Category Archives: International

The UBC Farm

Posted on 22 February 2008 | Comments Off on The UBC Farm

Farming brings to mind the beginnings of human settlements. Ancient, in other words. “Common”. Waking up at 4 am. Hard work. Dirt. Lots of it.  And if, like me, you studied history at any point in your life, lots of half-starved, ignorant peasants.

In my mind, there were only two kinds of farms: the traditional, subsistence farms, and industrial ones.

One of the best things UBC has done for me is to have the UBC Farm. That was my first experience of learning outside the classroom, here. I went to visit it last August as part of my ASSIST (now Jump Start) orientation. For anyone who has ever thought like me, or who just wants a new experience, I really encourage you to go to the Farm.

It’s not in the least bit dirty or foul-smelling, two of my initial fears. The only animals there are chickens and they are very well-behaved. Legend has it that the manager of the farm knows all the chickens by their birthdates. The chickens are there to remove grubs; they’re an organic solution to pest problems. The entire Farm is organic and it’s wonderfully green in the summer.

There is also a Mayan garden, tragically called “Mayans in Exile”. It’s run by two Mayans who left their home. They talked to us about their history and their garden. It’s a grievous story, and you come to admire them so much.

We had different “stations” when we visited and had people talk not just about the Farm, but also of politics and the environment and all the wider issues. The manager, in particular, seems to be on top of everything. My complete ignorance on these topics made me realise how completely naive I was to think that farming isn’t as “intelligent” as other white-collar jobs. The only thing I was right about is that it takes a lot of hard work to be a good farmer — but so does everything. I learned more by going to the Farm than anything I’d learned in “class” at the orientation. Even now, none of my classes draw across so many disciplines to talk about real-world problems and possible solutions as the staff at the Farm did.

The UBC Farm is the only one of its kind in the city of Vancouver. In the summer, there are fresh-produce markets. There are volunteer programmes available, and educational classes for the young. Some courses at UBC are designed to include the hands-on experience and work that you can only get from going to a farm. It is very much a student-driven initiative to maintain the valuable experiences you get from going there, and it’s also a part of the community.

Were the UBC Farm to disappear, there will really be no other opportunity to create a new one again, yet that’s the very real possibility right now. Basically the university is considering to have housing built there. I don’t even know if it’s the university building housing there, or if they’re planning on selling it to a redevelopment company. Although I would like to have housing, I’m not willing to sacrifice the Farm for it.

Before you decide to go along with having housing built there, or even before you decide to side with me and keep the Farm, find out more about it yourself. Visit their website. Get in contact with Friends of the Farm. Most of all, go there in person. Go without expectations. It’s winter; I haven’t seen it and I daresay it’s not as green and lush as the height of summer. Don’t listen to my raving or you might be disappointed. I come from a very non-farming community and the only farms I’d been to before really were the subsistence onces I talk about with so much distaste. Go for a field trip. It’s definitely something different to do on a weekday.

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Posted in Academic, International, Involvement / Leadership, Orientation, Recreation, Sustainability, Wellness

Internal Dialogue

Posted on 4 February 2008 | 5 comments

I don’t need people to have conversation. I have myself.

Stimulus: posters in bathroom advertising the mock voting my house will have for the elections tomorrow.

Me: We’re in Canada. Why are we having an election for another country?
Me: These are important elections for the U.S. I should pay attention to politics around the world.
Me: Why don’t we have elections for every country, then? Didn’t Thailand have elections not that long ago? Why don’t we have mock votes for Thailand?
Me: Thailand is not our neighbour.
Me: What about Greenland?
Me: (Is Greenland our neighbour? Anyway.) Greenland is not the most powerful economic force in the world. It is not also huge and it doesn’t share one enormous border with us. What this country votes for will arguably affect us all.
Me: Can’t we extend that argument to any country in the world? North Korea, India… why don’t we have elections for India? That’s the biggest democracy in the world.
Me: Yes, yes (stop getting off-topic), but what happens in the U.S. is more likely to affect other countries.
Me: But what we vote for doesn’t affect what the U.S. people will vote for anyway!

So on and so forth. Endless self-amusement.

And yes, I did check and Greenland is indeed our sort-of neighbour.

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Posted in International

Living Change

Posted on 2 February 2008 | Comments Off on Living Change

A long time ago — that is, a few months ago — I sat down to have a think-thunk. I didn’t manage to come up with many answers, nor were all my thoughts very clear, but the essential question I was revolving around was: How shall we live?

I can turn my water off when I brush my teeth. I can reuse plastic bags as my garbage bags. I can bring an environmentally friendly bag when I go shopping.

I’m not willing to give up my books if I can help it. E-books are not the same thing as physical paper books. I can’t hold e-books in my hand; e-books don’t have that faint aroma of fresh, clean pages. This book love is definitely damaging the environment.

Like me, many people probably think that we can’t keep our current way of life and still expect everything to be fine. Our consumerist culture is not completely okay; global warming is not okay; exploiting other people and the environment is not okay. We realise that we need to change, perhaps drastically, but no one is really sure of how we will live. On the one hand, change is a natural process anyway — every generation’s lifestyle differs to their parents. We will change whether we like to or not. But maybe that is just the thing — it’s one thing to choose to change, and another to be forced to change. By the time we change because we are forced to do so, circumstances are probably quite screwed up.

So people experiment. There are people and things like No Impact Man (whom I first heard of through Genevieve), and the 100-Mile Diet. Are they really making a difference? In the grand scheme of things, their singular efforts probably don’t even scratch the surface. In the grander scheme of things, they might be the pioneers who push the movement to look for more responsible ways of living.

