Growing Infection Clusters in Yau Tsim Mong

Mobile testing is set up in Yau Tsim Mong for mandatory tests

 Hong Kong can't seem to get its coronavirus case numbers down with a whopping 107 reported today, and health officials are blaming ethnic minorities for the explosion of cases in the last week or so.

Of the cases reported today 28 are from the Yau Tsim Mong district -- now totaling 160 -- cover a large area northwest of the Jordan MTR station, bordered by Nathan Road, Jordan Road, Kansu Street,  and Ferry Street. The streets affected within this area are Temple Street, Reclamation Street, Shanghai Street and Canton Road.

SCMP map showing the affected area

Many of the residents who live in this area are South Asian, and don't have particularly good living quarters like sub-divided flats, and as a result many share facilities like washrooms and kitchens.

"They have many family gatherings and like to gather with fellow countrymen," said Raymond Ho Lei-ming, head of the health promotion branch at the Centre for Health Protection. 

"They like to share food, smoke, drink alcohol and chat together. If it is without masks, the risk is high. They also need to share sanitary facilities with neighbours if the living condition is crowded."

Ho's comment is culturally insensitive and assumes all ethnic minorities drink and smoke and don't wear masks religiously. Hong Kong Chinese people do this too. And they also live in subdivided flats. How are they any different? It is not their choice to live in these conditions, but this is all they can afford.

In fact one has to wonder if the affordable housing issue was considered more of a priority years ago, and shutting down subdivided flats, would we be having these clusters of infections spreading so quickly now?

Regardless, it also seems like health officials did not take the initial cases from this area seriously and only later decided the people in this area have to be tested. 

People lining up for mandatory Covid-19 testing

Since there are so many people involved, they have tried to get people to isolate themselves in the area, but residents seem to be freely going in and out which is concerning. 

Health officials are also offering free Covid-19 tests to food delivery drivers, as many of them are South-Asian. It's all a mess really.

Meanwhile on the vaccine front, the panel advising the Hong Kong government on the pandemic has recommended using the Pfizer-BioNTech jab despite concerns in Norway 33 elderly people died after getting the shot. They apparently had underlying health issues. Some 42,000 people in Norway have received the vaccine so far.

Hong Kong will start vaccinating people after Chinese New Year, a very late start compared to many other countries like the United States, the UK and Canada.

Replenishing HK's War Chest During Covid

Carrie Lam modeling the Cu+ Mask that never took off in popularity...

It's hard to believe it's already September and no end in sight for the pandemic. Hong Kong's third wave seems to be under control, though the number of new cases continues to rise and fall. There were 12 today, though seven were imported.

During the past eight months, the government has doled out a lot of money, and luckily the city had saved a war chest full -- over a trillion Hong Kong dollars, though it is fast being depleted after giving every resident HK$10,000, wage subsidies of HK$9,000 per employee if employers took part in a scheme promising not to lay off staff, handing out money to every sector pleading for handouts, from tourism and restaurants, to gyms, education, transport, and beauty parlours to name a few.

Taxpayer money was used to buy full-page ads in newspapers

Oh and remember the government made and sent out Cu+ masks to every resident who applied for it too? It also sent out surgical masks, but they turned out to be faulty... and all those front page ads in many newspapers about the universal testing scheme...

Now lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun is calling on the government to dole out more money again, proposing that every resident be given another HK$10,000 to help them another few months, and help refill the war chest by imposing more taxes, such as on capital gains, luxury and dividends.

"I say this is the best time now to really start this discussion about introducing new taxes into our current very narrow structure, Tien said.

"Simply because we have depleted our reserve by almost half in the last six months, and God knows how much more the government needs to dole out before everything returns to normal."

Tien calling for the government to find new revenue streams

It's interesting Tien is calling for this, as the government has not budged on this issue, as from time immemorial it has depended on taxes from land sales for the vast majority of its revenue.

But he advises the authorities "not to pray that our land sales will come back".

Tien is right. Not only is the property market very soft, prices have dropped and so the amount of money the government is expecting to pull in from stamp duties will be much lower.

One wonders if the government will take Tien's advice and finally tax the rich further, but in the meantime the authorities are hitting up ordinary folk for money in the guise of fines.

