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李臻給我的警示

李臻給我的警示

上世紀六十年代,當非裔美國人民權運動開始冒起,鼎鼎大名的時裝攝影師 Richard Avedon也作出自己的貢獻,到美國南部拍攝以社會不公為題材的作品。他這樣解釋他的動機:「我不想我兒子因我什麽都沒做而以我為恥。」

當我看到有線高層李臻採訪林鄭月娥時唯唯諾諾的樣子; 當我看到他的社交媒體充斥著罵他的留言,(大眾看不過他如此粗暴地辭退員工);當我发覺原來李臻喜歡大談育兒心得,並著有「為孩子備戰未來」和「贏輸不在起跑線」等書, 我就想到Richard Avedon了:香港現在有難,作為兩個孩子的父親,李臻為什麽不給孩子演示,什麽是對社會有承擔?以後孩子長大會google,看到父親的口碑那麽差,他在孩子面前還有權威和顏面嗎?

李臻今年49歲,有三個碩士,很明顯是一個上進的人。他2015年,還批評李國章不應把學生跟紅衛兵比較,怎麽會今天變成看權貴臉色、成為林鄭口中的「好合作、好合作,好配合、好配合」的媒體人?

李臻讓我想起另一個人,2019年在兩會發表兩岸統一言論時媚態盡露的「台灣女孩」淩友詩。事後淩友詩的一個舊同事回憶,1989年六四期間,當時在理工教中文的淩友詩「每談到中共多年來在國內的倒行逆施,無不表現得義憤填膺,有時更情不自禁地痛駡中共,反共的情操溢於言表。」她舊同事完全不理解為什麽淩今天會來個180度的大轉彎,但答案可能在舊同事無意透露的信息裏:2009年她和淩再碰面,已擁有政治學博士的淩,說工作難找,只能在中央政策組供職。2009年的淩47歲,跟李臻現在的年紀差不多。這些高學歷的文科人,人到中年,如果沒特別出眾的能力或專長,是很難找工作的。我大膽假設,淩友詩和李臻可能希望通過投共來為自己事業帶來突破。

可能大家會記得我除了是獨立雙語作家,還是一個English writing coach,以往我也多次把舔共人士所寫的英文,修改成native English。我是很努力地把自己的英文寫成國際水準,同時也很努力地完善自己的知識體系,因我也是一個高學歷的文科人。我早就預見,如果我的作品和writing coach service的水平不夠高,我到李臻的年紀,就可能要為了謀生而去投共了!

附錄
下面是我的「手藝」:

舔共人士寫的爛英文:
Another obvious method employed by Beijing is pushing Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her administration to clean up their own mess, but simultaneously showing full support for Lam, whose popularity has plunged, as well as the embattled police force...That well explains Lam’s sudden return to visibility and decision to end the month-long summer break”

我對該文的評論:
Note the way the author’s readers have to jump in and do detective work where her imprecise use of English leaves her meanings vague. “Another obvious method employed by Beijing” could have been better expressed as “another course of action readily available to Beijing”; by “(Beijing) simultaneously showing full support for Lam, whose popularity has plunged, as well as the embattled police force,” did the author mean to say “the police’s popularity has plunged along with that of Lam’s,” or “Beijing has shown support for both Lam and the police”?

我會如果重寫該文:
“Another course of action available to Beijing - which it proceeded to pursue readily - was to make a show of standing behind Lam’s administration and, in doing so, compel it to overcome its fear of public opprobrium and venture into the limelight again….This would explain Lam’s sudden re-emergence in the public eye towards the end of the summer.”