Eldon-Online

Hey - What About Us Humans?

I obviously have far too much time on my hands!

After I completed my annual medical in May this year, I decided - once again - that it was time I started thinking about my weight. I set myself a goal, which was to reach a weight I had not seen in 10 years, and was around a level a kindly doctor had set for me some 25 years earlier. But I gave myself a generous amount of time in which to do it. Losing weight quickly, I had always been led to believe, was merely a recipe for putting it back on just as quickly. Thus 40lbs (18.1kgs) in 10 months, I thought would be a sensible approach. The diet was working reasonably well, but it would have benefited more from an increase in exercise levels, I admit that. Then I got a virus!!

Now, I would not recommend hunting out a virus in replacement for diet and exercise, but it worked for me! Weight loss accomplished - 4 months early, but I am now getting paranoid about putting it all back too soon. Of course increasing exercise would be a good start. (Yes, I will!).

And then I read about the Japanese and their obese pets! 

I have to say, the Japanese seem to be great inventors - particularly of things slightly odd. Little umbrellas for your shoes in the rain, or a real boon for Hong Kong users of the Mass Transit Railway - Subway Sleepers -

I presume the message gives the lady's destination, so someone can wake her up. (yeh; right!)

But back to the pets!

The Japanese, in recent years, have started to value having pets around and dogs in particular, but they are letting the dogs get too fat. So what's the answer? A Wandant or canine obesity monitor. (According to "The Times", Wan means "woof" in Japanese).

 

The concept is simple. A pedometer hangs from the dog’s collar and as the dog moves around and does what dogs do all day, the data is gathered and stored on a cloud service. The dog owner can then access the health info via their laptop or smartphone while on the go.

The dog obesity monitor records temperature changes, weight, number of steps taken, the amount of food the dog has eaten and even its "stool condition".

Well, it sounds great for dog owners - but what about us humans (maybe ignoring the stool condition)? The development of something helpful for the growing band of obese people who would actually rather like some "assistance" in reducing weight - and it being done graphically. And obesity is now not just a "westerners" phenomenon. It is becoming apparent in Asia too - thanks (or no thanks, actually!) to the introduction of western-style diets, and serving portions.

What about it inventors?

Another Feather In Hong Kong's Hat ... For Education?

If you have been following the debate in Hong Kong recently about the claims of falling standards, class sizes and funding issues, you could be forgiven for thinking that we were falling behind the rest of the world. Unless, that is, you had been following a similar debate taking place in Britain. In fact, declining standards in education, particularly secondary education, do seem to be prevalent in many countries.

And I think us older people sometimes think we know the answers. Lack of discipline, parental abdication of responsibility - a particularly Western trait - the "shorthand" being used in social networking communications, and the list goes on. Pay also often being a factor.

There is also the fact that teachers are being asked to do more than they have been used to - but with fewer resources. There are some legitmate reasons therefore why standards have fallen - or have been put under pressure.

But get this.

The Economist Intelligence Unit has just published some analysis which resulted in them listing their Top Schools in the world. British schools came sixth. A position that has surprised some, because it was lower than they would have liked, and others because it is a lot higher than they expected. But the British media reported it as a real positive. One snippet was "... high numbers of teenagers progressing to higher education account for Britain's position, along with strong maths and science results." (The Times). 

First of all, I wonder how the Hong Kong media would have reported this 6th place achievement. As a positive? Hmm. Possibly not. Well, maybe I should reveal the names of some of the other countries who appeared in the top 10.

In first place, where they have been for a long time - Finland. So, Hong Kong parents, you want the best education system in the world you know where to go. The next 4 - that is the countries that beat Britain - are all Asian and include the usual suspects - South Korea, Japan and Singapore, in 2nd, 4th and 5th places respectively! And in 3rd place - yes, you will have worked it out, our very own, Hong Kong.

Now then, I am not so stupid (well I don't think I am) as to believe everything I read. I too have concerns about the quality of education in a number of the countries with which I am involved, Hong Kong included and I am sure you could pick holes in the Economist list, but they are a respected publication - globally. So what about it Hong Kong media - any gaps in your front page to record Hong Kong's position - or does it go so much against everything you have written so far on the subject - pushing the popular anti-Government view that you would be embarrassed to do so?

Just trying to say, once again, that we are not as bad as we like to believe we are!

What Did I Miss?

If you don't get out much, as has been my misfortune of late, you start picking up all sorts of "rubbish" information. For example, were you aware that "soap operas" - now shortened of course to just "soaps" - got their name because the original sponsors of these long running fictional dramas were the major soap companies? I certainly wasn't.

Another feature of soaps - not that I watch them, but as I have been told - you can be watching one over a period of time and then not do so for a matter of months, but when you come back to them you can apparently pick them up virtually from where you left off. You don't seem to have missed much.

