[Hands on approach to the future.]

Earlier this month, I went on a study trip to Cambodia. We spent hours walking through the beautiful ruins of Angkor Wat, explored the devastating remains of Red Khmer's violent rule in the killing fields, and stuffed our faces at more dinner buffets in a week than I would usually do in a year. Still, the grossest contrast to my ordinary life, was when we decided to get a cheap massage. In the classic stingy tourist way, I opted for a place in a tourist marked, expecting someone to finally rub the sourness out of my poor shoulders before I went back to our four star-hotel.

I was so disgusted by myself after the treatment I ended up secretly jamming the last few dollars I had in my wallet to my masseuse, making sure her boss did not see it, and silently vowing to never get such a cheap massage again. The girls working there seemed so young. My friend and I guessed they were 13 or 14 years old, despite them insisting on being much older. The quality of the massage was awful, but that was because it was performed by someone who didn't want to be a masseuse.The masseuses were constantly giggling at the white elephant in the room, namely me, their tiny hands checking their phones more than touching me. It was okey. Sure enough, you can probably find millions of people working under much worse working conditions, but in the end, I still felt like I was taking advantage of them.

Here's the article I turned in after I came home. Photos are borrowed from my classmate Myto Tong.
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An Un, 25, works at an outdoor massage parlor on Pub Street in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Popular among tourists, an hour-long full-body oil massage costs US $8.

A large fluorescent sign states that during happy hour, the price is US $5 and includes a free beer.

A couple of Europeans in their 20’s laugh at the sign, pointing out the price difference to that of home. Un does not react; she has heard how cheap her work is many times before.

Un went to massage school for a year and has been working as a professional masseuse for a few months. “My father and mother wanted me to marry a 34-year-old man, but I said I wanted to go to school,” she said.

She likes the job, although her favorite part is practicing English. If she talks more with the customers, they might tip her a few extra dollars.

“My dream is to move to Thailand or Europe, so I can make more money. Now I speak some Thai; maybe I can also learn better English,” she said.

The third of eight children, Un still lives with her family in Siem Reap. At home, she says she is known as the one who went to university. At work, she is simply known as number 11.

Customers are led into a small room with closed curtains and a red mattress, stained with oil. Un says she massages between five and 10 customers per day. That adds up to around 12 hours of work, which she does seven days a week.

Cambodian labor law states that workers should have minimum one day off per week. Un said she has two days off per month.

While garment workers have a legal minimum wage of US $128 a month, the rest of Cambodia’s workers often labor for less.

Un does not want to say how much money she makes, but said the pay is much better than when she was still going to school.

Now, she gives most of her income to her father, a farmer. Her mother was hit by a motorcycle a few years ago, Un said. She survived the accident, but lost an arm, making it difficult to do any work on the farm.

After the accident, both of Un’s older sisters were married off to relieve some of the financial pressure in the household. Un’s earnings as a masseuse make her a main provider for the family.

“I give my father some money so he can pay for my younger brother’s and sister’s education,” she said. “School is important.”

[Living with HIV: Not 'just an STD']

Tidligere i år leste jeg et sted at det er mye HIV i Hongkong. Jeg har både tenkt og snakket mye om det siden, ikke minst fordi HIV i Kina er ganske kontroversielt, samtidig som Verdens helseorganisasjon melder at landet har en voksende epidemi. HIV-skandalen da myndighetene på 90-tallet samlet inn blod med urent utstyr og som følge smittet opptil 500, 000 mennesker, har allikevel ikke gjort myndighetene bedre til å spre informasjon. Tjue prosent av befolkningen hadde ikke hørt om HIV, viste en undersøkelse fra 2002.

Nå digrerer jeg. Jeg skrev jo om Hongkong, men det var dette som gjorde meg nysgjerrig. Da jeg jobbet med artikkelen, oppdaget jeg dessuten at jeg hadde lest feil. Hongkong har heldigvis en av de laveste HIV-ratene i verden. I november skulle vi skrive om en minoritet i Hongkong. Første desember var det World AIDS Day. Dette var mitt bidrag.

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HONG KONG — Shaun has a job, and family and friends he cares about. However, he also carries a secret his doctor advised him not share, to avoid discrimination.

