Kuk should be honest about Legco protest Your report (" Kuk to petition, but not protest, outside Legco ", November 20) made me laugh. Villagers' rights are a serious and most contentious matter, but who are the Heung Yee Kuk trying to fool? They have a plan of action to lay siege to Legco, and village representatives are pledging to put up a fight in support of legislator Lau Wong-fat's bid to stop government plans to make Tai Long Sai Wan part of Sai Kung East Country Park. It appears obvious that the kuk and its "Beijing loyalist" backers are concerned that the mainland authorities may not be best pleased if these rural powerbrokers are aggress- ively protesting against the administration. However, it is farcical for the kuk to label this a "marathon-style petition", when so obviously it is a protest. Simply to deliver a signed petition only requires minimal manpower, and would not need the surrounding of Legco by hundreds of villagers, which will involve the attendance and attention of our police force. The rural kuk should call a spade a spade, and not play semantics. Hong Kong's urban people are not stupid. I. M. Wright, Happy Valley Why HKTV had to take on people I read the letter by Tony Harding (" No need for HKTV to hire 500 staff before licences were awarded ", November 14) and would like to look at this issue from a different perspective. Mr Harding says he did not need to hire anyone when applying for his broadcasting licence in the UK. The broadcasting was presumably in English and, therefore, there were a lot of high-quality English-language programmes already available for Mr Harding's company to select from, in the event of him getting the licence. However, for Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV), their focus is very much the Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong market. There are very limited sources of Cantonese-speaking programmes in the world, maybe only Guangzhou and Hong Kong. If HKTV was looking for high quality or different types of programmes, the only choice would be to develop their own. That may explain why they needed to hire 500 staff before a licence was won. Also, there is no way that the Hong Kong government would take into consideration the livelihood of employees of companies that are applying for licences. Applying for a broadcast licence is, to a certain extent, like bidding for government tenders. The government is awarding lots of tenders on a daily basis and it does not, and should not, consider or guess what may happen to those employees if the winning company fails. Finally, I would rather have a new TV company such as HKTV that offers quality TV programmes but survives for three months, than watch ATV for three years. I care more about the innovation that would be brought to the Hong Kong market than sustainability. This is actually happening with companies operating on the internet. Innovation is one of the key ways to keep companies sustainable. Tony Fung, North Point Explanation can allay political fears There has been much debate about the government's refusal to allow HKTV a free-to-air licence. People were angry, because they saw politics as being behind the decision to refuse HKTV's application, but award licences to iCable and PCCW. There were calls for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to change his mind and grant a licence to HKTV and for a detailed explanation of why the licence was rejected. I think it would be going too far for the government to have a change of heart and give HKTV a licence. It looked at the economic considerations in a thorough manner, including the way in which the HKTV chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay had set up the station. The decision to reject his bid was based on business considerations. However, I do agree with those citizens who have asked for a full explanation from the administration to allay fears of there being a political aspect to the decisions taken on the three licence bids. Our citizens need to be reassured that Hong Kong still enjoys a high degree of autonomy and that our freedoms are still protected. Eleanor Lui Lok-ching, Lai Chi Kok Arrangement in Japan works very well I read with interest the press reports on the location of the train depot under the proposed commercial development at Hong Kong airport. I suggest that Vincent Lo Hong-sui and the other detractors take a trip to Japan where every large city has multi-level stations (some as many as five layers of railway) integrated with commercial space above and below ground. These in turn support high-rise developments. With good design, a depot for the airport trains should easily be accommodated on the site without detracting from its value. Dave Corby, Tuen Mun Be more realistic about university I am a secondary school student and recently went to an information day at Chinese University. I was taken aback by how many people there were queueing up for various talks. It is clear that young people in Hong Kong still attach a great deal of importance to receiving a university education. This attitude is also reinforced by schools which do their best to get their students a place in a tertiary institution. However, many teenagers pay a huge price, having to overcome the hurdle that is the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education. And when they finally secure a place, they have high hopes of a bright future with a successful career. But I wonder how many will achieve these goals. The number of graduates has been rising annually for the last eight years. This means the job prospects are more limited unless you studied something like medicine or the law which leads to a profession. Other graduates will face severe competition when they try to enter the job market with peers who also have degrees. They also face stiff competition for good grades as undergraduates, especially with more young people coming here to study from the mainland. I still believe universities offer young people a very good opportunity to further their studies. But we should not assume a degree will automatically lead to a glittering career. People need to pick their career path and then decide how best to acquire the skills they will need, for example, securing a summer internship to gain more experience. They have to take a step-by-step approach. Mike Lo, Tseung Kwan O We can all help to reduce light pollution Light pollution in Hong Kong is now a serious problem. I believe the main reason that pollution levels are so high in the city is because of external lights illuminating advertising hoardings, and also shops, factories and even households where there are often lights that do not need to be switched on. Some of these advertising signs are very intrusive, with bright LED lights that are often kept switched on throughout the night. This can adversely affect residents who live nearby and are trying to sleep. Also, some experts say that the excessive light can be bad for animals whose habitats at night are disturbed by bright lights, which can change their patterns of behaviour. It is also difficult for people who want to look at stars in the night sky. Residents need to learn the importance of switching off lights in rooms that are not in use. Also, there is no reason for shops to keep lights switched on, including advertising spotlights, after they have closed for the night. Lights on advertising hoar- dings should have to be switched off after midnight. The government needs to aim for better urban planning, so that residents are less likely to be affected by these lights. Officials should prevent mixed land use, so brightly lit adverts are not located next to an apartment block. Light pollution levels must be lowered, so that animals can live in their natural habitat undisturbed and we can all see the night sky again. Rowina Lo Wing-nga, Kowloon Tong Set up body like ICAC on mainland There is no doubt that corruption is the greatest obstacle to political reform in China. To deal effectively with this problem, I believe the central government must establish a completely independent organisation. Its purpose would be to fight corruption and it must be seen as being separate from the government. I would imagine it would be like the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Hong Kong. This would mean that if, for example, a businessman felt he had evidence of officials who he thought were abusing their power or asking for bribes, he could pass this evidence (or lodge a complaint) on to this authority. The government has said that officials must declare what property they own and other assets. This system could be refined with this authority probing further to ensure all these officials had made a full and honest declaration. Polly Tsang, Kowloon Bay