Last week my hairdresser told me of her friends being fined by the police for not wearing masks outside, when they were just in the alley having a smoke. Talk about an expensive smoke, not just for your health but your wallet too.

Police out in force, giving out fines for not social distancing

The police have also fined people at protests for not social distancing, from HK$2,000 to up to HK$25,000, and many traffic wardens are being more diligent about giving out parking tickets.

This nickel-and-diming people is more of an opportunity for the police to flex their authority or perhaps they have a quota of fines they have to give out each month.

But these fines are a drop in the ocean compared to the zillions of dollars given out by the government.

Most people have had salary cuts, or been furloughed, so making them pay fines is not very productive.

It's time the government find other revenue generators -- much like the rest of us trying to survive.

Review: Central Airport THF

Ibrahim Al Hussein (left) and Qutaiba Nafer (right) are refugees in Berlin

Thursday was World Refugee Day and I should have posted this review of a documentary I saw on the plane back to Hong Kong.

It's called Central Airport THF (Zentralflughafen THF in German) and it was released last year. When refugees first arrive in Berlin, they are processed and live at Tempelhof Airport, and the documentary follows an 18-year-old Syrian teen Ibrahim Al Hussein and aspiring doctor Qutaiba Nafer from Iraq.



The airport was originally commissioned by Adolf Hitler and opened in 1923 and it was supposed to be the world's biggest airport. But it wasn't quite big enough and closed in 2008. However since 2015 it is a temporary home to thousands of refugees who want to have a new life in Germany.

The film follows them through most of the year, with Ibrahim narrating most of the time. We follow him through his daily rituals, eating in the canteen that he says serves terrible food, learning German, running outside, and smoking. Lots of smoking.

The refugees live in cubicles with open ceilings in a hangar

Meanwhile Qutaiba volunteers his services as a translator to help medical staff process the refugees in terms of their healthcare needs. He is fluent in English and we see him helping not only translate but empathizing with the refugees, and even acting as a psychologist to two boys, asking them to draw out their memories of their homelands.

The pacing is slow -- but it's a deliberate move by filmmaker Karim Ainouz to show how life in the hangars can be, that the wait for refugees to be processed can take a long time especially when there isn't much for you to do.

Everyone lives in a small space with an open ceiling that has very basic beds and no "door", except for a sheet. A couple with children complains about this, but they are told the sheet is fireproof for their safety. They have no choice but to get used to this arrangement.

Ibrahim talks about whatever memories he has left of his home in northern Syria, his family. He wants to try to remember them as much as he can, and recalls his most terrifying night when he got onto a boat and didn't know if he would still be alive the next day.

They try to find ways to pass the time everyday

This contrasts with the predictable, safe, relatively clean and monotonous life he lives in the hangar, though he has a few friends (smokers) who he hangs out with. At Christmas, there's a party complete with several Santa Clauses and presents for the children, but Ibrahim scoffs the party is hardly festive and that it's for the kids, not for people his age.

On New Year's Eve, fireworks are set off, though for Ibrahim and probably many of the refugees, the sounds remind them of bombs and shooting...

What's also bizarre is that near the hangars for the refugees are large spaces for Berliners to ride Segways, bicycles or even do beekeeping. At night security men in a car spot several foxes in the area who aren't scared of humans.

Director Karim Ainouz wanted to humanize the refugee plight

Nevertheless, viewers take a liking to Ibrahim and want to root for him. He is a thoughtful teen, and anxious to get on with his life. It's hard to imagine what it's like to be by himself day after day, being far from his family and Syria, and trying to integrate into this new country, but Central Airport THF gives a good idea.

Central Airport THF (2018)
Directed by Karim Ainouz
1hr 40 mins

Will Tobacco IPO Light Up?

Cheap cigarettes are easily available everywhere in China

The world's largest cigarette company is filing its IPO in Hong Kong -- China National Tobacco.

I raised my eyebrows when I found out.

To clarify, it's the Chinese state-owned tobacco monopoly's international subsidiary, China Tobacco International, is planning the listing. Its revenues were HK$5.1 billion (US$651 million) from January to September last year, according to documents filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The state-owned monopoly filed an IPO in Hong Kong

China National Tobacco buys leaves from overseas markets such as Brazil and the United States, and then sells them to domestic cigarette manufacturers at a 6 percent mark-up.

