you may not know this about me, but i'm quite the natural strategist.

i automatically devise a detailed plan the moment i step inside a buffet place. without conscious effort, my eyes scan across the food like i'm in ironman's suit and immediately calculate both its cost and filling capability in my stomach. the more inversely proportionate the item is, the more i'll eat it and the higher priority it will receive in my plan order.

besides food, i'm also excellent at planning my attack against enemy. when a mosquito lands on my computer screen and catches me in my murderous mood, it never escapes me. i always plan ahead when i kill mosquitoes. i, again without conscious effort, devise a little distraction plan: i move around my mouse cursor to create a distraction for the mosquito. experienced mosquitoes are not dumb folks. they know about computers and how the mouse cursor underneath their tiny little feet can't hurt them. but, what they don't know is that, as they're being distracted, i will have them wrapped and crushed with my kleenex.

sorry mosquito, but they say you may or may not have dengue fever.

life is uneventful without the travels.

i'm exhausted from being overworked, stressed and irritated.

i need something that heals the soul.

suggestions?

"so why did they come back?"

when i meet with fellow returnees (people who were born and raised here but lived abroad for some years before returning again), the conversations often revolve around how much they hate hong kong. the superficial and rude people, the materialism, and the crowds are the typical pet peeves.

much of it is true. but... maybe i'm alone in this... but i don't remember living abroad was that much better. i mean it was great, but was it better?

at least i've never had my apartment broken into in hong kong. neither have i been robbed, mugged nor discriminated against based on my race. i even get offered fun gigs like travel shows, book deals and flying scholarships that are unlikely to be offered to me in north america. sure, the people are still superficial. there are some who are still rude. materialism still reigns supreme as though we live in a giant shopping mall. but there are simply more opportunities here, and we're more respected here.

i have a difficult time with returnees who seem to harbor hatred for hong kong people as if we were a strange breed. the exodus in the 80s and 90s resulted in a fairly large percentage of people having lived abroad. to say that people here are superficial and materialistic as if we are excluded from the population is ridiculous. we are the population. there is a good chance that the people who pushed you on the streets have lived abroad. there is even a better chance that the superficial and materialistic people you meet are the returnees.

so why the superiority complex? and why did they come back?

then suddenly, i remember. i was still living in new york, it was the same people who complained about new york and about how much they hate america. their complaints were inconvenience, the lack of good food and quality goods and at times the discrimination. then i remember, when i came back for holidays, it was the same people who talked about how much they enjoyed christmas time in hong kong.

maybe the problem isn't hong kong. maybe the problem is just timing.

we're not the high school or college kids anymore. we have responsibilities now in hong kong. even if we were living elsewhere, we would still be burdened with these responsibilities. so instead of hating hong kong, maybe we should hate what the real problem is, which is the human life's natural process.

well, the human life's unnatural process as a result of urbanization. but it is all we've got. so suck it up.