That 2.5% probability evaporating fast

Secretary for Development Carrie Lam rules out using unsold government land to build public housing, ‘saying it would be a waste of a precious resource … pointing out that (land) sales last year swelled the government’s coffers by some HK$80 billion’. In other words, the Hong Kong government thinks its role is to accumulate revenue for itself – on top of its existing HK$1.2 trillion in reserves – at the expense of letting the population have affordable homes in their own city; the government is a separate entity that competes with the people for space and money, and it must win. To distill her comments to their essence: homes are a waste.

This may seem perverse to some, when rents are idiotic and people live in sub-divided squalor. However, we are talking about a system where Carrie’s ‘precious resource’ is shared with certain interests firstly via development of luxury real estate and secondly via recycling of revenues into huge pointless infrastructure projects. To those interests, the government has further good news: the system won’t be changing anytime soon.

Anonymous officials respond to anonymous – presumably fictitious – press enquiries in order to state that Chief Executive candidate CY Leung is a lying evil scumbag because in 2002 he failed to declare a conflict of interest (though he says it wasn’t one and he had no knowledge of it at the time). And, in case you are too slow-minded to get the full message, the government also announces that CY’s rival for top job Henry Tang is as saintly, noble and virtuous as a newborn and conflict-free despite, when Financial Secretary, lifting importation duties on expensive wines, of which he owned a valuable collection offshore.

Whose fingerprints are on this? It would be comforting to think that CE Donald Tsang, Carrie Lam and other top officials are simply pumping this stuff out on their own rather childish initiative to give their tycoon buddy Henry a helping hand. But dabbling in the selection of Hong Kong’s leader is strictly the job of our ultimate masters in Beijing. Officially, the Chinese government is not taking sides in the supposed race between Henry and CY, but with pro-Beijing labour leaders muttering, in effect, about not backing the pre-determined Henry, it seems the imperial court’s local emissaries decided a small, if rather desperate and heavy-handed, script-change is in order.

Reading perhaps too much between the lines, the reticence of the wording of the two press releases suggests that someone within the Big Lychee’s administration is not entirely comfortable with this shabby stunt, either because it has the potential to backfire or it is (hey, you never know) unethical.

So, anyway, tough luck. Now we’ve got that clear – homes are and will remain a waste – let’s get ready to let mainlanders drive cars into Hong Kong in order to justify more road- and bridge-building

Click to hear ‘Tough Luck’ by Fingerprintz!

 
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22 Responses to That 2.5% probability evaporating fast

  1. Rinky Dinky Speer says:

    Never mind ze elections…

    LOCUSTS RAUS!

    HONG KONG FOR ZE CANTONESE VOLK!

    Ze problem of NON-ARYAN influence in our RACIALLY PURE society has always been a concern of our LEADER. Zer plague of LOCUSTS from over the border is a symptom of ZE WANDERING LOCUST which Dr Goebbels has attempted to highlight in his glorious PROPAGANDA films on YouTube.

    I am assured by the REICHSLEITER that through a system of SELECTION, SPECIAL TREATMENT and RESETTLEMENT, more aggressive measures such as CAMPS and a FINAL SOLUTION can be avoided.

    VORWARDS MIT DE PEOPLE
    EIN REICH, EIN VOLK, EIN IPHONE

    Hochachtungsvoll!

    Speer,
    Reichsminister for ze Building Sector.

  2. Real Tax Payer says:

    All this would be vaguely amusing , like when someone farts quietly in a crowded and everyone ( including the perpetrator) makes an obvious effort to show the others that it was not HIM ( or HER)….

    …… if it were not for the fact that this is really happening today , 9 Feb 2012

  3. Real Tax Payer says:

    Sorry… I meant… farts in a crowded LIFT

    __________________________________

    I always thought Ms Lam , at least, had some brains and modicum of integrity left. But it seems not.

    So fart away, all you bureaucrats working in Duck House aka Don’s Folly. I hope it drives away the legionnaires and the smells of rotten consciences and decaying morals

  4. Incredulous says:

    So the implication is that sooner or later, mainland tourists are going to be allowed to drive from the Mainland into Hong Kong. I sincerely hope this is a fucking joke!

  5. Real Tax Payer says:

    @ Incredulous

    No it’s not a joke ( wish it was)

    And one day soon we will all have to change over to drive on the right hand side in HK. The Chinese will start it all by driving in 100 heavy tanks …. all driving on the RHS. Haha

    But seriously… letting mainland drivers drive in HK is a sure recipe for total disaster and some catastrophic accidents .

    I’ve nothing against mainland drivers per se – in fact I’m amazed at how they somehow instinctively anticipate when the car in front is going to switch lanes without signal or any other indication ( unless it’s some kind of ESP) . But somehow, all the vehicles do seem to avoid each other and in 20 years on Chinese roads I have never been involved in a collision. But that only works when the car behind you EXPECTS you to suddenly swerve left or right without warning.

