Hong Kong is cutting the tax on high-end liquor in order to somehow boost tourism. And now it’s thinking about reducing the minimum age for admission to horse-races…
Secretary for Culture, Sports, and Tourism Kevin Yeung on Monday told an RTHK programme that the government was in talks with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the body behind the city’s horse racing sports and betting, about promoting the sport as a unique characteristic of the city to tourists.
Local media reports on Monday suggested that authorities were considering lowering age restrictions for attending horse races, which currently bars those aged 18 or below from entering racecourses. When asked about the proposal, Yeung said it had to be “carefully considered.”
“I think we have to see things holistically, it can’t be that everything is not restricted. Sometimes we need to be practical and realistic, and we may need to lift restrictions when it is needed. But we will discuss this [with the Jockey Club],” Yeung said…
Standard story here. There’s a Singapore angle.
(‘It can’t be that everything is not restricted, but sometimes we need to be practical and realistic’ is classic bureaucrat. Yeung is a career civil servant who was Education Secretary under Carrie Lam and seems to be having a hard time in the new all-patriots/ex-cops administrative order. As one of our esteemed commenters notes, he is under pressure to deliver more tourism/creative hub-zone successes even while other officials work on destroying an authentic attraction at the Flower Market in Kowloon. Maybe he could go rogue and suggest a serious cost-benefit analysis to see what, if anything, tourism actually contributes on a net basis to GDP.)
What other vices can we push to various age groups? Prostitution? Smoking? Porn? (Don’t forget panda porn.) Opium? Lots of economic opportunities to grasp. Plus Arabic-speaking taxi drivers to guide Middle Eastern visitors through it all. We could bury Macau.
It was good to see horse-racing finally ended in Singapore recently, after about 200 years. It’s a barbaric sport made even worse by rising temperatures. This trend of official monetising of animal exploitation – horses, pandas – is sad.
The morality of monetizing beasts (personally, I don’t eat anything with a pulse) is not really a factor in discussions such as this. Taking the kids to see the ponies run around could be a pleasant diversion. I go on occasion and neither wager nor drink to excess. It’s a nice way to spend some time with the lads / out-of-towners / colleagues / senior management (in a box, of course). Unfortunately, I have no faith the local administration could put together something appealing – look at the Flower Market, Kai Tak, Good Vibes, etc debacles. It’s all moot anyway. It is the members’ club after all, and non-punting / non-drinking children and families would hardly benefit their vested interests.
Cultural woes continue as Russian pianist denied a visa for his concert at the Cultural Centre next month… Russia earlier branded Evgeny Kissin a “foreign agent” for his pro-Ukraine compositions. Obviously Hong Kong’s monkey-killer cultural boss did not have the clout to override Immigration on this obscene censorship of a musical performance.
@ James
It’s cruel to race animals that can’t generally survive a broken leg, so will be curtained off and shot on the track while the kids are enjoying their ice creams. On TVB news a few years ago they showed a horse at Shatin with a broken front leg dangling like a pendulum, looking in severe pain and confused, getting the curtain/gun treatment after it had thrown its rider (that was the news angle). It was really sickening to see.
The prospect of removing an official does not sit well with the harmonious facade – in any other jurisdiction the Sec for Enviro would have been sacked for the costly green bag debacle – so now Hapless is being heaped with praise for his exemplary handling of the monkey deaths, this despite the fact that the numbers are rising.
Encouraging kids to gamble at the races and exposing them to the sight of animals bred in more temperate climates forced to race in scorching temperatures is indeed yet another indication that desperation has set in.
Surely working animals should also be covered by the recently introduced Heat Stress at Work legislation?
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202409/28/P2024092800239.htm
And while on the topic, nary a peep from all those ‘animal lovers’ in the community re the exploitation of animals, an indication that they view animals as nothing more than surrogate babies and mobile fluffy selfie appendages.
It was okay for Evgeny Kissin to play here in 2018. What changed? Why is he now having ‘travel issues’ (to coin the current government LTT) that he didn’t have before?
Could it be the fact that he holds both UK and Israel citizenship and passports have anything to do with it? Shouldn’t be. He had them both in 2018.
So what could possibly have happened in Hong Kong in the years between 2018 and 2024 that now prohibits a person critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from plying his trade in here?
Ah…I see…nothing to do with NatSec/Thought Police I suppose.
So now all folks designated as ‘foreign agents’ in Russia are deemed the same in China and Hong Kong.
I wonder if you can still buy his CDs and/or download his albums on Apple Music or Amazon Music?
What if someone hired City Hall and organised a virtual concert where Evgeny simply makes a Zoom call from the other side of the world and plays the piano?
Mostly though, what is achieved by all this, except a lot of trouble for people who have bought tickets for a concert that should apparently have never been allowed to be promoted in the first place?
Who’s in charge round here…?
“And while on the topic, nary a peep from all those ‘animal lovers’ in the community re the exploitation of animals, ”
If it were dog racing instead of horse racing, you’d definitely here something from our local animal lovers. I have a feeling many aren’t aware of how the JC exploits horses or don’t care because it’s a horse not a cute dog or cat.
@Young Winston
you’re not wrong, of course. cruelty has no place anywhere, and certainly not in people’s ‘entertainment’. fwiw, I dislike zoos, am a vegetarian, and a cat daddy who keeps the AC at 25C so my handsome little prince doesn’t get uncomfortable… strange how we all draw these lines personally and completely arbitrarily, isn’t it?
The political “I have every confidence…” statement before the sack:
Kevin Yeung praised for ‘swift’ monkey deaths response
Lee said Kevin Yeung did exactly what was expected of him.
Though quite why monkey deaths come under the banner of Culture, Sports and Tourism rather than the Agriculture or Environment Departments I know not.
@wmjp: the monkeys reside in the Botanical Gardens, which is run by Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which also runs museums and libraries, and so is housed under Culture, Sports and Tourism.
If it had been wild monkeys dropping dead in a country park, it would be AFCD. EPD generally doesn’t concern itself with anything that doesn’t come from a smokestack, tailpipe, drain or trash receptacle.
Yes our government are organized in an arbitrary and nonsensical manner, but find me a bureaucracy that isn’t.
wmjp, I’m sure (or hope) you’re right about the “I have every confidence” politics. As for blame… the monkey deaths were in the “zoo” and park operated by LCSD, Kevin’s baby. That LCSD hires the cheapest nastiest contractors for every job (and never gives them a proper space for tools, cleaning up, storage etc) is probably part of the reason the bacteria-infested muck got trooped around the park and monkey enclosure in the first place.
Incidentally, on the topic of animal cruelty, I raised the treatment of caged birds at the Yuen St Bird Garden (Flower Market/MK Stadium) with AFCD some months ago. They investigated and said no ill treatment had been found. I’m only a layman but the state of some of those large exotics with the heavy chains around their ankles… sickening.