The Chinese company also has a monopoly on all tobacco exports from China, which largely caters to Chinese tourists in duty-free outlets across Asia -- a very small market.

China National Tobacco doesn't publish data on its accounts, but Bloomberg News said a rare release of financial data in 2012 suggests the state-owned enterprise's earned profits were on par with HSBC and Walmart.

It's intriguing the application for the listing is being made now, at a time when everyone knows smoking is harmful to your health -- and who will invest in this IPO? Sounds like a test of investors' ethics.

According to the World Health Organization, 7 million deaths last year were attributed from cancer and other lung diseases, or 1 in 10 deaths worldwide, 1 million in China alone.

The country produces the most cigarettes in the world

The Chinese government puts out feeble public service announcements about the harmful effects of smoking on health, but in reality it makes a lot of money from holding the monopoly on selling tobacco...

In Hong Kong where smoking rates fell 10 percent in 2017, we'll have to see if people have the appetite to encourage others to light up...

China's Flip Flop on Smoking Ban

Enough cigarettes for you? A shop selling almost every local brand you'd want

Whenever China says it's going to be more stringent on smoking regulations, it's pretty much a joke.

The government is too vested in the tobacco industry to really want to help its citizens wean themselves off those cancer sticks.

The latest is that Beijing has back-pedaled on a proposed national smoke-free law, that would have banned smoking in all indoor and some outdoor public spaces.

Now the latest version of the Ordinance on Smoking Control in Public Spaces would allow restaurants, bars, hotels and airports to set aside smoking areas.

Bars, restaurants, hotels and airports will have smoking areas

Bernhard Schwartlander, the World Health Organization representative in China was concerned about the changes.

"You see again and again in the world such exceptions built in the law and it doesn't do much to protect the health of the people from second-hand smoke. A law that has so many exceptions can't be enforced. We have learned the best law is one that is 100 percent smoke free," he said.

There are about 315 million smokers in the mainland, and China is also the world's biggest producer and consumer of tobacco products. Around 700 million people are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke, according to the WHO.

It's hard to control because the tobacco industry is state-owned and generates more than 1.09 billion yuan in profit and tax revenue last year.

Even though the proposed national law is weak, 18 mainland cities have passed their own municipal smoking bans since 2008, of which Beijing's is the most stringent.

Smoker with a "no smoking" sign behind him in a restaurant

The law in the Chinese capital, which was passed last June, fully complies with the WHO's call for complete bans on smoking in all indoor workplaces, public transport areas and other public places.

A year after the ban was implemented, smoking in indoor areas dropped from 23.1 percent to 6.7 percent, while smoking in restaurants fell from 40.3 percent to 14.8 percent, according to the Beijing Health and Family Planning Commission.

Nevertheless, one would think such drops in numbers would be solid proof that these bans are effective, but old habits die hard.

It's practically impossible to get the numbers to zero because there are many who flout the municipal ban and think it doesn't apply to them, or restaurants don't want to be too heavy handed when it comes to enforcing the ban because it will make their diners angry.

Surely President Xi Jinping would insist on smoking bans -- if he did it would have happened already.

Or maybe the tobacco industry is too big of a fish to fry, or further down on his priority list.

But the impact of China's healthcare system having to deal with an explosion of cancer cases is something that worries him... or not?

Touring the New Whitney

A look at the Whitney's outdoor terraces with great views

This past May the Whitney Museum of American Art moved from Madison Avenue to Chelsea in a multi-terraced building which also happens to be the end or beginning of the Highline.

So, not wanting to miss out on the latest new thing, we headed down there for a look.

Looking down on the Highline from the Whitney

It's a brand new building designed by Renzo Piano and when you enter it looks promising, with sleek modern lines, and outdoor terraces on several floors.

Admission is not cheap -- $22 for adults, $18 for seniors and students -- considering how much there is to see here.

The museum says there are eight floors, but interestingly there's no fourth floor -- was it influenced by the Chinese?

We worked our way from top to bottom, starting with the new show, "Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist".

