"Each country needs such a manifesto." Alfonso Argiolas, President, Humanist International, '89 - '93. HUMANIZE HONG KONG by Tony Henderson Most people do not give active and thoughtful consideration to being human and just what it is that makes the difference. Being human is not automatic. In seeking for the good of others through actions which take into account our own needs, life becomes meaningful. There can be no humanizing of what is 'over there' without humanizing what's 'in here' Besides giving a detailed and concrete approach to resolve Hong Kong problems in a comprehensive way, in 'Humanize Hong Kong' immediate possibilities for human development are also given. Here is evolution - personal evolution based on active living and a more exact understanding of what holds us all back. HUMANIZE HONG KONG Copyright 1993, Humanist Ass'n of Hong Kong. ISBN 962-7873-01-2 Publisher: Humanist Association of Hong Kong. Correspondence address: G/F, 49 Kau Tsuen, Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Tel: 2984-0094. Fax: 29849552. Other publications: New Directions magazine and the Humanist newslettert. Enquiries concerning the contents of this book may be addressed to the publishers. Hardcopy version printed in Hong Kong, 1993, by: Authentic Advertising and Printing Co. ***** This book is a result of the work and considerations of those of the Humanist Movement world-wide, particularly the friends from South America, who, working together, wrote and compiled many fundamental documents that formed the basis upon which this book was written. Acknowledgements are also due to the founders of the Humanist Association of Hong Kong and our supporters. All departures from the true form of humanism are entirely the errant originality of the present author. ***** Humanize Hong Kong could never have been attempted without the help of my orientor Wilfredo Alfsen and the support of our friends in Chile and France, and Decler Mendez for translating the most recent materials from the Humanist Movement. Special thanks also goes to Roger Armstrong for his submissions; to Malcolm Andrews for guidance on the manuscript in its early stages; to Peter Snowden for guidance on the final state of the text; to Lenny Kwok for assistance in costing production, George Adams for introducing the printer, Larry Feign for advice on fonts, Tony Moore for computer layout admonishment, Virginia Chu for the cover design, and Shoko Fujioka for support. Also to those friends who put a modicum of faith and trust in this publishing endeavour by purchasing the book before it was printed, enabling the print bill to be met, namely: Louis Teves (Macau); Lenny Kwok; Ben McGrath; George Liu; Naresh Koirala; Liu Kin Ming; Helen Rahim; Eric Shing; Emily Lau; Roger Armstrong; Daisy Li; Richard Brobeur; Fabian Pedrazini; Louis Ha. Also, Ken and Kazuko Kimura. ENTHUSIASM The most essential element needed to accomplish what Humanize Hong Kong intends is enthusiasm. Looking into Chinese culture, at the Book of Changes, the I Ching, the hexagram Yu (enthusiasm) tells that above is the arousing - thunder; below is the receptive - earth..... The time of enthusiasm is at hand when an eminent one who is in sympathy with the spirit of the people acts in accord with them, finding universal and willing co-operation. To arouse enthusiasm it is necessary for a man or woman to adjust self and issued ordinances to the character of those with whom co-operation is sought. The inviolability of natural laws rests on this principle of movement along the line of least resistance. These laws are not forces external to things but represent the harmony of movement immanent in them. That is why all events in nature occur with fixed regularity. It is the same with human society; only such laws as are rooted in popular sentiment can be enforced, while laws violating this sentiment merely arouse resentment. Again, it is enthusiasm that enables anyone to install helpers for the completion of an undertaking without fear of clandestine opposition. It is enthusiasm too that can unify mass movements, as in peace efforts, so they achieve victory over violence and suffering. (Based on the I Ching - Book of Changes, Richard Wilhelm translation with Cary F. Baynes, Published by Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1951.) CONTENTS Foreword - Statement of the Humanist Movement By Silo Introduction The humanization of the all too human - a descriptive tour of Hong Kong for those unfamiliar with its ways and means, taking a brief look at its history and economics. PART ONE Chapter I Modern Humanism On Human Being - Active Non-violence - Militant Activism - Non-Discrimination - Yes To Options - Co-operativism - The Human Being as Central Value - Defeating the Nothingness. II The Human Being Preliminary Platform for a Humanist Society - Part 1. Humanism and the Human Being - The British Welfare State - Workers and Work Humanist Unionism; platform for unions; for discussion - the Situation in Hong Kong - letter; unions must shout for human rights - right to form and join trade unions - platform for workers. III Women and Youth Part 2. All Thing Sugar and Spice - Motherhood - At Work - Marginalised Pro-choice. Youth: The Apple of Our Collective Eye - Voting age - Youth Charter - Student Movement. IV Government Institutions and Social Change Part 2. Preliminary Model for Government - Preparatory Committee Hong Kong Needs Truly Democratic Voting System - Macau's election system - Executive Council Legislative Council - Chief Executive Municipal Council - Exco-Legco relationship - Voting - Government and political parties. V Government and the Administration of Justice Part 4. Certain Legal Niceties - Bill of Rights - Right of Abode. Public Order - Police Powers - prison reform - prisoners - capital punishment. Defense. Religious Bodies. VI Economic Co-operativism Part 5. Introducing Co-operativism. Public Sector and Fiscal Policy Finance and tax Systems - Privatization. Foreign Capital and International Banking - Interest-free monetary system. Industry. Proposals toward a more human-based economic order - banking - tax system reform. VII From Public Utilities to Foreign Trade Part 6. Chek Lap Kok new airport - On Availing What's Available Energy - Shipping and Ports - Transport - Resources of Sea, Land and Forest - Agriculture and Fisheries - Sea - Land - Water - Forest Country parks. Co-operation and the International Economy - foreign trade - Asian trade - International Solidarity - Asian Solidarity - Solidarity with China. VIII Quality of Life Part 7. Housing - Urban Planning. Health - New Health System - Patients Rights - visually, aurally and speech impaired - disabled - mentally handicapped - insane - addicted and addiction. Education - Education Towards Which Century, 21st or 19th? special educational needs - university education. Social Welfare - Universal Grant - Laissez-faire Social Welfare. Elderly - Homeless - penal reform. Refugees. IX Let's Talk About It Part 8. Mass Media - Freedom of Information Ordinance - Work Ethics in the Media - Code of Ethics for Journalists. Science and Technology bio-technology - eugenics - telecommunications - Copyright, Counterfeit and Luddism. Culture: 'Let's talk about it!' X Why No Separate Chapter On Green Issues Part 9. Green Humanism - Wanna Make a Green Million, Sir? Diverse Solutions; the Rio Earth Summit '92 - What? No Grapes! Hong Kong Needs a Green Political Party. World-wide Green Issues and Humanism Internationally. Not By Domination but Co-operation - The Internal Environment. XI An Association With A Difference Personal Experience - Hypnosis of the System - Not to Forget the Individual - Self liberation - The Human in the Human Being. XII Archives from a Recent Past Origins and developments of the Humanist Association of Hong Kong. XIII Miscellaneous Letters. Singaporization of Cheung Chau - Ferry company - Fish Farmers Humanism Defined - Humanism the Way Ahead - Software Options - Sex Suicide and Censorship - Weapons Sales - Dumping Threat to Marine Life - NO to Airport - Referenda - Tree Felling. PART TWO XIV Humanism as the Next Wave Communism with Humanism, Strange Bedfellows - the Humanist Movement and New Democracy - Origins of the Chinese Revolution - The Struggle - People's Republic - Christianity Versus Communism - New Democracy - Beyond the Machine. XV Transcendence and the Human Being The Wobbly Launch Pad - China and the West - Society and Economies in China - Religion in the Chinese Context - Social Revolution and Cultural Revolution - Teilhard, China and Neo-Marxism. FURTHER READING AND MATERIALS REFERENCED The Birth of Communist China, by C.P. Fitzgerald. Penguin Books. The Phenomenon of Man, by Teilhard de Chardin. Science and Civilization in China, by Joseph Needham. China and the West, compilation: various authors. The Socialist Tradition, by Alexander Gray. Longmans. New View of Society and Other Writings of Robert Owen, by A.D.H Cole The Basic Law and Hong Kong's Future, a compilation, edited by Smith and Chen. The following various works of 'Silo' - Mario Rodriguez Cobos and associates in the Humanist Movement. (Publisher: Latitude Press, 1106 2nd St, Suite 121, Encilnitas, CA 92024, USA.) The Book of the Community 1980, a teamwork. The Look Within - The Internal Landscape - The Human Landscape; a triology by Silo, published as Humanize the Earth, Self Liberation, by L.A. Ammann. Tales for Heart and Mind - the guided experiences, by Silo. Historical Perspective on Humanism, by Dr. Salvatore Puledda Contributions to Thought, by Silo, Mendoza, November 1988 ************************************************** Foreword Statement (Document) of the Humanist Movement Humanists are women and men of this century, of this time. They recognise their roots in the achievements of Humanism throughout history, and find inspiration in the contributions of many cultures, not only those that today occupy centre stage. They are also men and women who recognise that this century and this millennium are coming to an end, and they help build the new world that is rising. Humanists feel that their history is very long, and that their future will be even longer. As optimists who believe in freedom and social progress, they fix their gaze on the future, while striving to overcome the general crisis of today. Humanists are internationalists, aspiring to a universal human nation. While understanding the world they live in as a single whole, humanists act in their local environments. Humanists do not seek a uniform world, rather a world of multiplicity: diverse in ethnicity, languages and customs; diverse in ideas and aspirations; diverse in beliefs, whether atheistic or religious; diverse in occupations and in creativity. Humanists do not want masters; they have no fondness for authority figures or bosses. Nor do they consider themselves representatives or bosses of anyone else. Humanists want neither a centralised State, nor a para-State in its place. They want neither police armies nor the alternative of armed gangs. But a wall has risen between humanist aspirations and the current realities of our world. The time has come to tear down that wall. To do this, all humanists of the world must unite. I - Global Capital This is the great universal truth: money is everything. Money is government, money is law, money is power. Money is basically sustenance, but more than this it is Art, Philosophy, and Religion. Nothing is done without money, nothing is possible without money. There are no personal relationships without money. There is no intimacy without money. Even peaceful solitude depends on money. But our relationship with this 'universal truth' is contradictory. The majority of people do not want this state of affairs. They are, therefore, subject to the tyranny of money - a tyranny that is not abstract, because it clearly has a name, representatives, agents, and well established procedures. Today it is no longer a question of feudal economies, nor of national industries; nor even of regional interests. Today it is a question of how those economic forms that have survived will accommodate to the new dictates of the international financial system. Nothing escapes, as capital world-wide continues to concentrate in ever fewer hands - until even the nation State depends for its survival on credits and loans. All must beg for investment and provide guarantees that give banks the ultimate say in decisions. The time is fast approaching when every company, when every rural area as well as every city, will all be the undisputed property of the banking system. The time of the para-State is coming, a time in which the old order will be swept away. Simultaneously, traditional solidarity is evaporating. We are witnessing the disintegration of the social fabric, and in its place we find millions of isolated human beings living disconnected lives, indifferent to each other despite their common suffering. Big Capital dominates not only our objectivity through its control of the means of production, but our subjectivity, though its control of the means of communication and information. Under these circumstances, those who control capital have the power and technology to do as they please with both our material and human resources. They deplete irreplaceable natural resources and act with growing disregard for human beings. And just as they have drained everything from companies, industries and whole governments, so have they deprived Science of its meaning - reducing it to technologies that generate poverty, destruction and unemployment. Humanists do not overstate their case when they contend that the world today is technologically capable of swiftly resolving the problems of employment, food, healthcare, housing and education that exist across vast regions of the planet. If this possibility is not being realised it is, simply, because it is prevented by the monstrous speculation of Big Capital. Big capital has already exhausted the stage of market economies, and has begun to discipline society to accept the chaos it has itself produced. But in the face of this growing irrationality it is not the voices of reason that we hear raised in dialectical opposition. Rather, it is the darkest forms of racism, fundamentalism and fanaticism that are taking the stage. And if groups and whole regions will increasingly be guided by this kind of neo-irrationalism, then the space for constructive action by progressive forces will diminish day by day. On the other hand, millions of working people have already recognised that the centralised State is as much a sham as the fallacies of capitalist democracy under the influence of big capital. And just as working people are standing up against corrupt union bosses, citizens are questioning their governments and political parties. But it is necessary to give constructive direction to these phenomena, which will otherwise stagnate, remaining nothing more than spontaneous protests that lead nowhere. For something new to happen a dialogue about the fundamental factors of our economy must begin in the heart of the community. For Humanists, work and capital are the principal factors in economic production, while speculation and usury are extraneous. Under the present economic circumstances, humanists struggle to totally transform the absurd relationship that exists between these factors. Until now the idea has been imposed that profits belong to the capitalist, while the worker is entitled to a salary. Such inequality is justified referring to the 'risk' the investor assumes in investing - as though all working people did not risk their present and future in the uncertainties of unemployment and economic crisis. Another factor at play is management and decision-making in the operation of each company. Earnings not set aside for reinvestment in the enterprise for expansion and diversification are eventually diverted for financial speculation, as do profits that do not create new sources of work. The struggle of working people must therefore be directed to compel capital to produce its maximum productive return. But this cannot happen unless the management and the directorships are co-operatively shared. Otherwise how can massive layoffs and the closing and abandonment of business be avoid? The greatest harm is done through under-investment, fraudulent bankruptcies, forced acquisition of debt, and the flight of capital - not by profits obtained by increased productivity. And if anyone should insist that workers appropriate the means of production according to the teachings of the 19th century, they should keep in mind the recent collapse of real Socialism. As for the argument that treating capital the same way work is treated will only speed its flight to more advantageous areas, it must be made clear that this will not continue much longer, because the irrationality of the present economic system is bringing it to its own saturation and world-wide crisis. Moreover, this argument, apart from embodying an extreme degree of immorality, ignores the historical process in which capital is increasingly being transferred to the banking system. As a result, employers and business people are being reduced to the status of employees of a larger system - with no decision-making power - that gives only apparent autonomy. As the recession deepens, however, these same business people will begin to consider these points more seriously. Humanists feel the need to act in the field of labour as well as politics in order to prevent the State from becoming a tool of international capital, to achieve a fair relationship between the factors of production, and to give back to society its stolen autonomy. II - Real Versus Formal Democracy The edifice of Democracy has fallen into ruin as its basic foundations - the separation of powers, the representative government system, and respect for minorities - have crumbled. The theoretical separation of powers is nonsense. Even a cursory examination of its origin and composition of the different powers reveals the intimate relationship that binds them to each other. It cannot be otherwise, for they all form part of a single system. In nation after nation is seen the frequent crisis of one superseding the others, redundancy of functions, corruption and inconsistency correspond to the global, economic and political situation of any given country. As for representative government, since the spread of universal suffrage, people have naively believed that only a single act is involved where they elect their representative, and their presentative carries out their mandate received. But as time passed, people have realised that there are in fact two acts: a first act in which the many elect the few, and a second act in which these few betray the many, representing interests other than those received in their mandate. This corruption is nourished within the political parties, which have been reduced to a handful of leaders who are totally out of touch with the needs of the people. Through the party machinery, powerful interests are bankrolling candidates and dictating the policies they must follow. All this is evidence of a profound crisis in the concept and implementation of representative democracy. Humanists struggle to transform the practice of representative government, giving the highest priority to consulting the people directly, whether through referenda, plebiscites or direct election of candidates. In many countries, however, laws still exist that subordinate independent candidates to political parties, or rather, to red tape and financial restrictions that prevent them from even reaching the ballot and the free expression of the will of the people. Every constitution or law that restricts the full capacity of every citizen to elect and to be elected makes a mockery of real Democracy, which is above all such legal restrictions. As for the question of equal opportunity, the media should be at the people's service when candidates express their positions during elections, giving exactly the same opportunities to all to explain their positions. To address the problem of elected officials regularly failing to carry out their campaign promises, there is also a need to enact laws of political responsibility which should be passed so any elected official leaving his or her promises unfulfilled risks being recalled, ousted or impeached. The current alternative, in which individuals or parties not fulfilling their promises may be defeated in a future election, in no way hinders the second act of betrayal to those being represented. As for direct consultation of the people on the most urgent matters, more possibilities for implementation arise daily through the use of technology. It is not a matter of prioritizing polls and surveys, which are always manipulated, but rather of facilitating participation and direct voting through advanced electronic and computational methods. In a real Democracy, minorities must be given the protection that corresponds to their right of representation, as well as all possible measures needed to advance in practice their participation and development. Today, minorities the world over are targets of xenophobia and discrimination, and they beg desperately to be recognised. In this situation it is the responsibility of Humanists everywhere to bring this issue to the forefront, leading the struggle wherever possible to overcome both overt and hidden neo-Fascism. To struggle for the rights of minorities is to struggle for the rights of all human beings. But it also happens that in the whole of a country, entire provinces, regions and autonomous groups suffer the same discrimination as minorities do, due to the pressures of centralised State which is today an insensitive instrument in the hands of big capital. This will cease only when federalist organisations are developed in which real power returns to the hands of the historical and cultural entities. In sum, to give the highest priority to these issues: capital and work, real Democracy, and the goal of decentralising the apparatus of the state, is to set the political struggle on the road toward the creation of a new kind of society - a flexible society constantly changing in harmony with the changing needs of the people, who are today suffocated by their dependence on an inhuman system. III - The Humanist Position Humanist action does not draw its inspiration from fanciful theories about God, Nature, Society or History. Rather, it begins with the necessities of life, which consist most elementally of avoiding pain and moving towards pleasure. But human life adds to these needs foreseeing future necessities, based on past experience and the intention to improve the present situation. Human experience is not simply a product of natural and physical selection or accumulation - as happens in all species - but rather the result of social and personal experience aimed at overcoming pain in the present and avoiding it in the future. Human work, accumulated in the productions of society, is passed on and transformed from generation to generation in a continuous struggle to improve the existing or natural conditions - even those pertaining to the human body itself. Therefore we must define the human being as a historical being with a social mode of action capable of transforming the world and his or her own nature. Every time a human individual or group violently imposes itself on others, history is detained, turning their victims into 'natural' objects. Nature does not have intentions. Thus when we deny the freedom and intention of others, they are converted into natural objects without intentions, objects to be used. Human progress, in its slow ascent, needs to transform both nature and society, eliminating the violent animal-like appropriation of some human beings by others. When this happens, we will move from pre-history into a fully human history. In the meantime, we can begin with no other central value than the human being, fully realised and completely free. Humanists proclaim: "Nothing above the human being and no human being below any other." If any other value such as God, the State, Money or any other entity is placed as the central value, the human being is subordinated, thus creating conditions for subsequent control or sacrifice of other human beings. Humanists understand this point very clearly. Humanists may be atheists or believers, but they do not start from their atheism or faith as the basis for their view of the world and their actions. They start with the human being and the immediate needs of human beings. And if, in their struggle for a better world, they believe they discover an intention that moves History in a progressive direction, they place that faith or that discovery at the service of the human being. Humanists address the fundamental problem: to know if one wants to live, and to decide under what conditions to live one's life. All forms of physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual and ideological violence, on account of which progress has been stalled, are repugnant to Humanists. For Humanists, any form of discrimination, be it blatant or latent, is something to be condemned and denounced. Humanists are not violent, but above all they are not cowards, and because their actions have meaning they are not afraid to face violence. Humanists connect their personal life with the life of society; by not creating false dichotomies, coherence is gained. Thus the line between Humanism and Anti-Humanism is clearly drawn. Humanism puts labour before big capital; real Democracy before formal democracy; decentralisation before centralisation; tolerance before discrimination; freedom before oppression; meaning in life before resignation, complicity and the absurd. Because Humanism is based on freedom of choice, it offers the only valid ethic for our time. And because Humanism believes in intentionality and freedom, it distinguishes between error and bad faith, between the one who is mistaken and the traitor. IV - From Naive Humanism to Conscious Humanism It is at the grass roots level, where people work and live, that Humanism must convert simple and isolated protest into a conscious force aimed at the transformation of economic structures. As for the militant members of the labour unions and the progressive political parties, their struggle will become coherent as they gradually transform their leadership, giving their organisations an orientation that puts the basic Humanist principles and proposals first, ahead of all short term demands. As the general crisis of the system affects them, vast numbers of students and teachers, already sensitive to injustice, are becoming aware of their will to change. And certainly, members of the Press in contact with so much daily tragedy, are today in a position to act in a Humanist direction, as are intellectuals whose creations are at odds with the standards promoted by this inhumane system. Seeing the fact of so much human suffering, many approaches and organisations have risen that encourage people to unselfishly help the dispossessed and those suffering discrimination. Associations, volunteer groups, and large numbers of individuals are occasionally moved to make positive contributions to these causes. Without doubt, one of their contributions is to draw attention to these wrongs. However, such groups do not focus their actions within the context of the transformation of the underlying structures that give rise to the problems. These positions pertain to Humanitarianism rather than to conscious Humanism. Among these efforts are many conscientious protests and actions that can be deepened and extended. V - The Anti-Humanist Camp As the forces mobilized by big capital continue to asphyxiate the people, incoherent postures and proposals arise that grow stronger by exploiting people's discontent, blaming it on false culprits. At the root of this is neo-Fascism, a total negation of human values. Similarly, certain deviant environmental currents view nature as more important than human beings. No longer do they preach that an environmental catastrophe is a disaster because it endangers humanity - instead for them the only problem is that human beings have damaged nature. According to some of these theories, the human being is somehow contaminated, and thus contaminates nature. For them it would have been better if medicine had never succeeded in its fight against disease or in prolonging human life. 'Earth First!' some cry hysterically, recalling the slogans of the Nazis. There is but a short step from this position of discrimination against cultures seen to contaminate or against 'impure' foreigners. These currents of thought may be considered Anti-Humanist because at bottom they hold the human being in contempt. Their mentors despise themselves, reflecting the nihilistic and suicidal tendencies in fashion today. There are however, significant numbers of perceptive people also who consider themselves environmentalists because they understand the gravity of the abuses that environmentalism exposes and condemns. And if this environmentalism takes on a Humanist character that corresponds, it will direct the struggle against those who are generating the catastrophes, namely big capital and the system of destructive industries and corporations, close cousins of the military-industrial complex. Before worrying about seals, they will concern themselves with overcoming hunger, overcrowding, infant mortality, disease, and the lack of even minimal standards of housing and sanitation in many parts of the world. They will focus on the unemployment, exploitation, racism, discrimination and intolerance in a world that is technologically advanced, yet still generates ecological imbalances for the sake of ever more irrational growth. One need not look far to see how the various facets of the right wing function as political instruments of anti-humanism. Within the right wing, bad faith reaches such high levels that some exponents would even have us believe they are representatives of 'Humanism'. Similarly, cunning clergymen who pretend to base their theories on a ridiculous 'Theocentric Humanism'. These people - inventors of religious wars and inquisitions, executioners of the historical fathers of western Humanism - have usurped the virtues of their victims to the extent of 'forgiving the deviations' of the historic humanists. So shameless is their semantic banditry in appropriating words, that the representatives of Anti-Humanism try to cloak themselves with the name 'humanist'. It would be impossible to list here all the resources, tools, instruments, forms and expressions that Anti-Humanism has at its disposal. But having shed light on their most deceptive practices should help many naive humanists and those who are spontaneously deciding they are humanists as they re-examine their ideas and the significance of their actions in society. VI - Humanist Action Alliances With the intention of becoming a broad social movement, humanists organise action alliances or fronts in the workplace, neighbourhoods, unions and among social action, political, environmental and cultural organisations. Acting in alliance makes it possible for a variety of progressive movements, groups and individuals to have greater participation and influence, without losing their own identities or special characteristics. The goal of this movement is to promote a union of forces increasingly able to influence vast numbers of people from all parts of society and through its activities provide orientation for the transformation of society. Humanists are neither naive, nor are they enamoured by declarations that belong to more romantic eras. In this sense, they do not view their proposals as the most advanced expression of social consciousness, nor do they think of their organisation in an unquestioning way. Humanists do not presume to represent the majority. They simply act in accordance with their best judgement, focusing on those changes that they believe are most suitable and possible in these times in which they happen to live. Silo Mendoza, Spring 1993 ************************************************** Introduction Hong Kong Homecoming A descriptive tour of Hong Kong for those unfamiliar with its ways and means, taking a brief look at its economics and history. Hong Kong is more than an island set in the South China Sea, more than a once-upon-a-time colony, more than a modern business whirlwind ever pushing the East into competition with the West. Its shopping mazes, ever changing population and towering buildings; its Chinese way of life in proximity to the immensity and complexity of China Proper, all taken together, bring a thousand and one variables into play, patterning daily life with amazing variety. Without looking for definition, for a precise image, this place - territory-cum-country - throbs with its own peculiarities owing to the cross current of influence from the Occident and Orient, from the continental mainland and from the surrounding countries over short stretches of sea. The Chinese mix owing to the past influx of Chinese with their regional differences. Further, the slowly eroding religious customs and ethics born of Confucius, refined by Buddha and tempered by Christ, radicalised by the fiery thought of Mao then regulated by the far flung British in their administrative respectability. It is a place of hope for millions, a transit camp, an act of daily faith and a way of life. Yet, to the rest of the world Hong Kong is still renown as the world of Suzie Wong, archetypal lady-of-the-night in a flowery and slinky Cheong-sam. All this is Hong Kong - much more than an island. The 150th anniversary of Hong Kong took place in 1991 and it came as a surprise that the officials didn't even take the 'Hong Kong was a mistake but let's make the most of it' attitude, which works so well for everyone else. That would be an understandable enough attitude I had assumed. But No. Not the Hong Kong government - there were no official commemoration celebrations in the territory to mark this 150th Anniversary. It was 8.15 in the morning of Monday, January 25, 1841 when Captain Belcher and his motley crew of the HMS Sulphur cast their first rope onto the island of Hong Kong. This is now Possession Point, where, according to the records, that early Britisher spliced the mainbrace with a drink, toasting the health of Queen Victoria. Within the first ten years of the birth of the colony, that most prestigious shop of the 1990s, Lane Crawford, was established. Lane was a ship's captain and Ninian Crawford, well, she was a women. They set up a fresh foods store and ships chandlers, a far cry from the classy goods lining the shelves of the shop today. In 1880 a ferry service was started by Mr Dorabjee Nowrojee, a Bombay Parsi with more than a touch of originality. This was the early start of the famous Star Ferry service connecting Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. By 1881 there were about 160,000 people in the territory, and 150,000 of those were Chinese. Governor Hennessy, who stayed in office despite his unpopularity with the expatriates, opposed racial discrimination and promoted Chinese involvement in Hong Kong's institutions and daily life. By 1881 there were 18 ratepayers with property rated over $1,000 and 17 of those were Chinese - the one expatriate ratepayer was the British merchant house Jardine Matheson. The first elections were held in 1882 when a Sanitation Board was set up that included two Chinese. In an effort against the menace of Housing Inspectors, the Chinese community organised a petition of 47,000 names. So who said the Hong Kong people are not ready for direct elections at this juncture in time, 140 years later? Electric lights were switched on in 1890. In 1894 the dreaded plague struck. In 1888 the Upper Level Tramway was started, hoisting people up to what today is Victoria Peak, on what is known as the Peak Tram. A must for first timers. From July 1, 1898, the New Territories (NT) and adjacent islands were leased-cum-annexed to Britain - for 99 years. But the already established Chinese families did not take lightly to this sudden shift. There was considerable resistance to the British in places such as Lantau Island, but the dissenters could not stand against the powerful empire builders in their hayday. A year later and all went quiet on the NT front. By the early 1900s the population had increased to 300,000, with 280,000 Chinese. By 1910 the Kowloon-Canton railway was completed, to the border, and China completed its stretch down from Canton by 1912. Despite the modern buildings in the burgeoning Central District, generally, sanitation continued to be a problem. Something which has hardly been solved today. Hong Kong University was founded in 1912 - there had been a faculty of medicine in operation for twenty-five years already - those Parsi businessmen gave a substantial contribution which was just one of the many instances of great philanthropy that has long been a custom in Hong Kong. Those families and individuals who made it to the top have always been generous. The outbreak of the Chinese Revolution in 1911 brought many new immigrants to Hong Kong. Then there was the First World War - 1914-18 with 60,000 Chinese returning to China as Hong Kong was under threat of attack. Five million Hong Kong dollars were collected for the Imperial government's war effort, which throws new light on the 1991 Legislative Council decision against allotting money to Britain in the Gulf War effort! Conscription was made mandatory in the territory in 1917. Any complaint was hardly audible in comparison to the groans that accompanied the world trade slump immediately after the war which hit Hong Kong hard. There were street riots because of the problem social conditions caused by the lack of lustre in the coffers. To add catastrophe to calamity, the grandstands at Happy Valley racecourse collapsed with 600 deaths but with the positive outcome of the building of a proper and permanent racecourse. In the 1920s the textile industry was reintroduced. Child labour was more closely watched and child adoptions for no good purposes became more difficult. In 1921 women were admitted to the University. In 1922 the sale of young girls to wealthy families was forbidden. Political events in China caused migrants to arrive in increasing numbers. There was a major strike by seamen in 1922 and in 1925-26 a general strike took place that caused great strife. Anti-British feelings ran high then following an outbreak of anti-Japanese agitation in Shanghai. By 1925 the population stood at 725,000 with 706,000 Chinese. Kai Tak Airport was operational by 1928. In 1930 the Urban Council for municipal services was formed, mainly for efforts at better sanitation as disease was still prevalent. In 1934 the Hong Kong Silver Dollar broke the silver link with China and tied itself to the British pound, a much more stable currency. This gave greater independence to Hong Kong. By 1937 the population of Hong Kong had reached its first million, due in the main to immigration from China owing to the upheavals there. The textile industry grew apace. World War II dominated events during the 1940s. On Christmas Day 1941 the Japanese invasion began. Occupation lasted three years, four months. It came to an end in August 1945 when Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt entered Victoria Harbour and raised the British flag. Starvation and compulsory deportation had reduced the population to 600,000 by that date. While Hong Kong lifted itself up to head into prosperity, in China, the Communist Revolution took place with the Party taking over in 1949. The continued upheavals brought more immigrants to Hong Kong from China, with 700,000 arriving in the first year of that major change in China's government. By 1951 ten percent of the senior administration of government and the professional classes were local Chinese. Embargoes on China, led by the United States because of China's stance in the Korean War, caused another drop in the Hong Kong economy. However, at the same time, the refugees from China brought with them capital and expertise and there was labour to spare so the economy started to rise again during the fifties. Most of the activity was in textiles and garments, with electronics just showing its productive head. In 1956 the Trade Development Council was set up to diversify into other markets as the danger of reliance on the US and Britain was glimpsed. In 1953 a squatter hut fire reduced to ashes the homes of 53,000 people, which catastrophe, as with the race course fire, had the timely effect of initiating a proper building programme by the government. The programme housed 205,000 people by 1970. By 1956 the population had reached 2.5 million. Local representatives sat on councils and the first official political organisation, called the Civic Association, was founded (1955). Their platform included direct representation on the Legislative Council. In 1961 holidays for workers was made compulsory, paid sick leave and hours of work were regulated if not quite enforced. By then the work force numbered 590,000. In the sixties large scale water shortages were experienced. The Ocean Terminal on Kowloon side was opened in 1966, the same year as massive labour riots, a regular enough experience for Hong Kong, given an adequate time scale to see it. Often, unrest was precipitated by events in China, this time it was the climaxing of the Cultural Revolution. In 1975 4,000 Vietnamese refugees arrived in one vessel and in 1978 the 'Huey Fong' arrived with 2,700 Vietnamese aboard and the ship was refused entry (not the first port of call!). In 1979, 73,692 Vietnamese refugees arrived. In the seventies free primary education was managed, the harbour tunnel was started and finished (1970-72), residential developments were started too, such as at Shatin in the NT. In 1978 the Lion Rock Tunnel was opened connecting Kowloon in an easier link with major parts of the NT. The Mass Transit Railway (MTR), Island Line, opened in 1979. By that period total imports, exports and re-exports lifted to $117 billion. Re-exports was the biggest area of growth with China the biggest source, and Japan the biggest recipient. The late 70s were property boom years with speculation rife. But by the start of the 1980s many property purchasers experienced losses owing to a property values collapse. In 1984 the Joint Declaration, signed by Margaret Thatcher and Zhou Ziyang, sealed the future of Hong Kong, being in effect the first constitution for the territory post-1997 after Hong Kong is handed back to China. The Basic Law nestled easily into the stated concept of 'one country - two systems'. In September 1985 the Legislative Council had its first elections, not direct elections but anyway elections. In June 1988 the screening of Vietnamese refugees was introduced, discriminating against mere economic-fleeing as against political-fleeing Vietnamese. 