Almost Everybody Is Hurting, John Lee.

If it wasn’t the muddling read that it is, there was hope for the creative community in Hong Kong when the headline in today’s South China Morning Post screamed out “LEE PROMISES GLOBAL TALENT DRIVE”.

The sub-head was, “Chief Executive says he will detail innovation plans in maiden policy address amid brain drain fears”.

For a nanu second, thoughts of former Hong Kong government mouthpiece in the form of the ubiquitous and, say some, usefully useless Duncan Pescod with his big and bold announcement for a “global search” for someone to head up CreateHK crossed my mind.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3103745/outgoing-chief-west-kowloon-cultural-district This “global search” ended up with the unknown and dithering Jerry Liu. How? Why?

And what exactly has CreateHK ever done for the Hong Kong creative community?

Below today’s headline in the SCMP with the realisation that Hong Kong is suffering from creative menopause and constipation, was this: “Emigration wave sees 113,200 leave the city in 12 months”, an increase of 1.3 departures compared to the year before.

Relatively new Chief Executive John Lee has inherited a dog’s breakfast though some argue that having worked under the hapless housewife, who has now conveniently disappeared, he was part of the problem.

Personally, I don’t subscribe to this thinking.

With his background in Security, I would assume that John Lee’s priority is the safety of Hong Kong, still one of the safest cities in the world, and then, with his team, fix the massive potholes that are tripping people up.

Leadership comes from the top. It always has. Good leadership. I have lived and worked in Hong Kong long enough to know how underlings suffer from acute shrinkage and resort to shameless shoe-shining when confronted with what could be termed Bully Boy authority figures.

From everything I know, John Lee is not a bully, he is his own man, and, hopefully, he has a diverse enough Think Tank where new voices are not only given the platform to be heard, but also the freedom and support to present and offer things other than new additions to Ocean Park and Disneyland.

We’ve heard ideas like these ad infinitum for decades from the usual suspects and in exalted positions long past their Use By Dates.

As for stemming the tide of the Hong Kong brain drain, what I would ask John Lee is why there should be a “global search” for talent?

Surely, we should be trying to attract good Hong Kong talent BACK to Hong Kong AND to NURTURE the young creatives still LEFT in Hong Kong?

Why return to those times when many in Hong Kong imported under-qualified hires from overseas with good hair and natty suits, overlooked talent in their own backyard, and gave these often shallow newcomers to the city the keys to the kingdom along with exorbitant expat packages?

Again, the name Duncan Pescod flashes through my head- and others who were lucky enough to be holding Get Out Of Jail Free cards.

This was a time in the history of the city when many Hong Kong Belongers had to be subservient toadies and resigned to working in the back room- Hong Kong Chinese and certainly those, like myself, from minority groups.

Perhaps, I might not have been dealt a great hand when arriving in Hong Kong from Ceylon as a nine year old with parents without a cent to their names and not knowing their future, but, for whatever reason, someone sneaked me a few wild cards.

There was, for instance, Daniel Ng, who didn’t listen to the naysayers and had the belief and vision to bring McDonald’s to Hong Kong.

Daniel also trusted this Sri Lankan creative enough to help make his vision come true.

This led to other career opportunities...in music, in journalism and in marketing.

I might be an exception to the rule and feel extremely fortunate, yet sad, when I see talent, especially amongst minorities, ignored because of stereotyping and, well, racism.

Minorities in Hong Kong are not all domestic helpers, road workers, security guards and inexpensive covers musicians.

Who’s helping change this stereotypical picture of minorities in Hong Kong into A Big Picture Alliance?

I know that I can.

For Hong Kong, right here and now, there’s no time like the present to get things moving.

The airport remains an insane clown posse obstacle course and mine field whereas any form of quarantine is an anathema to tourism.

What’s also sidestepped are the effects on one’s mental health after hotel quarantine.

I am still going through a healing process before finding my sea legs and resetting my mind after a week in a tiny room by myself and where windows could not be opened, which meant there was no fresh air, and bedsheets were not changed.

What would happen if I got ill?

What if I decided to permanently check out?

Who should be sued?

Other than pulverising Hong Kong with more and more fear and rules and regulations, there’s much more to do than “EASING RESTRICTIONS”.

