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Huge fireworks display marks London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony The opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games culminates with a huge fireworks display over the Olympic park.
Kobe Beef now available in Hong Kong By Radhika Seth July 26, 2012 The Japan Daily Press
Kobe beef is famous for its evenly distributed fatty tissue and is sourced from cows that are bred with select feed, music and muscle massage sessions. The premium meat was exclusive to Japan but now can be savored in Hong Kong. It made its debut in Macau earlier this year and as the export market continues to improve after the earthquake and nuclear disaster, Japanese beef exporters want to cash in on the trend.
Tetsuya Ishii, deputy consul general of Japan in Hong Kong, announced the launch of Kobe beef midst much fanfare. Hiroshi Onomura, director general of the Japan External Trade Organization, said Hong Kong’s stricter requirement for beef imports was the reason for the delay. Apparently the Hong Kong government accepts import of Kobe beef from one butcher, in Kyushu. Essentially the cows have to be shipped from Kobe to Kyushu for butchering before the meat can be shipped to Hong Kong.
Around 3,000 Kobe cows are marketed every year so the limited supply is mostly like to cause traction in its demand. Since its debut in January, Macau had imported meat from 51 Kobe cows, or about 2,500 kg of beef. Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association say that so far Hong Kong has imported meat from seven cows. The beef is being priced at a modest 350 Hong Kong dollars (about $45 or 3,515 yen) per 100 grams at a discount rate for the first week of promotion, which is much cheaper than what it sells in Japan. Singapore can expect their Kobe Beef shipment to arrive sometime in September.
One Hong Kong couple find that local schools are unable to match the standard of home education they provided their children on a round-the-world yacht trip Elaine Yau (elaine.yau@scmp.com) Jul 15, 2012 SCMP
Freelance writer Cam Cheung Wai-nui and her husband, former police superintendent Robert Highfield, are unconventional parents. When the couple decided after Highfield's retirement in 2005 to realise his childhood dream of sailing around the world, they surprised friends and relatives by taking their two young daughters along. During the voyage Molly and Nancy, now aged 13 and 11, kept up with their studies through a home-schooling programme. When they returned from the odyssey in 2009, the usual school classrooms awaited them.
But while others might send their children to elite schools and enrol them in special interest classes to bolster résumés, their parents sent them to an integrated government school with a programme for special needs pupils.
The idea, Cheung says, was to give the girls some early exposure to people from different backgrounds by having them study alongside hearing-impaired, autistic and hyperactive children.
But after the freedom and flexibilty of home-schooling, Hong Kong's regimented education proved too much for their daughters. So, after Easter this year, just months before Nancy was due to complete her primary education, Cheung took them out of the school and went back to teaching the girls herself.
Cheung has since written a book about her experiences in devising a home-schooling curriculum and the insight she gained from delving into various education issues.
Titled My Children Learn Differently (Feel Publishing), the Chinese-language title, released last week, is also a biting critique of the local education system.
Two years on the treadmill of Hong Kong classrooms turned her daughters from lively youngsters into a couple of lost, listless girls, Cheung says.
"They no longer had [their own] views on things," she says. "I asked them many questions [about their day] but they just shrugged and present an impassive face."
Cheung blames the school's exhausting study schedule for dampening her children's enthusiasm and curiosity about the world around them.
"When we home-schooled them during our four-year trip, it was very flexible. All homework was during class time, which we set at three hours a day.
They had free time after classes. After living like that for four or five years, they found local school life strange.
"Molly had to spend several hours every day completing her homework, and this caused her a severe lack of sleep. The homework, which required copying and model answers, was very monotonous. They were so tired after school that I had to cut down on visits to grandparents and other activities," Cheung recalls.
Although deeply disenchanted with the local education system, Cheung says she and her husband struggled with the decision to resume home-schooling.
"After four years of home-schooling them at sea, I was eager to hand back the responsibility of teaching them to the school. A sentence uttered by a teacher is more powerful than thousands of words from a mother.
Deadlines also work better in a school setting, as teachers are more authoritative and they get a different kind of respect from children," she says.
"Moreover, I was chairwoman of the parent-teacher association at Wo Che Lutheran School in Sha Tin which Nancy was attending. She was only several months away from graduating when she left. The school showed genuine care about students' learning needs and I felt I was deserting it."
But this was outweighed by the Highfields' concerns about the effect that the straitjacket-learning system in government schools was having on their children, especially Nancy.
Their elder daughter, Molly, had adapted better. She got on well with her classmates in primary school and did well enough to secure a place in Pui Ying College, a sought-after secondary school in Sha Tin.
