Incestuous, self-regarding and smug, the Hong Kong elite seems not to have the faintest idea of how it must look to the outside world.
That is a world where there is real competition for political power, where oligopolies are not the norm and where the billion-dollar deals between bureaucrats and businessmen are subject to closer public scrutiny.
I refer, in this instance, firstly to the full-page advertisement which recently appeared in this and other newspapers. It read: 'Congratulations to Dr Stanley Ho on the award of Grand Lotus medal of Honour by Macau SAR Government.'
The A to Z of roughly 200 names of individuals, companies, associations and (yes) charities who presumably paid for, as well as signed, this message began, fittingly, with Sir David Akers-Jones and ended with Mr Ho's very own Sociedade de Turismo e Divers?es de Macau.
It included such pillars of the business establishment as David Li Kwok-po, Gordon Wu Ying-sheung, Lee Shau-kee, Tung Chee-chen and Vincent Lo Hong-sui, corporate has-beens such as Henry Keswick, and those former leading upholders of the law Elsie Leung Oi-sie, Li Kwan-ha and Yang Ti-liang.
It should scarcely come as a surprise that Mr Ho gets such an award from Macau.