We knew nothing about Motley (1891-1981) beforehand and it was fascinating to read that he was biracial, African American and European. He struggled with his identity, not being able to fully associate with one or the other.

The Octoroon Girl by Archibald Motley

Racial identity became a theme for him in his work, as he hoped art would bring "a better understanding between the races". He also wanted to help African Americans feel pride and beauty in their looks.

His earlier work featuring portraits mostly women, are wonderful portrayals of people at the time. In particular I liked The Octoroon Girl painted in 1925. She is sitting on a couch, slightly off centre, leaning on the arm rest next to a funny-looking statue of a man with a massive bushy mustache. He seems to act as a counterfoil to her serene elegance, in a black dress with passionate red wide collar, sleeve and button details.

I also enjoyed the portraits of his paternal grandmother, who told him stories about what it was like to be a slave working for a mistress. In one portrait of her called Mending Socks, she sits with a wrap around her shoulders held together by a brooch, mending a sock in a parlour. The portrait above her on the left gives a hint of a white woman, who was her mistress, who his grandmother says treated her well.

Motley paints his grandmother mending a sock

There's another painting of her called Portrait of My Grandmother done in 1922. She wears a white blouse with a brooch, and black skirt underneath. What drew me the most in the work was the detail of her hands, more so than the face. It is evident she is already old as one can see from her facial features, but the hands are a testament to the hard work she did to survive.

Motley's wife was German American, and they were childhood sweethearts before they got married. However the implications of their relationship were huge -- her parents disowned her when she married Motley, and it was difficult for them to walk down the street without being ogled.

The exhibition has two portraits of her, one looking sweet and vulnerable, maybe because she is in the nude. while the other is of her dressed up with a fox stole and looking stern.

The Freedom Tower stands tall, and a tiny Statue of Liberty

After the portraits section of his earlier work, Motley's paintings begin to portray African Americans in a cartoonish way which seems to go against his earlier mission statement. Nevertheless, the earlier paintings of scenes in Chicago are vibrant and lively, dancing and drinking.

He also goes to Paris from 1929-30 on a Guggenheim fellowship and captures the bohemian lifestyle there, like jazz and Josephine Baker.

However, his work becomes more and more cartoon-like, simplified depictions of African Americans that maybe seem OK because they are painted by him and not someone who is white.

Prop by Richard Serra

After the show one can grab a bite to eat at the cafe on this floor, or wander outside to take in the views. From here you can see the Freedom Tower and in the distance, the Statue of Liberty.

We found the views much more absorbing and interesting than the art on show which seems strange, no? We went back inside to cling onto a tour that was happening of the permanent collection and were introduced to some interesting pieces.

One is a piece of lead propped up on the wall by a nine-foot long lead pipe, and not the sheet of lead hung on the wall and then the pipe leaning against it. It's by Richard Serra called Prop that was made in 1967, but was "redone" in 2007 because the lead pipe created a groove not only into the lead sheet but the wall as well thanks to gravity and time.

Another is called Giant Fagends by Claes Oldenburg, featuring giant cigarette butts haphazardly placed in a container, with one or two scattered in the room, as the curator was given permission to place them wherever they wanted.

A lone cigarette butt by Claes Oldenburg

The cigarette butts are about the dangers of smoking and public service announcements trying to get people to butt out, and at the same time they look like legs as it was during the time of the mini skirt era. What a mix.

We were kind of modern art-ed out after covering the two floors of the permanent exhibition and also it was almost closing time. We hit the gift shop, but were disappointed to find there wasn't much in terms of souvenirs that tempted us to dig into our wallets.

Even the Whitney T-shirt -- a white one with thin W's on it was hardly inspiring. And what was Yayoi Kusama's black dotted pumpkins made of fabric doing here for sale at $300 for a small one? She's not even American!

Oh and if you want to eat in the ground floor cafe called Untitled, you have to make a reservation otherwise don't bother. Strange that this is considered the place to dine when the art upstairs doesn't draw much of an appetite...

Whitney Museum of American Art

99 Ganesvoort Street

New York
(212) 570 3600

Fact of the Day: Costs of Smoking

Imagine how much money these cigarette butts could add up to...

