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January 4, 2021 ASIA / PACIFIC THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3 Hong Kong street refrigerator keeps giving By Alice Fung The Associated Press ONG KONG — Most people who head to Woosung Street in Hong Kong’s old-school neighborhood of Jordan are visiting its popular restaurants serving everything from curries to seafood. Others may be headed for a lone refrigerator, painted blue, with a sign that reads: “Give what you can give, take what you need to take.” The door of the fridge sitting outside a hockey academy opens to reveal it is stuffed with packets of instant noodles, biscuits, tins of food, and even socks and towels for anyone who may need them. Ahmen Khan, founder of a sports foundation on the same street, said he was inspired to create a community refrigerator after seeing a film about others doing the same thing. He found the refrigerator at a nearby refuse collection point and painted it blue. “It’s like a dignity, that when you go home, you open your fridge to get food,” Khan said. “So I want the people to just feel like that. Even if it’s a street, it’s their community, it’s their home, so they can simply just open it and then just put food there, and collect the food.” Khan’s blue refrigerator project Jolie Musique School of the Arts offers virtual music lessons of any kind by world class trained musicians from NYC directly to your home! We guarantee quality and convenience, plus passion and experience! H All ages & abilities, learning disabled & special needs included. Contact: HildeW@joliemusique.com w (646) 460-6564 COMMUNITY GIVING. Two women chat with Ahmed Khan, center (behind refrigerator), after placing food inside a refrigerator at Woosung Street in Hong Kong’s old-school neighborhood of Jordan. Khan, founder of a sports foundation on the same street, said he was inspired to create a community refrigerator after seeing a film about others doing the same thing. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) went viral on social media and people Yeung) is one of the people have been dropping by to leave food benefitting from the blue refrigera- tor, from time to time helping himself inside. Janet Yeung stopped by recently to some food or even masks left by with a plastic bag filled with biscuits, donors. “Those who are really in need can instant noodles, and snacks. She take things from the fridge whenever stacked them carefully inside. they want without any worries, as the “I think doing good deeds does not fridge is here 24 hours a day,” he said. need to be on a large scale,” Yeung Associated Press writer Zen said. “A small act can already show Soo contributed to this report. our kindness, and contribute to this “One Good Thing” is a series that world.” highlights glimmers of joy in hard times — A resident who would only identify stories of people who find a way to make himself as Yeung (no relation to Janet a difference, no matter how small. Indian shepherd combats water scarcity by building ponds By Aijaz Rahi A LEADING TRUSTED FRANCHISOR OF COMMERCIAL CLEANING SERVICES, WANTS YOU! Own your own business today. No experience needed. Low cost start-up. In-house financing available. CALL TO FIND OUT HOW TODAY! (971) 371-5995 1-000-111-2222 The Associated Press ASANADODDI, India — Kalmane Kamegowda, a 72-year-old shepherd who lives in a nondescript village in southern India, has become something of a celebrity, winning national recognition from no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kamegowda, who never attended school, says he’s spent at least $14,000 from his and his son’s earnings, mainly through selling sheep he tended over the years, to dig a chain of 16 ponds on a picturesque hill near his village, 75 miles west of Bengaluru, India’s Silicon Valley. The ponds, constructed over the course of four decades, are meant to address the problem of water scarcity. Kamegowda — known as “Pond Man” — says they’re “scientific” in nature, with the water flowing on a slope, enabling the ponds to avoid drying up even in the scorching summer months. Birds and wild animals such as bears, leopards, deer, and foxes use the ponds to quench their thirst. Kamegowda, who sports tidy black hair and a gray beard, was once dismissed as mad by other villagers. They mocked him for claiming that he had learned from his father, also a shepherd, the art of identifying ground moisture and using it to create bodies of water. He relied mostly on shovels, spades, and pickaxes to create the water bodies, and rented excavating machines when he could afford them to structure the ponds. The Karnataka state government praised his work more than two years ago with a prestigious award. But the national recognition came early in 2020 when Modi lauded his work on his popular radio broadcast, calling Kamegowda an “ordinary farmer” with “an extraordinary personality.” “He has achieved a personal feat that will leave anyone awestruck,” the prime mister said, adding that D ® ECOLOGICAL EFFORTS. Kalmane Kamegowda, a 72-year-old shepherd, swings a stick to splash water in one of the 16 ponds he created near Dasanadoddi village in Bengaluru, India. Kamegowda, who never attended school, says he’s spent at least $14,000 from his and his son’s earnings, mainly through selling sheep he tended over the years, to dig a chain of 16 ponds on a picturesque hill near his village. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi) Kamegowda “has dug 16 ponds, achievements. He has a second nickname — through his hard work and the sweat “Vanapalaka,” or guardian of forests, of his brow.” “It is possible that the ponds he has earned through his planting of trees constructed may not be very big, but in an area near the ponds designated then his efforts are huge,” Modi said. by officials as a park. “Most of the villagers are proud of “Today, the entire area has got a new lease of life on account of these me, but those who are jealous try hard to malign my image,” he said. “I ponds.” Social groups are now urging Modi ask people not to pollute the ponds by to honor Kamegowda with a national washing clothes and restrict the use of water only for their livestock.” award. “It’s nice to see villagers bring their Kamegowda is happy to show journalists around, hobbling on a livestock to these ponds to drink bandaged leg due to an ulcer wound water, but it hurts when some try to that hasn’t healed for months. That defame me,” he said. restricts his regular visits to his He was referring to some villagers ponds these days. who, apparently jealous of the Four years ago, he saved some recognition he had received, money for his daughter-in-law, who submitted a petition to the local was expecting to give birth with a administrator, complaining that caesarean section, but she delivered a Kamegowda was treating the pond baby boy vaginally, leaving him with area as his personal estate even some cash on his hands. though it was government land. “I spent the same money to dig However, the local administrator, another pond and named it Krishna deputy commissioner M.V. — after my grandson,” he said. Venkatesh, said he visited the village Kamegowda, who has dozens of and found that “there is a wrong sheep, lives in a two-room unfinished perception” about Kamegowda’s shed next to his son’s house, and work. “His work is genuine,” he said. enjoys spending time with his family. This year, the Karnataka state He keeps all of the documents and government allotted 5 million rupees Continued on page 4 newspaper clippings reflecting his The Asian Reporter is published on the first Monday each month. News page advertising deadlines for our next two issues are: February 1, 2021 edition: Space reservations due: Wed., Jan. 27 at 1:00pm Artwork due: Thu., Jan. 28 at 1:00pm March 1, 2021 edition: Space reservations due: Wed., Feb. 24 at 1:00pm Artwork due: Thu., Feb. 25 at 1:00pm For more information, please call (503) 283-4440.