Q Are social services doing enough to protect at-risk children? The shocking report about the death of two-year-old Ng Win-sum, who 'was bashed, kicked and slapped on a daily basis', details the horror for the child and the behaviour of the two adults responsible. The parents were sentenced to long prison terms, but what about the responsibility of the authorities who allowed this child to go to a home which had rejected her for almost all of her short life? Did anyone visit and not see the evidence of mistreatment which led to her death? Someone in the government said the Social Welfare Department was not to blame, but does it not have a legal duty to protect children in danger and does that not also include an assessment of risk? What involvement did it have and did officers carry out their duties? Too often we have tragedies where the government departments have had involvement of some sort but their internal inquiries tell us nothing. Yet we pay a lot of money for civil servants who, under the law, have certain duties. We should have a public inquiry, possibly chaired by a (retired) family court judge and joined by independent experts in child abuse. We should not rely on civil servants to tell us whether they are culpable, especially if they are the ones responsible for making these assessments. We can't bring this child back to life, or others who have died in similar circumstances, but we might learn something from the case and help improve officials' handling of such incidents by boosting their skills and procedures. Name and address supplied I was sickened by the story of how Ng Win-sum was tortured to death. I was almost as sickened at the meagre sentence given to her parents, eight years and 10 years in prison respectively (which will no doubt be greatly reduced for good behaviour). One can only imagine the pain and terror that this innocent little child experienced, made worse as she had previously been in a government creche where she was fed, kept clean and, most important of all, loved. Her parents should have been sentenced to life imprisonment. I can only hope that their time in jail is as unpleasant as possible. We must, as a society, take steps to wipe out child abuse. Giving paltry sentences to abusers is not the way to go. Elaine Ha, Tin Hau Q Have the government's cleanup efforts over the past year been successful? Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong rightly says that so much needs to be done to clean up our environment that the government's efforts alone will not be sufficient. The spread of dengue fever is aided by the sorry state of many of the villages in the New Territories. Hong Kong is in urgent need of the resurrection of 'Team Clean', not just in the main tourist areas, but in areas out of the public eye. A sense of community needs to be established, though this will take time and education, so that every village is responsible for its own cleanliness and proud of the fact that it is clean. There is a village in Sai Kung North, called Tseng Tau, where spitting continues, dogs faeces is left where it falls, rubbish is thrown into bushes or left on the road, puddles form in potholes, a ditch remains with stagnant water and cars are abandoned. The ditch with stagnant water has been reported to the Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene and has since been dealt with, but the department said there was nothing more it could do as it was a village matter. Abandoned cars, which were reported in January to the police, remain where they were left. As in many villages in the New Territories, there are new houses being built which results in construction waste. There needs to be a system in place to ensure that this waste isn't just dumped in the undergrowth. It would also be nice if greenery was planted instead of every remaining space being concreted over. Another problem created by the haphazard construction of village houses is that the natural drainage flow isn't taken into consideration when yet another house is added. This then causes more puddles and ditches to form where water is trapped and soon becomes stagnant. There needs to be a concerted effort between the government and village leaders to highlight the black spots and get them cleaned up. Perhaps a weekend could be designated later in the year, when the weather is cooler, as a 'Clean up your Village Weekend'. Name and address supplied On other matters ... I was very happy to read Alex Lo's article highlighting a Filipino being turned away by Hang Seng Bank because of her nationality. I am a Filipino and a Hong Kong resident. I had a similar experience when I went with my cousin to open an account for her with the bank's main office. We were initially rebuffed because according to them we were on the 'watch list' (I don't know exactly what that is). We presented some documents to prove that we met the criteria for opening an account (employment certificate, proof of address and salary slip). After checking with their supervisor and waiting at the bank for nearly an hour, the application was finally given approval. If Hang Seng Bank claims, as with the earlier case, that this was a miscommunication then it should put the phrase, 'Sorry we can't process your application because you are a Filipino', in a more diplomatic way so we Filipinos won't be offended. Jen Almero
