Hong Kong, 5 July 2023: The clue is in the film’s title: If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium is a likeable 1969 satire about bewildered American tourists on a hectic package holiday around Europe. They visit nine countries in 18 breathless days, rushing from one landmark to another amid myriad comic capers. Your writer is about to embark on something similar, departing Hong Kong tonight for a four-week trip to Paris, London, Budapest, Brussels and various places in between. There will be family reunions, meetings with old friends, a wedding, some work (yes, honestly) and three Formula 1 races.
Will I enjoy it? You bet! I also realise how fortunate I am to have the time and means to travel, a privilege denied many citizens who are wrestling with economic hardship, livelihood issues and mental health concerns. The latter is now painfully obvious. The Hong Kong Family Happiness Index, compiled by HK.WeCARE, shows an average score of 6.57 out of 10, down from 6.98 last year and 7.26 in 2021. Social sciences professor Daniel Shek cites the “unbalanced” approach authorities took to managing public health during the pandemic as a significant factor. He’s not wrong.
Another survey tells us more than 80% of schoolchildren continue to wear masks despite the mandate being (belatedly) dropped four months ago. The poll by the Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service also finds that pupils still covering up feel higher levels of social anxiety than schoolmates. Why are they so obstinate about hiding their faces? Health concerns, lack of confidence in their appearance, parental influence and unease with social interactions, in that order. So, forcing children to wear masks for three years causes psychological damage. Who knew?
Cheer up, kids, you can forget your woes with the Happy Hong Kong Shopping Festival, a two-month event organised by the Hong Kong Retail Management Association offering HK$150 million in discounts, bonuses and other goodies. Some 150 brands and 6,000 shops have signed up. Among the activities, Starbucks will hand out 100,000 cups of coffee, CSL Mobile is giving away a million 5G roaming passes and ParknShop is offering customers the chance to win a one-minute free shopping spree. Great! But economics professor Francis Lui warns discounts for consumers now will mean lower spending in future: “Think of it as going to a buffet lunch. After that, you eat much less during dinner.”
If a shopping splurge shows Hong Kong is getting back to normal, so does our soaring crime rate, apparently. Cases have risen 41% year on year, figures for the first five months of 2023 reveal, with police pointing to increased foot traffic following the easing of social distancing restrictions. “As society returns to normal, we are seeing more people on the streets,” observes Chief Inspector Choi Wing-yuk, noting pedestrian-heavy Mong Kok has seen a marked uptick in criminal activity.
Good news, then, that young people are queueing up to join the police. The force is receiving four times as many applications as it was a year ago, we are told. Relaxing – sorry, updating – entry requirements has done the trick. Applicants no longer have to be at least 163cm tall and over 50kg, they may wear glasses during eye tests and can take an alternative written assessment if they’ve flunked their Diploma of Secondary Education. Not that the quality of officers is compromised. Once trained, “you will be physically fit enough and equipped with sufficient knowledge to be a police officer”, assures Secretary for Security Chris Tang. Absolutely! So, everything is fine with Asia’s Finest? Yes, apart from the vacancy rate of 17.8%, the highest among this city’s six disciplined services.
Crime, especially the white-collar variety, crops up frequently on our latest Law & More podcast in which I chat with Graham Harris SC, a long-time colleague – and occasional (gentlemanly) opponent – in the course of his distinguished four-decade career in Hong Kong. His thoughts are well worth hearing.
As are those of our Chief Executive, of course. In a wide-ranging interview to mark his first year in office, John Lee has expressed “cautious optimism” over a flurry of economic activity generated from overseas trips by him and his team. Having successfully wooed Saudi Arabia and the UAE last February, our globe-trotting leader is off to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia later this month to drum up more business.
Citizens are watching his every move, it seems. Since taking office, our leader’s Facebook page has captured 40,000 followers, gathered 22,600 page likes and amassed 530,000 interactions. Not that John Lee’s social media output is impressing everyone. Communications expert Elizabeth Wong laments that his regular posts read like a work diary: “I still can’t tell what the key message is. The only information I get is that he has a packed schedule and travels a lot.”
Which brings me back, rather neatly, to my trip (and a break from writing this column for a few weeks). Paris tomorrow, London on Friday and then off to one of my favourite events, the British Grand Prix. Bring it on. If it’s Sunday, this must be Silverstone.
Until next time, everybody!
Colin Cohen
Senior Partner
Boase Cohen & Collins
