Horrific Covid-19 Stories Continue

Easier job, more pay at isolation facility at AsiaWorld-Expo

Sorry for the repetitious refrain, but Hong Kong recorded a staggering 26,026 cases today, almost all of them local.

What is frightening is that bodies of those who succumbed to Covid-19 are piling up in hospitals and not enough resources to transport them to the public mortuary. Sounds like New York in the early stages of the pandemic and yet here we are more than two years later and Hong Kong is completely unprepared for the impending onslaught.

Check out fatalities for those 80 and over

The Centre for Health Protection and the Department of Health released data on the first 284 Covid-19-related deaths in the fifth wave, and a shocking 91 percent were not vaccinated. The vast majority of the deaths are those over 80 years old. 

Meanwhile staffing of hospitals is getting thinner and thinner, as not only doctors and nurses contract the virus, but also caregivers in public hospitals are being lured to a community isolation centre treating patients with mild symptoms in AsiaWorld-Expo near the airport with promises of salaries of up to HK$50,000 (US$6,403) a month.

There are worries many will resign and leave even more work for those left behind on the front lines of public hospitals which are treating seriously ill patients with Covid.

Nothing is done to alleviate the labour shortages in public hospitals and they are left to fend for themselves. 

Then there are tragic stories of people who are crammed in sub-divided flats and test positive. 

A couple slept in this stairwell for several days

There was one story of a construction worker who tested positive for the virus along with his wife and live with their children and extended family in a tiny flat. In order to self-isolate, the couple slept on the roof and when it was raining in the stairwell. They asked their family to give them a bucket of water and they defecated into plastic bags.

Another was a foreign domestic helper who was found sleeping in her employer's car after she tested positive. A volunteer group that helps foreign helpers managed to persuade her to go to a shelter and even had to help her call her employer to reassure her that she wouldn't be fired. She was literally locked in the car and couldn't leave to go to the washroom and had nothing to eat.

These two instances show how little comprehension the government has for people in precarious living conditions and what solutions they have for them, let along compassion.

In the end the couple was treated, but not before their children also became ill... 

And what is with all these lawmakers and government officials and their helpers and drivers all catching Covid? Sounds like the chauffeurs are all hanging out together... the latest is Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee's drive -- the sixth government official's driver to test positive. 

Thousands of restaurants are temporarily closing

The restaurant industry is hurting badly now, with people too terrified to eat out. Many restaurants, cafes and even fast food outlets are temporarily closed. Cafe de Coral will now limit its services to only takeaway. 

Some restaurants say they will open in a week, others don't say. It's devastating to see everyone struggling so much because of the government not handling this fifth wave fast enough and wasting time getting the elderly vaccinated.

One acquaintance got his booster yesterday and thought he was smart to get it in this thigh, as this was recommended for children to prevent any issues with their hearts. But today he reported his leg hurt so much he couldn't walk properly! 

So pro-tip -- don't get your jab in the thigh. Just get it in the arm. One person suggested moving your arm around afterwards to quickly distribute the vaccine... don't know if it's true, but every suggestion is worth a shot. haha!

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.

The End of Microflats?

Can you live in a space the size of a parking space and stay sane?

Finally the trend of squeezing into inhumane spaces is ending.

Some developers who got onto the bandwagon of offering microflats are now left holding the bag, as many have several units that still haven't been sold and buyers are demanding more space for their buck.

A staggering ratio of two of every three homes built in Hong Kong since 2016 were built this year, of these 976 units, 461 were still unsold, most of them microflats.

The trend started in late 2014, with demand so high and not enough flats available, some developers started carving up big flats and making them less than 200 sq ft and charging up to 14 percent more when another block of flats were released into the market.

Flats in Tuen Mun that were subdivided even smaller

The highest price for a microflat was set this past May when a 190-sq ft flat from developer New world Development in Sai Ying Pun was sold for HK$6.52 million, or an eye-watering HK$34,315 per sq ft.

And can you believe that one developer was thinking of making flats less than 100 sq ft and selling them for HK$1 million in Tuen Mun, but then logistically it was impossible for construction workers to be able to physically fit the flat with all the amenities necessary.

In the end the developer squeezed out 356 units in a 19-storey building, which meant an unbelievable 29 units per floor at 130 to 140 sq ft each -- smaller than a standard parking space at 134 sq ft or a 20-ft shipping container at 158 sq ft.

Another developer, Filipino tycoon Lucio Tan's Eton Properties was ordered by the Hong Kong Lands Department to stop leasing co-living spaces at the prestigious address of 53 Shouson Hills.

