WORLD WE IMAGINE PART 1

Growing up in Hong Kong has been a very eye-opening experience. On one hand, Hong Kong has exposed me to a diverse group of people and opportunities, but on the other hand, it has also shown me to an abundance of political, environmental, and social injustices from an early age. Nonetheless, my love for this city remained unwavered and my hope has always been to return to Hong Kong in the future to contribute to the local community in some way. Two of the most prominent issues, and ones that I am most familiar with, in Hong Kong today are air pollution and homelessness. 

Let me speak about my experience with witnessing homelessness in Hong Kong first. During senior year of high school, I decided to sell all unwanted items of mine to free up some much-needed space. It wasn’t much, but I was able to make some cash from what I had to sell. At first, I was unsure what to do with the money and was thinking about donating it, but my aunt suggested I do some hands-on charity work with it. I eventually settled on helping the homeless population in Hong Kong by providing food and drinks to them. For many days, I tried searching for an NGO that was willing to let me join in on their work, but most turned me away because of employment complications or unfitting schedules. Then, I found a man named Sunny through a local online forum. He was an independent volunteer with years of experience tackling the homeless problem in Hong Kong. Most importantly, he was the only one willing to help me with my idea. After packing all the sandwiches we had made and the drinks we had bought, Sunny took me under bridges (which were so dark we had to use flashlights to see) and around public parks to pass out our supplies. Although it was visible how hungry and thirsty these people were, I was taken aback by how patient and respectful they were when queuing up for the food and water. On top of that, I was moved by how thankful they were towards me, an 18 year old kid, for doing what I was doing. The amount of money I raised wasn’t much, and the amount of help I offered could be seen as trivial, but the experience was truly life-changing and has shown me that many homeless people are still good people at the end of the day. 

Another problem that Hong Kong faces is air pollution. When I was in school, there were many days when kids were restricted from going outdoors for recess because of the air pollution index passing a certain threshold that was deemed hazardous for student health. Of course, this was a bummer at the time, but the frequency in which this situation occurred also showed me how severe this problem is. Although Hong Kong does not generate a lot of pollution itself (most of it is coming from neighboring industrial cities in China), the average Hong Kong person still has an extremely high carbon footprint because of air travel, electricity usage, usage of fossil fuels. First, air travel is very common for an average Hong Kong person for both business or leisure related travelling. Second, Hong Kong, in general, uses a lot of electricity through air-conditioning, neon-light signs, etc. Lastly, the transition to renewable energies has been relatively slow in Hong Kong as most energy usage is still powered by traditional sources such as fossil fuels. These are all areas that Hong Kong can consider when addressing environmental concerns that are independent of pollution coming from elsewhere. 

These issues are not limited to Hong Kong. I am simply using Hong Kong as a temporary start point because it is what I am most familiar with. Eventually, I hope to be able to make similar contributions to other regions of the world.