Blog 7: Comment on Jocelyn Kwong’s Blog: “JUSTIFIED CAUSATION?”
Based 
on Jocelyn’s blog, the Hong Kong protest for democracy has caused many problems to different sectors, for example small businesses having to close down for a long period of time, people cannot go to banks to pay for rent, and Hong Kong is facing 30% decline in tourism. As a result Jocelyn has questioned the justification for so call ‘righteousness’.
As a citizen of Hong Kong, although I’m not a very political person, I still hope for true democracy can happen in Hong Kong. However, I have the same question as Jocelyn pondering in my head, at what cost?
Hong Kong is well known for its various businesses from tourism, to stock exchange, one may say Hong Kong is built for business. But when it comes to social welfare, businesses has no control over it. These protesters have such strong sense of identity, that even if people don’t support the movement, they would be label as ‘not Hong Kong’, ‘evil’, etc. Therefore when there are businesses complained about the movement, they would be hated by many, being posted online with a lot of mean comments.
I especially have sympathy with Jocelyn’s uncle’s and other local businesses. The protest was so powerful, that the crowd expanded from only one small area, to almost a whole district, many shops were focused to close just because, causing huge decrease in business. There are cases where small businesses are making so much loss that they don’t have enough working capital for daily operation such as salaries or rent; food industry businesses made wrong forecasts that they have bought too much stocks, to a point where some restaurant bought too much Chinese mitten crab as it is the season for it, all spoiled since they cannot be sold during the protest and was stored for too long, causing even greater losses. There are cases where these businessman went 
into the the crowd of protesters complaining, arguing with the protesters demanding for them to stop so that he can open his shop again, he ended up getting tons of criticisms and hated by many.
People may say businesses only cares about earning money or maximising profit, but does that mean we can neglects businesses for social welfare? For a ‘greater benefit’ to society? Just because businesses are not supporting the movement, doesn’t give the right to insult them, if your fighting for something you believe its right, why is it wrong for them to fight for their beliefs? Like the saying Hong Kong people love to say, ‘People have to earn to make a living’, they need to pay rent, phone bill, electric bill, their family, does that mean we can give up their quality of life to fight for a better quality of life?
I am not here to judge whether the protesters are right or wrong, but to ask the same question, ‘With all the economic effects, o ne would still say fighting for democracy is righteous, but at what costs is this righteousness justified?’