Does anyone else find the weekend Australian gabfest for 1,002 of the country's best and brightest disturbing? I see three main problems:
1. Out of population of 20-odd million, why are the ideas of this select group important enough for a government to devote time to?
2. Isn't it the job of political parties and governments to come up with these ideas, rather than outsourcing them?
3. Isn't there a touch of irony that it's the Labor Party that's organised this elitist exercise? And surely the biggest irony is that in this modern democracy we are getting government policy by unelected committee?
This doesn't have much to do with this particular post, but I just wanted to let you know that your blog is a fantastic cultural resource. I am a 15-year-old American who is interested in Singapore and this is one of the coolest sites out there to learn about the country. So kudos to you! :P
Isn't it the job of political parties and governments to come up with these ideas, rather than outsourcing them?
3. Isn't there a touch of irony that it's the Labor Party that's organised this elitist exercise? And surely the biggest irony is that in this modern democracy we are getting government policy by unelected committee?
Australians in Hong Kong are finding expatriate life harder to cope with due to a shortage of one of their favourite foods - Vegemite, a news report said today.
Supplies of the popular spread have run out across the city of 6.9 million, where tens of thousands of Australian expatriate business people, diplomats and their families live...British-made yeast extract Marmite, which looks similar to Vegemite but has a different taste, is still available in Hong Kong but many Australians refuse to accept it as a substitute.
Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… makes you think more. So please keep up the great work. Greetings.
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Not many bother to read the SCMP's editorials and with good reason. Today's one on speed guns has a couple of gems:
Speeding is not the most serious traffic offence. But as it puts lives at risk, police have to do their utmost to prevent it.
Can the SCMP list for us the seriousness of traffic offences in order? I assume jaywalking is nearer the bottom, driving fast into a crowd near the top, but the order in the middle is vague. Is speeding better or worse than not wearing seat belts? Or broken headlights?
If this means using the latest technology available, so be it. Technology itself cannot prevent reckless driving on our roads, though.
Speed guns don't save people, people do. Nice of the SCMP to concede that using "latest" technology (Wikipedia tells me it was first used in Chicago in 1954, which admittedly is several hundred years after the Gutenberg press)..
Traffic officers have to know how to properly set up and use the equipment that they have been given and to carry out their duties with the utmost care and accuracy.
Dare I say it: point and shoot. Maybe that's confusing.
The case of tycoon Peter Lam Kin-ngok shows why. Mr Lam had originally been charged with driving at 114km/h in a 50km/h zone. But the prosecution amended the charge and accepted his plea of guilty to driving at 79km/h after it emerged that a police officer had failed to follow the correct procedures when using a laser gun to assess the motorist's speed. Mr Lam was fined HK$450.
He was only 29km/h over the limt rather than 64...that's much better. But remember that speeding isn't the worst traffic offence.
Although police are performing a valuable community service in making sure that the road rules are obeyed, they can also do a disservice if speeds are not accurately established and motorists wrongly punished. Mr Lam could have lost his licence if he had not contested the reading. Whereas the majority of motorists would have accepted their fate, he fought the matter in court, hired a senior counsel and had an expert on speed laser equipment flown in from Britain.
He had the money to get off but lots of people can't...and if Mr Lam had lost he could have hired a driver...but
Mr Lam's case was similar to dozens of others in Britain in recent years - where more stringent conditions are attached to the use of laser guns. The expert, Michael Clark, pointed out that laser guns can easily give incorrect readings if not used carefully. As we report today, an academic who checks Hong Kong police speed equipment, has disputed the degree of error in readings. Nonetheless, to prevent further challenges to claimed speeding violations, the police should thoroughly examine training methods and make changes where necessary.
This must be coupled with using the most reputable equipment and a method of double-checking readings. In many other parts of the world, video cameras are used in conjunction with the laser guns to ensure accuracy. Making sure that every safeguard is taken is not just for drivers, after all; it is also in the interests of the police - and the interests of justice.
The bigger scandal is that it took a rich man to fly in the experts to expose this...and while I agree that double checking is a good idea for some things to police do, does that also mean police should be trained to fire twice as many times with their other guns, in the interests of the police - and in the interests of justice?
