Source 1

Source: Craig Stephens, South China Morning Post, 8 August 2013.

  1. In the cartoon in Source 1, what are the hands above the red bag doing? Please put a  in the appropriate box and describe the evidence that support your choice.

 / Loosening the rope /  / Tightening the rope
Evidence: / Both hands are holding the ends of the rope. The tendons in the
tightening the rope with much fo hands are protruding and visible.
This suggests that they are rce.
  1. What do the different items in the cartoon in Source 1 represent? Please put a in the appropriate boxes.

(a)The red bag with a symbol on it

 / Recyclable items in Hong Kong /  / Hong Kong Government’s fiscal reserves /  / Hong Kong residents’ personal information on the Internet

(b)The hands above the red bag

 / Hong Kong Government /  / Telecommunications network provider /  / Hong Kong residents

(c)The single hand on the right

 / Businesspersons from therecycling industry /  / Poor people /  / Direct sellers
  1. Based on your answers to Question 2, which of the following best describes the message in this cartoon? Please put a  in the appropriate box(es).

 / Privacy protection / vs / Information sharing
 / Waste reduction at source / vs / Consumer rights
 / Relief of the poor / vs / Save for a rainy day

Try to explain your answer.

(Students may answer freely but they need to provide reasonable
explanation(s).)

Source 2

Source: Extracted from an article published in the South China Morning Post on 8 August 2013 by HoHei-wah, Director of the Society for Community Organisation

  1. With reference toSource 2, are your answers to Questions 2 and 3 correct? If not, what are the correct answers?
  1. How does the cartoonist in Source 1 express the message in Source 2? Identify the relevant information from Source 2, and fill in the appropriate spaces below.

Text used in Source 2:
Two hands above the red bag / The Government has turned a blind eye to all kinds of social problems.
The red bag / The Government has over one trillion Hong Kong dollars / accumulated surplus of the Exchange Fund /
fiscal reserves amounted to 734 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The single hand on the right / All kinds of social problems.

Our resource inputs in healthcare and social welfare represent 40 per cent of recurrent government expenditure at present ... With an increase in the number of the elderly, a shrinking working population, reduction in the number of taxpayers and decelerated economic growth ... the growth of government revenue will drop substantially if our tax regime remains unchanged. Meanwhile, expenditure on welfare and healthcare will soar. We may not be able to make ends meet. Some may think that the purpose of building up ample fiscal reserves is to provide a sufficient reserve capital for Hong Kong when our recurrent revenue is not sufficient to cover expenditure. I would say that this is not wrong but is a rather one-sided view. Of course, we can draw on our reserves to tackle short-term financial fluctuations. Yet fiscal reserves is not a regular revenue, it is all that we have at our disposal. The reserves can be exhausted. Prolonged depletion of the reserves to meet ever-increasing recurrent expenditure is not sustainable. Recurrent expenditure must be funded by sustainable revenue.

Source: Excerpts from Budget Speech by the Financial Secretary, 27 February 2013

1