Since most of our clients are multinational corporations, it's quite clear that they are increasing their staff numbers in Hong Kong and, rather than seeing an exodus of any kind, we are seeing a beefing up due to increased activity.

Rising prices for luxury flats and prime office space in the past 18 months, as well as the fact that most international schools are full, would indicate that Hong Kong is still a prime location for multinational businesses.

As much as we all abhor the pollution we have to face every day, major mainland cities are no better, and we have not seen this as a factor in deterring expats from moving here.

JIM THOMPSON, Crown Relocations

Second-class expatriates

The article 'Alarm raised as expats opt to shun HK' (April 19) bothers me on several levels. First, it confuses quantity with quality, failing to explore the areas, professional and economic, affected by the decline in western expatriates moving here.

Second, the tone of the article shows a hangover colonial mentality that panders to western expats. In my opinion, one needs to examine the bigger picture, as in the need for western expatriates and the purpose they serve, rather than the reasons for their not moving to Hong Kong.

For those who have been given the right motivation - that is, offers attractive enough to overcome their resistance - issues such as high rents and pollution are academic. Frankly, there are worse places with bigger problems on this planet, and you find western expats living there.

Third, I am bothered by the connotation in the story that the only worthy expatriates are white.

Truth be told, this is the Far East and more than half the world lies west of here, including large parts of Asia and Africa, which are home to significant sections of this world's brown and black populations.

However, it seems that we, from the brown world of Asia, do not qualify as true expats. We face the same problems as western expats. The pollution and high rents bother us, too. But we also face an additional problem: the subtle, insidious and persistent discounting in small but significant ways - such as in this article - of our existence and contribution.

Three years in Hong Kong have shown me that, like in any world city, the good comes with the bad. There is a lot more good in Hong Kong than bad. The real problem, as I see it, is a lack of self-respect and the inability to appreciate what one has ... but then, maybe you'll only believe it if a western expat told you.

JYOTI SINGH VISVANATH, Central

Gambling on legitimacy

The Hong Kong Jockey Club has used illegal bookies and charity donations as an excuse to defend its operations and expand its betting operations for decades. From opening new off-course betting centres to accepting football punting, it has done its best to promote gambling while categorising horse racing as sport or charity.

Whatever the defence put forward by the Jockey Club's executive director of corporate development, Kim Mak, in his letter 'Reforms put racing on the right track' (April 20), the proposal to give back punters a fraction of their losses is another marketing incentive to encourage people to bet more heavily.

While I agree that horse racing brings in a large proportion of much-needed government revenue, the harm it does outweighs the benefits.

Because illegal bookmakers are criminal, many people are reluctant to use them, even if they want to gamble, because they do not want to associate themselves with law-breakers.

But it is hard to find a family in Hong Kong untouched in some way by the activities of the Jockey Club, which brands itself as the only legal betting operation in town.

I have witnessed so many families ruined and so many people bankrupted by gambling. While I wonder whether illegal bookies alone have had the power to do such damage, the Jockey Club certainly has.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Obstacles to creativity

In 'Designs on a more creative China' (April 19), designer Lars Blacken comments: 'The problem on the mainland is not a shortage of people with design skills; it's the challenge of changing a passive mentality.'

He attributed this phenomenon to the fact that 'culturally, [mainland designers] avoid confrontation. They don't stand up for their convictions.'

I believe the root of the problem lies with the mainland companies who hire designers to work for them.

First, the inviolable mission of these companies is to make as much profit as they can, however they can. Designers, local or foreign, must meet this goal to keep their jobs or assignments.

Second, the working environment in China requires staff to take into account the feelings of their superiors, co-workers and subordinates so as to preserve face and harmony. Culturally, the Chinese misunderstand debate and criticism, seeing them as disruptive and unproductive. This so-called harmony leads to mental laziness and undermines creativity.

The fact is that cutting corners and pleasing everyone consumes more energy than simply designing something good based on one's creative convictions. But unless work environments and cultural values change, designers on the mainland will have a difficult time upholding principles of good design.

JOHN YUAN, Dalian

China enriches Gates

It is heart-warming to observe that the world's richest man has just sold software worth US$1.2 billion to a country with one of the world's lower per-capita gross domestic products.

Presumably, the version Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has sold to the mainland is the one that (after informing the authorities) crashes if the user types in 'democracy', 'free speech' or 'independence' for any region beginning with the letter 'T'.

CHRIS MADEN, Tsuen Wan

Tang's tobacco legacy

Letter writer Amit Singh puts his finger on the salient issue of the failure of the public-health system in preventing tobacco-induced disease ('Cost of cheap cigarettes' April 17).

Cheap cigarettes are an important tool in the tobacco industry's strategy to penetrate youth markets and maintain consumption at all ages. The inverse relationship between tobacco tax, sale price and consumption, especially among young people, is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a vitally important issue in tobacco control. When governments apply progressive increases in duty, they increase their revenue and decrease illness, lost productivity and premature deaths.

Hong Kong, however, has not charged a single additional cent in tobacco duty in five years. Despite advice from many public health experts (including, presumably, the secretary for health, welfare and food) and the fact that China has ratified its membership of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Hong Kong now has some of the cheapest cigarettes anywhere in the world in relation to per-capita gross domestic product.

In terms of health, tobacco costs Hong Kong twice the revenue of tobacco tax, not counting the value of lives lost. Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen must now explain why he prefers to support the tobacco industry over a policy of reducing the threat of cigarettes to our health and economy. As things now stand, one of his legacies will be measurable in episodes of illness, hospital bed occupancy rates and deaths that could have been avoided.

ANTHONY HEDLEY, Tobacco Control Research and Policy Unit, University of Hong Kong

So much for fung shui

I read with interest Y.P. Ho's letter 'Tamar is bad fung shui' (April 18), worrying that the land at the Tamar site is 'unstable reclaimed land' that used to be the naval basin. I am not a construction engineer, but I know that almost all the tallest buildings in Hong Kong are built on reclaimed land north of Wan Chai and along the harbourfront from Central to Sheung Wan. So far, they are still standing tall.

RAYMOND LAU, Shenyang