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The winter monsoon has brought both cooler weather and clearer skies to Hong Kong this past week. It is commonly accepted the air quality in this city is getting worse...and the clearer skies have shown how beautiful the city can be if only the government would seriously address the issue of pollution. At the same time the NPC has decided that 2017 and 2020 Hong Kong might be ready for universal suffrage in votes for the Chief Executive and Legco...but there's no chance for 2012. The carrot keeps getting dangled just a little further out of reach so that the pro-democracy parties can keep themselves mired in their dead-end rhetoric while their support continues to collapse. Meanwhile the pro-Beijing camp continue to find ways to further their intensely close ties with China's powers-that-be through declarations of fealty and loyalty, such as hosting the equestrian events for the Olympics this year.
But there's a mutually helpful plan that can tie all of this things together. Beijing is planning to use it's expertise in climate control for the Beijing Olympics, by blasting clouds, suppressing smog and whatever else is necessary to make the Beijing Olympics scarily efficient. So why doesn't The Don and his government get on the blower and ask the Beijing Olympics people if they could borrow some of that same expertise to make the Big Lychee a little less dirty and a little more clear? It's a win-win...even the horses will approve.
A recent change in circumstances has meant that posting to this site is likely to be far more infrequent going forward...whether that is a good or bad thing I'll leave for you to judge.
As part of my holiday season reading I've just read Hong Kong diarist (blogger seems to prosaic) Hemlock's We Deserve Better: Hong Kong since 1997. Fans of his website looking for more of the witty and satirical ins-and-outs of daily Hong Kong life are not going to find more of the same: there's no Winky Ip or Odell in these pages. Instead this book is a calm and flowing history and political analysis of the Big Lychee over the past decade. It is no surprise to find that Hemlock's is an insightful, thoughtful witness and commentator in addition to a diarist without peer.
The first 12 chapters are a potted modern history of the first decade after the handover of Hong Kong, with the crisis-ridden Tung Chee-hwa's mishaps and mis-steps well covered in intimate detail. By intimate I don't mean that we get a minute by minute coverage of the period, but rather closely observed recollection and commentary of the bad and good (yes, there was some). Hemlock is a talented writer and the pages fly by as a reminder to those of us who lived through it and giving a taste of what it was to be witnessing a great city being pummeled by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. One could quibble with some of what the author has chosen to put in or leave out but that will always be a matter of personal taste and Hemlock managed to cover a vast amount of ground in a short number of well chosen words. The book takes the action up to mid 2007, just after The Don's re-election, and it is entertaining to imagine what Hemlock would have made of more recent events such as the "through-train" stock proposal and purchase of shares in the Hong Kong Exchange by the central government. Perhaps later editions will include an expanded 2007 chapter but what is striking is the common patterns and reactions by various players, almost regardless of the event or crisis at hand. Hemlock's gone some way to unlocking the codes and practices that really drive this city, bringing clarity to a deliberately murky world.
What makes the book come into it's own is the final three chapters. Hemlock takes a broader look at what ails the city and where it could go with a bit of imagination and guts from the ruling class in the city. In the final chapter he even speculates on a way to get from the political dead-end the city finds itself in (and which suits a great many) to something resembling a functioning polity. It's obvious to Hemlock and the reader that even this modest way forward is more a flight of fancy than a realistic guess as to where Hong Kong will get to in the next ten years. What amazes is that Hong Kong succedes in spite of the institutional inertia that actively works against what makes the place work so well. I would have preferred Hemlock to devote more to these last few chapters, further developing both the problems with and solutions to Hong Kong's governance.
One can understand Hemlock's desire for anonymity. He clearly has access at a high level to many of the movers and shakers in Hong Kong and that is part of what makes both his website and this book great: we are giving a peek inside the closed doors we would normally not even be aware are closed. But therein lies the shame of it as well: here is someone that loves this city, has interesting and creative things to say about how it is run and should be governed and yet must hide behind a nom de plume. We are both richer and poorer for that.
This book should be compulsary reading for every member of Legco, Exco, the senior levels of bureaucracy, the oligarchs, policy secretaries and members of the ruling class. For anyone who has lived through or watched post-handover Hong Kong it is both a handy memory-jogger and thought provoking read. And for anyone that is a student of political economy it is a case study of a bastardised political culture that is both dysfunctional and unique. Don't buy this book expecting a "best of Hemlock's website". But do and buy and read it to see how Hong Kong got to where it is and how it might (but only might) be going.
