Democrats can't see the forest for the trees
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But a functional constituency by any other name still stinks. That's why radical democrats are holding their noses at Beijing's latest compromise to democratise the Legislative Council. Radical democrats say even though everyone - not just a small circle of people - can vote in five new functional constituencies they are still functional constituencies. Public Eye says, so what? It's just a name. What counts is everyone can vote. Could it be radical democrats do not really want democracy because that will make them irrelevant?
Will Henderson be punished? Don't bet on it
Are you waiting for the government to punish big-time property company Henderson Land Development for manipulating the market with fairy tales of eager buyers paying record sums for its Conduit Road luxury flats? Well, don't. Nothing will happen to Henderson Land. Our officials don't have the guts to take on the tycoons. Instead, they bully the little guys trying to make an honest living. Remember how they hauled an ice-cream vendor to court for daring to sell candy sticks as well? And remember how they threatened to jail the eight old-timers shining shoes for a few dollars in Central? Henderson Land bragged that a Conduit Road flat fetched a world record price of HK$439 million and others had sold for staggering sums, too. To convince sceptics the deals were genuine Henderson boss Lee Shau-kee even offered a 100-to-one wager. Home prices soared on news of the record sales, even in the mass market. Anxious families worried about further increases rushed to buy flats at inflated prices. But it was all fiction. The high-rollers Henderson claimed had paid record prices never did in the end. So will the government haul Henderson to court like it did the ice-cream vendor for selling candy sticks? Will it rush to outlaw such market manipulation in the same way it imposed licence conditions on the Central shoeshiners? Public Eye will offer a wager too, and at better odds than tycoon Lee. We bet the government won't dare go after the Henderson big guys.
Life isn't as simple as eating cake
Lee Shau-kee says he can't understand why people are furious over what his company did. 'It's just a simple matter. Why make it so complicated?' Well, Mr Lee, it may be a simple matter to you. You're a property tycoon. You get to make even more money by boasting one of your flats fetched a world record price when it had not. Your boast drives up property prices. But it's not a simple matter to struggling families who end up having to pay even higher prices for a home. A word of advice from Public Eye: try to understand the public mood, don't mock it. Most people make less than HK$10,000 a month. They don't like property developers as it is. Saying it's a simple matter is like telling them to eat cake when they can't afford bread.