IF you're one of those people who believe that we live in one of the most money-minded cities in the world, your belief will be reinforced by the revelation that both our bishops are incorporated one-person legal entities.
Yes, thanks to the Bishop of Victoria Incorporation Ordinance of 1925 and the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong Incorporation Ordinance of 1885 both our bishops are effectively one-person corporations.
The foregoing discoveries are the result of a dusty afternoon Lai See sat looking through a legal library after a concerned reader of that worthy volume Hong Kong 1994 sent us a fax concerning our quips about 'Hamish' Macleod.
'Please be guarded about what you say,' the reader said, 'because chapter 14 of this book reveals Hamish is no mere mortal but in truth FINANCIAL SECRETARY INCORPORATED, and thus in two meanings a body not to be trifled with.' The reader was right. The Financial Secretary Incorporation Act means that Hamish is a sort of one-person corporation. It rather has the feel of Tibetan Buddhism with the personal corporations living forever and successive bishops, financial secretaries and the like being merely human manifestations of the corporation.
Then we discovered that lots of other people are also incorporated, such as Secretary for Home Affairs Michael Suen Ming-yeung and Director of Social Welfare Ian Strachan.
All the ordinances are similar, and Baptist church is incorporated too, so it doesn't feel left out.
