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experience in the performance of their civic duties, the process of organization and procedures, the running of group activities and the democratic system of election. It is through the extra-curricula activities that the young minds may be stimulated and challenged to think for themselves and to play an active part in the schools and later in society. Each school is a society in miniature, and unless each one is encouraged to take an active interest in the school in particular and the society as a whole and to participate in some activities, one feels no sense of belonging and no sense of responsibility.
In recent months, I have had many occasions to talk to large numbers of young people in secondary schools, in post-secondary colleges, in the 2 universities and school drop-outs in Hong Kong as well as Hong Kong students in America. In answer to a question put to them as to what they would like to see changed in Hong Kong, invariably the answers I got were (1) what do you do in the Councils and (2) what can the society do for us.
The first question would not have been necessary if citizenship training were part of our school curriculum and school system and so the second question should have been: "what can we do for the society".
I think all of us grownups have a duty to fill in this vacuum of the minds. We should refrain from attacking our young minds with negative projection of the image of Hong Kong, but we should try to create a positive thinking in them. Let us all chip in, the press, the Government, the schools, members of this Council, our civic leaders and the parents to tell and show our young people what we have in Hong Kong, what achievements there are, what improvements we need, what changes there should be what we have done and what everyone else can do. Let us encourage them to see, to know, to talk, to discuss, to ask and to do, in order that they in turn may help to make Hong Kong a still better place for them to live. (Applause).
MR. SOLOMON RAFEEK: -Mr. Chairman, I wish to concentrate this year on the subject of youth-on some of its ramifications. Of all the problems with which we are confronted, I think Sir you will agree that the problem of youth is the one which affords the least optimism. We are to-day magnificently equipped to deal with trouble makers, and it is even possible to be complacent about industrial growth, which seems to generate its own momentum-for every time that we open the papers it is to read that Sir John Cowperthwaite has announced another budget surplus, or Mr. SORBY another record in our export drive. But over youth, there is either indecision in high places, or unwillingness to attack the main issues out of a fear, perhaps, that the cure might prove to be more difficult than the disease,
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
303
We constantly hear talk about the future, about the prospects facing the next generation in relation to education and employment, about their chances of earning a living in Hong Kong which, however elastic its population may be, is not elastic when it comes to territorial expansion. I appreciate that the problem, when viewed in this light, is enough to take the breath away. We have here a situation similar to that expounded by pessimistic mathematicians who trouble at the thought of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. But concentration upon this worry alone disregards the wisdom of not being bogged down by premonitions about a bridge until the moment arrives to cross it. For the future emerges out of the present, and the future is never here, while the present is. I plead that we have been so concerned about our youth to-morrow that we have tended to forget our youth to-day.
What is happening is that we, in our efforts to induce a sense of awareness in the minds of the young, are clutching at straws to achieve a doubtful kind of popularity. We dispense pop-ins, variety shows and free concerts, and because these are invariably correct and proper, we have removed one criticism, that of indifference.
I do not oppose pop-ins, for I am a father of teenagers, and I am not yet so burdened with years that I cannot see to what extent they appeal to the young. But precisely because I am a father of teenagers I am shocked that the procession of pop-ins, intended to give the young body one form of legitimate expression, is not matched by a corresponding eagerness to restrain the other forms of expression that are illegitimate. The Government concedes what is right, but does not suppress what is wrong, and the gift of honest dances takes on the aspect, in the eyes of a father like myself, of a device rather like an antidote to poison, without any removal of the poison.
Sir, there are advertisements in certain mosquito newspapers which openly invite the young to participate in immorality. The invitation is so thinly disguised that even a moron can scarcely escape its import. There are barber shops where hair is not cut, and bath houses where the body is not bathed and there are coffee bars where coffee is served to a customer neither sitting down nor standing up. There are massage establishments where the intention is not to provide a massage, and there are dancing schools where the "watusi" or the "soul", is not taught. All of us know what sort of services are actually provided. The invitation is addressed to the young, for the mature are unlikely to want their hair cut by someone who has never held a pair of scissors.
We have boarding houses which my senior colleague Mrs. Ellen Li has rightly described as fronts for prostitution. If a boarding house is a brothel, then it should be closed. No boarding houses should be abused in the way they are in Hong Kong to-day, with their direct temptation to youth. We have only to read the newspapers to see the horrible situation which now exists.
