Pitch in for Cleaner Seas

Lots of garbage gets washed up  -- imagine how much is in the sea!

One of my friends, YTSL regularly joins a group to do beach clean-ups around Hong Kong. She is dismayed to find each time there is the same amount of garbage or even more sometimes. But she hopes that each time she pitches in she is doing her small but significant part in improving the environment.

Part of the problem is old school thinking by people who don't seem interested in trying to make the environment better for the next generation and beyond.

Case in point are the styrofoam boxes used by fishermen to transport their catches to wholesale markets.

WWF-Hong Kong's corrugated plastic boxes

"We see many of these boxes floating along the coastline and in places like Aberdeen typhoon shelter, which may have been dumped or blown into the water," says WWF-Hong Kong's project manager for marine affairs, Patrick Yeung Chung-wing.

"This has a huge impact on the environment as foam is very brittle and light, making it very hard to clean up once it's in the sea."

Not only do they pollute the water, but also the fish mistake the small white bits as food. These non-digestible things make the fish think it's full, but really it's not.

About a year ago, some scientists did biopsies of local fish and found lots of plastic and styrofoam in their stomachs. How gross is that!

According to a 2015 report compiled by the Environmental Protection Department, foam plastic makes up for one-fifth of marine refuse.

Marine life may mistaken floating plastic as food

WWF-Hong Kong is now launching a trial scheme with local fisheries representatives to use sturdy crates made from cheap, lightweight corrugated plastic.

What was the reaction? One would have thought the fishing industry would welcome the chance to improve the environment.

Instead Hong Kong Fishermen Consortium chairman Cheung Siu-keung says they would only consider the corrugated plastic crates if they were cheap, functional and durable.

"The most important consideration will be the ability to maintain the temperature of its contents," he said. "Reliable supply will also be important."

Yeung also hopes the fishermen will consider deploying special trawler nets to scoop up floating refuse more efficiently, and even bring back refuse in their nets back to shore instead of dumping them into the sea.

"Rubbish should be cleaned up in the sea and sorted onshore and given a new product life. In Hong Kong, there are no groups or companies doing this," he says.

We all need to pitch in to make the harbour cleaner. And it seems just trying to get the right attitude from stakeholders is the biggest challenge of all...

Trump's Sabre-Rattling Man

What will the addition of Peter Navarro mean for Trump's China policy?

US President-elect Donald Trump continues with his war mongering with today's appointment of UC Irvine economist Peter Navarro to head the new National Trade Council for US trade and industrial policy.

If anything Navarro seems to be inspiring Trump's beliefs that China has been taking away American jobs, polluting the planet and spewing propaganda to justify its totalitarian regime.

The 67-year-old has written several books on the Middle Kingdom, like Death by China, Crouching Tiger: What China's Militarism Means for the World, and The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought, How They Can Be Won.

Trump seems to be influenced by Navarro's writing on China

They are ominous titles and Navarro seems to be egging on a fight with China, standing behind Trump and daring to poke the dragon in the eye.

Is this really necessary? And besides, China and the US' economies are so closely interlinked, adding the military card just makes things even more tense than they need be.

So if America doesn't pay back the trillions of dollars worth of US Treasury bills China holds, then the US is going to do payback time in the form of nukes?

And Navarro seems to forget that China is the world's factory, which is why it is polluting the environment at the cost of consumers' (mostly American) desires. If we needed less stuff then maybe the country would be less polluted.

Provoking war with China seems completely absurd, but then again we are now in the age of Trump where he seems to have the idea of stimulating the economy with military escalation...

One of Navarro's books about China

It is a frightening thought that this is what Trump is keen to do and giving Navarro license to fulfill his predictions.

Sounds like China needs to be the more reasoned panda than the eagle who seems keen on trying out its arsenal...

Already Endorsing Regina Ip

Regina Ip may be making her big announcement next Thursday

The race for the next Hong Kong Chief Executive hasn't officially started but it's already getting interesting.

Former Chief Secretary David Akers-Jones has thrown is support behind New People's Party chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee even though she hasn't officially thrown her hat into the ring.

She apparently has plans to do so next Thursday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

David Akers-Jones already endorses Ip for Chief Executive

However, we have to remember that Akers-Jones backed Leung Chun-ying when he ran for the top job in 2012.

