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| People went to Che Kung Temple to have their fortunes read |
Today Hong Kong's fortune for the Year of the Snake was chosen and it was a warning for the city's government to be prudent and spend wisely.
Kenneth Lau Ip-keung, chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, knelt down on a cushion in the Che Kung Temple in Sha Tin and gently shook a round container filled with numbered bamboo sticks on an angle until one fell onto the floor.
It was No. 24, considered a "neutral" stick that had the corresponding poem: "Do not do anything wrong during your life or cause trouble because of your greed, unless you have a noble person helping you, you should not waste your efforts."
Lau gave his own interpretation: "This fortune means that everyone should do good things and everyone should do what is right. As long as you are not greedy, it will be OK. Things that are done should also be practical."
He was hinting his take on the prophecy was directed at Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who will deliver the budget on February 26.
"The financial secretary needs to make a decision amid the HK$100 billion (US$12.8 billion) deficit, I believe that everyone has very high expectations," Lau said.
"Besides spending within his means, I hope the financial secretary will look after the middle-class and low-income residents and not raise fees or taxes."
Lau also pointed out people should not do things just for money, alluding to the recent news of people trapped into scam farms in Cambodia and Myanmar.
However, fortune-teller Chan Tin-yan says the prophecy is a bad one for Hong Kong.
"The city's economy will be bad, it will be utterly terrible," he said. "Che Kung is telling the city government not to bother with so many frivolous things, he is not asking them to do these things."
Indeed.
But the problem is the government doesn't have many creative or innovative ideas to jumpstart the economy, only relying on the mainland which has now backfired, with more locals residents going up north instead in search of cheap shopping and dining sprees.
How about having some foresight and long-term planning that will benefit future generations?
Wouldn't that be novel?
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