staying awake and alert
It's been 1 year and 2 days since I last wrote a blog post. This last year has been spent in confused contemplation over my own life as well as the world at large. We live in chaotic times and lead chaotic, ever-evolving lives. I'm learning to keep up with the happenings.
Right now the news I'm stuck on is the protests happening in Hong Kong. It's carried over from the Umbrella movement back in 2014, but this time more dark, bitter, with more cynical and sinister undertones. At the crux of it: an extradition bill that if passed, would make it possible for Hong Kong to extradite fugitives trying to escape prosecution, making arrangements with both Taiwan and Mainland China. The concern of the people is of overreach by the Chinese government, who continues to try to exert more and more power and try to limit the democratic processes that Hong Kong people want to defend and protect. As a Hong Kong-American, with my heart and metaphoric feet planted firmly on both soils, and with the legacies of both places deep in my bones, I understand this so well.
This is not a post on the HK protests although I feel I can talk for a long time about concerns I have. Rather I want write a post about staying awake to these things.
It felt like I went to sleep in October and wanted to just stay barely conscious. There's too much to care about, too much injustice, bloodshed, inequality. It's easier to turn off the news for a while and give my head and my heart a rest. But this is dangerous territory. It leads to complacency and ignorance, to lack of empathy and insidious apathy.
So I started reading the news again. There was a massacre in Sudan recently in June. Children are being separated from their families at our US borders even though they have parents and/or relatives who can care for them; being asked to sleep on the floor, deal with lice on their own. People of color in America were once again asked to "go back to your country" by the president.
I quoted Bob Dylan in last post, and in honor of this posting anniversary, let me quote him again:
"How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?"
And...because I'm extra I'll also quote RM and Wale...
"oh tell me that dark could never win the light/ oh, tell me that wrong could never win the right...
prayin' for better place for you and I/ I see some grass growin' in winter's eyes/I think I think too much now...I believe that real changes lies in the mirror"
If you want more info on HK:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-braces-for-mass-protests-on-anniversary-of-return-to-chinese-rule-11561946128?fbclid=IwAR3c534P5n5HaGfK-yQkVL75bC0ExM5uZjXhG_FjpDSONwMOgQUS1Rea2PM
If you want to listen to RM and Wale talk about change...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rAyprZdo7o
Right now the news I'm stuck on is the protests happening in Hong Kong. It's carried over from the Umbrella movement back in 2014, but this time more dark, bitter, with more cynical and sinister undertones. At the crux of it: an extradition bill that if passed, would make it possible for Hong Kong to extradite fugitives trying to escape prosecution, making arrangements with both Taiwan and Mainland China. The concern of the people is of overreach by the Chinese government, who continues to try to exert more and more power and try to limit the democratic processes that Hong Kong people want to defend and protect. As a Hong Kong-American, with my heart and metaphoric feet planted firmly on both soils, and with the legacies of both places deep in my bones, I understand this so well.
This is not a post on the HK protests although I feel I can talk for a long time about concerns I have. Rather I want write a post about staying awake to these things.
It felt like I went to sleep in October and wanted to just stay barely conscious. There's too much to care about, too much injustice, bloodshed, inequality. It's easier to turn off the news for a while and give my head and my heart a rest. But this is dangerous territory. It leads to complacency and ignorance, to lack of empathy and insidious apathy.
So I started reading the news again. There was a massacre in Sudan recently in June. Children are being separated from their families at our US borders even though they have parents and/or relatives who can care for them; being asked to sleep on the floor, deal with lice on their own. People of color in America were once again asked to "go back to your country" by the president.
I quoted Bob Dylan in last post, and in honor of this posting anniversary, let me quote him again:
"How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?"
And...because I'm extra I'll also quote RM and Wale...
"oh tell me that dark could never win the light/ oh, tell me that wrong could never win the right...
prayin' for better place for you and I/ I see some grass growin' in winter's eyes/I think I think too much now...I believe that real changes lies in the mirror"
If you want more info on HK:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-braces-for-mass-protests-on-anniversary-of-return-to-chinese-rule-11561946128?fbclid=IwAR3c534P5n5HaGfK-yQkVL75bC0ExM5uZjXhG_FjpDSONwMOgQUS1Rea2PM
If you want to listen to RM and Wale talk about change...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rAyprZdo7o
Comments
Post a Comment