Last year Akers-Jones defended Leung's failure to to meet the target of building 85,000 flats a year during Tung Chee-hwa's administration because Leung was a cabinet advisor at the time.

Akers-Jones said Leung was "familiar with the problems of Hong Kong", but "doesn't have the art of making or causing people to love him".

How is that a good excuse?

It seems like no one in the Leung administration is familiar with the problems in Hong Kong at all -- they appear to be so far removed from the realities that average residents are going through -- depressed wages, high rents, inflation, losing jobs, crowded MTR trains and so on.

Over 500,000 people protested against Article 23 in 2003

That on top of the perceived collusion between government and developers, and nothing constructively being done about pollution, increasing waste, both construction and food, and then that big picture demand for democracy.

Is Ip the right woman for the job considering she was the security minister who tried to pass Article 23 and hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets in July 2003, forcing her to back down?

She may think she has moved on, having studied in California and returned forming a new political party.

But we all know she's probably eager to finish off what she didn't get to complete 13 years earlier...

Akers-Jones doesn't seem to have a good track record of picking good candidates...

Clockenflap is Back

The Central skyline makes for a brilliant backdrop for Clockenflap this year

Tonight was the start of the three-day music festival Clockenflap and it's an eclectic selection of artists from various music genres, and local and international performers.

DJ Janette Slack's infectious beats gets people dancing

Because of construction going on at West Kowloon, Clockenflap has moved to Central Harbourfront, making it more convenient, and an interesting skyline backdrop too.

There was Ellen Loo warming up the crowd, who sang about pollution and rising housing costs, and DJ Jeanette Slack at the turntables putting on infectious beats that people couldn't help but dance to.

For some ethereal sound, there's Sigur Ros, a group from Iceland that sings its own language, but at another large stage was the granddaddy of funk, George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic.

My colleague got to interview the man who inspired so many artists in hip hop, and even his granddaughter performs on stage with him. The man in his mid-70s doesn't know when to stop.

George Clinton signing albums for a superfan in a mask

When we walked into his trailer, it was literally a haze of smoke, and when it cleared we saw Clinton sitting on the sofa relaxed just before he went on stage.

One of the other journalists interviewing him was a humongous fan. How humongous? He had five vinyl records for Clinton to sign, and even wore a ski mask or balaclava that had an alien design on it, harking back to the days when the front man descended onto the stage from a space ship.

Clinton was so cool about the whole thing, and enjoyed chatting with the journalists who were big fans of his. He signed every album cover and his granddaughter was covering the entire proceedings on Facebook Live.

A panoramic shot of the festival grounds tonight

On stage he wore a completely sequinned jacket and was non stop on stage, even jumping up and down at the end. That man definitely has energy beyond his years.

Think Tank Avoids Real Issues

Tung Chee-hwa giving a speech at an Our Foundation Hong Kong event

Hong Kong has a lot of think tanks. They are either run by academics or politicians, the latter of which have some kind of agenda attached to them.

For example, Our Hong Kong Foundation was started by former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. Given his connections with Beijing, one can imagine what this think tank's slant is.

Grandpa Tung -- bless him -- is still trying to help solve the city's problems, but he's not really looking at the heart of the issue.

Eva Cheng (third frm left) is executive director of the think tank

He has hired former Amway executive Eva Cheng Kam-fun as executive director of the foundation, but how can someone who did multilevel marketing -- in beauty and health -- know how to tackle Hong Kong's biggest concerns in housing, education, employment and the environment?

However, the think tank seems to believe that inspiring a new generation of scientists and innovators is the solution, organizing Innotech Expo 2016 that starts on Saturday to October 1 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Is this another way for Hong Kong's elite to try to distract youth from the main issues at hand (and doing a poor job of it), or does the pro-establishment body really believe technology is the answer?

The real problem is that the Hong Kong government is completely out of touch with the problems average locals are facing. Housing prices are still far out of reach of most people, and now first-time buyers are stuck buying microflats that are less than 200 square feet. How does that give anyone a sense of dignity?

Where does the government plan to house people like her?

And why are there two main supermarket chains that basically have the same prices? From 1996 to 2000 there was a French hypermarket called Carrefour that entered the market, but mysteriously suppliers refused to deliver products to its stores. Something fishy was going on there... As a result customers lose and for the most part are stuck paying Wellcome and ParknShop prices for average products.

