But we just got here…I think…
On Monday afternoon, we went to The Hong Kong Wetland Park. From a conservation and biodiversity perspective, it is great to see that Hong Kong has been so vigilant in protecting and conserving its open space. It is almost beyond comprehension how much diverse flora and fauna exist in such a small space in our world. I was hoping to see more wildlife. Other than the large indigenous spiders, who were not shy, and a few turtles, my sensory experience was limited to a plethora of sounds emanating from the flora.
The Wetland Park was a great excursion. We were able to see how small ecosystems have developed in Hong Kong and how they interact with one another.
As a public administration student a lot of my studies revolved around the part that stakeholders play in policymaking. A policy that solves a problem for one group often causes problems for other groups. The Wetlands Park illustrated an important policy discussion in Hong Kong: preserving these spaces comes into direct conflict with land use. Some of these spaces could be used to build more housing to ease demand. How does that weigh against the public value that these open spaces offer? Which is more important to the community?
Our Tuesday trip to Mapopo Community Farm, more than any other excursion, really highlighted conflicting stakeholders. Mapopo Farm is an organic farm located in Ma Shi Po Village that has been operated by the villagers for generations. Eighty percent of the land is owned by Henderson Land, who wish to develop it. The development of this land for much-needed housing means the destruction of the livelihood and the lifestyle of these farmers (which has some cultural significance). The passion of the farmers to maintain their livelihood and way of life was moving, and my heart aches for them. The inevitable reality is that more people will be served by developing that land. This is not an easy decision, and determining the fate of those farmers is sobering, to say the least. I do not envy those in government who have to make that final call.
Besides field trips like these, we spent last week becoming familiar with Hong Kong, getting acquainted with our classmates from City University and attending lectures. It has been a 9 to 5 job each day, followed by work in our focus groups. We were advised that this course would be intense, but I am just now beginning to recognize how taxing a two-week, three credit hour course is.
Yesterday morning, with no official activities slated for the weekend, exhaustion caught up with me. I was completely unmotivated to get out of the comfort of my single, incredibly firm bed. I indulged that sentiment way too much both yesterday and today. I lost my room key at Festival Walk yesterday morning and am pretty upset with myself for being so careless. I cannot get a replacement key until tomorrow, so I’ll have to continue to count on one of my roommates for access to my room until then…very frustrating.
The City University students came to our dorm last night and cooked us an AMAZING Hot Pot Dinner. We had a great night of delicious food, music and a lot of great conversation and laughter. It was a great chance to unwind and lighten up a little, and socialize with the City U students outside of class. Their warmth and hospitality continue to move me and last night was a highlight of this trip.
My group (the transportation group) has struggled a lot with our problem statement. We submitted it to Professors Melnick, Shi and Ma on Friday night. Professor Ma spent a lot of time with us last week and gave us a lot of feedback to help us develop our problem statement. Dr. Melnick also gave us a lot of advice and feedback, so I was confident that the problem statement my group submitted was spot-on.
It was disappointing to get feedback from the faculty that our problem statement was too generic. I spent the better part of the day working with some members of my group to refine our statement. We’ve gone over pages of MTR reports, op-eds on transportation in Hong Kong and loads of other material, but I feel only ever slightly closer to the finished product that I want. I was able to compose a revision to our problem statement which I hope will be acceptable.
Next week is going to be very intense. We have a full itinerary each day to mitigate. With our solution and posters due next Friday, I am feeling less than confident. We all got an encouraging email tonight from Dr. Melnick reminding us that it is natural for us all to be in this state at this stage of the course. That brought me a little comfort but my mind is racing. The course is half over. We have so much work left to do and only four nights left to pull everything together. All of the other groups seems to be so much farther ahead of us. I feel so far from knowing all that I need to know to be successful and I can’t envision us having a finished product by Friday.
I am trying not to be too hard on myself and I’m trying to remain optimistic.The nature of a good education is few answers, many questions. In that area, this course has not disappointed. I also am trying to remind myself that I am spending two weeks in a foreign environment and trying to come up with solutions to problems that I’m still trying to understand fully. That is no small challenge and I know that I will successfully emerge from this program a wiser person. It will be interesting to re-read this a week from now when it’s all over.