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Writer's picturePeter K F Cheung SBS

Growing Peace?

  1. FADE IN.


  2. Act 1


  3. INT. STUDY - DAY


  4. Smartphone in hand, PETER checks a What'sApp message.


  5. PETER (V.O.): Oh, what a kind feedback on my blogposts from friends.


  6. Reading.


  7. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): ...go for a scholarship in the Bay Area so that we meet for dinner once a week?


  8. Pausing.


  9. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): A scholarship for an elderly? I had better be self-reliant.


  10. Pausing.


  11. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): But I've great negative gains in my investment recently.


  12. Recalling.


  13. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): I've Bay Area T-shirts, but none from either Ukraine or Russia.


  14. Act 2


  15. FLASHBACK


  16. INT. BEDROOM - DAY (Days ago)


  17. Opening a wardrobe, Peter sees a sea of brand new T-shirts.


  18. PETER (V.O.): Whenever I travel overseas, I'd buy T-shirts.


  19. Checking them one by one, Peter re-organises them.


  20. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): They aren't just clothing items. Each one has a story associated with it.


  21. FLASHBACK UPON FLASHBACK


  22. INT. HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL - DAY (Nov 23, 2003)


  23. Lecture theatre. Peter (49) is among a few dozen of mature STUDENTS. A LECTURER is speaking.


  24. PETER (V.O.): Today is Thanksgiving Day. But he'd come back to say a hello to us...


  25. LECTURER:...while you're here, do what tourists do - been there, done that, got a T-shirt.


  26. END FLASHBACK UPON FLASHBACK


  27. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've a drawer full of Harvard stuff.


  28. Peter then takes out a light-blue T-shirt full of wrinkles.


  29. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I bought this one in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.


  30. Recalling.


  31. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My wife and I visited the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome in Jan 2018. We had deep emotions about the dark side of humanity.


  32. Recalling.


  33. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Then, I had the urge to visit Nagasaki to see the last atomic bomb site.


  34. Recalling.


  35. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Although my wife couldn't company me and there weren't direct flights between Hong Kong and Nagasaki, I still made the trip months later.


  36. Recalling.


  37. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Having visited Ground Zero in Nagasaki, I reflected deeply on war, death and end.


  38. Pausing.


  39. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): The bombs weren't only dropped on the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; they were dropped on the whole humanity.


  40. Pausing.


  41. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Humanity has wronged twice, unforgivably.


  42. Pausing.


  43. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): It's absolutely unfair and unjust for civilians to suffer and die for those in authority, competing for power and dominance over others.


  44. RETURN TO PRESENT


  45. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): That was in 1945. Has humankind learned anything from history?


  46. The TV is breaking news. We hear: Russia's nuclear alert is a response to UK's aggressive remarks.


  47. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): In 2022, it's still a dog-eat-dog world.


  48. Pausing.


  49. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): The survival of humans and their entities depends on their comparative advantage.


  50. Pausing.


  51. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): So the quests for dominance and conflicts never ends.


  52. Act 3


  53. INT. STUDY - LATER


  54. We hear on TV:... talks are underway in Belarus.


  55. PETER (V.O.): There were talks prior to the armed conflict. Can there be mutual understanding now?


  56. Pausing.


  57. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Dwindling their circles of conflicts aside, political entities should enlarge their circles of peace.


  58. Thinking.


  59. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Peace requires all in one circle - to be inclusive, compassionate and harmonious.


  60. Wondering.


  61. PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): But getting peace is hard. Keeping peace is even harder. Growing peace?


  62. Sighing, Peter captures an image of the wrinkled T-shirt.


  63. FADE OUT


  64. THE END







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