Trots att Hongkongborna inte har full rösträtt har de kunnat uttrycka sig genom demonstrationer och andra aktioner och många gånger fått sin vilja respekterad. Mycket fattas och fjolårets Occupy Central gav inte något resultat, i alla fall inte på kort sikt. Men det är en aspekt som förtjänar att uppmärksammas.
I sin krönika listar han i bakvänd ordning fem skäl att älska Hongkong. Här följer utdrag ur artikeln:
Yonden Lhatoo says few places in the world can match the city in its offer of the good life, thanks in part to its law-abiding and hard-working people.
How do I love thee, Hong Kong? Let me count the ways.
5) Sheer convenience. I don’t drive here; I don’t have to, because our public transport is so remarkably efficient, convenient and comfortable. It’s easy to complain when a train is late, but our subway is a marvel in motion compared with its counterparts in major world cities. And our public bus services are excellent.
4) We complain a lot about our living environment because urban areas are congested concrete jungles. And yes, property prices and rents are crazy. But three-quarters of Hong Kong is protected countryside. It’s pretty amazing. If only we could do something about the air pollution, though.
3) Whatever you may say about the money-grubbing
culture in Hong Kong, this is the land of opportunity and efficiency. It has been for me, and it is for all the foreigners lining up for residency here, whether they’re high-flying expatriates or grass-roots migrants. Customer and public services are so smooth and hassle-free, it’s easy to develop a sense of entitlement that other cities would never accommodate.
2) Hong Kong is the safest city in the world. It doesn’t matter where I am at what time of day or night – I feel supremely confident and secure. Cities like London, Paris and New York can’t offer me that. Of course it helps that we have a first-rate police force that is corruption-free and competent.
1) Hong Kong is the freest city I’ve ever been in. We may not have universal suffrage yet, but in practice every citizen is entitled to and enjoys more basic freedoms and rights than some of the most advanced democracies. Residents are acutely aware of protest power and ever ready to exercise it, whether it’s over the death of a stray dog hit by a train or electoral reform.
Where else can you block main roads in the city centre for 79 straight days in the name of civil disobedience, while not only expecting the police to tolerate you but also protect you while you break the law?
Hong Kong’s energy is infectious and addictive, and the “can-do” spirit is for real. Let’s give credit to a law-abiding, hard-working and tenacious population. I may not have anything nice to say about it next week, but I’m proud to call it home.
Yonden Lhatoo is a Senior Editor at the South China Morning Post. He’s back to what he loves doing the most – writing – after working for nearly two decades as a television news anchor and editor.
SCMP, Oct. 1, 2015
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