1991 was an important election year for Hong Kong as elections for the District Boards took place on March 3rd and those for the Legislative Council on September 15th. The latter placed eighteen directly elected stalwarts into the total sixty-seat Council. Democracy's first step. With governor Pattern's policy address at the Legislative Council on 7th October 1992, suddenly Hong Kong was given more than enough democracy - to listen to Beijing. In fact it was too little too late. But Hong Kong is not really about politics, it is about people and spending and making money of course. Today visitors can ride the indefatigable trams from the western end of Kennedy Town with its lanes of lorries bumper-to-bumper along the old waterfront. The docks off Western busy with lighters, a maze of halliards and wire ropes, swinging cranes and washing, enlivened by shouting men with taut brown legs. There are strolls into market places where bulging baskets of pigs, hens and ducks are landed, freshly arrived from China. Wholesalers there deal in dried foods of the sea, preserved fruits and medicinal herbs. Down alleys are the rising tiers of begrimed balconies, once bright with newness, but not now, after decades of neglect. Dusty lanterns, forgotten bird cages and what-not more, tell tales of the passing of generations into a fustiness that hints at the possible strangeness of what goes on behind those drawn shutters. In truth, commonly, nothing other than the undeclared everyday life of families following the way of their ancestors. Further into town the buildings change from the shoddy to the impressively new. High reaching facades in tinted glass, sheer and white structures with huge porthole widows, revolving penthouse restaurants, smartly trimmed parks and resplendent banking complexes, vortices of the lifeblood of Hong Kong - the dollar. Set into hill-sides are smart homes of the well-to-do, sweeping roads that overlook the insistent growth of greenery that links branch by leaf all the way up to Victoria Peak. There, a brown and windowed caterpillar can be spied that slowly ascends on its winding track to near the top. The Peak Tram, that heaves to a near summit stop, allowing an overview of the panorama spread in all directions. To the north, on a rare clear day, is distant China Mountain and lesser summits telling of China's expanse, looking over the New Territories. About turn and there are the Outlying Islands, the biggest Lantau; the nearest, give and take a few untenanted wave-dashed protuberances, is Lamma. Further over again is the most pleasantly bustling Cheung Chau, reached by ferry from the piers only five minutes walk from the most famed boat ride in the Orient, the Star Ferry. This Star Ferry is the best way to get an introduction to the ever amazing harbour scene. Very often, the neck of water between the jutting piers of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon is sufficiently scattered with white breakers to resemble deep sea, while all about ply vessels of every type, from the humble walla-walla with awnings a-flap, and the heavy surging shale-filled barges pulled by work-horse tugs. Cutting through the wave crests will surely be some merchant ship, at times spick and span when a venerable Dutchman, or at the other extreme, in sorry disrepair and streaked with rust when a flag of convenience is hoisted to the stern and the Indonesian crew have been too long from home. Sailing junks are occasionally seen, in their season of passage and nostalgic is the sight of a heave-ho tacking junk, at times with distinctive red-brown sails and sea-bleached timbers. Jaunty yachts skim the waters, on a weekend in clusters as the sailors-set-free-of-desk toil at ropes in singlets, happily tanned, displaying their good fortune and even brother sun seems to smile at the sight. More business-like are the fast-flying hover-ferries passing in a spray, but faster by far are the skimming and long curving Macau jet-foils, veering off into the distance at over forty knots in a near cloud of sea-white; swift birds of the ocean. Overhead, helicopters make regular passage, and over the city fly aircraft from all around the globe, to soar down and over the rooftops of Kowloon in one of the most breathtaking descents of any airstrip landing in the world, between mountain ranges, and at last dipping low to sea level onto the magic tarmac of Kai Tak. Nearby is Kowloon City, a-run with industrial buildings and block after block of residential warrens, teeming with life, flapping with washing and in the lower storeys, mounted with decorative calligraphy and gaudy neon-besmirched signs with only pale day-time colouring in the too-hot light-bright airs. The streets are always noisy with taxis, minicabs and buses that never cease in their roaring and revving. The pedestrian-ways jam-packed, shops crammed full, cafe's and wayside restaurants overflowing with custom all day long as the local residents play out their lives in the human warmth of their own neighbourhoods. Taking a trip into the mysteries of Mongkok is adventurous for visitors, and further on, into touristy Tsim Sha Tsui with its discos and diners and gold with tinsel red carpeted and chandelier lit restaurants, taxi-dance halls, night clubs and bars. Among all that, trinket shops and stalls for handicrafts, for shawls and silks, carpets and sandalwood chests. The well known hawkers of paintings of ghostly junks in blue and black, red sunsets and brightness of light flung onto black waters and scenes from villages bringing into view China-for-real. That China-for-real can still be glimpsed in the more remote regions of the New Territories, where farmers plod the sodden field, where water buffalo lie in swampy fallow and amid flowering reeds. Lesser villages out there cluster under shared roofs and walls, have neat gardens with hens and rooftop lofts with pigeons ready for the pot. Ponds too with white duck but not a trace of that staple of the Chinese, sacred rice, not in these days when many farmers and their kin work construction sites. Children complete homework by doorways and dogs lie in the shade, while sea-distant fishermen mend nets and boats by long sandy shores of shallow waters. With a charm of its own, the sun may be caught in its setting with the sea-horizon gold broken into dark patterns, and then the visitor knows from where those Kowloon painters of traditional scenes got their inspiration - the sun-glisten shattered by the dipping progress of a fishing smack heading homeward with the catch. Towards the Chinese border rampant greenery soothes the eye. There are estuaries and mud flats with the delicately stepping wader and occasional leaping mullet. Always the lone fisherman striking his line and all around rolling hills and a sleepy fecundity not hinting the least of the other Hong Kong. The Hong Kong resident has a favourite pastime, especially on a Sunday, meeting with friends for 'yam cha' - drinking tea. The action is set in the larger restaurants that open onto the street in decadent grandeur of a gilt and mirrored opulence, with lion forms and cheong-sam girded girls at the door and huge wooden desks with quite serious looking men in suits dispensing directions. While it is common in western restaurants to try to produce a mood of quiet with softened lighting, not so for the Chinese who like to see what they eat. Bright lights, noisy clatter and lots of intimacy in a direct way as interchanges take place in loud voices, during fun-filled and boisterous proceedings. The menu is given great deliberation and take care - he or she who orders, pays. It is the people that make Hong Kong and that produce the most memorable sights and sounds. That amalgam of residents and passers through, the belonger and the transient, all quietly curious about each other in their respectively differing lives that brush in the passing and spark in the contact. This makes Hong Kong ever memorable. To live in Hong Kong is to plunge daily into its tough economic reality, to struggle with the contending forces for a place, for a job, or a partner in life. It is as if this 'barren island with hardly a house upon it', that so excited England's Lord Palmerston continued to demand a high price for any human settlement. That is why Britain is giving the island of Hong Kong and that slice of Kowloon back to China - because without the New Territories, it is said, the place is not viable - besides that China would like to have it returned. Hong Kong never was designed to be viable, that much is certainly true. All that was needed was a place to stack goods for trade into and out of China. That was the entirety of the reason for the establishment of Hong Kong but something has happened over the intervening years - Hong Kong has happened! This bustling Asian metropolis figures large in world accounting with its 5.8 million population, its 1992 gross domestic product figure of US$95.2 billion and domestic exports of US$30 billion. Hong Kong port is one the busiest in the world and five million tourists come to Hong Kong annually. That is a sufficiency of action for any such small place. The wealth is evident in the block-upon-block build-up in Central District business area. While the word skyscraper has gone out of fashion, that's the very word for the varied architectural forms that have burgeoned there. Those buildings are honeycombed with offices and rife with busy office workers that deal in paper commodities and paper money, in a world of their own creation, where figures figure as if in another dimension - in the world of the dollar-go-round. The spin off is the remainder of Hong Kong. Today, manufacturing takes second notch to the service industries, to high - and low - finance. A sizeable chunk of the territory's manufacturing moved over the border to China for its first stage processing, during the late Eighties, to the extent of 18,000 enterprises employing 1.4 million workers. The area just passed the New Territories' border is an industrial everyman's land called Shenzhen. This acts as a buffer zone before reaching the pretty green fields of Guangdong Province where the land returns to its organic cultured norm after the concrete debacle - in all its masculine beauty in Central and to the blemishes of hard core industrial Kwun Tong. There's an effect - not so much 'trickle down' as 'scatter out' - where the Hong Kong working men and women have inserted themselves into its varied culture on all the levels below that of the Governor and the assortment of self-made millionaires such as Li Ka-shing, Sir Run Run Shaw and a motley more. The Hong Konger loves to play at being the millionaire, even if only for a day. This is seen in the way people rush at the opportunity to eat out in top restaurants and even fight to pay the bill and that is not always sheer bravado. This delight in hitting the town has all staff of every service facility from the restaurants to the theatres, the nightclubs, the snack bars, the noodle joints in street side-stalls and so many more, kept busy till the wee hours of each working and weekend day. In Hong Kong there are various cultures, the western one with its plush seated halls of western classical music, dance-drama, and stand-at-the-bar pub friendliness, alongside the eastern - principally Chinese - with its shows of Chinese orchestrations and dance troupes from provinces of China and dim sum dalliance. Also, the Central District Christian church of St. John's with its choirs and neat and proper Sunday atmosphere, as different from the mysteriously dark Chinese Taoist-Buddhist temples that are replete with the dragon and phoenix, the pearl of wisdom and guardian lions, joss and mahjong. Here even the religions have to compete, not only with each other, just to get some profile to remind the population that there are possible alternatives to the chase after that almighty dollar. The Buddhists have built the biggest Buddha outside India on a Lantau Island peak, a stronghold of Buddhism in Hong Kong, at Bo Lin Temple. But the Britisher was not alone in the adventure of establishing the success of Hong Kong, not by any means. Of course there was and is the veritable toil of the indigenous Chinese, indigenous to the area that is, for only fishermen and pirates inhabited Hong Kong Island in Queen Victoria's days - and, it is said, most of the fishermen left! It was only two years after the British got their foot in China's door that a number of wealthy Bombay merchants took up a trading residence, associated with many of the waterfront properties and godowns. Today in Hong Kong, while the Indian community are a most visible part of Hong Kong commercial life, it is the Sindhi that are the busiest traders. More people share the goodies today - if not in the wealth exactly - in the life and strife and healthy vitality that goes with survival in modern Hong Kong. Visitors must take care though that they do not mistake the high-risers and slinky legs of Central for the only Hong Kong. A trip out to Kwun Tong or any other of the industrial estate areas, or the Western end of Central, where another aspect of Hong Kong throbs. There the people are cramped into small living spaces, live on earnings well below the government announced standard and there is little hope of a bright future whatever happens on the high finance and political end of affairs. Those unknown people are the hidden marrow of the economic backbone of Hong Kong. With the 1989 June 4th massacre and the Beijing line against China's democracy movement, Hong Kong suffered a confidence crisis causing wounds that have yet to heal. Over a million people marched on Hong Kong's streets, revealing to those who thought less of the Hong Kong people, that there is indeed a dragon in their heart, given the right cause and a rightful cause. Their story, like the story of any nation, or place, has not run its course. There is a resilience born of laissez-faire in Hong Kong that can ride the future and there is lots of life left in Hong Kong despite the turbulence caused by Mother beckoning. The return of this prodigal son to the motherland, that has caused consternation, is welcome by many local Chinese in one singular respect - that they will, at last, be home. Tony Henderson Autumn 1993 *************************************************** Chapter I Modern Humanism On Human Being - active non-violence - militant activism non-discrimination - yes to options - co-operativism - human being as central value - the new cultural form - defeating the nothingness. On Human Being For better comprehension of the human, two aspects of the human phenomenon can be given priority. One, the phenomenon itself, the human being, taking a general view; two, the register of the human in others(1). Firstly then, claims that the characteristics of the human being are sociability, language or the transmission of experience, and that these factors qualify the human, are not justified, as animals, even if only in rudimentary form, can also have these characteristics. Among animals there is even a kind of morality, with punishment of transgressors, which nulls that characteristic also as something that identifies the human. Such activities are closer to the reflex, the instinctive self preservation reactions, that overlap the conditioned and unconditioned responses. Also, there is chemical recognition of organisms, determining them as foreign - another beehive, anthill, school of fish or herd with the consequent rejection or attraction. Rudimentary technology also pertains to the animal - complex lair building, the thrush that uses a stone as an anvil to break open snail shells, etc. Navigation is particularly highly developed. Sentiments of affection, of hatred, of grief, all are seen and even solidarity is found among animal groups and species. Animals have host, parasitic and symbiotic organisms related to their functioning as elementary forms of organisation, the same that has been developed among human groups. Then what is it that defines the human as such? It is the reflection of the historic and social situations as personal memory. Whereas all animals are as though each was the first one, in contrast, every human being is his or her own historical and social environment. Not only this, but is the reflection and contribution to the transformation or inertia of that environment. The environment for the animal is the natural environment. The environment for the human being is the historical and social environment. It is also the transformation of this environment and surely the adaptation of the natural to the human being's long-range needs. This considered response of the human being to what is immediate gives meaning and direction of his or her efforts. So, a calculated or imagined future presents new characteristics to the human. This is quite different from the system of ideation and the behaviour and the life of animals. This is why it is said that the animal constantly turns on itself, as the cycle of learning-feedback-change is very short, and is in fact stopped. Animals are hardly developing, at most they are adapting to local conditions. The grander perspective given by human consciousness brings a pause in human reactions where the incoming stimuli arrive at a complex mental space. This conditioned space determines by comparisons the effects of the stimuli, and even lends itself to abstractions, to thoughts outside the realm of the immediate. This means that as far as the human is concerned there is no human 'nature' unless this 'nature' is understood to be modified by the very impression-expression of the human. Quite different to the animal - the human has the capacity to move out of time, even beyond the horizon of perception. There is a need to clarify this difference between what is animal and what is human - not to use the word nature casually when speaking of human nature. What is essentially natural to the human is change, is history, is transformation. Slipshod use of the word 'nature' has served to justify many acts against the human. Because conquerors were different from the natives to a place, those natives or aboriginals were treated as sub-human. Or, aggressive tendencies were spoken of as 'natural'. Sentiments of, 'we are, after-all, only human,' betrays a lack of comprehension of what the human is - leaving that comprehension confused with characteristics of the animal. With the natural world a natural order became established and to change this order was a sin. Different races, sexes and social positions were established. This order of things was said to be 'natural' and had to be conserved, permanently conserved! The idea of 'human nature' served a natural order of production, reaching to feudalism, but all that ended abruptly with the industrial revolution. Even today primitive ideas of human nature continue in pockets. Take psychology for example that speaks of certain 'natural faculties' such as 'will'. There is no will. If there was will there would be the ability to 'do'. Mostly people react, they don't act. Natural rights are spoken of, 'We have always been a family of landlords, it is our natural right.' The State as part of human nature, as if having a State as the central reference was the only form of a society. All these have contributed nothing but have been a burden adding historical inertia and negating possibilities of transformation. And, accompanying the human consciousness is a co-presence. All these foregoing act as a continuum of focus and an expansive ground of temporal contact with physical reality. Given intentionality, as the considered response to the environment, then a meaning is projected making the human being the maker of meaning of the world. This is very far from the standard idea of human nature. It is opposite to this rudimentary belief of human nature. In fact the natural is asphyxiating the human with an order imposed as a permanent institution. The opposite is declared in the new humanist's slogan saying that the natural has to be humanised. Others are invited to join in this humanization and the effort makes the man or woman creator of his or her own meaning, direction and transformation. This meaning brings liberation from the supposed 'natural' conditions of pain and suffering. The truly human goes beyond the natural. If it is you that is spoken of here then it is your project, your indignation and anger, your kindliness. It is your fear and wonder before a future, before a new human being who is free from pain and suffering. Turning to the second aspect, one's register of the humanity of others: 'while a person's register of another is as a 'natural' presence, then that other - no matter how closely related - will remain nothing but that, an object of the natural world. Then, this other will only be real in the sense of - for me. The only meaning of this other person is whatever meaning that one has for me! Then I am a for-itself. This is alienation. With this I am for-me I close my horizon of transformation. As far as I do not experience the other beyond that of a for-me, my vital activity will not humanize the world'(2). The other should be, within my own internal register, a warm sensation of an open future that does not end in death. 'To feel the human in the other is to feel the life in the other, like a lifting rainbow of possibility that moves away at the very moment I want to grasp or remove its expression. If you move away I comfort myself by knowing that your moving away has helped you break your chains that have caused you pain and suffering. However, if you go with me, then you, as a human being, are doing so in a free act. If my actions are as pure as the lightness of freedom that lies within, then not even death stops what is put in motion because I am the maker of my time and my freedom - and you are the maker of yours, or not, depending on your case. Thus the human being of growing humanization can be loved, and during those moments of crisis in human affairs, when the 'natural' arises, then your possibility for a future recovery can be loved'(2). Comprehending the foregoing can instill an attitude that grants the possibility of real human life. This attitude is not common, it is not the operational norm in society today, in any society. Understanding something important in all of this makes me FEEL like doing something about the crisis situation, and in that light, therefore, I take particular delight in the Humanist Association of Hong Kong activities and message, as part of the world-wide humanist movement. In this understanding I see the need for a new generation of people managing public affairs. As a start, at least, a new generation of politicians. As a potential political party, the Humanist Association (HA) sees its mandate in representing the common citizen who participates in politics to defend basic human rights - given that the common citizen chooses the HA to offer that representation. All through history people have worked for a better life. However, until now, after various social, political and economic experiments, such aspirations have not been fulfilled. In most countries of the world jobs are scarce and many are poorly paid while humble people still fight against starvation. Their incomes cannot provide them with the necessary health-care, housing or education. Many people never have conditions of security throughout their entire lifespan! Such situations cause daily suffering and anxiety. While Hong Kong is not in these dire straits, there are problems - one today is a lack of confidence because bigger powers are handling Hong Kong affairs without giving Hong Kong real participation. Of course people would like to change that. In fact, everyone has the right to aspire to a better life, in conditions of freedom. On trying to express dissatisfaction though, there is no channel to air views with effectiveness. Oh yes, I can voice my views but I always get the feeling that whatever is said in those diatribes won't change much. It helps a little with small things - the threatened tree - and certainly I may feel better but getting in the press or on the radio as an individual, as Tony Henderson, it doesn't satisfy somehow. I know it need not be like that. Not if this exercising my right to be heard is done as part of a programme with clear intentions, one that is determined and agreed to along with others, with friends. Then it is not just me complaining. Only a new human force, uncompromised, can fulfil this aspiration for a better life. Speaking in terms of freedom<$IFreedom>, this can be achieved - by transforming people and society, with people's direct participation in a project to Humanize Hong Kong. Only I know when I am free - I found it useful to question myself - do I FEEL free? I feel it is imperative to bring the ecology-environmental factor to the forefront in actions because a wholesome attitude to life is one based on openness. With freshness and cleanliness there will be a Greening because pollution is not just something that spoils the air, land and sea - it spoils our spirituality, our psychological condition, our artistic feelings, our sense of aesthetics and our culture. Besides this ecological factor, in the HA there are five main points that act as guidelines to any activity in relation to the required change in attitude that keep the humanization endeavour in healthy perspective, preventing distortions. The first is Active Non-violence. Active non-violence Active non-violence (or, non-violent activism) is our methodology for social and political action. It is the way to achieve economic and political influence, the way to exercise it, the way to resist and struggle against violence and the way of humanizing society. The way is clear to make use of all the non-violent methods necessary and available in order to struggle against any form of violence (i.e., physical, social, economic, religious and psychological violence), and to clarify and mobilize people to join in this resistance. Non-violence includes the public denunciation of injustices, non-participation of any form of oppression or violence, psychological action, civil disobedience, and non-violent resistance to authoritarianism. Violence is not a means for ending violence. Rather, violence always generates more violence in a never-ending chain of retaliations. The end does not justify the means. Means and ends are related as much as the seed is related to the full grown tree. No future that is worthy of the human being can be built on a base of blood and bombs. But, also, it cannot be built with complicity, indifference or cowardice in front of violence, suffering and oppression. Someone has said that the child makes use of the fist until learning to use the brain. Thus, violence, as a means for struggling against violence, belongs to the childhood of human development. Non-violence is the weapon of the brave and intelligent by choice just as much as it is the weapon of those completely without any means at-all of battling injustice. Active non-violence is a method that has not been developed to its full potential, so far. The non-violence struggles of M.K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King are examples that can be further developed, adapting them to the present conditions. The weak point of a system of violence is the mentality of those who maintain it. That mentality has to be changed in order to change the system. Active non-violence is not just a simple position of passive, resigned or fearful pacifism. It is a dynamic militancy - courageous and rebellious - against every form of violence, its roots and manifestations. Also, active non-violence is to struggle to build bridges of direct communication between the different races, peoples, communities and individuals. Huge amounts of resources - human, economic, technological, scientific - are being applied to the development of violence, everywhere. If the same resources were spent on non-violence, any country, or the whole world indeed would change in just a few years. Militant Activism The prevention of social unrest, in the face of injustice, has blinkered governments and its bedfellows into demanding some form of strait-jacket over the people who want to protest. This can happen even when such supposedly innocuous slogans as Stability and Prosperity are used, as in Hong Kong. The privileged want to keep their privileges and that maintains the system of injustice. Those working for peace are aware of this. It is always a problem for activists working in the methods of active non-violence that changes in the strait-jacketed situation are not obviously seen taking place after peace activities, the effects, the reconciliations. People get disheartened because of this. The idea is to start processes of change not just give finishing touches. The effects of non-violent actions often remain invisible - but with faith, they will become visible. Whether personal or public acts, all have effects, always. It is important to have permanence in the actions, an isolated act has little value at the level of the street action. Truth has a lot to do with active non-violence. How to speak or act in truth, without harming others. That is fundamental. To see the truth of the other side, their point of view. The intention is to see how to bring the other side into the liberating process. Whether speaking to repressive governments or individuals about the democratic impetus in Hong Kong. All around the world different groups are demanding their rights, the workers, ethnic minorities, discriminated groups. When reversals take place, as happened in the defunct Soviet Union, the underdogs want their day, want to be in charge - like, 'now its my turn!' Mr Walesa in Poland understands that it is not a question of imposition. That would be repeating the mistakes of the past. He sought to change things in a more gradual way because he wanted that justice became a reality. For so long the communist parties have been in charge in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Suddenly they were out of power, but they still have to have a say because they have many people that still believe in communist ideals. They cannot be shunted aside. This is also true of the Khmer Rouge. Even if they are a minority, they should have seats in government. Their ideology has to be respected, their human wishes have to be respected. Now in Russia so many groups are making demands but it can't all happen at once. Neither Yeltsin nor Gorbachev are genii out of bottles to grant wishes by magic. Their reforms will take time and care in application not to turn everything upside down so it sinks. In South Africa it was the passivity of people that was the major block. They felt powerless against the system that played the old game of divide and rule. More and more they danced in front of the television screens, gradually the ordinary people were seen empowered and now look at the changes that have taken place! They are in the street demanding a multi-racial society, an inclusive society. Listening carefully - they don't all talk about Whites as the suppressor. No. They say it is the system that is violent, that has been their oppressor. So they change the system - as it happens the Whites control the system there! When the people power revolution took place in the Philippines, that did not happen like that, just by the gentle nature of the Filipino. It has to be understood that the Filipino has a long history of training in active non-violence. The Christian church, the unions, the resistance against the Spanish, the Japanese, and the Americans, all that experience went into their demonstrated solidarity and insistence on active non-violence. The violence is more diffuse in the Philippines. Here also there had better be preparation for that moment, training ourselves, to have an aware peace movement that will not be swayed into violence. Hong Kong may not always be able to stand outside the social unrest that is sweeping the world - and China is on the brink of change. It is said that a dying horse bucks the harder before it dies. So there has to be care when dealing with anything in that life threatened condition. By cumulative actions as activists a few tons are added to the weight of history, to help evolution on its way, and this is done by training in a considered response to say NO to violent systems. That is how active non-violence empowers people who feel powerless in front of any system. By saying no to that system and yes to life. Looking at the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square that June with a critical eye, we can learn of the implications for Hong Kong. What were the elements of non-violence and what were the actions that were not based on non-violence; what were their ramifications? What about those slogans used against Li Peng and the other leaders at that time? Did they point at the system or the person? If the person is ousted and the system remains what is gained? What about that statue, the North American lady with the torch of freedom? It was an insult! A lot of fun - but terribly insulting to the communist leadership. What was asked, the reform of the communist party or its overturn? There has to be an analysis of what went wrong in Tiananmen and this has to be explained. The fact is mistakes were made. Too much was demanded too soon. At the square students could not contain the fresh seeking energy of those youths coming in from distant parts of China who wanted their turn with the banner. A beautiful problem but nevertheless a problem. In Beijing in 1989, when Li Peng met the students, many among the population thought he did wrong - he didn't meet the workers, just the students. It was a victory that the heads of government met the students and that it was televised. People point at the Communist Party but what can be seen in China is just another dynasty with its mechanisms of control. That style is older than the communist regime. It is the underlying process that is taking place, in that lies the hope; because there is an ongoing dialectical process in China. The regime knows it - thus the reaction by conservative groups, particularly when looking at the USSR experience. In light of this it is important to stand up for human rights and to do this empowered by truth so the adversary may open up. Some practices that get publicity as part of the methodology of active non-violence are not clearly understood. The way of active non-violence works with specific targets - in the USA in the early years of Black Activism black people were mobilised to register so they could vote. There were camp-outs with lists of demands made public. Fasting is a last resort. To fast in public makes the adversary aware of the issue. But this can lead to violence when there is the overt threat.... 'unless you do as we demand my death will be on your conscience....!' Terrorists use this tactic, in Germany and also the Irish Republican Army, are recent examples. This has a different intention - not to liberate others. So the authorities inject nutrients......more violence. On both sides tensions mount and armaments increase. In active non-violence there is no fasting till death, rather a chain of fasting people. There has to be self-respect, respect for the body. So, in active non-violence there has to be sensitivity and understanding of the Hong Kong situation. Links with such as the China Democratic Front, even links with the 'Alliance", these links have to be considered by any group. Their intentions have to be clear. Also, how to treat the Beijing government, tainted as it is with the June 4th massacre, these are the questions. Physical contact during demonstrations; aims when on hunger strike; sanctions and how comprehensive they should be; boycotting sports events? The police have an additional burden as they are not trained to work in the ways of active non-violence. Of course they have the right to defense, each of us does. Not to isolate, but to open up the communications. Active non-violence is not the easy way. It has to be clear. It is not something 'over there'. It is something intimate, in daily life, such as how couples treat each other, whether married or unmarried and anyone can look at their own life to see where the violence lies. It had better be recognised because that is the root and that is what can be done on the very important individual level. It is essential to handle our own violence, prejudices, and impatience; that internal bomb built-in and carried owing to the influence of the violent system. Governments and officials are by no means all bad. The students in Beijing only thought of their own rights (valid enough) but not of bringing the adversary into the essential transformation. To seek what is positive in systems, socialism, communism, capitalism, what can be developed. To get rid of injustices and to be in dialogue. Studying the situation to determine who and what is supporting the repressive ones. To see why those groups support the injustices; why they behave like that. To see what negative propaganda has done against independent groups, unions and church groups, newsletter distributors, wall poster writers, poets and playwrights, artists - who are often belittled and even smeared - it's a tactic by those of bad faith who's power is threatened by truth. In the beginning few show support, then step by step more join the dissent. Thereby the pillars of support are taken away from those maintaining the injustices. All no, but some yes. To build new relationships is the way to a new situation that weakens the adversary. Doing that while at the same time building alternatives. To get the adversary to help drawing up the new while working step-by-step for change, showing that life and the universe are on the side of justice. Non-Discrimination In humanism there are only human beings with differences of appearance such as in the case of men and women; differences which exist only for purposes that complement. No human being need be hampered in either their happiness or freedom due to race, age, beliefs, nationality, sex, occupation or economic condition. These are all secondary differences and do not effect rights as a human being. At times it is difficult to do otherwise than participate in and accept inadvertently some form of discrimination. Thus, to make special efforts at getting those discriminated against in close links with positive projects for an immediate and forceful response to such discrimination opens up new directions in life. It is useful to investigate discrimination in Hong Kong, to get familiar with it, to be able to see it clearly. The discrimination against women and young people is particularly nasty because the majority of people are not aware of it and if they see it they underestimate its effects. In fact, the HA will not do as the others who create a 'youth branch' with the sole aim of restraining the participation of young people, by preventing them taking a position in the main body - while at the same time using young people as manpower in election campaigns. Young people are incorporated at 18, but in most cases can only join other associations as full members in their mid-twenties or at 30 even. Only after that can they take even small decisions and aspire to higher posts. In our Association everyone can be young, whether they are 18 or 80. There will be no intentional generational discrimination because young people are just as apt to behave with recalcitrant stubbornness as old people, so that will not be the criteria to decide suitability for positions. While the present legislation prevents someone under 21 from being a candidate for government elections, the HA can have a chairman who is 18 years old. Yes to Options There is a single theme to the whole of this section: having options as a concrete expression of freedom. Optional military service, divorce, equality of expression for the different religions, and for atheism, for abortion, these are examples. The process of evolving humanity can be seen from different angles, with different points of view: it is a process very rich when it comes to the accumulation of experience. But if its achievements are reduced to only one, essential and common to the whole of the human species, this is the progressive winning of freedom. It is the simple fact from which to begin. The human species moving towards the winning of freedom. That is why this principle is fundamental. The problem with monopolies, for example, is that by appropriating the means they do not allow the effective practice of freedom. Where there is monopoly there is no freedom. The concept of monopoly is very wide. Apart from the concrete forms of economic monopoly, there are others which are not usually considered as such. For example, the organisational and ideological monopolies. Examples of organisational monopolies are 'single political forms', this case can be seen in China where might is right, and in the USA where dollar is right. In the USA the real difference between the Democrat's party and the Republican's party is but a youthful smile! These two major parties also prevent the actual and effective expression of other political ideologies. Nevertheless, they explicitly declare that there is freedom of expression. For one person to explain to another his or her point of view, that is not freedom of expression. Analyze the case of any small party: how much space in newspapers, how many minutes on television or radio do they get to express their ideas? It is the same for every group not sanctioned by government or business. A freedom, to be a freedom, must have possibilities of being exercised. As an expression of violence it can be seen in the reaction of traditional institutions which consider themselves owners of certain ideas or even words. Some priests, for example, have protested because humanists speak of the importance of having 'faith' - as though this word belonged only to their sector. The principle of option means that we seek free access to information, open media access, proportional representation, popular referenda, opinion polls and other forms of consultation, because we want participatory democracy and responsive legislators; respecting the plurality of ideas, of opinions, of ways of life, and of politics. Also, swift and impartial legal processes, jury system and local control of vital institutions. Co-operativism As part of the humanist ideology, the Humanist Association defines itself as co-operativist - this means all systems, including economic systems, would best be based on human solidarity. Solidarity means interchange and reciprocity. This does not mean other forms are excluded. Sole proprietorship if desired is fine. Highlighted are the preferred systems. Therefore the HA is equally distanced from both the communist and capitalist systems, which fail to gain comprehensive human solidarity. That is, neither the State, nor money, give essential motivation to the human being. Genuine co-operatives of production and services are needed. Nowadays, many co-operatives are distortions of the original conception of co-operatives. This is evident in their results, in their process of decision making and so on. Also, how is a co-operative to rise and develop in the present unkind circumstances without government or business support, and with the opposition of monopolies affected by co-operatives success? Envisaged is the development of a co-operative system beyond that of an island in a communist or capitalist sea. All fields, from political and economic, to education and public services are successful to the extent they are truly co-operativist, that they serve the human being freely. Although Sweden, Yugoslavia and Israel, also Spain, have made brave and fairly comprehensive attempts at the co-operative system, no country in the world today can claim an untainted, mature model that is developing and functioning dynamically. Mostly it is the negative effects of the pull of the capitalist system that halts their progress; Zionism spoils the Israeli model. But among them are recipes for success. In the co-operatives the participants are partners, management and employees all at the same time. Their main concern is to satisfy whatever needs they have with the collective contribution in the work and by participation in decision making. The co-operative encourages solidarity, co-operation and communication. It is equalitarian and democratic. The Human Being As Central Value The slogan, 'Nothing above the human being and no human being below another,' expresses this value. There has been plenty of evidence in history where man has displaced his brother, but history is made by the human being therefore the human being can change history. Those who place someone or something above the human being cannot call themselves humanists. Therefore, they are not humanists who place money, a faith, the state, a god, a race or a political system as the central value, generating oppression and suffering around them. The most terrible atrocities have been done in the name of 'the defence of the faith', 'national security', 'prosperity and stability', 'the dictatorship of the proletariat', 'free enterprise', 'democracy', and the Humanist Association does not accept the misuse of such terms, which, if at one time were meant to serve the human being, were many times placed above - at the cost of freedom, happiness and even human life. Certainly humanism must not join that list. All instances of oppression, domination, imperialism, colonialism, slavery, discrimination, and so on, are clear examples of human beings below other human beings. Situations where some treat others as objects are the same. Some people become objects of another's desires, ambitions or manipulations. Then, the so-called 'freedom' and 'happiness' of some prevents others from exercising their freedom and their happiness. When the human being is placed as the central value, everything else has to be at the service of the growing freedom and happiness. Otherwise, whatever is not at the service of these, generally serves someone else's dubious interests and is not worthy of the human being. Man is the maker of meanings, the one who gives things a particular sense. The human being is the maker of his or her own history by the exercising of freedom and intentionality. It is this freedom and this intentionality that can be developed, progressively surpassing resistances of physical pain and mental suffering, rebelling against them, in order to build a world and a history that truly give shape to the best that beats in the heart of all good people(3) The New Cultural Form The HA subtitles its leaflets with the slogan - A Social-Political Force With Internal Life. This is stated to tell of something different because institutions are empty of real content today. For instance, people no longer believe in traditional politics. Parties have been converted into electoral machines that ignore the real aspirations of people. There is a need to change that. Before embarking on any programme of change, the Humanist Association needed to collect and interpret people's real aspirations. This has been taking place over the years of our activism. For this, emphasis was given to the importance of direct communication. Surely 'direct communication' should take place everywhere, by everybody, but sadly it is an easily observable lack. The generation of interchanges in groups that communicate directly, where people really do participate, communicate and learn how to organise themselves - besides producing a better understanding of each of our personal lives - also defines the 'internal life' spoken of in terms of being in communication with oneself. The idea is to achieve this while working with people on the aims of transformation and the ways these aims can be attained - taking into account personal experience. At any time a project may well take second priority. To achieve the aims that are proposed - direct communication is the only safeguard to success because success is a relative thing, relative to the moment, to the pressures already exerted, to the people taking part. These groups are the basic level of organisation inside the HA - human groups. Unlike in previous moments, such as gave birth to the British Humanist Society with Russell, Huxley et al, humanism today is street active and not merely discussing the problems. In the West humanism has been defined by others as an intellectual movement that since the Renaissance has brought about a revaluation of Man and human affairs, as against the God-centred speculations of the Middle Ages, beginning in 14th century Italy. Positively, the movement promoted attitudes disowning existing authorities that initiated the scientific revolution of the 16th century. The general outlook has followers calling themselves humanists to this day. Generally, the term humanism indicates that a doctrine or theory is more concerned with man than with something other than man. Some humanists looked to the literature of ancient Rome and Greece for inspiration, or studied the works of man as revealed in literature, languages, philosophy, history, theology, music and art or in the humanism displayed by disbelievers. That interest contrasted with humanist studies on the theological contents of medieval scholars. On the theological side Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) managed to maintain religious views as a Catholic Christian while supporting protestant Luther's reforms - but not its violence and dogmatism. He saw Christianity not as a mere doctrine of salvation but as a religion of the spirit based on confidence in human reason. By the 20th century the humanist label had been hijacked by those who rejected all religious beliefs. Also, there was the educational emphasis on the Humanities as opposed to the Natural Sciences. Some humanists looked to the maxim of Protagoras that - Man is the measure of all things - as interpreted by the Pragmatists where the logical and linguistic items comprising belief systems were taken as human instruments leading to distinct behaviours, they were not just passive reflections of objective structures without effects. A recent school is the humanistic psychology of Abraham Maslow which is critical of those trivial researches that transgress the human and effect dehumanising actions, for example preoccupation with statistics while people are dying. Today, there is humanism with freedom of belief at its base, even a belief in non-belief. This is in the realm of evolutionary humanism founded on the deeply held conviction that evolution is the fundamental modality of all change in the universe. Thus, agencies that provoke change can be described as 'good' while those that retard it can be described as 'bad' - where the moral sense itself is a product of evolutionary change. The Huxleys, specifically T.H. and Sir Julian, were notable exponents of evolutionary humanism(4). The question for me is: 'How do I want to change things in Hong Kong', or, 'How would I like to see people change things'. Are people satisfied with the educational prospects, the housing situation, the facilities for leisure, for extra mural studies, with the medical system, police powers, environmental planning and so on. Which particular area needs positive influence? What shall I do about it? Let's say there were ten people with each one working in their different area of concern. Months went by and these ten people got better at what they were doing and collected a few helpers. Things would start changing, yes? Meanwhile these ten people exchanged experiences between themselves, studied themselves in relation to the others, in relation to the project and effort while not overlooking those not connected with any particular or worthwhile project. Say these ten developed their perspective while observing their own tendencies to violence, their own inertia, prejudices, self-doubts, tensions, and biographical blocks. Using the ideas, or tools that are integral to the individual work of self liberation that is proposed - say they could manage their equilibrium and development. The result is a new attitude; more free, open and better exchanges, deeper links and a surer base to clean friendship. This is how a new culture best has its genesis to be a bountiful gift for the next generation. That is the internal life of humanism. Defeating the Nothingness The major business groups, the higher profile political groups, the government sponsored cultural organisations and so on - seldom are these closely linked to the people. They have a personality or two or three personalities even. They issue press releases and dutifully the press give coverage and there they are, over there(5). Because of their exclusive self-concern, the lack of connections of say the business groups to the ordinary people is a reflection of the lack of connections among people generally - which results in an emptiness and a lack of confidence in the long term prospects for their future - and the system can operate very nicely in that sad condition. In fact, the system prefers this kind of emptiness because where there is no community life in the people there is no opposition, no resilience, nor any rising force to oppose deviation or going against changes in the situation for the better - and that is what conservatism is all about, not changing. Today's lack of interpersonal connection affects our Humanist Association also. Not only in that people bring their strange attitudes - their roles of bosses and underlings, experts and sheepish followers - into the Association, those they learned in that world where it seemed necessary to distrust and to put up buffers to deal with others using compensating behaviours. But also, because all the customary falseness causes people to reject what the HA offers as well - that has been my common experience - that people don't want to know about what is here offered, or they act as though it cannot be understood. This is largely a pose, a resistance. I don't operate, indeed cannot operate, based on that emptiness, an emptiness of meaning. I act to fill it, yet do not use emotive words such as love, or god, nor have I excesses of material goods, money, or a supply of free lunches to entice others, as a provisional reason to do something. Provisional meanings can be understood as those things that keep us going, be it a cigarette, the latest movie, a new couple. Temporarily they are useful but these ephemeral things cannot be taken for those deeper things that bring more lasting meaning. It is different to find a fulfilling project that is something we have always wanted to do, or that person who we have searched for, or our true self, these bring something far more solid into our lives. The former are in the realm of provisional meanings. In talking about non-violence, I am not pretending that I am able to live by such a tough code any better than another who proclaims that way, it is not as if I were a special person. I say I do not tolerate violence, in any of its forms from the psychological to ideological, as a reminder to myself. I am going to fight against all forms of violence - on Monday morning? Let's face it, I am confronted by a system that has institutionalised forms of violence that are difficult to eradicate. Well, I find that really difficult to tolerate. The way people act at work for instance. It is questionably motivated. Working together is difficult as people compete in all kinds of ways. But a humanist attitude helps in small things as well as big things. The humanist antidote is active non-violence, reaching its most clear-cut form in civil disobedience. When civil disobedience becomes strong enough, violent systems don't work any more. Nowadays opportunists are called pragmatists. Nowadays, so-called democratic governments have mastered politeness to the extent that dictatorships using physical violence look crude indeed - when you can get the same result - a power monopoly in the hands of a few - under the banner of democracy thanks to the mannerly conduct of those seemingly gentlemanly officials so adept at hiding the violence. It is the governments that are violent, the State systems. The people can become aware of the violence and can stop it at source - in themselves. Seeing it, fires our human-ness, bringing remorse and thoughtfulness. But with such a busy life there is no time to see it. The methodology of non-violent action has to comprehend, by study and evaluation with regularity, the power of the violent people. Ignoring this point can mean injury and even deaths among non-violent activists. Without information, non-violence can mean virtual suicide. Anyway, to return to the theme, people offer such resistance to what is offered here essentially because of their internal emptiness. They will not admit this though, that they feel insignificant. The insignificance comes through, for themselves, as a lack of meaning, but they bury this feeling under a weight of material accumulations and mistaken self-images, prejudices and the like. Of course everyone has a certain life, a personal history, various accidents including successes; and virtues, among the failures, among all those personal anecdotes that go to make up a life. But it is as if these personal experiences were inserted into a general line where nothing of importance happens. The internal emptiness is a reflection of a focus of suffering that people don't want to recognise or admit. To cover this suffering a whole system of imaginary compensations is put in motion, day dreams, role playing, adopting certain behaviours, mannerisms, styles of dress, provisional ideologies, so that this emptiness will not suck. Precisely, three forms of resistance can be distinguished; one is arrogance, another is self pity and the other is guilt. With arrogance there is no versatility to cleanly view a situation for what it is, so that it can be changed. With exclusive self-compassion there is a false pity projected towards oneself and this blocks making decisions to change things, it blocks decisive action. Guilt leads people to place blame on others by projection or to search for others to blame and in this way to avoid taking the blame themselves. Because of these three forms of resistance, the internal emptiness and its compensations can impose themselves. Also, because of these mechanisms - because they mechanically impose themselves - the daily thinking becomes flat - life is alienated. However, the human psychological system, the psychism, is moving. It may go through a crisis and sincerity is provoked making people go into a further search for truth. Then they can listen to such as these ideas and things begin to change - the internal emptiness is recognised, leapt over. It is recognised that secondary things do not give internal meaning but only those acts that are deeply felt and that are free and give a sense of internal growing. It is to give, going towards others, this is what brings sense and meaning. This defeats the nothingness. 