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Letters

Mainland cousin made to feel unwanted
I am concerned about the issue of parallel trading in Hong Kong.
A cousin of mine from Guangzhou came here for a tour. She was aware of sideways glances from local residents and it made her feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. They were looking at her oversized backpack, but all it contained were the clothes she needed for her five-day holiday. However, this appears to be the way all mainland visitors are now being treated. They feel frustrated as they have nothing to do with these traders.
We now see protesters congregating where the parallel traders also gather and yelling insults like, "Mainlanders go back to mainland", "Use your own products" and "Drive out the locusts". I can understand their anger, but do they ever consider the feelings of mainland visitors?
Also, because some of them go too far, they provoke a reaction from the police. Their actions, when they become very disruptive, can hurt businesses in areas such as Sheung Shui, Yuen Long, Sha Tin and Tuen Mun, because some shops were forced to close.
The government certainly has to step up enforcement against parallel trading, before there is a further deterioration.
However, companies on the mainland also have to be held responsible for what is happening. Mainlanders come here for items like powdered milk for babies, because the products manufactured on the mainland are of poor quality. Citizens recall the scandal of tainted formula and gutter oil in restaurants.
We must find solutions, but this must be done in a peaceful manner.
Chloe Wong, Mid-Levels 
Protests must always remain peaceful
I accept that parallel traders have adversely affected the lives of many residents in the parts of the New Territories they frequent. However, I cannot agree with demonstrators occupying a main road in Yuen Long to get their point across.
Organising a protest is a perfectly acceptable way to express your opinion, but you should not block roads. This is illegal and disruptive for nearby residents.
The scenes at Yuen Long were chaotic. Some of the protesters wore body armour. They were clearly prepared for a confrontation. Protests should at all times be peaceful, nobody should be hurt and disruption to residents should be minimal.
To minimise the problems created by parallel traders, the government should move swiftly to get a shopping mall built at the border, which has products for sale that are in such demand at pharmacies in the New Territories, resulting in shortages in these areas.
Mainlanders are buying these products in bulk because they have no confidence in what is manufactured on the mainland.
This is a problem that should be addressed by the central government.
There must be tighter supervision of these mainland factories.
Jeremy Chiu Chun-yue, Sai Wan Ho 
UN Security Council caught in time warp
All major decisions of the United Nations are made by five permanent members of the Security Council, namely, the US, Britain, France, Russia and China, which have individual veto powers to block any resolution.
If the UN could be called the "world government", the five permanent members could be regarded as the "inner cabinet". It is time to take a closer look at the governance of this world body in the context of fairness and representativeness.
The current composition of the five permanent members is a legacy from the second world war. When the UN Charter was signed in 1945, these five nations constituted the chief Allied powers who opposed the Axis powers.
They had control over many regions of the world.
Obviously the greatest changes in this grouping have been the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek and founding of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union becoming the Russian Federation.
Asia has more than 60 per cent of the world's population and yet only one permanent member in the Security Council.
Europe, including the Russian Federation, has only about 11 per cent of the world's population but is unfairly represented by three permanent members.
Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined have about 24 per cent of world's population but have no representation at all.
We live in 2015, not 1945. The world order has changed from the time the UN Charter was drafted.
It is time for a reassessment of the eligibility criteria to be a permanent member of the Security Council and to restructure its composition, in the spirit of fairness and equal rights enshrined in the UN Charter.
A. W. Jayawardena, Kennedy Town 
Food vans might drive out hawkers
In his budget speech, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah suggested the introduction of food trucks in Hong Kong.
They are a common sight on the streets of many cities in the West. However, I am concerned that there could be adverse side effects if they were allowed to operate in Hong Kong.
They would have an impact on a long-standing culinary tradition here - food hawkers. These mobile outlets and the hawkers will in effect fill the same niche.
Hong Kong is a small city and I cannot see food trucks and hawkers successfully coexisting. Given that these hawkers are a tradition we are justly proud of, Mr Tsang should rethink his food truck proposal.
There are other problems that appear to have been overlooked. Land is scarce and expensive in Hong Kong, so the truck operators would face the problem of finding suitable and affordable locations to do business. Also, traffic is busy, especially in urban areas, so they could make congestion worse than it is already.
Also, there is the hygiene issue as they would have to discharge waste water in the street.
There would certainly have to be a lot of feasibility studies and research by the relevant government departments before any go-ahead was given for this project.
However, I do believe that the most important thing is to consider the damage they would do to our traditional hawkers.
They are part of what makes Hong Kong unique and attracts so many tourists.
They are an integral part of the city's history, whereas food vans are very much a Western tradition.
In fact, I hope we will see more food hawkers on the streets of Hong Kong in the future and that the government will encourage this.
Cindy Yuen Wing-sze, Kwun Tong
Trucks could prove popular on streets
Hongkongers are accustomed to street food, thanks to the age-old tradition of hawkers. So the proposal to establish food trucks is old wine in new bottles, but I find it to be plausible.
I think they could help hawkers. The hawkers have struggled to survive since restrictions were imposed on new licences in the 1970s. Some have suggested this aspect of Hong Kong life could die out if nothing is done to save it. Hawkers could continue to ply their trade from these food trucks.
This would give them greater mobility so they could go to different locations around the territory where there was demand and so boost their earnings.
These trucks would also provide citizens with more dining options at affordable prices. It would also be more cost-effective for people to operate their business out of a truck, as they would not face the soaring rents you must pay if you have a restaurant in Hong Kong.
Also, mobile food trucks have operated successfully in Hong Kong for a number of years, with the Mister Softee ice-cream vans.
As hawkers do not earn a lot, they would have to be given subsidies or low-interest loans if they wanted to start a food-truck business.
Ming Lee, Tai Po
New Delhi being unfairly demonised
I refer to the article by Priya Virmani ("For once, let bias favour women in misogynistic India", March 11).
It is unfair to make sweeping statements about Indian men because of the gang rape and murder of a student in New Delhi in 2012.
I was born in Hong Kong, but my parents came from New Delhi. I visit the city every year and consider it my second home.
Recently, thanks to the sensationalist stories in the media, not just non-Indians but even fellow Indians in Hong Kong have taunted me about Delhi. Most of them are from Mumbai, one of the safest cities where it's common to find people out at three in the morning.
Yes, the facts show that New Delhi is among the most dangerous cities in India, but it's not more dangerous than cities in the US or Latin America.
I use public transport in Delhi, and I have never witnessed anyone trying to take advantage of a woman. I am sure that there are cases but they are not widespread. By contrast, I saw incidences of groping on the tram, from Central to Wan Chai, in the 1990s.
Delhi may not be a perfect city for women, but the way it is portrayed in the media is a distortion of reality. It is a great and interesting city, and I find it offensive for anyone to target it.
Haresh Khushi, Tsim Sha Tsui


Letters to the Editor, March 14, 2015

The Security Council's make-up is out of date.Photo: Xinhua

Opinion