Toilet Paper, Masks and Rice are Prized Commodities

Two women clutching their prized toilet paper packs in Hong Kong

Last night the shelves that were supposed to stock toilet paper were bare in a large supermarket in my neighbourhood. It was completely cleared out, and after seeing this in several stores over several days, it's worrying.

It's a sad indictment of the Hong Kong government when people are desperately searching for toilet paper even though supermarkets and distributors have tried to reassure the public there is more than enough bog roll to go around.

The largest supermarket in the district is empty of toilet paper

This morning I was in Central on my way to the gym when I spied someone carrying a pack of toilet paper, and she was coming from a supermarket nearby. I decided to check it out as I had never been to Food Le Parc, a bizarre name for a supermarket owned by tycoon Li Ka-shing.

And bingo! There were several shoppers there each with two packs of toilet paper in each of their carts. The price was more expensive than usual, but heck -- you need it, right?

I also got a roll of paper towels, as I was truly running out.

Afterwards, I clutched my toilet paper pack close to my chest and carried it to the gym where I stored it in my locker. Luckily I didn't get any strange looks.

Anthony Lam says there is more than enough rice for a month

However when I came back to Kennedy Town and went up the escalator to the wet market, one woman going down spied my prized possession and asked if I had gotten it from the pharmacy. "I got it in Central," I replied, much to her surprise.

Meanwhile it seems rice is still also a precious commodity, and Anthony Lam Sai-ho, a rice importer and member of the Trade and Industry Department's Customer Liaison Group for Rice, tried to tell the public there were no need to panic when it came to enough rice in the city.

He said the government's rice reserve as well as the industry's own stockpile would be enough to meet the city's demand for more than a month. But even if Hong Kong needed more rice, it could be imported within 10 days or less, as most of it is sourced from Thailand and Vietnam.

Most of Hong Kong's rice comes from Thailand and Vietnam

Lam said the city's 229 importers were required to set aside 17 percent of their monthly import for reserve, which at the end of January was at 13,000 tonnes, enough for about 15 days. And then there is another stockpile by importers that was about 14,000 tonnes, again enough for more than two weeks' consumption.

However, people are still stockpiling on rice, emptying shelves of the staple faster than shop staff can restock them.





My relatives who came back from northern Japan managed to secure enough masks for their family of three for three months. They scoured every pharmacy, supermarket and convenience shop for them. In some places they could only buy packs of three, in other places they managed to buy boxes of 60.

A lot of people are shopping for masks in Japan

On their flight back to Hong Kong this morning, they noticed elderly passengers had lots of luggage and assumed they too were hunting for masks, a more important concern than seeing the sights. They also saw many young families from Hong Kong who were also on holiday since school is still out until mid March.

One more thing about toilet paper -- the Consumer Council has also advised people not to hoard toilet paper, and that they should not store their numerous packs of toilet paper in the bathroom where it is more humid and germs often thrive. Better to stick them in a dry ventilated space.

People won't be needing to buy toilet paper for a while... right?



 

Fact of the Day: Instant Soup Noodles are Very Salty

So many different kinds of instant noodles, so much sodium in each pack!

I don't know about you, but I try to avoid eating instant cup noodles unless it's the last thing left on the planet to eat.

Not only are the noodles deep-fried, but now I have another reason to avoid them like the plague -- the soup base is laden with salt. How much you ask?

A study of 10 types of Asian soup noodles by the Hong Kong Consumer Council and the Centre for Food Safety shows more than 75 percent of the samples contain so much sodium that it can affect high blood pressure and heart disease.

Instant noodles have enough sodium for three days' worth

Of the 100 samples, 76 of them contained sodium levels that exceeded the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended daily sodium intake of 2,000mg for an average adult. The average sodium content of the samples was 350mg per 100g.

The sample with the highest sodium was a type of spicy rice noodles that contained a whopping 6,000mg per bowl -- triple the WHO limit.

Perhaps people needed a gallon of water while they ate these noodles to wash down the saltiness!

"Eating one bowl of these rice noodles will consume three days' worth of sodium in one sitting," warned Dr Henry Ng, the centre's principal medical officer.

The other noodles were in tom yum soup, spicy noodles with pork belly and cuttlefish balls, barbecue pork ramen in pork bone soup, dan dan noodles with spicy and minced pork, stewed beef noodles and seafood laksa.

"Even the lowest sodium sample, a wonton noodle with 1,200mg, exceeds the intake limit by 80 percent, Ng warned. "The high sodium content in most of the samples in the test is putting consumer health in jeopardy with increased risks of high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases," he said.

Avoid eating them altogether or cut down on the soup base

Ng advised consumers to either cut down on drinking the soup base or avoid it in order to cut down their sodium intake. But even if you do that, you're still ingesting way beyond the recommended amount from WHO.

What I don't understand is why the Hong Kong government is not insisting on producers of these noodles, and heck any other processed food product, to drastically cut down on their sodium content?

People in Hong Kong buy products without thinking about how much sodium is in them. Shouldn't the government be looking out for its residents' well being? That in turn would help reduce medicare costs.

If anything the government should encourage its citizens to be as healthy as possible, with the aging population outstripping the number of babies born each year.

While it's great the Consumer Council comes up with these warnings periodically, more needs to be done to educate the public on the perils of processed foods and businesses should be encouraged to find out ways to produce good, healthy food at a decent cost.

Taxi Association's U-Turn on Uber

Will taxis finally stop protesting and finally cooperate with Uber?

Just the other day two Hong Kong taxi groups were threatening to sue the government if it followed recommendations by the Consumer Council to relax regulations to allow Uber to operate in the city.

But now there seems to be a complete 180-degree turn, as Uber is interested in working with taxis to share the market.

