Greetings, dear friends -
Three days ago, I sit on a rock noticing my behind go numb as I write words in a notebook while the sun sets behind mountains at the opposite end of a beach on an outlying island of Hong Kong. As I watch two of my companions practice backbends in this last week of 2022, I realize that on January 1st this year, I was with the same two friends practicing backbends on rocks at a beach on an island at the opposite end of Hong Kong. We three backbenders are the only members in common between the new year group and the year-end group.
Is this somehow a metaphor for 2022…did the year start on one plane, make an arc, then land on the same plane?
Taking a brief look at Hong Kong:
At the beginning of 2022, one could move around Hong Kong somewhat freely, within defined schedules and group sizes and under the surveillance of the LeaveHomeSafe mobile phone app. Whether you could fly into Hong Kong depended a lot on where you were flying from and whether you had the willingness and budget to complete the mandatory designated hotel quarantine for 2 or 3 weeks, also depending on where you flew from.
In week 1 of 2022, some people broke rules and had a large birthday party, sparking what was locally called the Fifth Wave. Over the next months, Hong Kong became increasingly restrictive as case counts rose from hundreds to thousands to just over 78,000 (more than 1% of HK’s population and the highest ever in HK) in early March. Dining indoors after 6 pm was banned as were flights from a growing list of countries. Anyone identified as the close contact of someone who tested positive would be shipped off to a quarantine center. Many residents, both originally local and expat, left Hong Kong indefinitely.
By April, the case count fell to below 5,000 and the government relaxed quarantine requirements to one week while still requiring inbound travelers to have a PCR test within 48-hours prior to landing. Quarantine centers and designated quarantine hotels reached capacity. One could eat in a restaurant until 10 pm and visit a hair salon. By end of May, only customers having had three shots of the vaccine or an exemption as recorded on their LeaveHomeSafeApp could enter such premises. In September, the government dropped the quarantine requirement for all inbound travelers.
At the end of the year, what’s different about life in Hong Kong? The LeaveHomeSafeApp has been scrapped, the majority of residents are performing rapid antigen tests (RAT) frequently if not daily, some are reporting their positive test results as required by the government, PCR testing at the airport has just been scrapped, as has mandatory quarantine, the vaccine pass, and tracing of close contacts.
Nonetheless, at the end of the year, case numbers are rising again. This time, not all of them are being counted. (Resources: Worldometer, Hong Kong COVID-19 Timeline by OT&P)
At Clear Water Science Consulting, the year certainly made an arc and at the end of it, we find solid ground on some key principles. Here are ten of them.
1 - Life is still a dice roll. There’s very little we can count on. I can’t count on feeling more awesome tomorrow than I do today. I can’t count on attending that event I paid a handsome ticket price for. Someone close to me might get COVID. I might get COVID. I might have to stay home and sleep a lot. I’m fortunate to count on having a home right now.
2 - Big changes can feel scary until they happen. According to the photo in RoundUp #068, I had a hair change. 12 inches of hair change. Scary for a business owner concerned about her profile, first impressions, image to the world, etc. Then I gave it away and felt lighter. Literally. In front of or away from the mirror, I knew my image to the world improved.
3 - What feels like a setback can be a break to do other things. At the beginning of the year, we had big writing projects on climate change and genomics. Internal changes in these organizations led to shifts in their communications approach that put CWSC’s involvement on indefinite hiatus. Energy shifted to coaching, networking events, and other opportunities.
This week, a close contact caught Covid. I’ve cancelled all appointments and written a more reflective newsletter.
4 - I have professional help to stay strong. This work takes clarity, persistence, and love. This year, I hired a coach, practiced and received coaching in coaching circles, and continued working with my therapist of the past three years. A business owner is a whole person with family and loved ones, hobbies, health, financial, spiritual, and material needs and deserves support on all realms.
5 - Be honest when something isn’t working. In June, I gave up a leadership role in a business network. Yes, I’d built it all up from being HK member number 1, and it hurt to recycle 3 boxes of business cards. But was it working for me? No.
6 - My best ideas will always come back to me. A month later, I experienced a creative burst and mapped out a full suite of coaching for scientists. I made some notes and searched for them a day later. A file from February popped up entitled “A full suite of coaching for scientists”.
This year, we’ve coached PhD applicants, PhD defenders, graduate students on graduate life, job seekers, a sustainability professional, led a team preparing manuscripts on career development programs, contributed to an online coach for getting a research job, and met dozens of talented and creative people.
7 - Help comes when people know what you’re doing. Last year, a short term housemate hosted a BBQ at my house and invited a friend who invited their friend who might be interested in writing for a business like CWSC. On my own roof, I met my first collaborator, who made amazing contributions to writing projects for business and fun.
This summer, I met a professor I hadn’t seen in years and they introduced me to our next intern, who happens to love chemistry, writing, and singing. Within a month, we made serious progress on our website about a full suite of Coaching for Scientists.
8 - Rejection is redirection. For over a year, five collaborators and I prepared a manuscript for publication. The editor of the first journal we submitted to said it was not appropriate for one article type and potentially appropriate for another type. Following their suggestion, we shrunk our report from 6000 words to 2000 words, revamped the visuals, and resubmitted it. After peer review, the journal declined to publish.
