Very honored to be invited to audit the Children’s Council Meeting today. I must say that I am very impressed with my visit to the Children’s Council Meeting 2005. It again confirms my belief in that the future of HK is bright and that children growing up in this generation deserves our trust to build a better Hong Kong for in the future. Maintaining the voice of the Children is most important in light of this background, but equally important I believe is the development and training for the new generation in the participation of civil issues and civil societies. This will be critical for Hong Kong as it aspires to continue to remain and become a truly advanced and global city. And a leading city in the world for China.

Included below are some thoughts on the motions discussed in this year’s Children’s Council Meeting:

I Support Mandatory Parental Education

Mandatory Parental Education is a very good idea. This can be expected to become a focus of controversy at any debate, nevertheless, it is particularly interesting that it becomes somewhat of a contentious issue even at this Children’s Council debate. Before I jump into my thoughts, I really would like to express great admiration to the efforts and level of intelligence these children have at organizing and participating with high level of intellectual capability at a mock Legco session. Aside from enthusiastic cheers and moments of emotion, the entire session is very “professionally” run.

There is no excuse for parents to “not have time” to attend basic parental education programs. These programs can be conducted in traditional classroom environment, seminar type mode or even via the Internet or interactive multimedia interfaces, ensuring that parents can access these materials at their own time and pace. Recently I have been contemplating about Parent License as well and they are rather closely related. Perhaps once a parent obtain a license then the mandatory parental education can be relieved.

Hong Kong Should Have a Food Bank

I am rather surprised that HK doesn’t actually have a Food Bank. I think the Food Bank idea is very much worth further exploration because not only does it contribute directly to the alleviation of poverty causing nutritional deficiency, it also contributes to in fact the better allocation of resources in the society. That is, different from simply providing for monetary subsidies. For example, the “Second Harvest” program in Toronto I think is an initiative that could be a reference study.

Educational Textbooks Should All be Open Source

The discussion for textbook subsidy is interesting; however, addressing the root of the issue may be even more important. That would be the source of textbooks. Making textbooks open source will allow the government to address the root issue directly. With the development and popularization of WIKI as a technical platform for community shared development of content, especially reference type information (a very successful example would be Wikipedia.com), such as textbooks. The government can also act as a facilitator to encourage (or mandate) school teachers to contribute regularly to the textbook WIKI.

Labeling and Arbitrariness of Poverty Line is Always a Problem

While I do not yet have an alternative suggestion, I continue to worry about the setting of a Poverty Line. Any clear cut black and white poverty line that can be established would likely be highly arbitrarily based. Perhaps it may be beneficial to explore what a fuzzy poverty “line” might do to help resolve this issue? For example, conceptually “qualification” might not be based on a binary decision but a set of criteria, and that subsidies are not uniform but based on gradation. This will help avoid labeling because such “subsidies” may even be shared by “better-off” families. This may likely raise the question of abuse, but the exploration should be worthwhile.

Are All Children in Poverty in Poverty Families

Have there been any study to see whether it is possible that a child is in a state of poverty where the family itself may not be? If the definition of poverty is, as most agree, broader than monetary based, it may not be difficult to imagine that there are children who are in poverty for which their family may not. For example, it is not difficult to picture irresponsible parents that even though family-wise income may not be “categorized” as poor family, yet, they spend much of their money on their personal comfort, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, etc, while the needs of the child is neglected.

Psychological Development & Mental Fitness in Pre-School Education

Education in general is disproportionately biased towards retention and recitation of information and mechanical calculation and logical resolution of problems. I am alarmed, but perhaps not necessarily surprised, to hear that parents of kindergarten age kids in Hong Kong in fact believes that there are not enough tests and that materials are not “advanced” enough. Not only HK, but it is just perhaps more serious in HK, that the entire education atmosphere is unsupportive or even suppressive towards mental fitness training, especially in terms of independent, liberal, retrospective and creative thinking. This is an area of fundamental concern, I believe for HK’ssuccessful development and transition towards an advanced knowledge economy. That being said, the quality of teachers is clearly a problem that requires more consideration.

Furthermore, this echoes the importance of Mandatory Parental Education in that it shows clearly the lack of correct mindset by parents about pre-primary education. This unquestionably affects the child’s mental development and subsequent construction of their purpose in life.

Education without Tears vs. Education without Scars

What does “education without tears” mean? If it means that a student is never exposed to failure or stress, then I question whether it is the correct approach. If it means to ensure that a child is not exposed to physical or mental abuse that leaves behind psychological scars, affecting their confidence of liberal and independent expression, then I think it is a most important principle of education. Stress and failure both excites and can constructively contribute to the mature development of mental fitness and resilience. Abuse is clearly not.

As an interesting note, this motion (Motion 3 of this Children Council Meeting) did not obtain the supportive vote of more than 3/5 present, and immediately brought tears to the group calling for the motion. This is in my mind, perhaps a good example of Education With Tears being a good thing.

Children Are Not Mute

I completely agree with the statement that “Children Are Not Mute”. Having the Children’s Council as an ongoing platform to voice concerns, views and positions in the view of children is an important test of maturity for the society. Given the political structure in HK today, perhaps having Children Functional Constituency could be something that should be considered. This could be an FC both for Legco as well as for the Election committee. This would ensure that the voice of our future can be heard as we consider for our future.¬

Is Universal Suffrage a Goal or an Ideal?

I am not sure if I find it amusing, confusing or frustrating to hear at this Children’s Council a proposal to have a “gradual and orderly manner, and ultimately… by universal suffrage”. This makes me think whether honestly Hong Kong people, including children, believes that universal suffrage is a goal or an ideal? If universal suffrage is a goal, why should it be conditional and how could one assess the “maturity” of the voting populace.

Elitism vs. Diversity

I used to be an elitist. I probably in some sense still am. However, I have begun to appreciate true diversity in any type of group decision and discussion. Especially if the group is structured to make decisions based on votes rather than consensus only. Perhaps the book “Wisdom of Crowds” puts it best when it comes to the importance and difference diversity makes over “expert groups”.

Children’s Rights Forum Should not be Neglected nor be a Replacement

It is interesting to hear from the government representative that there are plans to establish a Children’s Rights Forum (CRF). Even more interesting to hear Martin Lee warn the council about falling into the government’s trap. I think we should move forward with both. The Children Parliament proposal motioned by the Children’s Council should not be replaced by the CRF, but that does not mean that the CRF might not be useful. Having the CRF in parallel with the Children Parliament may allow the Children’s voice be heard more broadly. What the key issue is, would be what Martin Lee describes as a trap is precisely government’s dominance of the CRF stuffing out the real voice of the children coming from the CP. The government representative mentions that the CRF will be a multi-stakeholder forum that includes balanced participation directly from the government, NGOs as well as Children representatives. The Children Council can probably best view the CRF as the ExCo and their Children Parliament as the Legco, with the Children representatives elected by the CP into the CRF.