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Page 196
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Page 195 of 243
302
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
experience in the performance of their civic duties, the process of organization and procedures, the running of group activities and the democratic system of election. It is through the extra-curricula activities that the young minds may be stimulated and challenged to think for themselves and to play an active part in the schools and later in society. Each school is a society in miniature, and unless each one is encouraged to take an active interest in the school in particular and the society as a whole and to participate in some activities, one feels no sense of belonging and no sense of responsibility.
In recent months, I have had many occasions to talk to large numbers of young people in secondary schools, in post-secondary col- leges, in the 2 universities and school drop-outs in Hong Kong as well as Hong Kong students in America. In answer to a question put to them as to what they would like to see changed in Hong Kong, invari- ably the answers I got were (1) what do you do in the Councils and (2) what can the society do for us.
The first question would not have been necessary if citizenship training were part of our school curriculum and school system and so the second question should have been: "what can we do for the society".
I think all of us grownups have a duty to fill in this vacuum of the minds. We should refrain from attacking our young minds with negative projection of the image of Hong Kong, but we should try to create a positive thinking in them. Let us all chip in, the press, the Government, the schools, members of this Council, our civic leaders and the parents to tell and show our young people what we have in Hong Kong, what achievements there are, what improvements we need, what changes there should be what we have done and what everyone else can do. Let us encourage them to see, to know, to talk, to discuss, to ask and to do, in order that they in turn may help to make Hong Kong a still better place for them to live. (Applause).
MR. SOLOMON RAFEEK: -Mr. Chairman, I wish to concentrate this year on the subject of youth-on some of its ramifications. Of all the problems with which we are confronted, I think Sir you will agree that the problem of youth is the one which affords the least optimism. We are to-day magnificently equipped to deal with trouble makers, and it is even possible to be complacent about industrial growth, which seems to generate its own momentum-for every time that we open the papers it is to read that Sir John CowPERTHWAITE has announced another budget surplus, or Mr. SORBY another record in our export drive. But over youth, there is either indecision in high places, or unwillingness to attack the main issues out of a fear, perhaps, that the cure might prove to be more difficult than the disease,
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
303
We constantly hear talk about the future, about the prospects facing the next generation in relation to education and employment, about their chances of earning a living in Hong Kong which, however elastic its population may be, is not elastic when it comes to territorial expansion. I appreciate that the problem, when viewed in this light, is enough to take the breath away. We have here a situation similar to that expound- ed by pessimistic mathematicians who trouble at the thought of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. But concentration upon this worry alone disregards the wisdom of not being bogged down by premonitions about a bridge until the moment arrives to cross it. For the future emerges out of the present, and the future is never here, while the present is. I plead that we have been so concerned about our youth to-morrow that we have tended to forget our youth to-day.
What is happening is that we, in our efforts to induce a sense of awareness in the minds of the young, are clutching at straws to achieve a doubtful kind of popularity. We dispense pop-ins, variety shows and free concerts, and because these are invariably correct and proper, we have removed one criticism, that of indifference.
I do not oppose pop-ins, for I am a father of teenagers, and I am not yet so burdened with years that I cannot see to what extent they appeal to the young. But precisely because I am a father of teenagers I am shocked that the procession of pop-ins, intended to give the young body one form of legitimate expression, is not matched by a corresponding eagerness to restrain the other forms of expression that are illegitimate. The Govern- ment concedes what is right, but does not suppress what is wrong, and the gift of honest dances takes on the aspect, in the eyes of a father like myself, of a device rather like an antidote to poison, without any removal of the poison.
Sir, there are advertisements in certain mosquito newspapers which openly invite the young to participate in immorality. The invitation is so thinly disguised that even a moron can scarcely escape its import. There are barber shops where hair is not cut, and bath houses where the body is not bathed and there are coffee bars where coffee is served to a customer neither sitting down nor standing up. There are massage establishments where the intention is not to provide a massage, and there are dancing schools where the "watusi" or the "soul", is not taught. All of us know what sort of services are actually provided. The invitation is addressed to the young, for the mature are unlikely to want their hair cut by someone who has never held a pair of scissors.
We have boarding houses which my senior colleague Mrs. Ellen LI has rightly described as fronts for prostitution. If a boarding house is a brothel, then it should be closed. No boarding houses should be abused in the way they are in Hong Kong to-day, with their direct temptation to youth. We have only to read the newspapers to see the horrible situation which now exists.
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