Hong Kong is one of the most capitalistic economies in the world, there is precious little room for compassion and caring for the little people.
Hong Kong poor in cages shows dark side of property boom
Posted: Feb 07, 2013 8:26 AM EST Updated: Feb 07, 2013 8:26 AM EST
By KELVIN CHANHONG
KONG (AP) — For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage.
The 67-year-old former butcher pays 1,300 Hong Kong dollars ($167) a month for one of about a dozen wire mesh cages resembling rabbit hutches crammed into a dilapidated apartment in a gritty, working-class West Kowloon neighborhood.
The cages, stacked on top of each other, measure 1.5 square meters (16 square feet). To keep bedbugs away, Leung and his roommates put thin pads, bamboo mats, even old linoleum on their cages' wooden planks instead of mattresses.
"I've been bitten so much I'm used to it," said Leung, rolling up the sleeve of his oversized blue fleece jacket to reveal a red mark on his hand. "There's nothing you can do about it. I've got to live here. I've got to survive," he said as he let out a phlegmy cough.
Some 100,000 people in the former British colony live in what's known as inadequate housing, according to the Society for Community Organization, a social welfare group. The category also includes apartments subdivided into tiny cubicles or filled with coffin-sized wood and metal sleeping compartments as well as rooftop shacks. They're a grim counterpoint to the southern Chinese city's renowned material affluence.
Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/2102130...#ixzz2KFWYLJSq
Put blame where it belongs
ATF decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration.
It that time," the NRA wrote in a statement. "The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations."
The ATF and Obama admin. ignored the NRA recommendations.
Hong Kong is one of the most capitalistic economies in the world, there is precious little room for compassion and caring for the little people.
Last edited by cancel2 2022; 02-08-2013 at 04:03 AM.
Every society has its poor and no society does what is truly necessary to alleviate the situation. America has huge numbers of poor and homeless, the UK is no beacon of light.
Hong Kong is building huge numbers of new flats to bring people out of the slum properties and the government has had enact new laws (or is in final discussions - not sure) to place a tax on properties purposely kept off the market and to ensure that HK residents have an advantage over mainlanders who will pay literally anything to be near the school of their choice or simply to live where the rich people live.
There are substantial numbers of desperately poor who will not claim the money the government wants to give them. It is a Chinese pride not to ask for help. The mother of a young friend of mine cleans a section of the street and collects cardboard and rubbish to sell. My friend gives her a flat and money for nothing but the old lady still cleans. She feels she must show her worth.
Some of the caged men are the discarded elderly of Mr. Seattle Chinese, or Mr. London Chinese, an embarrassment to the new life style. Some slum dwellers prefer to stay in the place of their birth with their friends and neighbours.
On the other hand landlords in Hong Kong should, without any question, be shot. Nowhere on the planet can possibly have a greedier, nastier, more money grabbing class of people than Hong Kong.
Charity exists though. My wife is currently searching for a shared accommodation for a lady of about 64 whose 'room' is too small to put a bed in and who has to sleep on the floor. Her landlord is charging he $4000 US$500 per month and has told her the rent is going up to $5000. We have found a nice lady with a small two bedroom flat. Now we have to try to persuade two very proud people to share a small part of their lives. We'll keep trying.
I guess we have some of the best and some of the worst. Just like the UK. Just like America. Just like anywhere. Living in a cage (for security) is perhaps slightly better than living under a bridge in Chicago.
http://www.justplainpolitics.com/blog.php?u=237
If you feel so inclined a comment would be appreciated.
Respect a believers right to believe, but they should damn well repect our right to challenge such utterly illogical notions.
America has huge numbers of poor and homeless????
You're drinking too much Koolaid, mate.....You can pick out the poor in the US because they have only one cellphone
and the number is hardly 'huge'..........the homeless are homeless because of
mental illness or some just refuse to take advantage of the shelters provided, until they can apply for and get the help available, .... in that case its by choice.....I think living under that bridge is preferable to living in a cage....we provide prison cells that are certainly not too small for one bed.
We don't have 15 million illegals in the US because they'd rather starve here than in their home countries....poverty here is not like poverty elsewhere.
Put blame where it belongs
ATF decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration.
It that time," the NRA wrote in a statement. "The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations."
The ATF and Obama admin. ignored the NRA recommendations.
You're definitely on the right track.....parents that ignore their kids and refuse to take responsibility for their children are the biggest problem we have.....
lack of money is one thing, but lack of love and showing that parents care about their kids is much more important.
Put blame where it belongs
ATF decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration.
It that time," the NRA wrote in a statement. "The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations."
The ATF and Obama admin. ignored the NRA recommendations.
You must be better informed than your own country's stats....mate.
