Brushing Values

The Forbes List of HK Educational Institutions:
http://www.education18.com/index.php

It's all about ranking.

My friend graduated from a non-HKU institution and works in the same tutoring school as an HKU graduate.  Every time the boss tries to persuade a client to send their child to this tutoring school, he mentions that "we have a HKU graduate among our staff.  Here she is."  The HKU graduate is treated with every bit of respect while the non-HKU graduate is treated like trash.  The boss' wife once said something along the lines of "Oh if it's not necessary, you don't have to come out because it doesn't look good to our clients."  However, the boss and the wife overlooked one major problem.  The HKU graduate did not necessarily possess better qualifications.  She was once asked to take over a primary English tutoring class and do a dictation with the kids.  She had to ask the non-HKU graduate how to pronounce very basic words like "basement"...

My other friend went for an interview at a Macys Merchandising Group overseas office in Hong Kong.  The interviewer asked, "Which university did you go to?  Oh... York University.  Well, I went to University of Toronto."  Then she asked, "Have you been to New York?"  My friend answered "yes."  The interviewer asked again, "I see, did you go to Macy's?"  My friend pondered, wondering what to say, because she really hasn't been to Macy's.  She decided to be honest and answered "no."  Here's the interviewer's punch line:  "If you haven't been to Macy's, you haven't been to New York."

Maybe Toronto should consider putting "Toronto" in the beginning of all their post-secondary institution names, like "Toronto York University," or "Toronto Ryerson University," or "Toronto Brock University?"  What about "Ontario?"  That sounds even bigger.  "Ontario Waterloo University," "Ontario Queens University..."  What about "Ontario University of Information Technology?"  What about using "the" to emphasize its uniqueness and singularity?  "THE Toronto / Ontario [fill in the blank] University"?

Many people overlook the important things that actually matter in life.  Then again, what matters depends on the person, situation, and social norms.  How can we transcend such factors and see the essentials of life for what they are?  But then how can we say one value is more important than the other?  Where is the bar or the cut off?  Tolerance is good, but when do we say no? 

My dorm mate got caught in the rain two weeks ago.  I just happened to come by and so I shared an umbrella with her.  She said I was very nice because she wouldn't have shared an umbrella with anyone, "my umbrella is only for UV protection, not for the rain."  She then asked me, "Aren't you concerned about the UV oil protective layer being washed off by such heavy rain?"  I'm thinking "whaaaat, why are you concerned about things that happen in the far far future when you need this apparatus to get through the now?  not to mention that it can be replaced easily..."  So I just replied with "it's okay, I bought this umbrella for the rain."

To be fair... the UV oil protective layer was probably more important than some petty thunderstorm to her.