Our Desk | Followers’ disease

Julie Zhu

Being a follower, as opposed to a leader, Macau is in need of some kind of new medical treatment which the world’s geniuses have not yet invented.

Macau’s disease, resulting from being a follower, does not seem to bother me, nor does it spur me to help myself to get rid of it. It’s not like having a cold, which I know prompts me to immediately wear a mask in order not to pass the germs to other people. Macau’s follower’s disease even leads me to poison other people, strangers and friends alike.

Here are some of the symptoms.

Macau does what is right or what is wrong according to exact sciences. Macau does whatever those people, who happen to be ahead of us, are currently doing; it does not matter whether those ‘leaders’ are right or wrong. At the end of the day, Macau just follows.

In the past, societies ahead of Macau accused men of having diseases because they loved other men and accused women of loving other women. Nowadays, with that past long gone in most of these societies, there are still parts of Macau and even Hong Kong throwing rocks at people because they love someone who shares their gender.

These days, if a yellow duck becomes popular, or if a song or a person reaches high levels of popularity in a community that is ahead of Macau, Macau just follows. Let’s bring the duck, the song, or that person to Macau.

Naturally, this is not wrong, nor sinful, as long as what Macau follows stands for something good. What I am trying to say is that followers must have a lot of luck to ensure each thing they follow will bring them something that is right and not wrong.

I consider that many years ago, Chinese communities in Macau were still chewing food with their mouth open, a gesture now considered to be extremely ill-mannered. These people were labeled by other communities simply because they would eat with their mouths open.

Many years have now gone by, and the Macau Chinese communities are past these moments when they were depicted as inelegant.

With this, I am not trying to discuss the topic of “Eating with Mouth Open”. By giving this example, it shows how a community does what its contemporary “heroes” do.

How Macau deals with most of its own business comes down to acknowledging how Macau’s idols conduct themselves.

It does not necessarily need to be related to policies, as many times Macau, creates its policies based on its own internal situation.

However, in circumstances where people do not need to face cameras and they can finally comment upon things with their own opinions, it is clear how much Macau is nothing but a true follower.

Once again, let me clarify that there is nothing wrong with being a follower, although it is just not fun. But, after all, who cares if Macau is fun or not?