    We HK rats are all trained from childhood to stay in our rat-run lanes , which maybe explains how we come to accept such mediocre bureaucrats without rioting and throwing rotten eggs.

    But I can just imagine the chaos when a Mainland driver decides to suddenly switch lanes without warning when driving at speed along the Eastern by- pass.

    Well – this all part of CEPA I assume.

    ( But I bet the top civil servants will start buying some amour plated cars after the first few huge pile- ups in front of Tamar base )

  6. Incredulous says:

    This July 1st is going to be the biggest ever. Not only have we got this CE election farce going on, tempers are boiling over with resentment against Mainlanders abuse of our medical services, the driving up of property prices and the general ineptness of the HK govt. Arab Spring’s got nothing on what will happen here!

  7. PropertyDeveloper says:

    >Incredulous: what do you think the bridge from Zhuhai is for otherwise?

    There are already, as I’m sure you’ve seen, dual-numberplate cars (in itself an amazing feature), the status of these symbols being proportional to the amount of tea-money involved, and the black sheen and dark curtains of the stretched Mercedes nicely highlighting the red and blue plates.

  8. darovia says:

    Can anyone help me? I am looking for a book called ‘Sneaky Ways of Dumping on People for Dummies’. I went to the toy town library and I was told that a Mr Horse has the only copy in town and wants to keep it for the next couple of months.

  9. Real Tax Payer says:

    @ Incredulous

    I agree. And I have booked that date to make 100% certain I’m in HK so I can march with the rest

  10. KY says:

    It also helps up the usage of those deserted footbridges. At least I will start using them …

  11. Probably says:

    So let me get this correct; the HK government is willing to allow additional mainland vehicles into Hong Kong (total roads length 2,076km) on top of the 687,850 vehicles already registered in HK that will:
    1) Increase congestion
    2) Be of a lower emissions standard compared to HK vehicles, and
    3) Be filled from over the border with high sulphur fuel.

    Could someone cleverer than me please explain how this policy aligns itself with the Governments Air Quality Objectives?

  12. expat says:

    The writing is on the wall. The unelected ‘govt’ is no longer shy about declaring its goals.

    Just 15 years after the handover and the transformation of HK into a mainland city is progressing nicely. For those who are mobile, time to consider a Plan B.

  13. Mary Hinge says:

    50 cars per day, each allowed to stay in HK for 7 days.

    So, how long before the first ‘overstayer car’ is caught, do we reckon?

  14. maugrim says:

    Fark, that’s all we need. Those dual numberplate cars already drive with contempt for everyone else, seldom indicating when changing lanes, speeding in dangerous situations etc, as if we haven’t got enough to contend with with the antics of red mini bus drivers, taxis and those whoth a ‘baby on board sticker’, all of whom drive as if they are on the mainland.

  15. Locust Parentis says:

    How long before we see mainland-plated people carriers kitted out with maternity wards for mainland mums to give birth behind tinted windows then be dropped off at post-natal wards, I wonder?

  16. Xiaoyao says:

    Carrie Lam thinks housing isn’t an urgent need, while the government seeks to increase mainland traffic in order to justify an unneeded, environmentally destructive bridge and exacerbate our already crowded streets and dirty air. “Pythonesque” is the word that comes to mind.

  17. Real Tax Payer says:

    @ Maugrim

    Careful with your whiplash pen my friend. Women drivers always have been allowed in HK …..

    😉

  18. mumphLT says:

    The shorthand way to write ‘dual numberplate’ is ‘2@’.

  19. Meathamper says:

    I don’t expect mainland drivers are going to be allowed into HK. People will do the usual, kick up a fuss, have a bit of a protest and it’s going to be quietly shelved. We all know how it works.

  20. Incredulous says:

    @Meathamper
    Sorry to disillusion you but if Beijing has told Donald Duck is must be done – it will be so.
    @expat
    100% correct. Tibet-ization of Hong Kong. Swamp HK with mainlanders – that’ll teach ’em who’s in charge now.

  21. RSG says:

    @ Real Tax Payer

    “We HK rats are all trained from childhood to stay in our rat-run lanes , which maybe explains how we come to accept such mediocre bureaucrats without rioting and throwing rotten eggs.”

    Surely political proclivities can be derived from driving habits. That explains why Mainlanders who “switch lanes without signal or any other indication” have enjoy such raucous, freewheeling democracy.

    Seriously though, allowing Mainlanders to drive into Hong Kong is one of the stupidest ideas I’ve heard in a long time. I mean, the idiocy is so remarkably self-evident that it’s almost unimaginable that anyone thinks this is a good idea. You trade a decrease in safety and air quality for an increase in congestion, illegal immigration, smuggling, and criminal activity…

    Good thing Mainlanders can’t drive to Singapore, which is starting to look really nice…

    Just to set the record straight, most of the dual-numberplate cars are driven by HKers who travel north to their PRD factories, and a whole lot of those cars are operated by private companies with professional drivers.

  22. Real Tax Payer says:

    @ RSG

    AMEN AND AMEN

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