1. These initial paragraphs are based on a talk titled 'About the Human' given by Silo in Buenos Aires, May 1st, 1983 - translator Anna L'Homme, Chile. 2. Quoted from The Look Within, by Silo, 1972 3. See Silo's triology Humanize the Earth, details in Further Reading. 4. See Historical Perspectives on Humanism, by Dr. Salvatore Puledda. 5. Title of an informal talk given by Silo in Mendosa, on 20th January 1991, the related paragraphs recount the substance of that talk. **************************************************** Chapter II The Human Being Preliminary Platform for a Humanist Society - Part 1. Humanism and the Human Being - British welfare state - workers and work - humanist unionism - unions and political action platform for unions - situation in Hong Kong - unions and human rights - platform for workers. Humanism and the Human Being Placing the human being central to affairs highlights workers, women and youth as the most important dynamic forces in society and as these groups are those most discriminated against, this demands immediate compensatory action on their behalf. The principal points of humanism in reference to social affairs were given in the paper, Thesis of the Humanist Party - Basis for a Government Program, following the launching of the Humanist Party and announced at the 1st Congress of the British Humanist Party, London, on 27th March, 1988. There it stated: 'The world in which we are born is a social world formed by human intentions. Only the sociability of the world has intentions. Nature is susceptible to its being intentionalized, humanized in fact, and society is both an agent and a receiver of humanization, of meaning. Human existence lies in the freedom to choose between affirming and denying the world. Human intentionality allows humans to affirm or deny conditions, therefore allowing us to be something more than just a mere reflection of those conditions. 'Society is historicity and the human being is personal and social history, and not just human nature. Nature affects only the human body, but not human intentionality which defines what is essentially human. 'It is from the condition of liberty that human beings choose to accept or reject the social conditions in which they are born, develop and die. No one can exist without confronting the social conditions in which he or she lives, and no one can avoid choosing among them. Not choosing among conditions is also a choice. The results of the choice neither confirms nor invalidates this fact. 'The notion of historicity arises from the confrontation with social conditions and is understood as preceding and continuing beyond one's existence. Thus, social activity is a continuous appraisal of history and a commitment towards the future beyond one's personal death. 'Human existence develops amidst contradictions imposed by historical conditions at both personal and social levels. Such conditions are inescapable, but no historical necessities are derived from them. Contradiction has its personal correlation in the register of suffering. Because of this, when faced by contradictory social conditions, individual human beings identify their suffering with the suffering of groups of humans that are subject to those same conditions. Social contradiction is the result of violence. The appropriation of the social whole by a part of the whole is violence, and this violence is the root of contradiction and suffering. 'Violence is expressed as taking away the intentionality and, most certainly, the liberty of others. Or, in other words, it is an action submerging the human being or large groups of human beings, into the world of nature. The different forms of violence are the expression of the denial of the human in others. Personal and social suffering must be surpassed by modifying the means of illegal and violent appropriation which have installed contradiction in the world. This struggle to overcome suffering gives continuity to the historical process and gives meaning to human beings because it affirms the intentionality denied to them by others. 'The results and development of the struggle for the humanization of the world, both natural and social, accumulate as progress. The different societies do not find themselves within the same framework or moment of process of development, they are rather in different paths of development. This means that the conditions for liberation are constantly available and are not within some distant future when the supposed 'objective conditions' will arise. 'Humanism adheres to a descriptive and interpretive methodology that has, as a point of departure in its fundamental development, the reflection of what is of immediate importance to existence. From this point of view, it aspires to a truly scientific methodology. On the other hand, in social practice, it aspires to achieve social revindication through using the methodology of non-violence. The appearance of the humanist movement is the necessary response to the crisis of increasing social dehumanization.' The British Welfare State Fifty years after the British attempt at the creation of a welfare state, and looking at the effects of capitalism and the failures of communism, humanism has to take into account the factors that lead to the dehumanisation inherent in those systems. The comprehensive welfare system in part failed because of the manner of implementation. The costs appeared and indeed were, astronomical for Britain then, a country bankrupt by war. When the Trades Union Congress (TUC) set up the enquiry that resulted in William Beveridge's 300 page report that was so radically to change Britain, the idea was rather modest - to even up the unfairness in social and medical insurance schemes - but Beveridge gave a total answer instead of patches. He attacked Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. The report was first published on January 2nd 1942, mere hours after the birth of this writer who happily takes up this particular baton - that is how the cause of humanity is furthered - or hampered. Beveridge recommended a comprehensive system of societal insurance; compulsory flat-rate contributions paid by employers, the insured, and the government, to pay for universal benefits such as retirement pension, sickness and unemployment benefits, to provide bare subsistence. These would be paid to everyone without any means test. Those not covered by the insurance system could receive financial assistance under a national assistance programme which acted as a safety net. Previously, friendly societies and insurance companies had provided relief but this change meant the State became that much more powerful as it assumed the responsibility for the relief of poverty - since the Poor Law of 1601 that had been the task of local authorities. Family allowances were to be paid for each child. A free health service to all. Full employment was to be guaranteed. The insurance companies were not happy - nor were the Fascists who wanted the State to hold the material well-being of the citizens for reasons of centralised power. Problems came because the unified benefit rates for this insurance scheme were far below recommendations, by at least a third. Also, no annual uprating to counteract inflation. The result was a growing multitude dependant on the means-tested safety net. Beveridge's idea that as all paid into the scheme there was no social stigma attached to drawing benefits. But the growing numbers having to resort to the safety net, especially single mothers, invalidated his noble aim. The result was a two-tier welfare state where one group enjoyed non-stigmatised benefits while the other group on the means-tested assistance programme felt awkward and displaced. Further criticism was due to the flat-rate contributions and benefits with the first being inequitable, recognising this, contributions became earnings related, which gave redistribution of the wealth. The flat-rate benefits, at such a low rate, brought the government hand-outs to be scorned and accepted as hardly any addition at all to income for many who could afford to make their own provisions privately. This undermined commitment to the Welfare State so it was not eagerly reformed to become a workable system. Another factor that remained without an answer was the rising costs of a free health service as people absolved themselves from self-responsibility for their own health care, instead passing it to the government - with the bill. Health became an industry like any other with the main aim of cash profits. Workers and Work Workers need a Labour Policy orientated towards a model of society based on direct communication, co-operation and solidarity. Workers to participate in the management of companies. So far in Hong Kong there has been no ratification of workers' rights in the Basic Law - that safeguard is needed after 1997 - also, the freedom to strike, freedom to choose occupations, freedom to form trade unions and join them, to determine policies, to occupational health and safety and vocational training, to criticize government, to independence of affiliation and freedom of association. Retirement protection has to be properly addressed, also labour welfare as the government is not adequately furthering Central Provident Fund proposals (See Chapter VIII). But, life is not all about paid work, however, that idea has not got around yet and until it does, paid work will remain something that takes up most of everyone's days. It is a long spent but probably largely forgotten issue that labour is not to be treated as a commodity. Also, that production is for use, not to make profits. While the crass commercialism extant today may try to laugh off these expressions dear to socialists, they point at the very problem. What is bought or bartered is a person's time and skill and products - it is not as though these existed up in the air in no relation to the point of origin. The word luxury comes into use as soon as production goes to meet a market-led need; beer may be viewed as a need but not necessarily an imported special brew. The tendency is for those who control the markets to produce for their own whims while the real needs of many go unrequited. There have been various attempts at establishing a variety of systems aimed at a better life for the majority: anarchism; collectivism; communism; trade unionism, socialism and now, predominantly, capitalism. Humanism is not a system to be placed among these categories, rather co-operativism would be its preferred system. Humanism remaining something more than a type of administration of an economy with all its paraphernalia safeguarding the garnered wealth. Humanism is better viewed as an attitude in life because any of the mentioned systems can be humanised - even anarchism. But why speak of humanist-socialism, or capitalism with a human face, or even the new democracy of communism where the idealised communist state fits very well with the theoretical basis of a humanized society? What about enlightened self-interest which could be the operative norm in capitalism. Excellent. All very good. But..... Anarchism is the holy carrot for ever out of reach; collectivism and communism tend to look at production and that is where nationalisation comes in, part and parcel of the collectivist State, and socialism. The total monopoly. No equality. Ugh! Communism is the socialism of consumption but it never got there. It got stuck at the level of the dictatorship of the proletariat with all the weight placed on the dictatorship. Like the anarchist dream, the communist 'party' never took place. The socialists wanted to appropriate everything to the State as they wrestled with the 'problem' of property, of the absentee landlord and factory owner - the gentleman farmer. So the farm hand took charge and the farm starting working at the mental level of the farm hand which was only sufficient within the limited brief of that one's job understanding. The State was supposed to diminish but instead was noted to flourish because at the level of the farm hand a manager is needed, because management is quite out of that fellow's ken and somebody had to do it. Socialism and capitalism's individualism are complementary when looked at from some distance, with the difference one of emphasis only - for the social whole which looks after the individual or the individual who looks after society - taking the best cases. The question turned around the relation between the individual and society; noting that there was a difference between State and society. It is the link between State and society that needs questioning. The State failed because it tried to be all-inclusive; parliament failed because it was based on the hypocrisy of universal representation where in trying to please everyone no-one was satisfied or a faction was condescendingly so. There was a strong argument for functional democracy and for representation to be functional representation as per the Fabian's proposals by courtesy of Sydney Webb. That is, if the concept can stretch from its Guild Socialism roots to today. In functional democracy, function is held as of prime importance, modifying form and structure so they contribute the utmost to democratise a society. There lies the turning rotor of leadership according to the need of the moment; there lies an office taken with humility; there lies the need above all else for co-operation. The leader is then best understood as a co-ordinator. Maybe ownership - of the means of production and the avenues of consumption - is not the kernel question of the day as it has in the past posed itself, rather control is paramount. If government controls industries and enterprises, it is less important who owns them, as long as government is free to tax them. Another pertinent question: is the best way that of revolution or reform? The posit in this writing is for the way of evolution. Nothing has to be broken down, what is failing will break down. No patches that's all. The point is to start building the new now using the methodology of co-operative systems and processes with active non-violence. The approach is humanist. Humanist unionism With full implementation of a co-operative economy - workers' unions would be redundant. That not being the case the HA wants to see a labour policy oriented towards a model of society based on direct communication, co-operation and solidarity with conditions of free association because without this unions don't function properly. The principles embodying worker rights cannot be separated from the general body of human rights, they are inter-dependant and indivisible. Equal attention and urgent consideration has to be given to the implementation, promotion and protection of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Single unions per trade, including a plurality of factions, with proportional representation of minority groups, to strengthen worker solidarity while preventing monopolies of power by factions. A union has to be free, independent and self-responsible and any unification shall not be imposed through government intervention or by legislative means. At work, freedom of association is expressed in the exercise by workers of their rights to form or join trade unions of their own choosing, to freely enter into collective bargaining agreements with their employers and to undertake industrial action or strike in defense of their rights and interests. The HA points out that there is a difference between consultation and collective bargaining - unions must have the right of collective bargaining. The problems that afflict and oppress workers have their roots in society. They are rooted in the concepts, value systems and principles operating in society. Also, in the unequal distribution of wealth and power among groups and sectors and nations, and in the structures and institutions, which cause dependency and give rise to negative discrimination, created, rationalised and conserved by their interplay. With the passage of time these roots have spread to the worker who goes for easy second-best instead of the often-times difficult best. The results can be seen in worker apathy and flight from challenge in decisions that compromise or even negate human dignity and the transcendental meaning. Also, in the greed that perverts the alternatives the worker has devised, conceived in human rationale. The struggle then is against these dehumanising and unjust forces, not against individuals or particular groups. In the human dimension of this struggle humanism postulates a future that opens the human being to transcendence. It is in this unwritten article of transcendence where faith and hope is placed, in the light of knowledge. The idea is to build an economy characterised by social and responsible ownership of the means of production and distribution; by workers participation in the management; to attain just and effective distribution and further, responsible use of the products, opportunities and services, with a democratic planning of the economy at all levels. Free trade unionism - non-aligned - in its true sense is a positive factor in the social, economic and political development of any country and as such must enjoy the full recognition and full protection of the State and all society. The negative image that hangs over unionism arose because its men and women have dealt squarely with important and difficult issues which efforts were maligned by the power holders and their slanderous comments repeated by the mass media. Union leaders are by and large good people. The guarantees are in the safekeeping of unions that are free from politicians and political groups, free from political control, free from capitalist or employer domination, and free from labour racketeers. But, everything depends on the workers' ability to internalise principled co-operation with a self governing orientation and to express this orientation in daily acts as individuals and as organisations. Of immediate concern is the impact of recent political and economic developments on labour relations, trade unionism and workers conditions. The consequences of the international crises, particularly of protectionism, global debt and currency fluctuations on trade union action is another problem, which includes the role of multinational corporations and internationally government organisations(1). It has been noted that the adoption of slogans of prosperity and stability and emphasis on territorial security and the implementation of policies consistent with such priorities result in the setting aside of human rights. But trade unions are engines of long-term growth thanks to secure workers, not hindrances to development, as they have been wrongly painted. Failing big business looks for scapegoats yet it is their plans that went awry, their projections that were proved unreal! Trade unionism means working to go beyond mere bread and butter unionism toward socially committed trade unionism with trade union initiated and voluntary restructuring and unification at national and regional levels; with assertive but responsible and independent trade union activities promoting workers solidarity and removing trade union dependence in any form, and participation of labour unions in housing, health and education planning. Optimised labour relations demands the removal of all restrictions on, and promotion of, freedom of association and free collective bargaining in the private, public, and agricultural sectors based on pertinent ILO Conventions and Recommendations, such as Conventions 87, 98, 151, 141, 144, etc. It demands the promotion of an active interest in tripartism; a broadened scope of workers participation in enterprises in profit sharing schemes and step-by-step reduction of management prerogatives within the collective bargaining framework or by enactment of appropriate laws. Also, by the promotion of justice and democracy in the new models of labour relations. Trade union development needs the restoration of human values in the conception and process of development; territorial self reliance and regional economic, political and cultural integration; while satisfying domestic basic human needs before exportation of primary products. The path of wholesome unionism is greatly helped if the industrialization process is based on indigenous resources and on proximate resources of nearby countries and markets. It also requires that multinationals complement the regional development objectives and the promotion of social responsibility among businessmen and social obligation on enterprises. The new economic order needs the consistent upholding of the principle of sovereign equality of nations as chief determinant in the decision making process of financial institutions; supplemented by the stewardship concept in the use of property owned in common; knowledge as universal property - everybody must have access to it. In technology transfers technologically advanced countries should be duty bound to share their technology for free, entitling themselves only to reimbursement of costs for keeping and improving the common wealth. Promotion of social justice in international relations compels developed nations to contribute a certain percentage of their GNP into the economies of the developing nations as they have used the developing countries resources in their ascent. Where appropriate, negotiation for easier repayment terms, reduction or cancellation of the debts of Third World countries; fairer distribution of international liquidity, especially for the developing nations, through an International Central Payments System; price stabilization of basic agricultural and mineral exports, with price rises kept in line with increases in prices of products from their processing and a review of the 'middleman' trade; just and equitable exchange of resources - goods, capital and labour; and, application of Rules and Regulations and Codes of Practice or International Anti-Trust Laws on multinational corporations. The New Economic Order has to provide full employment; free access to advanced technologies including information on how such technologies operate; free access to markets of developed countries, with the protective policies gradually abolished; reduction of wasteful consumption and exploitation of the earth's resources; partnership of developing countries in development; system of consultation to regulate international trade and activities of multinational corporations that operate across several countries, owing allegiance to none except their own interest; equal distribution of wealth. To manage the foregoing it is recommended to systematically re-orientate the entirety of society from either wholly capitalist or totalitarian postures. Also strongly recommended is unity of action among trades unions in concerted endeavour; principled co-operation among trade unions and other organisations; legitimate involvement in political action within the democratization process; democratic participation of people (workers) who are themselves the subject and object of human liberation, as the means of achieving development; tripartite negotiations that include government to ensure mutual respect and the recognition of the dignity of labour; emphasis on particularised and localised development to move away from standardization and universalized development that destroys cultural differences; close regulation of procedures governing the termination of employment resulting from mechanization and advancing technology or from mergers, divisions and sale of enterprises; the upholding of the right to strike as a last option; support for cottage industries and small-scale marine and agriculture based home industries that the less able can handle; formation of self-help committees dovetailed to local community needs; general education on trade unionism - because it is still at the first stage, accepted neither by workers nor employers; creation of centres of social contact for working youth; institution of Provident Fund social security system for the aged, infirm and unemployed; development of political and social alternatives, redefining terms, on a pro-human life basis; helping establish contacts among workers with unionism as the hub of activities, with Workers Clubs offering more than pastimes. Those in the labour movement to present an alternative world and territorial or national development strategy that leads to the democratization of power and wealth, doing this by linking with other sectors - eg., social scientists - instead of acting in isolation, with the ILO used to redress grievances arising from violations of human rights and trade union rights. Practical measures that can be undertaken by trade unions to counter the negative effects of political and economic developments and of the international crisis are such as the establishment of Asian trade union federations; engaging in research into statuary requirements for trade union federations; helping in the training of union leaders and initiators; the holding of annual membership drives to increase the number of fee paying members; the distribution of information by simple newsletters; by working in projects on the level of possible participation and where there is lack of say reading and writing skills (among rural workers and fishermen possibly) to use other forms adapted to the situation; assisting refugees to obtain work and salary whatever their plight to help them in their resettlement; to struggle against materialism and elitist ideas. In regard to women, no special considerations are seen necessary given the full rights of participation and equal pay for equal work. However, the value of work done as wife, as child bearer, as home builder, has somehow to be compensated and needs research. Initially, more women are to be encouraged into union structures to help them get set so they can make their own way. It has to be carefully noted that the world economic crisis, with its consequent political, social and cultural repercussions, spearheaded by multinationals, affect the solidarity of workers. Also that the rivalries and conflict of interests between and among trade union organisations compound the problem of worker disunity. Dependence of trade unions on forces outside themselves causes lasting rifts in solidarity and dependant unionism is in contradiction to solidarity as the forces such depend upon will find it in their interests to prevent actions of solidarity. They encourage competition between different expressions of trade unionism and favour monopolies. Solidarity, mutual understanding and trust, these are the basis to build strong, free, democratic and independent trade unions. Regarding political action - violations of civil and political rights and the liberties of citizens compound restrictions on or suppression of trade union rights. These are the reasons why trade unions must undertake political involvement and action. Involvement in politics is necessary if trade unions are to become effective agents of social change. There are, however, limits to this type of trade union involvement. Lobbying against government policies that are a hindrance to the organisation of unions is legitimate involvement. Though, ratification is not the main criteria for expressing satisfaction, but application. Political parties who regard unions as 'vote banks' should be cautioned and the union membership enlightened as to the responsibilities entailed when casting their vote Given that peace is the fruit of justice, this demands the access of all people to a standard of living in keeping with human dignity. This is the duty of government and political groups in opposition. Justice and democracy are characterised by responsible exercise of human rights and freedoms; a free, independent and responsible trade union movement; full responsibility and complete disclosure by government to its citizens; honesty and uprightness in the affairs and conduct of government at all levels; institutions that effectively promote justice, peace and a sense of community among the people. A free and safe society is characterised by the reduction in armaments and military power and increasing growth and significance of understanding among peoples and justice in the relationships between nations; protection and promotion of the right to life and right to develop as individuals and as societies; elimination of illiteracy, poverty, and marginalisation of the peoples at lower strata and the promotion of their rights to full and effective participation in the process of development and liberation. Platform for unions Compliance by Hong Kong government with International Labour Convention numbers 87 and 98 (presently ratified with modifications), the Convention of Freedom of Association, and the Convention on the Rights to Organise and Collective Bargaining. Single labour unions per industry, with plurality of lists according to trades and proportional representation of minorities, to give workers strength while preventing some sectors monopolising power (present Hong Kong Trade Union Ordinance does not allow unions from different industries to federate, nor is international affiliation allowed without government approval; with federated unions, a central single labour union; no dismissals or other forms of reprisal against strikers which contravenes Article 87 - burden of proof falling on employer not employee under ILO law; standing firm for independent union rights and a no to such as Joint Consultative Committees under employers suggestion in lieu of unions; permanent labour rights training and qualification for workers through courses, seminars and workshops; no interference by government in labour union activities; democratic functioning of labour unions; direct, secret and optional voting in elections and assemblies to be held in work places; progressive decentralisation of labour union representatives' powers and decisions, preventing organisational monopolies while widening the scope of assemblies and delegates at the base of the organisation; job security of labour union representatives irrespective of election results and effective from the moment of their candidature; minimal security of three months as a requisite to be elected as a workers' representative; permanent labour union qualification through courses, seminars and congresses to take place at the universities and colleges. For discussion Issues to be given close attention and discussion are the right to unionise; collective bargaining and other co-determination practices; solidarity - unity of action among trades unions, and concerted action; trade union independence; capitalism and Marxist-Leninism as defunct social systems, seeing them as models that intrinsically violate human rights; multinational corporations or transnationals, whether capitalist or socialist, as suspects that need regulating by law; rural development; freedom of speech and of assembly for redress of grievances; neo-colonialism or double colonialism as within ASEAN; the systematized orientation of the entirety of a society in either capitalist or totalitarian postures; racism and xenophobia; Fascism as a collective pathology and individual psychosis; Communism based on a system of totalitarian power; security of employment: unjust dismissal based on alleged misconduct by politicised officials and company men, where workers are harassed for base and ignoble desires; resignations coerced in the name of profit, prosperity or progress, through unreasonable performance requirements, intolerable production quotas, or deliberate relocation or reassignment of work under such conditions prejudicing the workers livelihood or thwarting family prerogatives or obligations. The Situation in Hong Kong To speak concretely of Hong Kong, 1997 is not a deadline for the programme of humanization because it is not as if people were going to vanish after that date. Rather, Hong Kong needs an overall plan that takes into account a new form of organisation with greater welfare and participation by the people suitable for converging with a nation only recently emerging from totalitarianism. The Humanist Association recognises that Hong Kong will have autonomy to the extent that its own people can chart their own course and realise their full potential, with comprehensive domestic and international relations. It may be added that this coincides with the United Nations global mission on behalf of peace, based on justice, social progress, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It may serve as an example of the state of unionism in Hong Kong that about 150 civil service unions supposedly represent government workers while only a handful are proper unions. These unions represent nearly all of the 180,000 civil servants. This dilutes the trade union movement - the joke about Indians and political parties applies to unions nicely - it is said that when two working Indians meet they form three unions, one representing each man and a third representing the two of them. In India a law has been proposed during 1993 that forbids the formation of unions before the securing of 10 percent of the workforce. In some USA states the figure is given as 10,000 people before a trades union can be registered. Both these instances are prohibitive of union formation; on the other hand; the forming of lots of small unions that do not work in conjunction with each other is divisive and weakens union action. In Hong Kong union registration required a membership of seven for official recognition. India has recently passed legislation making it mandatory that strikes can only be called after a secret ballot among union members. While that appears to be reasonable and even democratic that a strike cannot be called without majority consent of members by secret ballot, as any union elects an executive committee to lead that union, it is also reasonable that an executive committee can decide to call a strike. If undecided, that committee had best ballot the members to help them make that decision. Often prompt action is necessary to nip an employer's calculating actions in the bud and speedy decision making is imperative. India's law making it mandatory to go to the union membership by secret ballot is not as fair as it may appear as employers don't delay their actions by like consultation. The dependence on a 'trade union base' by political parties is reprehensible - it is used effectively in assuring block votes. In Hong Kong the left-wing has the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) who vote with the Beijing government no matter what - membership 190,000; the Hong Kong and Kowloon Trade Union Council (TUC), sticks with the Taiwan government - the old Kuomintang, no matter what, membership 33,000. To counteract these left-wing and right-wing forces, thirty independents regrouped in 1990 under the banner of the Hongkong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU). All extraneous affiliations pose a danger in unionism, even the recently formed Confederation, strongly linked to the United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK). At least the UDHK has the local people at heart, but even the Confederation is suspect because the grouping took place not as a federation of unions helping each other in fighting for workers' rights but to offset the coercive power of the other unions. Federation should take place in regard to workers' rights, that's all. This aside is not meant to judge worth, but the question is, when it comes down to making decisions that effect workers, will political influences sacrifice workers' immediate rights for longer term ends remote from any pucker unions' charter? A positive sign for Hong Kong's union movement is the exchanges between the right and leftwing unions. Each attending the other's annual get-together, besides visits by the Taiwanese affiliates to Beijing and the mainland affiliates to Taipei. This reflects the multiplying economic forces bringing together China and Taiwan. It also means an end to local lobbying for rightists diehards in their continuing urges to take over the mainland. This is quite different from an independent trades union movement in Taiwan struggling for workers rights. April 30, 1988 Unions must shout for human rights It's no wonder the Federation of Trade Unions leader is taking a back seat (South China Morning Post, April 25) with the 'four major objectives' stated. Workers' rights took second place - which may be a very honest stance of this left-wing union - and the continuing sentence includes, 'the organising of more recreational activities', typical of Hong Kong workers' and staff associations - picnics again! The final point of this four-point platform is awful, in the proper meaning of the word awful - the promotion of patriotism towards China and towards Hong Kong, besides mentioning promotion of Hong Kong's prosperity. Is this a union of workers or a glee club? Any decent union today has to shout for human rights, for workers' rights in the place of work with free collective bargaining for their better conditions and not in subservience to Hong Kong's prosperity. A workers' union stands up for the worker directly knowing that the bottom line has to be for the worker and not for the balance sheet, for there is no accountability at any level here in Hong Kong. A person doing the daily grind knows if he or she is getting value, knows about work satisfaction, unpaid overtime, closedowns, loss of leave pay, poor work conditions, lack of job security and much more, and these are the prices paid for the bespoke prosperity. A decent union would speak of worker solidarity and union independence because a trade union can only operate in conditions of freedom - in-house or company unions are halfway to nowhere as far as the worker or staff are concerned. How long will it take employers to realise an effective union enhances work conditions and quality of work done which cannot help but increase profitability? Modern employers in Europe and the US and even Down Under are having a different approach to unions these days and just as Hong Kong wants all the high technology it can muster - and isn't getting - so there could better be an insistence on more enlightened management. Unions are the most highly developed means of employer-worker interface anywhere in the world where large numbers of people demand efficient communications channels. If government won't do it and business groups won't do it; if churches won't do it; then maybe the unions are the only ones with a potential to change the situation where the means do not depart from the ends. Why wait to get a good deal? Independent unions can fight for good work conditions now. We hope the new president, Lee Chuk-tim, and the new chairman, Cheng Yiu-tong, can get it together better this time. Right to form and join trade unions The Employment Ordinance confers the right to form and join unions, but the penalty imposed on an employer going against this ordinance is a mere US$641. This penalty cannot enforce the law. While workers have the right to collective bargaining, employers have rights of discretion in deciding to go along with such collective bargaining and the results nullify any collective bargaining rights for workers. There is no law stating an employer has to recognise a trade union. Platform for workers generally Central Provident Fund (CPF) that includes provisions for sickness benefits, maternity benefits, some type of unemployment security and retirement benefits. Shelving of special labour import scheme - allow selective importation of skilled labour under a scheme where workers have taken part in the adoption of the scheme's regulations, per trade or sector, with input particularly from the unskilled, lowly-paid workers. Manpower policy needed - taking into account structural changes in economy, with expanding service sector - that looks squarely at labour importation (huge projects such as the new airport do need special considerations but unions should be involved at the planning stages to achieve co-operation not confrontation over imported labour). Retraining schemes rather than importation schemes. Minimum basic wage by law, with protection for all workers, whether resident or non-resident with equality of rights and duties for local and foreign workers; all wages increased at the level of the inflation rate while growth economic systems are continued - pensions also; optional terms of piece-time or fixed salary. Families protected, at least for a few months, against the effects of bankruptcy of companies - presently there is no government control document such as a Clearance Certificate needed before factories move over to China, to continue manufacturing - leaving workers, without fulfilling obligations to staff. Law of Professional Associations sanctioning and guaranteeing their rights needed. Emphasis on employment of aging workers with legislation against age discrimination. When conditions allow: Compulsory retirement at 60 for both men and women. Those salaried at less than $4,000 exempt from pension scheme. (1) This section written looking at the platform of the Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unions, following