"Borrowed time, borrowed place"

Pick from today's opinion pages:

"Borrowed time, borrowed place"

Afterthoughts:

Identity, collective memories, the future...what is left for us? The mistaken British glory which never belongs to us, the legecy of labour and perseverance of our parents, the financial crisis, the economic downturn, SARS or the anxiety to see a way out? Where is the miracle of 'the Pearl of the Orient'? It is a big question for people of our age who must take up our own worries and are not settled for life yet.

I wonder: 'what are the collective memories of the Central clock tower and the Queen's Pier?' What does the pulling down of them mean - the tearing down of a public icon of a past colonial era in which we once enjoyed the economic boom and were quite free of political struggles? The murder of a silent witness who knew that the early adulthood of our generation is laid with the burden of freedom, the burden of being responsible for our own life and place tinged with crises and problems? and the fact that we are inexperienced?

It is a little embarassing to speak of our identity. It is like having a birth mother and a step mother. We were raised by the step mother but with whom, we have no kinship. The step mother eventually left and we returned to our birth mother. When we feel tired and lost and want to find some comforts and strength back home, it is however strange to return to a birth mother whom we share no past memories with and who has not taught us creeds and methods, yet who is akin. So there is only a clock tower, a pier, etc to fight for. They seem to be our roots giving us security and nourishment, show the bearings and point us to our core values.

To go ahead and change for the better, we need to know where we are from and avoid pitfalls. Now the clock tower is gone and there is no more 'queen' at the pier, which way should we go?

Look at our counterparts with a colonial past: India was freed since 1947 and is gearing up to be an IT hub, though almost one-fifth of the population still lives below the poverty line; Vietnam, freed since 1945, is full of potential with both labour and natural resources for the global market sufferng from shooting prices, though it was torn by a prolonged war 30 years ago; Cambodia since 1949 still takes pain to get out of her desvastated past under Pol Pot, yet foreign investment is pouring into tourism; Myanmar since 1947, is struggling to get rid of the junta.

We have every reason to be impatient but what can we complain of after 10 years since handover, if we do not stop overselves from going forward?

However, time belongs to no one. It slips away from any one, any place, though it is never too late on the timeline.