We had a lunch today in the ELEMENTS Italian restaurant - a group of tai tai's spending a hell of money in that restaurant - very unpleasant ladies - naughty, nasty, born with greed - just the type you do not want to have command in your office. But they have & they need to dissappear....................
Here that Michael Chugani in SCMP:
Hong Kong must take on the tycoons after Occupy protests
Michael Chugani argues that Hong Kong cannot return to business as usual after Occupy Central and must confront vested interests
When it finally ends - and end it will, peacefully or violently - can we go back to business as usual by telling ourselves it was just a passing storm? There are those who will push to do exactly that, to go back to the Hong Kong as it was before September 28. In that Hong Kong the tycoons ruled. They had a stranglehold on the lives of seven million people. They controlled our supermarkets, pharmacies, phone companies, property market and most other things you can think of.
High home prices forced ordinary families into tiny subdivided flats, it took 14 years of saving wages to afford a 400 sq ft flat, prison-sized flats of 180 sq ft had an asking price of HK$2 million, high rents forced small shops out of business, a million people earned less than HK$10,000 a month, the median wage was just HK$14,000, big business fought against the minimum wage, opposed standardised working hours, and wanted more mainland tourists even though the millions who came each year had already eroded our quality of life.
That was the Hong Kong before September 28. And it is the Hong Kong those with vested interests want to go back to when Occupy Central ends. But if they think they can pretend it is business as usual they've missed the message of Occupy. Once again I ask them to wake up and smell the revolution. Occupy is about much more than just democracy. It's about our wealth gap, stagnant wages, and young people stuck in dead-end jobs with no hope of upward mobility while our tycoons climb ever higher on the Forbes rich list.
Do you think Occupy would have erupted with such force if the government's rule book wasn't so skewed in favour of the ruling class? Would so many young people have so willingly braved the sting of tear gas if they weren't so disillusioned about their future? I had warned before of a lit fuse leading to a time bomb. Occupy turned out to be that bomb.
The old order has to go. How, I don't know, because it's too well entrenched. Like him or loathe him, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying did try to change things by taking on the tycoons with property cooling and other measures. He did take steps to tackle poverty and many other livelihood issues. That's why I found puzzling his remark that so-called genuine democracy would result in poor people dominating elections.
Can genuine democracy rid Hong Kong of the old order? Who knows, but it's pointless wondering about it. Beijing will never allow the Occupy movement's brand of democracy, which it fears will threaten national security. Our next chief executive will either be chosen through the existing undemocratic system if the Legislative Council votes down Beijing's reforms, or through one person one vote with screened candidates if Legco approves it.
Either way, the next leader and politicians will be playing with fire if they don't change their political playbook. Confrontation, Legco filibusters, grandstanding, and scoring cheap political points at the people's expense must give way to a new playbook on changing the old order. Otherwise, expect an even bigger explosion.
Michael Chugani is a columnist and TV show host. mickchug@gmail.com
High home prices forced ordinary families into tiny subdivided flats, it took 14 years of saving wages to afford a 400 sq ft flat, prison-sized flats of 180 sq ft had an asking price of HK$2 million, high rents forced small shops out of business, a million people earned less than HK$10,000 a month, the median wage was just HK$14,000, big business fought against the minimum wage, opposed standardised working hours, and wanted more mainland tourists even though the millions who came each year had already eroded our quality of life.
That was the Hong Kong before September 28. And it is the Hong Kong those with vested interests want to go back to when Occupy Central ends. But if they think they can pretend it is business as usual they've missed the message of Occupy. Once again I ask them to wake up and smell the revolution. Occupy is about much more than just democracy. It's about our wealth gap, stagnant wages, and young people stuck in dead-end jobs with no hope of upward mobility while our tycoons climb ever higher on the Forbes rich list.
Do you think Occupy would have erupted with such force if the government's rule book wasn't so skewed in favour of the ruling class? Would so many young people have so willingly braved the sting of tear gas if they weren't so disillusioned about their future? I had warned before of a lit fuse leading to a time bomb. Occupy turned out to be that bomb.
The old order has to go. How, I don't know, because it's too well entrenched. Like him or loathe him, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying did try to change things by taking on the tycoons with property cooling and other measures. He did take steps to tackle poverty and many other livelihood issues. That's why I found puzzling his remark that so-called genuine democracy would result in poor people dominating elections.
Can genuine democracy rid Hong Kong of the old order? Who knows, but it's pointless wondering about it. Beijing will never allow the Occupy movement's brand of democracy, which it fears will threaten national security. Our next chief executive will either be chosen through the existing undemocratic system if the Legislative Council votes down Beijing's reforms, or through one person one vote with screened candidates if Legco approves it.
Either way, the next leader and politicians will be playing with fire if they don't change their political playbook. Confrontation, Legco filibusters, grandstanding, and scoring cheap political points at the people's expense must give way to a new playbook on changing the old order. Otherwise, expect an even bigger explosion.
Michael Chugani is a columnist and TV show host. mickchug@gmail.com
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