It's been nineteen years since we held the first vigil at Victoria Park, and every year we worried about how much significance was left after all these years, and every year we worried it might just be the last.

Every year if I'm in Hong Kong, I'd dutifully make my way there. I remember in those early years, our student union would make a speech on June 4 during the morning assembly. It was all very emotional, and there was a passionate desire for China to change.

Sometimes we might ask ourselves if it's all worth the effort. Why remember all the bitterness in history? Why not let it be? Yes, why? After all, it's the Beijing Olympic Games year an there's much to celebrate, or as there's still enormous suffering in Sichuan after the earthquake, there should be no shortage of service projects for Rotarians.

Opinion polls after the quake have seen Premier Wen Jiapao's popularity soaring, thanks to the intense media coverage. Public relations exercises you might argue, but China did manage to respond, and respond fast. Many of the documentaries have been taken with a human dimension and they are meant to touch your raw nerve. Many doubt the effect of all those fundraisings and are skeptical about how much would go to the victims. But whatever their intentions, at least it was a display of unity towards one cause.

How much is needed to help them? That's a sensitive question as it seems it's never going to be near enough. Will they be condemned to a life of poverty and subsistence forever? Remember the same old story that you don't give them fish, but instead you teach them how to fish? Well in many cases, it doesn't work out that way.

Is it a question of karma? I took a quick search in Wikipedia and found that it means "action" or "doing", and precisely what one does, says, or thinks is a karma. PDG John's been enlightening members with his learned views on the subject, but the road to eternity seems always laced with minefields. After all, the book says the emphasis of karma in Buddhism is on mindful action, not on blaming someone else for whatever happens to oneself¡K

I was thinking - amid much confusion - about the destiny of the 14th Dalai Lama, the de facto spiritual leader of Tibet. Everything seems more complicated when China is involved and I remember about a month ago His Holiness sent his two personal representatives to China for talks over the issue. On the world stage, he praised and criticized China, emphasizing that he seeks autonomy, not independence, for Tibet¡K

But the Dalai Lama looks a lot more cheerful outside China. Only two weeks ago he was in Westminster meeting MPs and appeared before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He also gave a lecture at the Royal Albert Hall. Everyone likes his crimson robe and his visor in matching colour. The media likes His Holiness for his readiness to display a word of wisdom. Every time he begins any serious discussion by waving his crimson bag. The bag is his trademark. Has he ever told his Chinese negotiators what he's got inside his bag? That could have softened their hard stance.

And perhaps a few giggles help. As Ann Treneman of the Times remarked, he's a Drama-Lama. Why not?