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Sunday, 25 November 2007

Legislative Council By-election Forum

By-election of HK Island LEGCO will be held on the coming Sunday.

A forum was held tonight in Central. Instead of saying it was a debate, I rather define it as an arguing live show. 8 candidates keep asking questions to others, without giving any chance for them to answer. What I got from this forum were only lots of questions and stupid meaningless challenges.

Forum was supposed to provide much information to voters before the poll. But it turned out to be a fight between candidates.

The free fight was horrible. No host was controlling the speakers and it made the challenges to be pointless. It finally made NO contribution to provide information. The supporting teams were chanting and yelling at the back and it made the show even more disorderly.

In general, it wasted one more hour of voters.

The media arranged this forum as they thought the one held for the election of the HKSAR Chief Executive has received a lot of positive comments. But they never think six more candidates would make the show a mess only.

OMG! The TV channels just broadcast the show repeatedly and I have already spent more than an hour on it. What a waste of time.

A citizen asked about something between anarchy versus democracy. What a shitty answer made by the Candidate no. 6.

Friday, 23 November 2007

Tycoon 'honoured' to have name on campus building

Martin Wong
Nov 23, 2007

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Tycoon Lee Shau-kee was honoured that a building would bear his name at a university of such high international reputation as the University of Hong Kong, he said yesterday as he handed over a cheque for HK$500 million to the head of the university.

"It is not easy," he said of the achievement of the university, which was recently ranked 18th among the world's top 200 universities by the Times Higher Education Supplement. "There are so many universities in the world. The university has contributed a lot to Hong Kong. Many senior management in the city's private companies and senior officials in the government came from it."

As well as a building named after Mr Lee in recognition of the property tycoon's HK$500 million donation, the university's new campus will have a building named after his right-hand man, Colin Lam Ko-yin.

Speaking at the donation ceremony at Henderson Land headquarters at Two IFC yesterday, vice-chancellor Tsui Lap-chee said the campus would be completed in 2012, in time to coincide with the change of university courses from three to four years.

Half of the Henderson Land billionaire's donation will be used for scholarships and the remainder for campus development.

The Centennial Campus will be built on a site previously occupied by the Water Supplies Department. It will be an extension of the university's existing Pok Fu Lam campus.

A multi-purpose lecture centre in the new campus will be named the Shau Kee Lecture Centre, while a collaborative learning area will be called the Colin Lam Learning Commons.

Mr Lam, Henderson Land Development's vice-chairman and an alumnus of the university, said: "I spent lots of time in the library," adding he was deeply grateful to his boss for naming a building after him.

"He is the most wonderful boss on earth," Mr Lam said, adding that Mr Lee took good care of his subordinates, treating them like family.

The Shau Kee Lecture Centre will include two lecture halls, one with 950 seats and the other with 250 seats.

"Students and teachers can have a venue to learn together. It will also be big enough to hold large seminars with guests of renowned academics and international political figures," Professor Tsui said.

The Colin Lam Learning Campus would be a one-stop service centre for the information needs of students and teachers, he added.

The building of the new campus has been the subject of controversy, with critics fearing that three historic buildings on the site would be demolished. Under the current plan, however, all these old buildings will be preserved.

Retrieved from SCMP on 23/11/2007

Again the University sold her campus as a commodity. After the incident of naming the Faculty of Medicine as the title of another tycoon Li Ka Shing, it has already been no surprise that the University would look for donations for her coming Centennial Campus.

This time the funny thing is that another Mr. Lee treated the naming of a building as a gift and reward to his loved right-hand. The value of this gift is increased recently as the University climbs to the rank of 18th among all universities in the world. Mr. Lee said the University has contributed a lot to Hong Kong as many senior management in the business and the government sections came from it. Thanks to Mr. Lee, contribution of a university to a city is defined. A university which trains up some people to manage the others is contributing to a society.

The University has become more commercial and branded than ever. With the limited resources from the government, undoubtedly, universities keep looking for donations from the private sector. They have to equip themselves to be a favor of donors. But how? Something called internationalization is appeared. Excuses like exporting tertiary education is the world branded universities' trend have also been existed. The main purpose behind is one-end: to climb its rank among the world's universities. The rank seems to be their capital to gain donations. It makes education commercial.

Someone from a sharing session of the HK Social Movement Film Festival said, "University is a place to learn things in the universe." Whether the University is contributing to the society or not, it depends on how you think the education is. If you think education is to produce working machines and managing 'experts', then the University has truthfully contributed a lot to the society. If you think in the other way, I think you know what are really happening in this society.