Eldon-Online

The Year Ahead – Mixed Feelings – Part II

Whether we like it or not, and there are many in the “dislike” camp, business and economic issues are going to be particularly significant in 2015, and of course politics will play a part in this too. A major election in the UK in May, where the outcome is far from certain unless of course the Labour Party manage to bring back David Milliband. There are issues over whether Greece will stay or leave the Euro, and whether it matters more politically or economically. How are both the US and the German economies really doing, and let’s not forget China – again, politically and economically?

But for me, the questions that I have uppermost in my mind that have the potential to disrupt our day to day lives in 2015 relate to the rise of both terrorism and nationalism.

Now, living in Hong Kong you might be forgiven for thinking that not much of this affects us here, but it would also be wrong to be complacent – especially if you travel to just about anywhere else.

You don’t hear quite so much these days about ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State, or Da’esh, the various names still in use for the aggressors in the war in Iraq, although the latter name is becoming more commonly used. Should this lack of news indicate that the war against these people is being won? Certainly there have been positive gains by the opposing forces, but this is likely to end up eventually as yet another guerrilla war with pockets of resistance popping up now and again, and probably spilling across borders. And let’s be honest, the Taliban are not in favour of Da’esh either so expect a battle between both organisations.

Also, although it is hard to separate them at times – we need to keep in mind that there is a far broader, saner, more rational face of Islam than that portrayed in the media. However, issues like  the sentencing of a human being to 1,000 lashes by the Saudi authorities do absolutely nothing to promote impressions of sanity.

Recent events, particularly in Europe (Paris, Belgium, for example) – are not likely to soothe fears. In addition the rise of nationalism in many countries, for example, in the UK where the UKIP party is gaining ground, just prior to the elections: in France where the National Front is making significant gains, in Germany where Pegida – an anti-Islamic Group has been attracting much attention but also, thankfully where rival demonstrations have also been held.  But “nationalism” is not confined to Europe. A daily scan of the media – whilst it's not always accurate or objective – does report of such tendencies elsewhere.

The bigger immediate threat surely, although once again I have heard it said by a couple of commentators that it is not really a threat at all even after the Paris “massacre”, is the growth of  in-country isolated cells attacking institutions or people they don’t like, “inspired” by the Da’esh. And what happens when some of these terrorists return to their home countries - will our home security forces be alert to their return? I have to believe that in the majority of cases they will, but some will inevitably slip through the net and disappear for a while. And these “fighters” – now murderers in many cases – may well continue their fight on home soil.Don't forget that Da’esh has attracted people from the West and the East. From Britain and America, from Europe but also from Muslim populations in South East Asia, and from North West China.

We should be, must be, alert to the potential for serious mischief in 2015.

What however seems to be a common theme though is generally – not always – the people who are attracted to these terrorist organisations are often disaffected, under or un-employed, lacking education and with few alternatives in life.

Our world today is no longer confined by nice neat ethnic, religious or linguistic boundaries. We live in a melting pot of cultures, and many countries try to embrace new arrivals to their shores. But by the same token, those new arrivals must also aim to integrate into their surroundings and not believe that their new country should adapt everything to suit them. It’s a two way street – not one-way.

When I started my international banking career it was always impressed on us, not as I recall that we actually needed impressing, that in every new country we were sent to it was up to us to remember we were a guest in that country, and we were expected to learn and understand the culture in which we were working. It was a mark of respect. Today, I fear that respect has gone. Integration has gone. And, as a final point, education is playing a part in that disintegration.

I feel sorry for many teachers in many schools. They are often underpaid, underappreciated, have become "parents" in absentia by default, have class sizes that are too big and are almost dragged into a situation where they move at the pace of the underachievers in the classroom. As a result in many inner cities and some of the poorer developing countries, despite the best efforts of the teachers, we have undereducated children with minimal job prospects living in un-integrated communities. They are an easy target for recruiters to violence.

If this is allowed to continue, we will see more wanton acts of destruction and senseless killings in 2015, and I wonder where the leaders are going to come from that have the ability and the determination to put this right.

If we keep our wits about us, take our surroundings seriously, elect politicians who will serve their communities better, improve education, encourage integration, hold businesses accountable to pay fair wages and salaries and create job opportunities, maybe we will have a chance of success.

The rise of nationalism is not the solution, but I can understand why it is attractive to many. Neither are terrorist acts acceptable in any shape or form, but for heaven’s sake let’s try and re-discover respect and dignity towards our fellow human beings – whatever they believe in. Murder is not an option.

Pass or Fail - Who Decides in Hong Kong's Universities?

There is something puzzling me about the University scene in Hong Kong right now. A scenario that I have seen in countries elsewhere, but it raises serious questions for the future of our students.

We currently have an associate professor of law at Hong Kong University, Mr Benny Tai, who is the leader of the Occupy Central movement. And for those who don’t know, this is a civil disobedience movement geared up to protest if the Beijing Government did not agree to the implementation of direct elections for the city’s “mayor” or Chief Executive by 2017. They didn't, so the movement has been protesting.