Why is the government not helping the poor and instead spending lavishly on large infrastructure projects that have little meaning or use to Hong Kong? Many are dreading when the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge opens and seeing a flood of people coming over.

The latest report on the poor is that the government is now cracking down on illegal flats, many of which are in industrial buildings, thus evicting many people on or below the poverty line. Where are they going to go? Does the government even have a plan in place for the thousands of people who are forced to live like this because there isn't enough social housing for them?

Even more bizarre is that the government has so much money in its coffers and yet it cannot or will not house the poor, instead making them fend for themselves. It treats them as if they did not work hard enough, but for many, economic circumstances have made them barely able to eke out a living.

Hong Kong is not a social welfare place, so why would the government think the poor just want to leech off its money?

And why be so stingy about the money it gives to the elderly? Meanwhile the health care system, while equitable, doesn't have enough staff, many top doctors and nurses lured into the private system. In about 15 years there will be a lot of people growing old -- is Hong Kong prepared for the impending onslaught?

Then there's pollution and the environment, where the government isn't doing enough to encourage recycling let alone telling people to consume less. Oh wait. The city is dependent on consumerism. Setting up a task force with Guangzhou on dumping marine refuse isn't really going to solve the problem of garbage washing up on our shores either.

I could go on and on. Our Hong Kong Foundation thinks if young people got jobs in the technology sector then everything will be solved. How about trying to tackle some of the above mentioned issues? That would make all of us a bit happier.

Fact of the Day: 80 Percent of China's Groundwater Polluted

Discoloured water isn't a good sign, especially near factories in China...

It's depressing though not surprising to find about 80 percent of the groundwater in China's major river basins is unsafe for human consumption, according to a survey by the Ministry of Water Resources.

Last year the ministry tested 2,103 wells in the basins of the Yangtze, Yellow River, Huai River and Hai River, and found exploitation and pollution from industrial and agricultural emissions threatened water standards.

The results covered 18 provinces and was the first time -- the first time -- the ministry published water quality information in its monthly update on its website.

Too much algae in this water due to phosphates

Nitrate pollution was common, and in some cases water was contaminated due to heavy metals and organic pollutants, which are more difficult to remove.

Nearly half, or 47.3 percent of the wells tested were found to have fifth grade or "extremely bad" water quality, about one-third had fourth grade, or "bad" water quality. None of the wells had "excellent" water quality.

Fourth or fifth grade groundwater is so polluted that it is unfit for human consumption.

The water ministry's finding that 80 percent of China's groundwater is polluted is higher than the 60 percent figure issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The environment ministry looked at data from nearly 4,900 monitoring sites in 202 cities, though it wasn't clear if the two ministries overlapped in their data collection.

Critics say groundwater monitoring standards are outdated and that monitoring is insufficient, suggesting surveys may not reflect the full scale of pollution.

Groundwater keep dropping in this photo taken in Kunming

Does that not sound like the government is in denial about wanting to know the  actual quality of the groundwater? After over 30 years of fast-paced economic development at any price, the reality of devastation comes back to bite.

How are people supposed to live productive lives if they are sickened by the water they drink?

Access to clean drinking water is essential to realizing human rights, according to the United Nations.

China could blame the west for imposing all of its polluting businesses on it -- but really it could have said no, or forced foreign companies to conform to strict environmental guidelines.

Regardless of the blame game, something needs to be done now to rectify the issue. Does anyone have any bright ideas besides moving people to the cities?

What the Premier Didn't Mention

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang addressing the media today in a press conference

Ah, the National People's Congress is over for another year.

Premier Li Keqiang held a press conference, where he was supposedly open to answering all questions from the media -- provided they were screened first.

Foreign media had to submit questions in advance, and only the ones that were approved were allowed to be asked -- if they were chosen in the huge crowd.

Hundreds of journalists were in the room listening to Li

And domestic media are typically given pieces of paper with questions on them, usually softball ones to give the premier a chance to talk about things he wanted to discuss.

But what would stop someone from asking a hard-hitting question -- other than probably being banned from the NPC forever -- at least it would get the premier to actually address an issue that everyone wants to know.

