Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the US, has gone down in popular mythology for refusing to shoot an ageing bear tied to a tree by his eager-to-please subordinates for the sake of a kill after a failed hunting trip. I asked a nine-year-old girl what she thought the moral of this story was. Apart from cruelty to animals, she said without hesitation that Roosevelt had not earned the right to kill the bear, because shooting an animal in captivity was not really what she would call a fair fight.
Over here in Hong Kong, amid all the fanfare leading up to the chief executive election, we seem to have overlooked the tragic fact that Donald Tsang Yam-kuen might well earn the respect of the people and the right to be chief executive if he was allowed to slug it out with his challenger in a fair fight. Unfortunately, he never will earn that right- because the election is rigged.
With the backing of Beijing, Mr Tsang is inadvertently every thinking man's nightmare. I mean, why would anyone with any self-respect enter a fixed match with the results clearly in their favour? Even a child realises that success has to be earned. That is why cold beer tastes better after a hard day's work.
But then, we Chinese are a different breed. We adulate power and authority. The Americans can be chastised for their arrogance and even ignorance, but you cannot fault them for a lack of moral courage. Their heroes are always anti-establishment, always the underdog.
Poor Mr Tsang has to shoot the bear with the crowd cheering on, because he is Beijing's choice and we are the obedient crowd.
TIMOTHY WONG, Happy Valley
Missile right on target