the writer's participation as the Hong Kong delegate for the Hong Kong Journalists Association at the 1988 Bangkok confederation meeting. *************************************************** Chapter III Women and Youth Preliminary Platform - Part 2. Women - Secretariat of Women - motherhood - at work - marginalised - pro-choice. Youth: Secretariat of Youth - vote - charter - students. All Things Sugar and Spice The modern woman wants to be well-informed, self-possessed, recognised and respected for her skills and contributions in and out of the home; is one who wants to make her own choices in life and to share some of the same experiences and benefits men enjoy. Quote from the HongKong Council of Women. In general the HA wants to help society overcome its psychologically arrested state in regard to women's issues. These are apparent in juridical, social, cultural and economic discriminatory practises. Let's have a Secretariat of Women as part of government, run by women, to act on women's affairs and to educate people in general about women's rights and to promote protagonist stances on the issues. The Secretariat of Women would fight for woman's active participation in all social affairs, with a defence of her rights, compensating for the system's indifference to her specific aspirations and needs. This does not mean an end to men only clubs where their affairs do not affect the life of women, or quotas on women employees in a work place. Such demands would be a mechanical approach to redressing the situation. The Secretariat would seek to put both spouses on par regarding the exercise of parental jurisdiction; for juridical equality for women in both legal and de facto matrimonial relationships; freedom of choice on the pro-life versus abortion issue; and women need the clear right to inheritance, including land in the New Territories and the right to vote in Rural Committees and Heung Yee Kuk. These changes need not be imposed, rather the Kuk itself should enliven the debate among its communities in a democratic way. The HA wants to draw the attention of all women to an anomaly where the strong role of women in the family tends to push the older man to one side. While sons are given almost undue adoration, in later life, when the son has become the titular head of the family, it is as if he were then placed aside as if no longer of importance. This isolates the man, robbing him of respect and is the cause of the large number of elderly single men living alone. For integral family life this common occurrence needs scrutiny. Motherhood Maternity benefits are an important security for women. Direct support by the government is needed, covering the benefits of social security and attendant services that guarantee for every woman - irrespective of her social status - the attention and care necessary during pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery. In motherhood there needs to be a supportive role by the medical authorities towards breast feeding and maximum physical contact between newborn babies and mothers. Breast-feeding reduces hospital expenses because the money, labour and space needed to purchase, store, prepare and sterilise bottle milk for infant feeding is eliminated. There is the acquired immunity factor to be noted also, preventing illness later which helps keep down medical bills as the child grows to maturity (the advertising of milk food for babies is a suspect practice and is prohibited under World Health Organisation recommendations). Family size should be a matter of choice; children should have the right to use the surname of the mother. At work Special working schedules for married women to have the right to opt for a four-hour working day; increases of grants and allowances due to wife and children, based on a scale that protects the large family; give proportional incorporation of female personnel in the different areas of work, looking at capacity or competency; effective exercise of womens' constitutional rights of equal salary for equal work compared to men; unsalaried housewives - enact legislation to prohibit the imposition of unreasonable terms of appointment on workers. Retraining schemes to be expanded to include everyone in need, including housewives; adequate facilities should be provided, with creches, so mothers can breast feed babies; extension and adaptation of all benefits in the area of menial - whether domestic or service - work and housekeeping; more nurseries required. To take into account that women often cannot sustain continuous careers, which of course affects their promotion and pay levels. While it is welcomed that women are brought into the economic functioning of Hong Kong, it is reprehensible that this be done solely for reasons that see her as a unit of work. Fully integrate women into the work force because women need economic independence, self confidence and needs to play her part. The HA interest lies in the women, not in the economic benefit, a welcome side-effect. It is a fact that women continue to be used as a source of cheap labour. Marginalised Marginalised women, such as prostitutes, will be protected to some extent if licensed - but not taxed, working either at their own place or in short-time or overnight hotels. The manager and owner of such places would also have to hold a permit - from the Entertainment and Licensing department. Or, the prostitute could be a free agent holding both permits. A humanist government will not tax such potentially demeaning work but on the other hand does not want to judge people by what they do under the pressing circumstances of today. The world not being a perfect place, a woman is best given the freedom to choose her destiny. Also, there is a difference between sex-for-cash prostitution and that of paid companionship for a person where value for money is given in that the entertainer-companion offers cultural and manifold pleasurable activities which are not sexual - as well as straightforward sex. The courtesan is brought to people's attention in this regard - one who is well read, well dressed, clean and understands the craft of love-making. If such a person is to be called a prostitute then so be it. Under the poor work conditions and image of today, prostitutes should be allowed to keep the money they earn, just like other women, but government should not give any assent to the way they earn their living which would be the case if prostitutes were taxed on earnings. Their work is their decision and they have to accept the consequences with freedom to opt out. The HA is concerned with the plight of the prostitute herself. It is necessary to reinforce measures against those who are responsible for duress or violence to prostitutes. Prostitutes' self-help groups would be usefully set-up. Prostitutes to pay for their medical checkups at a nominal charge relating to the usual charges in hospitals and clinics. Permits given while insisting on periodical checks for licence validity duration. Special courses on hygiene, on the psychological and cultural background of prostitution. Information actively given on opportunities for further education as many girls in the category are illiterate - reading and writing taking priority. Texts on the subject of human sexology provided in adult education classes, say as a vocational college's course, otherwise their educational needs are wide and general, just like anyone wanting to be a cultured person. Special retraining schemes for those wanting to change occupations and early retirement scheme with information and assistance from the Social Welfare Department. In Hong Kong poverty is not the main factor that drives young girls into prostitution, but lack of societal and parental care and an impulse toward unconditional sexual gratification tied to easy money; this is a kind of laziness which will recede to the extent intelligent education is offered that suits women to take up more self-fulfilling roles and given opportunities in other types of employment. This easy-money ethic is a typical effect of a society based on paid work as its central reference. Everything is subordinate to the long working day. Often in many homes both parents go out to work owing to raised social expectations and the cost of living which goes nowhere to produce aspiring young women undaunted by the problems anyone has to confront on coming to terms with making a living and a life in today's world. The total solution, as with drug abuse, is to look an the entirety of society. Prostitution cannot be tackled as an isolated issue nor can it be banned because that drives it underground into the hands of gangsters and pimps. Licensing may help prevent this, giving prostitutes more freedom - but they also need the means to exercise that freedom, including sufficient self-esteem and clear minded health. Pro-choice The HA takes a pro-choice stance in the emotive issue of abortion - which means abortions on request. Young single girls who do not have a healthy bank balance find out that in dire circumstances their choices are starkly limited and they do not benefit from the fact that abortions can be carried out safely and simply. They are at the mercy of doctors who decide for them about the appropriateness of an abortion. On the other hand a doctor's role is to save and preserve human life. Some hold that a foetus is a human life and that taking that life is wrong. They say it is the equivalent of murder. The HA says a foetus is not yet independent life and can be aborted at the mother's discretion. Others hold that a foetus is simply that, the foetus of a human being but in itself that foetus is devoid of human characteristics, merely having taken on the potential of growing into a human shape. For those there is nothing essentially human about a foetus. The points of views are important but the primary consideration has to be given to the would-be or would rather-not-be mother. If she decides on the products of her body and her acts then that is that. Who else can take that responsibility and how would they carry that out in practice? Who is responsible to nurture the child that will result from the birth? Will the child likely end up in an institution? But the plight of the rather-would-not-be mother is the first concern of the HA. As Dr R.J. Stevenson said in a letter to the 'Sunday Post, February '93: 'If we are really serious about improving the lot of our fellow women, let us start by removing the profit motive and set up Government clinics with facilities for non-judgemental counselling and after-care, available to all women but especially those for whom the only alternative is the back street.' The government should provide loans to the needy to pay for abortions, or free abortions. Abortion controls would not be needed with better contraception giving one hundred percent effective and problem-free control over bringing children into the world, with adequate and practical sex-education. But that is not the case. This is a question remaining to be resolved but now people suffer. The HA says, give people the choice now. Platform Secretariat for Women needed. Adoption of International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a basic document in the protection of women's rights. Emphasis on rights of women in low-paid jobs and in job advertisements. Anti-discrimination legislation and equal pay legislation to be implemented. Family services benefits increased. Day care centres for children needed. Number of nursery creches increased sufficiently before implementing laws against working parents leaving children unattended. Promotion of mutual help groups, informal networks of care and an intensive educational campaign against leaving children unattended. Action against discrimination in access to bank loans and mortgages. Vocational training and health care. Secretariat to include a complaints unit providing support and advice for women under duress. YOUTH The Apple of Our Collective Eye The HA denounces the generational violence that is exercised against youth who are relegated by the monopolies that the adult generations concoct among organisations and where social decisions are made. These deferments are an attack on their freedoms, on their development. There is a need to re-assert youth's capacity and right of participation by modifying the social and personal conditions imposed, yet guarding against any actions on young people's part in proposals which would be construed suspiciously, leading to youths' marginalisation or persecution. In order to rectify the state of affairs the HA proposes a Secretariat of Youth be set up. This unit would be charged with the integration of youth into every ambit of social life. In such Secretariat, youth themselves would take the highest posts as directors and executives, with the conditions equivalent to those of any other such individual in an equivalent organisation - taking a maximum age of youth as 24. The objective: to repeal every regulation that limits their participation, in any area, and to implement government programmes that will grant the conditions assisting the formation of wholesome life, without social, racial or religious discrimination. The public should help disabled youth to participate in all aspects of community life. Voting age The old guard (old is a mental state not a matter of years lived) are afraid of the young vote, they know the young will vote for the liberals, the oddballs, the greenies even! Strange isn't it, all those guys and gals want help to put their posters up or their leaflets given to the crowds and they always turn to the young. When the question was raised in Legco in 1991 - despite the infusion of democrats - the motion was voted down. Fancy that, not giving the very right that would create interest in politics in the young at this time when early political maturity is apparently so welcome. It was a crime that the vote was not given. It must be given immediately so that the maturing process is speeded up. It is so important for Hong Kong and the democratic movement. The school talks, government campaigns and like half-hearted efforts are seen as questionable when with one quick legislative slice, all youth of eighteen and over could be given that opportunity to take part in the election processes. Youth Charter In 1992 there was a call for submissions on the creation of a 'Youth Charter' by the Youth Division of the Hong Kong Council of Social Services. The following is the submission of the Humanist Association - Toward a Youth Charter. 'The Humanist Association asks for a Secretariat of Youth. It could be assumed that the Youth Commission would have taken on that role. But, the relatively elderly people managing the Commission for Youth have proved that road a false one. It is still the same mental form handling everything FOR youth. A secretariat is more powerful and has to be comprised OF youth. We continue to propose that a Secretariat be set up. This Secretariat would: fight for free access to all the levels of education be it technical-vocational or for professional studies and qualifications, through a system of free education that includes the enjoyment of sports, the arts and other cultural pursuits; also, to establish and monitor 'free centres' per district, managed by the youths themselves, which can organise free courses on - responsible sex, civic education for working youth, education towards co-operative systems, technical and craft courses, for example, on repairing electronic equipment, computer systems for personal use, use of software applications useful in daily life, creative music, drama and dance, etc. The Secretariat could allocate funds for the formation of co-operatives run by youths, either service or not-for-personal-profit businesses, such as local newspapers. Also, the Secretariat could handle interchange programmes with other Asian countries for all youth sectors, not only students. Recommendations for Study. Enquiry into the public monies spent on Junior Police Call facilities that are territory-wide and that have doubtful value, that smack of the Hitler Youth league and waste valuable spaces that are only occasionally used by selected youths. Opinion gathering on whether youth should be able to have sex at whatever age they wish. Also, on homework from schools and whether it should be made mandatory or not with the idea that schools should organise themselves to complete studies during school hours. And, what would be the effects of saying no to homework during school holidays. A study on the direction of studies, holding the thought that education should be for life itself, not for producing technically specialised humanoids. Whether teachers of young people should be allowed to progress from teacher training colleges to teaching directly. Should they not take at least five years in other pursuits to round out what they have learned academically before getting any teaching certificate. Platform Immediate need for a Secretariat of Youth. Commission of Youth to have youthful directorship, executives and general staff; government Youth Policy and legally enforceable Charter for Youth (the UN defines the age of youth as between 15 and 24 with five years either side tolerance), with strong input from young people. Voting age 18. Subsidized pre-primary education. Students: free travel throughout the territory - no means test. Reduce homework load, particularly on the 3 to 11-year-olds - no homework. Also required are a wide range of scholarships; the freedom to demonstrate in public; that universities, colleges and schools have students participating in management meetings; no more 'double examinations'; re-introduction of student card system of travel passes, with free travel anywhere, anytime; accredited tax deductions for employers who hire inexperienced youth in jobs related to their studies, craft or technical courses. There needs to be a balanced budget for all phases of education, from the earliest to the most advanced, with a clearance of perennial students, usually of advanced years, who clutter up the universities taking valuable funds from youth. This is not pointing at adults re-entering studies but points at over-qualified 'perpetual students'. Active integration of youth into Asian problematics, promoting wide-scale programme of direct communication between the different country's peoples; guarantees for students that gain scholarships whereby a system of equivalences is applied recognising the theoretical or practical nature of the subjects approved for study abroad - to assure continuity of the studies; guarantees for working students with fellowships, on getting a job in the destination country, as well as for the securing of their own jobs in Hong Kong. Other related matters include the opening up the refugee centres to allow the children to have a normalised life, e.g., at Chi Ma Wan (Lantau Island) there is a beach outside the closed camp and for years all that the children could do is clutch the wire netting to watch cool waves slap on the beach as they stand on hot dusty tarmac. Careful supervision is needed in care centres for youth that have strayed into prostitution, with balanced education and other skills training, so that this minority can earn their keep in the world; stronger emphasis on rehabilitation and community service for young offenders and a lifting of the criminal record threshold with records dumped after three years without further offence. As complementary measures referring to young people the Humanist Association proposes a review of all legislation to assure it guarantees their full development and integration into the community. This includes legal equality for members of legal and de facto families; legal status of illegitimate children to be equal to that of legitimate children; also asking that the adoption system be modified for easier access to good homes without sacrificing caution in the choice, and that the procedures be speeded up; complete protection of children - by government - should exist; sub-vented pre-school kindergartens per district; no corporal punishment; civic education studies to be taught within the school curriculum; no conscription to military service. When conditions allow: Reduction of working hours, with salary equal to that of the standard working period for working youth who studies or who qualify themselves in their job sphere. Age of majority for contracts to be reduced to 18, that is, for property, medical affairs (abortions - any age, according to the young person's requirements), also on making a will. Marriage lawful at 16 years of age. The 1992-93 president of Hong Kong University students union, Mr Fong Tak Ho, mentioned a few points the students union are considering for their own youth charter: right to have one's own knowledge validated; right to grievance procedures; right to reasonable access to human and material resources; right to access to appropriate and impartial authority; right to quality environment; right to be consulted about substantive changes in course contents etc; right to know the results and action taken with reference to students' needs; right to be involved in selection of staff. Mr Fong added that certain of these rights have become reality in some colleges. Student Movement Because students are a high profile grouping among youth and because their expectations are high and the demands on them from outside their own sphere are heavy, students deserve some special considerations. To understand better the influences on Hong Kong students this writing takes recourse in an interview done at the height of the demonstrations in Hong Kong during the period of the Beijing massacre of June 1989, as it appeared in the HA's magazine New Directions, titled, The Student Movement in Hong Kong - Historical Perspective. Interview: with Mr Ng Chung Yin, latter-day generation student activist of the seventies. New Directions: Are there any precedents to the present developments of the student movement in Hong Kong? Mr Ng: Historically, the movement in Hong Kong is very much linked to the movement in China because if you look at the workers movement that came into existence in the 1920s, there were two places that proved important, one was Shanghai and other was Hong Kong. The workers movement started in both Shanghai and in Hong Kong in the early twenties. A more recent example is the student movement in the early 1970s and over that period I was very active. At the first stage, this movement was like any other in the US or Australia of Japan, quite spontaneous, left wing, or new-left oriented without clear ideas. Somehow we felt we were different from the old form, that's all. When the movement was criticised, in the early 1970s, I chose to be a Maoist and side with China. Many felt this was right for otherwise how to build up a movement, against China? China is so big! In a way the student movement was totally crushed by the Maoists<$IMao> in the mid-1970s because no one could get political perspective. At that time there was a big problem in the bureaucracy in China and when we raised the question of bureaucracy in China it became a big issue in the student movement. They said there was none! That was the confusion more than fifteen years ago. The strange thing is people said there was no bureaucracy in China, that was the conclusion! This is one example to be considered if anyone is to build a political movement in Hong Kong, you have to make a reference to China. The political perspective of Hong Kong is always China oriented, same as the workers movement in 1920, same as the student movement in the early 1970s. So, the other political tendencies that were against the Maoists were labelled anti-China, anti-communist and anti-Chinese. That's the big problem, a very big one. One thing, before that, from 1949 till the early 70s China was almost completely cut off from Hong Kong, so the younger generation then had no knowledge of China, they had no first hand experience, because at that time China visits were not common. China was so closed that unless you had something urgent you would not go back to China. You would not go to China for a trip or anything like that. No one would go there. So people knew very little about China. In the early 1970s China changed its foreign policy and tried very hard to please the western countries and the ping pong diplomacy started. And, the Chinese government also appealed to the nationalist feelings of the younger generation, this is why the Maoist tendency became the strongest among the majority in the student movement. Now it is different, they know what happens there in China because they go and see it with their own eyes. At that time it was very abstract and this is a big change. New Directions: What was this incident at the Sacred Heart School? Mr Ng: In 1977 there was the Sacred Heart Girls School incident, a long story actually but to make it brief - many of the teachers in that school were from the student movement and they were politically disillusioned. Secondly, most of them were Maoist oriented, they supported the Maoists, at least the hard core. Thirdly, they had a very big delusion, that... as they all taught at the same school, so they should change this whole school system, the mentality of the students, everything. Actually, their motives were good. They did two things; on one level, they clashed with school administration and that was part of the strike against the school - and later-on against the church because the church supported the school. It became a big movement; with the result that the government built another school for them! So, this is one side but on the other side, the way that they tried to educate the students was very much like what went on in China during the fifties and sixties: indoctrination. So you teach the students what you think is right, but that was done in a wrong way, is was not in the way of liberal education, it was very authoritarian; that indoctrination was no good. For example, teenage girls should not have boyfriends, it was said (it was a girls' school), this was very puritan, it was crazy, like going back to the 18th century, that kind of thing. If you went to the movies with a boyfriend and someone saw you there would a be a criticism session the next day. Very bad. This applied peer group pressure and that kind of thing. No individuality allowed. There was school pressure, peer pressure, collective everything. No good. Mao was very puritan, which is very bad, I think. So this is why, after the strike and after the big demonstration, because the school administration had its corruption, and after the government gave them a new school and they ran that new school then they had a bigger problem, the students rebelled against the teachers. This time many of the teachers left that school and it became history. The students going against the teachers was not by collective action though, and the result was complete disillusion, for the teachers and the students. In a way it was a very interesting experiment, but if you only look at newspaper clippings and that kind of thing you will only see one side of the story. I know it because I know the teachers personally and at that time I was politically active and knew the active students there. New Directions: Only recently there was criticism of teachers who told their students to join the '89 June 4th<$IJune 4th> demonstrators. But it is OK for a teacher to say what he or she believes is right. Mr Ng: But that was different. I know what you mean. What happened in the Sacred Heart case was, because the movement got big, when many other teachers, students and other societies supported this movement simply because there were many people already and as many of the active leaders were Maoist, well, on the one hand they injected Maoist ideology into the school without telling them this is Maoist ideology and on the other hand they would reject all other political tendencies and called anyone promoting different ideas troublemakers - if you do that it is very bad, it is the worst. Then, you are not appealing to reason, on the one hand you have to explain the situation, to explain the whole situation. If you have to take your stand, which is fair enough, but you have to say that the situation in Beijing is like this so I am now siding with the students because of the following reasons so and so, and also say, but on the other side there are others who say something different......you can go there and study more. I don't believe you can be completely neutral, it doesn't exist, this complete objectivity. In journalism you have the same problem, a journalist takes a stand. You have to say your part but offer the opportunity for the students to move to the other side to see for themselves that side, to understand better. New Directions: Did the cultural revolution have a strong influence on the student movement in Hong Kong? Mr Ng: In the late sixties there was lively student movements all over the world and these gave birth to the student movement in Hong Kong as well. The cultural revolution had very little influence on the student movement, at that time, because Hong Kong was so cut off from China; while the international student movement had a very big effect on Hong Kong. I was exactly in that generation and I felt that impact, and that was how I became one of the organisers among the students, from those international influences. New Directions: Did those overseas influences come from anywhere specific? Mr Ng: The influence was general rather than from any one place. At the beginning we had contact with the SDS, the Student Democratic Society, in the US. Then with the Japanese student movement. Later the French student movement and by then the French movement was politicised, there were the Maoists, the Trotsky-ites and so on and there were some connections with the Italian movement. So there was not particularly one place of influence, rather, it was general because at that time our sentiments were more international. In 1970 we started our newspaper, for the movement. By that time in England there were many such newspapers (underground newspapers, they were called, meaning anti-establishment). Ours was called the 'Seventies Bi-Weekly'. Later it became central to the movement, and the main political influences came from that centre. Then in 1972 or 1973 it split, owing to the Maoist tendency, the anarchist tendency and the Trotsky tendency. We went through the same process as others, exactly the same process. New Directions: This word politicised, how are you using it? It seems to have a negative component, as if the movement was being used by some outside political force. Mr Ng: No, not that meaning. In the context of the present student movement, to be politicised would mean not only that you protest against the Beijing government but also it means you have to understand why you have the student movement in China, why there are protests against this, why they demand democracy, what is the nature of the bureaucracy, what is the nature of the Beijing government, why they reacted to this student movement in they way they did - the students have to understand all this. You have to understand the Beijing regime; politically, you have to understand why you have this, why you have that. So, it also means that afterwards, based on your own understanding, you can take your position. This gives the historical view. The most important questions for the student movement or for anyone who is to criticise anything, are; question number one; whether this bureaucracy should be reformed, because one out of a million might think things are quite good or that the government is good; second, if the bureaucracy has to be changed, can you do it by reform or has it got to go through a revolutionary period using the revolutionary masses? So, I will say in the next year the question will be about reform or revolution; whether you can reform the present system or must overthrow it. This is the most basic question. Between those two alternatives you have a lot of choices. If you want to reform you can do this within the system or you go working outside the system building a mass movement or working in both directions; whether you will build another party or build a reformist faction or develop a tendency within the Chinese Communist Party. This is what I would say is the meaning of politicised. To be politicised is not a bad thing because students, like any other citizens, have to be informed and have an opinion. There are some people who will say the students are pure, they should not be political. But this should come out of the mouths of the students themselves. If you talk to high school students even, today, many of them have their own thinking. You may say it is a bit immature, maybe so, but they have there own thoughts. ********************************************** Chapter IV Government, Institutions and Social Change Preliminary platform - Part 3. The Humanist Position preparatory committee - voting system - Macau's voting system - A More Interesting Proposal - preliminary model for government - government and political parties. The Humanist Position As a response to the situation of generalised crisis that the world and this territory is undergoing, humanism rises again to organise social relationships from and for the human being(1). If in other epochs humanism reacted against the obscurantism and authoritarian regimes, bringing science to its dawn and proposing progressive forms of social organisation, in the present moment that naivete has matured, achieving identity and consciousness of its limitations and possibilities. Humanism warns of the danger involved in sustaining immobilising systems of government, such as in its 'liberal' or totalitarian forms which correspond to capitalist imperialism and socialist imperialism. Nowadays the liberal governments are, at least in independent countries, organisms at the service of economic policies of capitalist imperialism. The interminable inefficiency in attempting to solve economic and political problems has provoked the common lack of credibility of the democratic system and has generated continuous changes at its heights that depart from the popular will. Communism and State Socialism, in their turn, institutionalised and perpetuated a bureaucratic minority in power, removed from the population's aspirations and necessities, at the same time that it developed policies formed around imperialistic techniques. In synthesis, it is the case of government by minorities which centralise power without the effective participation of populations; minorities that move themselves after objectives that do not take into account human values. Therefore and as it corresponds to a dynamic conception of history, it is necessary to re-define the role of government, insisting on direct participation of the people. Thus, in this moment, as humanists, the HA presents a preliminary platform for a transitional government which seeks to put into motion new foci of participation: referendum and proportional-plebiscite referendums, popular veto, faculties of ratification for measures taken by government, with the right to legislative initiative granted to trade unions, universities and individuals that count on the backing of a substantial number of signatures, and other measures that enable the people to assume a protagonist role in the transformation of society. Direct democracy is, in sum, the most adequate political form for a progressive decentralisation of power. Then, it will be the concern of government to co-ordinate rural and urban autonomies; the foreign representation of the territory; the general planning fulfilling the role of arbitrator in sectorial conflicts; taking the initiative for discussion of laws that will be submitted for popular approval; and the implementation of all measures that are conducive to make direct democracy effective. In the economic area, government will take charge of the administration of undertakings and co-ordination of organisms that are indispensable for guaranteeing the process of economic liberation for all citizens. These undertakings and co-ordination organisms of government will be, in turn, those that create the conditions for progressive economic decentralisation. A fair and equitable election system as a firm foundation for positive politics in Hong Kong is a must in the humanization process. It has to have a recognisably Chinese character while integrating the modern democracy experiences world-wide that began in the West. Preparatory Committee Within the Basic Law there is a proposal to set up a Preparatory Committee for the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) in 1996 to prescribe the method of forming the government in the first term. Already by 1993, following the national level anger at governor Pattern's policy proposals(2), China set up a group analogous to the Preparatory Committee, called a 'working group for the SAR Preparatory Committee'. China selected a coterie of Hong Kongers who's views reach the Beijing government directly. This bypasses the real voice of Hong Kong, its legislative body, which surely must be the people to listen to by Beijing for questions and commentaries on Hong Kong. These are divisive moves by China and constitute the building of a shadow government and power base. It polarises the people of Hong Kong in their feeling coerced to take either a pro-Beijing or pro-democracy stance and appearing unpatriotic if they identified with the too-little-too-late British moves despite that these went in the desired direction. This confusion of patriotism and nationalism insets wedges between people and is used by governments seeking something other than to meet the people's needs. Those people selected and appointed by Beijing have to be wary. If any such Hong Kongers are not giving the true picture reflecting the wishes of people in Hong Kong - for their own motives - and that relate to the actual situation in Hong Kong, they can be isolated and generally sent to Coventry as a means of peaceful (but terribly upsetting for them) non-cooperation - that is, given that there is no democratic selection of that representation and they are simply appointed, which appointment they freely accept. While most anyone is recommended to accept such appointments by Beijing, believing he or she can help forge a better deal for Hong Kong, there may come a time when it would be better to turn down such appointment. But today for most the conditions are not that. This is an instance of the use of non-violent methodology. People Power<$IPeople Power> is a great weapon. So far its use has suffered under the problem of an absence of long term action with coherence, nor has there been planning for the future to take advantage of gains made or consolidation of that power taken from those who wanted to deny others their rights. So far, People Power has been more cathartic. It has hardly got beyond the clean out. It needs something intelligent to fill the ensuing vacuum. Platforms and policies, tactics and strategies are needed with a foundation ideology befitting the human being. Otherwise the past reimposes itself because only old things are pressing. The big change will come about when there is a sufficiency of benign influences that can determine a better deal for the common man and woman when that hole opens up. That's the importance of grass-roots organisation no matter how small. That is why solidarity is needed, not only for now but for that moment of rupture. That's why great store is set in co-operation, a force so far little used. The HA does not go along with functional constituencies, but given these are already part of the plan, the following body of ideas is suggested as a guide to the way forward bearing in mind that direct election really means an election where an elector votes directly for a candidate on his or her own behalf and not on behalf of other persons within a general franchise. In functional constituencies in Hong Kong today this is done in the case of doctors who vote on behalf of themselves only whereas engineers have their professionals voting not only on their own behalf but on behalf of large numbers of semi-professionals in engineering who do not have a vote. Bankers use an almost entirely indirect election method where single representatives of each bank vote on behalf of all the members of their bank. Banks have complained that a major employer with many branches gets only one vote while a small Deposit Taking Company with half a dozen board members may qualify for several votes. In another aside it is noted that an accountant in the electronics industry does not necessarily have a career in the electronics industry and could better vote under the financial grouping but not always, so the accountant has to decide where his or her allegiance lies. When it is in doubt they can chose the Geographical Constituency. As long as the above is understood discussions can take place on the whys and where-fors of direct elections in relation to functional constituencies. Affiliations take place for a number of reasons and the aims of associations also differ; it has to be clear what the issues are and who is directly affected by those issues. Here at issue is the Functional Constituency, its essential function is to represent the interests of the particular enterprise, not to broaden the participatory base. Preferential voting methods such as the Single Transferable Vote and the D'Hont method, are humanist endorsed voting systems that maximise voter's choice and give optimum balance between parties, with proportionate representation and a degree of accountability, to achieve the broadest involvement of voters in the democratic process. These methods also take into account Hong Kong's situation of disproportionate constituency population sizes. How long will it be before people can vote by dialling from a nominated telephone instead of having to go to a voting booth. It sounds lazy but it is convenient. Technology is advanced enough to allow this without fraud or abuse. Samuel Wong, the Legislative Council member for the Engineering Constituency has publicly pushed this view, decrying the obsolete wording of the Electoral Amendment Bill, gazetted March 12 1993 which effectively blocked that possibility. Democracy is not possible with low turn out of electors. The main problem may lie in the human tendency of laziness, just pushing a button for some likely candidate instead of checking platforms, past record and so on which investigation would more likely be done if a voter had to walk some distance to place his or her vote. Mandatory voting needs discussion also because there has to be wider participation in elections and if there is not any other way then consideration of such a means must be given. While elections are an essential factor of western democratic government, they are not seen as a crucial element among the Hong Kong Chinese The following letter spells out details of the D'Hont System: 13 July 1992 HK Needs Truly Democratic Voting System Dear Editor, Concerning the voting proposals presently being aired, that look so simple, 'one vote for one person, each vote with equal weight'. It is not that simple because all 'other' things are not equal. To put a little extra pepper in the pot, there are more developed political and voting systems that could be considered. For instance the D'Hont System which brings in truly democratic proportional representation. This system, like many worthwhile things, makes life a little more complicated. Well, that is why so many millions are spent on general purpose education, so surely we can handle a mite more complication in having just, fair, and comprehensive representation as government. Anyway, why should political systems remain fixed as if set in time? What is proposed is rather a team system in which political parties can take full advantage. This suits Hong Kong as most candidates are affiliated to one party or another and independents that are too 'loose', not really accountable, are not the best bet anyway. An independent can do the flit and leave a constituency bare and the people disenchanted. We cannot afford to depend on personalities. We need to support intelligent policies, platforms, and programs of organised development for the general social good. Of course this would best require a Law of Political Accountability besides a Freedom of Information Act - given the usual lack of trust so immediately apparent on speaking to anyone about political action! In the D'Hont system several political lines of thought, groups or teams can put up a list of candidates in the district and according to the vote count (dividing by the number of seats), members of the team get 'placed' in those power positions where they can make a difference. Team A (comprising say two, three or more individuals) for example gets the highest figure of 300,000 votes, well they get first place; Team B, 150,0000 votes, gets the second place; Team C (or more likely Team A again) gets third place until a committee is elected that represents the politically active of the district. Then they allocate positions to those on the list according to the vote count. Of course an independent can have a hand picked team, which itself would be most useful once in office because a team is needed to carry out tasks. With a landslide victory the independent can even have mother as backup (Of course with the proper secretariat title). The beauty of this D'Hont system is, all contenders with a decided percentage of the vote get a seat. This means, all sizeable sectors of that district have a voice that can be heard, therefore there need not be subterranean rumblings of dismissed minorities - surely if any group wants to help in government they should be applauded and helped to achieve that participation. There is one prerequisite for the proper working of such a system though and that is an intention to co-operate. It is, essentially, a co-operative system. This is the system's radical new element; that is it's real complicating factor, the surface complication of a little more technicality because voters choose among lists of people is minor compared to this latter requirement. Also the fact of accommodating a team and not an individual. So you have three liberals or democrats, two business people, a left-winger, a Buddhist and a Greeny on your local council in your district. The democrat, in this case, would sit in Legco. In co-operation these elected representatives mull over the various possibilities to courageously bring a dint more quality into each of our lives. Bear in mind that if proportional representation had been in operation in the UK recently, instead of have a massive conservative majority you would have 250 conservatives, 215 labourites, 150 liberals, 4 Greenies and a smattering of the smaller groupings who managed to make the grade in such hypothetical elections (There are 625 seats in the British Parliament.). With co-operation these individuals would stand a better chance of making Britain that much more wholesome for all. Presently there are large disenfranchised groups. That's socially dangerous! As it is, the Conservatives are going to see that any single sector grouping that tries to answer for all under today's changed rules (there are no rules) is bound to flounder, even with the best of intentions. Anyone who wants true democratic forms without creative chaos is just dreaming. The alternative is an authoritarian system where decisions are made for us by others not of our choosing - does that ring any bells? The question is, does Hong Kong go the way of the old, or the way of the new? Humanist Association Macau's election system Macau used the D'Hont method of voting for slates of candidates and enacted a change in its voting procedures in 1991 that, as it turned out, was significant in influencing the outcome of the September elections of that year. In the D'Hont method the first candidate of a slate (a list) is credited with all of the votes cast for the slate; the second candidate one-half; the third candidate, one-third, and so forth. In Macau's new method the first candidate was credited with the full number of votes; the second with one-half; the third with one-quarter; the fourth with one-eighth. The effect was to make it harder for third and fourth candidates on slates to be elected. In September's elections the two leading slates, F and B, both characterized as 'traditionalist' and pro-Beijing, each had two members elected; under the D'Hont method the third candidate on each of these two slates would have been elected as well. Slates with less support, such as slate A (the liberals) and slate I (supported by government civil servants), saw their first candidates elected under the new method. It is a significant advance for Asian political parties to use proportional representation, such as the D'Hont system of counting votes but as this is practised in Macau with a restricted number of directly elected seats and government appointees filling the majority of seat, this destroys the legitimacy of Macau's attempt. A More Interesting Proposal The democratic process in Hong Kong needs speeding up. Ideally all 60 seats in the Legislative Council should be directly elected in 1995. At least, Legco needs an expanded number of directly elected seats following Omelco's recommendations in 1989 (30 by 1995 - which is permissible under the conditions of the Basic Law as it refers to the democratic future of Hong Kong in a key sentence, in Article 68: 'The ultimate aim is the election of all the members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage'. Also..... 