Make a difference when you witness in justice" urged Pultizer Winner
Jonathan Kaufman, a Pulitzer Prize Winner and Director of School of Journalism at Northeastern University urged students to speak up when they witness social injustice in society at the opening ceremony of the 8th Pulitzer Prize Winner Workshop held in Hong Kong Baptist University, last Tuesday.
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Kaufman said “For those of you about to go into Journalism whether it is in Hong Kong, China or elsewhere, it is important to remember if you see a social problem, something that doesn’t seem right or fair to you, you can make a difference. People may not like it and may criticize you, you have a chance to change the way people look at society.”
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In 2015, Kaufman was awarded Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting as part of a team examining racism and job discrimination in Boston. He received National Jewish Award for his book “Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America. He once worked at Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe.
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The 8th Pulitzer Prize Winner Workshop opening ceremony was kicked off with a theme of Seeking Truth: Investigate Reporting and Public Responsibility. Video about the journey of PPWW was shown as an introduction to the event, followed by a Public forum, a sharing of Pulitzer Prize Winners.
Many students were inspired by the sharing from each speaker and wish to have longer discussion. Jia Qi, a year two student, major in Data and Media Communication (DMC) from HKBU said “It is a great workshop and the sharing of speakers inspired me especially the sharing of Josh Haner, staff photographer of the New York Times.”
Ellen, a Final year student, studied Journalism and Mass Communication at Chongqing University from China said “It is an attractive event. It is important to understand investigate journalism because sources are available on various channel and we don’t know about the accuracy.”
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The 8th Pulitzer Prize Winner was organized every two years at HKBU by School of communication, aim to advance journalistic standards both locally and in Greater China, provide a platform for cultural exchange and enhance mutual knowledge of journalistic operation among local, the Greater China and top US journalist. This year, over hundreds of participants including students and faculty members, joined the ceremony and forum.
Victoria Prison: A Bittersweet Journey to the Heritage and Art Centre
A British style bricks structure with pitch roof covered by Chinese tiles, painted in white colour where a video of Victoria prison is screening on a white textile, hanging in the middle of the cell was the “Victoria prison”, formally called “Victoria Goal”.
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It is one of the oldest building on site in Tai Kwun. A projecting of moving silhouettes inside six cells impressed many visitors and bring back a memory of the life of inmates in Victoria prison in the 19th century.
“It is quite impressive”, said Ryan Ip, an architect in Hong Kong. “It illustrates how bad the situation in the past and they use different kinds of animation like interactive stuff, they use shadow instead of animation, it reflects what kind of environment was.”
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Inside the cell, there is a displaying of prisoner used equipment, two-level bed, a set of prisoner’s uniforms, and a pair of slippers to feature history, stories and lives of people inside Tai Kwun.
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One cell exhibits traditional toilets used in previous time and it is known that Victoria Prison is the only jail that did not has flush water, inmates were given red bucket for night soil and a yellow bucket for clean water.
“It is very packed for people to live in such small room and toilets was poorly made compare to the modern one,” said Roxanne Wong, a visitor from China.
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Tai Kwun, consists of Victoria Prison, Central Police Station, Central magistrate was officially recognized and declared as the monuments in 1995 under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance according to Police Central Station.
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Yet, the preservation and revitalization of the compound was not discussed until 2003. The project commenced only after the proposal was accepted by the SAR government in 2007, state the Police Central Station.
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“Sometimes revitalization is a way of protection from being destroyed or demolished because there is always a call for a new building, housing, estate. So, revitalizing the heritage can convince people that this is an important construction in our society.” Said Jason Ko, a History student at Hong Kong Baptist University.
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The sites in the building were designed in the most original setting so that visitors can always find a way to experience the past and present days of the Central Police Station compound.
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Ryan Ip explained “I can imagine when they design the whole thing, there is not much automation they can do, so this is a good point that when you are working on a conservation project like this, you don’t want to destroy an old building. I think they did a pretty good job.”
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A treadwheel was introduced as punishment in the 19th century. Prisoners who failed to obey regulation will have to operate the treadwheel until exhaustion. Canning was permitted as punishment and the number of strokes was determined by the court. However, this form of punishment was abolished in 1990.
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A form of punishment where inmates were offered limited food was introduced in 1876.
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Jason Ko explained “If you are not performing particularly well or you are troublesome inmate, you will put into solitary confinement, water, and rice room. A glass of water and a bowl of rice will be provided two meals a day.”
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He added, “According to today’s standard, the punishments were all inhumane but in that time that is the standard.” “Historically, the situation in prison was a reflection of the dark side in society, many inhumane activities that can’t be imagined going on behind a prison wall.”
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Victoria Prison confined countless people and held many stories of sorrow. Political prisoners were tortured inside this prion. In 1941, a Chinese poet Dai Wangshu who was an important figure in modern literature was arrested for publishing anti-Japanese newspaper article was tortured in this prison. Ho Chi Min, a former Vietnamese leader was also jailed for assisting the setup of communist Party.
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When the prison was taken over by the Japanese troops during WWII, British army personnel and personnel of European descent were once imprisoned and detain at Victoria prison. The prison also accommodates Vietnamese refugee and illegal immigrants.
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While many people are inspired with the design of the exhibition, some people do not seem to be impressed with it.