So it has been for me! Before I took to my bed Barack Obama was President of the USA - but under "serious threat" from Mitt Romney. I recover to find the USA still has President Obama. The battles in Syria go on, albeit despite the dangers globally they have taken a back page. Egypt still hasn't found any solutions as a result of the Arab Spring - but seems to be degenerating, which was the other option if they didnt get their act together. The Eurozone still hasn't bitten any kind of bullet, as a result of which they are in disarray, which was the expected outcome of not taking any action. China has established its new leadership to cover the next ten years. Although it is only new to the extent of confirming what everyone already knew some time ago.

So, what did I miss in the last six weeks? Precious little, it would seem. The moral of the story? Take a holiday. Have a break if you can still afford one and have a job to come back to, and you will find not much has changed. 

And, of course not to be outdone at home - Hong Kong's beleagured Chief Executive C Y Leung is still facing questions about illegal structures, bus and minibus drivers still drive too fast without due care and attention, and the focus on business and those little things that might drive Hong Kong to retain its important role in Asia, get pushed further and further backwards and swept up in the general news.

Just as an example, a little over a week ago the UK press picked up on a report issued by the highly regarded Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The CEBR report said that "London has lost its crown as the world's financial capital by number of finance jobs to New York. And it will fall to third place behind Hong Kong by 2015". (The bold script is mine). Did this get reported by any of our Hong Kong media, or were they too focused on a highly intelligent member of our Legislature, who wears totally inappropriate T Shirts to the Chamber and throws things at people? Oh! Perhaps I missed it!!

The report is actually good news - but we do seem to have trouble in bringing ourselves round to the point of publishing things that are good. Is it because we don't really believe them?

I do seriously wonder if there is any possibility that we will get to the stage where the "Government" can work together with the Legislative Council, and perhaps the business community in its broadest sense, to the overall benefit of Hong Kong and it's future.

Publish the good news and the successes, damn it, and  put some serious thought into keeping Hong Kong's status highly regarded in the world. Then there will be no need for the front pages of our newspapers to focus on silly shirts and relatively minor issues, or for people to feel the need to wave an old colonial flag.

This does not mean sweeping the important things under the carpet. It does not mean ignoring the calls towards establishing a democratic process for the election of some, hopefully, appropriate legislators and a Chief Executive, but it does mean leaving room on the front pages for some of Hong Kong's achievements.

We are becoming just like a soap opera - close your eyes for a month or two and nothing has changed. We do not have the luxury of floating in a sea of inertia.

In Sickness And In Health ...

"I've never been ill dear, just damaged" - (Mary Eldon; 1919 and still going strong ...).

This has been the regular comment from my Mother since she fell a couple of years ago and broke a couple of bones. Of course at her age she can be forgiven the odd lapse of memory - in that she suffered from diptheria in her early 20s and was hospitalised for three months. But hey, I'm not arguing with her! She has been remarkably illness free.

And it seemed to follow in the genes, happily. I started work in about January 1963, and until last month I had taken seven days off work. I know exactly where, when and why. But a month ago, I took a real side-swipe - and for no apparent reason.

 I developed a high fever, lost my appetite, became very tired and really wondered what was happening to me. And for those of you who know me, not actually being active would have driven me nuts ... but there's the odd thing. I didn't even feel like working!! And definitely had no interest in writing Blogs - hence my absence for a month.

I am not a good patient! I am irritable, angry even, at my own stupid frailty ... but thank goodness for the part of the marriage vows that say "in sickness and in health", never a truer word! No one else in their right mind would have put up with me, and no one else would have had the medical history at their finger tips when I couldn't recall dates accurately.

But there we are; fever has subsided, appetite is returning, I am still tired and that will take a little while yet to re-build my energy and I sound as if I have laryngitis - but I am on the mend.

And happily not too much has been happening in the world in my "absence". There seems to have been an election in the USA, and like it or not the USA is too important to ignore. As an outsider, non American (although not, as some readers of this Blog seem to think, anti-American) it seemed to me the choice was dubious either way, and it looks as if the Republican party will have to re-model itself to stand a chance of being elected in the future; but President Obama also needs to do something this term that will benefit the economy.

Then we have the other "election", the final results of which should be announced probably as I finish writing this Blog. The leadership in China, stable for the next ten years subject only to failing health of the top leaders, but facing bigger and more complex challenges than before. Confident, none the less, in what needs to be done - but in a more transparent world, where social unrest, for me anyway, is a bigger concern than economic worries - and more problematic than even relationships (or lack of them) in the region over such issues as disputed islands.

And still others - Hong Kong and it's ability to spend more time looking backwards than forwards, the banking industry, the Eurozone - lots going on ... and all I need is the energy.

Off for a quick nap now!!