links: March 2009 Archives

The lesson should be clear. Commercial banks are just too important to the economy to be allowed to participate in the more dangerous business areas of modern finance. Trusting in the good sense of bankers to avoid excessive risk doesn't work. In a deregulated environment, caution is penalised and the conservative are soon pushed out.

All graphs on this page are ©Dave O'Brien 2003-2009, and licensed under the Creative Commons as Creative Commons License Sars Graphs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Hong Kong License. (I should have done it years ago, but I didn't even think of it until listening to <a href="http://www.43folders.com/2009/03/25/blogs-turbocharged">this podcast by Merlin Mann and John Gruber</a>.)

Free and Open Source Software for Mac. Why doesn't Apple have a software repository system like Linuxes (and most BSDs) do?

There was no hint of trouble except for the sighting of a very sombre and slightly bruised-looking Paula Maisiri, the former Fijian player who was convicted of assaulting a police officer after a rolling brawl in Wan Chai on Friday morning. <br /> What? Why was he out in public? Having hospitalized a police officer in a drunken brawl in Wanchai on Friday morning, he was free to do whatever he wanted one day later?

Robert LLwewllyn Podcast from his car is pretty damn good and very interesting. Well worth a look.

Instead, the American financial industry gained political power by amassing a kind of cultural capital—a belief system. Once, perhaps, what was good for General Motors was good for the country. Over the past decade, the attitude took hold that what was good for Wall Street was good for the country. The banking-and-securities industry has become one of the top contributors to political campaigns, but at the peak of its influence, it did not have to buy favors the way, for example, the tobacco companies or military contractors might have to. Instead, it benefited from the fact that Washington insiders already believed that large financial institutions and free-flowing capital markets were crucial to America’s position in the world.

Based largely on my travels in China but also on events like the linked article, I'm finally beginning to think we're on the tipping point for Electric Vehicles. In five years time, I'd like to see most new cars be Electric. That requires a lot of local infrastructure and commitment to change, which HK government will not do unless China does it first. We're relying on the completely corrupt cadres for any progress. HK Government are truly a bunch of spineless weasels.

The wife of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has been granted diplomatic immunity by the Hong Kong government to spare her prosecution over an alleged attack on a journalist while shopping in the city. The Department of Justice has ruled that 43-year-old Grace Mugabe is entitled to immunity from prosecution under China's laws, despite a police investigation which is understood to have concluded there was enough evidence to prosecute her over the January 15 incident.

New line will boost tourism Mar 10, 2009 Email to friend | Print a copy Building a light rail link between Hong Kong and Zhuhai is feasible. The tourism industry in Hong Kong has been badly hit by the financial crisis. A convenient transport link should be built between Hong Kong and Zhuhai so that more people from the mainland visit our city. I realise that environmentalists have warned that our natural environment will be at risk if this rail link goes ahead. I think we should try and strike the right balance between the needs of the economy and the environment. Germain Ma, Sha Tin

Light rail link a good idea ... Ada Chan, Sha Tin

Rail link must balance all costs Mar 09, 2009 Email to friend | Print a copy I refer to the report ("Zhuhai link proposed", February 4). There is no doubt that a link between the two cities will bring many benefits including job opportunities. A light rail link will cut the time it takes to travel to and from Hong Kong and Zhuhai. However, these benefits are primarily economic in nature. We must also consider the environmental drawbacks: for instance, birds and wildlife will be disturbed during the construction of this line and once it is operating. Valuable land will be used up. A sustainable city is able to strike a balance. The economic, social and environmental aspects of a project must all be taken into account. Our fragile environment must not be sacrificed in order to make a profit. Wan Hiu-hung, Sha Tin

We cannot afford to treat the issue of religion attempting to undermine science as a trifling matter. Nowhere else in the world with institutions that provide a quality education system is creationism taught in science classes. Instead of helping to promote Hong Kong as a world-class city that provides a quality education system, the bureau has seriously erred and made a world-class laughing stock out of the city.

RYANAIR SAYS it is serious about plans to charge passengers for using the toilet on its aircraft. “It’s going to happen,” chief executive Michael O’Leary told journalists yesterday about the proposal, which garnered huge publicity worldwide when he threw it out as a vague possibility last week.

“They were the worst of them all,” said Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and a derivatives expert. Mr. Vickrey of Gradient Analytics said, “It was extreme hubris, fueled by greed.” Other firms used many of the same shady techniques as A.I.G., but none did them on such a broad scale and with such utter recklessness. And yet — and this is the part that should make your blood boil — the company is being kept alive precisely because it behaved so badly.

Parents of children at Bonham Road Government Primary School are fighting the MTR Corporation (SEHK: 0066)'s plan to site a ventilation shaft next to the school. They say it will expose pupils to harmful fumes. William Fok Ming-fuk, chairman of the school's parent-teacher association, said parents had been fighting the proposed shaft, to be built as part of the West Island Line, for two years and time was running out to stop it. Mr Fok said only a narrow lane separated the shaft from classrooms, meaning students would constantly be exposed to pollutants such as carbon dioxide.