Hong Kong is supposed to be a prosperous city, but many people still live in appalling (shocking, very bad) conditions. I wrote about so-called cage homes as a reporter. These are rented beds surrounded by a cage to protect bed occupants and their belongings in overcrowded flats. I thought cage homes were a thing of the past but read that about 5,000 poor people still live in them. A thing of the past means something that no longer exists. The government now calls them bedspace apartments. But cage homes by any other name are still cage homes. Window dressing them can’t cover up this shame of Hong Kong.
Window dressing is the skill of arranging items in a shop window to attract customers. The expression can also mean creating a false impression of something to make it sound or look more impressive. Calling cage homes bedspace apartments is window dressing to hide the appalling conditions of cage homes. Subdivided homes are another shame of Hong Kong. They have appalling living conditions but more than 200,000 people live in them. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has created a task force to solve the problem but gave no timeframe on when such homes can be phased out.
Housing Secretary Winnie Ho Wing-yin admitted subdivided flats have deplorable (terrible, unacceptable) living conditions, such as toilets without walls or being right next to a bed. But she said the task force will need about ten months to make suggestions on how to solve the problem. I can’t understand why it takes so long just to make suggestions when the deplorable conditions are easy to see.
香港理應是個繁榮的城市，但許多人卻仍然活在極為惡劣的（appalling）環境中。我做記者時，曾經寫過所謂「籠屋」（cage homes）的相關故事。那是在擠迫的單位內予人租住的床位，以鐵籠包圍，用來保護租客以及他們的個人物品。我以為籠屋（cage homes）已是 a thing of the past，不料卻讀到，大約有五千窮人還住在那些籠屋裏面。A thing of the past是指某事物已成過去、不復存在。政府現在叫它們做床位寓所。然而，籠屋（cage homes）換了個名字依舊是籠屋（cage homes），門面粉飾（window dressing）並不能掩蓋這個香港之恥。
Window dressing是店舖櫥窗裝飾擺設的藝術，用以吸引顧客；這個習語也可以解作用一些弄虛作假的門面工夫，為某事物製造一個虛浮的外表，令它聽或看起來更冠冕堂皇。叫籠屋（cage homes）做床位寓所是種門面粉飾（window dressing），用來遮掩籠屋（cage homes）可怕的（appalling）居住環境。劏房又是另一個香港之恥。它們也有惡劣的（appalling）居住環境，但有超過二十萬人居住其中。特首李家超已經成立了專責工作小組去解決這個問題，卻未能就這些居所何時被逐步淘汰，給出實質的時間表。
房屋局局長何永賢承認，劏房有着糟糕透頂（deplorable）的居住環境，例如廁所沒有牆身分隔，又或馬桶設在睡床旁。但她說，工作組需要十個月去作出建議，如何解決問題。我不能理解，當糟透的（deplorable）環境是那麼顯而易見，為何只是提出建議，也需要這麼久的時間。
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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻
