Waterpolo

Waterpolo
Me playing waterpolo for the hong kong team

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Hong Kong Buffet


The Hong Kong buffet is a strange experience, resembling a cross between a children’s birthday party and a football riot, with its pushing and elbowing, bickering and, occasionally, violence. Every diner behaves as though the food will not be replaced as it is consumed, so they to dive in and eat as much as possible, as quickly as possible. The average patron of a buffet is a respecter of neither age nor infirmity, and it is not uncommon too see toddlers trampled underfoot or the elderly shoved rudely aside as the ravenous mob descends upon the buffet table.
I have witnessed two smartly dressed middle-aged ladies engage in first a jostling, then an elbowing and then a shouting match b4 being dragged away by their companions. And this was over the final piece of smoked salmon.
There is a rush for what are deemed the most expensive or sophisticated delicacies, such as oysters or lobster. These items are piled unceremoniously on diners’ plates in a quivering tower which is quickly supported by other items from the table. There is no sense of gastronomic etiquette to plate-piling in this manner. It is not uncommon for a plate to hold cold foods and hot foods, roast meats and seafood, fish and pasta, sweets and savories at one time.
A typical plate will comprise of oyster sushi, tempura, char siu, roast beef and gravy, fried rice, brownies, watermelon, salad greens and cream cake. These are not apportioned to different parts of the plate but are crammed together thus allowing for more space into which still more food is crammed. The end result is an intermingling of flavors that will satisfy all parts of the palate simultaneously, and a variety of textures and aromas.
It is a dog-eat-dog scenario and it’s every glutton for himself. Queuing? Not likely. If you stand there, patiently, grasping your plate to your chest, you will go hungry. You have to be prepared to seize your opportunity. There are certain acknowledged buffet techniques, such as blocking or double-plating.
The blocker does not have to be physically imposing, just sufficiently determined to plant his weight firmly in front of the food with his elbows extended, effectively preventing anyone getting round, through or over him. He then helps himself to the items he desires, puling his plate with them, b4 shuffling on to the next station.
The double plater simply conducts the piling operation in duplicate. Strangely. While this provides him with the opportunity not to cross contaminate – hot with cold, meat with fish, sweet with savoury – he does not do this but merely piles up each plate with a tottering tower and dashes to his table b4 they collapse. Another version of double-plating, for the less dexterous, involves filling up one’s plate, returning it to the table and then straight back to the buffet to repeat the exercise. Only when there are two, sometimes three maybe four plates on the table, does one sit down and tuck in, with one eye on the oyster bar should a refill occur.
The first time I left a buffet feeling full, I knew I had conquered this unique culinary martial art.

Standing in a Queue


I have been standing here for nearly an hour, inching forward slower than a glacier.  It is too late to leave the queue since I will simply regret the time wasted. But to remain here is going to be bad for my health. I am desperately resisting the urge to get angry as my blood pressure and heart-beat will definitely rise. I try to think of relaxing places to keep my mind off this annoying tedium. It is hot, stiflingly hot. I feel the beads of perspiration forming at the top of my neck, gradually increasing in size until they cannot resist the pull of gravity anymore and roll down my heated back. Not having a handkerchief, I wipe my eyebrows with my sleeve, leaving a dirty smear on my shirt. The exhaust fumes and smoke belching from cars and trucks envelop me as I stand in a cloud of hot polluted air.
The queue inches forward.
Behind me, a boy is playing with a Nintendo DS; the high-pitched beeps add to my misery. Just when an all too brief moment of silence deceives me into thinking the game has finished, it toots back into life and the repetitive cycle of electronically generated beeps begins again. I try to block out the noise but it remains, like a barb in my brain. I have been standing here so long that the thought that the batteries will soon run out is my only consolation.
One more step of agonizing slowness.
Ahead of me, a woman is having an obnoxiously loud conversation on her phone, her voice synchronizing with the racket behind me. Her perfume has been abundantly applied and thus clogged my nostrils, combining with the heat to make me feel nauseous.
A shuffle in the right direction.
The muscles in my legs are beginning to ache. I stand on one foot then another, like a lizard on burning sand, to relieve my strain. My trousers are now clinging to my thighs. My shoes are too tight and my feet have fallen into numbness. I stretch my neck to the left and see nothing but a mass of heads. Turning around, I see that there is a lot more people behind me than in front of me.
Misery loves company.
Suddenly, there is a surge of movement and the queue accelerates to tortoise pace. I walk three, four, five paces, wildly anticipating an end to this torture. I feel pleased with my patience to remain in line when a weaker soul would have given up. But as suddenly as it started moving, it stops. Confusion. The queue starts to disintegrate. The crowds of people are peeling away. It is utter chaos. Then I see a huge red sign boldly declaring in red block capitals. SOLD OUT…

Sonnet-Reminisce


 Sitting at my bedside window all alone,
Gazing into the horizon miles away,
Flashbacks remind me of your voice so drone,
Nothing to look forward to, my life so grey.
I have lost my way and wish you would come,
Your presence in my heart is oh so missed,
In silence I pray and sob to what you have become,
To think about you daily I cannot resist.
For you I would have given my all,
To prevent you from getting yourself shot,
The moment it happened I already cannot recall,
Your image runs through my head but only as a dot.
Oh I wish I had a chance to stop the gun,
But it is too late. I am sorry, my son.

The Rage of Poseidon


If only I could kill Odysseus. That filthy, nefarious, cocky so-called king. He blinded my dear Cyclops son Polyphemus and expects me to forget about it and forgive him when he acted so abhorrently? He thinks he is so slick and sly that he can get away from this madness? I can’t believe my brother Zeus and my niece Athena are sympathetic for him. So what if he is the king of Ithaca. Who cares if the man was a hero in the battle at Troy and that he is one of the most powerful mortals. He plain outright abused and toyed with my family. My dear Polyphemus, tricked by an old man who stole his food. I just hate the fact that Odysseus is so full of himself. Every time he sees someone, he introduces himself as the great king of Ithaca. I cannot stand his pride. It is like he wants everyone to bask in his glory. When Odysseus revealed his identity to my blinded son, he said my son was impious. He did not even believe that I am his father. How cocky can a mortal get? Well I will show him who is the boss.
Is it only me or is driving Odysseus away from Ithaca every time he gets near really fun? I just love causing misery to his life. I am the lord of the seas and I can do whatever I want. Ten years he has been at sea, just wandering from island to island, never knowing when he will get back home. I am just enjoying every second of it. This will teach him that man is nothing without the gods. If it were not for Teiresias the Theban prophet, I would gladly kill Odysseus right now. I have no choice but to keep him alive. Letting him go home easily is tempting but I would much rather keep him at sea and have a little fun of my own. If he thinks he is so awesome and tough, then let me see how long of this hardship and adversity he can take from me.
 Every single god seems to be on his side right now, but I will not take mercy or pity on this man for what he did to me. How disgusted I was when I heard that Odysseus was freed from Calypso’s island by the concession of the other gods. At least I pleased myself when I shipwrecked Odysseus and his crew soon after. I find it amusing that Teiresias told Odysseus to reconcile with me in order to get home. As if I would fall for that. I felt so pleased when I was granted the permission to punish the Phaeacians for lending a hand to my greatest nemesis.
Now, Odysseus is back at Ithaca with his wife Penelope but as a immortal, I will never forget. I will forever loathe him amd will always remember the ten years in which I tortured him and his crew to the brink. For I am Poseidon, the Lord of the sea.

