Reflective paper and photo essay

Ho May Man (Maple) 3035791866

The first photo is taken under a bridge near Pui To in Tuen Mun. At first glance, there

are many packages and mostly well-packed. It looks like it belongs to some homeless

people who lives here as there are not only tables, but also quilt and foldable beds.

There were staff from food and environmental hygiene department were patrolling

while I was taking the picture.

Photo 2 captures a woman who is pushing a cart through the street with a bent spine,

scavenging for cardboards.

Photo 3 shows the cardboards and polystyrene box that collected by the woman in

photo 2. I asked the woman and she said she has been collecting cardboards since

early morning and it was 3pm by the time I took the picture.
Photo 4 features another woman, who is having her lunch under the bridge and near

the garbage bin. Seemingly, she does not have other venues to have her lunch.
Photo 5 captures another old man having lunch sitting under the bridge. He was

having the same lunchbox as the woman in Photo 4.

Poverty in Hong Kong

In this reflection essay, I would discuss how the above photos allow me to gain a new

insight into the poverty issue in Hong Kong.

The 5 photos were all taken on the day of Mid-Autumn Festival. I particularly chose

Tuen Mun as the photo shooting venue since its poverty situation has long been

severe. The conditions that I witnessed was heart-wrenching.

The first photo was taken under a bridge in Pui To, Tuen Mun. People earning low-

income and could not afford a proper housing could leave them no choice but to live

there. What makes me surprise is the response taken by the government. Instead of

helping them to find a shelter, the governments seem to neglect their needs and to the

betterment of community. The government officials were patrolling and appear to

looking for the owners of the belongings. While the personal belongings were

generally well-packed as shown in the photo, I was curious about what hygienic issue

would bring. The staff explained that people living nearby complains the homeless

people were blocking the road and causing nauseous smell, so they have to ask them

to leave. They also said that many of the homeless were gone and this family is the
last one there. It is a stark example when social justice is regarded as utilitarianism.

According to utilitarianism, an act is morally required only if it maximizes utility

(Bentham, 1823). Undoubtedly, this act benefits the general public living in the

neighborhood, however, it sabotages the only remaining space that the vulnerable

populations could find. Compared to utilitarianism, I think Rawls Difference Principle

is more effective and more just to address homelessness. The essence of Difference

Principle is to benefit the least advantaged members of society in social and economic

inequalities (Taylor, 2017). Accordingly, people should have equal access to basic

needs, including housing, so the government should take up the responsibility to

ensure they have a proper shelter including temporary housing and public housing.

Housing subsidy could be a temporary measure as well. Nonetheless, when the

government adopts this principle, it not only arouses public awareness, assistance, and

empathy to the well-being of the homeless, but it also underscores the collective

responsibility of community to address homelessness as a problem of justice.

The second and third photo reveals the plight of cardboard scavengers, another kind

of people living in poverty. Ms Wong, aged 57, was pushing a cart through streets

with a bent spine, searching for cardboards to earn a living. She did not want to

expose her face, but she told me that she could only earn around 1 dollar from 1kg of
cardboards and 2.5 dollars from 1kg of polystyrene boxes. Her daily salary is around

$80 dollars which is extremely difficult to afford her daily living. At first, I thought

she was not applicable for the government welfare scheme, so she needed to work

tediously. However, she explained she did not apply for CSSA as she did not want

others to treat her as lazy bone. Although she was suffering with camptocormia, she

insisted to work everyday. She was a steward previously but got laid off during the

Covid 19 so she became cardboard scavengers afterwards. It dawns on me how

serious welfare stigma affects people’s life. CSSA receivers may considered as

undeserving poor that only relies on the government without any economic

contribution. However, CSSA is indeed a safety net for the underprivileged. Social

welfare’s role is to protect citizens from the harmful circumstances of the market, in

the context of Ms Wong, that is the economic crisis during pandemic. The government

could loosen the restrictions of working hours or salary limit so people could have

higher chance to get back into workplace. The government should provide more

trainings and education to the low-skilled grassroot so they can integrate in the

workplace, which echoes to the Difference Principle, fair job opportunities should be

offered to all individuals (Taylor, 2017). Accordingly, more vulnerable population

could earn a better income on their own and prevent them to falling into worse

condition.
The fourth photo depicts a woman having lunch near the garbage bin under the

bridge. The fifth photo shows another old man having lunch under the bridge and

carrying his belongings. Both of them collected the free lunch box from a restaurant

called Veggies Lotus, which is funded by Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation, Pei

Ho (Ming Gor) Charity Foundation and Sino Group (Ng Teng Fong Charitable

Foundation, n.d.), upon having a short conversation with them. They told me that the

restaurant distributed free lunchboxes to the grassroot regularly. When asked about

the role of NGO and government to address their needs, they tend to have a more

positive comment on NGOs then to the government. They explained the NGO can

take care of their needs more thoroughly instead of simply financial assistant

distributed by the government. The subsidy from government is not enough to afford

3 meals a day so they have to save money by having 1 meal a day and get the free

lunch boxes from different NGOs. They could get some more fruit as that day was

Mid-Autumn Festival. I still vividly remember the guest lecture by CK Law who

talked how the small-scale NGO and government compete for fund, it is difficult for

the former ones to get adequate resources. However, they may be the one know what

the grassroot need the most. It was pleased to see how the business sector (Sino

group) could work with charitable foundations to provide much-needed care to the
poor people. The government should acknowledge the importance of the front-line

NGOs and allocate more resources to them so that the genuine needs could be

addressed.

All in all, poverty problem was more complex than I thought it was and it requires

more research on helping different kinds of grassroot based on their needs. Only by

giving financial subsidy is not the best resort to solve poverty problem in Hong Kong.
Reference

Bentham, J. (1823). An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation.

Clarendon Press.

Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation. (n.d.). About Us. https://www.ntfcf.org.hk/

Taylor, H. (2017). Rawls’ Difference Principle:A test for social justice in

contemporary social

policy (Doctoral dissertation). Cardiff University.

https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/100700/1/2017taylorhphd.pdf