Journal Entry #15

What can we do to help cage dwellers in Hong Kong?

It is a fact that there are more than 100,000 cage dwellers in Hong Kong. Many people talk about it, such as some forums, videos, and television programmes, but do we actually step out to help?

I went on Google to search for organizations that actually do substantial work. Every forum and website I go to points to only one organization: SoCO, the Society for Community Organization. However, searching their site, I found that all they do is raise awareness and fight for the rights of people that live in caged homes. They have many “photo exhibitions” and “artwalks” that show photos of cage dwellers to raise public awareness, even bringing in an actual cage to an exhibition in Central. But do these exhibitions and awareness projects really help?

There was a YouTube video showed in Ethics class of a man who went to a cage home to see its horrible conditions. A young girl, Jessica, has nearly no money to pay rent for a cubicle home. She has to go to school by herself everyday while her mother goes to work early in the morning. The kitchen and bathroom is not at all sanitary and is shared between 20 people. She has cockroaches crawling over her at night, and never lives a comfortable life.

After researching for more organizations, I couldn’t find any that specially help cage and cubicle dwellers. I appreciate SoCO for allowing the public to know how horrible cage homes are. It truly is surprising that in such a developed urban city, there could be more than a hundred thousand people who live in cages like animals. Even the cages aren’t cheap. Though they are stacked on top of another, they cost quite a lot for the people who live there, and the government has done nothing to help.

So how can my class and I help? Our small class of 20 has many possibilities. There is a saying along the lines of “small people can do great things.” I propose this method:

Project “Uncage”

Purpose: To significantly/solidly help the people who live in cages and cubicles (not just raising awareness within our comfort zone)

Materials: Our class and whatever else is needed, lots of Bibles (probably Chinese), possibly subsidized by our school

Procedure:
– We split the class into 4 or 5 groups
– Buy tons of Chinese Bibles
– Each group goes twice a month (so two groups go at a time), maybe on the weekend, to do service for cage dwellers
– Examples include helping them clean their cages or cubicles, giving them food, etc.
– Give a Bible to each cage dweller and teach them about Christ
– Give Chinese lessons and/or English lessons to those who are less educated or illiterate
– Make this a mandatory class participation assignment worth lots of points, only excusable if the group really can’t go

Expansion:
– If our ideas work, we get more people to help and spread to more cage homes, such as other classes and possibly the whole school
– Most of our school’s families are rich, so we can get donations from them, possibly even start an organization with a parent who has resources and power
– If the school starts working with us, we can get the school to open a class or a few specially for those who live in cage homes so they get free and good education with more education on Christianity

I believe that everyone should have the chance to meet Christ, and if our school is truly a Christian school and not a commercial product, our school should approve this project and expand it so that even the lowest of the lowest can meet God and have a chance to go to heaven, because this is the true Great Commission that Jesus sent us to do. If we are really Christians, then we will help the lowest of society, those who don’t have the ability to know God by themselves.

Journal Entry #14

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”

– Gandhi

I think that Gandhi is trying to tell us not to be hypocrites. When we always want to “change the world” and “make the world a better place”, we need to first follow our own rules and morals, or else the changes we preach are useless and unconvincing. When we want others to improve, we need to improve ourselves too, so that we become what we preach and the role model we set will enhance our message.

An example of not “being the change” was the Pharisees from Jesus’ era. I don’t know about Pharisees nowadays, so I can’t say anything about them. However, the Pharisees of Jesus’ time always spread the “law” and the rules that people should follow so that they could be safe from God’s wrath. Jesus comes in and tells them that God doesn’t need all these rules besides true love from his followers, but the Pharisees didn’t listen. Being known for hypocrisy, they always preached rules they didn’t follow. Once chided by Jesus, they became furious and tried to save their “reputation” by killing Jesus, another example of hypocrisy.

Many people always talk about solving the problems of poverty, but does nothing to fight against it. Why debate all the time, when all it takes is you yourself donating to the poor? I learned in Ethics class today that if all the people in Christian churches followed the 10% of your earnings rule and gave it all to the poor, all poverty in the world would be gone in two weeks. Just two Sundays!

Therefore, we must be the change we wish to see in the world and not be hypocrites who sit there and do nothing.

Journal Entry #13

My Camp Experience…

I went to the ICS high school camp on Tuesday to Thursday (Oct 8-10), and this is my experience.

Being a lover of classical music and a disliker of pop, I didn’t really like worship much. Worship was way too loud and out of my tolerance boundaries, so I just sat in the back for worship. I can tolerate quiet and soothing pop style worship music, but all the screaming and loud guitars annoyed me. However, we went bowling on the second day of camp, which lifted my spirits up. Bowling with my tribe was fun, because I got to bowl with different people rather than the usual group of close friends. Please note that I am organizing this into alternating good and bad thoughts about camp. A bad experience/complain would be that the students got no say about rooms. Before, in middle school camp, we were allowed to choose 2 people we wanted in our rooms, and the teachers tried to fulfill our wishes. In high school camp, though, we were just given rooms with people we aren’t really good friends with, and these rooms never end up being optimal, creating an awkward and obstructed environment. On the good side, water games and house sports were fun and kept us active, filling hours with team spirit and endless fun. However, a problem with water games was the point system. We used cheerios strung around our necks, and if some people strung it tight or had lucky cheerios, even 100 water balloons couldn’t hit them off. I want to end with a good note, so allow me to introduce the zombie apocalypse. Replacing senior hunt, zombie apocalypse was a scary game where everyone except for Joey and Louise started as humans and were quickly infected by being tagged. I had perfect camouflage with a dark umbrella and water gun, but I started getting cramps after crouching safely in my hiding spot for 30 minutes. Though the game could’ve been shorter to make surviving easier, it was one of the best games at camp.

Overall, I would call camp a fun experience, and would look forward to camp next year.