The Art of Cramming and Squashing Poems


Each poem is unique in its own way. The three poems that are analyzed in this essay use different techniques of compression. In the three poems, compression not only makes the poem more abstract, but also allows us to use our imagination to paint out an image that we think the poet is describing. Word choice and sentence structure are also vital components in making a poem more concise and to the point. Techniques like metonymy, synecdoche, polysyndeton and asyndeton are used in all the poems. Compression is a major poetic technique and if the three poets did not use this technique, we would not be able to feel and visualize the images they portray and symbolize in their poems.
Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” is a perfect example of compression in poetry in which the poet uses a precise economy of language to effectively say much about what he has witnessed or what strikes or impresses him. Pound’s poem is written in two lines with a total of fourteen words, eight in the first line and six in the second. In the fourteen words, Pound describes what he saw on the Paris Metro vividly. The first line begins with ‘The apparition”, an imagery for “the faces in the crowd” (1). The word apparition makes me visualize the scene on the Metro which must have given Pound some sort of mystical feeling when he saw so many people with expressionless faces riding on the crowded Metro. I thought of ghostlike people when I first read the line. The poet obviously wants to make the reader visualize the scene like he does. The word “apparition” that conveys a supernatural feel does a great job. As for sentence structure, Pound links the two lines together with a colon to lead us on to the transition from the mystical image of the “apparition” directly to the lovely and delicate image of “Petals” that begins the next line. This is a direct contrast to the bleakness of “a wet, black bough” (2) that follows. The word “petals” suggests something delicate, beautiful and feminine. It contrast with the “wet, black bough” which is a bare branch. A petal on a black bough is very distinctively noticeable, not like the ghostly faces in the crowd. The poet uses the technique of synecdoche as “bough” is a part of a tree while “apparition” is only a description of people’s faces but not their bodies.  Pound does not have to go into detail about the contrasts he portrays because the compression of words encourages the reader to picture the crowded scene on the busy Metro in Paris, a glamorous city in Europe. A poem like this uses precision in word choice to convey a set of images and emotion.
Like Pound, “Love Without Hope” by Robert Graves uses compression to portray the image and the story of a hopeless love told all in two couplets in a quatrain. The poem describes the unrequited love a young bird-catcher, who is from the laboring class, feels for the Squire’s daughter whose father is a landed gentry. The second line, “Swept off his tall hat to the Squire’s own daughter” (2), is another example of a compressed line. Instead of saying the bird-catcher is “swept off his feet” by the Squire’s daughter, which is the true feeling of the boy, he “swept off his hat” to salute her like someone much beneath the girl in social status and has to hide his feelings from her. The words, ‘”bird-catcher” in the first line and “daughter” of the Squire in the second are crucial contrast to the stations of life of the two young people. Whatever love exists, it is hopeless. In his feeling of his hopeless love for the girl, the bird-catcher lets “the imprisoned larks escape and fly” (3). The poet makes use of the imagery of the “imprisoned larks” that now have the taste of freedom and sing for joy “about her head, as she rode by” (4) to reveal the sadness of the bird-catcher as it symbolizes through simile, the closest he can ever get to her. This is beautiful but sad reality for the bird-catcher who cannot physically sing a song of love to the girl and now, the task is done for him by the freed larks. This quatrain of unrequited love compresses an otherwise long tear jerking story into four lines with secret longing and yearning. The readers are left to use their imagination to fill in the details of the case of  “Love without hope”.
Apart from these two rather general poems, the most extreme type of concise compression comes in the poem “Rhyme for a child viewing a naked Venus in a painting of ‘The Judgment of Paris’” by Robert Browning. This poem is written in only two lines, “He gazed, and gazed and gazed and gazed, Amazed, amazed, amazed, amazed” (1-2) with the assonance “a” and resonance “z” for effect. The powerful use of repetition of the words “gazed” and “amazed” four times each is an amazing technique that Browning employs to describe the shock, the awe and the fascination of the child as he sees the painting of naked Venus for the first time. The daring economy of words used in the two lines to create such a strong impact on the emotions of both the child and the readers can only come from a gifted poet like Browning.  Of course, the title of the poem “Rhyme of a child viewing a naked painting” is vital to help us appreciate the two lines of strong emotive behavior of the child. The polysyndeton used in the first line “gazed, and gazed and gazed and gazed” and the asyndeton used in the second line “amazed, amazed, amazed, amazed” make the poem very unique as two figure of speech techniques are used in two lines. Line one uses the conjunction “and” three times in succession to create a powerful continuation of the gaze of the child on the picture and the line seems to tell us that when the child wants to look away, his gaze simply goes back to Venus with the word “and”. Line two has the omission of all conjunction to describe the reaction to the “gaze”, which is, “Amazed, amazed, amazed.” Although compression is very obvious in this poem, Browning cannot compress anymore. If the poem is compressed into “He gazed and amazed”, all sense and feeling the poet wants to express about the child would be completely lost.
All three poems are different. Pound uses imagery. Graves uses metonymy and similes to show the bird-catcher’s hopeless grief, while Browning uses extreme brevity. However, they all have something in common. Compact word choice and sentence structure lead to their respective successes in compressing the messages hidden in the poems. Without compression involved, the poems would be very bland and prosaic. The art of cramming the hidden meanings of a poem is a very tough task and all three poets use their respective creativeness in the choice of poetic forms, meters, diction and sound effects in their poems. Compression is a vital technique in poetry, as it can fire the imagination of the readers and arouse their emotions as they enjoy the beauty of the lyrical techniques with the use of rich imagery and figurative language. They give readers depths to think, to feel and to visualize and, when read aloud, to enjoy the rhythm and sounds of the diction. This way, the poem sounds more sophisticated and lyrical while at the same time, interesting and easy to remember.

