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Inspectors stamp out street life
Recently, the only restaurant near my house where there was alfresco seating was told by government officers to take  away the outdoor tables. Now there isn't anywhere around that I can enjoy a meal with my dog at my side. 
That's after many of my favourite hang-outs also met the same fate. The rooftop of Wooloomooloo  in Wan Chai used to be very happening, and there was a bar counter where I drank with friends while admiring the great view. 
Then the government  swooped in to say no, that area could not be served. Now, guests who still want to enjoy that space have to buy their drinks downstairs and take them upstairs themselves.  Most people have stopped going to that rooftop. 
And I have been waiting for the outdoor terrace of Nanhai No1  in iSquare  to open, but the red tape has firmly sealed it off for more than a year. 
I was in Berlin two months ago and I loved sitting outside a pub, enjoying the sun and a beer, while watching the world go by.
 In Bangkok, the many rooftop bars are always happening and it's amazing to be partying with Bangkok under your feet. 
In Singapore, dining outdoor is de rigueur. And whereas Singapore, Bangkok and Taipei, among others, are embracing the local street food culture, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department  spends much of its time chasing  hawkers off the street or waiting for their licences to expire, so that everyone can only eat in a shop, or a mall.
Would the government  stop making it difficult for people to enjoy things that are so easily available in  other countries?
Ho Lai-kit, Sai Ying Pun
Cheap thrills can expose animal abuse
I refer to the letter 'Porn site a misguided strategy' (October 2). 
Getting people to think about serious animal protection issues without a big budget often takes tactics that some might consider bold or controversial. That's why People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) US is launching PETA.xxx. 
The PETA.xxx stars who chose to participate in Peta's campaigns  hope that people visiting the site for cheap thrills will also come away knowing how chicks on factory farms have their beaks seared off and how foxes are electrocuted and skinned by the fur industry.
Peta Asia has learned from experience that provocative campaigns often make the difference between keeping these important yet depressing subjects invisible and having them widely seen. When the media reports on Peta Asia's activities, countless people visit our website  for more information or free vegan recipes. They debate things that they might otherwise not think about. 
Just as Peta US has campaigns geared to sports buffs or music fans, it now has campaigns to show people who enjoy X-rated material that the obscene abuse of animals is something to get hot and bothered about - and let's not forget a lot of people watch porn.
Peta US doesn't mind being criticised as long as its actions provoke discussion and prompt even one person to make kinder choices. Luckily, making kind choices such as eating faux chicken rather than chicken flesh or choosing veggie burgers instead of artery-clogging beef patties is easy and is better for both animals and humans. People  are welcome to take a peep at  PETA.xxx. Those who might find  the material objectionable are invited, as always, to visit PETAAsiaPacific.com to find out what they can do to stop animal suffering in their area. 
Robert Fry, Peta Asia
Jobs gave web hero NeXT step
I fully agree with Isabel Escoda ('Inventor of the web deserves credit, too', October 13) who said that, in addition to Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee  is also a hero for giving us the World Wide Web.
But even here, Jobs played a major role. After leaving Apple in 1985, he founded NeXT Computer and developed the NeXTSTEP  operating system that Berners-Lee found so useful for creating the web. As Berners-Lee himself said: 'It was a great computing environment in general. In fact, I could do in a couple of months what would take more like a year on other platforms, because on the NeXT, a lot of it was done for me already.'
Des Crofton, Clear Water Bay
Tsang took wrong turn in land policy
I refer to 'Tsang upbeat about sagging poll numbers' (October 9)  and I am astounded to be told in a radio address by Donald Tsang Yam-kuen,  the outgoing chief executive, that during his term 'there have significant improvements in peoples' livelihoods and political situation'. 
 In real terms the vast majority of the population are much worse off than they were in 2005. 
Also our city's environment has degraded during his term, with increased traffic congestion and pollution levels. 
Tsang admits that he has 'made mistakes' in housing and land policies, but he appears oblivious to the severe knock-on effects that these policy failures have had on the cost of living and people's lives. 
Land policy is fundamental in the governance of Hong Kong; get it wrong and the population will have major problems. Previously (in colonial times) there was a central public works department that integrated all aspects of planning, lands, building, housing, and transport, and was focused on performance.
Tsang made a poor management decision to split development - with planning, lands and buildings reporting to the financial secretary, and housing and transport reporting to the chief secretary - as it has led to bureaucratic inertia and buck-passing. 
He states that he doesn't expect Hongkongers' sympathy, and he definitely does not have mine.   
I hope that the next chief executive will devise a better management structure and give priority to fixing the out-of-date lands policy, for the benefit of the population rather than the tycoons. Then I am confident that at the end of his term the next chief executive will achieve a popularity rating of well over 50 per cent.
Frank Lee, Mid-Levels
US firms gain and Chinese 'serfs' do, too
I appreciate Jake Van Der Kamp's eloquent rebuttal ('Who's really working the system to their advantage?', October 9) of US President Barack Obama's  accusation that China is 'gaming the trading system to its advantage'. However well-intended, the columnist's arguments are not infallible.
First, he quotes Obama out of context. The US president supported his claim that China had been 'gaming' international trade by providing the example of currency manipulation, a problem China has acknowledged and taken steps  to tackle,  however inadequate those steps may be.
The president also cited as examples intellectual property and technologies not being properly protected in China, which is another legitimate concern not only for its trading partners but also for China itself. 
The columnist raises the iPhone as an example of a 'toy' in illustrating the 'industrial miracle' of declining toy prices in the United States.  Isn't he aware how ubiquitous fake iPhones, and other shanzhai products, are in China? How is that enriching US firms and consumers?  Such disregard for patents and copyrights also haunts China  by discouraging domestic inventions. 
Sadly the columnist  instead insinuates that US firms and consumers gain at the expense of factory workers in China and are therefore 'gaming the trading system to their advantage'. This is his second debatable point. 
Granted, China's industrial serfs  toil for meagre pay  so that  US firms and consumers can enjoy higher returns and cheaper products. But without the foreign-invested enterprises  the workers would have been far worse off.   
I do, though, agree with the columnist that Obama blames China now in such harsh terms partly for his own political  gain.
Joe Xu Yi, Kwun Tong
Why would China 'game' US trade?
I very much like and agree with the questions and conclusions  Jake Van Der Kamp comes to ('Who's really working the system to their advantage?', October 9). 
I've always wondered why China would 'game' the  very liberal and capitalistic US dollar. 
Why do they not - or not to a significant extent - game the 'German euro', for example? 
Why does Germany have such an enormous trade surplus and the USA doesn't? 
Doesn't it show  that there is a long road from multiple Nobel Prizes  (which the US frequently receives) to a decent job for the population?  
Roland F Guettler, Lai Chi Kok



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Donald Tsang

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