But Nancy, who loves art and wants to become an artist, didn't enjoy her time back at school at all.
"All the kids would only talk about their favourite anime characters and other silly things," she says.
"I could not find a way to communicate with them without saying something that made them think I was weird. The classes were so boring that you almost fall asleep."
Cheung says their younger daughter enjoyed life on the boat when both parents were around all the time.
"She doesn't like it when I am not at home. The pressure of school made it worse," says Cheung. "She has very strong views on things and her forgetfulness sometimes got her into trouble at school. She found most of her classmates immature, couldn't make many friends and would take a novel to school and read alone in a corner most of the time."
Cheung criticises officials for creating an education system that emphasises homework and academic learning at the expense of students' overall development. It even encroaches on precious family time, which mostly revolves around discussions about revisions and exams.
Instead of helping children to be self-learners who can find out answers by themselves, she says teachers here expect conformity from students who are simply fed chunks of facts.
History textbooks in Hong Kong are mostly filled with dry facts compared with the well-written course material for the US-devised Calvert school curriculum, which she chose for homeschooling at sea.
The components about Greek mythology and art history are written in such a lively way that I enjoy reading them too," Cheung says. "While local students have to copy their composition with all the teachers' corrections, Calvert gives students a free rein with writing exercises. Parents highlight the mistakes, so their work isn't filled with big crosses."
It took nerve, resolve and hard work for the Highfields to push ahead with home-schooling in Hong Kong, not least because parents are required by law to send their children to school.
"A proposal for home-schooling is scary in Hong Kong, where it's illegal to keep children away from school.
We wrote to the Education Bureau setting out our plan and spelling out our justifications for doing so," Cheung says.
As might be expected, the Highfields' scheme met with a cool reception. The Education Bureau replied saying that students were required by law to attend a recognised school, Cheung recalls, and officials made inquiries at their daughters' school and asked the principal to have a word with them.
But the couple persisted in their quest. They met Education Bureau officials in their Kowloon Tong headquarters and presented detailed plans.
Their thorough groundwork evidently won over the officials: "In the end, they acknowledged that some children benefited from alternative education although they stressed that the policy is for youngsters to be educated in schools. They eventually approved [our application] and they will conduct a home visit to see our progress later."
Cheung reckons her biggest challenge is working out how to instil self-discipline in her daughters and how to make learning interesting for them.
"Home-schooling is a big learning process for me. I have been reading books on how to teach critical thinking, classroom management and child psychology. We are still working on the best methods to teach them."
Highfield takes an active role in the girls' education: besides drawing up the lesson schedule, he is responsible for teaching history and geography.
"Most kids hate history. They have to memorise a lot of meaningless facts.
I am taking them this year through the history of the human race from its beginning up to the civilisations and peoples in the world today. When doing this, we also cover the geography of mankind's spread and where they ended up and why. They are learning about the principles of palaeoanthropology and DNA studies which will give them a good foundation for more detailed study later.
"Once they understand the general picture of the whole of human history, we will go into more detail in chosen areas that interest them."
Chinese language is his wife's sole purview, but he also supports her in maths, science and English lessons.
"[The girls] usually won't mess around. If they get bored, we do something different," Highfield says.
"Most of the time, Cam is the disciplinarian and I am the cajoler to get them to toe the line. I usually inject humour, which helps if things are not going well."
Cheung also goes out of her way to develop interesting educational material for her daughters. Sam Hui Koon-kit's Canto-pop classics, for instance, can offer insight into Hong Kong's social and cultural changes.
"I try to use current affairs and things relating to daily life when teaching Chinese. They love the political satire in Civic Party legislator Tanya Chan Suk-chong 's recent stand-up show," she says.
The girls may return to conventional classes when they advance to higher levels, but, for now, their parents haven't set a timeline for the home-schooling.
"It all depends on how they are doing," Cheung says.
To make up for the loss of their seafaring lifestyle when they returned to Hong Kong, she enrolled her daughters in dinghy sailing classes, and Molly has taken to the sport with gusto.
"Sailing practice continues under the sun or rain. By exposing them to the elements and getting them to use skills and speed to beat others, the sport can train their perseverance and all-round development," she says.
"My husband tried teaching them sailing while we were in Vanuatu, but they didn't pick it up until they came back to Hong Kong. Molly really loves boat racing and wants to be a professional sailor after she grows up."
With Highfield and Cheung closely involved in their children's education, learning is a collaborative activity that often involves everyone in the family.
