AN INCREASING NUMBER of people are speaking out to tell the truth about Hong Kong and Mainland China, top Hong Kong business leader Herman Hu Shao-ming said.
“Today, many voices are trying to tell a broader, deeper, fairer story of what is happening our city and our country,” he told a conference. “Many of us in this room are working actively to advance that process.”
But Dr Hu, chairman of Friday Culture, warned that “we all need to do more”. There were a great many worrying issues to deal with, and humanity needed to move actively towards peace and positivity.
“As we all know, there is war in Europe. And, unfortunately, there are people who would like to see conflict in East Asia too,” Dr Hu said. “We should be building roads and bridges and contributing to making it a more harmonious world for everyone, instead of creating conflicts and problems all around.”
Dr Hu was speaking at Towards a Fairer, Safer World, a conference co-organized by Friday Culture and the Hong Kong Coalition.
In addition to geopolitical difficulties, there were other important issues to deal with, ranging from cybercrime to the effects of social media on people’s well-being — and of course huge environmental challenges.
SOLVING PROBLEMS
But Dr Hu said he remained upbeat. “This all sounds rather grim. But if there’s one thing you can say about humanity, it’s this: when we put our heads together, we are good at solving problems—and sometimes we take offbeat methods to deal with challenges.”
Dr Hu referred to the new media company Friday Culture, which creates reports, videos, a TV series called Friday Beyond Spotlights, and a lot of content for social media.
“When Friday Culture was launched last year, some readers described it as a new category of media: they called it Zen journalism. There’s some truth to that. Friday staff produce journalistic reports and don’t avoid difficult subjects. But our attitude is different. We’re detached, thoughtful and good-natured.”
He said that it was not enough to just moan about things—you had to do something to make the world a better place. “At the moment, it’s fair to say that the world does not seem to be a fair or safe place,” he admitted. Yet, by taking actions, which included the organizing of a conference such as this, we were getting people to put their heads together to get something done.
He quoted the author Robert Fulgham: “Peace is not something you wish for. It is something you make, something you are, something you do, and something you give away.”
For a video of Dr Herman Hu’s welcome remarks, click here.
For a news report on CE John Lee’s speech, click here.
For a video of the full speech by CE John Lee, click here.
For Nury Vittachi’s brief video summary made immediately after the event, click here.
For a statement of record listing all participants and speakers, click here.
Image at the top by fridayeveryday