Eco Rep

HKUST has a concept of 'Eco Representatives', an initiate that allows students to participate in various campus sustainability projects. The 2019/2020 Eco representative team was made up for 30  or so fresh-faced students 19 to 21 year old undergraduate students. I have never felt so old. The difference in age is made even more apparent given that I am the only post graduate student, and also the only part time student. They're probably wondering what a 37 year old man has to take away from a University volunteer environmental sustainability programme.

After starting with a sustainable soils projects, and the impact of carbon and the importance of carbon sequestering. My group and project has pivoted to a sustainable campus initiative and revitalising and re-vamping areas of the Clearwater Bay campus for students. Which is less about method and more about creativity and concept; a very foreign skillset compared to my typical STEM background. We started and formed groups back in September 2019. My group is an eclectic group, with environment, humanities and science undergrad backgrounds with a good mix of international and local students. Unfortunately, campus closures due to local protests and the pandemic, the project was moved to Zoom and most correspondence has been remote via technology.

Here are some of the before and after renditions of our campus transformation.

 

There's definitely a generation gap, in terms of communication, idea generation and project management. I find it difficult to shake the goal driven, outcome dependent mindset that years of employment have moulded my mindset into. There's silly questions, jokes, outrageous suggestions, and shameless mis direction. It's a refreshing experience, the student interactions are less stressed, less formal, less serious, less structured and definitely less corporate way to progressing with a project. I find this to be the most eye-opening part of the experience. I was once like them.

Subsidy

The Hong Kong government has slowly relaxed Covid19 regulations. Employees have slowly been returning to work, restaurants, gyms and bars have re-opened and gatherings of up to 50 people are allowed. It would appear that while the pandemic ravages the globe, Hong Kong, for the most part has managed to contain the spread. Things are starting to feel relatively "normal", people are socialising and the number of local transmission has remained zero for successive weeks. Occasionally, there will be a single digit community spread, but it is appears to be part and parcel of the whole situation.

The government has issued both re-usable and deposable masks for each house hold and on top of that the 10,000 HKD subsidy has now been allocated for Hong Kong residents. The initiative is two fold, to provide household relief and secondly an attempt to stimulate the floundering local economy. In addition, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) the regulatory body for Hong Kong has also granted a 2,000 HKD subsidy for all licensed employees.

It's debatable that these grants are going to the right people and that it will have the desired affect. I for one, rank in the "less deserving" camp, and it's arguable that financial services professionals are probably more financial sound than say those in Tourism or F&B. In any case, I need to think about a way to inject those funds back into Hong Kong system. I'm thinking that I support the local mom and dad shops around the area. That's $12,000 HKD that I will be spending on wontons and noodles.

Fitness centres

Finally, fitness centres and gyms have re-opened and we're back in the studio for Teacher's Training. So much better doing this in person vs online.

Currently reading: "Light on Yoga"