The number of U.S. households living on less than $2 per person per day — which the study terms “extreme poverty” — more than doubled between 1996 and 2011, from 636,000 to 1.46 million, the study finds. The number of children in extremely poor households also doubled, from 1.4 million to 2.8 million.
Now you may debate the meaning of the word 'huge' if you wish, ....but 1.4 - 2.8 million children in extreme poverty is quite a few, don't you think?
http://www.justplainpolitics.com/blog.php?u=237
If you feel so inclined a comment would be appreciated.
Respect a believers right to believe, but they should damn well repect our right to challenge such utterly illogical notions.
You really are obsessed with the 'gated community' thing, aren't you? You can't get it through your stupid yank head that lifestyles differ from country to country as do expectations. The gates - which aren't gates, simply traffic barriers, are there to mark the extent of residential developments. I know that is probably way above your stupid head but do try to understand. Even in 'non gated' developments, because most residences are in high rise blocks, there is a 'security guard' in each foyer. This is not an elitist policy it is a 'design' requirement. It also keeps thousands of people in employment. The 'guards' are all women where we live, and help us with advice, shopping, lifting and monitoring of visitors. It is necessary because, for example there are 27 floors in our block and each houses three or four flats, so about 90 families who all come and go, work and play, have kids and visitors.
Y'see, oh most stupid of all the posters on this forum, the American way of life is not replicated round the world. What we have, you would not like and what you have we would not like.
So you sit there with you kitchen filled with motorbikes, your van filled with boxes and your head as empty as a vaccuum and throw your childish comments to your hearts desire.
http://www.justplainpolitics.com/blog.php?u=237
If you feel so inclined a comment would be appreciated.
Respect a believers right to believe, but they should damn well repect our right to challenge such utterly illogical notions.
Cancel 2016.11 (02-08-2013)
"...you kitchen filled with motorbikes..."
Can someone translate this into English, please?
As to the rest of your rant; you were the one who said you lived in a gated community, to keep out the unwashed masses.
Now you state that you also have a "security guard" and yet you constantly give voice to how "safe" Hong Kong is.
I guess living in a prison, can be referred to as "safe".
A little ice will take down the swelling, that came with that "biatch slap" you just received.
SEDITION: incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.
http://www.justplainpolitics.com/blog.php?u=237
If you feel so inclined a comment would be appreciated.
Respect a believers right to believe, but they should damn well repect our right to challenge such utterly illogical notions.
I saw a short documentary on this more than 20 years ago and it was an eye opener. An elderly woman was interviewed and all she had to offer the people was hot water out of a thermos, she couldn't even afford tea for them.
Pictures in the above article show the man lying on his bedding in the cage. I'm sure the reason for a cage is so the people have a place to lock up their few belongings while they're in the streets trying to scrape out a living. If not for the cages the place would look like any squalid rooming house. I remember reading that Hitler lived in a similar poor house in Vienna; basically it was just a crash pad but it gave people a warm place to sleep, even though they had to leave every morning and return in the evening.
I wish Americans would focus more on eradicating poverty and hunger (even though it's not possible to get rid of it 100%). We spend far too much time and energy on fringe issues and conspiracy theories than on real problems. And of course conservatives tend to say it's a person's own fault if he's poor, as if outside conditions had nothing to do with it. You know it from reading some of the posts here: poor = lazy.
“What greater gift than the love of a cat.”
― Charles Dickens
Cancel 2016.11 (02-08-2013), Phantasmal (02-08-2013)
Any society that allows its poor and disadvantaged to live under bridges, in cars, in cages should hang its head in shame. It is our duty as human beings to do what we can, even if we can only speak out against it.
You have to wonder at the shoot-em-up lot and what they would do if they found a relative of theirs in such dire straits.
The poor and unfortunate unwittingly provide us with conscience and confirm that the selfish in our societies should be ostracised. For selfish usually read right wing.
http://www.justplainpolitics.com/blog.php?u=237
If you feel so inclined a comment would be appreciated.
Respect a believers right to believe, but they should damn well repect our right to challenge such utterly illogical notions.
Cancel 2016.11 (02-08-2013), christiefan915 (02-08-2013), Phantasmal (02-08-2013)
How sweet. Here is a thought. Instead of outsourcing your compassion to others, why don't you let this woman move in with you free of charge? You claim to be so compassionate. Here is a chance for you to put your own money where your mouth is (which most left wingers fail to do). Come on big guy. Step up. Let the lady move in. What do you have to lose?
http://www.justplainpolitics.com/blog.php?u=237
If you feel so inclined a comment would be appreciated.
Respect a believers right to believe, but they should damn well repect our right to challenge such utterly illogical notions.
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