attempts were either rebuffed or were inadequate to the needs of their child.
They had read that there was some new research in the US and wanted to know if it would be expensive to have their son treated there. As far as we could determine, there is no breakthrough treatment; the best practice is a psycho-educational approach in specialized settings, although there are some “alternative” approaches including diet, chelation therapy, etc. We encouraged them to look to Hong Kong for the ongoing help they and their son would require, and spent the rest of the time (rather Ellen did) giving them a 101 on community organizing. It was quite someting to see their devotion to their son, their willingness to be up front about his condition (not
Hand Cleaner
One lingering after effect of the SARS scare of a few years ago, is the widespread availability of these alcohol hand sanitizers throughout Hong Kong. This builds on a greater attention to sanitation, in general, in HK as compared to the Mainland. This was at the entry to a food court in a shopping mall. the norm here where many of these children are hidden away) and their realistic expectations.
We were both quite moved by their forthrightness, their willingness to accept their son's condition and their ability to maintain their equilibrium and sense of humor. We have agreed to try to find some Hong Kong expert who might be willing to come to Guangzhou and speak with a group of parents who are similarly disappointed with local offerings and see if we can't jump start some parental action, which made the difference in the US.
We did take some time away during the holiday week. The three so-called “Golden Weeks” were established a few years ago as an encouragement on the part of the government to get people to spend more money. The Chinese save 40% of their income and the government would like them to spend more of it. Never mind that they save so much because of their belief that the government will continue to abandon them in time of ill health, disability or old age and fail to provide needed social programs (the Party has recognized this and is taking some small steps to deal with the dangers of
With Minling
Minling was one of our top performing students when we were here last year, she was the "class monitor" and a candidate member of The Party. She has gotten what for many is the prize job, working for the government in Shenzhen (just across the border from Hong Kong). She came up for a visit with us to share her good fortune, brining along papaya and persimmons from her aunt's yard inequality that have made China more unequal than even the US, for those of you who keep track of these things, China’s Gini coefficient reached .46 last year).
I digress… the Golden Weeks (New Year’s, May Day and National Day) are designed to give people time off from work and get them to travel on vacations or back to their home villages. As a consequence, any normal person will take whatever steps necessary to avoid all travel as the usual bedlam of Chinese train and bus stations becomes magnified by a factor of 3 and the usual pushing and shoving reaches unbelievable heights. (I was cross-bocked by a granny getting on to a train, it was reserve seating, we all had tickets and it was just the passenger equivalent of a Babinski reflex, she a crowd, push ahead!) When we were here last year we retreated to a Vipassana meditation course for 7 days of silence. This year we headed to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (that's the 50 year transitional name), avoided the peak travel days and went to the island of Lantau, a mostly wooded area an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong Island. We stayed at
At the haircut
I returned to the scene of what Ellen describes as the best haircut I ever received, it is a 90 minute ritual of shampooing for 30 minutes, a head, neck and should massage and finally a haircut. All for 25 RMB ($3 US). a beach front resort and on our first day experienced the aftereffects of a typhoon that had hit Taiwan and Shanghai quite seriously. For us it was a matter of very high winds, choppy seas, and some intermittent rains.
We had a nice hike which took us through some rough coastal areas and then a bus back to our hotel. Car travel is very limited on the island and most people get around using public buses, very sensible.
We are now back in Guangzhou, ready for the week ahead and surprises along the way.
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Charlie
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Wow, Stuie!!
Another great blog. Keep it coming. I'll make sure Diane sees the part of the "beauty salon". She will love it.