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I thoroughly enjoyed 'We Deserve Better' and by and large agreed with Hemlock's final summations. I picked it up last summer whilst in England and it sits happily on my bookshelf in Malta at the moment, having been sufficiently entertaining and provocative to earn a spot in my luggage when I moved.
A future in which Hong Kong's local political discourse and indeed progression, is relevent is probably only acheivable by the means he sets out.
I'll be back in the Big Lychee on business at some point during the year but Hemlock's measured extrapolation of Hong Kong's course since 1997 seems (and indeed has already proven) so clairvoyant that the act of actually revisiting Hong Kong in order to gauge its circumstances, joins 'asking a taxi driver's opinion' in the pages of the Big Book of Political Frivolities.
I'd love daily posts, but will be happy with quarterly. I haven't got around to relaunching yet -- but I'm far more infrequent than you already. Actually, care to join the new AP? I mentioned the group blog to Running Dog about a year ago and he was keen. We could have a infrequently posted metablog.
I know this democracy thing is a bit messy, having to mingle with the masses and all, but could Regina Ip look any more awkward in her public appearances? Best of all, we get to do this election all over again next year.
When and how did Halloween become such a big deal here? I can understand why Park n Shop and Wellcome want to flog as much as possible, but how does importing this pagan celebration fit in to the city's cultural landscape? Will we see politicians standing by the road side with a pumpkin and will anyone be able to tell the difference?
Tonight I'll have the pleasure of taking my kids around to get their body weight in lollies and chocolate, which they will thoroughly enjoy. I'll also have the pleasure of having to ask numerous young adults WTF they think they're doing sticking their hands out for lollies...it's often hard to tell if they're dressed up. Meanwhile everyone else will be trying to scare the living daylights out of young kids. I suppose that's the deal: nightmares for candy.
Why does the SCMP insist on using the most inane breakout boxes in history, simply so they can have a number in large type in the middle of an article? Typically the number is a repeat of some factoid from the attached article. For example in today's world section the box says "The numer of cars it would take to produce the equivalent emissions in a year: 440,000" in talking about the California forest fires. The article has the same information in paragraph three...but the editors assume you won't get that far. How about this: number of useless factoid boxes with numbers in today's SCMP?
Secondly, what's with the idea of politicians standing by the road side and waving to speeding motorists? If that's how politicians here promote themselves then one needs to reconsider their marketing techniques. Have there been any wave inspired car accidents yet? Has anyone driven past and thought, "I like how he waves, he's the one I'm voting for"? And can breathing noxious car fumes for hours at a time be a good thing for those aspiring to rule over us?
I recently discussed the politician-by-the-roadside phenomenom with my colleagues: Apparently we have the Asian democracies of Japan and Taiwan to thank for this import.
Interestingly, a blog post at Freakonomics explains how local political parties are basically a waste of time - I might point this out to the election hopeful that stands outside my bus stop, on my way home.
See it here: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/do-political-parties-matter/
One doesn't need an economic study to realise that Hong Kong's political parties are a waste of time...but it helps.
I'd like to claim credit for calling it a breakout box, but I'm pretty sure that's what the media types call it. I'm hoping those same media types will soon discover another concept: "news".
If only HK had "media types". Just youngsters who studied journalism & communications at Baptist College and become a reporter until something better comes along, like being an estate agent in a housing boom.
Sure it's been done to death (pardon the pun) but The Don's no retracted view of the Cultural Revolution as extreme democracy proves something interesting. First what the Don said:
Mr Tsang was speaking to government radio RTHK on Friday.
"People can go to the extreme like what we saw during the Cultural Revolution. For instance, in China, when people take everything into their own hands, then you cannot govern the place," he said.
When challenged that the Cultural Revolution was not really an example of democracy, Mr Tsang said "[It] was the people taking power into their own hands. Now that is what you mean by democracy if you take it to the full swing."
This falls back on a typical fallacy: that democracy means "the people taking power into their own hands". If I'm not mistake, that's anarchy, a state that more accurately describes the Cultural Revolution. Democracy isn't just about going to a ballot box every so often, although that's a start. It's about that vote being equal for every member of society, rather than having functional constituencies that allow vested interests to have a veto and vote in Legco. But it is also about a free press, independent courts, rights to assembly and protest.