18 luxury flats at 53 Shouson Hill were subdivided into 500

Eton had converted three luxury properties into more than 500 subdivided units, measuring between 60 and 1,200 sq ft with rent starting at HK$4,000 a month. The authorities ordered Eton to return all 18 flats to their original design.

One young couple, Joshua Lin, 27 and his wife, bought a tiny 160 sq ft flat in North Point. He took out a mortgage to pay for half of the HK$4 million cost of the flat, his parents helped him with the remainder. His mortgage payments are HK$8,500 a month.

"It's a challenge to fit a bed and a wardrobe into such a tiny apartment," Lin said, where the living room measures 97 sq ft. While the one-bedroom flat should be turned into a studio, it's worth more if it has a bedroom...

It's already a challenge for one person to live in 160 sq ft, let alone two people. Is this what Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had in mind as a way for young people to establish their lives in Hong Kong?

It's enough to depress and frighten them away from the prospect of trying to earn enough to get a bigger flat, and to have children.

Owning a micro flat because that's all they can afford is hardly something to aspire to...

McDonald's: For Food and Refuge

There are a few hundred people sleeping in McDonald's on a regular basis

There are a lot of assumptions made about people who are down and out in Hong Kong. We think it has to do with someone's financial situation, but our perception of someone being "poor" should change, and we should have more empathy for them.

Some of these people hang out in McDonald's for long stretches of time -- some even falling asleep there. They are called McRefugees or McSleepers, and there was worldwide attention in 2015 when an elderly woman was found dead 24 hours after she walked into the McDonald's in Kowloon Bay.

Meanwhile a survey back in 2013 found 57 street sleepers in these fast-food restaurants. But this June another survey was conducted which found a whopping 334 street sleepers; of the 110 branches that are open 24 hours, 84 of them had seen overnight sleepers. Most of them were in McDonald's branches in Tsuen Wan.

Some have jobs, some have homes, but still go to McDonald's

Junior Chamber International, which conducted the survey, was able to interview 53 McRefugees aged between 19 and 79, and found 57 percent of them had a job, and 71 percent of them had housing, either rented or owned.

Some of them lived in sub-divided flats and because the small space had no air flow, they felt it was better to be in a place that was air conditioned. They also wanted to minimize their electricity spending, as air conditioning can be expensive.

Others had jobs but didn't get along with their families, and would rather not go home, and instead would rather hang out and eat at McDonald's.

There are also seniors whose husbands or wives had passed and they didn't want to be by themselves at home so they went to McDonald's to be around people.

"Family is the basic unit in a society," says chamber publication commission chairwoman Jennifer Hung Sin-yu. "Even one person who has a home but cannot return is too many. This phenomenon is worth our attention."

More needs to be done to reach out to these people

What is being done about these people?  It is sad to find Hong Kong as a community is not there for these people, whether it's offering companionship to lonely people or giving them a leg up to find a better job. The Hong Kong government will be on the hook for this latest report, as the city is so filthy rich and yet it doesn't have enough compassion for mostly underprivileged people.

But also the onus is on these people to find better solutions, such as a network of friends to talk to or to find some space that is welcoming -- hanging out in a McDonald's all day is hardly fun; it must be tiring too.

Everyone needs to be more open to reaching out and giving a helping hand to someone, or saying hello or even smiling to them.

These are small ways we can make Hong Kong more friendly to everyone.

Subdivided Flat = Art

Wander inside and hear an artist talk about what it's like to live in 130sq ft

This week has been quite hectic with the big event, Art Basel on, where the big name galleries presenting big name artists from Picasso and Alexander Calder (very popular this year), to Takashi Murakami (always a favourite) and Cindy Sherman. It's quite pretentious with collectors wearing lots of bling and very deep pockets dropping tens of thousands of US dollars to even millions on art pieces for investment.

Meanwhile an interesting counterpoint is Art Central, a much smaller and accessible show, of which 75 percent are artists from Asia, some very young, others quite established. Many of the works are experimental, and not as polished when it comes to execution.

I literally whipped through Art Central and didn't have much time to slowly walk through it, but managed to see an interesting piece called Pavilion for our living, by Samson Wong and Lam Chi-fai.

It's a socio-political statement about subdivided flats and what it's like to live in 130 square feet. Visitors, one at a time, put on head phones and wander around the rectangular box space as the narrator, an artist, explains where all their furniture is situated and how cramped it is, how difficult it is to fit everything in and how little natural sunlight there is.

However, it's hard to imagine what the room looks like when there are only red laser dots pointing at places like the refrigerator, the bed, bathroom and so on, but little details the artist I listened to, were memorable; she talked about a mouse in her flat and seeing its paw prints, or how her father was dismayed she was living in such a small space and tried to rearrange the furniture when she was at work which irritated her.

