Monday, December 11, 2006

可怒也, 斬樹唔「斬」眼!

睇緊無線星期日檔案 (10/12), 屯門良景村幾間中小學因為圍繞佢地大樹阻礙佢地o既光線, 又怕d 枯枝跌落學校對學生有危險, 要求屋村管理處修樹, 點知o個d 承辦商剪到d 樹就死咁。更讓人心傷o既係, 其中一間學校o既校長仲話咁斬樹未必唔係好事, 因為冇左 d 樹木遮住可以從外面見到個校名, 而且樹木唔係學生太關心o既事, 冇乜所謂。佢仲要假到話可以將呢個問題留俾學生o係專題研習討論下。你話, 俾d 咁o既學校點會教得出好學生!!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

An Inconvenient Truth - the movie

At first, I wasn't very much interested in this movie. It's rather like a publicity work of Al Gore after retirement, like his fellow Bill Clinton, intermingled with the attack of Gore being more said than done above environmental protection. Anyway, I went to the cinema for a quality movie. It turns out impressive.
SPOILER WARNING !
First, you have to assume that everything in the movie about Gore himself is true: that he was enlightened by his science professor in the college to put an eye on the raising CO2 level; that he has been pursuing emission-controlling measures during his earlier days in the Congress and regularly attacked for making wrong statement about emission and global warming; that he has given at least a thousand lecture around the globe since his defeat in the 2000 presidence run.
The way that he gave the lecture on global warming is so persuasive. We heard of the issue for a thousand time. We know the consequences. But we don't think it will happen that soon - it is happening. Ice blocks are dismantling in the south pole and summer come earlier in the north pole; snow line is receding in all snow mountains; and soon, talking about a couple decades, our most civilized regions will be flooded. Flooding is just a tip of an icerberg of the climatic change, which could affect our reliance on nature for ages to go. Drought and heavy precipitation is occurring more unevenly than ever. Heat waves and hurricane are visiting at immense scale. Modern life is no longer as wonderful and carefree as it once promise.
So, what are the people, politicians and scientists alike, doing about this? The scientists are doing good jobs to study and warn, but often they are not able to speak loud as confronted by critics and threat of depriving fund. Technologies are around to relieve the situation. For the politicians, some of them strive to please the business people and their voters, who are unwilling to give up their benefits and convenience.
Gore makes his presentation not only with tonnes of compelling data and eye-catching graphics (and his voice is so loud!), he try to answer, or "demolish" in his word, the common misconceptions with strong arguments. He also adds in the movie the pieces of memory of his childhood in the country farm to recall audience's rejoice of human and nature, which quite soften the hard science and politics.
I am not sure how the world has responded to his call (Branson's devotion to alternative fuel research is a remarkable one, as mentioned in my previous articles), I just hope that people stop to avoid the issue of pollution and climate change. As indicated by the name of the movie, it is not to our comfort to discuss environmental issue, even for good people. Because once you've shown your concern, you have to take up the heavy responsibility to resolve it, including changing the way of life and sacrificing those you take for granted. It's a challenge to the ethical standard of many.
To know more about the movie and learn more about what you can do for the environment, www.climatecrisis.net
To know more about Al Gore, www.algore04.com

Sunday, September 24, 2006

開平碉樓之旅 (3/9/2006)


偶爾發現「開平碉樓」這個廣州「後花園」旅遊點, 定在生日期間的週末前往。調樓大概有數百座, 型態各異, 主調是仿照西式建築, 是以前由華僑回鄉興建的, 既為防盜也為防澇。
先由廣州中山八路廣佛汽車站乘坐前往開平的大巴,車票45元, 車程兩小時。到開平巿上吃過午餐, 再乘公車往赤坎鎮。到鎮上信步到河邊的赤坎古鎮排樓。

正欲再找公車前往村裏看碉樓,才到路上便被騎摩托的大哥兜搭上,載我們到村裏去,每人每小時20元。我們不知死活的傢伙便在嚮導大哥的背後展開了這趟碉樓探索之旅!

來到馬降龍村,村內正進行各程的復修翻新工程,不久便會以旅遊區的姿態展現人前,所以我們一路上可說是沒有見過一個遊客模樣的人。

今趟看到的碉樓沒有想像中神奇和神秘(也許是他們的網站做得太美之故!),但出乎意料的是這裏濃厚的田園氣息,我一直以為珠三角地區已沒有一片淨土,但在開平只要稍離開巿中心和鎮中心就是大片翠綠的田地。但願日後遊客多了也不會影響這番景致。

後記:姨媽知道我們以摩托車作遊玩交通公具大為驚訝,因為很容易被人謀才害命,我們只有慨嘆自己夠大命矣。
參考資料:http://www.kaipingdialou.com/

巴塞t-shirt 印 UNICEF Logo, 好感動耶!

看報紙報導巴塞的球賽消息, 還沒看報導便見到球員穿的球衣上竟然印了logo, 而且不是普通的logo, 而是 UNICEF, 馬上便上網看看發生了什麼事, 為什麼巴塞會將球衣的處子之身出讓了!http://www.am730.com.hk/

ttp://www.fcbarcelona.com/eng/noticias/noticias/n06090710.shtml
Contribution of FC Barcelona
FC will support Unicef's work by means of an annual financial contribution via its Foundation of one million five hundred thousand euros.
- Unicef will use each annual contribution to support the programs and projects agreed in the plan of activities. This will be applied to programs and projects that benefit the most vulnerable children mainly in Africa, Asia and South and Central America, will special emphasis on children affected by HIV/AIDS, orphaned by AIDS and other children being exploited, abused or at risk of social exclusion.
- Each annual contribution will be accepted and administered by Unicef in accordance with Unicef norms and regulations in reference to contributions, including those related to the indirect costs of supporting Unicef programs, interests, auditing and the presentation of reports as valid at the time of the corresponding Unicef action.
- The club will also support Unicef activity by providing it with the use of its own advertising assets.
- The club will support Unicef activities through its players, promoters and members. The club has also expressed its specific interest in working with Unicef's National Committees in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan and with Unicef's national offices in India and China.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

小即是美:列支敦士登

為籌備歐遊,最近不停在看歐洲的旅遊書。略過幾版介紹一個小國列支敦士登(Leichtenstein),原來這個小國一點也不簡單,雖然只有三萬人口,住在比大嶼山略大的國土上,但他的人均收入卻僅排在美國和日本之後,名列世界第三。再追尋下去,發現這個國家並不是發現了金礦石油礦,也不是發展高新科技,只是因為他的國土小得世上少有,吸引了不少外來遊客參觀。可是他本身的歷史文物也不多,那怎麼賺遊客的錢呢?郵票,他發行郵票,讓遊客購買,再蓋印留作紀念。當然,他的地理位置是他的天賦本錢,他就座落奧地利和瑞士之間的必經之路上,不少遊客都會慕名下火車稍作參觀。"列" 國可說是把劣勢扭轉為強勢的一個活生生例子,雖然國家資源貧乏,但只要有一個意念能夠利用其短處,便是其勝利之門。相反,有不少大國,國土資源豐富,卻因為資源的分配問題鬧得雞犬不寧,結果令國勢下滑。可見「小即是美」並非泛泛之談。

 
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