Series of "土耳其之旅"

I used to put English articles on this website only. However, I decided to put some Chinese articles here, since they are also important about what I thinks and what I experience. These articles may not describe economical or political issues directly. However, they reflects some economical or political problems.

Note:
This edition is a little bit different from others that I've posted on facebook and xiaonei. I try to pick up some of the diaries rather than all of them.

Religion, Secularism & Politics

The Constitutional Court of Turkey agreed to consider a case calling for the banning of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and for the prime minister to be barred from office. The prosecutor believes that the AK Party is trying to promote the religion into the secular life. One of the evidence is that AK Party tries to ease the strict ban on the wearing of headscarves in universities.
It is a very interesting case. In Turkey, the bureaucrats want a secular society. As a result, they are quite sensitive towards any move towards a religious life. That is not wrong per se. On the other hands, there are huge amounts of people who hope to keep their religion in life. Most people accept that they at least should have the right to keep religion in their personal life, which is widely accepted by the criterion of the modern civilization.
The problem lies in the logic that accuses the act to ease the ban on headscarves in universities as a kind of mixing religion with secular life. The university is a public place, but it does not mean that everything related to the university is a public issue. Among those issues, wearing is of course a kind of private thing. Even if someone may use the crisis when Prince Harry wore Nazi costume several years ago to argue that wearing may become a public issue. The difference is that Harry’s case is immoral according to the standard of modern civilization, but the latter has no such problem. “What is the difference between having headscarves in shops or on streets and at a university?” Hannes Swoboda, vice chairman of the Socialist group in the European Parliament commented.
It would be rather confusing if the right to wear headscarves is deprived, how can we understand the freedom of religion in modern world?
The decision of the Constitutional Court of Turkey is thus quite political. The bureaucrats in Turkey always have strong opposition towards religious politicians. Since 19070s, Turkey has shut at least four pro-Islamic parties. Among them are army and a lot of judges. The crisis has lasted for months. The final decision of the Constitutional Court of Turkey this time may become a decisive step which influences the entry of EU and the international trust towards Turkish government.

The Rules and Arts of Protests

There were protests yesterday. Is it something surprising? It is at least not to me. Many media had reported the possible protests in advance. I was well informed of that.

However, the focus of the protests was not on the content of the protests per se. Most of the discussions fell on the topic of how the protesters were treated. This is also quite reasonable since freedom of speech and demonstration become two critical indices of democracy of society.

This short essay is not trying to comment on particular events happened these days, but is trying to illustrate the acceptance of protests in my ideas.

Anyone with a little knowledge of liberalism or democracy may not easily deny the basic rights of freedom of speech and demonstration. However, the problem is how to protests? Are there any restrictions on protests?

The democratic society in my heart is a society properly protecting the fundamental freedom while reconciling conflicts in some ways. On one hand, protecting the fundamental freedom is important since this is what makes a civilized society differ from an uncivilized one. However, reconciling conflicts is also important. To make sure that the interest of the majority population is protected, the certain actions from the minorities or individuals should be advised to be conducted according to certain rules and regulations. That is the basic spirit of the law. The law by nature is not restricting people’s rights, but to guide a proper behavior of individuals to enjoy their own rights without interfering in the rights of other people.

As a result, the right of protests should be respected under the conditions of proper time and proper manners. However, the interpretation of proper time and proper manners differs at least at three aspects.

For the protesters, the effect of the protests is usually upheld firmly. How to get the attention and how to achieve their aim of propaganda is what they concern most.

For the people who might be interfered by the protesters (if the protests interrupt their work, influence their ordinary life or so), the biggest wish might be getting rid of the disturbance. They might have expectations on the government.

For the government, a proper attitude should be a check on the manner of the protesters and the protest, rather than the context of the protest. The reason behind is that the government probably may not be able to deter a protest due to the principle of respecting the freedom of speech and demonstration. However, to protect both parties, the protesters and the other people influenced, the government has the responsibility to make sure the protests are well organized and minimize the impact of influencing the public interest.

Up to now, the discussion hasn’t touched a very important word: tolerance. That is the key element that influences the degree of the definition of “proper manner”. If the other people who have been influenced by the protesters have sufficient tolerance, then there is still possibility for the protesters to test their “riskier” manners. If the public does not have a high level of tolerance, the most possible result is the conflict from the two groups and the government has to interfere to bear the public governance. To some extent, at least in the short run, it should be regarded as the endowment. But in the long run, the tolerance of society may change.