Right now, we can afford to play a game of this-or-that. I can turn lights off when not using them. I don’t want to give up my iPod. I can turn the tap off while brushing my teeth. I can’t give up my piano. I can travel by public transport or walk. I don’t want to give up flying. One day, I want to try the 100-mile diet myself. It’s obvious from this list that the damage I do by what I don’t give up is overwhelmingly greater than what I do “sacrifice”. But that’s kind of the truth as well, isn’t it? We inevitably leave our mark on the planet. We can only try to limit it — or we can do more. Some argue that reducing our current energy levels is not enough; we need to live sustainably. It’s an important argument.

I don’t know if this is the right way to go about changing the way I live. No one does. But I want to keep looking for and trying new ideas — or old ones; my grandmothers are experts in using everything and wasting nothing, particularly because of the wars — for living. We’ll have to change anyway. This is my attempt to change in the way I want. It’s my method of parrying the prediction that disaster will strike before we do anything, and society will change so drastically, we won’t recognise our own way of living. Give up the things I don’t need for the things I do want.

Because it’s not just the books that matter. Toilet paper is pretty high up there too.

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Posted in International, Sustainability

Go forth in my stead

Posted on 1 February 2008 | 1 comment

An interesting series of post-graduation workshops, known as the Work Your BA workshops, are coming up. They range from talking about resumes and interview questions to grad school opportunities. Alas, they are all on Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:00, the exact time of my American literature class, so they are out of the question for me.

On that note, there is also a Career Services Superhero Training workshop that promises to be entertaining. It runs this coming Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:o0. Unfortunately, I again just realised I may not be able to make it; I’m beginning my Trek Learning Exchange placement this Tuesday. Theoretically it’s from 3:00 to 6:00; I’m allowed to ask to leave at 5:00, but I haven’t yet. As it’s downtown, I’m still not likely to arrive on time even if I do leave at 5:00. But you can go for me! It’s run by Angeli(! who is cool!) and Kevin(! who I recognise from somewhere but don’t remember exactly where, so he thinks I’m stalking him! but who is probably also cool since Angeli works with him!).

For those who are not interested in your career yet — though it doesn’t hurt to look early! — there’s a free movie showing in MASS (Buchanan D) for Africa Awareness Week at 6:00 to 8:30. Africa Awareness has a whole host of other really amazing and interesting events coming up.

Finally, for those who are after free food, there will be a crepe sale at MASS on Valentine’s Day at MASS from 11:30 to 1:30. I know I will be hunting it down; I’ve been empty inside ever since Cafe Crepe packed up and left. It will also be V-Day (as well as my last link). The Vagina Monologues are selling tickets for their performances from the 7th to the 9th. I encourage you to go on the 7th because that’s when I want to go.

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Posted in Careers / Work, International, Involvement / Leadership

Chinese New Year and Olympics

Posted on 27 January 2008 | Comments Off on Chinese New Year and Olympics

Apparently there is absolutely terrible weather in China right now with too much snow. My grandmother is currently in a Chinese hospital (here referring to Chinese as in Chinese medicine, not geographically) and was due to go back to HK for the New Year, but is now going to stay in Beijing until the weather improves.

I worry a little about heat getting shut off. I have a vague memory of something about rationing energy resources because there aren’t enough, and my mother once caught a cold while in Beijing because the central heating hadn’t been turned on yet (it was an early autumn that year I think). But I don’t really know anything about how it works for sure, though my brother and I were theorising about how Beijing will handle the Olympics. He thinks it isn’t going to work out because China isn’t capable of handling such a large event. August is hot in Beijing: 40’C and above. All the visitors will be blasting air-con at full blast because they aren’t used to it. I suggested that all the locals won’t have any air-con to deal with it — sacrifice the many, that kind of thing. Common parlance has that locals are encouraged to holiday outside of Beijing and discouraged from coming in. Most workplaces will be on official three-week holidays (or however long the Olympics take) and people told to stay at home in order to get rid of (temporarily) the insane amounts of traffic. I make China sound like a military regime and it really isn’t, but it is probably the most effective way of handling the Olympics. And it will work, I think.

Bet the organisers won’t sleep during the Olympics. With a 1.3 billion population — granted not all with access to TV — there’s a huge pressure not to embarrass the country. It’s not like other countries don’t already think that China is backward and undeveloped and evil (because anything communist is automatically almost all bad). Even Hong Kong people have had a particular aversion to “the mainland” or “mainlanders”. It’s less now, but it’s still there, that despise. Coincidentally, both my parents come from the mainland, although my father grew up in HK so I guess he’s more of a HK person than anything. My mother’s also lived in HK more than China now, and likes it better, but they still have a kind of affectionate tolerance and certainly patriotism for their country. (Not like me!) Which doesn’t automatically mean they condone the government by the by.

Apologies for discussing China and my family so often lately. I’m afraid I’m going to be in the mood for a while — the New Year falls on February 7th and it’s going to my first New Year away from home. The New Year isn’t going to be anything as special as in HK/China. For one thing, it won’t be a public holiday. HK gets three days off, and China a week. I won’t be watching the CCTV New Year’s Eve variety show. I won’t be visiting my relatives and having giant family dinners or lunches. I won’t be wishing family beautiful, hopeful phrases and getting red packets (or lai see in Cantonese; hong bao in Mandarin). I joke about the loss of my main source of income — I really do get quite rich by the end of the season — but it’s really not that. I could do without that happily, but I’m going to be dreadfully homesick for my family at the time. This is like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one, that’s how family-oriented it is. Kay, I’ll stop blabbing now.

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Posted in International