Excerpts from Time's Person of the Year 2007

Still remember "You" were chosen as the Person(s) of the Year 2006?

Vladimir Putin is the Person of the Year 2007. Time has recognised his influence (remember, according to the criteria, the influence can be good or bad, as long as it's big) by moving Russia (the largest country in the world) forward and keeping it stable.

Runner Ups are Al Gore (Nobel Peace Price winner), Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, our great chairman Hu and US Army General in Iraq David Petraeus.

Al Gore has been fighting for a greener world. I don't care what the real motivation is lying behind. What he is doing will ultimately save the world, of course, if he succeeds. In the article about him, there is a very nice paragraph:

"Over the past year, "mild green" (me) and "khaki green" (him) have talked about how the fight against extreme poverty in the developing world and the struggle against climate change can reinforce each other. The poorest will be hit first and hardest by climate change. We can help them adapt, but they can help us, too. Vulnerable as the poor are, they can be powerful allies in stopping the cycle of environmental damage and extreme poverty. With the poor as partners we can slow overpopulation — as we must, because more population means more pollution. And we can help developing countries rev up their economies in a cleaner way than we did during the Industrial Revolution. The choices of the poor affect us, just as ours affect them; we are all part of one world, one moral universe, sharing one oxygen tank."

Please, act together.

Christmas is just round the corner!

In case I don't blog before the day, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

First time that I need to spend two full weeks in Tokyo, obviously for work. Thanks Bobo for coming over (with a fully redeemed ticket using my mileage :-)) and gave me a very eventful and lovely weekend. Now it's back to Earth, or work.

Just read this - an Ukraine man has died of age 116 (claimed by family documents). When he was born:
- Average life expectancy in Europe was less than 50
- Adolf Hitler was not even two years old
- Lviv was known as Lemberg and part of the Austrian Empire
- Sarah Bernhardt and Tchaikovksy were both preparing to tour the USA

Interesting, huh?

Special 2nd Dec 2007

A few things happened on the 2nd of December 2007:

1. Hong Kong Island By-Election of Legco
Ma Lik died in a very unexpected manner because of illness in September this year. The vacancy resulted led to a massive battle between the pro-democracy parties and the pro-mainland parties. Spectacularly, both candidates representing them are not belonging to any party themselves. They are Mrs Chan and Mrs Yip, and both are former senior Hong Kong government officials.
There are also 6 more runners for this vacancy, however are all overshadowed by this battle.
Result, as you may know, Mrs Chan, who represents the pro-democracy side, won. She used to be the second biggest in the government, worked for both the UK-led HK government and SAR government. Let's see what impact she will have on the Legco.

2. MTR and KCR merged
Historical moment for the history of Hong Kong railway system. KCR has been serving Hong Kong for almost 100 years, opening an easy access to mainland China, and then to the West of New Territories and Ma On Shan on the East recently. MTR, started in 1979, has shown to the world what a proper underground train system should look like - efficient, accurate, clean, move with the world.
Now, they have merged and created this:
MTR Routemap

3. I completed my first 10km run!
Running for Unicef in Disneyland, what a nice idea by elder ML. I wanted to do the Standard and Chartered 10km run earlier this year, but didn't. Now after all those football, I felt I was up for it. Getting up 5:40am, after a long week in Tokyo, we were there, in Hong Kong Disneyland. Definitely not at my best form (never at my best form since 1999). But what an achievement! We both completed, and my time was within 1 hour (between 58 and 59 minutes)! That was actually way better than my expectation, because I thought I wouldn't be able to finish it :p

4. Second group stage match for Corporate football
Playing for Reuters, against PCCW. We had to win to give us good chance of qualifying. We got our goal in mid 2nd half, and conceded soon after again. Even though I just ran for 10km, I had to get myself in for the last 5 minutes to give a change in our attack. Then, worst thing happen to my football career so far, somebody tricked me when I was at my full speed, and sent me flying. Result, my worst injury ever from football - hurt my heel, wrist and elbow. And, it wasn't even a foul?!?! Guess I will be out at least for 2 weeks. I know many of you have hurt your ligament, tendon and shit before, but for me this is the worst.
For our final group stage game, we have to win by at least 2 goals and hope the other two teams draw. Quoting from a colleague, "So, we know what we have to do, and it would be criminal to be handed the lifeline and not to take it (think Michael Owen said something very much like that before England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, hope its not a bad omen)..."

Good weekend, wasn't it? How was yours?