Does this government have the gumption to fix air pollution?
At the rate our air pollution is progressing the government could completely fill in the harbour and we would never know. Some people might say: 'What did we do with Kowloon?'
Golf will cease to be played as no one will be able to see where their balls go after 100 yards. The silver lining is we don't have to worry about ultraviolet rays and skin cancer anymore. The sun is powerless to penetrate our smog.
Where is the leadership of our bow tie government? There isn't much for the government to do, if you think about it. Record surpluses and prosperity. Virtually no unemployment and maids for everyone. A peaceful society with Towngas resurfacing all our roads for free.
The government really has only a few issues that require inspiration, vision and leadership.
One of them is our pollution problem. I suspect that much or most of it comes from the mainland and I believe some form of co-operative plan is required.
The money should be available to tackle our problem given our huge surpluses. But we will never know, though, because our government is bureaucratic and believes in hiding behind consultative reports drafted by only a few bureaucrats, the results interpreted to fit whatever Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen et al want and promptly ignored anyway.
There is no vision, no leadership and no transparency.
Surely our government knows where this smog originates. It doesn't tell us, though. We hear nothing about how it intends to solve the problem and I suspect there's been virtually no effort on working with our mainland counterparts.
What our government did come up with is some pathetic and ineffective little scheme to charge us for plastic bags.
Cities all around the world with far fewer resources have had comprehensive recycling programmes in place for decades. They have long since dealt with air pollution. Mr Tsang, sir, it is possible for governments to be effective if the head of state is a leader.
Gregory Pek, Happy Valley
