Ka-Blog!

When I was about eight years old, my father gave me a big and beautiful kite.  He bought it from a local artisan who had been working on it for weeks.  It had a thin wooden frame and four colors–red, blue, green and yellow.  It also had a long tail that undulated with so much grace and beauty up in the air.
        For an entire summer, I owned the biggest and the most beautiful kite flying over the corn fields and the mighty Cagayan River.  Never mind if my playmates have differing opinions about this.  Basta, my kite was the greatest up there.
       The sense of awe and wonder I felt then when I was flying my kite was unforgetable.
        I am feeling that same sense and wonder as I am writing this.  I am sitting at the Media Center of the People’s Action Week here in Victoria Park in Hong Kong and typing this using a Sony Vaio laptop that is not connected to anything.  It runs on its battery juice alone and I am connected to the web through its built-in wi-fi.  So First World, so wonderful, so different from back home where even jurassic dial-ups and DSLs are considered hi-tech.
        I am in Hong Kong to do a travelogue of the People’s Action Week, do daily radio reports and broadcast for our radio program back in Manila.  This is parallel, even a counterpoint, to the World Trade Organization 6th Ministerial Conference.  But more about our work later.  O kaya, bili na lang kayo sa Kodao ng ilalabas naming DVD. Naahh! Hindi Hong Kong Scandal ang title.
        I intend to write lots a’blog about this trip.  Pero patikim lang muna at baka ma-lobat na ako:

1.  Buildings here have 13th Floors.  Wala naman akong alam na Ruby Tower-like disaster dito, so okey lang naman siguro.

2.  The Chinese give you warm water if you ask them for drinking water.  Better for health daw kesa iced water.

3.  A cellphone load is a "charge" here.

4.  Lots of Hong Kong people are out near midnight still doing some shopping.  Wow!  (At least, dito sa Causeway Bay area.  This is the "happening" district yata.)

5.  They think four hairstyles on a single head is cool. I have not come into counting hair colors yet.

6.  They think it is okey to have very small shower rooms and have bigger johns.  I guess they shit more than they wash.  But they are not generally bad smelling.  (Unlike The Bedan staffmembers.)

7.  It is possible to arrive at one’s destination without seeing the light of day.  Very good transport system.

8.  Hip and upwardly mobile Chinese are not ashamed to be seen eating in side-street noodle houses.  Mas mabangis na social climbers ang mga taga-call centers sa ‘Pinas.

9.  Pinoys are shy about greeting other Pinoys on the streets or in groceries.  Pwera na lang siguro sa Central Park kapag Linggo.

10.  Pinoy rally organizers have a lot to learn from their Korean counterparts.  Hanep!  Disiplinado!  Sobra lang minsan.  Nagpapakamatay ba naman!

Ako na lang ang tao rito sa Media Center.  Ubos ko na ang kape.  Alis na ako.
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* The picture is of me and Ka Louie Jalandoni, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel chairperson at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park.