"We devote six hours every day to learning. There's no homework. We do outings and physical education together. We play badminton and go swimming. I sometimes do crafts, cooking and knitting with them for home-economics lessons. Learning is far more efficient when the subject matter is interesting and they are not in a big class with pupils of varying ability," says Cheung.
"Molly has just finished writing her second novel and is working with her dad on a book on poems. When they finish, Nancy will provide the illustrations and I will do the Chinese translation."
Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy [Paperback] E L James (Author) 4/3/2012 http://amzn.to/MQA1T6
Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades, Book 2) [Paperback] E. L. James (Author) 4/17/2012 http://amzn.to/MRMBTD
Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy [Paperback] E L James (Author) 4/17/2012 http://amzn.to/LMg4zx
Fifty Shades Trilogy
When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.
This book is intended for mature audiences.
Review A GoodReads Choice Awards Finalist for Best Romance
"In a class by itself." —Entertainment Weekly
About the Author E L James is a former TV executive, wife and mother of two based in West London. Since early childhood she dreamed of writing stories that readers would fall in love with, but put those dreams on hold to focus on her family and her career. She finally plucked up the courage to put pen to paper with her first novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.
在學習成果的研究方面,有兩個具體的數據。其一,二○○○年,由美國在家自學先鋒法理斯〈Michael Farris〉創辦的「派翠克亨利學院」〈Patrick Henry College〉,其創辦宗旨是訓練新一代的政治家,有高達八五%學生來自在家自學。如今成績斐然,每年都有學生獲選進白宮實習的機會,二○○四年有七名學生獲此難得的機會。傑出的表現與前總統柯林頓的母校喬治城大學〈Georgetown University〉不相上下。
Family tells of terror after shark shuts down beaches Danny Mok, Helene Franchineau and Jolie Ho Jul 02, 2012 SCMP
A woman has described the terrifying moment when she saw a huge shark http://amzn.to/MmGo4Gas she swam with a group of children off Lamma Island.
Police confirmed the presence of a shark yesterday and authorities ordered the closure of 12 beaches on Lamma and Hong Kong Islands.
Anne-Sophie Girard was on a catamaran yacht, moored off Sham Wan, and enjoying a party with her husband Martin, their four children, aged five to 12, and friends when she took a dip yesterday afternoon.
But summer fun turned to horror when the boat's captain spotted a fin and ordered the 15 swimmers, including Girard and her two youngest children, back onboard.
"At that moment we were just really scared. It was quite a big shark. It was a close call," she said.
The couple believe the creature they saw was a whale shark, the world's largest shark species, due to distinctive markings on its back.
"It is very big, grey with white dots on it, and its fin is black," Girard's husband said. Despite their alarm, the couple say the creature did not appear aggressive, even as it swam under the yacht. Whale sharks feed mostly on plankton and are not considered a significant threat.
A sighting of a shark about four to five metres long was reported to police at about 1pm yesterday, about an hour before the Girards' ordeal. Police patrol vessels confirmed the shark's presence and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department quickly raised red closure flags on beaches. A marine biologist played down fears the shark could threaten participants in the Dragon Boat Carnival, starting in Victoria Harbour today.
"The chances of a shark coming into Victoria Harbour would be very low. They would usually appear in clean waters following the ocean currents in summer. In Hong Kong, sightings are mostly reported in eastern and southern waters," said Dr Samuel Hung Ka-yiu, the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society chairman.
Hoisting of red flags and shark flags at beaches ************************************************ Attention Duty Announcers, Radio and TV Stations:
Please broadcast the followings as soon as possible and repeat it at regular intervals:
Here is an item of interest to swimmers.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced today (July 1) that shark warning flags and red flags have been hoisted at Hung Shing Yeh Beach, Lo So Shing Beach in Islands District; Deep Water Bay Beach, Repulse Bay Beach, Middle Bay Beach, South Bay Beach, Chung Hom Kok Beach, St Stephen's Beach, Stanley Main Beach, Turtle Cove Beach, Shek O Beach and Big Wave Bay Beach in Southern District, Hong Kong Island today because confirmed report of sighting of shark was received by the Marine Police in the Deep Bay, Lama Island. The beaches are temporarily closed. Beach-goers are advised not to swim at those beaches until further notice.
Apart from the above beaches, the Stanley Main Beach Water Sports Centre and St. Stephen's Beach Water Sports Centre in Southern District were also closed. Ends/Sunday, July 1, 2012 Issued at HKT 17:48