City Beat | We can't escape politics, but don't forget livelihood issues

At a Mid-Autumn Festival gathering with friends last week, we set a rule not to discuss politics. On a day celebrating family, reunion and harmony, we didn't want to risk arguments when people disagreed.

Then a friend who is not in the media business asked me: "Don't you find it boring dealing with political news daily? I'm fed up with the endless debates on political reform."

Well, politics can certainly be unpleasant, especially as the city becomes more polarised. Sometimes I try to focus on a non-political issue in my column, but politics can't always be avoided - especially over the past few months, and even more so in the run-up to 2017.

But of course, politics isn't everything. And especially not on a day meant for catching up with loved ones and enjoying festival treats. So as we broke out the mooncakes, we started discussing the "gutter oil" scare.

As we delved deeper into food safety issues in the city, Taiwan and on the mainland, someone concluded that unless we prepare all our food and ingredients from scratch, in this modern era of globalisation, it seems no food can ever be 100 per cent safe. Then we found ourselves back on the topic of politics as we discussed how governments in Hong Kong and Taiwan had handled the scare.

Some criticised the authorities for not having better checks in place, while others argued that maintaining food safety also depended on business conscience.