Just Saying | If there's one thing Hong Kong kids need, it's toughening up, not more pampering
Yonden Lhatoo says if a day spent stranded in a well-equipped airport can be seen as a hardship, then our children surely need toughening up
When they returned home on Monday, the local media highlighted their accounts of the “ordeal” they went through, including how they were forced to sleep rough at the airport, sharing a few blankets and using torn-up pieces of cardboard to cover themselves.
Oh, boohoo. An entire day marooned inside an air-conditioned building with carpeted floors, restaurants, rest rooms and television screens? How did they ever manage? Someone bring out the world’s smallest violin so we can play them a sad, sympathetic tune.
Yes, they’re children but they’re young boys full of beans. Missing a couple of hot meals and a night on a comfortable bed can hardly be considered traumatic.
People are quick to criticise anyone for just about anything on social media, but this time I have to agree with some of the mocking comments on the internet, ranging from sarcastic reminders of the scouts’ famous motto (“Be Prepared”) to laments about the disappearance of “real men” in Hong Kong.
We had a similar situation at the end of December 2010 when a snowstorm stranded travellers, many of them Hong Kong students in the UK, at London’s Heathrow airport for several days. They were trying to get home for the holidays and when they finally made it to Hong Kong, there were tearful reunions with parents and relatives at the airport reminiscent of scenes from war films. Many had “horror” stories about how tough it had been at Heathrow with nobody to look after them.