Proposal Argument-Should we have Female-only carriage in Hong Kong

Proposal Argument-Should we have Female-only carriage in Hong Kong                                                          Cheung Yuen Chun Chaumet (53560883)

  On 12 October 2012, Cantonese pop singer and actress Juju Chan reported to the police that she was being sexually harassed while exiting the train at Admiralty. Later on, she submitted a letter to the MTR Corporation and requested for the establishment of female-only carriages on trains in Hong Kong. She explained that the reason why of requesting to have female-only carriages is to avoid these incidents from happening to other female passengers again and to protect women from being groped. Although the proposal has been rejected by the MTR Corporation, it has aroused people’s attention on whether female-only carriages should really be set up on trains in Hong Kong.

  Actually the number of sexual harassment cases on trains in Hong Kong has been increasing drastically among these years. According to Ip (2013), in year 2007, there were 121 cases, then in year 2010, the number rose to 151 cases. In year 2011, the number of cases increased to 167. And last year, the number of sexual harassment cases further increased by 30 cases, up to 197 cases. (Ip. K. 2013. Youtube) From the above statistics, we can see that the problem of women getting sexually harassed on trains is becoming more and more serious, not to mention that there are still many women who have been sexually harassed on trains have not reported to the police. Indeed, the female-only carriages are very popular among the world, there are eleven countries which have also implemented these kind of carriages and one of the examples is Japan. According to Ip (2013), in Japan, before the implementation of female-only carriages, the Midosuji Line had 54 number of cases of sexual harassment during rush hours but after the launching of female-only carriages, the number of cases decreased to 28. As for Keihan Main Line, before the introduction of female-only carriages, there were 38 number of cases; however, after that, there were just 24 number of cases. These figures can significantly shows the difference in the number of cases before and after the implementation of female-only carriages. (Ip. K. 2013. Youtube)

   It may seem that having female-only carriages is a good way to protect female passengers; however, there are also drawbacks of introducing female-only carriages in Hong Kong. According to Chan (2013), first, some people may argue that forcing the male passengers to enter some assigned compartments will be seen as a deprivation of human rights as well as discrimination. Those men are being stereotyped as to be threating to the female’s safety, thus they are prohibited in entering the female-only carriages, which impairs the right and freedom of the men who are not tending to commit sexual harassment on trains. (Chan, 2013, The Launch Of Female-only Compartments In MTR In Hong Kong) According to Mitsutoshi Horii and Adam Burgess (2012), once you are a woman, you can enjoy the special rights in entering more of the compartments than the men do merely because you are in female identity. As a result, the implementation of female-only carriages is thought to be sex discrimination against men as they cannot enjoy the same rights as the women do. Furthermore, people claimed that sometimes not only female passengers being sexually harassed, male passengers also get harassed by both male and female, once a again this leads to the problem of gender inequality and stereotyping. (Mitsutoshi.H. & Burgess.A. (2012), Constructing Sexual Risk: ‘Chikan’, Collapsing Male Authority and the Emergence of Women-only Train carriages In Japan)

  Notwithstanding that there are really some negative effects on introducing the female-only carriages in Hong Kong, the situation of women getting groped by men is worsening and apparently something has to be done in order to tackle this problem.

  The first solution to this problem is to introduce more CCTVs on trains. This requires more workers to do the security job and look at the screens in the central office and see who are trying to commit crimes on trains. On the other hand, if we think thoroughly, this may not be a perfect solution as it has its own limitations, which is, the CCTVs can only see the head of the passengers but not the bottom part of the passengers. For most of the time during rush hours, women’s lower part of the body is always easily getting sexually harassed by men, so the CCTVs just cannot capture the whole picture and it is useless to make use of CCTVs to help safeguard female passengers’ safety.

