Indifference

I remember feeling exasperated standing at the back door the newsroom building while have a smoke, several weeks into the Manila inquest (or several weeks after the conclusion of the inquest - I can't really remember), saying to an editor who was also having smoke, that the media attention seems too much. He paused and said to me that Hong Kong people value life. I still remember the expression on his face, and the hesitation before he pulled a drag.

Now, the pro-democracy protests are in full swings again. I can imagine the frustration of the moderates, the pro-Beijing people and the indifferent having their lives disrupted. Throughout, I believe that freedom of expression and the right to protest stand. But at times, the balance between these rights and the rights of others shifted a little. At the end of the day, excessive force by the police will always be uncalled for in a civic society. Yet, when I see comments on social media about police "brutality" for throwing a few punches, all of a sudden it looks to me like a bunch of naive, narrow-minded, spoiled and self-centred kids talking. Sure it is not right that several police officers gang up on a protestor and have a one-sided punch on and such actions should be accountable, but "brutality"?  A few punches is not brutal; machete-clad attack is. Have these people ever, ever felt the impact of "brutality"? Hardly anyone from Hong Kong, on social media at least, reacted with the same kind of anger to events that happen elsewhere in the world. There was no mention of the beheadings which, chances are, they have heard but shrugged with the kind of aloofness that demanded nothing more than the "oh my God that's horrible". This is not a criticism to residents of a particular city, but just an observation of indifference to humanity outside of one's immediate surroundings.

I hate to agree with older people who do not believe in human rights or democracy for that matter, but people in this small city can be incredibly small-minded. So, what next? The media's focus on the barricades ? (because the tear gas was used once and so editors think all subsequent protests will need to be monitored closely!) Its focus on thugs? Oh wait, no, it's gonna be the sacking of the officers involved in the punch-ons, their CVs and wives and kids.