Tag Archives: dailypost

Habit, morals, food and social media

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Every year, for the past several I’ve gone to Brussels to review grants for the European Commission. It is not a habitual exercise, however as I must be invited, and this is not a certainty. I love going and look forward nervously for the invitation every spring. I gain a huge amount of satisfaction and validation from the effort. For the past several times, when I’ve gone, I meet a group of friends at a Moroccan restaurant near the Bourse. On the recent visit, at this restaurant, I learned about what is known as the Paleo diet. Roughly, on this diet you avoid pulses, grains, dairy, and sugar. It is meant to help you feel better. It does, but you have to break a few habits first. Continue reading →

Whither the light?

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The hour just after sunrise and the one again before sunset are the Golden Hours according to photography wisdom.  They are golden because the light is apparently softer and the shadows are fewer… or something. These technical aspects of photography are not really my thing, I must confess.  I do know that the weather can influence the colours of sunrise and sunset. I also know that while the visual effects are beautiful, the physical effects of the weather can be catastrophic for those affected by it, and often those most affected are the poor. Continue reading →

Every taste a new experience

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While the impression one gets of Hong Kong as expressed through the landscape images of its skyline is one of hyper-modernity, there is an ordinary side of the city which is not frame-able in dialectal understandings of pre-modern and modern, nor is it reducible to the visual cleanliness and cool sterility that the global city image tries to convey.  Indeed the production of the Global City image in its attempt to produce spectacle, erases the everyday and the people involved in producing that everyday. In doing so that which makes the city magnificent is also erased.  Continue reading →

What is in a sign?

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Hong Kong is a city where you can’t escape signs. Even the buildings are signs advertising international finance and exchange. The ICC, for example, holds the Guinness World Record for having the largest light and sound show on a single building.  Indeed, one of the things that makes Hong Kong a fascinating place to wander through as a tourist are the signs that visually assault you. The combination of faded paint and rusted metal, hang over the streets in such way that one wonders how in a place prone to Typhoons they could still be there. As you get your eye in, however, there is a repetition to some of the signs.  You see the sign in the photograph all over Hong Kong.  Supposedly representing a bat holding a coin, they are the sign indicating  Continue reading →

Finding location: Central Station, Exit C of the Hong Kong MTR

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Central MTR station, exit C

I always feel a bit dislocated when first exiting an underground public transport station, whatever city I am in.  It always takes a minute or more to adjust and locate.  There is the moment that occurs where you realise you can orient yourself and you know where you are going. Continue reading →