  The second solution is to increase the penalties against men who sexually harass female passengers. By increasing penalties, it must have some deterrent effect on those who are trying to commit sexual crimes. However, there must be some exceptional cases. Some people who have psychologica problems will think that it is very exciting to commit crimes under severe penalties. So they will take it as a challenge and will still try to commit crimes. As a result, this is also not a very pragmatic solution.

  For the third one, it is a long term solution. I think education and advertising is unconditionally important. For education, schools should teach students to know how to protect themselves when they are being sexually harassed. The earlier the schools start to teach students, the smarter for them to know how to protect themselves from being harmed. Thus education should be started as soon as possible. As for advertising, the MTR Corporation should encourage the passengers to speak out against sexual harassment when they have witnessed or experienced. As mention above, many people who have been sexually harassed are not brave enough to shout for help and this will foster the criminals’ courage in attempting the same thing next time. So people should always remember to shout for help when they are being sexually harassed. However, we all know that education needs a very long period to complete, thus, it also cannot resolve the problem.

  For the fourth solution, which I think is the most effective way to solve the problem of women getting sexually harassed on trains, is the implementation of female-only carriages in Hong Kong. I do think it is the best solution among the all, and it can really help to decrease the number of sexual harassment cases as it has already being proofed by Japan. Although some people pointed out that as there are just a few female-only carriages on each train, there is still a bunch of female who cannot get into those compartments, hence they need to resort to those normal compartments. Consequently, this increases their chances of getting groped by male passengers. Therefore, I suggest that the MTR Corporation should introduce more female-only carriages in order to meet the demand. The MTR Corporation can take Japan’s female carriage as reference, like using the middle carriages as female-only carriages and it is merely during the rush hours, like 0700 to 0900 in the morning and 1900 to midnight.

 To conclude, everything does have its pros and cons, just like implementing the female-only carriages in Hong Kong also does. However, after a thorough consideration, I do think that its advantages outweigh the disadvantages as many of the other countries have already proofed that it is effective in lowering the crime rate.

References:

Chan (2013). The Launch Of Female-only Compartments In MTR In Hong Kong. Retrieved

  November 26, 2013 from http://hklawblog.com/2013/10/09/the-launch-of-female-only-

  compartments-in mtr-in-hong-kong/            

 

Mitsutoshi.H. & Burgess.H. (2012). Constructing Sexual Risk: ‘Chikan’, Collapsing Male Authority And The   

  Emergence Of Women-only Train carriages In Japan. In Health, Risk & Society,14(1). Retrieved

  November 26, 2013 from

  http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cityu.edu.hk/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8f2cf2a6-5e1b-46ec-

  b3c0-f4d25951587f%40sessionmgr4001&vid=2&hid=4110

Samtani. R. (2012). MTR Corporation Rejects Female-only Carriage Proposal. Retrieved November 26,   

  2013 from http://hk-magazine.com/city-living/news/mtrc-reject-female-only-carriages-proposal

Sung. V. (2012). MTR Right To Reject Women-only Cars. Retrieved November 26, 2013 from   

  http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1091354/mtr-right-reject-women-only-cars

What should I major in?

                                                     What should I major in?  

  Being a university student, we are supposed to have a clear mindset of what major we are going to choose; however, up to this moment, I am still struggling with two different majors, one is marketing and the other one is management.

  As a student of the college of business, there are thirteen majors for us to choose. I am a person who is not sensitive to numbers, therefore, I will not choose those majors which require a lot of calculations, for example accountancy and finance. Among those majors, I personally like marketing and management the most because they seem to have the least calculations involved. But here comes the problem, marketing and management seem to be inter-related, so what exactly is the difference between them?

  As a matter of fact, marketing is a process by which companies will create some products or services for customers and thus help building a strong customer relationships to capture value from customers in return; however, by just relying on the marketing processes must not be enough to achieve certain company goals efficiently and effectively. As a result, it needs to work with the management department hand in hand in order to maximize the company’s profit. Basic management concept often involves four steps, which is planning, organizing, leading and controlling but when talking at a higher level, it also includes coordinating, staffing, reporting etc. Moreover, as stated in the above, management is just a big concept that can be split into different branches, particularly human resources management, information management, strategic and marketing management and operational management. In other words, marketing can be explained as a branch within management. So once again it can prove that marketing and management is really working closely together and can never be separated.