Aesthetic Manifesto - The Fight For "Comfy" Clothes


Throughout the world there is a common theme in the eyes of fashion.  It is a pity that somehow fashion and comfort do not go together.  Clothes are one of the most important necessities in life; they are one of the few things that directly affect a person’s image and reveal a person’s taste and personality. It is, of course, unwise for anyone to let clothes control our whole being! There should be a way for people to feel comfortable and to be in style at the same time. To this end, a recent movement towards “comfy” clothes has been brought up that promotes the idea of comfortable style. Ideas such as fleece lined jeans and spring based high-heeled shoes have been proposed, and while there are still people that live in a state of discomfort, there seems to be many trying to reach this goal of comfort.  This is just the beginning of a possibly groundbreaking revolution pertaining to the art of style and clothing.
People nowadays are too concerned with the art of visual pleasure. They are very particular and fussy with what they buy and what they wear everyday. Girls and boys, men and women alike pay too much attention to their attire. Studies show that many spend around an hour a day figuring out what she wants to wear that day. The recent trend is to wear stylistic but uncomfortable clothes. Today, many teenage girls adapt to clothes that are either too revealing or too inappropriate. Some teenage boys wear shirts that are too tight or oversized pants that tightly constrict their legs and way down the hips. Teenage wooden drawers are full of clothes that are very uncomfortable because teenagers are all willing to sacrifice the comfortable feeling to bear up with the discomfort of fashionable clothes.
Older men and women are no different. Many men and women go to work every day wearing a suit.  They put on uncomfortable and restricting ties, tight stiff shoes, and sit uncomfortably at a desk for many hours of the day.  For most cases, celebrities are usually the instigators of the fashion trends. They all stock up the most trendy and avant-garde clothes with some only suitable for the stage but not for the street. Every time they show up at an event like the Oscars or the Golden Globes, they wear formal tuxedoes and evening gowns to show their celebrity status, that they are the stars who walk the red carpet and who steal all the limelight of the occasion.  Although celebrities get all the admirable “oohs” and “arhs” when they appear on starlit occasions, in designer outfits, they actually look every bit like the average man on the street when they are captured in their “comfy” clothes in daily paparazzi photographs. A simple t-shirt and sweatshirt are effortlessly put on and they still look glamorous but casual and smart and it is actually their well known faces that distinguish them from the ordinary folks and not their clothes.
On the other hand, common people, or people on the street, always wear sober clothes that are ageless and affordable for ordinary people. These people, even if they can afford it, are unwilling to pay the high costs of fashions that last a season only. These people go for “comfy” clothes and if they can well afford to, they will pay for classically comfortable clothes that are made with expensive fabrics instead of paying for the designs of the outfits. The clothes they wear never get out of fashion and are a much more sensible way to dress oneself.
We do not propose that one should never dress up to look chic, trendy and smart. There are special or formal occasions, such as weddings, graduations, baptisms and funerals when it is appropriate to wear formal clothes that may be slightly uncomfortable. However, this is unavoidable because we must follow the etiquette to follow the dress codes fit for the occasions to show our respect for our hosts as well as to show our respect for ourselves.  This idea of “comfy clothes” focuses more on casual clothes that are worn everyday, common clothes.  It says that clothes that are going to be worn after work every day, in the weekends and holidays or even during work. In fact, “comfy” clothes allow us to relax, to look good and to feel absolutely at ease and comfortable as well as presentable. There can be a compromise between comfort and fashion. On special occasions, people can wear formal clothes such as tight tuxedoes and dresses according to the dress code that is often in play. However, daily casual wears should consist of “comfy” clothes like baggy shorts or pants and a plain and loose t-shirt made from soft material.  Other accessories may include comfy hats and shoes. At the end of the day, comfort should be at the top of everybody’s list rather than fashion.
Wearing comfortable clothes over fashionable clothes actually affects our health. First of all, it has an impact on our mental health. With clothes that attract less attention, people would naturally become less concerned about their own looks and thus would be less of a narcissist. Feeling more confident about their own looks, people can be less distracted and more focused on life and living life rather than focusing on superficial things like clothes. This prevents them from using up energy, time, and money on picking clothes. On the other hand, wearing “comfy clothes” can help us improve our physical health. People can feel less discomfort during the day thus they are less irritated by clothing. Tight clothes slow down blood circulation and can make people feel numb. For girls who wear revealing clothes, they will more likely become a target of kidnapping and sexual predators. Looser and more comfortable clothes are the obvious choice for people.
Instead of collared or buttoned shirts for guys, they should wear more baggy t-shirts. There should be less form fitting jeans and more sweatpants and gym shorts. For girls, jewelry should be kept to a minimal. During everyday situations, they should also avoid high-heeled shoes and wear flat-soled shoes or sandals.  Many women who wear these high-heeled shoes have a difficult time participating in everyday activities.  These shoes can even cause abuse such as rolled ankles and possibly apply too much stress on the legs of these women.  These are only a few suggestions for the transition from fashionable clothing to casual and comfortable clothes.
We should start a campaign to promote “comfy” clothes and how they could affect people’s lives.  As celebrities are usually the trendsetters, celebrities should be more open to the public about the benefits of comfortable clothes.  They have the opportunity to use their wide spread influence to positively affect the wellbeing of the everyday person. With that in mind, people would emulate the celebrities and before long, everybody would be wearing relaxed and loose attire.
People are too concerned with looks nowadays. Comfy clothes are the answer to a better and healthier life. It would improve one’s mental and physical health too. If everyone wears the same kind of clothes, they would not be too self-conscious of themselves and preoccupied with how they look. We sincerely hope that this “comfy” clothes trend will quickly become reality, as more and more people could understand the importance of comfort over the usually heavy favored fashion. In this day of high fashions, people are blinded by the trends and choose to forget that clothes are meant to provide comfort and dignity and to protect our bodies from the elements but not to help us show off our wealth and vanity. 

