了解．關懷一百萬人的故事 (Understand and Care the 1 Million People)

It's a TV programme in HK that attracts a lot of discussion even after the first of the five episodes was aired on Monday.

Basically, it's a programme produced by the most popular TV station in HK and broadcast during prime time. In each show, TV or movie stars interview those in HK living under the poverty line and show us how the poor faces everyday challenges. We have around 7 millions people in HK. According to the statistics, unfortunately, around 1 million are living in poverty.

Ever since I first watched the promos, I was expecting the programme, although I also expect it to be sentimental and shallow.

The programme doesn't fail me on this. What I didn't expect is the tremendous impact. After only the first show, a facebook was created, and if you search the internet using the programme name, hundreds of people have already written about it.

When we watched the first episode, my mom wet several pieces of tissue. At one point she asked if it's inevitable to have the rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer as a society develops. I said yes, but others are not as mean as we HK people.

Don't know since when, we start to hate the rich and are not sympathetic to the poor either. We don't like anyone that's different from us. While "we" have to be right and normal, those that are different are undoubtedly abnormal and unreasonable. There's one popular newspaper in HK that criticizes almost everyone and everything everyday, including the government and the civil society, including the politicians from left to right, including the rich and the poor. I finally understand why it's so popular.

The TV programme attracts a lot of criticisms too. For example, the interviewers (i.e. the TV and movie stars) are so ignorant and insincere. Very often I feel that the TV station is only using the poor as a gimmick. However, I do hope that more people can realize that poverty does exist in our society, and don't tell me why the poor can't work harder. Most have already worked hard enough. They just still can't make a living.

Wall Colouring

This is what I did yesterday, except having a minor car accident in the morning.

After a year of idling, I did wall "colouring" with the Arts in Hospital again for two Saturday in a row. Yesterday, we went to the Haven of Hope Holistic Centre, a place for hospice care.

Volunteers have been working on the project for three months already. Along the wall of the corridor, we could see some HK scenery, such as the Lion Rock. Inside each bedroom, we did a border similar to this along the top of the wall. What I did yesterday was to stand on a chair and colour the green leaves. I know you think it's easy. But trust me. It's more difficult than you thought. The actual size I did was about twice as big and I spent my whole Saturday from 11am to 5pm on it! Since we needed to hold up our arm and turn up your head to reach the height, your neck hurt and your arm felt tired simply after the first five minutes.

At first, I thought there was similar wall paper on sale in the market. It might be even cheaper if we counted in the coordination done by the staff and the volunteers' time. But than I thought might be it's the human touch the mattered and couldn't be substitute.

P.S. I am OK. It's just a car crushed on the taxi I was on under heavy rain and typhoon signal no. 3. I didn't go to the doctor although I was a bit dizzy and wanted to vomit at first. Holding up my head to paint was a bit difficult at first cause my neck hurt a bit with the crush.

棒球狂想曲 in YouTube

真係 YouTube 乜都有

Level Playing Field

This morning, the cleaning lady asked if she could have the foam board I wanted to dispose for a while so that her kids could use it for a school project. Her daughter was more than delighted when I said yes, and told me foam board was expensive. It costs HK$10 a piece.

When middle-class parents are sending their kids to overseas study tours in summer holiday, we can't deny that our income disparity is becoming more and more serious, and it's getting more and more difficult to climb up the social ladder. What make me most upset is not we have poor people in the society, but we have no sympathy. While our "Asian values" do not appreciate the concept of "individuals", we are also expert in distinguishing "you" and "me", "my money" and "your money".

I watched the first episode of RTHK's "Life on the Margin" (活在邊緣) last week. Although it's not perfect, I do hope that it can make a couple of people less indifferent. I also read 呂大樂's 《四代香港人》(Four Generations of HK People) lately. Although I don't usually like Lui's work and nothing he wrote in the book is something you have never heard of, it provides a structured account of the similarities and differences of the different generations of HK people. I do hope that it can make a couple of people to realize that we can't no longer apply the standard in the 60s to the Asia's World City in the 21st century.

日唸唐詩三百首

These are what I got today -- kids version of some old Chinese literature.

The wonderful part is, all the Chinese characters in the books have Putonghua pin-yin!

YEAH!!!!! Exactly what I wanted.

The collection has 10 books in total, but I could only find eight today. If you happen to see 三字經 and 成語故事, make sure you let me know!

Spring Resolution

Off-line by 11pm and sleep by mid-night.

P.S. Mission fails on the first and second days :(