  In spite of the fact that marketing and management are going hand in hand, they still have something in different, which is, marketing focus on dealing with customers and will have lots of interactions with them, on the other hand, management target on internal management stuff.

  While I am writing this essay, I have been making comparison between marketing and management, and some forethought has also been made.  I think I might be more suitable to major in marketing. Because I am an outgoing person and I would love to meet different people in daily life, so if I choose marketing as my major, later on when I have a job, I can meet different customers instead of sitting in the office and doing some management stuff which is relatively boring to me.

  Furthermore, I am also a person who always like to think of some innovative ideas which it is very helpful to the promotion of some business products. Actually marketing consists of four paramount “Ps”, which is product, price, place and promotion. By making use of my strength, I am sure I can contribute to the maximization of the company’s overall profit.

  What’s more, I am a person who will always strive for the best and won’t let other competitors be one step ahead of me. I think this characteristic is very essential for marketing students. As long as we are working for a company, we are supposed to help the company to generate more profit. In order to attract more customers, we need to have some new ideas and products which other companies still have not think about. Thus, this increase the chances for our company to become the market leader.

  In a nutshell, I think marketing and management are really working hand in hand, they just cannot live without the others. However, there are still some differences between them, and I think I am more suitable for choosing marketing as my major. In order to achieve my goal, I will be working very hard to strive for it, and will not let myself feeling regret.    

English Writing- Descriptive Essay

 A Place That Astonished Me The Most

The Gold Coast is Australia's sixth largest city. People from all parts of the world have compromised that it is the most terrific place for them to go on a relaxing vacation due to its magnificent scenery and the bewitching nature.

People staying at the Gold Coast are just like living in an imaginary place and are keeping their seclusion from the world. Especially during summer time, the incandescent sun is just unceasingly glinting, turning the whole city into a mirage. Nowadays, the Gold Coast is a prominent tourist destination with its sunny subtropical climate, beaches and skyline, making tourism one of the most significant industries in Australia.

As stated in the above, the Gold Coast is surrounded by endless stretches of golden beaches. Every day, there are hundreds and thousands of people going there to enjoy the sunshine on the comfy sand and have a nice swim. Besides swimming, it is also a superb place for people to go surfing. There is always blast of cool wind in the air and it is an essential element of playing surfing, therefore, the Gold Coast is unconditionally a flawless place for surfers to go. What’s more, the water there is as clear as crystal and the surface is as smooth as a mirror, by the time the sun goes down; the image of the sun is reflected on the water surface, just like a golden yellow ball sparkling in the center of the ocean. Moreover, the whole water surface has turned into tangerine and spread across the horizon boundlessly, the whole scenery is just alluring.  

   For those who choose to go to Australia for vacation, besides going to the golden beaches in the Gold Coast, they must go to the renowned Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, which is stated in the World Heritage-listed. The Great Barrier Reef is famous with its natural heritage and there is a diversity of sea life under the water, of which many of them belong to the vulnerable and endangered species type. Despite the fact that a large part of the Great Barrier Reef is being protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, visitors can still go diving and explore more about the mystery under the sea. This is one of the most intriguing activities that you can do at the Great Barrier Reef and you will find it astonishing to touch those species. Furthermore, you may also discover that many different kinds of colorful fish are just like playing hide and seek with you and you need to go and find them by yourselves.

  There are actually many different cities in Australia and the Gold Coast is just one of them, there are still many places for visitors to explore, like Cairns, Fraser Island, Magnetic Island etc. I am sure that you can find out your own paradise as your ideal vacation destiny.  (479 words)