I have never questioned the right of people to express their own opinions, and this “protest” therefore is within Mr. Tai’s “rights”. I may not agree with the methods used by the protesters, but that’s a discussion for another day.

My more specific question however relates to Mr. Tai’s students who will be hoping to pass their exams at some stage in the future, and I wonder what will happen to those who express a different view to that held by Mr. Tai. In other words, if he is given responsibility for assessing their views on certain legal issues in relation to their course work, how can they be sure that they will not be penalised when those papers come to be marked if they have not embraced Mr. Tai's own views?

Let me be very clear, I am not questioning the assistant professor’s integrity or his beliefs. However, students lack experience, they have a tendency to view the world differently, and may be somewhat naive in their thinking. They embrace "radical" movements as a way of flexing their developing muscles. Will his students therefore think they must reflect the views of their professor if they are to stand a chance of getting appropriate passing marks?

I am sure the University Vice Chancellor and the Governing body of HKU will have considered this matter, but I do not recall having yet seen any definitive statement that provides for a “second opinion” on Professor Tai’s judgement, and I think this is unsatisfactory.

I will be told I am sure, that academia is above all of that and that I should stick to business issues. But the parallels here on an issue such as this with the business world are fascinating. To ensure good (better) behaviour in companies of all sorts, not just financial services, having a "risk" committee is now essential  and as Chairman of a couple of such committees, there would be red flashing lights all over this state of affairs.

I am aware of incidents in other countries where an individual within the academic body has imposed their own beliefs on those of the student body and marked people down accordingly if they did not follow those personal beliefs. I am also aware of directives being given to one University – not in Hong Kong – where a Professor was “leant upon” to reduce his passing mark for a First Class honours degree to allow one or two “well-connected” students who would otherwise not have made it, receive such degrees. As you might expect, the Professor concerned resigned rather than accede to the request – but the University soon found a replacement Professor who was more compliant.

Taking this to another level down, there is evidence to suggest that teaching at many madrassas follow a pattern where children are “brainwashed” by their teachers beyond the point of being able to think for themselves, and then end up us jihadists fighting for the likes of the brutal IS. In other words they hang on to every word of their teachers and are influenced by that teacher's thinking - even if the school itself overall does not set out to turn out classrooms full of wannabe terrorists.

But that is more extreme than the theme of this Blog, so let’s return for a moment to Mr. Tai – and quite possibly others like him.

As I said before, I have no problem with concerned citizens who want to express their own thought-through point of view. But as an influencer of young views can our students be absolutely certain that they have passed their exams because they have followed the prescribed course and done so in a thorough manner, rather than having to toe a line set by their teacher?

All of which reminds me of a story I was told by a friend a few days ago about the seven year old girl who went to her Mother and said “When I grow up I want to be a man”, to which her Mother simply said “You can’t do both dear!”

I think that our academics need to consider the choices they are making – do they want to teach a syllabus to their students by which those students can be assessed fairly, or do they want to impose their views on the students, with pass marks only being obtained if the students accepts the Professor’s views? You can’t do both.

And even if you think you can fairly do both, then I suggest there still needs to be - for the "safety" of everyone - a control against perceived even if not actual bias.

 

Initially ...

I was having one of those inane debates with myself the other day about the use of cc and bcc in messages on email. Why, I thought, do we still persist in using cc (carbon copy) when we are copying a message to someone else, when so many people around today have never even seen a sheet of carbon paper let alone used one. And of course the same goes for bcc (blind carbon copy). Why don't the Microsofts and Googles of this world change message formats to "ec", for email copy or perhaps being really innovative use "copy" or "copied" on its own? It's only two more letters.

While accepting a degree of pedantry in my thinking, (I know, get a life!) but to try and make sure I wasn't being totally antediluvian, I did ask a member of the next generation down for a view on the meaning to him of "cc" in an email - to which the reply came back "What's email? Everyone's on FB and WhatsApp!" Touché. And as is the case, even those as tools of messaging seem to be evolving. But then for good measure he threw in other anomalies like candle power to denote the strength of a torch beam, knots for the speed of a ship, and horse power in cars. 

But it was too late. Clearly I was obsessed about initials.

Let's face it, the use of initials to create acronyms (An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word) as a form of shorthand, is not new. Those of us belonging to that older generation known as baby boomers grew up with things like PLUTO no, not the planet, but which were initials for the "pipeline under the ocean" - a World War II pipeline, and SWALK and BURMA written on the back of letters, which I presume are no longer in use as we don't send any letters now, but the first means Sealed With A Loving Kiss. For others particularly like SNAFU, you will have to look up yourself. I try and avoid any profanity here! And they were in use much further back than that too - think of SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus), that catchy little acronym that identified the Roman Empire.

[Just as an aside, in a rather dismaying discovery I have just realised I am two months short of being considered in the baby boomer camp! Too old, even, for that. And in trying to find out exactly which category of dinosaur is was being labeled, some market research carried out by one of my sons elicited a great response from a young girl who was asked recently how she referred to really old people, to which she replied "Mum and Dad"! Ouch!] 