This happens all the time in scientific publication. Fortunately, the anonymous reviewers commented constructively and the work will be better when published. We are now tasked with finding a new home and reshaping it.
In 2022, we bid for many jobs with organizations we did not get to work with, including a small business and legal consultancy, a boutique intellectual property firm, a local organization advocating research career paths in life sciences, a startup for diagnostics that detect pet pathogens, a technology startup changing the nature of online workshops.
These directions are not right for us right now. Work on something else, like that full suite of coaching for scientists.
9 - Life is full of opportunities. Sometimes, opportunities means lack of obstacles. I want to fly around the world to see family for Thanksgiving in the US and nothing is stopping me? Go.
Did this compromise other opportunities? No. We continue to coach, consult, and deliver projects with incredible collaborators.
10 - Loving support makes everything easier. Loved ones, friends, family, human and non-human, spark endless perspective, material and immaterial resources, motivation, and more. Their presence reminds me of what is real and important right now, whether the ground is beneath the feet, hands or both.
Positive change still is a long road. Hang in there! Thank you for your consistent support, and Happy New Year!
A few happenings in Hong Kong and Space
On December 15, the Hong Kong Government Education Bureau formulated the Guidelines on Teachers' Professional Conduct, listing things that teachers should and should not do under 8 main codes of conduct. Topics covered include Chinese historical events, the National Security Law, affection for the country, and use of social media. The news media quoted the Secretary for Education’s view on the purpose of the guidelines and what they mean for teaching events in society, freedom of speech and reporting on teachers to the Education Bureau.
Mid-month, the Hong Kong government ceased requiring visitors of just about any type of venue (restaurants, bars, museums, government buildings, salons, gyms, etc) to record their whereabouts using the LeaveHomeSafe app. Until this week though, the same premises still required visitors to have a QR-linked vaccine pass to enter. The app had been used for mobility tracking and contact tracing since November 2020. At the end of the month, the government scrapped the vaccine pass requirement for entering venues (restaurants, bars, libraries, just about anything public) and stopped performing PCR tests on all arriving passengers. One can still get fined for not wearing a mask. The changes came in parallel with China’s changes to their COVID policies and explosion of cases. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just issued new PCR testing requirements for US-bound passengers from China, Hong Kong, and Macao.
As seen in a four-hour event stream on December 11, the Orion spacecraft successfully splashed into the Pacific Ocean near Mexico after orbiting the moon for 25.5 days. This landing and its cross-country roadtrip to Florida conclude the Artemis I mission, “the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the Moon.”
The science department is under renovations this month. Stay tuned in 2023!
Human Resources – the most important resource in any enterprise
Holly Long Canadian born and raised, fluent Japanese practitioner, and currently attempting to keep banks ethical and safe. Holly has had a diverse career ranging from a museum guide in Vancouver, an English teacher in rural Hokkaido, an ‘other duties as needed’ specialist for the Hokkaido Prefecutural Government, to a Big 4 consultant/corporate warrior in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
She now works in Toronto with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) of Canada, an independent government agency that determines whether federally regulated financial entities - like banks, insurance companies, and pension plans - are prudentially sound. Ask her about excellent late-night food and drink in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, her reunion with snow, how to create a corporate culture that lets people make good choices, and what her surgeon said about how not great it is to break a tibia.
Interesting Reads
Paradises Lost - A novella now published in Ursula Leguin’s The Birthday of the World and Other Stories chronicles a multigenerational mission to establish human civilization on a new planet. Narrated from the points of view of the last generations to know anyone born on the doomed Earth.
Interesting Watches
Interstellar - 2014 film - In an age of dust storms, blight, and a dismal outlook for humanity on Earth, a handful of explorers go into space looking for another planet where humans might live. Relativity entangles family dynamics when one hour on another planet is seven Earth years.
Vivo - A kinkajou (rainforest mammal also called the “honey bear”) conspires with a purple-haired preteen to get from Cuba to Miami so he can deliver a heartfelt message from his late street performing partner to an important person. This animated musical written, directed, and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda is full of clever rhymes and “wow in a world full of ho-hum.”
Thank you for reading and peace to you in 2023!
About
The Clear Water RoundUp is Clear Water Science Consulting’s regular newsletter – a collection of sharable business updates and insights, news from select locales, and features of interesting people and media.
Clear Water Science Consulting empowers science and scientists through effective communication. Our main activities are science communication (content creation, editing, technical review) and full-suite coaching for people scientists and researchers (communication coaching, research coaching, career coaching) – one-on-one and workshops.
Our coaching services are personalized - we bring curiosity, inquiry, patience, and persistence to helping people help themselves become more empowered actors in their own lives.
Visit our website to learn more about our vision, services, portfolio, and reviews.
For our regular content, check out our updates and science posts, many of them about COVID, on LinkedIn.
Also available on Kolabtree, Upwork, and Fiverr.
We are also a member of GBO Hong Kong, a global network of entrepreneurial-minded people. We enjoy relaxed and interesting networking events online and in-person to build friendships, share knowledge, and identify opportunities.