One and a half years ago, his boyfriend at the time told Shaun, he had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Shaun went to a clinic and got tested. The test showed he was HIV-positive.

“I didn’t expect something that serious,” Shaun, now 28, said. Later, the ex-boyfriend explained he wasn’t aware that by only taking HIV-medicine, but not using condoms when they had sex, the ex-boyfriend was still risking infecting others.

“Chinese people are very prudent when it comes to sex-education, they just don’t like talking about it,” Shaun said. In school, he learned HIV was usually spread through sexual contact, and to use protection when having sex.

No one ever told him what HIV actually is. When diagnosed, he spent hours searching for information online, only to discover a lot of misleading websites. “People would say you can contract HIV if you are bitten by a mosquito, or by sharing the same drink,” he said.

CLICK TO MAKE IT LARGER
A total of 150 additional HIV-cases were reported to the Department of Health in the second quarter of 2014, bringing the cumulative total of reported HIV infections to 6 646 since 1984. (Graph contracted from http://www.info.gov.hk)

Hong Kong has a prevalence rate of 0.1 percent, low compared to the 0.8 percent global rate, according to the United Nations AIDS department. However, there has been a rapid increase in cases, with most of the affected being gay men, the Department of Health’s past three annual reports revealed.

Forced to make frequent trips to a HIV-clinic in the beginning, Shaun found it hard asking his supervisor for time off without revealing he was sick. He still needs to take daily medication. The side effects make working overtime difficult. “It’s like being on a boat, you get dizzy, and very sleepy,” Shaun said.

His career prospects are reduced, “I can’t take a senior manager position, they would require a complete health examination,” he explained.

Before he was diagnosed, Shaun wanted to move abroad. Last year, a headhunter offered him a job in Singapore. “Unless they change the restrictions on people with HIV, that cannot happen, I had to turn it down,” he said.

When Shaun told his last boyfriend he had HIV, his partner broke all contact. The experience scared him. “It’s difficult to get someone who is already negative to understand,” Shaun said.

Shaun said his life is good for now. His relationship with his siblings has changed. The disease has brought them closer together, “We have started talking, we never did that before,” he said.

[Occupy Central: “A Question of Understanding”?]

Jeg har naturligvis fått intervjulekser fra skolen. Selv om denne bloggen skal være på norsk, det blir litt unntakstilstand disse dagene. Jeg er jo blitt en slags amatørutenrikskorrespondent på deltid. Læreren min kaller meg en free-lancer (ikke freelancer, om du ikke skjønte vitsen). Her er en artikkel jeg skrev på mandag.
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Central: Tens of thousands of protesters are gathering in Central this week, demanding universal suffrage. (Photo: Tine Venas)

HONG KONG — On the second day of what the Chinese government has labeled a “civil disobedient movement,” tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Hong Kong’s commercial districts. Demanding public nomination for the 2017 Hong Kong chief executive election, protesters has built roadblocks in Central, Admiralty, and Mongkok, refusing to leave until Beijing changes their recent decisions on the election procedures.

Chon Pui Ling, a 22-year old protester from Kowloon said mainland China had promised Hong Kong one country two systems, however, since the handover, Beijing has increasingly tightened the grip, “We are so few here, they are so many. How can Beijing decide who genuinely cares about Hong Kong? We want universal suffrage so that we can decide this for ourselves.”

A man visiting from Beijing (50) who requested not to be named, felt it was a question of understanding, “The biggest problem is that Beijing and Hong Kong do not understand each other. Beijing wants mainland China and Hong Kong to be one country. With these protests, the Hongkongers are distancing themselves even more from the mainland.” He also commented that the people of Hong Kong should not forget their heritage, “Hong Kong was British for only fifty years. That doesn’t make them less Chinese.”

Most protesters admit they do not necessarily see a solution where Beijing will give in to all of their demands, however, they emphasize the importance of showing that they have an opinion.

Kenny King, 30, from Wan Chai, said he had been waiting for Occupy Central for 17 years. “The Anglo-Saxon rule was much better. The police now are acting totalitarian, we’ve suffered crazy demolitions of property, property prices has gone up, and economy has gone down. I’ve had enough!”

The demonstrations have been denounced by China. The online mobile photo-sharing application, Instagram, owned by the already China-banned Facebook, was blocked for users in mainland China on September 28.