Blowing Water | The dilemma for the ‘peaceful, rational, and non-violent’ Hongkongers
- The escalation of aggressive and sometimes deadly tactics in anti-government protests has been alienating many who wish to broker peace
- But if our goal is to save the city, surely we can find ways that are agreeable to majority of Hongkongers
Within Hong Kong, there has been a recent surge of groups who have been attempting to mediate – or better yet – find solutions to solve the current political crisis that has plummeted the city into perpetual violence for the last five months.
While most of us have chosen to safely remain neutral or on the fringe of the violence, many have been inadvertently drawn into the war being waged between the protesters and the government or police, whether we like it or not.
As a result, many Hongkongers have become accustomed to living with tear gas permeating the air and seeing petrol bombs being hurled in public places. As bouts of violence are many and frequent across the city, Hongkongers remain in a constant state of high alert to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
When I mentioned to a friend about joining some of the meetings organised by those groups, he raised a rather pertinent and interesting point: “There is a fine line between a genius and an idiot, and we are all capable of being both.”
The implication was that we have to come up with solutions that will appeal to both the “geniuses” and the “idiots”; which is up for debate and dependent on who you ask.