You want to quit smoking? Maybe this financial fact will motivate you.

A Chinese University study assumes that if a Hong Kong smoker goes through one pack of cigarettes a day, they would spend an average of HK$20,440 a year, which could add up to more than HK$1 million in a lifetime.

If that money was well invested, the returns, when the smoker retired at 60, could buy him or her an 800 square foot flat on Hong Kong Island based on Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

"The money spent on cigarettes can be used on investment instead to potentially increase their assets," said Vivian Lee Wing-yan, associate professor at the university's school of pharmacy, who conducted the study.

The study also compared the cost of tobacco per person throughout their lifespan in Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia. It assumed smokers started at the age of 18 (very conservative!) and smoked a pack a day.

Australians had to spend the most on ciggies, spending over HK$100,000 a year, followed by Singaporeans at HK$55,000.

Second thoughts on lighting up?

Xiamen: Day One

Xiamen on a rainy Wednesday late afternoon overlooking Yundang Lake

Our three-day trip to Xiamen got off to an unauspicious start when our flight was delayed an hour. After we checked in, we received a text message from Dragon Air saying it was delayed for no particular reason, and then after we boarded the plane, we sat there for another half hour because the water system was faulty.

Marinated goose with the garlic sauce

And yes -- there were naughty mainland Chinese children on the flight. One row ahead of us was a family of five -- the mother, a baby and their eldest daughter sitting in the front row of economy, then behind them the father and second daughter who was about two years old. The girl kept talking loudly and intermittently shouting, screaming, crying -- and yet the father didn't discipline her to quiet down, or tell her she was disturbing other people, that she was not behaving.

He let her be loud and dramatic and the rest of us had to deal with it. I don't know if the father was too embarrassed to say anything, or he is usually that indulgent, but that girl certainly did not have any manners. Only when the plane landed and we were waiting to disembark was she quiet!

As soon as we walked out of the airport we could smell cigarette smoke -- we were definitely in the People's Republic of China! Thankfully the long taxi queue moved quickly and in less than 10 minutes we were in a cab and on our way through rainy Xiamen.

Many of the apartment buildings that are six or seven stories high are run down, with architectural styles left over from the early 90s, featuring white tiled buildings with small balconies where people hang their laundry. Closer to town there are more swankier, taller apartment blocks that look sleek because there are no balconies.

Delicious rice cooked with peanuts, taro and dried shrimp

Turns out our hotel is in the more posh part of town, complete with Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Aquascutum, and Bally boutiques with no customers in them. Our hotel room looks over Yundang Lake, and we hope to get to walk around the circumference, which should take about an hour or so of brisk walking. There's also a lot of tea shops near us, as the province is best known for producing tea leaves on terraced hilly terrain.

When we arrived it was raining and so it's fog not smog we're seeing, but overall the air here is fresh -- a nice change from smoggy Hong Kong.

Since we arrived late in the afternoon we had an early dinner in a nearby restaurant, that serves all kinds of Chinese food -- Cantonese (even dim sum at night), Shanghainese, Sichuanese, and some Fujianese. We try going local and order lo sui or master sauce goose -- less than half a bird marinated in a soy sauce concoction that was very tender and flavourful. It went very well with a minced garlic vinegar sauce,

Assorted small fish (lots of bones!) cooked with Chinese celery

Another local dish was fresh assorted small fish cooked in a claypot with Chinese celery, radish and peppers. This was another tasty dish, the fish cooked perfectly, but required a lot of patience because the bones in the fish were so small! But like my relative remarked, eating the entire fish was like eating fish cheek, the most tender and sweetest part of the fish.

We also picked a healthy option of stir-fried vegetables with gingko that are meant to improve memory and eyesight, wood ear fungus, wai san, a kind of white yam root, lots of lily bulbs and carrots. And finally another Fujianese  dish was rice cooked with shrimp and cubes of taro topped with peanuts that was delicious -- and even better with spoonfuls of the soup left over from the fish dish.

Stir-fried vegetables including wai san, gingko and fungus

It was so good that we finished everything -- and the bill only came to 230 yuan for the three of us. If only Hong Kong prices were like that!

