... and I can see the pollution getting worse ...
The latest edition of Jimmy Lai's Next Magazine has a feature that is very Hong Kong. Two organisations that preach harmony and cooperation, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and the Sik Sik Yuen, self-appointed guardians of Daoism, have been going at it hammer and tongs over a donation box.
The trouble has been brewing for more than half a century, since entrance fees for admission toWong Tai Sin temple were introduced, with Tung Wah the lucky recipients. Matters came to a head last year when the hospital group was told by the Daoists (guiding principle wu wei, or action through inaction), who've run the show at the lucrative Wong Tai Sin site for some years, to get rid of its donation boxes.
After years of negotiations in smoke-filled rooms (or even outdoors at Wong Tai Sin – you get the same effect), involving various government departments, the heavyweight harmony-mongers have decided not only to remove the begging bowls from the "Preaching Benevolence Pavilion", but to go the extra mile and rename the "Preaching Benevolence Pavilion" the "Hall for Worshipping the Daoist Guardians".
And there's more. In true Cultural Revolution style, a plaque will be put up to provide for posterity at excruciating length the official, mandated version of these sordid events.
The latest edition of Jimmy Lai's Next Magazine has a feature that is very Hong Kong. Two organisations that preach harmony and cooperation, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and the Sik Sik Yuen, self-appointed guardians of Daoism, have been going at it hammer and tongs over a donation box.
The trouble has been brewing for more than half a century, since entrance fees for admission to
After years of negotiations in smoke-filled rooms (or even outdoors at Wong Tai Sin – you get the same effect), involving various government departments, the heavyweight harmony-mongers have decided not only to remove the begging bowls from the "Preaching Benevolence Pavilion", but to go the extra mile and rename the "Preaching Benevolence Pavilion" the "Hall for Worshipping the Daoist Guardians".
And there's more. In true Cultural Revolution style, a plaque will be put up to provide for posterity at excruciating length the official, mandated version of these sordid events.
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