By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-11 01:56:31 | Updated at 2024-11-18 04:35:51
1 week ago
A Hong Kong lawmaker has come up with a novel solution to the city’s low birth rate: baby photos in government offices.
According to Bill Tang Ka-piu of the Federation of Trade Unions, the authorities need to create an environment friendly to baby-making. The logic is that once people see these adorable baby photos, they will feel like making adorable versions of themselves. And we should start with civil servants, he says, since they have job and income stability – and no excuse.
As Tang put it, seeing the baby photos will make them want to “go home and spend time with their wife” instead of putting in overtime. “It all boils down to the environment where children are seen as adorable,” he said.
I am not making this up. Tang made more than a few assumptions that probably won’t go down well. For a start, the assumption of a choice between working overtime and being at home with one’s wife is problematic.
Maybe Tang is questioning the efficiency of the civil service; perhaps civil servants don’t actually need to put in overtime to get the work done – maybe they just don’t have anything better to do. Because only that would explain how cute baby photos in the office can incentivise them to be elsewhere, hopefully with their wives.
Then there’s the disturbing assumption that these wives would be sitting around at home, waiting for their civil servant husbands to return.