'shall be specified in the light of the actual situation....gradual and orderly progress'. The processes to achieve that aim are stated in Annexes I and II without detailing methods or time schedule. This openness grants anyone the opportunity to help determine the processes - but it is important not to close the door on longer term democratic development as it is not worth sacrificing co-operation with the Beijing government with consequent reversals in 1997. Anyway, as stated by the ex-senior official for Hong Kong and Macau affairs who defected to the West, "After 1997 the Basic Law can be changed; by 1997 China will have changed." The Basic Law allows a democratic form - in time. Had the Basic Law Drafting Committee established a schedule this problem would not tease the politicians but that's how the cake was cut. What has to be established is a basis for open government. It is not impossible that the two municipal councils and 19 district boards will be to be fully directly elected by 1994. It would be even better if there was a devolution of economic and political power to the District Boards after combining Urban and Regional councils to form a single unified Municipal Council, with territory-wide District Boards, and redefining the Boards according to the present geographic/bio-regional/demographic criteria without unwarranted change from the evolving set up. Votes to be counted on a Geographical Constituency basis with a review of the present constituencies while maintaining as far as possible already established communities with their sense of place. While it is normally unnecessary to have a law governing political parties, given the unusual circumstances of Hong Kong's past and the preoccupation with a politics-free colony and the anxiety about cultural organisations fronting for gangster operations, not to mention those having an 'overthrow the whomever' stance as per Sun Yat Sen, it was deemed necessary by the government to have a registration of political parties. This is more genuine than having political parties registered as Ltd. Companies, the present practice. Preliminary Model for Government This proposal, in its present rudimentary form, is to provide the people of Hong Kong - as a territory of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China - with something to talk about. The model has to be modified in practise. Today, what is needed - even while taking into account the given situation of Britain's sudden urge for democracy in Hong Kong and the restrictions placed on speedy democratic developments by China - is a government system giving the best of human conditions for a life of quality, based on simplicity and equality. For this, there has to be the equivalent to political parties. Equivalent because some groups do not have a political aspiration in the correct sense of the word - they want to be in charge of the economy, because they want to have a say in assuring the profit margins and their direction of movement, but they do not have any particular interest in attending to the social aspect of looking after the people who made that economy, which is, of course, the other side of the coin. There are duties and responsibilities attendant to controlling an economy which relate to those who's efforts and lives were spent in its development. Consideration has to be given to those generating the wealth. Business groups treat people as secondary phenomena and this is why the people have to treat their importuning and clever words with caution. Differently, those groups backed by ideology, the communists most obviously but also the capitalist inspired liberal democrats who are that much more unclear about having an ideology at all - also have value systems that are removed from the essential reference of the people. The communists are staunchly of the mind-set that they have all the answers if only people would play ball, but they have had their turn at the wheel, they can't steer, only drive. The liberals and democrats are convinced that if they personally can have an owned home, car, video, fashionably dressed family and classy education then with that model which they have achieved well then it's up to the rest of us to struggle to get the same - hey presto - universal happiness. But these are in the mainstream current of political life influencing Hong Kong. There is no other way to integrate these different currents than to see which of them can dominate to the extent they take charge and move the daily life of the people in their chosen direction, with the checks and balances of those groups in opposition which modify that direction sufficiently so that a greater number of people remain to-a-degree satisfied with the general political situation, given the fallibility of human endeavour. This means political parties, social action groups, religious groups with a social dimension, all of these contending in the elections, which is healthy. Also, the charismatic individual whose efforts must be welcomed though it is understood it will be more difficult for that one to get to the top. All the foregoing competitors will bring something of value to Hong Kong but if China simply appoints people to manage Hong Kong then huge groups of people will be disenfranchised and separated out of active political and social life - where there has to be participation by the people in all affairs, on every scale. Beijing sees Hong Kong's involvement in democratic forms as an attempt at independence whereas all that is asked is autonomy but selfish people may seek autonomy for reasons that do not have as their reference the general good, they want autonomy so they can steal the power and control the economy and take the profits and build up their power. That has nothing to do with the people here. If the business people take over there will never be a Central Provident Fund of worth. If the communists take over there will be no freedoms. If the liberal democrats take over there will be very little difference from the business people taking over only it will be much more messy and lot's more fun. The HA simply wants to be a part of that latter mini-maelstrom and add our weight to the general tendencies and there is something valuable in what is offered on our side. There is no need for the HA to be a major power or even anywhere near the pinnacle of power for the humanizing effect to take place. All that is sought is a voice on that grand arena of the Legislative Council and the same at the various levels of government down to the local District Boards level so that humanism can play its part. In that sense is this proposal made on a government model suitable for Hong Kong. There is nothing extraordinary in the exposition below, which is really an unfinished thought more akin to a canvas with rudimentary lines for someone else to fill in. The HA seeks a maximum of seats directly elected in 1995, with a minimum of appointed posts in government. That the Executive Council decides overall policy for all of Hong Kong and submits bills for debate, passage or restriction, by the Legislative Council. The Executive Council: for example comprised of the following (with coined titles self-explanatory): Chief Executive; Chairman of Municipal and District Board Councils; Financial Secretary; Attorney General; - and political, social and economics advisors. The Central Administration of Exco.: comprised of Commander of Defense; Chiefs of the Security/Police Department; Financial Affairs Department; Regional Affairs Department; Co-operative Affairs Department and Legal Department; and the Senior Territorial Administration Officer. Also included, the first officials from the sectors, namely: Labour; Political and Social Affairs; Finance; Industry and Trade; Agriculture and Fisheries; Forests and Parks; Transport; Health; Housing; Social Welfare; Environmental Protection; Education; Science and Technology; Cultural; Secretariat of Women; Secretariat of Youth; Minorities. The Legislative Council: as the general council, composed of directly elected members from DB and Functional Constituency members and appointed members until a democratic method of placing people into positions of power has been worked out. Legco: comprised of the Chief Executive; District Board (DB) chairmen; chairman and assistant of the Municipal Council (combined Regional and Urban councils). Chief Executive: to have the excitement of Presidential elections by registering votes from among all the people would be the preferred method but the Basic Law has already laid down definite guidelines on the procedure. That said, the Basic Law could be dumped, by mutual agreement. Or, the Chief Executive would be voted into office through an electoral collage of those already directly elected into office from among the District Boards (and Functional Constituencies) as the nucleus with additions from the broad spectrum as already determined, from industry, community organisations etc. The method of that election has to be given careful consideration. A preferential 'elimination' system can be used, with self-nominated candidates. That one who, in the election, still stands at the last ballot with over fifty percent of votes, proclaimed winner. The Chief Executive, independent of Councils, holds the deciding vote at meetings. Municipal Council: the present Regional and Urban Councils to be merged as the Municipal Council. Urban and rural affairs handled by the Municipal Council made up of District Boards and administrative and technical officers. District Boards: to be executive, with sub-councils as Area Committees per divisions of districts, holding monthly public forums. Exco-Legco relationship: presently, political party members cannot join Exco. Not only does this discourage party politics it is hypocritical. Everyone has a point of view. Even the Chief Executive will have a point of view, how can this be displaced from his or her decision making. It can't. So better have the honest position. Those electing the Chief Executive to office have to know his or her preferences. Regional Affairs Secretary: who oversees foreign affairs in matters of consular tasks, visas etc and who's office also plays the role as SAR link. The Commissioner for Complaints: independent, answerable to the Executive Council and having powers to investigate complaints against the police. Paid technocrats to be employed as the specialists in departments at different levels. All these governing people decided upon consequent to the elections where the different groups contend for the positions which are allocated as explained under such as the D'Hont system, giving universal and proportionate participation. Voting: agreements on issues at council meetings, at all levels, by simple majority voting on issues with Chief Executive throwing deciding vote. Three year terms of office. Staggered elections with 2 years between elections to Legco-Municipal Council and Districts. Hong Kong residents to have full voting rights without distinctions based on race or nationality with voting age starting at 18. Voters can reckon ability based on past record and experience, besides the candidate's platform. Self-nomination method for all candidates for the electoral college elections while candidates for Municipal and DB seats have to show the support of ten electors also. There is a strong case of 'seeing fair play taking place' for having an independent election commissioner with an Election Commissioner's office, reporting to but not subservient to an Electoral Board. Board members appointed by members of Legco. The function being to generally monitor elections to see they are fair and deal with issues and complaints, linking politicians and administration. Votes counted on a constituency basis, not on a polling station by polling station basis, to prevent identification of how individuals have voted. One thousand dollars sufficient registration fee for candidates in elections with deposits returned on gaining 200 votes or over. The five representatives to the National People's Congress need to be directly elected after 1997 with a single territory wide constituency with a Single Transferable Vote to give proper coverage to the general opinion of all the people of Hong Kong. However, given the style of elections presented above, their rising from the ranks of the already elected should not cause any problems as then the election collage is democratically elected. Differentiation between policy makers and administrators as there is no need for administrators to be seated in government beyond their single seat Functional Constituency representation to explain the arrangement of their job if some duty is placed upon the administration that is onerous. Their function is to support officials with secretarial duties, research reports etc. Following elections it has to be assumed that those filling the posts will be professional politicians and they need sufficient budget on top of their fair and high salary to manage their government office. They will have staff, a fully equipped office, and car supplied among the other items needed. Government and political parties The government to guarantee the expression and organisational freedoms of all political sectors without any discrimination whatsoever, protecting the minority groups from the deeds of ideological and organisational monopolies. The government to supply parties with sufficient economic resources and means of communication for the diffusion of their ideas and for their structural development - to keep the population informed about the various viewpoints of those political groups. This means equal air time on television and radio. Limits to be placed on electioneering expenditures so wealthier organisations can't buy commercial media exposure beyond that of the not-so-wealthy organisations. Consideration can be given to the setting up of a not-for-profit Foundation where organisations may apply for electioneering funds. In the direct democracy that humanism promotes, the political parties have a protagonist role, in the clarification of the population, with the government role reduced to that of diffusion. The internal structuring of the parties democratic, with the posts gained by election, through direct, secret and optional voting of the affiliates. During general elections of the government authorities, referendums, plebiscites and other expressions of direct democracy to be used, the polls to be universal, secret and optional under the monitoring of the political parties if required and the Election Commissioner. Non-Chinese residing in the territory not objects of discrimination but having the same rights and obligations after their term of residency. The right to vote, for affiliation and other political duties acquired at age 18 years. The Heung Yee Kuk need special considerations in that they do represent the territories indigenous population. They have not moved with the times and continue to exclude women from office which leads to lacks in women's general representation but this may well be amended. Possibly the aims of the Kuk have to be scrutinised. Of those who may want to opt out of Hong Kong if the pace gets too hot, the Heung Yee Kuk will be among those who are likeliest to remain. The others are fishermen and farmers. The HA is not advocating a sudden devolution of power by imposition of any programme, rather are opportunities given and people put into positions of responsibility in local elections. Hong Kong people, just as those in any modern context, will learn what freedom of choice is all about and as the generations change this understanding will deepen and the phenomenon of the 'traditional vote' so clear in the New Territories will fall away so today's static power brokers lose influence. By this is meant those who, out of an ancient loyalty, vote for the 'usual crowd' which procedure has not advanced the entire society but rather dug their own heels in. It is the moment to listen to the new platforms of the new faces. The gradual development of the political system with step-by-step changes does not mean to encourage any slow-down, a steady evolution and speed-up of the entire process can be achieved with open government without secrets. A Law of Political Accountability needs enacting and such law will only work if there are proper political organisations. The fear has been expressed that with open contest in a political situation of multi-party elections the Communist Party would win due to their better organisation. That is not true today after the debacle in Eastern Europe and the recent violence of Beijing, June 4th 1989. The communist camp should be represented because there are good people there and they have ideas that complement those of the capitalists - there are people in Hong Kong who identify with communism so they must have a voice. The HA wishes the best to the different political groupings and independents. The groups are the 1990 incorporated United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK), the voice of democracy here as most Hong Kongers see it - including Meeting Point and the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL); the Liberal Party (1993), the silver wrapping label of a Conservative business opportunity group; the Business and Professionals Federation (BPF), formed 1993, an apolitical political group with strong affiliations with the Liberal Party; the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) which is neither liberal, democratic nor a party with any declared ideology; the Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong, which tacks closer to its title in its policies and probably because of that has not made substantial political gains; the pro-China Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) and Liberal Democratic Federation have policies that hinge around Beijing government appeasement. An 'unofficial' political group is China's Hong Kong advisors (the working group for the SAR Preparatory Committee, dubbed the PWC, Preliminary Working Committee), the basis for 'second stove' operations, influencing local affairs in the direction of Beijing's choosing, and, by default, a takeover committee. It did not take long before the media were chasing their spokesman for quotes just as they do the other political groups. Within the foregoing mix - not overlooking the independents - Hong Kong has to find its own way of political life. The Humanist Association's role lies in making sure the human being has a place. In our understanding, politics are meant to give and assure conditions proper to human life, a life of quality, of non-standardized individual liberty in reciprocation and co-operation. 1. Adopted from Thesis of the Humanist Party - Basis for a Government Program. 2. Pattern's policy address at Legco, 7th October 1992. *********************************************** Chapter V Government and the Administration of Justice Preliminary platform - Part 4. Government and the Administration of Justice - legal system - Bill of Rights right of abode. Public Order - police powers - prison reform capital and corporal punishment. Defense. Religious Bodies. Certain Legal Niceties The HA considers people's suffering as a fact produced by violence. This violence is the principal cause of disagreement within any society which holds as its highest value economic power, based on the exploitation of large human groups. Within this framework of oppression, it is unfair to consider 'guilty' whoever attempts against that society: in reality, there are no culprits if there is no true freedom. Thus, the sanction of new laws that reflect the social changes will be the task of permanent priority of the legislators and, for the judges, in the application of the norm, paying attention not only to its letter, but also to its spirit. The role of the judge should be an active one as regards the advancement of justice, making sure observations reach the Legislative Council along with the specific grounds and any suggestions when the law is imperfect. Such contributions from those who apply the law on a daily basis and who mobilize their lives after an ideal of justice will be well appreciated. The protection of society will be achieved through sanctioning, isolating and rehabilitating in the name of society and not by 'punishing' those who attempt against its members. Within this context, humanism proposes the reform of judicial power, organising it from and for the human being in a reform that provides, among other in-depth measures, for: the creation of a judicial career with democratic, non-discriminatory access in order to guarantee the better technical preparation and selection of judges; the building of a territorial system of juridical service that guarantees the protection, advice and access to the jurisdiction, for all in need; assured autonomy of the judicial power; assured celerity of the legal processes; selection of its members on the basis of their competence, by virtue of judicial edicts, by courts that ensure the service of justice within the framework of everyday democracy. Judicial independence and accountability is necessary to safeguard the impartiality of the judge. A monitoring and feedback mechanism is needed as its absence means judicial passivity in supervising itself and also its absence denies a complainant's right to know the results of complaints and the process of investigation to its completion. Such mechanism has to be autonomous from the political branches of government and has to be seen to be so. In the legal system there should not be any compromises with the mainland Chinese system of law in the fundamentals of presumption of innocence - with it's right to silence; independence of the judiciary; the right of a defence; and trial by jury. Less rules and not more, with legislation enacted to protect terms of employment, retirement and working conditions, but, without taking such as Singapore as a reference with its excess of rules and regulations. People can learn self-regulation with exposure to learning situations where they take part in politics by free association, in decisions at work, in the neighbourhoods and residents' association and in independent unions of all kinds. The human rights unit within the Legal Department to be expanded into a fully functioning Human Rights Commission engaging in research, education and dispute settlement, effectively cleaning up the legal system to function under the Bill of Rights. Open trials are the most important single fundamental principle in common law. Bill of Rights: entrenchment or primacy over other laws. Local courts to have power of interpretation; exerts power over entire area of legislation and judicial decision-making. Data Protection Ordinance required as data protection legislation guaranteeing the security of personal information, also protecting data from being passed around government departments without permission of the person. Individuals to have recourse to invoke the Bill in cases of dispute with other individuals and to bind individuals by the Bill - this rests with the manner of interpreting the Bill which needs some education. The Humanist Association has made various submissions to the various departments of government concerning the Bill of Rights. Also to the British government and its opposition parties. To review: the four most basic rights are: right to life, right to liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly. These are all under threat in Hong Kong due to the death penalty; excessive police powers in stop and search and identity checking; media restrictions in films and television broadcasting; and there is no right of assembly. It is these very 'lawful' provisions of the Public Order Amendment Ordinance; restrictions on public assembly; the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance's powers accorded to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Immigration Ordinance's requirements that ID cards be carried; the Crimes Ordinance offence for loitering, the existence of capital punishment, among others, that give cause for concern and that demanded a Bill of Rights. It would be laudatory to rid our legal system of these repressive pieces of legislation and the additional safeguard of the Bill of Rights would no longer have such an emotive hold over our future. The Bill of Rights must come with a right to a judicial remedy, also it must be given due publicity with popular education about the rights. It is understood that the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic Social and Cultural Rights have been extended to Hong Kong since 1976. Their continued application after 1997 is guaranteed in the Joint Declaration at least that is one interpretation but this needs confirming. The Hong Kong Bill of Rights should give effect in local law to the provisions of these aforementioned Covenants. The Rights enshrined in the latter Covenant covering economic rights are rather futuristic for Asia but the Civil rights are immediately applicable and must be defendable in local courts. It has been requested from early in the consultations of government to public that the Bill of Rights should be entrenched in the Basic Law, giving it the all important superior status for it to be effective and to exert control over the whole area of legislation and judicial decision-making. Local courts to have the power to interpret the Bill of Rights and to declare legislation invalid if it violates the Bill of Rights (this control is enshrined, but can be taken away by the Chinese central government after 1997). The Bill of Rights is a law that sets out the civic rights of citizens; while a citizen's charter, though lacking legal force, is a useful educational guide to civil rights. A Citizen's Charter is needed for Hong Kong following the setting into law of the Bill of Rights. Proposals Court of Final Appeal with freedom to appoint overseas judges. Abolishment of Official Secrets Act. No special powers for ICAC. Death penalty taken off statute book. The curbing of police powers; repeal of Loitering Law. Mechanism for international monitoring of Human Rights in Hong Kong. The HA sees a need to simplify the legal system, with use of simple language and expressions in all legislation; and supports challenges to the existing monopoly of the legal profession. Conflict resolution forums are recommended and no tax deductions for litigation by big business firms. Free Legal Aid in magistracies, under the Duty Lawyer Scheme to maintain its relative independence for those in need who could face imprisonment if sentenced - possibly run by a Council for Legal Services under independent control. Separate legislation for physically disabled and mentally insane, with grades of handicap. Upgrading the services of the International Arbitration Centre, with comprehensive tele-conferencing facilities. Human Rights At the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna from June 14th to June 25th, 1993, China, with the support of some Asian countries tabled the Bangkok Declaration, which itself was made public in March 1993. This controversial document submits differences between western engineered human rights stipulations and the more recent thoughts of Asian governments. The HA bases its international stand on human rights according to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, as adopted by the United Nations, December 10th, 1948. The Bangkok Declaration dismisses the idea of the universality of human rights as an example of western thinking. They rather wanted that human rights guidelines in any country be determined by historical, cultural and economic factors. While Asian nations suffering from economic problems are in practise giving less priority to individual human rights, engaged as they are in country-wide economic problems, as a matter of course, this need not mean a different standard of application of justice if the interpretation of human rights is wise in that context. This gap in understanding needs bridging. It is a mistake that countries repeat what were the errors of those industrialised countries - which is the importance of heeding the western proposals - but does the West appreciate the point the Asian governments are making? Taking the protestations in good faith, ie., that the governments are not hiding behind human rights issues just as the USA uses human rights issues to further its form of economic imperialism, then the West must, in turn, heed those points of order. As far as the HA is concerned the statement by China that...'nobody shall place his or her interests above those of the state and society'.... we clearly differ. Barring criminal acts, no thing, neither state, god nor society stands above the human being. Possibly the Asian nations mistake egoistic individuality and its claims to be within human rights but that is not our case. For us, simply, the human being has priority. Right of Abode HA letter to the editor, South China Morning Post, January 5th 1990: Dear Editor, It is the policy of the Humanist Association of Hong Kong to go for the maximum of options, giving the greatest freedom of choice of everyone. We see no need to compromise this stance in the Right of Abode issue. Everyone in Hong Kong who makes the request should be given a British passport, yes everybody. The compromise position of an elite sector getting British passports is a poor offering when considering the whole of Hong Kong. China is correct in seeing the issue of British passports to Hong Kong people as divisive. We trust that this is not the intention of the British government but insist it cannot but have negative repercussions for Hong Kong. No matter which wind the mainland follows, there is a big job to do in Hong Kong and all people with skills are needed here. It is bad enough that the situation and circumstance does not engender the necessary loyalty-to-place that would be the best guarantee of a secure future. Britain obviously feels she has to take that compromised position as the only practical solution. It may have been taken as the only 'practical' way out of the dilemma for the British government but for Hong Kong it is not a way out at-all but a cul-de-sac. Each person resident (domiciled) needs security of place otherwise they will be forced to play a sideline role and that breeds non-accountability, non-participation. The people of Hong Kong demonstrated with a million signatures and on two occasions a million marchers that it has its own voice. Fearlessness comes of security and we need a grand show of faith to pull this one out of the bag. Hong Kong citizens need the Right of Abode, not just Right of Entry. They need to be citizens, the British Nationality (Overseas) - BNO - passport denies them that right. Whatever rights they will have after 1997 will be regulated by China and SAR law, whereas previous to that date the rights were regulated by British law. This is the end of a sad story that began in 1948, it was intentional and has resulted in the progressive denudation of Hong Kong people's rights of British citizenship. Basic Law, Articles 2 and 12 on the Right of Abode. Concerning racial discrimination in the ruling. Para. 63 notes that Immigration Ordinance (Cap.115) confers the right of abode on Hong Kong 'permanent residents', only if they are wholly or partly Chinese. This contradicts the spirit of Article 2 which seeks the protection of all individuals regardless of race, creed, colour and other distinctions. At the end of 1987 there were 68,000 non-Hong Kong commonwealth citizens in the Colony. Indian, Portuguese, Eurasian and so on having claim as human beings, their families having lived here for generations. Many of the present generation of these families will be rendered stateless without the guarantee of a Right of Abode should they wish to remain in the territory. Public Order Public Order Ordinance, passed in 1967, gives Police Commissioner full discretionary powers to control any procession of more than 20 people, thereby restricting the right to demonstrate. Police powers: Basic Law, Articles 7, 9 and 12: Police Powers - Para 5 - Complaints against the police (Article 7). Only the police can investigate complaints against the police. There is no independent mechanism. The Commissioner for Administration (Basic Law appendix 11) - a kind of Ombudsman - is not empowered to investigate such complaints - the Ombudsman needs to be given appropriate powers. In February 1993 it was revealed by the police that out of 1,827 police complaints over the year (investigated under the Complaints Against Police Officers CAPO scheme) only one was substantiated. While the number of convictions on attacks on police was high, the rate in the opposite instance was only 0.01 percent! Ill treatment of people in custody remains a common accusation. On April 21, 1993, the Legislative Council passed a motion urging CAPO be made independent from the police force. Hong Kong will do well to enact legislation striking balance between police powers and the rights of a suspect covering all aspects of an investigation. People who voluntarily go to a police station should be entitled to leave at will unless they are specifically told they are under arrest. Suspects under arrest are entitled to know the reasons for their arrest at the time of the arrest or as soon as practicable. Interviews at police stations should be recorded. The mechanism of a 'detention clock' should be set up to review the situation of detainees. There is no police accountability (false imprisonment, assault, etc.) it is subsumed under the Security Branch, it should be separate, accountable to the Legislature. The police, it should be noted, are taking over the duties - border patrol etc - previously carried out by the British Army. The 'Loitering Law' forfeits any suspect to the right to remain silent, while lawful random checks by police on Identification Cards are a common sight on the Hong Kong streets. This is unfortunate for those people seen as 'undesirable', who have to produce a reason for being where they are! The Police Complaints Committee defends the practice (appendix 9) but their figures reveal that out of two million stop-and-check operations in 1987, averaging at 5,478 a day, only 0.15% (8 persons) were found 'suspect'. This is a dehumanising practice. Police powers have been widened recently. The Mental Health (Amendment) Bill - Article 12, para. 9 - allows a policeman to judge a person is mentally ill and take such person to hospital (appendix 10). Are police trained for this? No. Is insanity used as a reason for imprisonment when the real reason is political dissidence? Yes, not in Hong Kong, but this is still a common enough practice in some countries. Other implications for patients in this amendment bill are; no clear definition of 'mental impairment', it is suggested that two categories be decided, 'mental illness' and 'mental handicap', the first a medical condition and the second behavioral. Guardianship and responsibility for professional care come under one person, the Director of Social Welfare. Better would it be that guardianship is determined at the District Court. Also the detention laws are extended from 7 to 21 days. Sexual offenses don't include same sex offenses, only man against women. Police should not be given the right to enter and seize, in 'any place'. Should be 'public place'. Prison reform: Rehabilitation not punishment under the reasoning that any person can be better and every person is meant to be better. So people managing people must use an approach that brings out the best in both parties. Prisoners: early trial; classification of prisoners in their detention; provision of work; payment for work; sufficient space; reading materials available; immediate health care; equal rights, ie., no special luxuries for fortunate prisoners; bail for first timers and minor offenders; options for skills training; cleanliness without sterility; special services for ex-prisoners; no corporal punishment. Scheme for rehabilitation of young offenders needed, with a Minor Offenders Act, to rid remnant criminal records after a period of ordinary human behaviour; good salary and status for warders. Illegal Workers: No imprisonment, suspended sentencing and repatriation. Capital punishment<$Icapital punishment>: though there has been no executions since 1962, as the Queen's pardon will cease after 1997 the practice is likely to be re-instituted as it is common in China. This sub-human practice should be displaced from the law books. The Humanist Association wants to remind everyone of the obsolescence of the death penalty in this latter 20th century. The HA is against the death penalty for any reason, saying there is no human justice in 'an eye for and eye'. Premeditated murder is given the highest penalty, likewise intentional killing is the worst crime against humanity. There has to be a better way and there is, that of rehabilitation. If this is too dangerous to the public if practically effected by allowing such person guilty of an excessive criminal act free into open society, then imprisonment is necessary. That person has the right to reconsider his or her actions in the consequent days, for their own personal reconciliation and to remove any stain from their family and friends who would otherwise harbour possible vengeful remorse. Also, to clear up that particular black spot in society by seeing into its origin - no doubt being the subtle or not so subtle violence that effects some more than others. This is the only solution and it is total - the death penalty is not a solution, only a short term answer compensating for an obviously negative and disturbing act. We must get at the root! What gets lost in the emotional reply is the grand issue of building a workable life that leads to greater possibilities of liberation for ever greater numbers of people. This is why, in those systems of human justice attempted by those nations moving towards a democratic form of government, the death penalty has been abolished. The Humanist Association had hoped that the death penalty legislation would have been scrapped by now. Otherwise, there will always be the usual automatic responses of the conservative execution lobby to each spate of street violence or the like. The HA fights against the death penalty in these terms that point n a life positive direction for modern Man. Why do some forms of society and not others produce a violent response? This is the question. The human being is not a violent creature. Corporal punishment: No to caning or other forms of physical abuse in centres of discipline such as prisons, nor in schools. Torture of any kind is an abomination, dehumanising both the giver and receiver. Defense The role of the armed forces to be that of protecting the peace, as a Civilian-Based Defense force or Territorial Service Corps, guarding the territory's inhabitants against external aggression. Military service to be optional. Annually, there could be a draw among those citizens coming of age from that year, to determine the military defence force where they may serve, army or navy. Then those involved could have thirty days as a time limit to decide whether to opt for either their voluntary drafting or for an exemption. Fulfilment of military service should imply neither merit nor demerit, leading to no discrimination. The professional formation of the armed forces to be part of a national education plan to be carried out in schools, universities and government institutes, abolishing anything like military academies. This should be a nuclear power and weapons free zone and vessels anchoring in Hong Kong waters must be open to searches and checks of both ship and cargo. Hong Kong should not be party to any treaty or agreement that, in practice, responds to imperialistic interests. China would have to agree with that stipulation by an autonomous Hong Kong and may do so with the proviso that such would be cancelled if China had to go to war - that is regrettable but understandable. The armed forces are to be subordinate to the Central Executive Committee of China under Basic Law but depositions can be made for non-aligned status under the One Country-Two Systems policy, for the next fifty years. In matters of jurisdiction and prerogatives, the armed forces should strictly comply with Article 14 of the Basic Law - military forces stationed by the Central People's Government in the HKSAR for defence shall not interfere in the local affairs of the Region - so there is no point in them being here other than for a navy division because the deep water port facility of Hong Kong will be very useful for China. Foreign troops - and that includes troops comprised of non-Hong Kong residents, not allowed to be stationed in Hong Kong. Hong Kong to have its own self defence force. The style of the military to be citizen-soldier in the sense of a Territorial Service Corps which performs its military function but which also gets used extensively for peaceful functions in times of natural calamity, environmental protection work, skills training, etc. This being the fact there could be a case for a pro-draft stance, that is, universal military service. Not depending on volunteers as a professional army composed of not-so eager types would bring a more balanced spread of character into an army. This will guard against too many gung-ho machos devoid of conscience joining up for lack of alternatives for their dis-equilibrated and no doubt youthful zest. Women can be conscripted and serve also but may not be placed on any fighting front with an intention of their joining in active battle. Fighting is the prerogative of the man and has to be man against man - then again though there is the point of giving options! The military to be subservient to the people and to serve the people, with the Armed Forces Chief of Staff called to sit on the Hong Kong government Executive Committee when matters of defense are in question. Religious Bodies The government will not concern itself with religious matters and will guarantee the freedom to preach of the various different religious creeds, including the belief in non-belief, atheism. All religious institutions to enjoy freedom of association, of internal organisation and of diffusion without any censorship whatsoever. The government to protect minority religions institutions, preventing any type of discrimination, or ideological or organisational monopoly of any particular belief. The Humanist Association sees no need for any legislation separating a religious institution and government as individual believers are free to participate in politics whatever their creed and the religious institutions themselves may have to take a political stance as their concern needs to reach social injustice, environmentalism and anti-militarism. Priests, monks and nuns have to abide by what their conscience tells them in matters secular and pastoral, as well as whatever they define as the sacred. There can be no externally imposed limitations, at least from outside of their own institution. In matters of the sacred, priests, monks and nuns and active lay persons have a duty to understand clearly what it is they are teaching and to speak frankly to others, depositing freedom of choice. ************************************************* Chapter VI Economic Cooperativism Preliminary platform - Part 5. Introducing co-operativism - Public Sector and Fiscal Policy - Finance and Tax Systems - Privatization - foreign capital and international banking - The Other Economic Summit - interest-free monetary system - Industry. Proposals toward a more human based economic order - banking - tax system reform. Introducing Co-operativism In a programme of transition from capitalism towards co-operativism - the operative norm in practising humanism when it is not to remain just a sentiment - it is necessary to develop at least some degree of wide-ranging self-sufficiency, with, in this case, integration of the Hong Kong economy into that of China via the Special Administrative Region (SAR), with adaptation of technology that employs people appropriately. Hong Kong has to retreat from its present high profile that lures multitudes to its 'gold paved' streets. Also, it is time to re-include what is socially necessary into what are considered as the basic necessities of life. People may be familiar with the word commune, which according to my late communard friend Mose Matsuba, author of The Communes of Japan, is 'any group living together in a purposeful way, not necessarily pooling income, working together or doing anything very special co-operatively but with considerable unity and possibly kibbutzic elements. The association can be fairly loose. A kibbutz is a complete commune. In a kibbutz members must pool all their possessions and income, except for personal items and pocket-money and special allowances distributed equally; and they must have a communal dining room and laundry, commonly with separate houses for children. There are private families; but there are no private households maintaining themselves individually. Co-operatives are looser arrangements, often set up among peasant farmers who had to co-operate among themselves. This worked to the degree it did not interrupt the individual farmer's conventional way of life. Partial co-operativism does not have the advantages of full co-operation and leaves many economic and other problems unsolved. So, it logically leads to full general co-operation. This final development needs adequate preparation, as it demands a change in outlook from that first individualist one to co-operativism or socialism. The re-formation of the human mind is the main factor in co-operativism. It has worked well with good leadership, sufficient resources and