east meets west

I have been very curious about Ost-Asian education for a very long time. Recently, my friends gave me an opportunity to analyse not one, not two, but three schools all claiming to be the locus of of east meeting west. I am being overwhelmed by generous people. I have had a look at all three. They make me interested because there is very strong Hokkien influence in all three. It is curious, all three claim to be Chinese. One claims to be Chinese of a high order. One claims to be Catholic as well as Chinese. And one claims to be English and Chinese, which was the earlier claim of the second. It is all very confusing.

But what is funny is that in a small neighbouring country, I see that some charity has suffered a bad governance. It seems that the CEO of that charity did not tell the board he was taking on too many privileges and not actually serving the unfortunate. Suddenly, everyone in that small country thinks their bosses are also like that. In particular, teachers talking about their principals. It is all strange, quaint, maybe also Asian. Or Hokkien.

At least one of those three schools has the same problem, I hear. My friends there say that they have been exposed to bad governance which is defensive with extreme prejudice (ah, this phrase, I picked it up from American movies). They have sacked people for honestly commenting, and also threatened students with lawsuits and humiliation. It is all beyond me how in an age like this, people are still so primitive. I am glad my ancestors decided to become modern and give women the vote. Did you know the Danish were the first in Europe to let women vote? We are proud of that. We have long tradition of Protestantism, and also of civil liberty. The two are not incompatible.