LA downtown

I went to (had to go to) downtown LA after dusk today. I saw Staples Center which was nice.

But when I got off the bus, the streets were full of beggars. Then there came by a person carrying several knives and he was scratching it against the wall. So I went another direction. I called my friend in LA and he told me to go to take the subway, or Metro Rail, the way they call it in LA. When I went downstairs, three beggars surrounded me. So I gave each a quarter. In Chinese, we have this saying to "scatter some fortune to avoid misfortune". I guess this is a perfect description of this. But it was Christmas too and I hope they can have a better day even though I contradict my belief of doing good in the two prime ministers story.

I hated Hong Kong for its astonishing income gap but LA seems to have not only an income gap. I think Hong Kong does a really good job seperating crime from poverty and I wonder why there are so many poor people in Hong Kong but the city is still very safe.