From: j3cheng@student.business.uwo.ca (Jonathan Cheng)
Subject: Re: The nature of idiotic squabbles among apparent intelligentia
Organization: University of Western Ontario
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 15:17:30 GMT



My dear fellow netters:
        I propose to take a departure from the course of flaming that has 
been inplace so far over the relationship between HK-China-UK.

        It is certainly good to see people standing so fervently behind 
their ideas/ideals.  My beef with the situation is that the enormous pool 
of intelligence available among this group of interested and opinionated 
people are being absolutely wasted into fruitless, indeed frivolous 
argument for the sake of argument.

        Please try to gather yourself.  Your efforts have the potential 
of benefitting an entire generation of people who will be affected by the 
rapid changes happening in South-east Asia.  I plead with you that you 
either organize the arguments into a concerted, constructive effort to 
reach agreement and PEACE among the many varied (and valuable) opinions, 
or get the f**k out of the rest of our faces.  The reason why I feel so 
strongly about the issue stems from the fact that I absolutely detest the 
failure of people to recognize the huge waste, not of bandwidth or time, 
but of their own potential and power to change their world for the better 
of all (not to the detriment of others).  I believe that, flamers or not, 
the people who have participated in the arguments/discussions have a 
great deal to offer..both for the in coming Chinese government, the 
out-going British one, and the one caught in between.  But so far the 
arguments truly have been goig nowhere.

        Whose side are we on?  Does it matter?  The British government 
has been no saint...they practically destroyed our grandfather's 
generation in south China when they introduced, malevolently, opium to 
that generation.  But look at what has happened under their laissez-faire 
from of government.  They've been no demons to Hong Kong OR to China 
either.
        And the Chinese government.  For all the ideals and words, for 
all the people-loving (people's interests first) bullshit, they trampled 
on the pleas and voices of their "people" (and a significant number of 
voices at that) in a true showing of where their interests lay.  However, 
if a civil war were to have arisen from that incident, we probably would 
have faced a period of great turmoil, of populations going hungry, of 
great death and disaster.  Also, without China, there would (unarguably) 
be no prosperity in Hong Kong.

        My point is this..to what beneficial effect is it (or to whose 
benefit) to justify one side of the game or the other?  So what if we 
could prove Britain or China as being the virtuous or noble one?  Can we 
truly convince ourselves that this game has black and white players, i.e. 
one's a good-cop the other's the bad-cop?  You, We are all more mature 
than that.  I propose that this fruitless squabble come to a peaceful 
end...shake hands and say you're sorry, then make up and be friends (not 
literally say you're sorry if you're not so inclined).  The greatest 
asset in these times of volatility and turmoil is HARMONY.  I believe 
that we, as intelligent and responsible members of our respective 
affiliations, are in the position (and indeed obliged) to make the best 
use we can of our own fortunate circumstances.  Many people in China 
would love to have the chance to discuss in a peaceful forum like SCHK 
and not be persecuted for it...let's not waste ourselves and the futures 
of those whom we can and will eventually affect.

        Put our heads TOGETHER, not APART, and make a better future for 
our loved countries.

Thank you for the bandwidth.  I felt it was necessary.

Jon

j3cheng@student.business.uwo.ca (Jonathan Cheng)
Western Business School  --  London, Ontario
Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong