Dear all,
Here I am, honouring my promise to NUS - A blog about my study exchange experiences in Hong Kong.
This is The University of Hong Kong's (HKU) Main Building. Does the design of this building not remind you of some ancient building? Well, let me give you some history of HKU.
The University is founded in 1910 - the birth of Hong Kong's first tertiary institution. In December 1916, the University held its first congregation, with just 23 graduates.
It was ten years after the founding of HKU that women students were admitted for the first time. In 1937, Queen Mary Hospital opened and has served as the University's teaching hospital since that time.
Up to today, it is now Hong Kong's largest tertiary-level institution for continuing education with cumulative enrolment totalling more than one million students.
Therefore, I am pretty sure I will be able to gain some quality education over here, together with some cultural exchange and interaction with the local students. I will definitely enjoy my semester here! So dear friends, enjoy along with me! =)
Sunday, December 18, 2005
11th -18th Dec - WTO DemonstrationWTO meetings held in Hong Kong, and of course as usual, WTO demonstration for the whole week.
I went to the first demonstration on the 11th December, and these were what I captured..
It was a peaceful demonstrations, with only around 3000 demonstrators walking from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Central. It was a long stretch of road on Hong Kong Island, and the whole stretch of road was closed for it.
As I had to study for my examinations, I did not check out the rest of the demonstrations. Apparently I had missed out alot, with all the violence that took place, it must have been an eye-opener! Some photos my friends took while witnessing all the violence...
Well, HK police actually handled the whole event quite well. Hong Kong was well known to be good in crowd control, since it has such a huge population with limited land. The worse violence took place on 17th Dec (Saturday). It was reported that it was HK's worse violence in a decade. Watched it on the news, and it looked really scary. One my friend took part in it, and was arrested together with the Koreans to the police station! Well, yeah, mainly Koreans were doing the violent protesting... They jumped into the sea on a day when it's only 17 degrees C, they shaved their hairs, burned coffin and threw at the police, took weapons and attacked the police etc etc. It was really an eye-opener...
Photos of the Koreans in the sea, with the police coast guards surrounding them. Photos of the Koreans burning the coffin and throwing it towards the police, and Korean farmers shaving their hairs..Some photos which we didnt managed to take, but I got it from the newspaper South China Morning Post websites...
Photos of the protestors attacking the police, and the police returning them with pepper spray..Some thoughts after the WTO meetings and protest:
Being here personally in HK, I experienced the whole week of WTO happenings, including the meetings, the protest, the violence and stuff. I even personally witnessed the demonstrations, seeing all the people crying out "Down WTO. NO! NO! NO!" It does have a certain extent of impact on me. It strikes my interest in world's events, how the states handle such problems, mishandled free trade, and of course the negative impacts on the farmers and agricultural growers. I think we are really fortunate to not have to worry about basic neccessities that they themselves are worrying about. Yes, they may be violent, but I am sure they were driven by desperation. With all the debts they owed and with exploitation by developed countries, it must be really hard for them to survive and cope in their society. By protesting, it is probably the only way for them to voice out how they really feel and what they really want. Though I think they may have gone overboard, but nevertheless, my sympathy goes out to them. Comparatively, I am so much more fortunate.
7:21 PM , Reminisced