Speaking of which, is there some secret elitism deal attached to quarantine hotel rules? Hmmmm.

For the government, its job is to convince Hong Kong that they’re in the hands of a trustworthy and genuinely empathetic government.

This sure wasn’t the case when being treated like peasants by the hapless housewife in Le Bastille.

More than anything else, Hong Kong- all of Hong Kong-especially the children- wishes to be inspired and motivated- in all the many meanings of those two words.

Hong Kong people don’t wish to be treated like incurable patients- not even the elitists in our midst- and just surviving but not living.

As Michael Stipe sang, “Everybody Hurts”.

#hongkong #johnlee #creativity #braindrain #empathy #hotelquarantine #leadership #HKBelongers #minorities #teamwork #hansebert

Days Of Future Passed

It’s about making the best out of a situation. Notice that I didn’t use the word “bad”. The situation where Hong Kong finds itself today, and though it’s Okay to reminisce about the good old days, is knowing that the hills will not come alive anytime soon with the sound of music and Julie Andrews twirling and dancing and firing on all cylinders over the horizon.

There are plenty of people with time on their hands, and one has to wonder how they’re spending this time. Posting motivational messages on Facebook? Getting lost in the comments section of Amber Heard click bait?

Maybe this is the result of working from home for too long and unproductive Zoom calls?

It’s not only Hong Kong that’s pretty much sitting in limbo and twiddling its thumbs either though this masked city always has something that needs to be done in the way of testing and vaccinations as we’re still far far away from Living With Covid.

The entire world has changed, and in order to have as meaningful a life as possible during the time we’re here, there’s a need to somehow change one’s mindset- though it’s always good to err on the side of caution.

Why? To avoid the disappointment of things not working out, and also being honest enough to admit that we’re not going to be suddenly hit by a tsunami of creativity.

Frankly, most of us are drowning in a sea of mediocrity and a lowering of standards. The Peter Principle is back with a vengeance.

During my recent week in mandatory purgatory hotel quarantine in Hong Kong, I must have gone through every possible emotion- numb, laughing, crying, overthinking, comfortably numb, panic... Eight days a week can be a long, long time.

That week, where I travelled Back To The Future, into The Shining, down Penny Lane, saw The Dark Side Of The Moon and clicked my magic shoes and went to Oz with Toto, changed me forever.

I’m still processing it all while trying to find my sea legs and wean myself off Panadol and tranquillisers.

There’s a helluva lot to absorb and even more to let go. It’s like having taken acid and trying to describe your trip to someone who doesn’t even drink Coca-Cola.

It’s now all about not carrying that weight, something the Beatles sang about.

At least for myself, there are so many life lessons in their songs along with everything else those four fabs went through in their not always so fab lives.

In their music are lessons I never learned in school and didn’t hear before.

Especially today, where you never stop learning as there’s a whole new abnormal to understand, this “study class” might be happening all around, but extremely few have mentors or teachers or anything approaching answers.

I work with others from time to time, and that’s ok, but there’s also a disconnect. We come from very different backgrounds.

My real work is done alone. This helps give me a place in space and time to maybe find those answers.

What’s not needed are unnecessary distractions and listening to vapid obladioblada goo goo ga joob.

As I keep reminding myself, we are only honest with ourselves when putting one’s head onto the pillow.

The rest of the time, we’re performers onstage playing allocated roles and hoping no one notices.

This is especially true of the online world that was inherited by the real world fairly recently with its own Nowhere Man, Eleanor Rigby, Mean Mister Mustard, Blue Meanies etc.

Has everything going on over (and out) there simplified everything trying to happen in the here and now- but simplified in a way that stunts growth? You tell me.

After those eight days a week away agonising whether She loves you, or she loves you not, it somehow suddenly doesn’t matter. A voice keeps whispering, “Close the book, Hans, and get back to the girl with the kaleidoscope eyes”.

You’re suddenly that Fool On The Hill.

You look around and there’s no one there.

You don’t want to talk to anyone because you don’t know anyone who has something interesting to say.

Maybe this is it: You’re reborn and a new life is here for you to make the best of it.

#life #beatles #creativity #music #change #hongkong #reborn

Forgetting Captain Nemo, what about finding happiness, especially in a song?

