Every year I do a photo shoot of Christmas decoration around Limassol. Anexartisias Street in Centre of Limassol usually provides the best photo opportunity.
I have took hundred or so photos but the best and most interesting shot is this photo of a women shoes shop's window!
The white contrast very well with the rainbow colours of the shoes.
Not really what I have in mind regarding Christmas decoration photos!
Friday, 6 January 2012
The best Christmas photo of 2011 women shoes
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Greeks - Voices from the Edge
Despite I am working in IT and having easy access to online resources at home or at work via IPAD, netbook, laptops etc; I still like reading paper based media. Being an Alumni of LSE (London School of Economics ) I received my copy of alumni magazine "Connect" twice a year. In a cold rainy New Year day in Cyprus, what's better then reading a snap shot of world view from LSE.
One article stand out the most in the 2011 winter issue is written by a researcher, Paul Strong, about the rural Greeks.The article fascinates me because I am living in Republic of Cyprus, a country which is next door to Greece, where majority of the subjects share the same Hellenic culture and language. For some (or many) even consider Greece as their "motherland".
The article basically try to give a brief overview of his approach of how he try to benchmark the social-economic history of the rural Greece during a field research work he carried out. The problem of trying to make Greeks to speak about their painful past. How he used a motor-cycle (moped) to get into town so that he could make others to talk, the gossipy nature of the villagers, the coffee , the peanuts etc. make the article very interesting
The article didn't really go into any lengthy detail in term of findings (my weak vocabulary in Economic History terminologies would not allow me to understand a detail written report anyway) but it did mentioned some main points, one main point stand out the most: who is the biggest enemy of the Greeks? Answer Greeks themselves. I ask the same question to my Greek relatives,friends and colleagues, they all give exactly the same answer.
anyway the article can be found in the following link
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/alumni/LSEConnect/LC_winter_2011.aspx
A youtube introductory, looks cool but doesn't say much can be found:-
http://youtu.be/qPDB10o_YcA
If Dr Strong is reading this blog, good luck with your research may be I see you in this part of the Mediterranean.
One article stand out the most in the 2011 winter issue is written by a researcher, Paul Strong, about the rural Greeks.The article fascinates me because I am living in Republic of Cyprus, a country which is next door to Greece, where majority of the subjects share the same Hellenic culture and language. For some (or many) even consider Greece as their "motherland".
The article basically try to give a brief overview of his approach of how he try to benchmark the social-economic history of the rural Greece during a field research work he carried out. The problem of trying to make Greeks to speak about their painful past. How he used a motor-cycle (moped) to get into town so that he could make others to talk, the gossipy nature of the villagers, the coffee , the peanuts etc. make the article very interesting
The article didn't really go into any lengthy detail in term of findings (my weak vocabulary in Economic History terminologies would not allow me to understand a detail written report anyway) but it did mentioned some main points, one main point stand out the most: who is the biggest enemy of the Greeks? Answer Greeks themselves. I ask the same question to my Greek relatives,friends and colleagues, they all give exactly the same answer.
anyway the article can be found in the following link
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/alumni/LSEConnect/LC_winter_2011.aspx
A youtube introductory, looks cool but doesn't say much can be found:-
http://youtu.be/qPDB10o_YcA
If Dr Strong is reading this blog, good luck with your research may be I see you in this part of the Mediterranean.
Saturday, 19 March 2011
The Limassol Carnival
This year Limassol Carnival, I was well geared up to take some photos with my Nikon camera and my recently purchased 18-200mm Sigma lens. Definitely the lens make a large different.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Education Education Education - Part 2 School
"書中自有黃金屋,書中自有顏如玉" - "within Books you will find gold plated house, within books you will find precious jade", my grand-mum always told me these 2 phases when I was young. As long as I study hard, a world of opportunities are waiting for me to explore.
Education is definitely one of the way to get one out of poverty but in reality the cost of education are huge. The so call "free education" is actually not that free at all. Books, uniform, transports all cost money and not to mention school trip, school assignment, after classroom activities. (I will mentioned school trip and school assignment later.)The irony is you need money for education and if you don't have money in the first place you will not get the opportunity to be educated to get out of poverty.
Couple of months ago, I was having the above conversation with one of my cousin when I was in Hong Kong. She worked in the government, in one of those department that address everyday people concern on a daily basis. She gave me an example on that some of the school assignment involve going to museums for research. Not all museums in Hong Kong are free. Getting to the museum by public transport is not free either. An MTR trip (Hong Kong underground) vary from a few dollars to thirty something dollars (for some trip like Lok Ma Chau to Cental). In Hong Kong the minim wages is around 20 Hong Kong dollar per hour (aprox 2EURO). The cost is significant for low income household. How about the digital camera you need to take photos of the assignment which cost around HKD1000 for a low end entry? Is that mean a low income family need to stave for a week to get the assignment done? For some courses you even need to create a portfolio,how can you create a portfolio without money.
