1 November 2015

For some reasons, we always consider happy news not really news: the annual sheep parade through Madrid streets, a tradition began in 1273; Wang Jianlin becomes the richest Chinese in 2015; Thomas, Finnegan, and Oliver were born identical triplets without the use of fertility drugs, and the like.  They are more like public announcements, and we smile a bit.  We are programmed to view news with a frown: Nepal Prime Minister Koirala resigned; airstrike hit a hospital in Afghanistan; multiple bombings in Turkey; violence between Palestinians and Israelis; weak land traffic network to and fro Hong Kong Airport, etc.

 

Not that we wanted to see miseries, no, but we think serious news should make us reflect; little do we know that many reflections have been made before we see the happy news: hygiene and humanity issues in the sheep parade, the very idea of getting rich in a communist / socialist country, the moral and ethical issues of using fertility drugs, etc. Happy news always comes, but they came a long way.  Likewise, I am sure the relatively sad but reflective recent news will be advanced to happy ones in due course.

 

My jaw dropped for more than 15 seconds, leaving me speechless, when I heard the news of the two-hour stranded traffic to and fro our Airport. My initial reaction was, “this is stupid”. But it is a collective stupidity, including every citizen who had been using the single link without questioning or complaining since 1998.  Now that there is a problem, we begin finger-pointing.  The one thing we should learn at a crisis or a reparable situation is to fix the problem first, rather than finding fault, or shedding responsibility.  Then we need to think of how to prevent similar future mistakes.  

 

We allow mistakes at school, but we cannot tolerate the same mistakes made by the same person over and over again. Parents should let students learn from their own mistakes and grow up, rather than harboring them or making up excuses for such mistakes. It is only through a series of learning that parents and schools can nurture the future leaders of the society.

 

Anson Yang