And so from reading news reports of today's press conference, it sounds like a lot of issues were not addressed, making people wonder if the government cares about their welfare, or is actually tackling the country's socio-economic challenges.

Li did not bring how China is tackling air pollution

For example in the past three years, Li answered questions about the environment and what the government was doing to curb pollution, but this year the topic was not raised, even though air quality has been so bad this past year.

This year was also the first time issues about the property market were not addressed either, as prices rise far beyond the reach of ordinary people. Perhaps Li could not think of another way to spin the story...

While he answered questions about economic form and the need to streamline bureaucracy, the massive problem of how to further streamline state-owned enterprises was not mentioned. It's probably too explosive a powder keg to even begin to delve into...

No talk of China's growing presence in the South China Sea

When it came to foreign relations, he did not talk about China's relationship with Africa or Europe, and also its growing presence in the South China Sea. What is going on with that island that China seems to be making bigger and bigger...? And didn't Beijing have good relations with African countries? What happened there?

Human rights is not a topic that is often mentioned at these press conferences, but sometimes previous premiers have talked about it on occasion. Not this time, despite blatant human rights abuses against Uighurs and Tibetans...

It sounds like an extremely tightly controlled press conference, and perhaps even Li could not say much either, which is why he ended it at exactly the two-hour mark, including translations into English. So in the end it was probably one hour's worth of questions.

Thus wraps up another year, with China watchers having to further examine their tea leaves to try to figure out where the country is going.

Fruitless Political Rhetoric

From left: Wang Guangya, Li Fei and Zhang Xiaoming in Shenzhen

Today was the last chance for the central government to persuade pan-democrats to accept the political reform proposal in a meeting in Shenzhen, but to no avail.

We all knew it was an exercise of going through the motions, with each senior Chinese leader giving veiled threats in their speeches.

Earlier Zhang Xiaoming, director of the central government's Hong Kong liaison office said pan-democrats would be punished in the next year's Legislative Council election.

Then Basic Law Committee chairman Li Fei insisted the government's proposal was "democratic, fair, open and just", and that the plan had received broad support, as it had taken into account the people's "reasonable views".

One wonders what "reasonable views" means...

Wang Guangya, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, stressed Beijing  would "unswervingly and sincerely support" Hong Kong in electing the chief executive by popular ballot in 2017.

The pan-democrats address the media after the meeting

"Regardless of the resistance it faces, the central government would make its best effort," Wang said.

"The central government is willing to engage different sectors in Hong Kong, including the pan-democrats, and to force a consensus within the maximum limit based on the Basic Law and the relevant decisions of the National People's Congress Standing Committee."

Is the central government really engaging a variety of sectors in the city? And what does "force a consensus" mean?

All this rhetoric for a four-hour meeting that went no where. We don't blame the pan-democrats, they are only standing their ground, and reflecting the wishes of a good number of Hong Kong people.

The central government has no idea what democracy looks like and in keeping with its interests, wants to ensure only politically correct candidates run for chief executive.

But what has 17, almost 18 years of chief executives under Beijing's leadership given Hong Kong?

There is an even greater income gap between the rich and the poor, there is no long-term planning of the city in terms of pollution, transportation, construction, real estate, the economy, education, social issues... the list goes on and on.

That's because no one is looking out for OUR interests, Hong Kong people's interests.

We want a leader who speaks up for Hong Kong and fights for us.

And yet Beijing does not want to allow that to happen under "one country, two systems".

The city is fast becoming mainlandized much to local residents' horror. Things have changed so much in less than 20 years, one shudders to think what's going to happen in the next five.

Meanwhile the 79-day Occupy or Umbrella Movement brought us together temporarily, but now what? We are back to being disparate souls, focused on our jobs and wondering if we'll be able to afford a home -- ever.

But oh sorry -- those aren't the most pressing issues at the moment -- what's really important now is to decide if we're patriotic enough to accept the political reform package.

The mainlaindization of Hong Kong continues...

Is China Changing Tack?

Premier Li Keqiang in the Great Hall of the People today

World markets were watching for the latest signals from China, and today Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered it -- a sombre economic growth target of 7 percent.

This is different from 2007, when then premier Wen Jiabao who pronounced China needed to sustain 8 percent growth to keep people employed and factories humming.

But 2015 is a stark change from the eve of the Summer Olympics and announcing China's rise. Now it's putting on the brakes after sustaining increasing growth for 25 years.