"... the taxi industry may not have the technology platform like ours to provide tailor-made services," explained Kenneth She Chun-chi, Uber Hong Kong's general manager. "If we cooperate together, they can also make use of our backup customer service and even capitalize on our good image to regain consumer confidence as they are now having an image problem."

Uber's Kenneth She says taxis can benefit from its technology

Wow dragging the Hong Kong taxi industry into the 21st century. How novel!

And the vice-chairman of the Association of Taxi Industry Development Ng Kam-wah is open to the idea of working with the ride-hailing company.

"We think that there is room for the taxi trade to cooperate with Uber as this will be a win-win situation for us," he said. "The taxi industry could benefit form the ride-hailing platform, effective marketing and good customer image of Uber, while Uber can operate legally with the taxi vehicles," he added.

They sound like they are practically singing the same tune.

However, Ng points out that Uber charges a certain percentage of the drivers' income, but he would prefer the charge goes to the customer to pay rather than the driver. He doesn't want drivers' incomes to be affected.

Why is Ng Kam-wah suddenly keen on working with Uber?

But that's the whole point -- Uber helps drivers get customers through its technology so it is only fair that drivers get charged for that. It's just like taxi drivers having to pay for their licenses. Something's gotta give.

And are those crusty taxi drivers in their 60s really going to know how to use the app and deal with these new ways of charging customers and collecting money online?

We find this sudden about face very interesting and wonder what made the taxi association change its mind about Uber.

However here at The Fragrant Harbour we're all about action, not words. If Ng really does get his association moving in adopting Uber's technology and the culture of ride-hailing apps, then transportation in Hong Kong is going to get significantly better.

The ball's in your court, Ng.

Taxis vs Government

Taxi groups threaten to sue the government if it allows Uber to operate in HK

We're not surprised by two taxi associations up in arms about a recent Consumer Council report that recommended the government relax regulations to allow car-hailing apps like Uber to operate in Hong Kong.

What we are surprised about is the delayed response from the two associations -- this report came out a week ago.

People want more choice of how to get from A to B

The Association for the Rights of Liberty Taxi Drivers and Association for Taxi Industry Development are threatening to sue the government if goes ahead with the council's recommendations.

They do have a good point though -- taxi operators need to pay HK$7 million (US$896,000) for a taxi license, whereas ride-hailing operators don't need to do that.

The Consumer Council had recommended the government make car-hailing services more available in Hong Kong after so many complaints about taxi services being rude, cars are old, overcharging customers and denying passengers rides.

In the report the council also suggested cabbies could take part in the car-hailing industry by setting up their own groups, thus giving consumers more choice in how to get from A to B.

Carrie Lam may side with the taxis groups for political support

Up until now taxi groups had vowed to reform themselves with some chosen drivers to provide better service. But how are we supposed to know which ones they are, and how can we request them?

There were a few other initiatives but I'm not hearing anyone remarking how they had an impressive taxi ride recently.

So this showdown between the taxi associations and the government should be interesting. The government will probably back down as Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor depends on them for support, leaving the rest of Hong Kong grumbling even more about state of taxi services in the city.

Or will she figure out some kind of compromise? Miracles can happen...

Beijing's Misunderstanding of Hong Kong

Chen Zuo'er claims Hong Kong wasn't "de-colonized" after the handover

Beijing still doesn't understand why Hong Kong isn't becoming "mainlandized" as fast and as well as it think it should be.

The latest to make this comment is Chen Zuo'er, former deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.

He claimed that Hong Kong did not "implement de-colonization" after the 1997 handover.

Referring to activists who wave British colonial flags, Chen said: "Because de-colonization wasn't implemented in accordance with the law, things that should be put in the history museum ran into the streets... [At the same time], de-Sinofication, created by colonialists in the 1980s, has revived."

Uh what is de-colonization and what does that entail?

Hong Kong was handed over to the Chinese at midnight

I was here when Hong Kong was handed over to China at midnight on July 1, 1997. There was no program to "de-colonize" the city -- overnight the police changed the insignias on their police caps, mail boxes were painted green, and some royal post boxes were even removed ahead of time. The general sentiment was that many people were happy to be rid of the Brits with hopes things would be better under China.

So what is Chen talking about?

It is the central government that hasn't done a good job in presenting itself as a leadership with integrity, that listens to its people and follows the rule of law. It hasn't done a good public relations exercise nor proper accountability in proving that it is better than the Brits in administering Hong Kong.

In fact quite the opposite.

Hong Kong officials seem to have no idea how to govern the city, seemingly waiting for Beijing to tell them what to do. There is no interest in preserving Hong Kong's unique culture but more importantly there is no vision for the city's future.

Almost a year later what has changed for the better?

For example, the lead tainted water scandal has dragged on for so long and yet we don't even know where the source is. And I checked with the Consumer Council to see which water filters it recommended, only to find it has done no such research. It claims to be an independent body from the government, and yet such information would be useful at a time like now.

The government, both Beijing and Hong Kong, have done nothing to address social tensions between mainlanders and locals, nor critical issues like the wealth gap, poverty and housing.

Chen claimed that Hong Kong's economic development lagged behind Macau's -- though the former Portuguese colony is seeing a 180-degree turn on its fortunes as casino revenues plunge because the big gamblers have disappeared. What kind of comparison is that?

Hong Kong is far more developed than Macau already -- what more can Hong Kong do to bring in more revenue?

The former official is blowing a lot of hot air. These people waving colonial flags are literally a handful of people, and yet the sight of them freaks him out. Chen seems to have no idea what happened almost a year ago and why people occupied various parts of Hong Kong for 79 days.

Beijing doesn't really get it, does it?