Hung out with the lady at the “si dor” while trying to decide between buying cokes, cigs, ice cream or Mar Jei (sweet cakey thing) and she went on about the “state of Hong Kong” as we flipped through the paper.
-Three Suicides yesterday, all by jumping out of buildings. The youngest, only 23. His reason? Couldn’t cope with the pressure of college anymore. (Luckily, Dong Fong (East Side) photographers didn’t get to the scenes on time, so we don’t have to see the grisly body in a pool of blood photo on the front page.)
-Another speed racing related death. This time the girlfriend in the front seat in Tai Po. (We got to see the smashed up Toyota, crushed in the middle, and the lamp post it collided with.)
-A woman owing HK$ 200, 000 gambling debt to the lone sharks planed to murder her sleeping husband with a chopper, then throwing her three kids (all under eight) off a building and following them. The little girl had enough smarts to call the police and save her father, herself and her siblings. (With graphic drawings, in the inset, of “how it happened” and the photos of the kids in pajamas, escorted by the police. They blanked their faces out. But still…)
The state of Hong Kong today, sigh.
I can’t decide if I should pick up the paper more often or keep sticking my head in the sand. I think the latter is a better choice.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 