Cancer Scare

Air pollution, but also unhealthy lifestyles are to blame for rising cancer rates

It is shocking to read in the news today that cancer is claiming 18 percent more lives in Hong Kong than a decade ago. This means the number of cancer patients has grown 27 percent in the last 10 years, an annual rate of 2.5 percent, according to Department of Health and Hospital Authority data.

The five most commonly diagnosed cancers, which account for 60 percent of all new cases are: lung, colorectal, breast, liver and prostate.

Today is World Cancer Day with the tagline "Not Beyond Us", in the hopes of spreading an optimistic message that if people change their lifestyles into more healthier ones, they will have a higher chance of preventing a cancer diagnosis.

However no matter how many times doctors and health experts preach to the public about the importance of eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and getting health check ups, not many seem to take heed.

There are still many people, particularly women, who would rather drink a potion than exercise for 20 minutes, or they constantly cite the excuse of not having enough time to hit the gym.

We wonder if these alarming statistics will encourage people, particularly those who have seen cancer cases in their own family histories, to actually try to change their situation.

The incidence of cancer in Hong Kong is rising at a faster pace, with a new record of 27,848 cases in 2012 -- an increase of 27 percent -- compared to 2002, according to the Hospital Authority's Hong Kong Cancer Registry update last November.

Most of the increases are in female patients, who are contracting cancers in lung, uterus and breast.

Lung cancer has overtaken colorectal cancer in top spot this year, and Dr Daniel Chua Tsin-tien, associate director at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital's department of radiotherapy, says breast and colorectal cancer will continue to have high rates in Hong Kong because of people smoking and eating more red meat.

Will the government consider raising taxes for cigarettes, but more importantly begin clamping down severely on those polluting the air we breathe? Surely the government does not want to have a a health care breakdown because of the ever growing cancer cases that in all honesty impact the city's productivity?

It's long overdue for the government to be more pro-active about preventative healthcare. Surely healthy taxpayers than those draining resources would be in the government's best interests?

Hard to Break the Habit

Beijing's determination to clamp down on smoking is a puff of air

Just before the new year, China announced it would ban officials from smoking in indoor and public areas in a bid to encourage the general population to stop lighting up.

However with the integrity of Chinese officials hardly worth respecting thanks to the many outed by outrageous corruption, greed and complete lack of common sense, why would any intelligent person follow their example?

Meanwhile a UK study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that if tobacco taxes globally were tripled, the number of smokers would be reduced by one-third.

Researchers say that would equate to saving 200 million people from premature deaths due to lung cancer and other related diseases worldwide.

But it doesn't seem like the Chinese government will take drastic action yet since it owns the tobacco industry and earns a lot of taxes from this lucrative sector, where cigarettes can be a relatively cheap habit to maintain -- depending on what you're puffing.

The UK researchers said it was imperative for China to play a role in addressing the smoking issue.

"Cigarette consumption in China continues to rise steeply and now accounts for more than 2 trillion of a worldwide total of about 6 trillion cigarettes smoked per year," they wrote in the paper.

"Tobacco already accounts for about 12 to 25 percent of deaths among men in low- and middle-income countries such as China. A low reliance on specific excise taxes on tobacco by China... discourages smoking cessation."

Professor Yang Gonghuan, director of China's National Office of Tobacco Control -- yes the mainland really has such an organization but its voice is like a lone cry in the wilderness -- said the Chinese government was unlikely to adopt the drastic increase in taxes.

Increasing tobacco taxes has been studied for a long time but never been implemented due to the powerful lobbying of the tobacco industry.

Tax on tobacco was last raised in 2009, but the industry was compensated through other policies so that it could increase the availability of cheaper cigarettes.

China made 865 billion yuan in tax revenue last year from over 300 million smokers, up 16 percent in from 2011. China National Tobacco Corp revealed last year in a rare regulatory filing that it made 300 million yuan a day in net profit in 2010. It's jaw-dropping, but also reveals how the government is also sucked deep into the habit of wanting to keep the cigarette industry going.

Meanwhile an estimated 1.2 million die from smoking-related causes each year. What is more important? More tax coffers to line officials' pockets or a healthier and more productive population to continue to boost China's GDP?

Obviously we know where the Chinese government stands on this issue...