It’s not even about the money anymore. It’s about the happiness. And as we should all know by now, money might be able to buy you a variant of love- remember Sinatra singing “Love For Sale”?- but not absolute and undiluted happiness.

Happiness cannot be bought and sold like some discardable commodity. It’s either there or it isn’t.

How does one find happiness? Can it be found? Where is it?

Happiness is something that comes and goes so fleetingly with the “going” part hardly staying long enough to say Hello.

Yet, those moments are precious and live with and without you forever.

Of course, we’re all different and happiness comes in many shapes and forms and often hits you when least expecting it- kinda like that “variant of love”, which has hit me enough of times, but only once in any lasting manner.

When that happened, I married her, and the happiness continued until the happiness ran its course.

With my marrying days over, it’s about finding and falling in love with happiness- real happiness in a world where there are those, who, for reasons often fuelled by jealousy, want to tear it down and almost resent seeing people happy.

This unnecessary irritant can be found regularly on social media, especially in the Comments section of any of those click bait post.

For me, interesting is how nostalgia is such a powerful and interesting emotion. Yes, it might trigger sadness, but under this sadness is a form of almost therapeutic happiness.

Why else would I choke up watching the scenes below, but which also help me understand myself better, and maybe even find something totally unrelated hiding in there?

It’s a bit like going from a major seventh chord to a diminished one. Somehow they work in different ways.

It’s not unlike the time I was trying to explain to someone who was reaching into the child in me why I didn’t know how to show sadness, and how I never cried when my wife and I divorced, and even when my parents passed away.

The more I spoke, however, and the subject of my wife and my dog Nipper came up, I remembered how I tried to numb my feelings the day he had to be put to sleep.

That’s when the dam finally broke and that painfully sad, yet freeing sense of happiness came over me.

Guess it was the start of a healing process for many things that should have come before.

Happiness and finding it is a multi levelled subject that means different things to different people.

For me, it’s about finally being honest with one’s feelings and being brave- brave and confident enough to know when to walk away from anything and everyone holding you back.

I need to write and to create. If unable to do this because of constipated rules and regulations, it can take me down a very dark and long corridor.

I need to be around those who can inspire, not those who make me perspire, and not those who always, always, always look to see why something cannot be done, don’t offer solutions and don’t move from this square, and bring nothing to the Happy Dance table.

While still spending most of my time in Hong Kong, the last 3-4 years have seen many a blindingly obvious lowering of standards.

This has happened in pretty much every aspect of life and, most important to me, creativity, especially creativity in music and things like the incredible atmosphere once found in those Happy Wednesday nights at Happy Valley Racecourse.

Yes, Virginia, there really was a happy Hong Kong.

Today, other than some very good youngish Hong Kong based musicians like Andy is Typing, Mr Koo, Room 307, Funkee Tung, Indigo Town, Young Bucks and a few others, there’s really nothing happening for music makers beyond, well, Causeway Bay.

It shouldn’t be like this.

For instance, Brendon and John and whoever else might be in Indigo Town these days really should be performing on a global platform like the NPR Music Tiny Desk series.

How? By trying. By maybe adopting a new business strategy and new mindset of looking beyond the obvious.

Maybe also needing a different mindset is why the once vibrant international city that was Hong Kong is limping along looking old, tired, bored and under extreme stress. And, oh yes, constantly unhappy.

Remember that scene in “Broadcast News” where Albert Brooks character Aaron Altman starts perspiring profusely during a ‘live’ newscast? This, to me, is Hong Kong today- a city of nervous nellies and with no confidence in anything.

This is why there’s a need for Batman or Captain Crunch or Captain Nemo to give homegrown Hong Kong music- and Hong Kong itself- something different through, perhaps, collaborative efforts with musicians outside of the city and with strong A&R people helping to bring everything together.

Too much of a long shot? Not at all.

As with anything, it needs the “right team” happy in their work and experienced in strategic thinking to make this happen. It’s time to break free of naysayers and let music- and happiness- breathe- especially in a song.

#happiness #music #creativity #love #andyistyping #indigotown #room307 #misterkoo #youngbucks #funkeetung #hansebert #positivity #gethappy