Can we trust our own observation and evaluation?

The world seems to grow into complexity as we grow up. Things in the environment no longer appear to be as simple as black and white. We start to learn more but get more complicated or even confused.

Information age indeed gives us instant access of information at our fingertips ( via our keyboard). It is getting harder to digest and differentiate which information is more valuable or close to the actual scene or reality.

We also get used to evaluate any subject by using positive and negative viewpoints. So whenever we study any subject, we use internet search and most of the time we get controversial information on some subjects especially in social forums. We easily heard both positive and negative voice from different opinions but our key question is: “Which is truer or more right than others?” We get “ridges” rather than flow of logic of information that can be useful or valuable to us; especially people tend to retain negative ideas or thoughts more than positive ideas or thoughts.

So it is important to be “three feet behind your head” to have an exterior viewpoint to really look, observe, and if possible it is better to go directly to the source of the information to find it out yourself rather than seeking any second opinions, and you know that sometimes what many people see and agree can still be far off from the real picture. As you are the only person who is responsible for all the observation in this physical universe, it is time not to simply bring the observation and conclusion from others into your universe without you first to “look”.

Unless one can establish his own ability of observation, evaluation and responsibility for one’s own conclusion, one can be true to what one observes without being the effect of any positive or negative voice on the subject. You probably will agree that such attributes are very much needed especially for any executive in any government and business organization; as any effective policies, decisions and implementions are based on true observation and evaluation.

I hope you enjoy your own universe of observation and evaluation which can bring more happiness, sanity and rationality to your life and people around you.

Are you happily living in Hong Kong?

According to the recent survey report released by the New Economics Foundation of London, I was quite surprised to see the happiness index as ranked the “84th” for the Hong Kong People, but the “6th” for the people living in Colombia. Colombia had been infamous for its high crime rate and street drugs production in the past but probably after the recent change in the mainstream to ask for solution of unhappiness, for example, the policemen started to distribute the booklet of the way to happiness to the people, and life is not the same in Colombia.

Regardless how valid of its survey result depending on its survey poll and identification of happiness factors for its index, one need not to doubt further but simply looking ourselves and people around us to find the actual reality of our happiness. How happy are we as Hong Kong people? How is the happiness index ranked the “84th” for Hong Kong People related to you as an executive, or a husband or wife, or as a parent?

Though we have witnessed an increasing rate of illegal drugs taking and selling sex to earn money among the high school students in Hong Kong recently, we have no real solution to help them to distinguish right from wrong, and the means and ways to happiness.

Look at the current curriculum of our school system, there’s basically no school time allocated for some basic “ drugs education”, “moral education” or “how to improve your life or condition” courses, etc. In other words, there is no life education but only on academic subjects with the sole study purpose in getting good examination grades results.

Whether one can happily live one’s life very much depends on his ability to survive, ability to reason, ability to arrange life and the environment, ability to see the true factors in a situation and resolve problems of living, ability to accept and execute responsibility, so that life can be enjoyed towards the accomplishment of the goals and purposes of one’s life.

But if you look at our current school system, do we offer education towards the direction in increasing the abilities of survival of our students? If not, how can we expect them to know how to say “ no” to drugs, and “no” to any acts that are harmful to themselves and others. Instead, they use destructive methods with the hope that they could make them happier, but in fact leading them with more problems and unhappiness.

How can we raise our happiness index for Hong Kong people? It’s time for us to rehabilitate our abilities as well as the abilities of others including our next generation to make our life happier.