Author: 李 志成 (志成 李)

Storm surge causes inundation of large swaths of coastal land. Eleven years ago, storm surge from Hurricane Sandy havocked large damages in New York (NY) and New Jersey (NJ). Today, some of those destructions are still noticeable and remain unrepaired.

Autumn is pleasant. It has many public holidays for the most populous countries in the northern hemisphere. In the U.S. we have Labor Day, Columbus Day and the Veterans Day. In China there are Mid-Autumn Festival and Double-Yang Festival.

We were all stunned by the apocalyptic scenes of devastation and destitution caused by wildfires in Maui, HI. The utter sense of desolation and desperation was overwhelmingly sad. It destroyed the idyllic Island of Maui. Many people are still in denial and disbelief when they look at the news reports.

Heatwaves in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere captured the public’s attention. The inadequacy of the central air conditioning units in many of the northern cities testifies to the unexpected increase in air temperature across Northern Europe, Asia and America.

Man is an adventurous creature. In the pre-pandemic year of 2019 the US travel and tourism industry generated 1.9 trillion dollars in economic output. That was a startling 9% of the nation’s corresponding GDP of 21.38 trillion dollars in 2019.

Pollen allergy is more commonly known as hay fever. Medically speaking, it is called seasonal allergic rhinitis —- a provocation of the immune system to overreact to pollen from trees, grasses, and weeds. Hay fever occurs mainly in the spring and fall when pollen from trees, grasses, and weeds are in the air.

Hong Kong’s population had increased roughly five hundred times since China’s defeat in the Opium War in 1842. For me, it is an ambivalent emotion when I think about the British rule over Hong Kong for over a hundred fifty years between 1842 and 1997.

Moving to Japan from Norway in 1988 rendered a divine bonus to be close to my parents after having left Hong Kong for 13 years. I visited them a few times from Japan during my study as well as a “salaryman” after graduation.

The recent upheaval of espionage balloons from China reaching the U.S. last winter epitomized the fact that our world shares one atmosphere. The seamless connectivity of the global village is an almost nauseating thought that I would be breathing in part of everybody’s breath just exhaled if I were to live 1000 years on Planet Earth.

In 1988, I left Oslo for Tokyo with an early morning departure flight on a cold winter day. It was not a direct flight, but with a relatively short overlay in Hong Kong. My destination was a small agricultural town in Aichi Prefecture, Central Japan.