Government Relations
EARTH has been in contact with the new Assistant Principal
Secretary in charge of Language Education, and cooperation from
the SCOLAR support group continues. The Education and Manpower
Bureau allowed EARTH to see the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute's
report and survey questionnaires on student motivation with regard
to language learning in Hong Kong. Though the findings from the
report were used by SCOLAR to support its arguments in the Language
Education Review, a careful review of the student questionnaire
strongly suggests that the findings are of limited value. It
is unfortunate that EARTH was placed in a bureaucratic igloo
for five months, where others have been more readily received.
Both the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA)
and the Hong Kong Census Department have been contacted, and
good cooperation has been demonstrated.
None of this means that a government endorsement has been
forthcoming.
Community Relations
EARTH has managed to link up with POP, the University
of Hong Kong's Public
Opinion Program. We are currently negotiating a joint research
effort. POP demonstrated a serious interest in the HKLNA-Project,
where others have shown little or no interest. POP cares about
people and what people think -- not just the opinions of those
who manage people or what the market might bring. POP is EARTH's
kind of people.
Fund Raising
The EPSON Corporation finally announced their decision
in a letter dated 22 May 2003. During a prior telephone call
EARTH was told that the project is too big. Knowing Japanese
as well as I do, and relying on EARTH's Hong Kong experience
during the past eight months, this verdict can probably be better
interpreted to mean that EARTH is too little. Well, EARTH is
growing, and EARTH has been invited to apply again.
Civic
Exchange has announced that funding is still in the works
for our planned joint venture on the research of Hong Kong's
system of higher education. Simply, no date has been set for
receiving funds, and for the moment other sources of more temporary
funding are being explored.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club is still a very real opportunity for
long term funding, if a government endorsement finally becomes
available. Like POP the HKJC cares about people.
Website additions and maintenance
By sitting on EARTH's first project proposal for three
months only to reject it in the end, SCOLAR knocked the wind
out of the HKLNA-Project's sails and nearly capsized EARTH. Now
that EARTH is once again buoyed and tacking, it will likely return
toward greater development of the HKLNA-Project
's website. In the meantime EARTH continues to develop its
newest addition to its own website: Tsong
Kit --Traditional Chinese input method for Apple users
and Chinese language beginners. Two new chapters were added this
month.
EARTH continues to track the Hong Kong SARS's
epidemic, but with the epidemic largely behind us the
SARS's webpages are soon to become history.
No software upgrades
With no near term funding prospects no further upgrades
were made.
Strategy Update
Although the past month was largely upbeat and the
medium and long term future ever more visible on the horizon,
EARTH continues to feel the acute pain of wondering how it will
be able to pay this coming month's rent. In addition it has been
confronted with a new obstacle -- internet
garbage flies (pdf document - 16KB).
What the future will bring is of course anybody's guess, but
EARTH is more determined than ever to make the HKLNA-Project
succeed. No, this is not a strategy, but it is an important statement
of conviction, and without conviction no strategy has a chance
of succeeding.
EARTH spent most of this past month drumming up clients for its
translation business (see under SERVICES on EARTH's
website) and performing library research for a revised research
proposal. One firm indicated interest and another asked for a
job quotation. The list of potential clients is far from exhausted.
Next week EARTH will have completed its revised proposal.
Acknowledgments
This month's acknowledgements go out to Robert Chung
and Karie Pang of HKU's Public Opinion Program, Subrina Chow
and Dr. Tony Lee of the Education and Manpower Bureau, Selina
Yuen and Judy Cheung of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment
Authority, Luk Chi Shing of the Hong Kong Census and Statistics
Bureau, and Geoffrey Tang of the EMB 's Statistics Section.
As always the ProZ.com
bulletin board is to be thanked for its wonderful support, but
this month's big contribution came from the Chinese-to-English
bulletin board. Finally, EARTH would like to extend its continued
gratitude to its long term creditors and all of those at the
Hong Kong Central
Library who have supported EARTH where the CUHK university
library system failed.
We WILL overcome.
Sincerely,
R. A. Stegemann
hsmr@pacific.net.hk