From Segregation to Apartheid – The Comparison of the apartheid system in South Africa and the Jim Crow laws in the US


Thomas Jefferson once said, “All men are created equal”. The play “Master Harold… and the boys” written by Athol Fugard, is contradictory to this claim as it is thematically related to the inequality of men, especially men born with the black color which in the eyes of the white, was inferior to them. Set inside a tearoom on a wet and windy Port Elizabeth (South Africa) afternoon in 1950, the central theme of the play is human rights. The South African system of apartheid (also called de facto apartheid) in which only white people enjoyed full political rights comes under heavy attack although apartheid is not directly mentioned or addressed throughout the play. Fugard indirectly criticizes the society of racial discrimination and injustice created by apartheid. Although the white character in the play is merely a teen, the language he uses towards his black “servants” reflects the disparity of power where black men are forced by law to be subservient to white children. Under the apartheid system in South Africa, it was absolutely normal and well accepted for a white child to physically or verbally assault a black person. Though the black suffer in silence, the whites found it natural to assert their supremacy and did not seem to feel any injustice or immorality they rendered on the blacks. This simply reveals the glaring inhumanity of the indecent system of apartheid, which is an Afrikaner word for segregation. On the other hand, in America, the Jim Crow laws that were enacted between 1876 and 1965 are similar to apartheid in a lot of aspects. Jim Crow’s “separate but equal” status for black Americans mandated racial segregation in all public facilities. In reality, both the apartheid and Jim Crow system were resulted from the fact that the whites consider themselves to be the superior race and the blacks should be treated as underdogs. (Jaynes, 470) The apartheid system was closely related to the Jim Crow laws in the US and they both reflected the kind of cruel racial segregation against blacks that took place in the 20th century.
The word apartheid was coined in the 1930s and was used as a political slogan of the National Party in the early 1940s. Newspapers and the National Party politicians used it occasionally but the policy itself extended back to the beginning of white settlement in South Africa in 1652. (Robinson) After winning an election on 26th May 1948, the National Part coalition quickly adopted apartheid as the official policy in South Africa. (Brown, 26) Apartheid separated blacks, most indigenous South African from whites and divided blacks into 10 tribal groups. (Brown, 26) To start off, the early target for the Nationalists was marriage and sex of mixed races. In 1949, parliament passed the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, which outlawed marriages between Europeans and non-Europeans. The Immorality Amendment Act came next as it prohibited adultery and also extended a ban on sexual intercourse between whites and natives. (Meredith, 53) In 1950, the Group Areas Act forced physical separation between races by creating separate residential areas. These racial zones represented complete segregation. (Spindle) One of the most outrageous laws passed was the Natives Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act of 1952, which required black people to carry identification with them at all times for patrolling police officers to check on. (Meredith, 56) When asked about the inequality of the acts, a minister of the Nationalist said, “We believe that if we remove the point of contact that causes friction, then we will remove the possibility of that friction and we will able to prevent the conflagration which might one day break out.” (Meredith, 54) All these laws constituted for one thing. The segregation of blacks. By 1960, the word apartheid had become one of the dirtiest words in the world, to such an extent that the South African Prime Minister at the time tried to drop it. (Addison, 3) After the Second World War, the decline of Jim Crow in the US and the dismantling of European colonies, South Africa’s apartheid policy came under increased scrutiny. (Middleton, 89) In addition, inspired by example of the Civil Rights Movement in the US, Nelson Mandela finally led the Natives to abolish apartheid in 1990. (Brown, 26)
