{"id":3459,"date":"2022-08-31T15:28:15","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T07:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/?p=3459"},"modified":"2022-08-31T15:28:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T07:28:18","slug":"here-are-the-facts-of-the-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hant\/%e7%b6%b2%e8%aa%8c\/here-are-the-facts-of-the-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are the facts of the matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hong Kong, 31 August 2022: <\/strong>We all know about Black Lives Matter<\/a>, the global social movement which highlights racism, discrimination and racial inequality. There is also I Matter<\/a>, a worldwide campaign that recognises and values women as essential leaders. Equally laudable is We Matter<\/a>, an organisation in Canada dedicated to Indigenous youth support. And then we have Hong Kong\u2019s crusade to conquer Covid-19 which, in stark contrast to the above positive messaging, could be called You Don\u2019t Matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future generations? They don\u2019t matter. Yesterday, the Education Bureau announced a tightening of regulations ahead of the new school year tomorrow. From November, secondary schools will only be allowed to conduct full-day classes if 90% of their students have been triple-vaccinated. Currently, the requirement is two jabs. Meanwhile, all-day classes at kindergartens and primary schools remain suspended. It could get worse. Education Secretary Christine Choi warns full-day learning might be halted if this city\u2019s daily infections surpass 10,000. (On Monday, we logged 8,488 new cases.) Lest we forget, our long-suffering kids are about to enter their fourth academic year of Covid-interrupted learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with disabilities or special needs? Unimportant. Today, we can read aghast<\/a> about an autistic nine-year-old boy and his father enduring a 13-hour wait at the airport while they applied for permission to home quarantine. The rules state application for home quarantine on medical grounds can only be made after arrival. The young man slept on the airport floor<\/a> while officials dithered. Exasperated, the father took his son to their quarantine hotel. Eventually, they were allowed to go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve all heard horror stories. One of my clients was just detained at the bleak Penny\u2019s Bay government quarantine facility. After endless rounds of negative tests following a trip to the UK, he returned a (false) positive result while trying to travel to Macau. He was brusquely escorted to a minibus and taken to camp, where a dreary room awaited him. The food was inedible. After three days of negative tests and railing against his incarceration, he was released. \u201cWhat sort of government treats law-abiding citizens like this?\u201d he asked. I\u2019m sorry, my frustrated friend, you simply don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scanning the headlines for more cheery fare, we see our city\u2019s iconic Peak Tram has just reopened<\/a> after a 15-month, HK$800 million (US$102 million) renovation project. Wonderful! The larger tramcars can carry 75% more passengers each trip, which is excellent news for tourists. Oh. Total visitor arrivals in the first six months of this year were 76,000. In the first six months of 2019, the figure was almost 35 million. Tourism doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither does our once-bustling airport. On Sunday, it welcomed 71 passenger flights, in contrast to the 254 which landed in Singapore. Earlier this month, our flagship carrier Cathay Pacific announced a loss of almost HK$5 billion (US$637 million) for the first half of this year and warned this city had fallen \u201cfar behind\u201d other international aviation hubs. Yes, so what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our F&B industry knows its place in the pecking order. Last Friday, Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau announced rapid antigen tests (RATs) \u2013 already mandatory if you pop to the pub for a pint \u2013 would be extended<\/a> to groups of more than eight people dining together. Each person now needs to produce a negative RAT within 24 hours before eating. If you\u2019re a table of eight, no need. If you\u2019re a group of nine spread across two tables, then you must. Go figure. Professor Lo also warned some stringent anti-epidemic measures could make a comeback. Logic, obviously, doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ditto environmental concerns. Pandemic-paranoid health officials wrap everything in plastic. Quarantine hotels and isolation facilities are engulfed by it \u2013 plastic coverings on remote controls, mattresses, pillows, you name it. Food comes with plastic cutlery. Staff wear full PPE. All school teachers and students must do daily RATs, ditto elderly care home staff. More than half a million RATs are taken every day<\/a> in Hong Kong. This city disposes of over 2,300 tons of plastic waste a day. With a recycling rate of just 11%, most of it goes into landfills. Ah, who cares?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamsters<\/a>, of course, don\u2019t matter. In fact, all pets would appear expendable given that we have amended the law<\/a> so that owners who ignore an order to give up their furry friend for disease control purposes can be locked up. Fat cats (of the corporate kind) are valued, however. Our government is considering giving quarantine exemptions<\/a> to senior bankers coming to town for a major investment summit in November. Yes, we\u2019re staging a conference to show Hong Kong is open for business while demonstrating it is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a searing opinion piece<\/a> in the most recent Sunday Times<\/em>, former UK Supreme Court justice Jonathan Sumption castigates Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his cabinet for their draconian response, including lockdown, in the early months of the pandemic. \u201cThe result illustrated some of the worst features of top-down government. The lack of wider deliberation and scrutiny leads to decisions being made on the hoof, without proper forethought, planning or research. It promotes loyalty at the expense of wisdom, and flattery at the expense of objective advice.\u201d Stern stuff. Lord Sumption, of course, sometimes sits in Hong Kong\u2019s Court of Final Appeal. A penny for his thoughts on our plight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizens\u2019 financial, physical and mental health are irrelevant. Our civil liberties and personal freedoms have become immaterial. Science doesn\u2019t even enter the equation. No, we are asked to devote all our efforts to \u201cfighting\u201d the virus while our whip-cracking leaders urge us on. They don\u2019t mind and \u2013 yes, you\u2019ve worked it out, my friends \u2013 we definitely don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay safe and well, everybody!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin Cohen<\/strong>
Senior Partner<\/strong>
Boase Cohen & Collins<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong, 31 August 2022: We all know about Black Live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-53"],"yoast_head":"\nHere are the facts of the matter - \u5e03\u9ad8\u6c5f\u5f8b\u5e2b\u884c<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hant\/%e7%b6%b2%e8%aa%8c\/here-are-the-facts-of-the-matter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_TW\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here are the facts of the matter - \u5e03\u9ad8\u6c5f\u5f8b\u5e2b\u884c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hong Kong, 31 August 2022: We all know about Black Live […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hant\/%e7%b6%b2%e8%aa%8c\/here-are-the-facts-of-the-matter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u5e03\u9ad8\u6c5f\u5f8b\u5e2b\u884c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-31T07:28:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-31T07:28:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/HUNDREDcov_PHOTO2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1257\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"597\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Niall Donnelly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u4f5c\u8005:\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Niall Donnelly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"\u9810\u4f30\u95b1\u8b80\u6642\u9593\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 \u5206\u9418\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hant\/%e7%b6%b2%e8%aa%8c\/here-are-the-facts-of-the-matter\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hant\/%e7%b6%b2%e8%aa%8c\/here-are-the-facts-of-the-matter\/\",\"name\":\"Here are the facts of the matter - 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