Taking a Fast Boat to Hong Kong

 First we heard of the yellow vests protests in France, a populist movement from the working middle class who took to the streets to vent their frustrations on economic issues.  Now we have the black shirts protests in Hong Kong, going now more than 13 weeks.  Again, another populist movement coming from the middle class ranks.  It kinds of remind one of  a third  populist movement -  in the US during the last election cycle, except that in their instance, instead of bullets, the protagonists used the ballot.

One outstanding thing is how the HK movement has been able to galvanize the citizenry to gather in very large numbers even with a very loose organization whose leaders are not even clearly known.  It gathered at one point 1.7 million people on very short notice, almost a fourth of the total population of the island of about 7 million people.  Tech-savvy residents have created their own networks for communications and dissemination.  Thus we hear buzz words like mesh networks or Telegram, etc.

How could anyone ignore the numbers?  And more importantly how could one not realize the stakes involved?

Among them are:

In the world of finance, HK is the third most important global financial hub,   behind only London and the US.  It cannot afford to be destabilized for long, without deleterious repercussions worldwide.  The tense rumblings are definitely undermining this pivotal role in this Asian locale where English is a primary language.

It is an inevitability that in 2047, HK will truly be molded as part of Mainland China, as per agreement reached in 1997, and it will be ruled by the Communist government like any other part of China.  Once done, HK will lose its financial prominence because the major Western powers will never allow itself to trust in China.  But why should HK be any different from any Chinese city?

But first a little trivia.  Before the ascendency of China as a looming world power, the Communist government had eyed HK with great avarice because HK’s economy or GDP then was comparatively huge compared to that of China. But in the meantime China’s many big cities blossomed and became modernized and prosperous amidst a riotous economy that was burgeoning to the point that now, HK’s GDP contribution would not mean that much, maybe representing only 10 or 15% of China’s total.

But the bigger problem is HK itself.  HK became unique HK because of the uncanny combination of the Chinese people’s intrepid nature and their entrepreneurship genius mixed with the vaunted British Common Law.   That inimitable combination produced HK, and we know this would become untenable once HK becomes part of the Communist regime of China.  Rule of law as known in the West will be alien then, and the HK generations weaned on this cannot survive.

Even with just this, one can easily grasp the mammoth dilemma that HK truly finds itself.

Elusive Peace

Peace be with you.  Peace I leave with you.  Peace I give unto you. Go in peace.

We talk peace.  We shout peace.  We think peace. We all want peace.

But what exactly does each one expect of peace?  For this, we individually have our own ideas.

But by deductive process, we find that the temporal peace we all crave for fall into each and/or every one of the following things.

Our elemental concept of peace first and foremost assumes that we are in possession of financial or economic security.  The kind that allows us to sufficiently take care of ourselves, our families and  loved ones, with just enough efforts and difficulties as to allow us to enjoy it in due time and measure.  This extends to our capabilities to provide the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and overall health and safety of those we are responsible for.

Beyond this, we would find peace if we can continue to find ample opportunities for our  robust cravings  for continual activity, so our lives are not desolate and dreary, or bereft of the pleasant activities that are of value to us and that enrich our memories..

We also have peace when we feel that we have developed satisfying and considerable human friendships and bonds that bring smiles and pleasant memories.

Because our very nature hankers for it, we feel peaceful and serene, when we are blest by praise and admiration from our fellow human beings and peers.

With these we feel our lives as fulfilled and in contentment, and therefore at salutary peace with ourselves and the world.

But Christ’s concept of peace for us is quite simple and straightforward.  He demands straight thinking in following His will unselfishly.  Said differently, it means taking up His Cross and following Him

Can we reconcile the temporal with the spiritual?  That is the overriding question that ought to provoke us each day.

To bear the cross and to love it

To chastise the body to subjection

To fly honors and suffer reproaches

To despise oneself and wish others do

To bear all adversities and losses

And finally to desire no prosperity.

God knows all are not part of man’s natural inclination.  Still we are asked to go against them for doing so leads to the only path to inner peace and tranquility.

The March To The Future For Xavier U-Cagayan de Oro

Looking at the futuristic rendering of prospective structures, open spaces, and roads in the perspectives publicly shown, it is plain to see why the awed viewers would be easily taken in to agree that such would be a commendable and acceptable metamorphosis of the current campus.  And truly, it would look good and would do right for Xavier University.  A total and integrated remodeling of an old and minimally-planned campus; and what’s more, creating additional precious finances for the school to undertake its other more ambitious project, the Manresa property.

But how would the entire city be affected by the new development, a city already burdened with many growing problems?  If one of the current problems inherent to the place is congestion, how would the additional buildings for commerce planned not only address but mitigate that problem?  And remember that issue spills over to traffic congestion also.  And more to add.  What about increased volume of drainage, additional energy requirements, H2O requirements, etc.?  Would we envision a complex development with back-up generators (like what we have in the other developments) running during brown-outs, turning this part of the poblacion into one loud noise-polluted amphitheater?

How would the new development address the pertinent issue of “livability” in this part of the city?  Rather than commercialize it even more, why not instead devote areas not set aside for preservation for conservation purposes – like for more greenery and trees, or simply as open airy spaces?  A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis ought to be undertaken, by both XU admin and the city, a city which has been judged by many as not keen enough to address such issues.

It is devoutly wished that such serious considerations and more are earnestly pursued and not just glossed over, keen to the observation that it is easy to be blinded by the sight of grand and tall buildings as glaring signs of “development” progress.  But thinking of our other over-sized cities that observation appears to hit the mark.  We can point to a number of them already beset with burgeoning problems of basic public services.

