New central library should be functional & exude dignity--Editorial

Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) President Mok Ian Ian made my day when she announced on Thursday that the government will finally get its long-delayed new central library project off the ground. As a die-hard bibliophile I have been attracted to libraries since my childhood. I spent much of my university years in Munich in the colossal but poorly-lit reading hall of the Bavarian State Library. Well, I must admit that I spent large part of my presence in the library’s ground-floor café because I

September 14, 2020 | BY admin

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Civil protection team deserves a hearty pat on the back – Editorial

Editorial Initially I planned to write this editorial on Wednesday, i.e. just a few hours after the rarely hoisted storm warning signal No. 10 had been lowered by our meteorologists, but I decided to delay it by one day so that I could ask more residents about their views on the government’s civil protection measures before, during and after Typhoon Higos.I had expected to hear mostly favourable opinions but to my surprise I heard no negative views at all. The Civil Protection Operations

August 21, 2020 | BY admin

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Taking pity on Hong Kong – Editorial

When Swindon in Lock Road, my favourite bookshop in Hong Kong for four decades, closed for good on Friday I couldn’t help but take pity, once again, on the Fragrant Harbour. According to Hong Kong media reports, the famed bookshop’s demise was due to a variety of reasons such as the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a years-long rent dispute with the landlord. It may sound like a hackneyed phrase, but Swindon, which opened in 1918, was surely an institution. I will miss it.

August 3, 2020 | BY admin

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Expecting HK to enter post-delusional era – Editorial

EditorialFollowing Tuesday night’s enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law drafted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which was slammed by 27 Western nations but backed by 52 other countries during a session of the UN Human Rights Council this week, I hope that Hong Kong will finally be able to enter a post-delusional era of socio-political development based on political realism. The main problem of Hong Kong’s anti-government protest movement

July 3, 2020 | BY admin

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A matter of trust, control & responsibility – Editorial

It’s an old habit of mine to reread books that I bought years or even decades ago, sometimes because they are simply too good to not read them again such as one of my favourite novels, “La Colmena” (“The Hive”) by Camilo José Cela, or because of their timeless topicality such as “O Jogo em Macau” (“Gaming in Macau”). I decided to reread the latter in the wake of Dr Stanley Ho Hung Sun’s passing late last month when I was asked by quite a number of journalists and

June 19, 2020 | BY admin

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‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone’ – Editorial

EditorialThe West’s self-righteous support for Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters by deliberately turning a blind eye to their rioting and vandalism reminds me of one of the best-known utterances attributed to Jesus in the Bible that I learnt during my two years of religious lessons as a Lutheran confirmand in my teens: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” I have been an agnostic for decades now, but some of what Jesus is said to have said

June 1, 2020 | BY admin

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Not the end but hopefully a new beginning for HK – Editorial

     When the central authorities revealed in Beijing last week that they were preparing to legislate on Hong Kong’s long-delayed national security issue, the special administrative region’s “pan-democrat” lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang claimed apocalyptically that “this is the end of Hong Kong.” Well, I beg to differ. Quite the reverse, I hope that it will be a new beginning for Hong Kong so that after the national security law agenda is finally off the

May 25, 2020 | BY admin

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‘Happy zeros’ show successful fight against COVID-19 – Editorial

Health Bureau (SSM) Director Lei Chin Ion was a bearer of glad tidings this week when he announced on Tuesday what I may call Macau’s “happy zeros” concerning the local fight against COVID-19.  Lei noted that Macau has brought the number of novel coronavirus patients down from 45 to zero and also has been able to keep the number of infected healthcare workers at zero. Most importantly, the number of COVID-19 deaths has remained at zero since the first case was confirmed in Macau

May 21, 2020 | BY admin

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The Lancet editorial shows how the West turns away from the truth

Commentary by Tom Fowdy* On April 18, the peer reviewed medical journal, The Lancet, published an article titled “Sustaining containment of COVID-19 in China.” The piece set out to explore how “The quick containment of COVID-19 in China is impressive and sets an encouraging example for other countries” citing what it describes as “aggressive public health interventions ... early detection of cases, contact tracing, and population behavioral change” as paramount to the

April 24, 2020 | BY admin

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COVID-19 fighters boost civil service image – Editorial

The round-the-clock struggle of Macau’s health care workers, law enforcement officers and other government employees against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has given a big boost to the image of our civil service, the Health Bureau in particular, apart from potentially saving countless lives. All those involved in the local authorities’ battle against the highly infectious virus have shown that Macau’s civil servants can indeed be diligent, competent and efficient,

April 20, 2020 | BY admin

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A matter of gratitude, generosity and pragmatism – Editorial

When asked by the media this week why Macau’s about 190,000 non-resident workers have been excluded from the government’s second round of COVID-19 support measures, Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong said it was a matter of weighing up different policy priorities.Lei, widely respected for his down-to-earth attitude, said that the interests of local workers facing unprecedented difficulties continued to be the government’s top priority. However, he was frank enough to

April 10, 2020 | BY admin

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A well-deserved salute to our anti-COVID-19 cleaners – Editorial

I think it’s high time to salute our city’s anti-COVID-19 cleaners and other vitally important support staff, many of them non-resident workers, toiling hard to keep all of us safe. I have great respect for them. Incidentally, I respect all hard-working people, be they medical workers, waiters, sales assistants, rubbish collectors or, last but not least, journalists. I have always held so-called “3-D” workers in high esteem – that is to say all those engaged in dull, dangerous

April 1, 2020 | BY admin

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A timely rap on the knuckles – Editorial

Macau’s six gaming operators got a timely rap on the knuckles yesterday during Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s two-hour press conference about the government’s latest measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. It was the right occasion for the chief executive to remind the operators of their social responsibility as some of them were apparently disinclined to help the government secure more hotel rooms for the hundreds of returnees from overseas, most of them students,

March 25, 2020 | BY admin

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COVID-19 – a matter of ‘existential inconvenience’ – Editorial

I read over the weekend an inspiring article by English writer Geoff Dyer in the prestigious The New Yorker magazine, dated March 16, with the thought-provoking title “The Existential Inconvenience of Coronavirus”. I recommend it to everyone interested in understanding the multifarious – and nefarious – implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.Of course, the novel coronavirus is an existential inconvenience or, to put it blandly, a pain in the backside. And, most importantly, it’s also a

March 23, 2020 | BY admin

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