Trip to Hong Kong

I've just come back from a meeting in Hong Kong for a Privacy International project. Its the first real work I've been doing since coming back from Denmark in May, where I spent three months after Soeren's passing. For me the trip threw a few challenges my way, not least the ability to concentrate on the work at hand. Often I found myself in the 'what if Soeren was here mode'.

Anyway, I was telling a friend at the meeting that if I was a working journalist, there would be at least five stories to write from my first visit to Hong Kong. One that really drew my attention was how the domestic help community, dominated by the Filipinos spent their off day - Sunday. There are many malls and covered walkways (skyways) in the city and these are completely appropriated by groups of the women (and occasional man) who carved their own "Private" space in this very public area. Some bring cardboard boxes to make their own cubicles, there are plastic and paper sheets to cover the floor, people are sharing food (most likely Filipino food, but also fast food) in really creative ways to overcome hygiene issues, many are playing games like cards and bingo, others parade their newly bought clothes and a scattered few are on their laptops and maybe online. This is a modern challenge to societies that depend on domestic helpers. I really feel for them: what lives do they have, where is their own space, what about their sexuality (as pointed our rightly by my friend) and why can we not think of infrastructures that can provide social, economic and safety nets for them. I stopped myself from taking photographs of the women all along the walkways because well, they were in their private space. (Focus on the privacy was not coincidental since we were meeting to talk about, er...privacy!)

I am impressed by what I see in Hong Kong because I saw how the new mixed with the old really well. A territory that continues to attract people of all professions, money and concrete structures, I loved the old tiny shops, the sight of sausages put out to dry on the road (literally, the bus had to swerve to avoid driving over it:)) and the very, very hilly terrains!

Will upload photos on Facebook, but might update here with one of two. By the way the meeting took place at the Hong Kong University, and I have a pix of a commemorative sculpture of the Tiannanmen Massacre with the inscription: "The old cannot kill the young forever".











The next (right) could have been Malaysia or Indonesia. But it was the Jamia Mosque at the Mid-Level Escalator, which is a really interesting landmark.

And I also have to add a Danish icon in the sightings - Maersk. Being at the harbour most of the time, you see the containers and ships and here (below) is the Maersk sign board at the seafood restaurant area on Lamma Island (its not too clear, but its at the left in the picture).


I must remember to write about my visit to the Art Gallery in another post.