Rant: Submersive subversives ... and the perils of swimming in public
Kenny Hodgart
To the onlooker, it often seems Hong Kong puts inordinate store in doing things by the book - that phantom tome that guides us clear of bureaucratic censure in our lives.
Case in point, pedestrians who stand frozen for precious seconds at the side of clear roads until the green man reassures them it's safe to cross. While newcomers zoom across the vacant streets, long-term locals stick to the letter of the law.
One in particular has been bothering me: at my local swimming pool there is all too little respect for the lanes system.
It is well signposted; diagrams at either end of each lane indicate fidelity to the internationally standard clockwise direction of travel. And yet one can barely swim a length without colliding with some goggled goon.
Last week, I observed one ferociously windmilling bandit, who, faced with oncoming traffic, took the sub-aqueous option and swam under a fellow front-crawler.
Unfortunately - or perhaps not - he came up for air just in time to entangle himself in the breaststroke of the woman next along.
I do not think it is overstating the case to say that aquatic anarchy is winning. The attendants on their ladders have turned a blind eye.
I would suggest the government forget about the threat of Occupy Central and attend to the subversive element in our pools.
