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SCMP Reporter

Q Should bosses be allowed to spy on staff in the workplace?

If bosses are allowed to spy on staff, they can keep a closer eye  on their work. Lazy workers will be kept in check.

If staff  want to keep their privacy while they are at work, bosses can offer them a company e-mail.

Staff  could use this e-mail for transactions of trade or contact business with customers, and not for personal messaging.

Chan Kong, Tsuen Wan

Q How can road safety be improved?

Lifting standards of driving through tougher teaching and testing is not the answer to curbing bad motorists. The mandatory courses that one must complete here to acquire a car, truck or bike licence  are already infinitely more comprehensive than in a lot of other countries. In Australia, for example, a lot of tuition is done by family members.

Hong Kong people are unfortunately far too aggressive. The heightened sense of power one feels behind the wheel of a car, coupled with that aggression, leads to all the lessons of safe driving learnt in driving schools going out the window.Overseas, if you do something wrong on the road, there's a fair chance you'll see the unwelcome sight of a police car in your rear-vision mirror motioning you to pull over. Here, police presence on the roads is virtually non-existent.

The answer is to change public attitudes to being a bit more friendly and considerate to each other (which is not going to happen) - or get more traffic police out on the road.

David Szabo, Central

On other matters...

I refer to the e-mail of  R.A. Hughes, Lantau, of  December 12.  In view of the widespread attention on and speculation around the Tung Chung river issue, the Civil Engineering Department (CED) has compiled a detailed list of chronological activities based on its  records and information available.

The list which outlines the information requested by Mr Hughes is accessible  via the CED's website at  www.info.gov.hk/ced. The chronology shows that the work at the river  was ordered more than  two months before our contractor's first attempt of sourcing for pebbles and boulders in September.

Even if we   accepted the concept  of being market-driven  in terms of the work at Tung Chung river, the driving force could not come from our construction of the artificial lake, as the timing of both events  do not match.

From the existing conditions of the access road, with two ramps running up onto the adjacent vacant lands, one could not disregard the likelihood that the work could be carried out with the purpose - if not for flood protection - for enhancing the development potential of the adjacent lots. I am glad that the police and Lands Department are now investigating the case.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite your readers and those concerned to visit our website for the chronology of the incident in relation to CED's construction activities at Penny's Bay.  T.K. Tsao, Director of Civil Engineering

I am from Singapore and visit Hong Kong about five times or more a year for business.

At times, I have arrived on late flights  and while I am a strong supporter of the Airport Express train and its free shuttle bus service to various hotels, I was disappointed to find that the free shuttle bus service stops  after 11pm and visitors then have  to take a taxi.

The main point of my complaint is not the money I had to spend on the taxi but rather the level of customer service provided by the Airport Express, which should be a complete cycle. What if some visitors are in Hong Kong for the first time and they do not have Hong Kong dollars on them? If these visitors have only their home currency which taxi drivers do not accept, they will face problems.

If the shuttle bus service has to shut down by 11pm, I strongly suggest authorities  stop selling train tickets at the airport by 10pm, or have airport staff advise  visitors who purchase train tickets that there will be no free shuttle buses and that they will have  to take a taxi.

At least commuters would then have a choice.

Jackson Chong, Singapore

I would like to raise a business practice which I think is totally ridiculous and unscrupulous.

I think no one will dispute that medical costs in Hong Kong are high - private hospitals and  medical practitioners are all culprits.

Recently, we had the unfortunate experience of having our three-year-old son admitted to St Paul's hospital in Causeway Bay.

He was admitted to its  children's ward,  in a semi-private room.

During our brief stay there we discovered that, contrary to their room charges information sheet on an 'extra bed', this additional charge is actually based on the number of persons who stay with the child through the night, regardless of whether an extra bed is  used or not.

I thought this was totally misleading so I raised this matter in a letter to  its management.

I recently received a telephone call from an officer of St Paul's Hospital.

Her explanation for the charge  was, in my opinion, totally ridiculous: it is a means to discourage too many people staying overnight with a sick child, which in turn will disturb other patients in the same room.

This explanation is totally nonsensical as  a simple rule limiting accompanying adults to just one person would serve the same purpose.  Also, the hospital's 'accompanying person' charge is levied on patients in a private room where there are no other patients to be disturbed.

Name and address supplied



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