Category Archives: Blog

Your tax dollars at work… Carrie Lam’s private concierge/secretariat expenditure last year came to… …HK$5.67 million on “rent and related expenses” … while remuneration for staff cost HK$2.86 million and daily operations cost HK$640,000. Lawmaker Michael Tien suggests buying her … Continue reading →

Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Xia Baolong’s comments on Monday included this on Hong Kong’s economic future… “We cannot use the old perspective from yesterday to look at today’s new situation. We cannot use the old … Continue reading →

Yesterday was National Security Education Day. Among the lessons… “For an extremely small number of people who endanger national security, this law is an overhanging sharp sword,” said Xia Baolong, Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office chief. “Hong Kong’s … Continue reading →

A new online magazine – the Hongkonger. Proclaims itself ‘inspired by the New Yorker’. A couple of items by a former local film studies academic (and occasional hiking companion of mine) looks at how older movies are affected by the … Continue reading →

Transit Jam investigates the Nathan Road fire, which left five dead… Buildings Department (BD) says it issued a Fire Safety Direction to the New Lucky House Owners Committee (OC) in 2008, “requiring the upgrading of certain fire safety provisions of … Continue reading →

In trials, fewer than half of households are using the paid-for designated green waste bags that will (perhaps) become compulsory in future. (As the old lady in Harry’s SCMP cartoon pointed out, ‘they cost money’. The government gives you free … Continue reading →

China Media Project on Hong Kong’s new NatSec language… Local officials now decry “soft resistance” against the state and exclusively refer to the pro-democracy protests that drew millions of mostly peaceful marchers to the streets as the “black riots” (黑爆) … Continue reading →

Those who liked the idea of turning part or all of Fanling golf course into affordable housing and/or public park land are now full of remorse, it seems… Public opinion on building housing on Fanling Golf Course has made a … Continue reading →

From HKFP… In the fourth quarter of last year, the city recorded 72,035 UK tourists compared to 158,702 in the same period of 2018. The number of US visitors declined from 377,613 to 216,965 in the same period. …Hong Kong … Continue reading →

An SCMP review of Hong Kong’s recent Art Week… [I encountered] a taxi driver … ranting about the quality of public art in the city. Last week, he had passengers from Beijing and Shanghai complaining about the “mainlandisation of aesthetics” … Continue reading →