Announcements Necessary

Today I hit the Mui Wo playground. The swing set area. It stank of urine.

Oh, for crying out loud. Do you have to let your kid PEE in the playground? The ground tiles absorb the pee. It just reeked. I've actually seen and know of parents who have let their kids pee around the playground (city services, call out to you--install a bathroom, please) in the grates.

And before you ask--no, such parents are not only of Asian extraction...everyone gets desperate, especially small children, but at least go by the bushes. Geez.

So I take back my previous post. Maybe people here DO NEED announcements constantly blaring!

Here are my suggestions to make HK life more pleasant:

1. AVOID URINATING or DEFECATING ON THE PLAYGROUND/POOL/BEACH. USE PUBLIC TOILETS.

2. DO NOT SPIT. ESPECIALLY IN FRONT OF SMALL CHILDREN. THEY WILL IMITATE YOU AND THUS PERPETUATE THE LEGACY OF SPITTING.

(Do not laugh about this--tuberculosis has been on the rise in HK)

3. DO NOT LITTER.

4. BIGOTRY NOT APPRECIATED. FROM EITHER SIDE. FROM ANYONE...THAT'S RIGHT.

(As they said in LA back in the day, No Color Lines...or as my cousin said, Assholes Come in Every Color)

5. SMOKING SUCKS

6. PICK UP YOUR DOG POO

7. WHENEVER POSSIBLE, PLEASE TRY TO USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

(Hello, global warming...)

8. MASKS ARE NICE BUT THEY DON'T WORK. STAY HOME WHEN YOU ARE SICK.

(HKer are perpetually sick as a doctor told me, we are at the epicenter of international flu and cold bugs--proximity in Guandong of fowl, swine, water, and humans make us beginning point of every bug in the world--us and Mexico)

9. THINK OUT OF THE BOX

(That's right, if it's not in the instruction booklet you were given on your first day of work, think how you can still make something work.)

10. HAVE A NICE DAY

(People here need this sign. All of the signs indicate a level of confusion and misery or general chaos as they are so directional)