While countries around the world that depend the yuan to prop up their economies may be dismayed (the United States is probably first in line), slowing down China's economy is necessary.

Back in 2009, Wen and then president Hu Jintao had an opportunity to use the global economic slowdown to clean up China's own house financially, but instead threw 1.5 trillion yuan at the problem.

Mostly state-owned banks were forced to shell out the money -- and this led to even greater graft and corruption, and financial institutions are still having trouble collecting their debts.

"The downward pressure on China's economy is intensifying," Li said. "Deep-seated problems in the country's economic development are becoming more obvious. The difficulties we are facing this year could be bigger than last year. The new year is a crucial year for deepening all-round reforms."

So is Li really going to implement serious economic reforms this time around? He and the Chinese government cannot procrastinate any longer. There are many bloated state-owned enterprises that need to be restructured, and it's not always merit that wins out... people, especially those in senior positions will have to battle it out in seeing who has the better guanxi...

Chai Jing gives her findings about pollution in China

Meanwhile slowing down the economy also hopefully means less pollution. A few days ago former CCTV presenter Chai Jing released her documentary Under the Dome, where she chronicled China's pollution and how she believes it affected her daughter's development in the womb, as the baby was diagnosed with a lung tumour.

There's been lots of talk about this independent investigation that Chai spent 1 million yuan in making, as it reveals how it is the rich and the government who are making 1.3 billion people sick one way or another.

The general public don't want break-neck development at the cost of their lives -- they too want to have blue skies, clean water and a healthy environment for their children to grow up in.

So will the Central government pay attention to the desires of the people and give them what they want? By doing this it would mean stability of the Party, no?

Finally Li reiterated that the crackdown on corruption is here to stay, pouring cold water on those who thought it was a temporary campaign.

"Our tough stance on corruption is here to stay," he said. "Our tolerance for corruption is zero, and anyone guilty of corruption will be dealt with seriously."

The hunt for tigers and flies continues... is anyone completely clean in China?

China's Terrorist Threat -- Smog

Visibility in Harbin dropped below three metres making surveillance difficult

It's sad but also amusing to hear the pollution is so bad in China that it has made surveillance very difficult, raising fears of not being able to detect terrorist attacks.

Beijing has invested so much in its nationwide surveillance network that the police can see what's going on in every major street of large cities.

But since smog has enveloped many places, such as Harbin last month where visibility dropped to below three metres, it makes it more difficult for surveillance.

"According to our experience, as the visibility drops below three metres, even the best camera cannot see beyond a dozen metres," said Kong Zilong, a senior project engineer with Shenzhen Yichengan Technology, and expert in video surveillance technology.

The central government realizes this is a serious issue and has commissioned scientists to come up with a solution. The National Natural Science Foundation of China has funded two teams, one civilian, the other military to study the issue and find solutions within four years.

Professor Yang Aiping is an expert in digital imaging with the School of Electronic Information Engineering at Tianjin University and leader of the civilian team.

"Most studies in other countries are to do with fog," she says. "In China, most people think that fog and smog can be dealt by the same method. Our preliminary research shows that the smog particles are quite different from the small water droplets of fog in terms of optical properties," she said.

"We need to heavily revise, if not completely rewrite alogrithms in some mathematical models. We also need to do lots of computer simulation and extensive field tests."

Meanwhile professor Zhang Li, an image processing expert with the department of electronic engineering at Tsinghua University, said researchers may have to be more creative, suggesting microwaves of electromagnetic waves could travel through smog and bounce back if it hit objects, but then it would generate radiation that could be bad for human health.

What we can't understand is -- why can't the country seriously start cutting back on air pollution? It has started to cut down on the number of coal-fired plants, but there are too many cars on the roads. Although lower-end factories are closing in the south and the rest are moving westward for cheaper labour, heavy industry such as making steel is still going strong.

China prided itself on being able to manipulate the weather before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the capital had the best weather (and hardly any traffic) during that period.

Many Beijing residents hoped the arrangement of odd and even license plate number cars on the roads would continue, but alas the dream was not possible as the restrictions were too extreme.

Nevertheless we find it interesting that China is worried that terrorists may choose the smoggiest days to launch attacks in the country. But even they would have trouble seeking their targets too, no?