On the other hand, the Cultural Revolution is the complete opposite of that. Indeed it was largely about a meglomaniac running riot (again, pardon the pun) over his country in order for him to consolidate his grip on the party and country after the disaster of the Great Leap Forward.
No-one really believed The Don when he campaigned on "solving" the democracy issue within the next 5 years. But the lack of understanding shown by his inept comparison is enough to make one hope that we don't get Tsang-style democracy anytime soon.
Apologies for the lackidasical posting...there's some life changing events going on.
Catching up on some reading and came across David Webb's Incredibubble article...go read it and start worrying. Bubbles are fun to watch up when they burst they tend to make a mess.
Hong Kong's newest "free" paper reports on the world's "freest" economy...where the Government has spent the past year or so buying shares in the Hong Kong stock exchange, ostensibly to protect the exchange from foreign predators and enhance co-operation with mainland exchanges. The government has invested about HK$10 billion of the public's money, only a decade after the last, more massive intervention, in the market.
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Mattel is recalling yet another batch of Chinese manufactured toys....but if only they'd asked I've got proof the toys are safe. Recent studies with dogs and Barbie dolls have shown that consisent chewing of Mattel products does NOT lead to any health problems. And if the kids are out there licking their Barbies then perhaps whatever lead leaks into their systems will teach them a lesson. In the good old days a bit of lead was considered a part of any healthy kid's diet.
I think the more interesting story this weekend will be the Chinese-made condoms packaged in packaging that is said to be tearing and being turned away by residents of Washington, DC.
I think when it copmes to kids, better safe than sorry.
It only takes one kid to die or be seriously ill and the whole of Mattell colapses, thousands lose their jobs and not to mention China will lose even more credibility.
As a father i already will look at where things are manufactured.
This is not just toys, it is also tryes and dog food. Better to get it sorted now and have a prsoperous future, than the worst happening.
The Standard announces it is soon to be free, with the catchy slogan "first past the post"...gettit....which now means at least one of Hong Kong's English language newspapers are priced correctly.
This was a lie: "The Standard's editor-in-chief Ivan Tong Kam-piu said the staff's initial reaction to the new business strategy was "very, very positive." He said the number of staff will not change."
What Tong didn't add was that the same day they announced the Standard was becoming a giveaway, is that they also axed its one redeeming feature, The Weekend Standard magazine and canned its editor and his assistant.
Later announcements by Executive Editor Steve "Stepinfetchit Gweilo" Shellum to the staff that no one who leaves will be asked to stay and that the freebie Standard is a blow to the Post's "jugular" were met with general disgust and derision.
"Records smashed" reports The Standard, a newspaper who not co-incidentally largely relies on the level of the Hang Seng for its own financial health. The Hang Seng has managed to go from 19000 back up to 23000 in the space of a week, largely thanks to news that China is to allow the hordes of mainlanders (previously despised, now welcomed with open arms) and their wallets to spend as freely on Hong Kong shares as they do on their own. The only problem is a small one...the Tianjin authorities haven't quite got the paper work sorted out yet. This troubling detail means the Hong Kong market has managed to go up in anticipation of the hordes rather than because of them. And no-one has yet asked an obvious question: why is it that the Bank of China branch in Tianjin is the only one on the mainland that gets to run the "Hong Kong stock direct train" scheme? Do the shareholders of ICBC or Bank of Communications really mind that BoC got this supposed golden goose?
Isn't it a general feature of markets to move in anticipation rather in fruition, like certain pleasures one can think of? And what's with the "direct train" cliché? If the mainland's commitment to its "rail-as-backbone" policy is as empty a mantra as its SAR's, then the metaphor may turn out to particularly apposite if and when things grind to a halt.
Wan Chai rolled out the red carpet yesterday as bar owners eyed a bonanza of up to HK$78 million from the 5,000 visiting sailors aboard the USS Nimitz.
The nuclear-powered supercarrier, one of the largest warships in the world, steamed into Hong Kong yesterday, and ship officers said crew members were expected to each spend between US$800 and US$2,000 (HK$6,240 to HK$15,600) during their four-day stay.
