Has Hong Kong lost its mind?
Mak Kwok Wah says irrationality is threatening to destroy social fabric
What's on the menu for lunch in Hong Kong society today? Perhaps toxic soup, tainted meat and fruit laced with poison. The venue, of course, would match the meal - a foul and fetid atmosphere, with the conversation at every table the absolute opposite of being convivial.
The meal would end with disputes over the bill. And positively no tip.
An absurd scenario, of course, but we have become not just a divided community but a sick and angry one, boiling over with something approaching hate. Hong Kong is tearing itself apart as it sinks deeper into a self-created mire of irrationality and perversity.
Everywhere you look, listen or watch, you can find the signs not just of dissension but social disintegration … in the press, on TV and the radio, all across social media, and in everyday conversation.
What a lot of trouble we would have been spared had she been arrested for obstruction
So what are so many of us arguing about and agitating against?
The following is an incomplete list - and definitely not in an order of importance (who would be foolish enough to suggest that he or she knew that!): the astronomical prices of property and rents; keeping mainland buyers of baby powder at arm's length; encountering rude visitors on the MTR; the clamour for Hong Kong to be granted democracy; musical chairs in the corridors of government; getting a voice in the 2017 election for the chief executive; road rage and queue-jumping on the approaches to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel; the rising cost of living; the proposed landfill extension; and Lung Mei beach.