Tolerance per se is an abstract concept which may be quite difficult to measure. The way to illustrate the tolerance may also need to be discussed more carefully. However, when discussing a certain issue, the rights of different groups of people should be well protected. However, if some people try to make use of chances to express other issues, the rights of them may be sometimes judged by the tolerance level of others. The reason is directly related to the influence of the public life. When different groups of people are having different opinions on the same issue, the rights of freedom of speech justify the actions adopted by all parties. When a group of people are taking advantage of some public events to gain the attraction of a not direct relevant topic, they interfere in the public events first and thus their fate might only depend on the public tolerance finally.

In my opinion, there are rules for the protests. The protesters might acquire the arts of protests to enjoy their rights better in any kinds of society.

The Torch Relay (Update 1)

After weeks of tour, the Olympic torch finally reached Hong Kong. I hesitated a little bit whether to go or not since I have final examinations next week. However, the continuous protests from westerners, Tibetans, and even some Chinese stimulated my interest to have a look at the reaction of the people in Hong Kong towards the Olympic Games and to seek the meaning of the torch relay myself.

I arrived at Admiralty at about 14:45. There were already groups of people. Some were in red and were distributing national flags, SAR flags, labels… anything related to Olympics. “Add oil, China!” – Several mainlanders holding high a piece of national flag yelled with excitement. Policemen were quite alert on the surroundings and tried to direct people into designated spectators’ area.

The waiting people were increasing tens and hundreds. I could already move in no way. Hundreds of people were waiting along the street and even on the over-bridge and towers. Each time a police-motorcycle passed, there were cheers from the crowds, “ka-ka”s from the shutters and waving of the flags.

Finally, the roads were nearly clear with few cars passing by. We knew that the torch was approaching. Advertisement cars, police-motorcycles, buses with bearers of the torch relay for other streets and finally, finally, the torch! The torch was coming!

Cheers, “ka-ka”s from the shutters and waving of the flags were everywhere. The bearer smiled and waved to everyone along the street. And a few seconds later, there were only the shadows of the police-motorcycle again.

Children were still waiting for something curious and funny. Parents and adults knew that what they wanted to see finished already. But maybe they could go to someplace else to see more. The crowds began to disperse. Most people entered the metro and got on the underground train to Wanchai – the destination of the torch relay.

I joined them, reviewing my feeling in the past several hours. I was excited for hours and then suddenly became very calm during that several seconds. To be frank, I could even feel a little bit disappointed since I was suddenly aware that the several seconds might not leave anything but just several photos.

Along my way to Wanchai, my passion returned and took photos of those red seas, the old, the young, the students, the workers, the posters and the advertisements. When I passed the Hennessy Road and saw the banner with four big Chinese characters, “ADD OIL, CHINA” (加油中國), my tears were lingering on my eyes!

The following several hours were occupied by crowds in my eyesight. Everywhere was red. Everywhere was excited. Why those people were so excited? Why those people were so exciting?

“Exciting”? Right! Now I came to understand. The torch relay per se may not be that exciting. Just a bearer with a nice torch, that’s it. How can it inspire such strong feeling and emotion? The people are exciting because of you. You are exciting because of others. This reciprocal procedure starts from just a slight push, a symbolic meaning of the secrete flame!

No matter how disturbing the protesters are, at least most people will be happy and excited. They are not excited about the ceremonies and relays per se. They are not excited about seeing the “famous” bearers as well. They are excited on the intrinsic nature of holding of the Olympic: a recognized rising motherland. As a result, that is also why those protesters are disturbing. They are spoiling the extrinsic appearance of the activities with no added value on the intrinsic nature. Thus they are doing something at least at the wrong time and in the wrong manner. (I should write another article to have a deeper check at it.)

There may be criticism that the atmosphere was maneuvered by the commercialized advertisements, posters and promotions. However, most people are always clever. They are enjoying their own excitement. The atmosphere won’t control them. It is just a brush of paint from some other people.

