HKMIE English Writing Competition
25th September 2020
First Runner-up
2D Butwiset Chun Hei, Michael
Heroes amid the virus crisis
These few months, Hong Kong has been cursed by the threat of coronavirus. The economy is hit, people struggle to survive, many people like me do not even have enough masks to go by and have to put up with the boredom of life and what is frustrating is that there seems a long way ahead before things turn around.
It is at this time that my teacher asked me to write an essay themed ‘Hero’. There can never be a better time. This project compelled me to look out for light when I was stuck in my dark tunnel. And when I seek heroes, I find them.
And it didn’t take me long to find them. The first is a local artist who distributed masks in my neighbourhood on her birthday. She might not realize how valuable the masks are to people here. To me, it means the end to the panic in my family having no masks to defend ourselves and to ward off the fear of exposing the state of poverty we are currently in. What has also amazed me is how this artist came up with such a generous idea to celebrate her birthday.
Not long after that, I learned from the news that an Italian father from the Catholic church gave his respiration aid to a young patient who had been infected with the virus and this father passed away soon after that. At that moment, I wish to see this father in person and listen to him. I was not sure why but I was immensely touched. We are so used to competition. Everyone exerts the fullest possible force to compete for schools, jobs and even toilet papers and rice when the virus broke out. People like the father should have made us all blushed and ashamed of our selfishness. His kind and generous deeds remind us how human should be like.
One night after dinner, my family kept chatting even after dinner was long finished as we had time to spare now. My mother told me about the cleanser of a supermarket who repeatedly cleans the shopping baskets. It really echoes with what Mother Teresa once said “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” And when we have great love for our fellow men, we make human great.
Then, I found bosses who are willing to retain the staff amid this crisis and give them salary. It seems touching enough but to me the more touching is that some employees are willing to work for a much-reduced salary during this period. We are so stereotyped to a restricted understanding of who are the have and who are the have not. To me, we are the rich one when we can give. Just at this moment, I found the news about an Indonesian maid mailing masks from her homeland to her boss. There are thousands of maids but only this one has the idea that she is rich enough to do something for her boss in need. Actually, she is rich in empathy for the suffering of mankind like the great Bertrand Russell.
I am so grateful to learn about all these heroes which has strengthened my belief in humanity. Therefore, through this competition, I earnestly appeal like Bertrand Russell has done so many years ago that ‘as a human being to human beings; remember your humanity, and forget the rest’.