I was stunned when looking at a feature recently on the funniest sports pictures of the year so far. Try as I might I could not find the one shot that continually induces side-splitting hysteria.
The one that really choked me up was of Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen squinting at the starting line at this year's Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon as he waved to the runners.
It was almost like he was sending them off to war; these courageous souls who would spend the next few hours trying to run on the soulless streets and expressways of Hong Kong while inhaling copious amounts of this toxic sludge we call air.
Here was Tsang smiling and waving and seemingly oblivious to the fact that as leader of Hong Kong this bad air is on him. It was funny, hysterical even, in a most perverse way. He just does not get it and he will not get it in a few months' time when Hong Kong Stadium hosts the Reunification Cup between German football heavyweights Bayern Munich and the Chinese national team. There is a very real chance Hong Kong will make international headlines again when the Bundesliga stars disappear during the game. I mean, literally disappear.
The air in Hong Kong was so putrid this week that visibility was basically zero. Someone could have stolen the Bank of China tower and been halfway to Tasmania before anyone noticed. And yet, there was no sense of indignation from our leaders whatsoever.
This past week our chief executive attended a Labour Day reception hosted by the Economic Development and Labour Bureau at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Despite having a front row seat to our invisible harbour, Tsang failed to acknowledge the pollution and instead spoke of the methods for successfully doing his job.
'The key to getting the chief executive's job done is to get out of Government House,' he said.