But I digress. Back to the initials ... and before some pedant picks me up on the difference between acronyms and initials; I know! Acronyms are, as described above whereas initials are usually just abbreviations. But why spoil my fun?

Where do we go now? We are bombarded on the social networking sites with the latest initials, and the immediacy of the world in which we live is creating an informal and irritating manner of business communication. Some of the "newspeak"  is understood easily even if you aren't sure, but some, rather like its creators I suspect, is somewhat ambiguous. I mean how was British Prime Minister Cameron supposed to know that "lol" meant laugh out loud instead of lots of love when he sent messages to former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks? Although having said that I see "lol" has now also acquired the second meaning. But BTW, BBL, WFM and WTF are all finding their way into common usage - well maybe not the latter!

Soon will we be receiving letters from the Banks which will be short and uninformative? (Oh, they are already? Sorry!)

When I started this blog I thought perhaps we were doomed to a life of initial acronyms. Now I am certain. Especially given the one I came accros the other day that read: SSEWBA (Someday Soon Everything Will Be Acronyms)!

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!

A Lesson For Us All

A normal day in Hong Kong. Noise pollution with dust and debris from the site across the street as yet another building in Central is demolished, prior to the construction of a new shiny bank head office, making concentration difficult. Particulate pollution in the air where the quality of the oxygen we breathe is regularly tainted - at times to alarming degrees,but mostly imported pollution of course, according to the Government. Amazing how it lingers at the road side - nothing to do with the cars then. That's good! Streets where traffic flow is impeded thanks to the actions of some overly self-important citizens - or their shopping bag laden spouses - who demand that their driver waits for them outside the Prince's Building, double or triple-parked until they emerge, having scant regard or care about the inconvenience they cause others. People in a hurry, grim-faced as they weave a passage through the crowds of people.

Despite all the negatives, Hong Kong works. It's a "material" city, but as long as your own sense of values does not get distorted, and you can live with the selfishness and the pollution, you can negotiate a path of your own making. You have that freedom.And we are lucky enough to live in a city that has almost full employment at present, with less than 3.5% unemployed. With a pretty good infrastructure, low taxes, good medical facilities and a high standard of education. 

So, if on balance it's not too bad, what brought about this retrospective? It was a recent visit to a school in South Africa! To a part of the country where pollution levels are non existent, where all you see around you is greenery with mountains in the distance. Not many cars - at least privately owned ones. Where the pace of life is very different. And the people are very poor.

It is a school that caters to a number of villages, thirteen in all, in the North East of the country. But where in contrast to Hong Kong, unemployment runs at a staggering 60% - and the level of illiteracy is at a similar level. A school where a little over 40 teachers cope with nearly 1400 children, where one teacher told me she had 56 pupils in her class, and that she had them all day. Perhaps not an uncommon statistic in many developing countries. But it's shocking.

Some 18 months prior to the visit, as a result of continuing to be impressed by the work done by charities such as Room to Read, about which I have written before, our family had made a donation towards facilities for this school. Although we had been kept informed about the progress of the school, we found ourselves unexpectedly in the region and on the off-chance asked whether a visit might be possible. Clearly we did not want to cause any disruption to the school's regular activities, nor did we want any special treatment, and the charities themselves are not really geared up to arranging such visits. The school's Principal was to say the least, accommodating, welcoming, charismatic and ...yes, absolutely inspirational. I cannot think of a better description for her.

Here, in the middle of nowhere, was a "facility" designed to improve through education the plight of thousands. How else can you describe the phenomenon whereby 1400 students turn up for school regularly, neatly dressed, and who are eager to learn. Students, some of who travel for more than a couple of hours - in each direction - between home and school, and not in comfortable air conditioned chauffeur driven cars! And if the genuinely happy smiles of the children, the evident rapport between the teachers and then the teachers with the children, the openness with which everyone in the school interacted, and indeed if the results achieved by the pupils themselves are anything to go by, this is a school blessed by dedication and by love. And it provides a lesson for us all.

Were we moved? Of course we were. I think everyone who genuinely feels that they might have contributed to "making a difference" - no matter how large or small that contribution - should be happy to have done so. Oh! And why did I say "genuinely"? Because it is sometimes too easy, especially as a corporation for example, when asked to donate or contribute to a cause, to do so because it is a "suitable cause" that fulfills your corporate social responsibility, without thinking too deeply about the positive impact that the $10,000 or $1m you can so easily afford, will have on so many lives. That is not to imply that the corporations don't "care", of course they do, but they need to think carefully about the impact on the donees, not just their CSR Committee.

This is where, and how, hope begins. This is what Room to Read, and others, do. And if I may paraphrase the Room to Read motto, opportunities for education exist in the developing countries of Asia, Africa or Latin America, and with educated children you create a better understanding of the world, with which will come positive progress.