My colleague who also listened to the same story felt the installation would have been more powerful, if pictures of the artist's flat were projected on the walls so that we could have a better idea of how it looked inside. The speech the artist made could also have benefited from some editing as some anecdotes were tedious or unnecessary.

Nevertheless, the idea was definitely there and is worth exploring further. In this case, life = art = social statement.

Hong Kong Must Protect Children

A memorial for five-year-old Chan Sui-lam who suffered horrific child abuse

In recent days Hong Kong has been reeling from a shocking child abuse case that led to the death of a five-year-old girl.

Chan Sui-lam was allegedly thrown at the ceiling many times and poked in the chest with scissors at home. Her father, 26, is a transport worker, and stepmother, 27, a housewife, were both charged with murder last Monday.

But this was not the only incident -- four more cases of child abuse were reported in three days, and parents and foster parent were arrested.

The Social Welfare Department's Child Protection Registry has 2016 figures that show 107 of 892 incidents of child abuse against children under the age of 18 took place is the New Territories, followed by 102 in Kwun Tong, 85 in Tuen Mun and 77 in Kwai Tsing.

But social welfare workers believe this is only the tip of the iceberg. A study by the University of Hong Kong from 10 years ago estimated about 70,000 children were subjected to "severe violence", or corporal punishment by the parents each year and these cases were most always unreported.

Social workers say stress factors like financial hardship, estranged relationships, living in small quarters like sub-divided flats, and for new immigrants, the struggle to integrate in Hong Kong can lead to parents taking their frustrations out on their children.

Lee Yu-po, service manager at Against Child Abuse, said the districts with higher numbers of child abuse cases had more low-income families.

"Many live in cubicle apartments... they might not be able to rest properly and the tight living space could also result in more family conflicts."

Also, of the low-income families, some are immigrants, mostly from the mainland, who may be poorer and less educated.

"Some new immigrants tend to have a more traditional Chinese mindset, thinking that beating a child is part of their upbringing," says social worker Raymond Fung Hing-kau.

Other traits of abusers include drug addiction, mental health problems, teenage pregnancy and a history of being abused.

Guidance and counselling on issues such as home safety, managing emotions and taking are of children are being advocated, but there aren't enough resources for these services done by volunteers.

Child protection advocates also say the government isn't tough enough on abusers, and that other adults should be empowered to rescue children from these dangerous situations.

Then there is the problem of not enough social workers in schools to help identify cases -- they are underpaid and the turnover rate is high at 30 percent. Because of the heavy workload, the social workers end up prioritizing cases that seem more serious.

In addition teachers aren't equipped to deal with child abuse cases -- currently the guidebook is 300 pages long -- and advocates say there needs to be clearer guidelines.

And then strangely, because kindergarten education is not compulsory, there is no need for the bureau to follow up on cases where a child has been missing classes.

So it seems Hong Kong has many holes in the system that need patching up, but advocates say it's also just as important for neighbours, relatives and friends to step up if they see something wrong.

There has been talk for years of having a child advocate for the city and it's about time the government appoint someone to carefully look at this sad and horrific issue from top to bottom and put children's needs and safety first.

Paul Chan's Crocodile Tears

Does Chan seriously think we believe he's losing sleep over young people?

Our Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po is so concerned about young people in Hong Kong that he's losing sleep over it.

In a Christmas Eve post on his blog, Chan said ever-increasing rents and property prices had imposed a heavy burden on Hongkongers and stunted the development of start-ups and entire industries. "It gives me sleepless nights and a low appetite," he said.

Recounting previous conversations with grassroots families and other locals, Chan said many residents, especially the young were under immense pressure due to stagnating salaries and long working hours despite Hong Kong having robust economic growth at 3.7 percent this year.

The youth feel left out in the city's economic development

Chan also noted there was a shortage of land for housing, offices, creative spaces and nursing homes.

"The government is making an effort to find land and explore solutions from every possible angle," he wrote.

But some of the suggestions have been controversial, such as developing some parts of the country parks which is currently illegal, and also making a 1,000-hectare artificial island east of Lantau.

Stop with the crocodile tears, Mr Chan.

If you were a rookie in Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's administration, then maybe we would have a bit of sympathy for you, but you were previously Secretary for Development in Leung Chun-ying's cabinet AND you were discovered for owning several properties that had sub-divided flats and had land in your name in the New Territories where the government was planning to develop near there.

Housing is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed

And how can it only be now that he realizes how challenging it is for young people to establish their careers in Hong Kong if they don't have good connections or a lot of capital to start with?

