Both fighting for a future that we want to live in
Sometimes when people in Berlin asked me how do I view the Friday for Future movement, I see it as like building a house. Europeans have most of the materials for building a house, Hongkongers are still checking out where to find the materials to build the house, and on the way to Bauhaus (building material warehouse), there are still tear gas and batons waiting on their way. Anyhow, two parties have a same goal: they all want to build a house that is nice and safe for everyone to live in.
Not that we Hongkongers do not want to fight for the environment, yet for example when you realize, everything people suggest environmental policies, they are always ignored by the government, since we do not have the right to vote them, so their bosses are not Hongkong citizens, but the Chinese government. They do not feel they are responsible for the lives and well-being of Hong Kong people. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have thrown so much tear gas in residential area
(Oh well)
BUT BACK TO THE TOPIC – For example, I always wanted to have bike lanes that are safe to ride on that connects to everywhere in Hong Kong. Of course, we do not have any, but not that people didn’t try to bike to work as a pioneer, but then it never became the mainstream because the government just won’t build it. As a result, people will never feel safe to ride a bike on the street, so they will never use a bike to commute. Not to mention there are a lot of people, especially those grew up on Hong Kong Island, do not know how to ride a bike at all.
(I already didn’t mention we do not have bottles deposit system, waste separation system etc. *yawn*)
We have plastic bag taxation, so that’s why people bring their own bags to supermarkets in Hong Kong, hence the amount of plastic bags we used dropped drastically. Without a structural environmental policy that force to change citizens’ habits, no big changes can be made to the environment.
So it is after all a ‘first-thing-first’ matter. Why at this moment Hongkonger needs to fight for democracy, is also for a future that Hongkongers want to live in – no structural change in the governing body, there will be no advancement in environmental policies. We may look different but it is also a same fight about future.
