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their development and growth. Such caring concern and positive contributions as some of my colleagues were so ready to point out are in fact clearly reflected throughout our Council's activities, services and policies in the entire spectrum of our responsibilities be they in libraries or museum provisions, sports and recreation, entertainment or out-reaching programmes of our Performing Companies to the schools and to the districts. These activities are of such a volume and variety that it would take hours to enumerate. Suffice to say that the Urban Council would not only continue to pay great emphasis on the youth of Hong Kong but will further develop these strategies to the fullest potential. We are therefore ready and well-poised to support and help realise a forward-looking territory-wide youth policy to be developed by the future Central Commission. With these prospects in mind, I support the creation of a Commission on Youth and the development of a comprehensive and far-sighted policy on youth. Thank you.
MR. MAN SAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I support the recommendations contained in this report. But first of all, I have to state that our youth policy should be the same as our cultural policy, which has broad and narrow perspectives. I am in favour of having a broad cultural and youth policy as well. I do not like to have a narrowly defined cultural policy or youth policy whereby all other bodies organising youth activities would have to follow suit. There is no need to doubt the importance of young people because the future of Hong Kong is the same as theirs. If we want to have a prosperous and stable society, our young people's historical role is certainly very important. The youth policy as suggested should pay emphasis on diversification and should avoid unnecessary competition or even fighting with each other. In order to encourage better use of the existing resources it is necessary to set up a Commission on Youth at once with a Commissioner starting the work right away. Recently the Eastern District Board has conducted a survey to find out how young people spent their leisure time. It was found that over 90% of the youngsters never took part in the activities organized by the Government, Urban Council or District Boards. Most of them always spent their time on watching television, going to cinemas or going out with their families. Although various Government Departments and the Urban Council have organized a lot of cultural, recreational and outdoor activities for the young people, it appears that we cannot arouse the interest of young people to participate in these activities. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. I think what we can do to improve the situation is that we should have a closer link with the mass media to promote publicity so that more young people can be made aware of our activities. Through the electronic media we can bring the message home to everyone so that when young people watch television they would be able to get the message. To this end, I hope in future when the Commission on Youth is established, all new events including cable television will provide more messages for young people to be aware of the activities provided for them. To facilitate the Commission on Youth to achieve its aim and to enable the Commission to play a better role, it is important that adequate resources should be provided. With the above example, I am therefore in full support of the report. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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a better role, it is important that adequate resources should be provided. With the above example, I am therefore in full support of the report. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
MRS. CHOW CHEUNG WAI-PING (in Cantonese):----Mr. Chairman, I would like to deliver my speech in the way of telling a story to support the motion and to express my views on the report. The story is called "The Story of Grandpas'.
Once upon a time, there was a poor man with many children. For certain reasons, he gave a piece of land to a man and entrusted him with the care of one of his sons as the trustee was good at bringing up the children of others.
Time flies and the son grew up gradually. He was diligent, capable and clever at understanding others' feelings. Since the foster father taught the son in the right way and knew how to treat him strictly or leniently when circumstances so warranted, he was well respected by the son with awe. Later the foster son married several wives and children of different characters were born out of his marriages. Houses were erected on the piece of land by stages. The heights of the houses were increased and the houses extended as the need arose.
The wives tried their best to teach their children and told them to study well for making money in future by working, saying that studying well would bring a large fortune. They loved their children very much and provided adequate food, clothing and shelter for their children generally. However, nothing was mentioned of their Grandpa so far. The children did not quite understand the rules and teaching of the family but only knew, at the most, how many houses and servants the family had. As the children gradually grew up, they became eager to know more and asked more questions. Nevertheless, their parents only kept on saying, 'You should just study well and need not interfere with other business.'
As time went by, some children who were obedient and well-behaved assumed their responsibilities by taking part in supporting the family. However, some children just idled about. They even made trouble sometimes and always asked the family for money. In order to avoid disputes, the wives always acceded to the children's requests for money. As a result, a lot of money was wasted.