Turn to History before You Speak

After the Tibet riot in March, the bombs from western government and media finally explode. However, the fuse here is not the Olympic Game to be held in Beijing. Those who propagate an independent Tibet have made good use of the torch rally outside China and created a perfect chance for the western government and media to put pressure on Chinese government on not merely the Tibet issue.
This is politics, rather than pure human rights, sovereignty or anything else. The reason I say so is based on the fact that facts and history are not upheld at the first position before those people who speak out or protest. The fame of the western “free” and “independent” media is to some extent destroyed by their biased report. Some obvious evidence is provided by www.anti-cnn.com.
It is also quite regretful that many people support the protest against the torch rally without a clear knowledge of the relationship between Olympic and politics and the history of the complex Tibet issue.
Although the governments of many countries recognize that Tibet is a part of China, many ordinary people do not really understand why. What more, the long history of the Dalai Lama’s biased propaganda and the distrust of the communist regime due to the historical reasons made the westerners stand out without really look into the issue.
The complexity of the Tibet problem is not something can be simply illustrated by the nationalism or the separatism. There are a lot more behind.
How to find out the truth? If you don’t trust the viewpoint from Chinese Han, then you should not trust the viewpoint from exiled Tibetans. The reason rises from the possible bias which you fear that might mislead you. Go back to read those third parties’ description and introduction about the issues happening at their own times.
I come across an article about the establishment of the present Gelug branch of the Tibetan Buddhism. Although it is in Chinese, it refers to a lot of authoritative western scholars’ research and experience. I would like to regard it as quite neutral. You can find it at
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!_4qwYw6ZGQQ0SgBMthp8sw--/article?mid=2358&prev=2359&next=2357.
If you cannot read Chinese, I hope that you can try to read several books:
1. Tucci, Giuseppi, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Libreria dello Sta to, Rome, 1949
2. Petech, Luciano, China and Tibet in the Early XVIIIth Century: History of the Establishment of Chinese Protectorate in Tibet, 2nd Ed. T'oung Pao Monographie I,E.J.Brill, Leiden 1972
3. Goldstein, Melvyn C. A History of Modern Tibet,University of California 1989
Do remember to turn to history before you speak.

A General Discussion on Exploitation of Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs)

The three-tier transfer of reproductive labour theory describes a general picture of demand and supply of domestic workers. The middle- and up-class women in rich countries employ foreign domestic workers to free themselves from household chores. The corresponding positions left in the home of those foreign domestic workers are filled by other poorer domestic workers living in the local area. In this demand and supply chain of reproductive labour, does exploitation exist?
This problem can be examined from two aspects: economic exploitation and non-economic exploitation.
The economic exploitation is mainly related to the compensation to the domestic workers. Whether they are paid sufficiently? It seems that those who work as hourly-paid domestic workers are local people. Here we just discuss those live-in domestic workers, among which many are foreign domestic workers.
Live-in domestic workers are perceived to work flexibly according to the demand of the employer. As a result, the blur of the working period may easily cause abnormal long-hour working. The problem rises from two reasons. When talking about the nature of the job, as a kind of reproductive worker, they are supposed to work in order to sustain the productive labour force. The underlining meaning is that usually they need to work when productive workers do not work. When talking about the time of the job, since the workers live in the employers’ family all around clock, it will be very difficult to divide working hour from personal leisure time.
Contract is thus important for those domestic workers under so many uncertainties. In Hong Kong, minimum wage policy is implemented to protect foreign domestic workers. However, minimum wage should be a reference reflecting average wage rate of a foreign domestic workers. Domestic workers should be compensated according to the type of families they are working for. For instance, the live-in domestic workers should be paid more if they are in attendance on a baby or an elderly people of incapacity. In reality, many contracts are formulized and signed without personalization. The minimum wage becomes a fixed wage for many foreign domestic workers.
To solve the problem, a strong bargaining power is important. However, the absence of the bargaining power is due to the flexible nature of the job. It will be difficult to unite different domestic workers to ask for a better wage. Therefore, many foreign domestic workers are under paid in this sense.
Apart from insufficient compensation, the non-economic exploitation also exists. The non-economic exploitation is usually related to the requirement of the domestic workers. The image of the domestic workers generally can be required as a maid. As a result, obedience is generally perceived as a basic quality for a qualified live-in domestic worker. To fit in the position, many foreign domestic workers have to follow whatever the employers ask them to do. The fixed time of getting-up and the designated place to sleep or sit are just a few examples. Sometimes, some requirement with a little humiliation may also be accepted as a demand from the master. The dignity of a human being is exploited to some extent.

