Letters | Macau counts its blessings despite Covid-19 pandemic

My wife and I recently went to the cultural centre for a concert sponsored by the Macau government, where the Macau Orchestra played Beethoven’s Symphony No 3, the Heroic Symphony. The symphony was originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte whom Beethoven thought was the embodiment of the democratic and antimonarchical ideals of the French Revolution, though when Napoleon declared himself emperor, Beethoven is believed to have flown into a rage, torn the title page in half and thrown it to the floor.

Without an effective administration, the lives of the people of Macau may have been in jeopardy during the pandemic. If the government had not adopted wise and resolute policies to prevent the spread of the virus, we would not have been so free to enjoy our daily life and safely enjoy a high-quality concert.

A close friend of mine in Hong Kong told me online one day, “Though Hong Kong is governed by elites who performed very well academically at university, most of them are indeed mediocre in the matter of governance.”

“The incumbent chief executive of Macau has done a much better job in controlling the coronavirus than his counterpart in Hong Kong, and even in other cities all around the world”, he added.