just wonging.

Traveling with an HKSAR passport has been a somewhat surreal experience.  Nominally, the passport holder enjoys the so-called best of both worlds: semi-equal status to western passport holders who enjoy visa free entry to 170+ countries, and better treatment in “China-friendly” countries. Reality on the ground, however, is more complex. Many types of identification papers exist, and it is not uncommon for one country to issue multiple types of passports. How the immigration officials of the other 200+ countries perceive them, on the other hand, is a whole different story, and often leads to interesting experiences. Smooth Sailing  Countries where there are no problems of traveling with the HKSAR passport are naturally those that most frequently receive Hong Kongers, namely different borders in the EU, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the US & Canada. Less popular but still frequented include some common traveling destinations like Egypt and Morocco, or some South American countr...

Sushat passed away a few weeks ago, shocking the whole of India until this day. Police inquiries were conclusive on cause to be suicide, but this has not stopped the debate that has evolved over time, starting from earlier revived discussions of Bollywood nepotism, to demand on a new police inquiry due to disbelief of a suicide from the masses with meticulously analyzed circumstantial evidence (reminds me of Don’t F*ck with Cats). Very importantly, the shock has also raised awareness of clinical depression, a topic which various people have analyzed in relation to the incident. There are friends who have openly asked to lend an open ear to someone who might be in need. The underlying logic of belief in Sushant did not commit suicide is that someone who seems spiritual, often shared a good laugh with others, was interested in big questions in life, and was active in certain activities before committing suicide is not likely to be going through depression. Regardless of what really happ...

In memory of June 4, it is befitting to reflect on what has happened in Hong Kong over the past few months.  31 years after the fateful night entering Tiananmen Square, the annual vigil commemorating the event was for the first time banned on Chinese soil. There will be no bloodshed at same scale in our beloved city, as times have changed and leaders of the north have found more subtle yet aggressive ways to achieve the same results.  June 4 marked the end of social distancing measures announced earlier in May. The measures were put in place citing covid situation (public health) as main reasons. But this is dubious, and the very date of the measures suggested political motivation. Despite banning the official vigil at Victoria Park, on June 4 the police was exercising restraint to attendees. In other areas there was some use of pepper spray to disperse crowds..  It is a somewhat solemn way to live the day, an anticlimax as Hong Kong has entered gradually into a looming...

Having come to Jakarta almost every other weekend over the past year, I have managed to garner enough vocabulary to exchange a few pleasantries with Grab drivers and order food at restaurants. But the process of properly retaining the language has not been the smoothest one, with the usual joys and frustrations one encounters when picking up a new language. Ending a lighter week on Bahasa-learning, I reflect on a few observations over the course of this process. 1. “Bahasa is an easy language” This is an oft-heard comment in the Indonesian archipelago and Malayan Peninsula, usually by foreigners who have not mastered the language. “It has no grammar” is also not an uncommon addition to the above comment. The language does offer the appearance of being easy:  it uses the latin alphabet, and for a large portion of the world’s population this means saving the need to learn a new writing system It does not utilize tenses like usual Indo-European languages do, hence a verb will have no ...

I was in Lusaka early February, just finishing my westward land journey that began from Mozambique. After the brief stay in the Zambian capital, I would venture northbound to Rwanda on a flight. I had spent the morning in Kabata Cultural Village, 40 minutes by foot south of downtown (story for another time). At quarter past noon I boarded a northbound minibus to Independence Avenue, where I hopped off and speed walked the remaining 3km of distance through Cairo Road. Cairo Road is the bustling downtown of Lusaka, its center of trade. Vendors of all sorts lay out their goods on the street side for passersby, mostly business people or fonctionnaires from nearby office buildings. The road was lined with skyscrapers of 30-40 stories with a yellowish tone (somewhat resembling its namesake Cairo), each were owned by large state or private enterprises offering professional services, or hotels that looked like they were built from decades ago. On the other side of these buildings were the...

Today it is difficult to imagine that Joo Chiat Road was once a muddy cart track in a rural area owned by one man as an arterial road to his own properties. Thanks to his generosity (or self interest), the road has gradually become a beacon of racial and class harmony in Singapore, at least on the subset. Roads are formed over time, but not all roads manage to keep their historical imprint intact, practicalities for their local residents and allow one to trace back through its phases of development. Character requires the test of time. As a resident in the area would perhaps realize quickly, even if we were in the pre-internet age, one could survive quite well without stepping out of Joo Chiat Road. But functional practicalities aside, it is the community dynamism and racial harmony that makes this road so full of character. Let us embark on a thought-induced tour beginning from Geylang Serai. Functional Dynamism At the start of the street, the classic Joo Chiat Complex stan...