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圖片來源﹕新華社（轉拍自 South China Morning Post ）
小孩失望的眼神令聞者心酸。
爸爸在合肥火車站送孩子與他母親回青海過年，自己則要留下來工作。
中國大地上還有多少老百姓在過著這種生活？
讓「一小部分人先富起來」花了我們整整一代人的時間。至于走在後面的一大部分人，他們的萬里長征才剛起步！
讓老百姓溫飽是我們最大的人權，這並非空話。
在「立體的歷史」裏，我講過國共內戰期間的三個黨，我當時想起的，其實是今天的中國。
這對父子，正是最活生生的生活黨。
下面轉載的South China Morning Post 報道中，引了另一個生活黨在天涯網（tianya.cn）給爸爸寫的道歉信﹕
爸﹕我不敢告訴您我在銀行存的錢只有 500 元，而我這個星期還有租金要付呢。其實，我一個月收入才 1000 塊，所以花了 400 塊買火車票以後，那來錢買新毛衣給媽呢？我很想回家團聚，但很對不起我實在不敢回來。
我想起前一陣子鬧得很沸揚的「八十後」，還有更鬧哄哄的「公投劇」，螺絲黨的天地離生活黨何止十萬八千里。
Only the tough get going.
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附錄﹕South China Morning Post 報道
More young migrants give the reunion dinner a miss |
Workers say going home is too expensive – and stressful |
| Fiona Tam Feb 06, 2010 |
Skyrocketing train fares, the ordeal of long journeys and the stress of meeting a parent’s expectations are keeping young migrants from going home for the Lunar New Year.
So widespread has this become that there is now a term to describe the collective dread of these overworked and underpaid workers: home-going phobia.
Tens of millions of migrants working in mainland cities are expected to begin leaving this weekend for home, where they will spend the Chinese calendar’s most important festival with their family. But state media said more and more young people – graduates on low incomes and assembly-line workers alike – are forgoing the joy of a reunion dinner.
In a poll of 700 office clerks from Shanghai , nearly 60 per cent of them complained that buying train tickets from scalpers and gifts for their family cost them one to two months’ salary. The expenses are discouraging them from returning home, they said in the survey conducted by the recruitment website Chinahr.com.
A young migrant who could not afford to go home posted an open letter to his father on the bulletin board, Tianya.cn, that quickly made the rounds. The story received more than 110,000 clicks online and 1,300 replies within a month.
“Dad, I don’t dare to tell you that there’s less than 500 yuan (HK$570) in my bank account and the rent for my flat is due this week,” he wrote. “Actually I earn just 1,000 yuan a month and can’t afford a new sweater for mom after paying 400 yuan for train tickets. Sorry that I don’t dare to return home, even though I really yearn for a family reunion.”
The youth, who just graduated from university, epitomised the millions of graduates from rural China who dream of a better life in cities but end up in underpaid jobs, mainland media said.
Peking University researcher Lian Si called these youth the “ant tribe”, and estimated that there were more than a million frustrated graduates across the country.
“Together with farmers, migrant workers and laid-off workers, fresh graduates are also among the mainland’s disadvantaged groups,” Lian wrote in his report. “They received tertiary education but take up underpaid jobs, or they are unemployed but enjoy no protection from the social security scheme.”
Surveys conducted by Beijing-based employment consultant Mycos showed that 10 to 16 per cent of last year’s 6 million graduates have been unable to find jobs. For them, going home to face their family could be a real torment. More people are attending university, intensifying the competition for jobs.
At the same time, an increasing number of young migrant workers who were born in the countryside but grew up in the cities are also choosing to stay behind.
The so-called second generation of migrant workers, who moved to the cities with their parents as children, regard the cities as their home, even though they receive low pay, suffer from discrimination and lack social security protection. Guizhou worker Zhao Yangyang , 20, said he enjoyed cities such as Zhengzhou in Henan , where he worked on an assembly line for three years.
“I’m not get used to the impoverished village life now,” he told China News Service. “I can’t endure life without a flush toilet. The varied entertainment in big cities is so attractive that I can’t bear to leave.”
Official data show that 60 per cent of the country’s 150 million migrant workers are second-generation workers who have grown up in cities.
The mainland’s transport system is bracing itself for a crunch, with nearly 2.6 billion journeys on rail, bus and ferry forecast over the 40-day Lunar New Year holiday period which started on January 30.
This reminds me of my blog ＜ A 16-Year-Old Girl Who's Standing ＞ , a poem that tells exactly the same situation…the quandary of a helpless poverty-stricken girl who dares not go home to face her mother who’s dying of starvation. Seeing the prevalent social disparities and yet being unable to do anything concrete to help alleviate the pain of pauperism, everything that we the privileged do seems to be sinful. By comparison, our complaints are nothing but petty whining. Maybe the only excuse we could make is that life is an endless struggle. And for the young people who have the tenacity and will to fight on, there may still be hope for a better tomorrow. Most of our parents have gone through the same tough times and we have certainly come a long way.
莊子＜ 大宗師 ＞「 夫大塊載我以形，勞我以生，佚我以老，息我以死。 」 perhaps may ease our heart a little. Do our utmost to help the needy within our meager capacity; that at least is something we can do as a person.
[版主回覆02/06/2010 23:01:00]Good that you've found consolation in poetry and Taoist philosophy.
I still can't get over a saying I picked up 35 years ago, which has long gone out of fashion :
The philosophers have only described the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.
I spend my days looking out for people who are still doing it. Few and far between, but they bring me greater joys than anything, immeasurably more than my Giacosa, Conterno and Gaja.
但係全世界多多少少都要睇佢地面色…
China is marching towards achieving a middle class society. Pray that they can achieve so the sooner the better.
Best thing an individual can do is to be good to people living around us, and turn our compassion for the distant misfortunate into action in our daily lives.
Live a fulfilling life while making a living, instead of making a living at the expense of living a fulfilling life. That is the goal I set for myself, and hopefully my children. A society is blessed, if it has laid out the road map for its people, the way out, and the way up. Otherwise, only the rare few can achieve what can easily be seen as the fundamental requirement, but unachievable.
[版主回覆02/08/2010 12:23:00]Well said, as far as an individual and his/her family are concerned, but you and I know that there are dots that need to be connected to fulfil that age-old ideal of
「修身、齊家、治國、平天下」.
You pointed out that "A society is blessed, etc.", and that got us back to the Polity. No easy answer. Just look at the U.S., where 1 out of 8 people are still battling starvation. See: http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!KluzXNGFHxnw1caKUQ.uq3gVlA–/article?mid=1755
Obama ran for Change, but people now realized that he is the one who is Changed. And the U.S. has a lot of individuals living with a clean conscience and raising kids to live with a clean conscience.
No easy solution. And nobody has a solution. All I'm saying is there is absolutely no room for complacency, with or without poetry and philosophy.
I'm beginning to admire you fine gentlemen!
[版主回覆02/08/2010 12:26:00] 很無奈！