Q What can be done to make Hong Kong a more caring society?
It is high time more thought was given to the dormitories and ghettos designed by heartless bureaucrats and developers. Such places are prone to destroying individuals, families and living communities.
Tin Shui Wai is one bad example. New towns do not have to be like that. I have seen many mistakes in Europe, so I appreciate that Sha Tin shows how progress is possible.
Tin Shui Wai, however, would seem to be a retraction of any thought that architecture could inspire compassion. It is not just the concrete. If bright paint cannot breathe life into a cement block, social responsibility and care can.
But these ideas are in the wrong hands if they are only reaching out to one side. If the person in charge of community education at Harmony House plans to teach people in the ancillary medical care area only 'to be alert when seeing female clients with bruises ... as they might have been abused at home', it shows that Kitty Lai Man-che, co-ordinator of Harmony House, is very unsuitable for her position.
The one-sided 'caregiver' should read books by Erin Prizzey, 'mother of the women's refuge movement'. Ms Lai will see that women can be just as violent as men, especially when the money stops flowing and unemployment is a justified reason for divorce.