Interesting Discovery from HK Projected Population (Update 1)

Recently hall mates have been disturbed by the trend of the population proportion by sex in HKU and the real proportion of our hall. Girls seem to be much more than boys in the years to come. However, some of the students take the reference on the present “Hong Kong Resident Population by quinquennial age group, sex and whereabouts at reference moment” , 2006, and argue that since number of boys in the age group 15-19 and even 10-14 is much larger than that of girls, the future trend of proportion by sex will reverse in the university, i.e. the university will enroll more boys than girls.
The conclusion seems to be persuasive under the support of data. However, it is a common misinterpretation of data. The misinterpretation is not on whether the population of whole Hong Kong residents can be used to mimic the population in HKU is questionable per se. It is the static use of dynamic data in the centre of the question.
The assumption of the previous conclusion is that the proportion of residents by sex will not change as they grow over the years. This may be true to some of the age groups. However, in HK, it is definitely not the case for age group of 15-24.
From the same source, government of Hong Kong provided the “Projected mid-year population by age group and sex, 2007-2036” . A close check on those projected data, you can find that for all those years, age group of 15-19 has the property of more boys than girls. However, more girls are predicted in age group of 20-24 than boys. For instance, there will be 215.3 thousand boys and 207.1 thousand girls in age group 15-19. On the contrary, there will be 222.8 thousand boys and 278.0 thousand girls in age group of 20-24. After 5 years, in 2017, the numbers of boys and girls in age group 15-19 are 170.6 and 162.2 thousand separately. However, the numbers in age group 20-24 will be 212.1 and 272.8 thousand separately.
The above evidence shows that the population of age group 15-19 is not necessarily become the population of age group 20-24. The difference between boys and girls will change dramatically. A detailed look at the dramatic change is the sudden increase of female at age group 20-24.
A good explanation of this sudden increase can be found in “Hong Kong Resident Population by Duration of Residence in HK, Ethnicity, Quinquennial Age Group and Sex, 2006Hong Kong Resident Population by Duration of Residence in HK, Ethnicity, Quinquennial Age Group and Sex, 2006” (called New Resident Population in the following) which gives us the detailed number of new residents in HK by age group and sex. At the year 2006, the number of new residents who have lived in HK from 1 year to 5 years in age group 20-24 is 38282. Among these new residents, only 4797 are male and the rest 30000 plus are female. That means the new residents are mainly female which convert the difference of male and female at age group 14-19 5 years ago.
The more interesting thing can be found by decomposed the ethnicity of these new residents. It will help to proof the other falsification of assumption: the population of whole Hong Kong residents can be used to mimic the population in HKU.
Following are part of the data from “New Resident Population”:
Duration in HK <1year:
Age group/Sex Chinese Filipino Indonesian Japanese Nepalese Thai Indian
20 - 24 Male 1262 31 1 10 40 - 52
Female 1758 2923 6535 40 40 52 108
Both sexes 3020 2954 6536 50 80 52 160
Duration in HK from 1 to 2 years:
Age group/Sex Chinese Filipino Indonesian Japanese Nepalese Thai Indian
20 - 24 Male 505 11 10 21 40 - 30
Female 987 1513 5285 10 96 38 153
Both sexes 1492 1524 5295 31 136 38 183
Duration in HK from 2 to 3 years:
Age group/Sex Chinese Filipino Indonesian Japanese Nepalese Thai Indian
20 - 24 Male 524 14 30 10 42 - 20
Female 891 1034 3885 10 60 60 30
Both sexes 1415 1048 3915 20 102 60 50
Duration in HK from 3 to 4 years:
Age group/Sex Chinese Filipino Indonesian Japanese Nepalese Thai Indian
20 - 24 Male 684 - - - 21 - 1
Female 899 500 2642 - 104 55 10
Both sexes 1583 500 2642 - 125 55 11
Duration in HK from 4 to 5 years:
Age group/Sex Chinese Filipino Indonesian Japanese Nepalese Thai Indian
20 - 24 Male 851 10 - - 19 10 10
Female 1197 315 1397 - 111 23 5
Both sexes 2048 325 1397 - 130 33 15
It is quite clear that in most years new residents are from Indonesia, China and Philippines. Apart from some of the Chinese new residents who are pursuing bachelor degree in HK due to the agreement and policies between Mainland China and HKSAR, most of the new residents may not study in a university. The inflow of so many Indonesian and Philippines are mainly digested in the domestic service industry and restaurant industry. As a result, the population of whole Hong Kong residents cannot be used to mimic the population in HKU.