Hong Kong and the World
One of my classes over here is called Hong Kong and the World. It is a very interesting course. Every week there has been a different guest speaker talking about some topic. These people have come form diverse backgrounds, some are scientists, others politicians, a retired high court judge, and plenty of business people (because this is Hong Kong, and well nothing gets higher priority than business, but I digress).
Well everything had been going well, no problems. The speakers were interesting, mostly. One week Emily Lau came, she is part of a political awareness group here. She spoke on the self-censorship of the media, and biases within the election processes. And how people are simply following Beijing's "suggestions" (It shouldn't be directly interfering with free elections in HK). Then she went on to discuss two particular candidates for a district in Hong Kong, and that one is getting preferences because supposedly Beijing is backing her. At the end of the class she handed out some fliers about her political group.
No big deal, we all got on with other things, like falling asleep in international relations (he has got to be the worst lecturer ever).
A few weeks later we have a guest speaker called Ronnie Chan. Apparently he is quite a big business man here. He was supposed to be talking about corporate social responsibility. Which he really didn't, he kept on answering with questions, and not much actually solid information at all. And then someone mentioned that Emily had been criticising the business community for not supporting democracy that much, and I think mentioned the pamphlets. Now this is where it starts to get interesting: he goes on this long rant about people not being allowed to promote their own political views in an academic setting, they must be balanced, say like in a debate, etc. And then he wouldn't get off this topic for the rest of the lecture. He wasn't saying anything new. (I personally think he was doing this to avoid talking about corporate responsibility)
A week later our lecturer tells us some weird news. Apparently my course has become the centre of an argument between Lau and Chan. And it's going on through the media!! It is a strange feeling, Also it goes to show how easily people can misinterpret things, and then escalate the supposed problem out of all proportions.
Well everything had been going well, no problems. The speakers were interesting, mostly. One week Emily Lau came, she is part of a political awareness group here. She spoke on the self-censorship of the media, and biases within the election processes. And how people are simply following Beijing's "suggestions" (It shouldn't be directly interfering with free elections in HK). Then she went on to discuss two particular candidates for a district in Hong Kong, and that one is getting preferences because supposedly Beijing is backing her. At the end of the class she handed out some fliers about her political group.
No big deal, we all got on with other things, like falling asleep in international relations (he has got to be the worst lecturer ever).
A few weeks later we have a guest speaker called Ronnie Chan. Apparently he is quite a big business man here. He was supposed to be talking about corporate social responsibility. Which he really didn't, he kept on answering with questions, and not much actually solid information at all. And then someone mentioned that Emily had been criticising the business community for not supporting democracy that much, and I think mentioned the pamphlets. Now this is where it starts to get interesting: he goes on this long rant about people not being allowed to promote their own political views in an academic setting, they must be balanced, say like in a debate, etc. And then he wouldn't get off this topic for the rest of the lecture. He wasn't saying anything new. (I personally think he was doing this to avoid talking about corporate responsibility)
A week later our lecturer tells us some weird news. Apparently my course has become the centre of an argument between Lau and Chan. And it's going on through the media!! It is a strange feeling, Also it goes to show how easily people can misinterpret things, and then escalate the supposed problem out of all proportions.