bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Letters

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification.
On a recent train journey, I couldn’t help but overhear two men loudly discussing a topic of irritation. It went something like this.
First Man: “I really can’t stand it any more. Just when I thought all those charity groups were done trying to get me to donate to the Ukraine refugees, this earthquake hits. I’m so tired of people asking. It happened in my office again today.”
Second Man: “Yah, and if it isn’t any of these new causes, it’s the whales or the trees or some other lame thing.”
First Man: “I don’t give to any of these groups any more. Who knows what they do with the money?”
Second Man: “I don’t give either. I did for a while, but it just never stops. I work hard for my money. Why should I hand it over to someone else? Let them go out and find a job like everyone else.”
I thought about saying something but didn’t: who am I to judge? Yet this feeling they describe, of compassion fatigue, is shared by so many.
Overcoming this feeling is a major challenge of our time.
That morning, I had watched news clips focused on the victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake. The disaster has left more than 47,000 dead, thousands injured and an estimated 5 million homeless. These refugees will need an incredible amount of food, tents, blankets and more.
The faces of the men, women and children haunted me all day; there was so much grief, fear, sadness and hopelessness. And yet they are just one group out of so many in need.
Perhaps we need to look at giving differently. I have two suggestions.
First, it might be easier to fix the annual amount we wish to give and do so. I know people who do this. They identify a topic they care about and give in support. This avoids the guilt associated with having to decide when approached by multiple campaigns.
Second, make this annual amount significant. Many of us have jobs and good salaries. We live good lives when so many others suffer. With so many blessings, we should be willing to contribute generously. This helps to make the world a better place. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this?
Matt Friedman, CEO, The Mekong Club
ChatGPT disrupts the learning process, to humanity’s detriment
I must applaud the University of Hong Kong’s efforts to nip the use of AI for coursework in the bud (“University of Hong Kong temporarily bans students from using ChatGPT, other AI-based tools for coursework”, February 17).
For centuries, humanity has made great strides in research and discovery, accumulating knowledge through experience and critical thinking, yet the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI-based tools is very much a legitimate threat to humankind’s acquisition of wisdom.
Data collected from research needs to be organised and analysed before it is transformed into information; information needs to be digested until it becomes knowledge; knowledge, coupled with experience, becomes wisdom.
AI-based tools, however, short-circuit the above process by allowing users to generate academic prose at one click, thus eliminating the quintessential steps of researching, critiquing, paraphrasing and writing on the part of learners. The result? Learners can potentially copy others’ work with impunity and learn nothing.
Using such tools for coursework is wrong on so many levels. It undermines academic integrity and is a blatant affront to the industrious researchers who have invested years of hard work in their projects.
AI tools undermine scholars’ professionalism, belittle their contributions to their respective fields, and poison young minds by encouraging them to disregard academic honesty.
Academic dishonesty can happen not only at the tertiary, but also at the secondary school level, where school-based assessments for language subjects are not immune from plagiarism, which could arise from the use of AI tools. That’s a slippery slope we don’t want to witness, as ethical use of information is important.
The million-dollar questions remain: do we really want to produce graduates who churn out mediocre papers lacking substance, originality and character? Are we humans ready and happy to be completely replaced by AI? Will we still be human if we lose our learning capabilities as a result of achieving convenience through AI?
The notion that AI tools could mark the decline of homo sapiens’ intelligence if not utilised appropriately may not be too far-fetched, after all.
Jason Tang, Tin Shui Wai
The state of the gents in this city
I have observed over recent years that urinals in the gents are often left unused, and instead WC cubicles are used (possibly because of increasing coyness?). Obviously that’s men’s choice but it is infuriating when the cubicles are occupied for extended periods of time. I doubt this is due to increasing constipation but more likely users seeking some “me time”, although it’s been suggested to me that often cubicles are used by addicts to take their fix or, especially at the airport, for overnight stays!
These abuses are obviously matters for the police, Airport Authority and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to address but my other gripe is that the cubicles are often flooded with urine. This may be a result of carelessness but I believe that a major contributing factor is that the facilities are poorly designed for urination whilst standing. Possibly one of our universities with the necessary expertise could look into this issue and come up with a more suitable design?
Doug Miller, Tai Po


Hong Kong doctor who joined quake relief efforts in Turkey last year shares her story in hopes others will join future missions

Adopted family of Syrian baby born under earthquake rubble elated as she turns 6 months

Could Chinese researchers crack the code of earthquake prediction?

‘I’ll never forget’: Hong Kong health workers in Turkey quake rescue mission recall sleepless nights, freezing temperatures

2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake

How to overcome compassion fatigue in a world full of refugees

People who lost their houses in the devastating earthquake queue up for aid supplies at a makeshift camp in Iskenderun city, southern Turkey, on February 14. Photo: AP

Quake horror calls for worldwide response

A man reacts at the site of a collapsed building after a deadly earthquake in Diyarbakir, Turkey. The unfolding disaster demands a rapid and focused global response to help victims. Photo: Reuters

Members of a Chinese rescue team in Beijing prepare to leave for Turkey to join earthquake relief efforts. Photo: Xinhua

UN to slash food aid for Rohingya refugees, citing fund shortfall: ‘How will we survive?’

Rohingya refugees gather near a fence at a no-man’s land between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Photo: AP

Could Turkey’s stance on China, Sweden, Israel, soften with earthquake ‘disaster diplomacy’?

Earthquake survivors gather round a bonfire in Turkey. Might the international response to the massive tragedy improve relations between governments? Photo: AFP

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visits an earthquake survivor in hospital. Photo: via Reuters

China’s President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2019. Ankara has criticised Beijing’s repression of Uygur Muslims in western China’s Xinjiang province. Photo: Reuters

People react next to a collapsed building in Turkey on Friday as the search for earthquake survivors continues. Photo: Reuters

Members of a Chinese search and rescue team in Turkey. Photo: Reuters

Opinion

Readers discuss two ways to keep helping others, how ChatGPT disrupts human learning, and public toilets in Hong Kong


Readers discuss two ways to keep helping others, how ChatGPT disrupts human learning, and public toilets in Hong Kong.


Ukraine war: 1 year on

ChatGPT and other generative AIs

Hong Kong

Letters | How to overcome compassion fatigue in a world full of refugees

Readers discuss two ways to keep helping others, how ChatGPT disrupts human learning, and public toilets in Hong Kong