Advertisement
Advertisement

Group not suited for educational role in schools

It was with disbelief bordering on despair that I read in the South China Morning Post on Monday that the Society for Truth and Light had been awarded a contract by the Education and Manpower Bureau to conduct a series of classes for primary school teachers on the topic of human rights and anti-discrimination ('Anger over human rights contract', October 3).

Talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

The society, given its well-publicised stance on various issues, not least discrimination against individuals on the grounds of their sexual orientation, should be the last organisation to be entrusted with the provision of a balanced and rational course of classes on human rights issues.

It operates within the context of an intolerant and fundamentalist form of Christianity and, as such, is entirely unsuited to any educational role in a free and pluralist society. That public funds are to be used to allow the society to propagate its distorted views is quite disgraceful.

Any organisation which claims to have the monopoly on truth, let alone on light, is to be viewed with the greatest concern.

If the government wishes to avoid yet another large dollop of egg on its already besmirched face, it should overturn this decision immediately.

PETER JOHNSON, Lantau Island

Dealing with flu threat

Normally, after I have written a letter, I wait six months before again foisting my opinion on others. With the 'Life Doctor' column headlined 'Influenza threat' (October 3), my conscience and my wife urged me to forego the usual niceties.

While I find this attempt to educate us on flu avoidance laudable, the column is misleading.

Yes, governments are stockpiling Tamiflu in the hope of delaying a pandemic, but it isn't merely a delaying tactic until drug companies manufacture more vaccine. A proven vaccine does not exist. Efforts have only entered the human-testing phase.

Furthermore, the US has only 2 million courses of Tamiflu stockpiled - enough for 1 per cent of its population. Other governments may not have been as short-sighted as the US government, but without hard data, what constitutes 'vast amounts of the drug'?

The column then notes that Australia's supply is so plentiful that it can spare 40,000 courses of treatment for Indonesia. Perhaps, but more likely Canberra understands that quashing the outbreak in Indonesia is preferable to waiting for it to show up in Sydney. Hopefully, more countries will engage in aggressive altruism.

The information then provided on Tamiflu is accurate, but the piece neglects to mention that it is a prescription medicine.

We should have a balanced diet. But this should not be done in place of vaccination against avian influenza, once a vaccine is available. The column discusses how to improve your immune response against a strain of flu to which we do not have a natural immunity.

It might make a difference, but note the following. Estimates range from 150 million to 350 million dead in a flu pandemic. Think of 200 acquaintances - five to 10 would die. This is not a matter of sniffles and sick days, but of mortality.

Am I all doom and gloom? No. I am hopeful that the current outbreak in Jakarta will be contained like previous ones, that growing concern will provide scientists the moral and monetary incentives to speed the creation of a vaccine, and that a year from now my family and I will say to a nurse: 'Jab me. Jab me, please'.

In the meantime, you should exercise, get rest, eat vegetables, wash your hands - and hope.

MARK MULKERIN, Mid-Levels

Doubt on medical fees

I read with interest Peter C.H. Tam's letter headlined 'Will the public foot medical insurance bills?' (September 30).

The issue of mandatory health cover is very similar, I believe, to that of the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF).

The bureaucracy involved in the MPF results in management charges of up to 15 times those required of voluntary investment funds. Can the government move to reform MPF charges and, furthermore, guarantee there would not be such a rip-off on any mandatory private medical insurance?

Can Mr Tam guarantee that mandatory medical insurance and the associated bureaucratic nightmare would not result in an increase in medical insurance fees?

Unless such guarantees can be given, then just as those people saving and investing for the future can ill-afford the MPF and its management charges, I suggest the public could not foot the bill for another mandatory scheme.

RICHARD DI BONA, Mid-Levels

Don't play with figures

In his letter 'Don't abandon teens' (October 1), Gordon Truscott cited statistics from unidentified sources that only 9 per cent of homosexuals live to 65, while 80 per cent of married men live to 65 or older.

He went on to suggest that homosexuality is highly dangerous for life expectancy. Presuming for a moment that the data he cited exists, the distorted conclusion he made is no different from saying that there is no need to pass any laws to protect pandas (or indeed any species endangered by humans) because they do not outlive turtles and they choose to live in a challenged environment.

In Mr Truscott's view, pandas can turn themselves into turtles, and they should. But he is no god.

His distorted conclusion is also no different from saying that heterosexuals are not suitable for marriage because they have a much higher divorce rate than homosexuals (who have a zero divorce rate in Hong Kong).

Statistics can be skewed to serve any purpose. One can play with them, but never with God.

JONATHAN MAN, Lai King

Worry over fireworks

On Sunday night, as on many nights since Disneyland opened, a thick, low-lying cloud of smoke from the fireworks was visible from part of Discovery Bay.

Each time I see this, I wonder what such pollution will do to my children's lungs over time. And I wonder what it will do to the respiratory health of long-term residents of this supposedly environmentally friendly part of Hong Kong.

In the absence of any independent, credible and reassuring evidence about this smoke, my husband and I are forced to consider whether to move our family out of Discovery Bay, our home for 10 years.

If the children of our neighbourhood suffer in years to come, will Disney help out with the medical bills?

AMANDA WHITMORE SNOW,

Discovery Bay

Maid laws are unjust

Father Elmer Wurth ('Maids in a squeeze', September 30) raises a matter which should be of concern to all who value the reputation of this 'world city' as a place where one can expect justice and fair play for all.

Hong Kong has already plummeted several places in a poll measuring these qualities, and it is of no benefit to anyone in business or any other activity to see this city's name further damaged in the world's media.

The sheer injustice and inequality of our laws and regulations about foreign workers (most of whom are domestic helpers) need to be addressed urgently.

We have, in effect, government-sanctioned abuse of a certain group of human beings. This consists of a levy on the employment of domestic helpers.

I own a business here and besides locals, I employ foreign staff, for whom I have never been required to pay a levy.

With the economy recovering, property prices have risen substantially. Tycoons are reported to be buying luxury cars, boats and planes. It is time then to restore the minimum wage to at least its previous level, and to scrap the levy once and for all.

It matters not if we have a Disneyland, Asia's tallest sitting Buddha, a million tourists a month and a balanced budget. If people outside Hong Kong regard our government as institutionalising injustices, we are losing a great deal of respect internationally.

CHRISTINE HOUSTON,

Mid-Levels

Post