Hong Kong, Hong Kong...

8 months into Hong Kong, 3 months into the year that is 2017. How time does seem to pass us by. The city is growing on me, slowly but surely. The initial questioning, the inquiry, the wondering. What is my purpose for being here. Here. Still there, but being masked by the comfort of a somewhat routine. So definitive I know. All will be revealed in good time.

Hong Kong life represents the epitome of #firstworldproblems, the problems, that a recent video portrayed, are not problems at all. But we knew that. Living an expat life in an expensive city, where taxes are low, bars aplenty, people are open, nature and warm weather is on your doorstep and all year round. Work hard, play harder. What's not to like? The life of a new expat in Hong Kong is centred on Hong Kong Island, with home and work likely to be within a 5km radius. Island life mentality and cabin fever easily can set in and there we seek comfort in the great outdoors or a plane ride to another city. Our apartments may be smaller but our sense of adventure and access has somehow gotten a whole lot bigger. 

I am grateful, don't get me wrong. I am grateful for the opportunity to be here, to travel, to work and be halfway closer to my family and friends in Sydney. I am grateful to experience living in another country and be met with the discomforts that greet me along the way. Yet with all the access and opportunities, and the affordability for it all, I feel the need to minimalise, to take a step back. The question comes up time and time again - how much do we really need to get by, to survive, to have an amazing life of abundance. We don't need that much and we live an extremely privileged and spoilt life, but that we have created and made for ourselves, so for that, we should be proud.

Outside and even amongst the bubble of expat island life though, many families in Hong Kong live below the poverty line. I don't know what that means in a practical sense but the number is around 20% and apparently the highest in 6 years. We also see it, people living on the streets, not homeless and begging but their home is there, on the street, under a bridge, by some stairs in a quiet, trendy corner of Sheung Wan. Their belongings are with them, they have portable gas stoves and rice cookers and makeshift beds, luggage and clothing. They are not homeless, they just make a life living with less. The less, of course, is all relative. I don't know these people, how they feel, how happy they might feel, how content they may be. As far as I know, they are the happiest people but on my mind's sake, it makes me question what I do have.  So at times I feel a sense of remorse, although I don't think I need to, but I do. We are privileged enough to not have to worry about our next meal, our next coffee, our next glass of wine but we take it for granted. I see it not only on the streets but in my own parents. Money is earnt and spent carefully, everything that I have access to now is a result of the hard work and courage of my family many years ago. For that I am grateful.

So this predicament lies in me and but I don't know as yet how to express this, how to implement something that is of course, completely selfish, and to simply allow me to sleep better knowing that I have made a difference, however small. Every action starts with a decision. What could you do?