A clarification

I had a comment from an anonymous reader complaining about my last post. he/she/it/they seemed to think that I was wanting to punish the school leavers. Actually nothing could be farther from the truth. But, when I reread my post I kind of see what they meant. I did come across as harsh. Indeed, I was trying to be harsh but my harshness was directed at the ERB and its nearly useless legion of social workers not the people they they spend millions on not helping. I didn't state my point as clearly as I could of. I was simply trying to say that there are better ways of helping dropouts than teaching them how to be a foot massage therapist.

I believe that many of the school leavers, and if you don't think that such people are destined to be loser, thugs and welfare slackers for the most part I'm sorry, would benefit from being part of an organization that allows them to gain some direction in their lives. The military has, in many countries been a major way that children of the poor or disadvantaged acquired the skills and social status to move out of poverty. That Hong Kong does not have a military means that the poor here are denied one of the best ways that the poor in other nations have of escaping poverty. At worst it would get these kids off the street for 6 years and give them something useful to do.

Military organizations are much more than people with guns. For every soldier that is in a combat unit there is at least one more in a support role behind the lines, sometimes more.

Here are some of the careers that someone could receive training for in a military unit.

Pilots (Helicopter and fixed wing)
Mechanic (Diesel, aircraft, automotive)
Logistics (Warehouses, inventory control, accounting, purchasing)
Administration (office skills, supervising, organization, communication, computer systems)
Food Service (cooking preparing service, environmental hygiene)
Medical (EMT, Nursing, Doctors, and other areas of health care)
Weapons training (Useful for becoming a police office after military service is complete.)
Physical conditioning (instills a healthy lifestyle)


Even a light infantry brigade would need all or most of these things.

The men and women that I know who have had some type of military service also have a great deal of self confidence, exhibit professionalism in their demeanor and dress, know how to be team players, how to both follow and give directions and exhibit a great deal of reliability. In other words, they make good employees and even better citizens.


Now, compare that list of attributes and skills to what the ERB is offering?

Which would help more people? Which would provide employers with better employees? Given the huge, immoral salaries of the bureaucrats in Hong Kong which would be a better use of money?

Oh yeah, one more thing. One of my pet gripes is people who are not grateful for what they have. I get tired of hearing and reading about young people, who are by the standards of many places in the world wealthy complain about how life is so tough for them. There really isn't any poverty in Hong Kong; nobody here starves. Even the poor have enough to eat. Sending a plane load or two of complainers off to Ethiopia to guard people who are starving and need protecting from Arab slave traders might make an impression on these kids that needs to be made. They might realize that they didn't have it so bad.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes it would do most teenagers good to march through the mud for about four years