A Tourist from United State said “It is an interesting place, it is interesting to learn about it. It has good information, but it is hard to picture everything because it is remade into museum rather than the real life.”
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On Christmas Eve, December 23, 2005, the Victoria Prison was officially decommissioned and handed over to the Hong Kong government for development.
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Once colonised by the British, Hong Kong various construction bearing colonial feature, and Tai Kwun is one of them which carries high historical values. With the combination of old building and modern style, the Victoria Prison remained the most attractive and visited site.
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“It is one of the building that remain as Victoria style construction, which is very hard to find in Hong Kong. There is obviously sentimental or cultural artistic value in this construction.” Said Jason Ko.
Social Enterprise: A New Alternative and A New Challenge
Hong Kong - Although Flora will soon turn into 30, every morning at around 10 o’clock, she would come to Holy Café Training Centre together with her mother, Mrs. Song, or “Song Tai” in Cantonese, who says this is how everyone calls her. There Mrs. Song would carefully help Flora tie her hair, and remind her of her job for that day.
Holy Café is a social enterprise restaurant located in Cheung Sha Wan opened by Mrs. Song to help Flora build a sense of confidence. It employs 5 people with intellectual disabilities, including Flora. “I call it a training centre because it provides not only food, but also training to the staff,” said Mrs. Song, with a smile on her face.
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Hanging on one wall of the restaurant is a photo of Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, having dinner with other senior government officials at the restaurant. Carrie Lam also posted this photo on her Facebook page, saying that the story between Mrs. Song and Flora stands for Hong Kong spirit, and encouraged citizens to support such social enterprises.
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Flora was diagnosed with autism and mild mental retardation in Grade 5. Following graduating from Mary Rise School, a special school for intellectually disabled children, Flora was employed by a stationery factory as an intern.
“She worked 9 hours everyday, 6 days a week, but was only paid $50 per day,” Mrs. Song said. ”These companies take the low salary for granted. They think my daughter works slower, so she deserves lower salary,” she complained, “That’s why I felt angry and opened this restaurant. I want to encourage my daughter and tell society that they [disabled people] also work very well.”
In Hong Kong, most of the disabled choose to enter sheltered workshops such as the one Flora entered, which employs people with disabilities separately from others, although working at these workshops often means inadequate payment.
“Because the local market is profit-oriented, these employees [in sheltered workshops] often receive only less than $50 per day,” said Cheung Man-Wing, service manager of St. James Settlement, a multi social service agency that opened the first sheltered workshop in Hong Kong.
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Despite the low payment, getting a job in a sheltered workshop is already considered a major achievement. Many disabled people in Hong Kong face difficulties in finding a job and struggle to meet their daily expenses.
According to the Consensus and Statistics Department, there are currently only 14.5% of the disabled population above the age 15 that are currently economically active. In addition, it was reported by the Commission on Poverty that the poverty ratio of people with disabilities was reported at 45.3% in 2013.
Mrs. Song decided to run social enterprise restaurants in 2011, when she quit her job at the Correctional Services Department. The previous two restaurants had shut down due to them facing a constant financial loss. Last year, she decided to open Holy Café through a government funding program, which provided her with initial capital of around one million Hong Kong dollars.
Outside of the restaurant industry, Diamond Cab, an emerging social enterprise offers taxis to the disabled in Hong Kong, is a social enterprise that has been able to adopt a sustainable business model.
Mr Damiao Cheng, the acting CEO of Diamond Cab, who did not specify the exact figure of the turnover of the enterprise, said that while they are one of the few social enterprises to adopt a sustainable business model, they still face financial problems, including high maintenance and advertising costs that put them on the brink of making a loss each year.
The high maintenance costs are mainly because the enterprise gets specialised Toyota taxis from Japan especially designed for their disabled consumer base. Another major obstacle for Diamond Cab revolves around advertising and its costs as they continue to look for new customers to expand and to ensure their ability of remaining afloat as an attractive enterprise for investors.
In the past decade, Hong Kong has witnessed a growth of social enterprises. According to Social Enterprise Business Centre, the number of social enterprises has increased eight times in the past decade from 68 in 2007 to 654 in 2018 .
“Social enterprises are growing very fast and this is because of an institutional voice resulting in an empty space.”, said Dr Yanto Chandra, an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences in Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
He further added that a purely commercial organization simply does not see hiring the elderly or disabled as an exciting enough opportunity.
However, as reported by the Council of Social Service, among the 81 enterprises funded by the government program called “Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise”, 24 (35%) had already shut down in 2013. With the remaining 45 companies, 16 (36%) are currently experiencing an operating loss.
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“I like the food and it’s quite cheap. But, I can also tell that the business is not very good. There’s not many people when I dine here,” said Chau Wing-Him, a customer at Holy Café.
Holy Café currently pays around $30,000 as rent per month. Although the Café has been opened for almost a year, Mrs. Song says that it has not yet covered its initial start-up costs.
However, Lui Kwok-Him, a chef at Holy Café thinks that the business is gradually getting better. “Especially after Carrie Lam’s visit, we have more customers. At noon, it’s often packed with people.”
“Of course there are many challenges and pressure, but anyway, I’m still positive about the future. Society is paying more attention. I’m also looking for a successor to take charge of my position after I retire, so my daughter can still work here,” said Mrs. Song.