TITLE: Against All Odds

During my exchange study in Hong Kong this January I have met many new friends who have longed to have a job in a prestigious company in order to live well with well-paid wage and accommodation. Skyscrapers and many tall buildings that filled the landscape are the living testimony of this dream and their seniors before them, however when one took a walk on the common road it is easy to understand that life in Hong Kong is indeed harsh.

Hong Kong's poor faced the most difficult ordeal to keep their residence at all cost to have shelter on their head, either legally or illegally whilst facing the sharp rise of property prices. They usually consisted of ethnic minorities, low-income workers, migrants and elderlies that are no longer able to work nor wanted by companies and has to make do by scraping through the day with various odd jobs often ignored by the many. Construction workers, security guards, domestic workers and street vendors are only few of the jobs done by these poor souls, yet their contributions built the foundation of modern Hong Kong until it become as it is today.

All these reasons are more than enough for me to capture a glimpse of their struggle in the midst of Hong Kong bustling activity, to survive against all odds.

AUTHOR: Muhammad Daffa Syauqi Ariandana (Indonesia)

Daffa Syauqi is a last year International Relations student in Gadjah Mada University of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. An amateur photographer who loves taking picture as a hobby.