2010 Shanghai World Expo is now being held in the city of Shanghai, from May 1 to October 31, 2010. The theme of this exposition is "Better City – Better Life" and signifies Shanghai's new status in the 21st century as the "next great world city". It is the most expensive Expo in the history of the world's fairs. It is also the largest World's Fair site ever at 5.28 square km. More than 190 countries and more than 50 international organizations have registered to participate in the Shanghai World Expo. China expects to receive almost 100 foreign leaders and millions of people from across the world to come and visit the World Expo. More than 70–100 million visitors are expected to visit the expo which is the largest in history.
I am very impressed with the idea and the scale of this largest ever World Expo and will definitely find time to visit to really experience myself.
While many countries promote the idea of " Better City- Better Life" through different theme pavilions in Shanghai, the most important part is how we can bring the ideas of bettering our city and life to be implemented right in our own city.
Let's look to our city, Hong Kong. What can we do to make sure we have better city for ourselves and next generation?
To understand how well a city is doing, one can instantly think of the living standard of the city. In other words, its abilities to survive. It's true that every city is trying its best to survive. Some cities can survive better than other cities. Some can barely survive and some survive abundantly.
While we can focus exclusively on the structural or mechanical aspect of it by bettering the money making machinery to raise our living standard, we're somehow aware of the fact that it does not guarantee that we can better our life in this manner alone. Stress, anxiety and depression are inevitable products for many people living in such a metropolitan city of Hong Kong. Raising children is getting more difficult to make them more able, happier and self-determined people; while the drug education and prevention programs are not enough to make a drug free Hong Kong that any threats of drug abuse can take away their life easily. Unfair access or disclosure of information by manipulation can create an unfair playing fields in certain sectors for the advantages of a few, like the marketing tactics employed by property developers, the complicated investment products packaged by investment bankers, etc. Probably you can name more of the areas that need our concern and effort to change the conditions for real quality of better living.
Yet, looking at a wide spectrum of life and people, with majority of faces in apathy, grief, pain, resentment, anger, boredom and relatively lesser faces of strong interest and enthusiasm in Hong Kong, one will not need to lose hope or confidence easily. Why is it so? When you look further, you will find behind all these unhappy masks of many people are basically good people! What one simply needs to do is to look, explore and apply better means and ways to enhance the quality of our city and our life.
One honestly cannot change much. Yet any change starts on an individual basic. When one person changes, he can influence another person in his vicinity, and then the effect can be multiplied.
Let's work for a better Hong Kong!
I am very impressed with the idea and the scale of this largest ever World Expo and will definitely find time to visit to really experience myself.
While many countries promote the idea of " Better City- Better Life" through different theme pavilions in Shanghai, the most important part is how we can bring the ideas of bettering our city and life to be implemented right in our own city.
Let's look to our city, Hong Kong. What can we do to make sure we have better city for ourselves and next generation?
To understand how well a city is doing, one can instantly think of the living standard of the city. In other words, its abilities to survive. It's true that every city is trying its best to survive. Some cities can survive better than other cities. Some can barely survive and some survive abundantly.
While we can focus exclusively on the structural or mechanical aspect of it by bettering the money making machinery to raise our living standard, we're somehow aware of the fact that it does not guarantee that we can better our life in this manner alone. Stress, anxiety and depression are inevitable products for many people living in such a metropolitan city of Hong Kong. Raising children is getting more difficult to make them more able, happier and self-determined people; while the drug education and prevention programs are not enough to make a drug free Hong Kong that any threats of drug abuse can take away their life easily. Unfair access or disclosure of information by manipulation can create an unfair playing fields in certain sectors for the advantages of a few, like the marketing tactics employed by property developers, the complicated investment products packaged by investment bankers, etc. Probably you can name more of the areas that need our concern and effort to change the conditions for real quality of better living.
Yet, looking at a wide spectrum of life and people, with majority of faces in apathy, grief, pain, resentment, anger, boredom and relatively lesser faces of strong interest and enthusiasm in Hong Kong, one will not need to lose hope or confidence easily. Why is it so? When you look further, you will find behind all these unhappy masks of many people are basically good people! What one simply needs to do is to look, explore and apply better means and ways to enhance the quality of our city and our life.
One honestly cannot change much. Yet any change starts on an individual basic. When one person changes, he can influence another person in his vicinity, and then the effect can be multiplied.
Let's work for a better Hong Kong!