The Jim Crow laws were a system of racial segregation and oppression that originated in the 1830s by a white minstrel performer who created a blackface character of that name. (Brown, 416) The name was later given to the segregation system that began in the late 1890s. (Jaynes, 468) During the nineteenth century, politicians like Thomas Jefferson believed Native Americans could amalgamate into American life but that never happened.  In a famous lawsuit Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896, the US Supreme Court declared that “separate but equal” was the legal backbone for segregation. (Brown, 578)  This led to the exclusion of Indian nations from inclusion in the American political by the U.S. constitution. In retrospect, separate was just another word for “total exclusion”. At the time, racial segregation violated the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment, however, the federal government continued to sanction the laws and practices of Jim Crow. There were two forms of Jim Crow laws that existed in the South: de jure and de facto. De jure segregation was the separation of races as mandated specifically by law and de facto segregation meant the practice of laws not necessarily ordained by law. (Brown, 417) An example of de jure in Alabama was that all passenger stations operated by any motor transportation company had separate waiting rooms and separate ticket windows for white and colored races. (Murray) De facto segregation usually occurred in school enrollment and housing patterns. Some neighborhoods could be predominantly black although it was not by de jure laws. One of the most famous laws was the “Separate Car Law," which purported to aid passenger comfort by creating "equal but separate" cars for blacks and whites. (Brown, 420) Similar to the apartheid system, the Jim Crow laws reflected Southern whites growing uneasy about the younger generation of African Americans. It was until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Brown vs. Board Education that the “separate but equal” system was finally abolished.
So what were the similarities and differences of these two systems in two entirely different worlds? Apartheid represented a dark period in the history of South Africa, while Jim Crow segregated natives almost identically. (Jaynes, 469) The Blacks in South Africa were forced to make long commutes by bus to jobs in white areas while the blacks in the US could not enter a white home through the front door. The types of segregation involved were all similar. They were all related to the “inferiority” of blacks. For example, blacks had to give way to a white person on a sidewalk. Signs labeled for white and for colored dominated the South as Jim Crow regulated social contact in places like restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, schools, parks, libraries, hospitals and waiting rooms. (Brown, 418) Both lands passed laws that prohibited interracial marriages. This was clearly because having a mixed population was not ideal for preserving segregation. State legislatures during the Jim Crow period enacted anti-miscegenation laws that prohibited these marriages and also passed laws to make voter registration difficult if not impossible for natives and blacks. (Brown, 419) Ridiculous laws like prohibiting freehold property rights were passed, which thereafter affected a total of 3.5 million people. (Middleton, 88) However, the apartheid system had a unique law to place black African owned businesses in urban areas under restrictions that limited their capacity to expand which did not exist in America. Deliberate and repressive measures were taken to ensure that the availability of family housing was limited to make South Africans scramble for their lives instead of focusing on a rebel against the whites. (Middleton, 89) The similarities between these two systems were very obvious as they both circled around themes like intermarriages, education and public affairs. There were practically no differences.
Apartheid. The word alone sends a shiver down the spines of the African society. Apartheid literally means apartness or separateness. It aims to separate the white and non-white peoples of South Africa and divides the country into separate areas for occupation and ownership by whites. (Addison, 3) Apartheid has left major scars on South African society in the form of severe inequalities in education, housing, welfare and income. Just imagine how many children grew up in terror of oppression. It took South Africa about fifty years to overcome this, almost identical to what happened in the United States. Race has always been a national problem in the 1900s and it wasn’t easy to overcome for the segregated groups because of the repressive laws. The play “Master Harold… and the boys” clearly demonstrates the kind of discrimination that occurred. The fight for freedom and democracy had cost many innocent lives and harm to all black South Africans and natives. The Jim Crow “separate but equal” laws have had almost the exact same impact as apartheid did in South Africa. The kind of cruel segregation that took place cannot be ignored even though they are both are in the past now. Both apartheid and Jim Crow have been two of the most significant segregation systems in the 20th century and both have left incurable scars on the history of the black people forever.

