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.