Time and tide wait for no man and the problems brought about by the former generation had to be settled. One day, the natural father demanded a reunion of the whole family and the foster father was also willing to return the right of managing the family to the natural father. The foster father said to his foster son, 'You have to dissuade your wives from wasting money any more and tell them to teach their children to be more concerned about our family affairs and to behave well so that I would not be regarded by your natural father as incapable.' Being a wise man, the foster son found himself in the following difficulty. He fully understood that if his children learnt too much about the history of the family, the image of the foster father would be impaired. Though
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their development and gowth. Such caring concern and positive contributions as some of my colleagues were so ready to point out are in fact clearly reflected throughtout our Council's activities, services and policies in the entire spectrum of our responsibilities be they in libraries or museum provisions, sports and recreation, entertainment or out-reaching programmes of our
Performing Companies to the schools and to the districts. These activities are of such a volume and variety that it would take hours to enumerate. Suffice to say that the Urban Council would not only continue to pay great emphasis on the youth of Hong Kong but will further develop these strategies to the fullest potental. We are therefore ready and well-poised to support and help realise a forward looking territory wide youth policy to be developed by the future Central Commission. With these prospects in mind, I support the creation of a Com- mission on Youth and the development of a comprehensive and far-sighted policy on youth. Thank you.
MR. MAN SAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I support the recom- mendations contained in this report. But first of all, I have to state that our youth policy should be the same as our cultural policy, which has broad and narrow perspectives. I am in favour of having a broad cultural and youth policy as well. I do not like to have a narrowly defined cultural policy or youth policy whereby all other bodies organising youth activities would have to follow suit. There is no need to doubt the importance of young people because the future of Hong Kong is the same as theirs. If we want to have a prosperous and stable society, our young people's historial role is certainly very important. The youth policy as suggested should pay emphasis on diversification and should avoid unnecessary competition or even fighting with each other. In order to encourage better use of the existing resources it is necessary to set up a Commission on Youth at once with a Commissioner starting the work right away. Recently the Eastern District Board has conducted a survey to find out how young people spent their leisure item. It was found that over 90% of the youngsters never took part in the activities organized by the Government, Urban Council or District Boards. Most of them always spent their time on watching television, going to cinemas or going out with their families. Although various Government Departments and the Urban Council have organized a lot of cultural, recrea- tional and outdoor activities for the young people, it appears that we cannot arouse the interest of young people to participate in these activities. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. I think what we can do to improve the situation is that we should have a closer link with the mass media to promote publicity so that more young people can be made aware of our activities. Through the electronic media we can bring the message home to everyone so that when young people watch television they would be able to get the message. To this end, I hope in future when the Commission on Youth is established, all new events including cable television will provide more messages for young people to be aware of the activities provided for them. To facilitate the Commission on Youth to achieve its aim and to enable the Commission to play
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a better role, it is important that adequate resources should be provided. With the above example, I am therefore in full support of the report. Thank you
Mr. Chairman.
MRS. CHOW CHEUNG WAI-PING (in Cantonese):----Mr. Chairman, I would like to deliver my speech in the way of telling a story to support the motion and to express my views on the report. The story is called "The Story of Grandpas'.
Once upon a time, there was a poor man with many children. For certain reasons, he gave a piece of land to a man and entrusted him with the care of one of his sons as the trustee was good at bringing up the children of others.
Time flies and the son grew up gradually. He was diligent, capable and clever at understanding others' feelings. Since the foster father taught the son in the right way and knew how to treat him strictly or leniently when circumstances so warranted, he was well respected by the son with awe. Later the foster son married several wives and children of different characters were born out of his marriages. Houses were erected on the piece of land by stages. The heights of the houses were increased and the houses extended as the need arised.
The wives tried their best to teach their children and told them to study well for making money in future by working, saying that studying well would bring a large fortune. They loved their children very much and provided adequate food, clothing and shelter for their children generally. However, nothing was men- tioned of their Grandpa so far. The children did not quite understand the rules and teaching of the family but only knew, at the most, how many houses and servants the family had. As the children gradually grew up, they became eager to know more and asked more questions. Nevertheless, their parents only kept on saying, 'You should just study well and need not interfere with other business.'
As time went by, some children who were obedient and well-behaved assumed their responsibilities by taking part in supporting the family. However, some children just idled about. They even made trouble sometimes and always asked the family for money. In order to avoid disputes, the wives always acceded to the children's requests for money. As a result, a lot of money was wasted.
Time and tide wait for no man and the problems brought about by the former generation had to be settled. One day, the natural father demanded a reunion of the whole family and the foster father was also willing to return the right of managing the family to the natural father. The foster father said to his foster son, 'You have to dissuade your wives from wasting money any more and tell them to teach their children to be more concerned about our family affairs and to behave well so that I would not be regarded by your natural father as incapable.' Being a wise man, the foster son found himself in the following difficulty. He fully understood that if his children learnt too much about the history of the family, the image of the foster father would be impaired. Though
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