Andover Surprises

Andover Swimming
The first time I came to Andover in January, I was a student from another country and not a student of Phillips Academy Andover. Although I knew the person who toured me really well (as he is also from Hong Kong), I felt forlorn and out of place as I walked around campus simply because…I was not a student.  Here I am…eight months later. I am now a student of Andover. I simply cannot believe I am here now.
As my dad drove to Rockwell House, I saw students wearing the Andover logo shirts and jackets. Suddenly, I started to feel the “Andover Spirit”. Although I was not officially part of the community yet I could somehow visualize and foresee my future at Andover. While I was starting to unload my belongings and bringing them to the lift, I passed by a lot of smiling students and parents. I smiled back. Later, a prefect of the dorm approached me. On first sight, I thought he looked like a very amicable person. I was correct. I later found out that the prefect, Adam, was living opposite my room on the 3rd floor of Rockwell South. He offered to help out but my dad and I kindly rejected his offer as he was still busy with his unpacking too.
When I reached my room, I was totally startled at the fact that I had such a spacious room. Rooms in Rockwell were much bigger than what I remembered and I was overjoyed. While my parents and I were busy with unpacking, many people approached us and introduced themselves. I gradually met all the kids who were also moving in and became good friends with them all. Not only were they all very friendly, I realized that we have a lot in common.
When school starts. The pressure is on. Friends are there to help. The night before school started. We all sat down in the common room, talking about what we expect on the first day. It was not only a fun topic but also very consoling because I realized that I was not the only one with concerns. Andover has widened my view about friendship. The meaning of friendship used to be only people I hang out with but after only four days of school, I realized the word friendship has deeper meanings and is plausible to understand it fully.
One thing I predicted before I came to Andover was that a lot of people would be still in holiday gear. They would still be bored out of their minds, and in desperate need of some kind of entertainment, other than their computer screen or their television screen. Homework would obviously not be a good solution. I was wrong. On the first night, everyone was in their rooms working on their homework and not playing video games or watching television in the common room. Their brains quickly come intact while my transition is still very slow.
As for classes, I have now realized how smart the people at Andover are. I am not saying it surprised me a lot but the intelligence of all the students exceeded my furthest expectations.  As a swimmer, I love competing, so I will look forward to competing with the class of 2012.
On the other hand, the feel of community here is very strong. In Hong Kong, I thought my school spirit was very strong, but now, I think otherwise. The spirit here is so high that sometimes, I cannot help myself but to spurt out the school slogans, especially when the blue keys held up the “Honk If You Over Andover” signs. I am from West Quad South and the people in my cluster are surprisingly very passionate about their cluster. They yell out cluster slogans and wave flags in the air.
So far, Andover has been a wonderful home for me and I hope this is going to be a very memorable year and I cannot wait to be surprised once again.

The Role In The Core Structure Of A Sonnet


Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets are known worldwide. “Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?” is a renowned line from Shakespeare’s sonnet 18, a love poem. Like all Shakespearean sonnets, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” contains fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter with ten syllables each line and stresses on every second syllable. The stressed and unstressed syllables basically look like this:
“Shall I compare thee to a Summer”s day”
“Thou art more lovely and more temperate:”
The rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. The lyrical structure is typical of Shakespeare, which distinguishes the Bard’s work from Petrarchan sonnets. Shakespeare’s sonnet 18”s flawless rhythm and rhyme scheme gives the song a perfect romantic undertone sung in the praise of the poet’s beloved.
The first four lines, the first quatrain, with the rhyme scheme, abab, sings to the beauty of a man who, in the poet’s eye, is “more lovely and more temperate” when “compared to a summer’s day” which, in nature, is short and sometimes rough (1-2). The personification of “summer’s day” and “rough wind” shaking “the darling buds of May” plays a vital role in giving life to the song and the beautiful and handsome man who lives in it (3).
The next four lines, the second quatrain, with the rhyme scheme, cdcd, gives the imagery of the sun, as “the eye of heaven” with a “gold complexion” which is very godlike, but can be “too hot” sometimes. On top of it all, even the “gold complexion” of  “the eye of heaven” will dim and lose its fairness with “nature’s changing course. (5-6)
The third quatrain, with the rhyme scheme efef emphasizes the beauty of the poet’s beloved being an “eternal sommer” that “shall not fade” “nor loose possession of that faire thou owest’”. (9-10) The poet also personifies “Death” who shall not be able to “brag thou wanderst in his shade” because the person’s beauty, instead of fading, will continue to shine in the “eternal lines” of the song. (11-12) This will continue to be sung “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see. So long lives this (ie this sonnet), and this gives life to thee (the poet’s beloved)”. (13-14) The poem ends with the couplet quote above. Shakespeare has the confidence that his sonnets will become immortal and this literary immortality also gives immortality to the beauty of the man. Without this sonnet, people will not understand the beauty.
The couplet does round up Shakespeare’s love for his beloved, which can live on to eternity. Shakespeare technique in his use of imagery, and figure of speech in the structure of this love sonnet is very successful. He does not use enjambment as every line ends with a punctuation. The repetition of the word “summer” develops the sonnet and the argument. (Hendiadys) Word choice is also important as it contributes to the poem’s rhythm. The love and beauty of “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” will definitely continue to grow with time as one of the best loved poems in Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets as well as in the history of English literature. 