If he isn't sleeping well then he should come up with some decent solutions to help young people get jobs that will move them up the economic ladder instead of being stuck in service positions, and find more land -- brown sites is something we have repeated constantly in this blog -- or the government should develop low-cost housing of its own so that there will be options other than luxury flats or micro flats less than 300 square feet.

This is the best financial secretary Lam could come up with?

HK Needs More Public Housing

A fire in this building in Kwai Chung killed three people in subdivided flats

A fire in a subdivided flat in a warehouse building in Kwai Chung killed three people on Saturday, raising more questions again about the safety of people living in these unhealthy spaces, though they cannot afford anything else.

The owner of the space had subdivided 6,000 square feet of space into 17 rooms and did not submit the application to make minor alternations to the Buildings Department, nor did the changes meet fire safety standards.

The 1953 Shek Kip Mei fire led to building public housing

In addition, the 45-year-old Ma Sik Industrial Building didn't have any sprinklers because it was built before 1973 and was thus exempted from retrofitting.

Security minister John Lee Ka-chiu said on Sunday that police, buildings and fire services department officials were investigating whether the fire was a result of breaches in safety or fire regulations.

That's all fine and well for the government to look into the technical breaches in terms of fire safety, but can we look at why we are having subdivided flats in the first place?

There is not enough affordable or low-income housing in Hong Kong and the government has a duty to do something about this. We cannot have people living in horrible conditions and pay much more in rent per square foot than the average middle class flat owner.

In 1973 the government pledged to house 1.8 million people

Subdivided flats are notorious for being unhygienic, cramped, noisy and fire hazards waiting to happen. Low-income earners have no choice but to live in these places to have a roof over their heads. This is unacceptable -- it is 2017.

And the government can play an important role in this.

It built public housing in 1954 after a fire in Shek Kip Mei destroyed makeshift homes of mainland Chinese immigrants the year before. The concrete buildings weren't perfect, with communal washrooms and kitchens, but at least they were solid structures for people to live in.

In 1973 the government announced a 10-year plan to provide 1.8 million people in Hong Kong with "satisfactory accommodation". The authorities felt it was their responsibility to provide accessible housing to the poor.

How much longer can people live in subdivided flats?

Today the government hasn't done a comprehensive assessment of subdivided flats in Hong Kong -- how many are there, who lives in them, how much money do they make or receive each month, and more importantly what can be done about the situation?

These inhabitants are not dirt poor, but they cannot afford even the cheapest microflat. Shouldn't that be a sign that the city needs more public housing? Hong Kong is so wealthy and yet it has no compassion for people who need a decent roof over their heads.

Can our relatively new Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor please look into this and solve this issue? It would definitely bring more harmony to the city...

Trying to Make Homes Better

People living in subdivided flats try to hoard as much furniture as they can

Many pictures of subdivided flats in Hong Kong show extremely cramped conditions with the room covered in stuff.

"Many grassroots families don't have the extra cash to spend on furniture. Instead they'll hoard a lot of second-hand furniture even if it's not very practical because they don't know if they'll be able to afford it in the future," says social worker Angela Lui Yi-shan.

Having to constantly worry about having enough money for basic necessities is a stressful situation to be in.

A picture before of a mother and child with a temporary desk

And not having proper spaces for children to study and play in such tiny living spaces doesn't help either.

As a result, Lui has teamed up with human rights advocacy group Society for Community Organization that helps design and build custom-made furniture for low-income families so they can have a better living environment.

Furniture can range from desks, shelves, and cupboards, and they can be easily moved out of the flat when the family moves to another place.

A team of architects from DOMAT, a not-for-profit architecture firm that designs the furniture, work with the families individually by visiting their subdivided flats see what existing furniture they want to keep and what their needs are.

"Most of the children we work with lie on the ground or bed to do their homework, and it's not good for their health or development, but this project can help change that," says Lui.

Many impoverished families live in old tenement buildings that have high ceilings, so the aim is to build floor-to-ceiling cupboards instead of stacking storage boxes, while children can have a proper desk and be able to store toys underneath.

Afterwards there is a dedicated desk and more space to move

"Based on their daily habits, we see how our designs can match their needs. We want to use furniture as a tool to improve their space, rather than just providing new furniture," says architect Maggie Ma.

She adds this project has helped her to understand more about how people live and what is most important to them.

Ma's partner and fellow architect Mark Kingsley says these makeovers are not like the ones on TV shows where a home is completely transformed. "The ambition of the project is much more modest -- to make small changes that can have a big impact on the family."

We need more architecture and design firms doing projects like this to help others make their lives better. And as Ma says, it helps her understand what people want and need in their homes, particularly those who are struggling everyday.