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Lam Ka-chun, 50, feels the government was wrong not to send charter flights to Thailand to help stranded holidaymakers until someone died

The biggest news last week was of course the fiasco in Thailand. The Hong Kong government only promised to send charter flights after a person died in a minibus crash on his way to Phuket. I think the government has done a very bad job. It should have understood right away that political unrest in Thailand was going to affect thousands of Hong Kong tourists. Why could Macau do it but we couldn't?

The government should also bear the biggest responsibility for the death in the minibus accident. If it had sent charter flights earlier, the couple would not have needed to rush to Phuket and they would not have been in the accident.

As usual, the government changed its attitude completely after a serious accident. Just a few days earlier, it was making excuses for not sending charter flights, but all excuses suddenly vanished right after the person died. I think the government is unable to deal with crises. During the colonial era it seemed that nothing of this sort happened.

The big news to us drivers is of course the start of the new taxi fare policy, which resulted in green-taxi drivers blockading the North Lantau Expressway. I don't think they should do this - disrupting the operation of the airport. Just like the Bangkok protesters paralysing their international airport, the blockade created a bad impression among tourists, scaring them off. Luckily there was the Airport Express, but still it was inconvenient to people who were in a hurry.

The green-taxi drivers are just making a fuss. The fare cut was planned a long time ago and if they had any problems with it they should have voiced their opinions long ago. Moreover, some airport taxi drivers are dishonest. While they are waiting for passengers they deliberately leave the meter running, only stopping it before a tourist gets in. Thus their taxi fares start at HK$30 or so, not HK$16.

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