My Moment Near Death



It was my first day with neither my parents nor my dear sister at home.

My parents had just left in the morning to visit my sister who was studying abroad, hence leaving their precious son to the care of a foreign helper.  I begged one of my parents to stay behind, but they gave me the excuse that they had to attend the parent conference at my sister’s school. I then fabricated a story that would persuade them to stay but to no avail.

Torn between loving or hating my parents for abandoning me, I felt very forlorn as I had no one to talk to after finishing my homework. A sudden cry from the kitchen woke me from my daze. Then my helper started to scream uncontrollably, like a lunatic. My initial reaction was to yell at her to be quiet because I was going to switch on the TV to relieve my boredom. She appeared in my room and gestured me to follow her into the dining room. After I chased after her into the living room, her unstable and quivering finger pointed at black smoke outside the window. A fire had broken out in the flat directly above mine! I was too stunned and taken aback to budge a muscle at first and I had to pinch myself to see if I would wake up from an unwanted nightmare. But unfortunately, the fire was real!4

“Mom and dad, how dare you abandon me! Oh God, please don’t abandon me too, help me!”  I almost bursted my thoughts out hysterically.  Miraculously, my momentary plead gave me unexplained calmness. I summoned up my courage and dialed 999 (which is the emergency number in Hong Kong).  Although I spoke really fast, the man at the other end of the line managed to take down my address and comforted me rescue would be on the way soon.

Dashing back into my own room to retrieve my mobile phone and wallet before making an exit, I realized that the fire had become so fierce that its flames were almost devouring my bedroom window, threatening to burn it down. I loved my own room with my favorite books and electronic games and did not want it to be destroyed. A horrifying thought went into my head not knowing if I would ever see my family alive. No, God would not allow that, I just knew it. I was a bit scared that it would even burn through my window and also my beloved and treasured properties! Despite my concerns, I was forced and ushered out of the house by my helpers and before I knew it, fire alarms rang throughout the building. It was deafening. Before I knew it, I was already down in the lobby of block two (I live in block three) looking up into the sky as a team of firemen tried relentlessly to put out the ferocious fire licking at my window. My helper went up to some of the residents of our building and told them how brave I was and that I was the one who phoned the police. It made me blush when some of them called me their hero.

After what seemed like eternity, the fire was extinguished and the residents filed to the elevators in order to return home to have a good’s night rest. I was due to have a lesson at home that night but because of the incident it was cancelled at the very last minute. When my helpers and I arrived home, almost as if magic, I immediately received several phone calls from various friends asking if I was okay. Some of them pointed out that the news broadcasted this incident on television. Even my grandpa came to my house to see if I was still in shock! It was a heck of a night.

I have to thank God in keeping me safe, if not, I won’t be here typing this out right now. My parents almost fainted at the shock of this happening when they got off the plane in USA but managed to allay themselves when I spoke on the phone with them. After two to three years after the incident happened, I still think that it was plausible that the fire could have been more destructive. I am just blessed that I am alive!   

Different kinds of love


Only so few with a heart richer than gold,
to care for the elderly, sick, dirty or frayed,
Love for all is most bold.

A mother picks up her baby to hold,
the constant hug she gives as the baby’s aid,
Only so few with a heart richer than gold.

Her unselfish love for him will never get cold,
for her only child she has always prayed,
Love for all is most bold.

He stares at her without being told,
always gives her flowers that are handmade,
Only so few with a heart richer than gold.

To him his love for her cannot be sold
because he has found his lifetime mate.
Love for all is most bold.

Love cannot be shown in many dollars,
successful men do not have to be first rate.
Only so few with a heart richer than gold,
Love for all is most bold.