My 2 cents

Dinner at Mori Sushi^ G/Fl, 34 Graham Street, Central, Hong Kong
+852 2854 1800
Somewhat unconventional but a bit pricey.

A place dedicated to CHOCOLATE!
1/F Fenwick Pier 1 Lung King Street Wanchai, *Hong Kong*

We had a great lunch at this place. Healthy organic delicious food at a nice
quiet restaurant.

Sustainable Kitchen at Simply Organic *'A Living Culinary Experience'* 1st
Floor, 21 Canal Road West, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel. 2488-0508

http://ping.fm/89DzA

Shop 4, L2/F, The Peak Tower, 28 Peak
Road, Hong Kong +852 2907 2888

Dinner at Bonheur 6/F The Pemberton, 22-26 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan, Hong
Kong
French food!

China Tee Club, 101 Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Hong Kong
+852 2521 0233

These days, when asked by friends and family what I treasure most, I always reply "FREEDOM" and to further elaborate, I treasure freedom in 3 dimensions, namely, the freedom of time, location, and thoughts.

Freedom of controlling your own time means that you are not bound by rigid routines. You can pretty much organize your own schedule according to what you want to do.

Freedom of controlling your location means you can practically be anywhere you want if you like. Pick up a few things when you can be on your way to any destination that you desire.

Freedom of thoughts takes a little bit more explaining, I mean other people can restrain you physically, but they can't exactly stop you from "thinking", so what do I mean by freedom of thoughts? It is the attitude of believing you can achieve anything if you try and work hard on, it is the positive mindset that allows you to keep learning and striving to better yourself. The restricting on thoughts can only come from yourself, so free yourself and enjoy this dimension of freedom.

I take a somewhat pessimistic view on our planet, at the rate that we (including myself) are destroying the environment and continue to consume in a unsustainable manner producing more and more wastes that cannot be recycled. Why do we keep doing it, do we not know that we are killing our planet? Why can't we put our acts together?

I think the key lies in the fact that we human have evolved and are programmed to act to maximize our own benefits while minimizing the "immediate" negative impacts. However, there isn't an effective "immediate negative impacts to counter our actions that are damaging the world. Imagine:

• You use the chemical detergents and bleach at home, but these chemicals stay in your house instead of down the drain and flow into the sea and absorbed by marine lives.
• A factory that is discharging untreated chemical pollutants into the river where the owner lives at the down stream of the river.
• Smoking destroys the lung within 2 minutes and causes certain death of the smoker
• The development and operation of an oil well that continuously burns off excess natural gas that it cannot sell economically, and the oil well being located right next to the home of the oil company's CEO
• The exhausted gas from the plane that you take all goes to your home

I bet none of the characters (include you and I) above will be doing what they are doing. We take all the benefits and not suffering (perhaps not directly and immediately) from the negative consequences, it is in our human nature that we will continue to do such things.

The problem is an effective, immediate negative feedback loop is missing. One solution is to artificially induce a negative feedback loop such as imposing a carbon tax. A much harder alternative solution but in my view works better and more sustainable is education, teaching people to abandon the actions that gain them the positive benefit while paying a bigger price down the road.

Unfortunately, people in the world (developed or developing countries alike) are extremely unlikely to change the habits of consuming and gaining short term benefits while not suffering from immediate negative effects. You only need to look at the number of cars in each cities, the amount of the disposable plastic utensils being consumed each day, the amount of damage being done by many of us who are not evening thinking of the consequences of our actions.

I remain pessimistic...

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