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SCMP Reporter

Q What do you think of the standard of the city's public facilities?

Those interested in finding the most horrible public toilet in Hong Kong,  should not have missed a visit to  the male toilet on the first floor of the Tsuen Wan  Court.

It is not just dirty and slippery. Most of the cubicle doors are decorated with graffiti of slanderous comments against magistrates or law enforcement agencies. Some of them even carry triad poems.

Can you believe it? A triad poem displayed in a solemn court building for a long period of time with no one ever bothering to take action. For someone like me, who frequents the court, he may think the city-wide toilet contest is not fair. The winner of the most horrible toilet should be deprived of its title, which should be given to the judiciary.

Kenneth Chan, Ma On Shan

Q Will the crackdown on cages hurt clothing recycling efforts?

The crackdown on roadside cages for collecting clothing  will certainly hurt recycling efforts because it makes it very inconvenient and troublesome for people to donate  clothes. With cages on the roadside, residents just need to walk a short distance to put their clothes in.

However, if the cages are placed only in community centres and outlets for collecting clothes are reduced, most of  those residents living far away  would not take the trouble to give the clothes to recycling organisations.

The government should be more flexible in handling this issue. If environmental organisations have enough resources for monitoring, they should be allowed to put the cages on the roadside.

The more accessible the recycling cages are, the more people will be willing to donate their clothes.

Michael Leung Chung-hong, Shamshuipo

Q How can environmental awareness be improved?

I've just returned home from my local ParknShop - with my 10-year-old canvas bag - so don't believe any plastic bag manufacturer who tells you that canvas ones only last a few trips.

An employer and helper in front of me loaded their shopping into endless plastic bags. As an afterthought they bought two of the reusable bags that are prominently displayed at the checkout. Great, I thought, the message is getting through. Though not to the ParknShop staff it seems. The  reusable bags promptly went into yet another plastic bag of their  own! Come on supermarkets, get a clue.

Janet Walker, South Horizons

On other matters ...

Since the last big tree on Hornsey Road has fallen down and died due to old age, I wish to bring the following to the attention of the authorities.

There were quite a lot of big trees growing on this stretch of road for a very long time. The majority of them died due to pollution created by the construction of Queens Garden and were cut down. The  only big tree left was the one which just fell.

There were quite a few trees growing there, but they did not reach  maturity as they were cut  down by the authorities for reasons known only to them. As this stretch is now bare, I would request the authorities concerned to kindly plant some nice flowering trees and a few similar to the big tree, as this had berries in season, and quite of lot of different birds used to come and feed on them.

We should have some greenery in this area, as otherwise it will become a concrete jungle like everywhere else in Hong Kong. A reply from the authorities or departments concerned would be appreciated.

Rattan Mangharama, Mid-Levels

The most effective way to protect the general public from passive smoke is to impose a total smoking ban in public spaces, yet the government has been slow in implementing it and the catering industry in particular fears that a complete ban would turn customers away from restaurants, pubs and bars.

Ocean Park's extension of non-smoking areas is a brave and forward move. If successful it would probably boost the confidence of those in support of the smoking ban, though I doubt whether this will sway  those against this ban.

Jessica Lai, Happy Valley

With reference to the letter of June 22 from Miranda Leung of the MTR in response to my letter regarding  safety issues involved in the distribution of free newspapers and magazines within the paid area of MTR stations, I note that Ms Leung stated that hand distribution of freebies was limited to the launch period only.

This would indicate that  MTR safety regulations are flexible in nature and can be manipulated and lowered to suit the occasion. Some commuters would prefer that they be standard and consistent.

On many occasions, I have  drawn the attention of station staff to distribution close to escalators. Although all stations are fitted with security cameras, there appears to be nobody on duty to monitor them.

On Page 3 of the same City section, the Post ran a story of a goldsmith worker who was abducted and robbed of $700,000 at Mei Foo interchange. If security cameras were being monitored, then this incident might have been picked up and action taken to save the victim.

Manning security cameras would be an ideal job for the disabled. Perhaps the MTR should improve security and help the underprivileged at the same time.

Mary Melville, Tsim Sha Tsui



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