I WAS delighted to read Teresa Norton's end-of-year piece ('Don't spill that cup of kindness', South China Morning Post, December 31) on her life in 1994.
It had lots of qualities, but, most of all, I was impressed by how well Teresa set out her growing awareness that Hong Kong had become her home. It is a sentiment that lots of 'expatriates' will no doubt share. But not Joan Yates, apparently. In an interview with Sue Green on the same page as Teresa's column, the out-going Australian Association secretary referred to Hong Kong as merely her 'longest address' - meaning, if I have understood her correctly, that Australia has always been 'home', and that Hong Kong was somewhere she has lived in the meantime. And this from a woman who has been here for no less than 23 years.
I find this kind of attitude completely baffling. How can anyone spend nearly a quarter of a century in what is arguably now the world's greatest city and still not see it as his or her home? What was Hong Kong for Mrs Yates during all this time? Somewhere where she got her laundry done? For all Mrs Yates' obvious work here in the Australian community, I fear it is people like her who lend credence to the impression that all non-Chinese are here simply for the short term - that they don't even care about next year, never mind 1997 and beyond.
At the risk of sounding like Post columnist Kevin Sinclair, with his mantra of 'if you don't like it here, go back to Hanoi/Moscow/Manila', I suspect Hong Kong would be better prepared for the obvious challenges of the future without those who cannot bring themselves to call the territory their home.
PETER CORDINGLEY Happy Valley