If confirmed as I suspected that the campus is about 8 hectares, then that equals to 0.08 square kilometers, of a smallish poblacion.  Would the proposed development create its own ecosystem that could adversely skew the city’s own?  Like traffic flow. How immediate surroundings with a lot of old houses would be upgraded or remodeled as to not degrade the supposed gains made by the new development.  All this and more really point to the urgent need for the city to have enforceable zoning laws.

Or are we consigned to accepting that our older cities as they march to the future, will be nothing more than a hodge-podge or patchwork of isolated development sewn together to keep from bursting at the seams?  Or maybe just waiting for the seams to indeed burst.

Non-Fictionalized Fiction: Virtue Personified (Superiority in Every Sense)

By most standards Xenophon, the Greek philosopher, would be held in the same regard as Plato, and Aristotle, or Socrates.  But most of us have not even heard of him.  Even his name, the first 2 syllables in Greek means, foreign or alien.

Anyway, in one of his works, he personified Virtue and Evil as 2 women.  How kindly to use female, rather than the traditionally dominant, male.

Traditionally, the exemplar of strength, power, and virtue has largely been portrayed as male.  Most of our superheroes have been male.  The gods of old and mythology have dominantly been male.  It is almost like an accommodation or afterthought that females have been used to share the honor and adulation.

First it had been Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, before we had Supergirl, Batgirl, Mary Marvel, and of course, Wonder Woman.  Even fatherland, before motherland?

It is typically my own personal experiences that get highlighted in my blog entries, real and factual narratives culled from the ether of my memory.  Memory that threatens to dissipate as age catches up with me.  So with committed hands I lend words to the truant slivers of memories before they fade away.  Using as much color and substance as I can muster I cobble tales with appropriate words that many times grudgingly escape my attention, and at times I admit invariably flamboyance is allowed to make appearances in my narratives.  So imploring pardon for the shortcomings

Anyway, so my blog initiated more than 15 years ago, is inhabited with stories that are recalled and recorded to posterity.  But there is a part of one’s consciousness that is not grounded in reality, but in the ethereal world of fantasy.  Though for many of us just as relevant as the other, it is congested with the many escapist fantasies that litter consciousness and yes, even in reverie.  Depicting the kind of person that we have always longed for and prayed to be in every respect, however surreal one could get

Narratives existing only in a kind of preternatural sphere and not subject to the constricting world of realities.  And thus in this border-less world we allow our minds to bolt to distant places beyond the strictures of our mundane world.  But which by many is considered just as vivid and impactful as the stories of childhood and beyond.

I wonder if it is a story one wants to unravel and disclose.  Like a third-person pseudo-autobiography given life and told like non-fiction.

Throwing caution to the winds, I will shamelessly attempt to piece together the many details and events that to this day have slyly remained in the dark labyrinths of my psyche.

Following then will be  the evolving serialized story of an  ambivalent alter-ego, a series while so real to me is equally fanciful and interwoven with unbelievable details.

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Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan: Development Plans

Amid all the bright smiles and implied nods we see, we participate here not only as a small voice, but also as a vestige of a past long gone and maybe forgotten.  We like to add  puny whispers to the thunderous ones that we have heard from avowed stalwarts of the community.  Weighty voices coming from leaders whose reputation and renown have preceded them, giving them more sway and weight to validate their oral judgments. From the beaming captains of local businesses and industries, to the esteemed leaders of local government, to the revered spokespersons of our educational, religious, and social institutions.

 And we see that to a large extent there has been unanimity in thought regarding the very ambitious and drastic development plans the university has deigned to follow.  But we aim to tease and coax from them information about the time and efforts expended by their honored selves in arriving at their conclusions.  Because our small voice only has questions to be asked, rather than more grandiose suggestions to add to the plans so elaborately laid out.

Given the warm reception given the development plans, we are confident that these leaders believe that the city is not only in good hands but in a good place and thus fit and ready to accommodate more developments of the sort we already witness locally.  More tall buildings and malls for mixed uses and by consequence, more traffic.  And we are confident further that these leaders are of this mind because of the results of their actions in their respective fields in this regard.  If this be so, we then proceed with our obviously loaded questions.

Do all this and the results they will necessarily engender address the many factors of the “livability” index that a city or community ought to pay deference to?  Let us count the ways, and begin with the general.

How does all this affect the overall livelihood of the community, especially those already less privileged and in penury?  To business/industry leaders and local government, what has been done in the meantime to address and mitigate the poverty levels under your own specific purview?  Many believe the city has been remiss because of the increasing levels of privation we witness around the city. And many have observed not only here locally but most everywhere else that where developments of this sort are initiated, that one unintended consequence has been that they are exclusionary and thus discriminatory to the less privileged, with regard to where they live and work, and their corresponding access to the new opportunities to be opened.

Has the chaotic traffic and parking situation improved enough to accommodate more?  What about flooding?  Is the general situation getting any better so that we can say that more can be safely added?

What about plans or implementation of zoning of different sectors of the community?  Is local government paying attention to how in general development is moving along?  How to spread development to take advantage of the big size of the city.  The city has the size of almost 450 sq.kms and development is centered on a very small area. A question was once asked if there was a master zoning plan of the city. Is there one and is it being implemented?

Are all these even relevant to a modern age where traditional normalcy has been upended?  Maybe, disregard for all these concerns is the new normal?

Anyway, only the future is the final arbiter of whatever decisions are made in the present.