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Chungking Mansions important
I refer to the letter by Bob Tan ('Nathan Road has so much potential', August 14). 
Everyone seems to want to beautify Hong Kong, whether it is in Nathan Road or somewhere else.
If we are talking about reckless driving, this issue has been  highlighted in the media and I believe improvements have been made to ensure the safety of pedestrians as well as passengers in vehicles. Obviously with road traffic conditions nothing is foolproof.  
Regarding people selling  fake products, I can understand that it does not leave a positive  impression, but  Tsim Sha Tsui has a high number of police officers on patrol. 
They undertake checks of these people and some offenders are punished. 
Again, it will take time for the government to  deal with this problem effectively, but  I know that the government is making an effort.  
Regarding your correspondent's comments on Chungking Mansions, I understand tourists and residents may not be taken by the building. 
However, many people call Chungking Mansions home and they often have difficult lives. 
It may seem like a good idea to knock the building down, but it would bring chaos to these residents' lives.  
Many of them are on low incomes. 
They may rent apartments that are very small, perhaps a 300 sq ft flat, which they share with others and have children enrolled in  Band 4 or 5 schools.
Hong Kong is good at reclaiming land and putting up tall skyscrapers. There are plenty of these high-rises, so why can't we just leave Chungking Mansions alone?
It is densely populated and if it is demolished the government will have difficulty finding alternative accommodation for all the people who are displaced. 
They might have difficulty getting alternative accommodation that they could afford given the high rents in Hong Kong.  I do not think demolishing someone's home is consistent with being 'Asia's world city'.  
Sruthi S. Thomas, Tsuen Wan
Confused by role of association
I refer to the letter by Louis Loong of the Real Estate Developers Association ('Guidelines on saleable area in place ', August 19) in reply to my letter ('Apartment size rip-off unacceptable', August 14). 
He said the situation I described did not  'fall within the purview' of REDA.  
He added that REDA and its members operated 'under a clear set of guidelines in respect of the calculation of gross floor area and saleable area in the sale of residential properties'. 
His first point seems to contradict his president's message on the REDA website that REDA would  'become an important resource to the people of Hong Kong, whether they are members of the association, engaged in the various aspects of the real estate industry or are a current or future property owner'.  
His second point sidesteps the entire issue by claiming the referenced guidelines only relate to uncompleted flats under construction by  REDA's developer members.  
What use  is REDA to the public when it comes to preventing the same floor area calculation abuses in the secondary market that developers were guilty of in the first place that forced the association  to revise the guidelines?  
If property agencies are not REDA members, then what industry association is responsible for regulating them and the calculations of floor area in the secondary market?  
Jason Sylvester, Wan Chai      
No scientific proof of genetic origin
In the letter ('Uphill fight against intolerance', August 21) Dr Anthony Chan said, 'It has been scientifically proven that homosexuality and bisexuality are the products of genetics.' 
I haven't seen such proof. Nor has this paper provided proof of homosexuality having a genetic origin. 
We should be compassionate towards those in homosexuality. Yet a proposal for same-sex marriage includes the raising of children. Two males raising a child and editing out its mother  overlook the needs of the child.
Such children miss the genetic link to half of their original family and apparently get raised to believe that a woman in the home is superfluous.
Rosa Chan, Lai Chi Kok      
Cold malls send wrong message
I am concerned about the overuse of air conditioners in Hong Kong's shopping centres.  
This shows a lack of  environmental consciousness on the part of the city's  businessmen and  poor supervision of electricity use by the authorities. 
Several large-scale malls have gone up in Tsim Sha Tsui over the past few years, including, I-Square, K11, and The One. 
These malls provide locals and tourists with more choices  of brands for shopping and eating. But in the summer they are freezing. You can feel the cold as you approach 10 metres away. Is it really necessary for these malls to be so cold?  
Have the shop owners thought about the negative impact on  the environment of  having air conditioners at such cold settings? 
Given the threat posed by global warming, it is just common sense to accept there is an urgent need to reduce our use of energy.  
Schools keep their air cons at  25.5 degrees Celsius. Surely mall owners should follow this trend in the interests of environmental protection?  
What is the point of teaching students to save energy when our malls, owned by Hong Kong's tycoons, exacerbate the effects of global warming, such as increasing temperatures in Hong Kong during the summer?  
The government should introduce measures  to inhibit the lavish use of air-conditioning in the big shopping malls.  
I also strongly urge the tycoons of Hong Kong not to forget their social responsibility while absorbing the  benefits of  utilising the land they bought from the government.  
Louis Liu Kong-sum, Kwun Tong
Bad case  of double standards
I enjoy reading articles penned by New York Times contributor Paul Krugman.  
Few events stimulate my circulation more than biased opinions expressed to promote a point of view with scant regard for facts and little attempt at fairness.
In his article ('The Texas economic miracle is a myth based on blind faith', August 21), Mr Krugman attempts to take to task and undermine  the economic achievements of Rick Perry, the governor of Texas.
He places emphasis on the fact that most jobs created in Texas are low paid and therefore have detrimental economic effects by preventing working Americans from coping with the overhang of debt left by the housing bubble.
I should think the liberal option would be to keep workers on high enough unemployment benefits to allow for even inflated mortgage payments. 
The fact is that over the last 12 months Texas has created more jobs than any other state in the union - almost 40 per cent of the total.
Mr Krugman and the like- minded liberal elite never questioned the quality of jobs created when announced on a weekly and quarterly basis by the US Labor Department and quoted by the president.
These began to matter only recently, since Mr Perry entered the contest for the Republican Party's nomination to challenge President Barack Obama for the White House in 2012.
Vigorous debates are welcome but fairness ought to be exercised. 
Marian Schneps, Wan Chai
Coming to a startling conclusion
I was astounded to read  the statistic (under the column 'The Sex Trade') that an 'estimated 200,000 prostitutes cater for a population of seven million' ('Lust will and testament', August 21).  
In the same edition of the Sunday Morning Post your columnist Philip Bowring ('Numbers game hides our flaws') mentioned the wealth of valuable data which is provided by the Census and Statistics Department, so that is exactly where I went next.
For the sake of this argument I am assuming that most prostitutes are female aged between 15 and 44.
The department projects that the population of this group in 2009 is about 1.74 million.
This means that, if the 200,000 estimate is accurate, roughly one in every nine Hong Kong women between the age of 15 and 44 is a member of the oldest profession. 
Tom McGuinness, Lamma



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Chungking Mansions

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