their good technical application, and, apart from material factors, certain spiritual ones, eg., religion, ideology.' Mose Matsuba also gave a little formulae which he says comes from the original founder of the widespread Yamagishi-kai communes of Japan as: Co-operativisation = 20% technique + 30% management + 50% spirit. Co-operativism, which is integral to the commune set-up, as conceived through humanism means an entire programme of economic and political renewal that has to start with a co-operatives law. It is then mandatory that the principles of co-operativism is taught in schools through functioning models within the education system that are themselves co-operativist in style, forming an education based around the ethos of co-operativism - as against the hierarchial and authoritarian style. By modifying existing laws on co-operatives and by a clear intention to learn from experience the best methods to achieve co-operative development will come, not only will the economy start running on different lines but also the political system, which is the approach to a humanist political and economic system. Public Sector and Fiscal Policy Hong Kong has been a financial success owing to its low taxes, high productivity, reliance on the private sector and small government. To continue to succeed it could lightly be assumed that there is a need to reduce even further corporate and personal taxes and to leap into privatization schemes, putting more money into the private sector and reducing the role of government even further. International investors would love this so why not reduce stamp duty to bring them here in even greater numbers! But is it healthy for Hong Kong to serve as a culture where money made does not stay here? There is no question that statistically Hong Kong is a rich place and there are a sizeable number of rich people in Hong Kong. But how are things at street level? What is getting done to guarantee employment in Hong Kong in the event of further confusion and slow-down in world trade as every country dashes for industrialisation and the world faces a glut of consumer goods and an insufficiency of markets, with trade wars as a result of import-export contradictions. Should Hong Kong continue to have an increasing reliance on the service sector? For longer term viability and to show what this territory is made of, how about recording cash-in (revenue) and cash-out (spending) balance sheet of assets and liabilities at the end of each financial year in an accrual-based statement of operating income and expenses. New Zealand is an example of this form of accounting. This will get the message across to residents and to potential investors of the health of the Hong Kong economy. With access to data accountable decisions can be made. There is a difference between capital spending and current spending, this needs to be clarified when looking at apparent surpluses to see what constitutes those surpluses and what it means for the future of this territory. This form of accounting will shed light on the government's methods and the government's financial position year-to-year. With that information five year plans can be made to set a course buffering Hong Kong from the mad swings of a volatile and undependable international situation - or is it assumed the whole show is best left to fate? The territorial budget on the spending side to redress today's imbalances could be worked around the following: Housing 15%, Health 15%, Education, 18%, Social Welfare 18%, Infrastructure 10%, Cleaning Environment 8% and Others 16%. Finance and Tax Systems The state of things and other possibilities. Four things are essential for anyone to have a decent life; adequate income from a fairly paid job, health care when sickness strikes, education for the young, and decent housing. It is the job of government to provide these. Because of government prejudices in favour of certain groups, entire sections of society miss out on these essentials, depending on the particular government and its partisan interests. The tendency among capitalism biased governments is to accept inequality as a basis for incentive to produce, thus earn, thus be able to self-purchase these essentials. The socialist form of government sets out to level those at the top of the income groups and lift those at the bottom, giving a fairer distribution of the wealth. Both forms of government pronounce statements asserting the 'right' of people to income, health care, education and housing but they don't make it a fact. The question is about levels and availability; levels of income, quality of health-care, of schooling and housing. People, on their part, vary in their demands and expectations. In progressive countries the rich pay more taxes than the poor. But when goods are taxed by governments then that tax strikes at the poor more sorely than it does the rich because the tax hits harder as a proportion of the smaller income. That is the argument against Value Added Tax (VAT) - at least within Britain's present economic set-up. It is also worth noting that when a government offers its people subsidies and benefits, because of the passive stance of such offers - in that officers are not actively engaged in promoting their excise - many people who should receive the subsidies and benefits do not claim them. This happens out of a traditional sense that gives high regard to independence or possibly it's a conditioned reflex from stoicism learned in an uncaring environment in the past. Or, simply out of ignorance of their legitimate claims. Also, it is well attested that those receiving medical treatment, for example, will get the brunt of it at a 'government hospital' while those who can afford it get the best treatment privately. This is repeated in every sphere of life for the divergent groups, from goods purchased, to education, to legal advice, even to spiritual guidance. This is not an argument that blue collar workers are the worst off in society, rather, that the old people of pensionable circumstances, part time workers and especially single parent families, also the sick, the disabled, and women workers in the lower income group - are the worst off. When a government has an active policy that includes the 'pool of unemployed providing a cheap human resource', then the inequality is built-in. When a trades union fights against redundancies that are owing to technological developments, insisting on false manning practices; then false costs are accrued. On the other hand as long as firms seek profits without responsibility, and thoughtlessly open and close manufacturing and service operations seeking short term gains, then management will not hold the respect of union leaders who will be forced to take measures calculated to conserve their members rights in actions leading away from cost-effective work methods. White collar workers gain by freer application of discretionary rights, in choice of holiday periods, days off, sick pay, earnings related pensions and even in those areas of clocking-on, discipline in work time, expected overtime and so on. The question is posed, 'Is the structure of injustice incapable of any gradual reform'? If so, all-out strikes look as though they are an answer for a particular group, though the negative effect hurts the entire society. When wage rise requests are made based on an expected inflation - going along with the system and how items of costs-expenditure are generally reckoned - then disproportionate wage demands are made. But how can the union leader ask for less when the unjust system will give even less than that 'less'! Then why should any union identify itself more with a so-called socialist group as against the conservative, the business group, when those socialists or liberals are totally compromised by the unjust system and differ little from those conservatives? The result is that a dual society has been so cultivated. The materially rich get all the benefits while the poorer sector is further depressed. This happens everywhere, from the capitalistic USA to communist China. While some systems result in a better distribution of wealth than others, some of those same systems have achieved this at the price of destabilizing other countries, passing on the imbalance there. Japan is an example in the manner whereby it uses cheap labour outside of its own territory besides unregulated manufacturing. In Japan the general affluence is high and people work long hours to maintain that but the problem of such concerted efforts within the confused world conditions of governments chasing that affluence under the American market-led capitalist system is a complex of rich and poor nations. The present system has the effect internationally of increasing disparity between those rich and poor nations, as has happened domestically, also producing the haves and have-nots within all societies. Unfortunately, the in-built international injustice beggaring the undeveloped nations vis-a-vis the developed nations not only remains, over many years, but is broadened and deepened over time. It could be thought that, with experience and bettering education, these underdog nations would by now have enough power to thwart that injustice. But not so. Nor do other nations fight for their less fortunate associated countries. Both political will and organizational strength is lacking among them so the rich nations continue to dominate and the barriers erected to assure their dominance are hardly tampered with. While reciprocity is the name of the game when it is a fair game, it is precisely non-reciprocal arrangements that make the already poorer nations even poorer. The lack of information sharing is a prime example, in both access and analysis. Also there are differences in the needs of the haves and have nots. How can a lesser nation compete in the arena of knowledge on technical specifics, when it has but its government department experts to call upon when the multinational has entire staff pyramids of expertise to call on? A nation may have a great need to export a raw material, to the extent it is imperative it gets an outlet, but the multinational, well, there are at least a few choices therefore the bargaining power is that much greater and the multinational can dictate terms. To that nation in need, where the government is responsible for employment and foreign exchange, then the officials make all kinds of compromises in tax holidays, accelerated write-offs of capital, preferential exchange rates, subsidized sites and services. Also, what can an undeveloped country do to make a developed country grant concessions for that poor country's goods. Nothing. Can it expect termination of the protection for that rich nation's own domestic products in the same line? Hardly. Yet, that undeveloped nation needs a market for its products but it has to accept that the rich nations can pick and choose from which country they will import any such goods. This means the same kind of non-reciprocity is working in trading as it is in information sharing. The bigger corporation or richer country can establish subsidiaries in the poorer country and access that domestic market without tariff restrictions. Because it is in a position to dictate terms. Also, such commodities produced or services rendered by the higher developed economic organisation are most likely to be of such type that the host country could not provide for itself. They are needs for that underdeveloped country. These needs are in the high-tech range of advanced electronics or precision tooling and such-like. Always the one has a need-dependency and always the other can pick and choose! When a country reaches a stage in expertise where it can compete with the developed organisation, then tariffs and or quotas are imposed. Shipping lines load freight rates against poor countries or arbitrarily change regulations that effect marketing of already dispatched goods, disguise profits to escape taxation and use petty regulations to prejudice against competitive products. Undeveloped nations need the organisational punch that the developed nations have, both politically and in their labour organisations. International organisations that are supposed to bring justice into these negotiations are merely forums for discussion. At the root of the evil is the US dollar as the international trading currency that allows the US to print money that is held by other nations. So, the US operates in permanent deficit, with Japan and West Germany, in permanent surplus, and the rest somewhere in between. Those top-dog nations can never lose - as long as everybody goes along with the system. And, those nations that could do something about it, cannot unite to do so. They are intentionally divided by inviting any nation that is looking threatening, into the special group, leaving the others bewildered yet again. The missing linchpin lies in the lack of discipline in the international money market. When international liquidity was tied to gold, at least there was a reference, a counterweight provided by the actual amount of gold in someone's hands, or mined. Today we are sitting on a pool of emptiness and trading in paper - but there is a price tag on that pool of emptiness and the tag string is tied tightly around the extraction of wealth, of raw materials, raw energy, from the permanently impoverished nations at the bottom of the developing scale. It is a game played with loaded dice. The Vietnam War was financed simply by the US issuing dollars, at the same time, expanding its foreign assets. Meanwhile, inflation across the rest of the world showed who was picking up the tab! The International Monetary Fund (IMF) with its international asset the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) handles the same business that the USA handled and the effect is exactly the same - only the IMF appears to be an independent body. Its life blood remains the same, the US dollar. Using the channel of the IMF the inflation that should have been a domestic USA phenomenon was exported and became an international one. So, as the poorer countries received money from the IMF, it was as if that money was recycled into the IMF fund, empowering the IMF to impose more severe monetary restrictions till those countries bankrupted themselves and sold out to..... one of the top-dog developed group. What else could poor countries do other than sell assets and borrow more money? In the first move they got depreciating dollars in return, and on the second, a bigger debt. The answer? It has to lie in between reform or revolution and yet anyone can see there is no 'between'. Even if there is a collapse there is no guarantee that what rises out of the ashes will have the coherence of a phoenix. For, who will learn, remember and implement the new? Only new attitudes, new institutions, new forms of organisation, can implement the justice. These, to inhere characteristics benign towards a human society, must bring reciprocity into political, social and economic life, indeed into all aspects of life, and both internationally and domestically. With feudal thinking there was need of authority. From feudalism, passing through the avenues of either capitalism or communism, already a socialist style is proving itself the most successful system - from whatever angle it is approached, from rank capitalism rebound or defunct communism slide-back. But true socialism is impossible under the present system of structured injustice, both international and domestic, so there are no worthy examples that can be held to a clear light for verification. No ready group exists, fully fledged and in sufficient numbers, to carry the new forms into the immediate future. But there are organisations and individuals who grasp the new principles and some of these are not contaminated by the system, but for the most part, these only suspect that there are like-minded other groups or, maximally, are in loose association with them and are seldom in affiliation. In any moment a sizeable group can emerge, organised and ready to implement timely new solutions with the necessary energy, with permanence of interest and co-operative spirit and in the essential methodology of active non-violence. There are examples from history's critical junctures, but how can anyone, here and now, adjudicate over those moments of crisis in human affairs when that history is oversimplified into matters of war and heroes? This new impetus has to immune itself from contamination by the system; it has to defend its position resolutely from Alpha to Omega, from the little things to the big things. It has to challenge the economic and social interests of its very own members! In that double edged sword of justice that kills injustice lies the remedy that slices between the life and death of the movement's adjutants. This is not a neutrality. It is because of the paucity of two dimensional, planar thinking, that between the active and the passive there is the neutral. But it is not merely a fulcrum that is spoken of here. Rather, it is something higher that comes into play. The way of action deployed via active non-violence moves the actor into a fourth way that in its experience transcends binding dualism. The modern humanist knows that there are answers, that there is a future, and, so engaged in the endeavour, life is meaningful. A life lived with meaning places values on everything touched and that is what ethics and a living morality are all about. Ethical government and business practices; ethical dealings with one's fellows; put those willingly participating on the line - and in the end there is no other answer - and it starts now. Regarding Hong Kong's 'threat' of flight of capital after 'confidence' goes, it should be noted that real wealth cannot fly - yes the surplus liquidity may well disappear as a tighter reign holds the economy. When the infrastructure is in place, and there is adequate housing, and a good medicare system, then the younger ones can grasp the future with some confidence knowing that they are included in it. Then the people of Hong Kong can learn all they need to know about government and administration and whatever other skills are necessary in their positions of responsibility; that is localisation, where whomever identifies with Hong Kong and plays a part is accepted - such localisation need not speak about people's racial characteristics. The Basic Law limits non-locals only in the highest positions. The Bill of Rights gives non-Chinese residents full employment rights in government other than at the highest levels. By the year 2000 Hong Kong can be a politically balanced territory with a high degree of autonomy within the complex of China Proper. By the year 2000 Hong Kong's economy can have diversified away from low budget merchandise manufacturing into high technology goods and services with most manufacturing carried out in other parts of the SAR where there is more land area and population. The territory's import and export figures vis-avis the rest of the world needs to be projected without exaggerated expectations and with its HK-China trade buoyant even though re-export figures be considerably down as ports in other parts of the SAR pick up on throughput. This means both these trade directions with significantly lower figures than in the 90s but with the people of Hong Kong enjoying a broader-based social system as they begin to share in the commonwealth. Going into the early years from 2000 the HA would like to see a greater self-sufficiency in foods from land and sea. Not for better balance of payments but to provide greater variety of living environments and work opportunities for those wanting to leave factory and office conditions and urban living environments. There will be increased trade with China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and the countries of ASEAN, besides other nearby nations. No to GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and other trade cartels. Concessions should be given to local companies and restrictive laws placed on multinationals. With changed profits tax laws - to pay for Central Provident Fund - the HA wants to see a more equalitarian society with a not-so-much-richer rich and a minimum of destitute. When all is said and done, if someone wants to be a vagabond - excellent. So be it! There needs to be free education for all levels, according to merit; social insurance and socialised medicine. Defence and security will be greatly reduced as China will be Hong Kong's umbrella. There may eventually be a question of federal tax or its equivalent. The co-operative style means full accountability of all revenues. It means turning bankruptcies that threaten workers' future into co-operatives run by those workers with co-operative bank subsidies to get off the ground. Also, there has to be full accountability of all public utility, transport and communications companies; building consumer, producer and service co-operatives and for this co-operative legislation is needed. As specifics for the regeneration of agriculture and fisheries, regarding the Income Tax and the Market Gardener-Farmer - also covering fishing and mariculture - while income from agriculture is liable to income tax, exemptions for a) profits and income derived by an owner or cultivator (of such land) to the local District Marketing Co-operative; and b) sums paid from subsidies. Also, regarding Deductions of Capital Expenditure, further exemptions incurred on opening up land for cultivation, husbandry, poultry farming or horticulture to be allowed as a deduction from personal income. Also, for clearing land, destruction of weeds, filling and draining neglected swamp land (not ecologically valuable wetland and mangrove), terracing, fence constructing, access road and track building, constructing irrigation channels, sinking wells, preparing land for planting, and the cost of young trees and non-commercial plants (not ornamental) that widen the general mix. Also Maintenance costs of Immature Areas; also, Replanting Expenses when replanting (including clearing and preparing) - which does not preclude allocation of subsidies. Capital expenditure incurred in erecting buildings and sheds and for installing plant and machinery not qualifying for deductions as lump sum and development rebates granted tax relief for plant and machinery. No liability to business turnover tax (profits tax). Privatization: Privatization is reputed to lift economic efficiency, enhance competitiveness, reduce government involvement in the management and control of enterprises, slice the public sector and bring budgetary relief. It also creates unemployment and may signal something about opportunities lost, besides handing over control of publicly sensitive items such as charges for imperative goods or services. Instead of the administrative style common to government, a management style common to the private sector is appropriate, with financial discipline and without the government monopolising the particular market but rather acceptance of real competition. The economist J.K. Galbraith dismisses privatization as something that generates no new capital so does nothing for the economy. It is the active participation that makes the difference between government and private practise. How to bring that factor into government affairs is the answer. While the entrepreneurial spirit is to be welcome in business and while the business person who knows what's what and takes charge of affairs will boost the economy - as different from the corporate body that leads to bureaucracy, even in the private sector - excessive individualism leads to selfishness and personal or groupal interest gains to the loss of the popular gain. With privatization government has a buffer to take the wind out of public outcries about price hikes, but the public will continue with the hue and cry where they have a say as long as the term franchise applies, also, any government sector that lets private companies milk the public will face public discontent. It is up to the government to state the terms of its ordinance and schemes of control, but within that framework, the company running the show has to be dealt with at arms-length - Hong Kong's famous laissez-faire government at its best. Possibly, another look needs taking at the boards of public companies. While the chairman of a major government operation will be chosen by the Governor, the board should be a mix of executive and non-executives representing different categories of public and business life. Today this is not done. The phenomenon of the many-hats is today's norm. In practice the executives should stick to their briefs while the non-executives remain objective under the fact and act as independent councillors. The whole has to take on collective responsibility. Unfortunately, the part-time non-executives have conflicts of loyalty which should have been avoided from the onset so their own business dealings have to be out in the open and open to fair objection. Acting together, the board is supposed to set out the nature of the business, its manner of approaching its aims and to establish objectives and strategy - the role of each participant has to be clearly laid down. The essential ingredient is the co-operative spirit for the benefit of the greater whole - society. Brazil's dabble in neo-liberalism type privatization led to Unemployment, high inflation, rigid monetary controls, high interest rates and a sad and impoverished people, according to politician Itamar Franco. Brazil's leading newspaper, Jornal do Brasil, reported in January 1993 that nearly a third of the population - some 45 million people - now live on as little as US$10 to $15 a month. Uruguayans have soundly rejected the sale of government enterprises. Scandals have mired privatization in Argentina. Venezuela's Mayor of Caracas, Aristobulo Isturiz, vehemently opposes privatisation. To most Russians the 'free market' has become a means whereby gangsters and entrepreneurs rob public assets. Czechoslovakia has lost its free health care system. Poland, battered by high unemployment, has daily drives against government policies. The caution bell has surely been sounded on privatization because it has proved an engine of human misery. Foreign Capital and International Banking A full set of laws covering foreign investment to be sanctioned, regulating capital coming from non-Hong Kong sources - with increasing vigilance the further away the source, and the technology - and providing inter alia for these factors. While retaining the essence of Hong Kong's free-wheeling business practices on a lesser scale, the government needs to have the means to control the profits and payments remitted abroad, through an organism created to that effect. Also, to ensure that investments are framed within the territory's overall economic policy, to ensure that technology is up-to-date and that it is adapted to the economic development of Hong Kong and that its effect on the environment is acceptable, without the installation of dirty industries. That foreign banks and financial entities function entirely with their own capital, restricting their activities to the financial and commercial undertakings with the country they come from and not counting on Hong Kong government support. Consideration given to Counter-trade as anything that is frowned upon by the IMF, the World Bank, GATT and other official bodies cannot be all bad. There needs to be a review of the workings of international trade institutions - such as GATT. While the HA can understand the need for regional trade blocks, simply because of the economics of internal transportation and complementation, international institutions such as GATT have built-in negative operands to the effect GATT works to re-colonise weak economies. In GATT-talk free trade is a myth designed to open 'Third World' markets to Western multinationals. Anyway, how long will Asia allow itself to be held hostage by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the EC's single market? How long will Asia allow itself to be threatened by the USA's Section 301 trade law and the MFN conditionals? The Other Economic Summit (TOES, which takes place parallel to the Group of Seven (G7) talks, as took place in Tokyo, July 1993, discussed the measures needed to protect Third World infant industries, also, the way cheap food imports drive peasant farmers off the land into urban unemployment lines. These two issues indicate the seriousness with which GATT talks are seen by the less developed countries of the world. Within GATT, there are proposals for the elimination of non-tariff based restrictions by the 21st century which would give free reign to environmentally destructive farming methods. The farmers unions themselves issued a statement during those G7 talks, saying, "Trade liberalisation must not be pursued to the detriment of the numerous elements necessary for food production, for the environment and for the preservation of viable rural life." GATT was seen as only helping international trading companies and shippers, not the world's food producers. The farmer's union declaration upheld the right of every nation to.... "retain authority to shape food policy for its security and the health of its citizens." The intent of the declaration was to safeguard self-sufficiency measures for any country. Interest-free monetary system The following is a brief rendition of the written works of the German economist Dr. Margrit Kennedy<$IKennedy, Margrit>, as they appeared in the Humanist Association's magazine New Directions, Winter, 1992. There, Dr. Kennedy made clear the tight link between the seemingly separate crisis of the world's economy and the planet's ecology. That the ecology of a place and indeed the planet, and its human economy, are becoming ever more interwoven - locally, regionally, nationally, and globally - as a network of causes and effects. 'In 1890 Silvio Gesel had a theory on money and a 'natural economic order' which was in advance of his time. It concerned an interest-free monetary system where money was subject to a holding fee - ie., banks would have to pay to hold it! This is the reverse of today's practise. 'Sadly, as a consequence of the debt crisis, many region's natural resources are being used, not for development, but to meet financial obligations to creditors outside that country. This is one example of how our present monetary system works virtually everywhere unconstitutionally. 'Also, based on interest and compound interest, borrowed money doubles at regular intervals, following an exponential growth curve which graphically illustrates the trouble with an interest-based monetary system. The monetary system works in a hidden way. So much so that common misunderstanding holds that we pay interest only when we borrow money. So, to avoid paying interest, just avoid borrowing money! Not true, because part of every price paid is an amount of interest, which varies depending on the labour versus capital costs of the goods and services purchased. 'Within the monetary system is a hidden redistribution mechanism that constantly deals money from those who have less money than they need to those who have more money than they need. Marx was saying something about this when he pointed at the source of the 'added value' in the production sphere. The distribution of that 'added value', however, takes place in circulation. 'Great political and religious leaders such as Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Luther, Zwingli and Gandhi did try to get rid of social injustice by denouncing interest payments. They grasped the root of the problem but they could not pull it up. There was prohibition of interest payments among Christians during the Middle Ages in Europe, but that merely shifted the problem over to the Jews, who became the leading bankers of the world. While the Jewish were not allowed to take interest from each other - they could do so from non-Jewish. 'Besides the inherent violence of a steadily opening divide between the rich and the poor in industrially developing and industrialised nations alike, two further problems of the interest based system need attention: military build-up and the environmental exploitation of planet earth. 'Bankers and their ilk know that the workings of this interest-based system cannot go on indefinitely but at the same time do not know what do about it or are afraid to know of a workable alternative - the supply of interest-free money which would eradicate one of the world's most pressing economic problems.' Dr Margrit Kennedy speaks clearly when saying that there can be no accusation of those who, at present, profit from the interest system as this is totally within their legal rights; also; that what can be stopped however is the continual on-going extraction out of a given economy of money without work; further, that there should be no regulation as to where or how money may be invested in the future by those who have more than they need - if they are intelligent, they'll keep it in the country anyway, which would create a new economic boom. This will happen when there is the mutual understanding that everybody will profit from such a change in the long run, even those who would seem to lose in the short run. Two supporting measures are essential for a full success of the interest-free-monetary system - land and tax reforms. Dr Kennedy says that a land reform similar to the monetary reform must be introduced - because without this reform surplus money might be invested in land and begin to extract a work-free income there. She also insists that the way taxes are levied needs changing: ie., abolish income tax because income tax makes more mechanization necessary and secondly because it causes the consumption of finite resources through increasingly cheap consumer products. A tax on products, instead - which would include the pollution prevention costs - would make products relatively more expensive but labour inexpensive, she maintains. These reforms, of the monetary system, of land ownership, of taxation methods to pay for what a government provides, are not to be enacted in isolation but as part of a general reorientation of government policies. Industry The industrial policy is the cornerstone for building a self-sufficient - within the context of Hong Kong's circumstances - and technologically advanced Hong Kong which is part of and integral to the SAR of China. Without raw materials, the industrial zones are best sited near the ports, or, when China is the likely source of the respective raw materials, towards or over the ever-more-tenuous border. A process of decentralisation of crammed industries is necessary, bringing about regional development rather than monolithic spreading of industry that demands massive transport with peak hour transit problems and long hours of under-use. But without allowing any urban sprawl to take place, rather with respect given to the countryside. This decentralisation balanced in practice by having factories grouped together as industrial zones, then waste treatment can be better carried out. Industries that go towards the satisfaction of the basic needs and self-sufficiency in health related matters need to be granted privileges. Stalled industries need to be given attention to bring idle machinery and resources and skill back into use, using co-operative systems and tax relief, and by the offer of credit facilities. The HA wants to differentiate between subsidy and support, particularly for long-term technological support. The government of any well run country supports its industries, certainly the other 'little dragons' do so aggressively. Support comes within the realms of 'minimum interference'. Subsidizing an industry may be necessary to protect it until that industry is able to gain strength enough to take on the competition. The government's industrial policy needs to reflect that distinction. Fewer industrialists are making substantial long-term investments in Hong Kong but for the last ten years they have been moving their manufacturing lines outside of the territory. Quotas are one reason for manufacturers remaining in Hong Kong. High level of skill and reasonable costs have also figured in keeping manufacturers in Hong Kong. Manufacturers are happy when the profit tax rate stays low and predictable. To promote industry, the HA proposes an immediate expansion of the Industry and Technology Council as an organisation with financial resources and professionals employed in its ranks - a good example is the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. In all of the above though a polluters-must-pay policy needs to be implemented as the guiding principle tackling pollution at source, while polluters need to be educated on how to profit from waste treatment, seeing waste as a resource - the technologies are available. Buildings and processes need to be made energy efficient. In the near future, use of gas and coal will be given priority over oil, as China has coal and off-shore gas. Research into the use of non-conventional energy sources needs to be done locally besides monitoring developments elsewhere. Revitalisation of small scale industries is needed as they are the back-bone of industrial development. Toward a more human-based economic order Banking Government run Central Bank needed with entirely local allegiance. Adaptation of the interest rate as a function going towards economic buoyancy. With the lending rate standing at 10.5 percent p.a. in 1993 and the saving rate kept low at about 3 percent the difference becomes the regular profit of the bank which is unfair to citizens and gives no incentive to save. The prime interest rate brought down (5 percent maximum) and kept down as high interest rates do the most serious damage to all sectors. If the Hong Kong Association of Banks was made unlawful, instead of having government sanction then banks would be in full competition and would strive to be more efficient. Then they could pay higher interest rates to savers. The Hong Kong Bank could be 'nationalised' or special case privatized to rest in the arms of Hong Kong resident status shareholders - an independent monetary authority with a charter that prohibits interference by banks is needed in the meantime. Hong Kong Association of Banks to be dissolved as it acts as a cartel against the small saver where all services are over charged - it appears that banks have forgotten they are using saver's money and in return are supposed to supply a banking service. Banks to remove all banking and transaction costs associated with small depositors. Local banks to have participation of community representatives from the locality. Bank policy to outline a socially responsible approach to the local community which includes: information relating to how banks meet the needs of the community depositing with it - where small scale operations are favoured; also, loans for the provision of affordable housing; assistance to small business; investment in research and development of technology that is consistent with a sustainable local economy. A register of ethical and sustainable investment opportunities to be established to provide information and advice to banks and bankers. Laws on credit banking and co-operatives taken out of the cupboard, and the fostering of genuinely co-operative banking undertaken. Dollar link, as long as it remains, brought down to $6.30. But better tie our dollar to the Swiss Frank which is backed by gold or have a commodity-backed monetary system - anyway, unpeg from US dollar and link to a basket of reliable currencies. The US dollar is paper covering a deep hole. 'Between 1988 and 1990 the US federal debt held by the Fed was about US$225 billion. From the first quarter of 1990 to the first of 1993 the debt the Fed held spiked upwards to an unprecedented US$400 billion', figures from Leon Richardson, in the Sunday Post business section. That's the size of the hole! Tax system reform: Consideration of income tax as against present salary tax. Heavy capital tax on unused or non-productive land - guarding against holding land for speculation - to ferment the creation of small enterprises and co-operatives; reduction of the amount of tax payable by those companies that follow the norms of the territory's development plan. No indirect taxes as a general principle, eg., less tax on fuel, beer and cigarettes. Although the stated notion of tax free alcohol and tobacco is correct in principle, in practise, treating them as very much in the domain of the working man and women but nevertheless commodities that should not escape taxation - betting, alcohol and tobacco to have a limited 15 percent tax figure. Indirect taxes on luxury goods, high-priced cars, yachts, furs - no to general sales tax under present system. Profits tax on properties resold within three years of purchase. Donations to charitable causes tax free and lifted up to 50 percent (as in the USA) of the assessable income - full tax relief for special case donations to special projects acceptable by government. Small businesses and sole proprietorships 15 percent tax, limited companies, etc 19 percent. No stamp duty on stock market for either local or overseas investors. Elimination of the different systems of indexation in either the official or private sector. Budget based on principle of redistribution. Annual raise in personal allowances - $70,000 for individuals and $150,000 for families (based on 1993 figures). People earning above $500,000 a year pay additional 1.25 percent, those earning $1 million or more paying 18.5 percent. Budget based on revenue not expenditure when presenting papers on financial position, (ie., no selective statements) with true definition of Public Sector (presently excludes Metro Transit Railway (MTR) and Kowloon Canton Railway Company (KCR) with government budget strategy published for public perusal, the media to be provided with the information on which government policies and decisions are made. Miscellaneous: Government undertakings related to the sectors of basic industry, energy and communications strengthened through a general policy of limiting expenditures and by using efficient technology. Reintroduce Duty Free Shopping for transit lounge tourists and air travellers - in co-operation with other countries by obtaining goods at duty free prices, as an attraction bringing more tourists to Hong Kong. Excessive, inefficient government services 'privatized' for higher efficiency and to avoid taxpayer costs. Conveyancing through licensed estate agents without lawyers. Anti-trust legislation or Monopolies Commission needed, for example, to force open Cathay Pacific Airways' monopoly in Hong Kong, allowing Dragonair or other locally based airlines to operate profitably. Audits un-necessary for small companies with small number of shareholders, instead a 'certificate of comfort' signed by all the shareholders. The Trade Development Council to adhere closer to its original concerns that are to do with trade development only - it should not be a competitor in the private sector as it has a government organised subsidy. Exchange Fund figures to remain open to public view (December 31st 1992, HK$287 billion). When conditions allow: Co-ordinated actions of government companies and production and consumption co-operatives, in order to maintain stable prices for essential 'family basket' commodities. Auditing control over the price structures of monopolist companies through an ad hoc organism with the participation of government and representatives and workers of those companies - same regimen of auditing control over the 'top-rank' companies. **************************************************** Chapter VII From Public Utilities to Foreign Trade Platform - Part 6. Public Utilities - Chek Lap Kok and the new airport - Shipping and Ports - Transport - transport for the disabled - energy - Resources of Sea, Land and Forest Agriculture and Fisheries - sea - land - water - Declaration of Farmers and Fishers Rights - forest - country parks. Co-operation and the International Economy - Foreign Trade Asian Trade - International Solidarity - Asian Solidarity Solidarity with China. On Availing What's Available Chek Lap Kok and New Airport This important facility should have been built inland SAR serving entire region, however, given the go ahead of the Chek Lap Kok project, a high proportion of costs must be met from outside Hong Kong, without Hong Kong incurring external debt. Regarding the replacement airport in relation to the environment, questions have been raised by quite a few critics concerning the replacement airport at Chek Lap Kok. These are usually the more unorthodox thinking members of various professions ranging from the likes of investment advisor Mark Faber, then managing Director of Drexel Burnham Lambert (HK); 'gargantuan white elephant' - to Mr Sulke, ex-politician in the HK context, who in his regular column in the Hong Kong Standard prefers to '....build it in mainland China at much lower costs, less environmental damage and to serve Southern China and Macau as well.' There is only a small ground swell of applause for these views because most eyes are on the still rising HK$163 billion figure (1993) and the Hong Kong government have only four years to squeeze the region of ready profits, like extracting landfill from a site then selling the resultant hole - the land belonging to someone else. A combined international airport serving the entire Southern China region would make more sense from many angles. A dedicated fast rail link would comfortably serve the airport. The flat land in Shenzhen can be levelled into an airport much cheaper than in Hong Kong with all of the land fill, reclamation and breakwater building; also, Hong Kong does not need the industrial build-up as it is moving into a service economy and away from manufacturing as is well attested by government records; there is no labour shortage over in Guangdong Province; Hong Kong does not have enough recreational space as it is and tourism with clean beaches and a tidy Lantau would be a cheaper and more cost-effective and sustainable option. Anyway, Hong Kong is eventually going to be just another port city of southern China. With an international airport in Shenzhen, Hong Kong could keep Kai Tak as an SAR domestic facility as Tokyo's Haneda is in relation to Narita airport. There is no need to have airports in Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and Canton plus other small airports in adjacent areas when a single large scale airport in Shenzhen would suffice. Cargo traffic is bound to get less from Hong Kong as the centres of China's growing commerce leaves its old routes and cargo is channelled from modernised facilities elsewhere in the SAR - from ports now under construction. Hong Kong under the SAR is different from a free-wheeling Hong Kong and demand can be expected to reflect that difference. Macau is well into its ambitious plans for a $3.5 billion terminal (1990 figures), including an international airport, once scheduled to be opened in 1993. That, plus the Shenzhen Airport (domestic) in the planning stage, all, including the Hong Kong projection, massive programs, all contending for custom in the area so far served by Kai Tak. Macau expects to handle 1.5 million passengers a year at its start-up, increasing to 3.5 million in five years with a final target of handling 260,000 tonnes of cargo a year, although these figures are small compared with the planned Chek Lap Kok airport. Co-ordinated air traffic control is going to be essential. Environmentalists are against the new airport because it seriously and negatively effects Lantau Island, one of the few spacious areas