However, the crew has been advised to strictly adhere to the 11pm curfew and the fact that the legal drinking age for American sailors is now 21.
Let's see...a bunch of 19 year old sailors who aren't allowed to drink...it's going to be a busy week down in East Central.
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PROFESSOR Wang Xiaolu sparked an online uproar two months ago by publishing the results of his "grey economy" study in China's leading business magazine, Caijing.
His survey showed the top 10 per cent of earners were successfully hiding about two-thirds of their income from the National Bureau of Statistics, meaning official estimates of income inequality, gross domestic product and tax evasion are all woefully understated.
That senior government officials studied his work, rather than bury it, shows how the realm of economic policy has been largely protected from the heavy hand of government censorship.
It is said that Chinese is one of those most difficult languages to learn all over the world. I dont know whether or not it is right but i do believe that 'cause I can speak english (or chinglish) and a little Japanese. What I want to say is learning languages is always not interesting as you just began when you step into a higher level. Just endure it. Good luck.
The previous comment seems to be SPAM, isn't it? :)
Just wanted to mention that hiding by people of their incomes is probably caused by high income taxes or certain difficulties in registration of this income.
I can exemplify: In Russia now there is a new law to oblige all real estate owners-lessors to pay the income tax in the profit obtained from letting their property on lease. Do you know why the most citizens there prefer to hide such incomes? The statistics says - only because the procedure is highly sophisticated and requires a lot of documents to be represented.
Who likes collecting documents?
Consequently: Who will pay the tax? As soon as the procedure is simplified, the incomes will be disclosed.
@Cattlu : The first comment is very likely spam good catch.
I'd say the main reason people are hiding money is exactly as Cattlu said. Who wants to pay taxes?! However taxes aren't paid because of laziness in relation to filing taxes. In fact quite often those hiding taxes need to pay for good accountants to hide this incoming money so they don't get caught.
On a side note I think people tend to forget that China has a history of corruption that dates back millennia. GuanXi has always been a large factor in business here, and likely will in the future.
This is "hiding of income issue" is no biggie. It happens everywhere around the world. Even your own countries President might be stashing away as we speak.
Like callcentervet said, it is there in every country. Recently, I happened to see one Indian movie, where the hero rob the black money from businessman's and politicians and spend it for good causes. The estimation of the black money is huge in countries like China, India, etc., Churchill Recovery Insurance
On their second day of trading, units of the HSBC China Dragon Fund (0820) soared 41.5 percent on heavy turnover, driven by the irrational exuberance of foreign funds and asset managers toward the A-share market, analysts said.
Both institutional investors and retail punters, bullish on the prospects of an actively managed China fund - despite the fact that it has yet to put any money into the frenzied A-share market - snapped up the units...
"This is totally crazy. It is irrational exuberance," said Fulbright Securities general manager Francis Lun Sheung- nim. "The fund has not even started to do any investing, and [the units] are skyrocketing like magic. All they have now is just cash. It is irrational." Lun expects the unit price of the fund to correct in the near future.
Foreign funds and assets managers entrust China entreprizes and prospects of China economy so much that throw their powers and assets into such undertakings without even thinking that this might destroy the existing order of natural selection in the market or that this can be just a next soap bubble.
Foreign funds and assets managers entrust Chinese companies and prospects of China economy so much that throw their powers and assets into such undertakings without even thinking that this might destroy the existing order of natural selection in the market or that this can be just a next soap bubble.
Simon - It's rather insane, isn't it!? There's an old saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted". We can only hope that this saying doesn't come to fruition in this case. Yes, it's irrational - there's no excuse for those follow the get rich quick scheme.
Simon - Rather insane, wouldn't you say. There's an old saying that "A fool and his money are soon parted". Yes, it's irrational, but there will always be those who want the get rich scheme to be true. Interesting post. Thanks
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. Fans of his website looking for more of the witty and satirical ins-and-outs of daily Hong Kong life are not going to find more of the same: there's no Winky Ip or Odell in these pages. Instead this book is a calm and flowing history and political analysis of the Big Lychee over the past decade. It is no surprise to find that Hemlock's is an insightful, thoughtful witness and commentator in addition to a diarist without peer.