Recently I am working out how much I need to fund my daughter through to university. she is 2 yrs old now. I need to have a hard look at my finance.
Education is definitely one of the way to get one out of poverty but in reality the cost of education are huge. The so call "free education" is actually not that free at all. Books, uniform, transports all cost money and not to mention school trip, school assignment, after classroom activities. (I will mentioned school trip and school assignment later.)The irony is you need money for education and if you don't have money in the first place you will not get the opportunity to be educated to get out of poverty.
Couple of months ago, I was having the above conversation with one of my cousin when I was in Hong Kong. She worked in the government, in one of those department that address everyday people concern on a daily basis. She gave me an example on that some of the school assignment involve going to museums for research. Not all museums in Hong Kong are free. Getting to the museum by public transport is not free either. An MTR trip (Hong Kong underground) vary from a few dollars to thirty something dollars (for some trip like Lok Ma Chau to Cental). In Hong Kong the minim wages is around 20 Hong Kong dollar per hour (aprox 2EURO). The cost is significant for low income household. How about the digital camera you need to take photos of the assignment which cost around HKD1000 for a low end entry? Is that mean a low income family need to stave for a week to get the assignment done? For some courses you even need to create a portfolio,how can you create a portfolio without money.
Recently I am working out how much I need to fund my daughter through to university. she is 2 yrs old now. I need to have a hard look at my finance.
Education Education Education - Part 3 University
The Third encounter I have is related to University. Every year near the end of the year, I always get a phone call from my old universities asking for money. What they do is that they get a bunch of volenteer students and they start cold calling alumni and hopefully a phone call will yield some kind of return with a donation. The amount of money going to High Education is huge in the UK but still lacking behind other countries like US.
Universities have to find some way to raise the necessary fund. For the established Universities in UK like Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial etc... they charge a large amount for Overseas student fees but they still have to carryout some fund rising events like cold calling.
Only some months ago, the director of LSE Sir Howard Davies resigned. LSE came under pressure to explain itself the links between LSE funding and Libya Dictator Gadarfi .A recent enquiry also highlighted that a judgmenet of error was made by the sir Howard. The lack of govenance was also to blame. The truth is that it is difficult for the cash straped University simply ignored a large some of donation eventhough the source of the donation may be called into question.
Universities have to find some way to raise the necessary fund. For the established Universities in UK like Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial etc... they charge a large amount for Overseas student fees but they still have to carryout some fund rising events like cold calling.
Only some months ago, the director of LSE Sir Howard Davies resigned. LSE came under pressure to explain itself the links between LSE funding and Libya Dictator Gadarfi .A recent enquiry also highlighted that a judgmenet of error was made by the sir Howard. The lack of govenance was also to blame. The truth is that it is difficult for the cash straped University simply ignored a large some of donation eventhough the source of the donation may be called into question.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Education Education Education - Part 1 Kindergarten
Kindergarten -The first encounter took place while I was on holiday back in my homeland in Hong Kong. One day my father,wife,daughter and I were taking a afternoon stroll along the park. While in the park we saw these elderly couple walking along with a toddler (I later found out the toddler was their grandson). Like many other parents, I grabbed every single opportunity for my own toddler daughter to interact with other children. I approached the elderly couple and their grandchild with my 2-year-old daughter. "My name is Sophia I am 2 year old", I spoke on behalf of my daughter. The boy was shy and didn't reply. "Oh why don't you reply to this man", said the grandfather to the little boy, "staying quiet like this and not replying to question will not get you to kindergarten". I must admit I was puzzled with what the grandfather said to his grandson. The grandparents probability realised I don't live in Hong Kong and explained to me the situation. Their 2 year grandson went to an interview for kindergarten education and he was rejected. The main reason was that during the interview he was too shy to reply answers.
From what I heard so far, in Hong Kong getting into kindergarten involves three thing: Money,waiting list, and interview. Has the education system expected too much from our toddler? Shyness is a sin for a 2 year old?
From what I heard so far, in Hong Kong getting into kindergarten involves three thing: Money,waiting list, and interview. Has the education system expected too much from our toddler? Shyness is a sin for a 2 year old?
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Education Education Education
What happen to the education system of today? The education system has changed so much since I was at kindergarten, schools and universities. I come up with the previous sentence base on three total separate encounters in recent days. I will break it into 3 parts within my blog. More to follow...
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