where people can get away from stress inducing Hong Kong-Kowloon. But, there is no united, strong and vocal opposition. The islanders on Lantau are mostly traditional rural people who accept what is given while those in positions of village authority are well placed to get financial rewards as land and property owners, and they themselves are often a strong force among the local developers. It has been commented by the HA that with the halting of the around-the-island ferry service and the disintegration of communities owing to that lack of transport, the diminishing of the fishing industry owing to a lack of support by government, the lack of employment possibilities in villages like Tai O causing locals to leave for better opportunities elsewhere (skilled farmers and gardeners taking low paid work in the construction industry) because there is no farming policy and rice ceased to be grown in Tung Chung after 1988, then the island of Lantau has been made ready for the big developers, prepared by the government, who took their slice at each level of every land deal and building project in licence fees and ever increasing land premiums. In that manner the whole redevelopment scheme can be seen as an economic engine to keep the economy buoyant in the uncertain times before the 1997 hand-over. The prestigious MTRC has cautioned that Chek Lap Kok is remote from the urban area, requires relatively long road and rail links, including two major sea crossings. Also, that previous studies for a Western Harbour location showed that a much shorter rail link would only be viable if supported by a resident population of around 500,000 in the airport vicinity. Airport traffic alone will generate only 80,000 - 100,000 passenger movements per day, compared with an MTR line peak capacity of 75,000 per hour. Utilization at or close to this figure for an appreciable period of the day is the key to financial viability. Another negative factor is the sure demand by private investors to have high toll fees to give a speedy return on their money. At the 21st anniversary meeting of the oldest environmental concern group, the Conservancy Association, Graham Barnes, then Secretary of Planning, Environment and Lands, said the government had not yet decided if it would publish the series of environment impact reports covering the construction of the new port and airport! The northern coasts of Lantau is reputed to be the greatest wilderness area in all of Hong Kong and a habitat of undocumented species even today. A welcome sigh of relief met the news of a government 'no' to China Light and Power's request to site an electricity generating station at Fan Lau. Their will be a deafening silence if the Lantau Airport scheme is called off, and in that silence will be heard, a happily trilling background swell of insect and bird song. That's the reward and the younger generation will thank us for our unwilling foresight when they, in turn, take charge. Shipping and Ports The merchant fleet needs to be nurtured at least to a minimum level. The Hong Kong Shipping Registry is a good foundation safeguarding the maintenance of Hong Kong's own fleet. Registration in Hong Kong has to give benefits to Hong Kong ship owners vis a vis other flag carriers otherwise no point in Hong Kong registration - course of action, expand benefits. Transport Speaking about the demand for transport in general, Simon So Kwan Yiu, the HA's first candidate in elections (see Chapter XII) says. There was a start with better city planning in the 80s, separating the areas where people lived from industrial areas. Eventually a lot of people moved out to new towns, mostly in the New Territories, but that provoked the 'rush hour' problem. At the same time China began opening its doors to attract investment, providing free land for factories. Seeking cheaper labour and conditions, firms did set up in China. Without port facilities all those goods have to be transported via Hong Kong resulting in great demand and heavy road use. It makes sense to have people living near their work, particularly with offices near new towns. Government can relocate away from Central and Kowloon and more high class apartments can be built around new towns for executive staff. Also, Hong Kong can help China establish ports and piers for export and import of containers, encouraging the use of sea traffic to reduce road use." Proposals Tight control over the parking of long wheel-base articulated vehicles coming from and going to China - their owners made to pay special road taxes as their loads and profits do little to help the general population of Hong Kong. Greater use of non-motorised transport such as walking and cycling, and public transport. Bicycle parks near bus stations, railways and ferry piers. Public transport overburdened during peak use hours; firms recommended to introduce flexitime working hours. Private non-commercial vehicles prohibited from using cross harbour tunnels during the working day. More cycle tracks alongside roads and highways. Pedestrian walkways - as exemplified running from the Macau Ferry Terminal, along Connaught Road, Central, to Admiralty - needed to encourage walking. More traffic free streets, particularly on holidays. Tram system upgraded by introduction of electric trolley bus system with overhead wires and all electric inner-city taxis. Mandatory inspection of vehicle engines and emissions. Phase out leaded petrol. Measures to encourage car pooling. Schools to use public transport system. Open up distant points of New Territories and Outlying Islands with limited services. Transport companies operating under government franchise, particularly those with monopoly situations, to be curtailed in their business activities diversifying away from transport to the extent their major profits stem from those other sources - with a ruling that minor investments only are allowed, eg, to run a ferry terminal coffee shop, etc. Public companies cannot be allowed to play with consumer's money. Scheme of Control (franchises and public utilities) conditions to be amended: when the government has given indirect subsidies and facilities not afforded to any other commercial activity on the basis that they would be used to assist the companies providing public services, then that privilege must not be abused. The ferry company for instance has diversified into hotels, restaurants and supermarkets after cancelling unprofitable routes, raising fares, nudging government for further indirect subsidies (further side-line investment) and fare hikes on all routes. The ferry company was granted its ferry pier sites and concourses either free or at preferential rates. With the present arrangements who is to judge whether the trunk or the branches represents the essential operating cash and which one loses or profits? Detailed accounting is needed. Make available an unlimited number of taxi licences, with capital gains tax on speculative trading of taxi licences. Airport tax kept at a convenient HK$100, no charge for young persons 17 or under. Motorised carts as used in rural areas to have driver walking not sitting. Study European city transport system of no fare collection. Transport needs for disabled: Make public transport accessible to everyone, including the wheelchair-bound disabled. Extend Rehabus services; introduce bigger route maps on the front of buses; reduce slippery floors; continue dialogue between MTR and disabled on use of staff lifts for wheelchair users. Franchise conditional to provision of proper services for disabled; low-floored vehicles, lifts, extra handrails and non-slip decks. Expansion of disabled transport services. Proposals Government needs to place limits on public utilities profit levels by tightening operational criteria. Research is needed into the establishment of separate authorities needed to run public services, on the lines of the Housing Authority. Charges for electricity, gas and water services needs to be kept affordable yet sufficiently high to pay the full cost of production to encourage efficiency. Heavy users pay more, not less. Energy Increased energy conservation and efficiency and as soon as feasible, replace non-renewable sources with renewables. Two pronged aim - to bring about a real reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and to bring about increases in the rate greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere. Educate the trade to incorporate energy efficient design into new buildings and use of home insulation against heat and cold, better motors and off-peak hardware. Inverted tariffs on major energy users - not discounts. Major decisions by energy producers to be publicly debated with appeals going before the Commissioner for Complaints. Energy sales to SAR and Greater China under scheme of control that prevents polluting industries operating to excess here in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong consumer paying for power firm's expansion of generating capacity. Resources of Sea, Land and Forest To recall a saying by Margaret Ng, long time activist in speaking out about people's rights, on this occasion the demonstration by farmers at the imposed anti-pollution laws, SCMP, July 1986: 'Don't let us forget, these environmental days, that the environmentalist's job is not done just by the suitable technology revolution but by using technology to help people to live and do things in such a way as to enable them to maintain a clean environment. A true environmentalist, I understand, is not a technologist but a humanist who uses technology to solve people's needs.' In a more recent comment from Hong Kong, civil engineer Naresh Kiorala stated(1) that there are numerous obstacles in the way of environmentalists succeeding in getting what they demand, namely: the world's composition as nation states with vastly different standards of living and the justified right of every nation to enhance their material well being to meet rising expectations of its people; the rapidly growing populations in developing countries and their need for economic development to match the rate of population growth; the notion that the economic growth of every nation, regardless of their current state of well being, must continue indefinitely; and, the inability of the environmentalists and other pressure groups to provide viable alternatives compatible with the current social and economic thinking in regard to 'major developments plans' as proposed by the conventional economists and planners. Mr Kiorala further commented that: 'The most serious of these obstacles is probably the division of the world into nation states. The developing countries consider imposition of ceilings on them on the use of 'polluting' energy sources discriminatory as historically the developed countries have reached the current level of development by using similar resources (even today the developed countries contribute more towards global environmental degradation than developing countries). Without continued use of cheap energy and cheaply produced factory products humanism in the developing countries will, it is argued, remain in the deplorable state it is in today. There is thus clear conflict between short term national interest and global interest. 'The total global population is projected to reach anywhere between 8.5 billion to 13.5 billion by 2050. The commercial energy consumption at that date is expected to be about 82 percent over the current level. Similarly, the waste generated is expected to grow to 4,522 billion tons, a 90 percent increase over the current level. The global supplies of fresh water shrunk from 33,300 cubic metres per person per year in 1985 to 8,500 per person today. What is evident is not only the deficiency of fresh water but also that the carrying capacity of water as a cleaner and recycler of human wastes and pollution will be of serious concern by the year 2050. 'The pressure due to population could be neutralised if our lifestyles and definition of development were sympathetic to the pursuit of sustainable development and conservation. Unfortunately they are not. Our society operates on the premise that economic development must continue infinitely and the measure of a developed civilisation is the level of its consumption. Thus the world appears to be in the race for unbridled consumption and consequent waste generation. There is little doubt the earth will not be able to sustain the pressure on its resources if the developing countries were to reach the same level of consumption as the industrialised world. 'Regarding cleaning up, experts claim, what can be done to clean up existing technologies has already been done in the last 15 years. Moving beyond this will probably be economically prohibitive for developing countries.' Finally, 'Mega projects will continue to be developed and sustainable development and conservation will not be achieved unless: we are prepared to see the globe as one world instead of an assemblage of nations with conflicting priorities; we realise the absurdity of economic growth to infinity; and, we understand that a consumerist culture is anti-environmental and anti-humanistic' . Agriculture and Fisheries Special considerations needs to be given to the agricultural and fishery industries as labour intensive industries with a traditional base in the region. Sea Fishing, fundamental to Hong Kong's social life with the local provision of sea food, demands as a first priority that the seas around Hong Kong be cleaned. Every village fronting the sea to have areas put aside specifically for its fishing community, including residential areas near the sea. The likes of cold storage facilities to be made available as part of the marketing co-operative enterprises. Small shipyards with sufficient area for workshops and wood storage in plans for outlying villages with fishing fleets. To quote Jonathan Grey, General Secretary, Joint Ass'n of Hong Kong Fishermen, long time fighter for fishermen's rights: The fishermen of Hong Kong are seeking a better deal from the government. We supply 95 percent of the territories fish, we comprise a workforce of 100,000 men and women. Our deep sea fishing capability is hardly equalled among the South East Asian nations as far as productivity is concerned, yet we get little hearing from officials on our various concerns. Our men and women are not seen on television except when there is an accident, we have not been able to voice our opinions nor lobby in the way of political organisations. Our people, taking us as a group, seem to be considered nomadic, as we are not granted land rights as are farmers, yet we are pressured to settle ashore. Now Shaukiwan is to be closed to us, what will happen to the Shaukiwan fishing community? We have ID cards but hardly an identity. We pay taxes and make minimum use of facilities. Education of our children is not given special regard in the light of our fishing related needs. To keep abreast of changes we invest millions in tackle and machinery, but in training, well, what can we do unaided? Among those leaving Hong Kong for other places in the world, you are not likely to find a fisherman among them. Fortunately for Hong Kong, we have never considered moving away, it is not part of our new horizon of options, all we ask is adequate representation and you, the government, and you the people, should know you will get your monies worth from us. We are part of the assured future, no matter what. To fish is our life and livelihood. Possibly we are lumped along with the farmers when it comes to assessing the future, Hong Kong seen as going totally industrial, farming not having a high priority. This is a mistake. However, we do share the plight of the farmer in that our young are not impressed to follow in our experienced elder's footsteps. Just like on the land plots where the gardeners and farmers are all elderly, if remarkably sprightly and of undaunted spirit." Land Put A Stop To The Concrete Block A talk subtitled 'Pointers on Planning and Land Use' given at the Space Museum, 18th June 1993, by Tony Henderson. Organised by Green Power and sponsored by the Centre for Environmental Campaign Committee. Government departments and Green groups also presented views. "I live in Mui Wo, on Lantau. Once the village had great character, but it was let get run down. Presently the old village is nothing but a building site. A rural area, farming and vegetable gardening were major occupations of the locals. As has happened in many places, the young and fit were attracted to the bright lights of the city, and those left behind to work the land to produce are the elderly who cannot work elsewhere. "Production from the land is not encouraged by government. Neither by the local landowners who are afraid of losing their entitlement to land so are reluctant to sub-let. Speculation in land is rife. There are problems of land fragmentation into small plot sizes. Also, multiple land ownership and absentee landlords, mistrust between landowners and tenant-farmers, competitive use by non-agricultural enterprises, remoteness of land and a lack of agricultural infrastructure. One result is under-utilization of land the other result is many people are not free to choose their way of life. Intending farmers always find it difficult to rent land. "This lack of a farming policy has caused the land to gradually became derelict, therefore available for building. In the case of small plot landowners they found they could build on their land - with easy conversion of land use - selling off two out of the three flats they built on the site meant they could enjoy a life O'Riley living off the rent. "Various organisations, the District Office, District Board, even the Rural Committee and Grazier's Union never attempted to bring the land back into use to produce despite that the latter's members are mostly small plot gardeners. So the question is, why are people not interested in working the land? "One point, no one can compete with the cheap prices of vegetables brought in from China. Not today anyway. Another is the small size of the local population with limited demand for vegetables, so limited local sales. Supermarkets can supply chicken from Denmark much cheaper than the local chicken. Until very recently locals could get a good selection of local goods, sold on the streets from 7am till about 9.30am. But the government built a huge concrete market and insisted all vendors go inside off the street and the anti-hawker patrols drove way those hawkers who didn't have sufficient need to use this huge building as they only needed a site for a couple of hours each day. Now there is a reduced variety of goods for sale, and a reduced number of local sellers. The entire arrangement is a disservice to the local community. In an increasing number of people's eyes, the Regional Council is seen to be senseless, unseeing and uncaring. "Many landowners in the villages around Mui Wo are busy building three storey flats which other locals cannot afford to dwell in or purchase. Meanwhile, the government wins money from the builders, the present owners, and the new owners by way of licence fees and stamp duties, and then from rates. The public utilities companies increase their incomes also. A minority gains. "But, all of this is neglecting the land as people pour concrete in ever increasing amounts. Especially the city folk who abhor snakes, and mosquitoes, so concrete gardens are favoured. Only the expense stops people pouring cement over the hills as well - at least that would prevent hill fires. "While many such anecdotes can be collected in similar vein, enough has been said. Who or what are the major causes of this attitude which gives no value to productive land that is farmed, providing a variety of livelihoods and lifestyles, beauty, and useful products - especially for the aged who would otherwise have nowhere to turn a useful hand. The intangible value of rural sights to city-bound visitors has to be included. In Mui Wo video games are forgotten as the sight of a cow elicits gasps of delight - as if it were a giraffe. "Positively, homes are built and with an expanding population, homes are needed. At bottom is the grasp after the dollar, by private individuals and by companies and not least by government ever in search of more revenue. They should look to the Midas Phenomenon - where, given a wish by the magic fairy, the silly king asked that everything he touched be turned into gold. In delight at the future prospect, he hugged his only daughter! "What if there was a change in policy by government - and a general education exercise to back that up - supported by effective measures making those in positions of local power accountable. That is, the Regional Councillor, the District Board member and associated committees, the Islands District Officer and his officials, the Rural Committee men, the people on Kai Fong and temple associations and like bodies, making all these accountable. How can these be made accountable to the local people? By participatory and representative government with power over the disbursement of the local cash allocation. Not just a sum to cover rubbish collection and grass cutting. Everything, including decisions about who works in the local library, etc. Local jobs for local people. Local supplies for local needs. Local growers and fishers to be granted permits to sell on the street again. "The Mui Wo area could regain its rural character if building is stopped now. There is the Permission Area Development scheme, a planning intention that leaves a green belt around villages to stop them solidifying into one solid mass of housing. This is to retain village character. Why is this not put into practise? "Land between buildings could be offered as garden allotments to anyone interested with proximity to the site taken as first offer-first choice. For example, anyone wanting a garden could apply to the government for allocation of a plot. People in the Public Housing Estate would be delighted. Similarly, those wanting to farm could be provided with land according to the scale of their farming plan. Schools can run small scale farming and market gardening courses. Such courses need to be part of rural education. Local children need education to fit local conditions otherwise of course they will leave for the city if that is all they are trained for. Young people have to understand all the effort it takes to grow food, to catch fish, to conserve water, to prevent hill fires, etc. As land owners are reluctant to part with their land or rights to it for free then the government must purchase their land - at the current agricultural land market prices - to make land available to the Mui Wo community. Then it will need a public relations exercise to inform people and encourage them. The locals will be happy to have a garden - a real boon in retirement. "The government will then have spent wisely and in the long term with all round economic benefits of local employment and a rural style the effective income gap between commuters and residents will have been reduced. With intelligent planning given government advice through the Ag. and Fish Dept., higher income-bringing cash crops, herbs and flowers, can be produced. If the fish farms were brought back into use (defunct for ten years now) more rural employment could be created. With composting of all road and path cuttings - trees, shrubbery, and all organic waste, gardeners would have a source of fertilizer-humus making up for the lack of an agricultural base as exists in a rice culture or where there is general farming. Then gardeners would not be dependant on sales tactics of modern gardening business practices which depend on chemical synthetics for everything. The law against pig and chicken farming will have to be removed with control over effluent produced - so simple to effect given an interest that is not leaning towards free subsidies and compensations. Farmers have to get back to basics too! This is not going back to old ways so much as revitalising traditional methods given up-to-date knowledge on non-petroleum based additives such as the use of rock dust with humus and compost, with companion planting, sustainable mutually reciprocating growing systems, and natural methods of noxious insect predation. The government will have to ask itself why hundreds of horses can be lawfully kept in the middle of Hong Kong, in Happy Valley, but not even a single pig on Lantau? "In general, people in Mui Wo are apathetic because they see everyone is out for themselves (according to a survey carried out by Humanist Association early in 1993) and that no one cares for their plight. They feel the laziness of easy answers and see the cash profits for very few. "Someone has to show that things can be different. Those in charge of land planning and use of land have to stop seeing themselves as just another department carrying out government orders. They know government has no policy. Their responsibility is to write a land use policy regarding their domain that makes sense at the local level in each district, whether Central or Shau Tau Kok. Of course the plan for Central will be different from Shau Tau Kok; parks and recreational green and inner city wildlife areas are called for to cheer the inner city. "In all of this the Ag and Fish. Dept. have a major role to play but not in a passive 'acting on complaints' basis, but in an active advice giving role where younger minded officers will be thrilled to come to work on Mondays! "Environmental control needs to be extracted from Planning and Lands Department unless it is the all powerful guiding hand. Under today's operating conditions it is but an afterthought, a cursed afterthought at that. The EPD is presently the PCD, Pollution Control Department. The passive stance is the problem. The real issues are not tackled; they are not on the agenda. "Developers need to see their responsibility and not just place profits and costs above everything else. Don't they believe they are building for people wanting to pass life as pleasantly as possible, for their own children - don't they feel that? "All these foreign names, the British, the French, the American and Japanese. They are here to make money yes? Of course. But the Hong Kong belonger is not only into money, he and she is here to live. Rather should the government give contracts to Hong Kong firms. Keen architects have to be given the freedom to incorporate energy efficiency and sustainable methodologies that result in pleasant living and work situations. The main problem with the simpler solutions offered by appropriate technology is a lack of major costs, of lucrative contracts or need for highly paper-qualified experts from outside of Hong Kong. It seems the professionals are not interested in 'low' technology because there are few profits to be made! "With a change in attitude all this can be done. The expertise and the money is in Hong Kong. The trouble is people are living in a dream world. They are not free. They have sold themselves to the highest bidder. It is the same or worse in government departments. Most are bored at work and only wait for the weekends and holidays. Civil servants don't act on what they know, mostly they work without feeling for their work. All those hours wasted by non-satisfying work when they could be living fully, at the same job. This negative detachment is today called professionalism. "Freedom comes when people do what they feel is good and right. It is personal freedom that is at stake while tying others into second best too. The answers sought do not lie elsewhere, all the answers are here. Let's put a stop to the concrete block!" Proposals Changes in land policy, giving priority to rehouse the needy - not land sales - profits going to Public Housing Scheme. The government's Land Development Corporation (LDC) to gain support of 80 percent of the landowners in a designated development zone before it approaches the Land Tribunal with any development projects - untraceable landlords and owners not included in the 80 percent . The LDC to be responsible for compensating and resettling occupants of illegal structures on rooftops and in back lanes in the designated development zones. Shops in the zones also to be given reasonable resettlement. All resettlement in the same district wherever possible. The public and District Boards to be consulted in development planning and progress regularly reported to District Boards for their comments with progress reports open to public view. Development of sustainable farming practices which repair and restore the productivity of soils. Where land is rendered marginal and unproductive, it should be revegetated to restore pre-existing eco-systems, or be reforested. Promote rate and tax incentives for land repair. Encourage consultative groups of botanists, industry people, farmers, and voluntary conservation groups to plan and implement strategies for rehabilitation of land and water resources. Urgent attention to the annual destruction by fire outbreaks on the hills. Farmers are often overlooked when government claims land for change of use with the non-farming land owner getting the money in that exchange and the farmers simply leaving the land. The person farming the land must be compensated. In 1961 Hong Kong had some 70,000 working peasant farmers and including their families some 140,000 people earned their living from the land. By 1971 these figures had declined to 30,000, or 90,000 including dependants. By 1985 only 24,000 working farmers remained, just one percent of the working population. Many farming families emigrated after the 1967 Leftist riots in Hong Kong. According to the Graziers' Union rice cultivation had mostly died out by 1979. The fate on one group of farmers was recorded from 1984 when sixty peasant families lived in Tai Chek Sha, a farming village near Sai Kung. When the government decided to develop the Junk Bay area all the fields were taken over and the villagers had to move. Most remained unemployed after getting moved to public housing estates. This has continuously happened with the older farmers not able to find work. Most farmers had only rented land from others, thus they got a minimal compensation on a five-grade scale. It is disgusting that compensation was given at HK$2.20 a square foot. But to buy land it costs about HK$1,000 per square foot which was the top price after re-zoning. With the new airport at Chek Lap Kok, that same government process was re-run in the early 90s just like a bad film, with farmers getting minimal compensation. They lost homes they'd had for decades and ended up in dormitories in public housing estates and even under flyovers. Heart break was the only result. These were people with many good years of productive labour in them who should have been assisted in every way to continue producing. The HA seeks the abandonment of plans to re-zone farm land for recreational purposes, heeding the cautions of Thomas Yip Kae-sang, assistant to the Director of Agriculture. That plan would increase Hong Kong's dependence on imports for food supplies and speed up the already steep decline in local foodstuff production. Mr Yip maintains that farmers across the border are losing money by selling their produce to Hong Kong and as people there become more affluent they will have less need for the foreign exchange and may stop supplying Hong Kong. Transport costs put a high price on imported foodstuff, from overseas and from China. Locally produced vegetables are fresh but cannot be supplied sufficient to meet demand and China produce is cheaper to the extent farmers can't make a decent living selling vegetables. Planners at the Building and Lands Department submitted a proposal in early 1993 to the Lands and Works Branch to allow farmland to be used for low-density housing, open storage and other non-farming uses covered by the term recreational, ie., golf courses. Mr Yip pointed out to the press that while there was 4,070 hectares of farmland lying fallow, this was owing to a lack of access roads. or other supporting infrastructure and landowners hoped to sell that land to speculators. The government's Agriculture Priority Area zoning under which land was set aside is merely 'a residual classification' for land not otherwise used, and much of that has drifted into use for container and vehicle storage, which the government cannot or will not prevent. Mr Yip insisted that a lot of land in the New Territories is not zoned for any particular use in the next 15 years, but if the government zoned it strictly for agriculture and removed the speculation, the land would be farmed, boosting local agriculture and enabling Hong Kong to substantially reduce the risk of absolute shortages in an emergency, eg., transport strike, or if fuel shot up in price and so on. Hong Kong gets over eighty percent of its pigs, 60 percent of its poultry and 43 percent of its vegetables from China. The HA welcomed the news that toxicity detecting spectrometers are installed at the governments latest wholesale markets to locate pesticides on vegetables. While these markets have another useful function safeguarding sellers from harassment by organised criminal gangs, the HA sees a need to give permits to those gardeners and fishermen who want to sell their goods on the street as hawkers. More effort needed to be put into farm waste treatment with co-operative schemes and government sponsorship of plant that treats waste on-site. The policy of Water Control Zoning is too demanding on the small farmer who cannot afford to implement the better management of waste. Direct assistance needs to be given by the Crop Development Division of the Ag. & Fish. Department, besides the negative threat of closure by the Livestock Waste Disposal laws. One experiment on Lantau, at Mui Wo, didn't seem to be set up to prove anything of value. It was such a waste to see the dry muck-out taken to far away Tsing Yi Island for dumping. 'The collected manure was sent to a consolidation plant in Mui Wo for processing into a more stable product before being bagged and transferred,' ran the explanation. What a waste of waste! It must be at least ten years since a Mrs Christina Lo, the pig husbandry officer at Ta Kwu Ling pig farm, raved about the deep litter system as used in Taiwan and Japan. Also, the fact that dry-mucking out where dung is dried before being transported elsewhere is not a costly process at all. Lack of communication has been a long standing problem between government and farmers. It has also become apparent that leaving consultation to such traditional groups as Rural Committees and Hueng Yee Kuk and their associated boards did not get to the message to the ordinary farmer. The HA suggests that the District Office plays a protagonist role in league with the EPD and Ag. & Fish. Department, to get the little man to understand what Big Brother proposes. Traditional industries such as shrimp paste making needs to be given every assistance to guarantee contribution to local economies. It might be noteworthy for some farming entrepreneur to know that water cow (sui ngau) is reputed as a low-cholesterol, high-protein 'meat of the future'. A cargo of water buffalo was imported from Brazil to Hong Kong at US$3,200 a tonne in 1992, yet this beast is common in the NT and is served fresh cut each morning in all markets! Water Salinity, turbidity and pollution from agriculture are major water quality problems. These stem from unsustainable agricultural practices based on monoculture, artificial fertilisers, toxic chemicals, high energy use and golf courses. Also, domestic and industrial waste water is getting into the environment, polluting with destructive toxic compounds yet effluent often contains useful materials which could be recycled and reused. Development of further water catchments needed that protect flood-fraught and sensitive areas and to improve water quality in streams, rivers, ponds and estuaries. Relocate or modify industries or farm works that are polluting waterways. Develop low water use urban designs. Rehabilitate polluted waterways. Regulate land clearances and topsoil replacement-settlement after hill work. Fully process all waste water to recover and recycle nutrients and other pollutants. Phase out use of polluting industrial, household and agricultural compounds, particularly toxic and nutrient-rich cleaning agents. Separate reticulation of drinking water and non-drinking water. Decentralise water production to localities and promote the use of rain water tanks in rural areas. Prohibit developments within five metres - to seaward - of high water mark along estuaries and coastline. The formulation of a Declaration of Farmers and Fishers Rights - with co-operation of conservationists and Green groups to bring about dialogue and understanding, updated every five years to keep issues covered current. Market gardening to be revitalised to supply local table produce. All farming and farm management exercised in a manner that preserves and continually regenerates soil quality. Small operation fishers and market gardeners licensed, enabling them to sell their own produce in their own locality without hindrance. Government land fit for agriculture to be opened to production co-operatives or present occupants granted titles to engage in farming with security of tenure. Also, research needed to foresee wider effects of infrastructure developments on the livelihood of threatened human groups such as the small scale farmer who has already suffered because of agricultural methods that have since proven negative for sustainability and that are too expensive to beat competing farm produce from China, which dumps its cheap foodstuffs in Hong Kong. This has forced the small scale farmer out of his or her customary niche, leaving untilled soil and a rural society bereft of those cultivation techniques best for local species. Seed banks needed to rescue local species. A simpler system of getting local vegetables to market is required, with local vegetables going to local markets. This needs that marketing co-operatives give priority to local produce, government to allow them stall sites at lower charges and in supplying them services (eg., sea water piped to live sea-fish sellers). Forest Detailed forest maps to be produced and a reafforestation programme started, with fire breaks and proven fire-retardant growth around fire prone areas such as hill cemeteries and barbecue sites. A forestry policy is needed to define procedures for recuperation of soils and for the re-establishment of arboreal species indigenous to the area in every variety, not necessarily with any commercial plan in mind but for wild-life habitats. Reforestation of degraded land using local species and species suitable for diverse end products. Country parks To be managed to ensure that natural ecological processes are allowed to operate with minimum intervention, with complete security of purpose and tenure and safeguarded against destructive use. No revocation or excision of any reserve. Expansion of present park area to include marine and wetland areas. Expansion of parks, elimination of unnecessary roads. Oppose projects in adjacent areas that infringe on the park's purpose. Care for indigenous peoples such as traditional farmers and fishermen who have lived in areas designated parks so they can continue that lifestyle as long as they live - meeting their needs. Woodchipping of off-cut branches and shrubs for composting to return to wooded areas. Special care over the few remaining mangrove areas. Protection of wetlands with buffer zones - Maipo Marshes - better management with participation by local community people. Co-operation and the International Economy Foreign trade Free trade demands no import duties or barriers on incoming goods and no subsidies for outgoing goods. Free trade policy needed, with free trade legislation and the setting up of a fair trade commission to rectify any unreasonable market dominance, safeguard fair competition and protect consumer interests - to operate with few controls by the administration over the economy - with care over franchises to prevent monopolistic practises. The government needs to look squarely at the effective fulfilment of a free trade policy with all countries while looking to gain integration with this part of Asia in tight collaboration with government and companies. As pointed out by David Shiel, of Permaculture Asia Ltd (defunct 1994), 'It has to be understood that as long as the USA and European farmers, for example, are heavily subsidized, both by tax breaks etcetera and by cheap oil to transport their products, the Third World cannot compete fairly, especially when caught in the debt trap. With no subsidies, regional food production and resource management meeting local needs will be encouraged, even in the context of a free market. Surpluses only will be traded.' According to the United Nations Development Programme issued in March 1993, restricted access to the world's markets costs developing countries US$500 billion annually and helps widen the income gap between rich and poor nations. The programme also stated that, 'developing countries enter the market as unequal partners and leave with unequal rewards. The income gap between rich and poor nations has doubled in thirty years.' There were suggestions of the imposition of a global income tax to redistribute income across national borders. Major trade barriers were stated as high tariffs on processed foods and quotas on labour-intensive products. Immigration restrictions prevented workers moving from poor countries in search of higher wages. There was a lack of access to capital in poorer countries also and they would not need foreign aid if allowed to trade by right. It called for major changes in the world's institutional structures. Also, for a global central bank which could impose 'adjustment programmes' on rich as well as poor nations. The HA suggests a review of operations such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), representing more than 200 airlines. It acts as a cartel aiming to keep the prices of air services up and keep charges to airliners down. Note - a cartel is a group of providers of a service (it could be producers) who get together to regulate prices and make sure everything else in this market operates to their advantage. A monopoly is a market where there is only one supplier. Asian trade The establishment of an Asian common market would make imperative Hong Kong's active participation as a regional trader. First moves have already started with the ASEAN Free Trade Association (AFTA) and the Malaysian proposal of an East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC) - not the USA and Japan dominated Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) group, whereof Hong Kong should drop its membership - as indeed China insisted in July 1993. Toward that end an ad hoc organism comprised of representatives from government, political parties, and unions need to carry out research on the production of a plan compatible with the aims of the foreign trade policy for Hong Kong within the SAR. Customs and Excise as a top item on the agenda, to have good integration into the wider region. Technological development another priority area. The aim, to eliminate customs barriers for products that go toward the economic independence of the zone, gradually extending the index with other products by means of treaties of complement, paying attention to facilitating careful use of commodities, in concert with other countries, from the zone's natural resources. Also, development of an infrastructure of transport that fits with regional trade rather than trade further afield, with freight charges policy compatible with distance not traffic density alone. Engagement in low level cultural exchanges and in tourism with nearby places are side factors. There has to be co-operation among the Asian nations, for example, on commodity prices. Producers are not getting a fair deal. Indonesia and Malaysia compete in tropical timber sales, and the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore as tropical wood products suppliers. APEC has no interest in promoting such harmony. APEC seeks standardisation of measures for its one ends; seeks protection against nationalisation with easier repatriation of profits out of countries. ASEAN members do not want to see an expanded role for any localized trade grouping. ASEAN members trade only about fifteen percent of their output among themselves, due partly to a multitude of tariff and non-tariff barriers. A 1992 meeting planned to form a tariff-free AFTA by 2008, this endeavour needs to be chased up. International Solidarity The HA develops an international policy of solidarity and active non-violence in: The respect for free determination of peoples and to non-intervention principles, affirming the intentionality of freedom of human groups. International militancy in solidarity with those countries struggling for their liberation, against all forms of imperialism, of authoritarianism and monopolies whether economic, organizational or ideological. In this regard the case for Tibet has to be singled out. The HA supports the Dalai Lama's Five Point Peace Plan and proposal for a Zone of Ahimsa (Hindi term meaning a state of peace and non-violence) for: 1. The transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace. 2. Abandonment of China's population transfer policy which threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a people. 3. Respect for the Tibetan people's fundamental human rights and democratic freedom. 4. Restoration and protection of Tibet's natural environment and the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping of nuclear waste. 5. Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between Tibetan and Chinese peoples. The proposal for the zone of Ahimsa seeks that the entire Tibetan plateau is demilitarised; that the manufacture, testing and stockpiling of nuclear weapons and other armaments on the Tibetan plateau be prohibited; the Tibetan plateau to be transformed into the world's largest natural park or biosphere; that strict laws are enforced to protect wildlife and plant life and that the exploitation of natural resources is carefully regulated so as not to damage ecosystems, and a policy of sustainable development is adopted in populated areas; that the manufacture and use of nuclear power and other technologies which produce hazardous waste is prohibited; that national resources and policy is directed towards the active promotion of peace and environmental protection. Also, that organisations dedicated to the furtherance of peace and the protection of all forms of life will be welcomed and offered a hospitable home in Tibet; finally, the establishment of international and regional organisations for the promotion and protection of human rights be encouraged in Tibet. The HA is against the deliberate policy of Sinocisation of adjacent territories. Today, around Amdo (Qinghai Province) there are 2.5 million Chinese and only 750,000 Tibetans; while Chinese outnumber Tibetans in central and western Tibet, named the Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibetans are becoming a minority in their own land. In the early months of 1993 Beijing announced its plan to send 500,000 Chinese - refugees from the Three Gorges dam project - to East Turkestan (Chinese Xinjiang) - it took strong protests by the indigenous peoples, in the Far West, to convince Beijing to shelve that idea. The practice of such population transfers are illegal under the UN Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49, (under review, downgrading the offense to a serious violation). The indigenous population of that area are all Turkic Muslims, predominantly Uighurs. According to journalist Robert Barnett, writing in the South China Morning Post, February 1993, the Chinese population has increased by 23 times rising from about 300,000 in 1949, so that it now outnumbers the Uighurs, who have dropped from 74 percent to 40 percent of the population in the last 40 years. Now seven million Chinese live in East Turkestan. The population transfer policy is not new. Once Manchus were a distinct race with their own traditions and culture. Now there are less than three million Manchurians in Manchuria, rendered insignificant against the 75 million Chinese who have settled in Manchuria. Following the Chinese colonisation of Inner Mongolia, there are 8.5 million Chinese as against the Mongolians who number only 2.5 million today. Yet statements are regularly heard about Beijing's non-expansionist stance! What has this got to do with Hong Kong? During 1993, 100 mainland Chinese illegally crossed into the territory each day with the ever bright glisten of Hong Kong's image luring the poor. What can be done when 1000 a day come over? How many police will be needed? How can widespread crime be prevented? The process is different to the intentional sinocisation of Tibet - but the result is the same. The HA wants to see peaceful relationships among all countries of the world without any discrimination whatsoever, oriented towards exchanges and co-operation with solidarity. The HA wants to actively foster the same policy guiding relationships, at the international level, among all nations. Peaceful solutions to any conflict between countries. Denunciation of arms build-up as its result is that of an economic war at the service of imperialism, causing dependency, and therefore, it is a form of exploitation and oppression of peoples. Progressive and proportional world disarmament as a fundamental objective. Transfer of the economic resources employed in the armament race, shifted to those areas of real need such as health, food, education, housing and in general for the equitable development of the lives of people. In 1991, the value of the global arms trade was US$22 billion with Germany the third largest arms exporter in the world, after the USA and the former USSR, followed by China and the UK. The European Community countries accounted for 18 percent of the global arms trade; between them France, Germany, and the UK accounted for four-fifths of this total. Export controls remain the key to an overall reduction in arms sales, coupled with economic developments so arms selling countries no longer have any concocted justification as to why they sell weapons of destruction. The use of nuclear energy for peaceful ends, exclusively. Ecologically faithful policies for the eradication of radioactive and chemical contamination. Formation of a permanent commission - with representation of all Asian countries - comprising individuals and organisations with proven track records of efficiency in efforts toward the development of peoples and in favour of world peace. The establishment of international economic relationships based on the co-operative system and regional autonomy. All these foregoing to be promoted within the framework of the SAR with Hong Kong thereby integrated into China, meanwhile: assisting in the signing of permanent peace treaties between the zone's different countries, while secondarily holding negotiations seeking the resolution of outstanding problems. Ensuring that such negotiations are promoted with the idea of offering other perspectives to countries of the region, affirming the solidarity of all our peoples in their capacity to solve their particular problems without need of intervention by foreign agents. Starting and accelerating proportional demilitarisation of the zone's countries, under the supervision of a commission of Asian countries, for the dismantling of nuclear facilities of a military nature. Effective regional treaties of reciprocal assistance. Elimination of customs barriers to further economic integration by specific complementary treaties, paying attention to facilitating the considered use of the regions natural resources. Frank and decided development of talks aiming at the formation of an Asian Common Market and in the longer term, a parliament with representation of all the political parties. Co-operation in technological development based on specific commitments. Formation of a permanent Commission of Human Rights with the character of an Asian tribunal dedicated to receiving denunciations and then judging those who attempt against the life and freedoms of our peoples. Actively support the International Court of Justice. Instead of Overseas Aid, to see the plight of Greater China's poor as an immediate demand on Hong Kong's surplus revenue or unwanted, unsaleable commodities. Not to identify with either the East-West or North-South polarisation of relations but to see One World mired in a variety of universal problems and possibilities. Asian Solidarity The HA notes that poverty is the prime mover in some of our neighbouring countries. While reports of executions, detention and torture hit the news these are the result of a greater human rights' violation - poverty. Enormous pressure is placed on Third World countries because of huge foreign debts. While the Philippines, for instance, is a rich country in terms of resources, seventy percent of the people live below the poverty line; thirty percent live in absolute poverty. The rich landowners include the Christian church. Communism is blamed for everything there. Every time a group or union forms, the threat of Communism is made - similarly each time workers ask for better wages and living conditions. This is the excuse the military needs to step in and destroy everything. Extra-judicial executions take place and official measures to rectify the situation are undermined. Sleeping children and elderly people figure among the supposed insurgents claimed by the military. Union and church leaders and human rights lawyers are the main targets of the military in the Philippines. This is the result of the government's 'total approach counter-insurgency strategy'. If there was no real economic issues that the insurgents could exploit to get fighters they would have been stopped long ago. The entire Philippine economy is on the rocks with sixty percent of the country's export earnings going to service the interest on the loans from Marcos' times. There is a strong sentiment there that the Philippine government should take a tough stand with the World Bank and say it won't honour all the debts of the Marcos government. Instead they want to use the money to create jobs, schools and social services - all the things that are not of secondary importance. A humanist government has to understand the plight of its neighbours and publicise their problems. It seems impossible that a resource-rich country like the Philippines, like Vietnam and the other countries of Indo-China, are suffering when their soils are so productive. It has to be mismanagement by their governments that keeps these peoples in poverty. Mismanagement and corruption are the causes of their problems. Also, warlordism. The answers lie in each village starting to pull itself together, first in gaining self-sufficiency and with that strength, to start looking outwards again, first to the nearest neighbour. Land use and regulations over ownership are the most important issues, ie., land reform. The attitude though must not repeat what went before with tribalism, clan-ism and negative family-ism. The only true way forward is by co-operation. For this there needs be an acceptance of differences and an acceptance of what went before in a spirit of reconciliation. This takes a young spirit. Asia is still young despite it being very old. It is like a jungle that ever renews itself and is ever full of vigour. Even when all is destroyed by a lack of clear and human intentions; healthy conditions rise again - the idea is that humankind also re-emerges. The HA sees the need to develop relations among neighbouring countries to share in the overall endeavour of the Humanization of Earth. For orderly regional economic co-operation, Hong Kong should join neighbouring free-trade areas with liberalised services and investment rules. Seek to affiliate with Common Effective Preferential Tariffs (CEPT) of the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA). As far as possible, give sanctuary to local refugees while taking an active stance against countries abusing government powers such as in Burma. A notable immediate task lies in the improvement of schooling for Third World girls. Hong Kong should apply for special status membership of the East Asia Economic Caucus - an observer status even, to gain insight into the direction and style of the participating Asian nations. Solidarity with China Special Considerations: China-Hong Kong relations. Hong Kong to have a high degree of autonomy, as part of the Special Administrative Region of China, as stated in the Basic Law. The HA does not see an answer by way of independence for Hong Kong - autonomy is not meant to be stretched to that extent - but rather a fully integrated territory given time for Hong Kong and China to move toward each other's respective directions so any clash of styles is avoided. Hong Kong is part of China. Hong Kong to be governed by same rules as with SAR with current local extraordinary rights extended to SAR, ie., reciprocity of air routes. 1. See New Directions magazine, Autumn issue, 1993 *********************************************** Chapter VIII Quality of Life Platform - Part 7. Housing - for handicapped - urban planning. Health - new health system - patients rights - visually, aurally, speech impaired - disabled - mentally handicapped - insane - addicted and addiction. Education - Towards which Century, 21st or 19th? - special educational needs - university education. Social Welfare. Universal Grant - laissez-faire social welfare - Elderly. Homeless. Penal reform. Refugees. Housing A housing policy needs the objective of fulfilling the constitutional rights of people to have access to dignified housing, through implementing plans initiated by co-operative research and government action. Such policy has to solve, firstly, the urban and rural settlements under emergency situations, that do not reflect the standards of civil life in regard to habitation; secondly, housing deficits for those in need with an extension of the Public Housing Plan. This means security of tenure granted to tenants of Public Housing, with no means test applied - rather an honesty system - with choice to purchase their home if that is the wish - markets rates to apply. The building of more public housing estates with higher quality living environments. Rents in Public Housing at 15 percent of income ceiling, bearing in mind than at least forty percent of the Hong Kong population live in public housing. Subsidy Income Level assessed on honesty basis with fines and community service for fraudulent claims. Allocation of a percentage of apartments in housing estates as special very low rent units for needy cases - also, two-member units and single person and single parent family units, all in the same block to diversify and mix people's home life in a more neighbourly lifestyle. Immediate reconstruction, by government, of housing in zones affected by calamity, exempting their residents from taxes for ten years. Active dissemination of information about the government's squatter area improvement program. The suspension of any evictions in emergency settlements while a response solving the housing problem in a dignified manner is produced. Policy of rehousing squatters in nearest vicinity when requested. Ease apartment exchange criteria so more families can move to larger apartments. In building programmes, special importance given to implementation of technology, resources, labour and materials of a regional origin. Professionals, students, technicians and the beneficiaries to have a major contribution in the design and construction of the habitats, displaying with immediacy the tendency going towards decentralisation. Increase in the housing segment of the Budget in the re-appraisal of its re-distribution. The encouragement of housing associations and credit co-operatives. Making available credit lines for the improvement or enlargement of existing housing. Doing away with rates or having rate monies go to services provided, not to civil servant's wages etcetera which should come from taxes, then rate percentage figures can be better understood. The study and development of construction systems, by the universities, that enable greater use of the region's natural resources while developing locally-based technologies. The building of a minimal model of housing that counts on sufficient conditions of habitability and that takes into account the available infrastructure and thereby services and the social environment by way of transportation systems, community centres, schools and so on. Public participation in housing development as part of town planning. The safeguarding of rights of private apartment owners. Capital Gains Tax on non-principle resident property transactions. Five year holding period prior to sale of apartments gained under Home Ownership Scheme or Private Sector Participation Scheme. Monopoly on conveyancing needs curtailing to break solicitor's predominant role, thereby reducing costs, encourage competition and effect speedier homes sales. Introduce House Buyer's Ordinance with a Council to regulate affairs of licensed conveyors and to lay down the conveyancers educational standards and any necessary disciplinary actions. Housing for the handicapped: in 1992 one hundred boarding places needed in or near special schools; 800 residential places for severely mentally handicapped adults; and several hundred places in temporary 'respite' centres. Half-way houses and hostels - in family-sized groupings to give acceptable ratios of mix, disabled to locals, with higher ratios when disabled are from local community - as part of housing estates and residential areas of high population density; making sure residents are part of the re-integration programme to allay fears based on ignorance about the function of half-way houses. Institutions and services for elderly, day nurseries, community service centres, child and youth centres and library study rooms on estates. In 1987 the government started its Long Term Housing Strategy aiming to provide 40,000 public housing units every year to meet the demands of different kinds of housing. This aim is proving short by about 10,000 annually. The plan to build housing for the sandwich class will not alleviate the pressing problems of those who need public housing and it does not go far enough to alleviate sandwich class problems. Large increases in public housing rents and payments into the Home Ownership Scheme add to the burden of the low income group. More low cost housing is needed to bring down market prices. When conditions allow: Sanctioning of a law of urban rent control that establishes a rent not higher than 25 percent of the basic wage and that grants tax benefits to landlords of rented properties. Interest-free loans from government Home Purchase Loan Scheme to allow residents to buy their apartments. Abolish market price link in selling units under the Home Ownership Scheme and Private Sector Participation Scheme. Urban Planning The HA wants to alleviate the wants of those people still living in overcrowded substandard housing estates who have to endure heavy traffic congestion commuting to and from their work places. These people do not have parks or recreational space or facilities in their neighbourhoods for leisure-time after work. The widespread urban decay has to be halted in the old housing estates and mixed industrial-residential districts continue as hazardous living situations needing rectifying. Also, provision of mixed housing instead of the monolithic high-rise block. Diversity of housing, working places and shopping amenities within cycling distance with large open spaces and green belts, these are the ideal. Prevention of extension to the ad hoc urban sprawl. Continuation of new town building projects, decentralising the population away from Hong Kong and Kowloon. Give pedestrians and cyclists higher priority than motorised traffic in urban centres. Halt the expansion of highways through built-up areas and of heavy vehicle and car parks. Protection of historically and culturally significant buildings and places. Health Health care has been turned into a profit-making concern as part of an inhumane system, which puts up barriers against large sectors of the population which cannot enjoying its benefits. This has to be changed so everyone has the right of access to adequate health care. But it has to be understood that, 'you cannot buy health'. Health problems stem from a deterioration in the quality of living, where lack of time for personal needs, lack of quiet on top of stressful work and social conditions, upset the mental condition which in turn belabours the body. Today society is ridden with 'modern illness'. While a society conditioned by factors that do not impose pressures is a priority - and that is precisely what is getting attention in the HA proposals - discrimination based on a person's economic status must be eliminated. Everyone has to have access to medicine and health care at that moment of need. Assistance to those most in need of it has to be given priority while simultaneously taking preventative action and attending to the rehabilitation of those suffering from health problems. This can be termed an integral health care system taking into account all of the peripheral assistance services, clinics, etcetera, whether these are run by the government or by social security firms. Also, in the long run, health care and medicines to be socialised and free of charges. In the meantime, as the term privatization is on many lips, differentiation between complete privatisation and part privatisation, by retaining very low payment medical service for the less well off, which acts as a stabilizing factor in society - bearing in mind that Hong Kong employees are not safeguarded by any minimum wage (in practice) social security scheme (to an extant that really makes any difference) or other form of economic protection, and that privatisation will be successful only in a society that has a good social welfare system. Primary health care network needed, to encourage people to take care of themselves, with good community health clinics per district. Secure socialised medicine means decent medical care for a nominal sum by the re-allocation of financial resources into the health care area, with the elimination of all types of hospital fees and the free supply of medicines or nominal charges - the bulk of the costs charged to the social security services department. Health care development plans formulated with the participation of technicians, professionals and final recipients and medical students, also the government, and private hospital authorities, taking into account the regional points, to give comprehensive health care coverage. Re-equipment and upgrading of public hospitals. Construction of new hospital units in areas of major regional demographic concentration and increasing the opening hours in centres of primary assistance and out-patient clinics. Network of public hospitals; university clinics where students can observe treatment; research hospitals where the more qualified specialists can extend their knowledge; with distinctly separate hospitals for different diseases; public laboratories for testing new remedies and to act as clearing-house of information for doctors offering advice service or friendly warning of mistaken treatments; primary care services enhanced at community level to reduce present practice of doctors sending patients to centralised hospital to 'play safe', giving rise to unnecessary admissions. Local laboratory and equipment such as X-ray unit needed per district. Clear division between Emergency Departments (accident or emergency doctor) and Casualty Departments (general practitioner). Hospice wards in hospitals. Vigilant checks on imported seafood to determine infected source of hepatitis, also, vigilant checks on vegetables to determine source of excessive pesticides with the intention of banning products until rectification. Co-operation in technological research with a common databank with extended development with neighbouring countries. Basic, decent, and honest advertising of doctors services in the media, in listings, and in more detail where specialist services are available. No split-fees between doctors and ancillary services. No paid referrals. De-registration of medical personnel for serious malpractice. Moratorium on IVF practices until ethics sorted out. Choice of re-installation of fee-free and free-bed services at subvented hospitals. School of Pharmacy needed. All prescribed drugs to be adequately labelled. Promotion of technological development to locally produce medicines and to seek new and nearer to Hong Kong sources of those medicines which cannot be produced locally - to eliminate dependency on monopolies. Mandatory scale of fixed fees for operations at hospitals and Hospital Authority to discipline doctors noted overcharging. The statuary body responsible for setting medical fees to have account books open to the public. Quality assurance scheme, supervised by a doctor, in each hospital. Doctors disallowed from dispensing medicines. More facilities for adult handicapped. Registration as doctors of those in the professions of traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractors, naturopaths, homeopaths, besides counsellors and psycho-therapists. Compilation of potent and toxic herbs list. Elimination of all medicinal products that do not comply with strict safety controls. Treatment of the whole person not just the body as machine. Programme of study at medical colleges according to the character of Southern China and its negative health factors and transformation of these colleges into true research and technology development centres. Oriental medicine to be prescribed and regulated just as Occidental medicine. All curative methods outside of allopathy to be properly regulated by registration and licensing. Distinctions drawn between traditional folk medicine at the household level and 'professionalised' and commercialised folk medicine offering pre-packaged, patented, hoarded knowledge systems that come at a high price. Traditional medicine has self-reliance at its base and it can be useful in primary health care. Herbalists need to be regulated just as any other medical practitioner. Systematic study of Asian folk medicine to add knowledge to current medicine. Medical practitioners qualified in China given right to practise locally. Right to smoke upheld but public place ban on tobacco smoking other than in open air conditions and ban on its advertising anywhere other than as a herbal relaxant with the usual deleterious side effects of inhaled smoke. New Health System There is a strong case of an entirely new health system along the lines suggested by the chiropractor, naturopath, homeopath doctor Alexander Yuan where, to quote from the doctor's paper on the subject, as submitted to the Medical Insurance Study Group, Dept. of Health and Welfare, 1) The emphasis should be on health and not disease, prevention and not cure. Most of today's degenerative diseases such as cancer, are difficult to cure, and that may always be the case. However, more research may prove them relatively easy to prevent. Health care should be decentralised as far as possible, ultimately into the hands of the family and the individual. Modern technologies already make this possible. For example, a women no longer needs a doctor with a huge overhead to send a test to an expensive laboratory to find out if she is pregnant. She can instead use a simple home-test kit. Procedures that work with nature and with the body in helping it maintain health and fight disease should be encouraged. Invasive procedures that work against nature and against the body should be used only as a last resort. The health field must be opened up to the free market - both economically and intellectually. Consumers must have the right to choose their practitioners, whatever their orientation, and ideas must be allowed to stand or fall on their own merits, not on their conformity to a restrictive orthodoxy. The public must be educated on the real meaning of disease and health and the limitations and strengths of various health care systems. Access to medical treatments does not bring health. Most of the diseases today are difficult to treat but are easier to prevent. Unrealistic expectations should be discouraged. Prevention should be emphasised. 2) Users should pay for their own health care cost. Health insurance should be in the form of forced savings. Government should look after catastrophic, traumatic and acute care (accidents, broken bones, excessive haemorrhage, extensive burns). 3) Private insurance should discourage abuse through bonus for health, high deductibles and high co-payments. 4) Consumers must have the freedom to choose the most effective treatment other than allopathic medicine (qualified alternatives of herb treatments, bone-setting, mid-wife, etc., with licensing and certification). 5) Health care providers must be accountable to the public first, not the professional guild. Performance statistics must be tallied and revealed to the consumer in order to make prudent choices (doctors and hospitals - insurance firms tallying treatment results of practitioners and treatments). Any health insurance scheme which incorporates the above principles is a radical departure from all the existing medical insurance schemes. It pinpoints the roots of the problems and gives a bold and radical solution which may be hard to swallow, but which offers the real possibility of a solution to a problem which has plagued the world.'....end of quote. In speaking of the 'user pay' approach the idea is that instead of pooling money from a group to be used by any individual when needed, health insurers could establish a forced saving scheme as per the Provident Fund of Singapore (The HA is aware that this goes against the socialised free medical care concept but this example of a working system is good to help understand another point of view on the matter) where a special health saving is levied on every resident. The money collected treated as a form or saving with interest. The consumer makes claims at the end of each year for health expenses incurred. The Fund can be used for saving beyond a certain amount, eg., HK$100,000, for other purposes, such as home buying. If illness strikes resulting in using up the reserve, the user is expected to pay back the total fee plus the interest over a period of time, or the user can choose to repay the full amount and save the interest if capable. Eventually, any unused sum to be returned to the individual for funereal expenses etc. Private insurance companies must offer incentives to their policy holders not to utilise the system with a partial return of the premium to clients who remain healthy. Increasing the deductibles has proved unworkable. The major demerit of this user pays system is people not seeking medical attention. It is one thing not to get a minor bump on one's car repaired to forego losing an insurance premium but quite another to neglect to treat an upper respiratory tract infection! It is a sad fact of modern life that the doctor-patient long term relationship has all but gone. The mobility and lifestyle of societies have put a stop to that traditional practise which in itself was an insurance against sub-standard medical treatment. Patients' Rights To refuse any medication, investigation or treatment and to be informed of the consequences of such. To seek the opinion of another doctor. To know fees and charges before consultation. To know their diagnosis, condition and possible side effects of treatment. To know about different treatments and their choices. To know the names of drugs prescribed, their action and possible side-effects. To have right of issuance of a medical report. To request confidentiality. To refuse whether or not to take part in medical research. To insist that medical care and treatment is given when requested. Duties: To be frank and honest with the doctor. The visually, aurally and speech impaired Integration Program and vocational training expanded. Research into current practises world-wide, of working with special teaching aids. First and second hearing aids provided free of charge to every deaf person. Braille voting forms during elections, etcetera; aural-oral method of teaching, that is, lip reading as against sign language. Disabled Principle of rehabilitation not isolation. Once a mother and father or either of these has decided to accept the onerous responsibilities of caring for a disabled child then all services possible to be supplied by government. Jonathan Chamberlain, Chairman of the Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association, said in a letter to the press that '...families who have a child with severe or profound handicaps soon find that any realistic attempt at home care, with stimulation and development training is a full-time job. Yet the allowance is only HK$1,500 (1993). Those in the low-income group really suffer. The only option is placement in an institution. Besides the human aspect, this costs much, much more. Families are split up and the children are fed using plastic tubes up their noses as under the nurse to child ratio anything else is impossible.' Mentally handicapped In education - small sized classes for special education; regarding work, to guard against unemployment and under-employment; enforced quota system where all companies with staff over a certain number to employ the handicapped; teaching of rehabilitation in primary and secondary schools; training for employment needed. Small group homes within communities needed, not institutions. Principle of integration needs adopting. Separate guardianship provisions for use when present guardian ages, or for other reason cannot handle the one needing care; lawful guidelines governing police practices; laws detailing areas of responsibilities of guardians and another covering rights of the charges such as right to choose own friends, how to spend the time, enter into relationships or otherwise act independently - 'The mentally retarded person has, to the maximum degree of feasibility, the same rights as other human beings.' Distinction between the mentally ill and the mentally handicapped, with the opinion of a psychologist sought rather than a medical expert. Education in the fact that the handicapped need training not treatment. Publicity campaign - 'Down's Syndrome is not a disease but a difference'. That parent organisations be consulted in drafting new legislation which must give separate categorization between mentally ill and mentally disordered. Establish Department of Habilitation for the development of the handicapped by caring stimulation. Physically disabled to have access to information, buildings and public transport. Mobile boat Service Centres to provide services for the mentally handicapped among boat people. Elimination of repressive medical facilities and closing of mental asylums complemented by the creation of open assistance centres and half-way houses in all districts. Assure that the Mental Health Ordinance, or other police or government ordinance that could be subsumed by the title The Control of Violent and Awkward Persons Bill, meets the requirements of the Bill of Rights. Insane Rehabilitation towards an acceptable norm, not isolation; asylums to be places of treatment not special case prisons of no redemption; not control but cure; provision of work, growing food, indoor tasks guided by occupation therapy with explanations of the importance of own efforts and self-control in the healing process. Addicted and Addiction While people are under the present conditions of a largely out-of-control, as if uncaring, society, because of the imposed system, it is not an immediate recommendation to legalise narcotic-type drugs. However, when conditions become more humane then there is expected to be a good case for the decriminalisation of drugs and drug taking, particularly soft drugs such as marijuana. Then the drug trade can be run by government, selling opium etcetera, at cost, at their own outlets. Unlicensed sellers can be penalised, but there would be only slight, if any, profits for them. The point is, first get rid of poverty and educate the public. The drug abuse problem lies in social conditions - the danger lies in addiction. Criminal acts that result from addictive need of hard drugs, like heroin, have to be treated under criminal law. Accepting that any addiction is a chronically relapsing disease - the HA accepts the voluntary Methadone Treatment Programme for substance abusers as a preliminary relief. Total answers lie in voluntary rehabilitation, and the whole-person approach of such programmes as organised on the basis of Alcoholics Anonymous. Meanwhile biological research is needed on addiction and addiction-reversing agents - probably via a private, non-profit foundation. Education needed on negative effects of high-tech pharmacology, anabolic steroids and neurochemical exchanges and after-effects of cocaine, crack, amphetamines, and other enhancers. The answer lies in domesticating these as part of Man's biological future, not outlawing them thereby producing a subterranean market wrapped in violence. Tackle the poverty and socially negative conditions that are the root causes of drug related problems. Education Education to have in-depth restructuring, with provisions set into law, establishing educational principles and to give foundation to an education that is in line with the times. Such law resolved after full and comprehensive public debate with the participation of teachers, pupils, graduates and parents, including the following principles: non-ideological, non-religious teaching that is free and obligatory, from the primary level at least to the basic secondary level; democratic participation of pupils, teachers and administration staff with input from government and, at the primary level, parents joining the collegiate structure; general programming of education integrated into a coherent process from the pre-school stage until university, with objectives and stages; modification of the teaching methods, abolishing all authoritarianism and imposition, with no negative discrimination among the sexes in education; guarantees for the freedom of conscience of the pupil; guarantees of non-discrimination and integration of the cultural patterns of the children that belong to particular ethnic origins; guarantees of stability, fair payment and objective selection of the teaching and non-teaching personnel; technological foundation in school practises; inclusion of organic plans for marginalised sectors due to age, ie., illiterate adults, those with psycho-motor hindrances, ie., the disabled, and to those isolated in rural areas; contents of educational programmes to be established in exact correlation with the educational objectives established in the formation of a pupil as an integral human being; pupils actively nurtured in a manner where there is the acquisition of analyses and research methods and an incorporation of scientific information and technical ability; the kind of qualification sought is one developing activities useful for society and for the students themselves; active participation in a democratic educational ambit as the way to learn about civic rights and responsibilities, not through hearing about it as read from books. What is required is a lot of play with direction that leads to an educational formation for freedom, democracy, solidarity, co-operation, tolerance and peace. Cantonese as teaching language in general education. Full-time (not-exclusive) curriculum development Council in each place of learning. Project-related assessments, as in the UK's GCSE. Tertiary, secondary, primary and pre-primary budgetary balance, keeping in step with the inflation figure, plus 5 percent . Thirty pupils per class (1991 average is 38). Lifting number of teachers from 40,000 to 50,000. Education - Towards Which Century? 21st or 19th? You study for many hours at primary school. You continue this at secondary school and when it comes to the form six and seven grades - if you make it? - you have to study even harder. Then, after finally reaching a position where you can get full-time further education, after all that effort and spent-youth.....you find out that your chances of getting this higher education is less than 10 percent. There is a lack of places for students of higher education. How is it that the planners are always telling the public of the importance of education for the young, how important it is to have university graduates for Hong Kong's future! They always make speeches about this! Education and culture are indicators of progress. The question is progress into what? Progress for what? Education and cultural understanding have a strong impact not only on the technological and the academic level of a society, but also in the degree of social integration in terms of equality among people. This gives people more options and the freedom to choose among these options so they can choose the lifestyle they want. In the 19th century very few people had any possibility of getting an education because the power of the young was geared to the wheels of production at the start and for the continuation of the Industrial Revolution. Cheap labour was needed. This meant - and to a large extent still means - only the privileged minorities, for example those from families controlling the means and manner of production and its ancillary services, had any chance of getting an education. In both communist and capitalist controlled economies this is the same - it even went into reverse during the Cultural Revolution of China when the once-privileged were cast out and the sons and daughters of certain peasant farmers and blue-collar workers got a chance - it was still another minority. This has meant that within those systems there is open support for that minority and an open neglect of that majority. Equality was not encouraged. It was not encouraged at all in the 19th century and today it is not sufficiently encouraged. It is the mentality of the vested interest where it is assumed that the ups of one meant the down of another. With the progress achieved by this 20th century, there are technological advances and also advances in terms of social equality. Technology, applied to society, has meant that the inhumane work conditions common in previous times, have been greatly improved. However, this application has been bitsy. It has not been universal - neither in all countries nor across entire sections of the more developed societies. Progress is seen when these inhumane conditions are eradicated and the need for cheap labour has gone; when the standard of living lifts for a majority so there is leisure-time and an opportunity to pursue further education at will. Is this the case in Hong Kong? Here, while just about everyone has the basic schooling, the answer to the question is progress to where, for who's benefit. There is little progress seen in the kind of jobs on offer to those with that basic education only. It seems that technology is not applied in the direction of people's liberation from the yoke of the Industrial Revolution. Nor are people given much in the way of opportunities to gain an understanding and practical experience of technology. That has to change. Another negative indicator telling that the proper form of progress has not yet arrived is that workers are still working with outdated tools. The factories are not getting modern equipment to put them ahead or at least on par with other advanced manufacturing countries. The majority need to have the opportunity of getting technical training and higher education, then it will be seen which century Hong Kong is moving towards! Proposals Government to create the fundamental conditions for education, guaranteeing an increase of educational and cultural budget nearer to twenty percent of the overall budget and the construction of new educational establishments, at all levels, giving priority to the pre-primary level that is in deficit. Support to families to prevent desertion of studies, such as free distribution of books and instruments, installation of student dining rooms and lodgings, free school transport and wide scholarship regime. Greater emphasis on studies in Chinese and local history and culture. Promotional prospects for teachers. Law courses at secondary school level to familiarise students with citizen's basic rights; form six entry level to university with marks in subjects other than sciences taken into account to counter over-specialization; open education to be extended along lines of an Open University; form four level to offer commercial and industrial vocational training as part of general curriculum, readying those choosing that path to leave school with job skills; single degree or diploma awarding body for Hong Kong to centralise administration, to end duplication, to give option of privatisation to institutions preferring to work outside that government system and simplifying choice for students; no government control over selection of text books for education. Special educational needs At least five early education and training centres and twenty special child care centres besides six special schools; 1,600 places in day activity centres and several hundred places in temporary 'respite' centres - are needed, all for the handicapped. University education While sharing general characteristics of universal education, universities and colleges requires special attention in: de-centralising the universities; up-grading colleges to university status; establishment of tripartite system of institutional management; establishment of university autonomy; abolition of magisterial style classes to be transformed into those with a style of participation; incorporation of student-assistants into the professorships; unification of the programmes of study; specialisation courses for graduates, ie., post-graduate courses; creation of consumption, credit, production, housing co-operatives; and research facilities for advancing service co-operatives that are directly useful to the students and that give a taste of the co-operative style for later in life - with the participation of teachers, students and administrative staff; establishment of a system of permanent consultation and of direct and optional election for the authorities of the students centres; creation of inter-college services that enable the exchange of free library materials, fellowships and subsidies, services, interdisciplinary experience, conclusions of symposia and congresses; increase of fellowships and subsidies; inter-university databanks; and diversification of the times and shifts for giving classes. Four year terms of study standard at all universities but not mandatory, course length determined by university; credit unit system of accreditation according to merit by examination not just time spent studying; entrance examination for university only in case of students unable to present adequate certification from secondary schools; actively seek a mix of 25 percent postgraduates and 75 percent undergraduates, with more students engaged in research studies, with 25 percent of students could coming from outside of Hong Kong. Social Welfare The grandparent-father-mother-children family as the basic human unit - not the atomistic so-called nuclear family but an extended modern family with friends acting as members of the extended family group rather than only blood relations, which are not excluded, but not automatically included. Community support for this family. Today's most pressing social problems - family breakdown, crime - in Hong Kong are small compared with many of the world's countries, thanks to the sound economy of this territory and the job opportunities this creates. But, many people of our society are not critical of their standard of life because they have 'other plans', for example they want to emigrate or anyway see themselves as 'making it big' so the problem is not really seen. What is felt all around the world though are increases in disaffected youth, homelessness, alcoholism and drug dependency, poverty and unemployment. All of these point at underlying structural problems of society - the bespoke System. If these problems are to be effectively tackled it is necessary to change the social and economic system, from one based on individualism, competition, inequality, acquisition, growth and exploitation, to one based on community, co-operation, equity, sharing, sustainability and respect. With a normal place, which identifies with itself as a country, with security of tenure for its citizens, there would be much more confidence shown by the people who would speak out about their adverse conditions regarding the expense and lack of housing, over-crowded government hospitals, working overtime with no pay and tens of other negative points. Needless to say, if Hong Kong suffers continuous influx of immigrants from China there never will be any answer to these problems. This territory never has been able to 'catch-up' with the problems because of its daily fill-up of new arrivals who soon enough get on the housing list and join queues everywhere to benefit from the scanty Hong Kong social welfare system. Universal Grant While it may not be the moment to propose the introduction of entirely different systems, some ideas can be mooted. During the Eighties the Europeans were discussing the merits of having a unified Territorial (National) Benefit or Universal Grant, where the various entitlements were got rid of - saving massive administrations costs. No more pensions office, unemployment benefits, family allowances, etc. Every person, including the child and the aged, receives a sum for basic living. The scheme administered by the Inland Revenue (tax) Department. Working people would be taxed under a Progressive Taxation system, where, over a certain minimum, work is taxed higher the more you work which is a disincentive to people working too long hours or at too high a salary and work is better distributed - no distinction between men and women, married or unmarried. The Territorial Benefit would not cover hefty house mortgage payments or luxury car purchases or expensive holidays, but moderate saving could be expected. Most adults would choose paid work for most of their lives because they want to upgrade their standard of living or just because they feel like contributing to society. In that way they will help to pay the Territorial Benefit. The proposal was made partly to counteract the stage of industrialism obvious today where under the present system full employment cannot be guaranteed. So Territorial Benefit is not a hand-out to the needy, everyone gets it, so no stigma. Under that system people would find it tenable to choose interesting jobs rather than monotonous tasks and employers would have to make jobs more interesting or pay high salaries for boring jobs. No retirement age. To prevent the aged from holding jobs from the young, there could be a paid work span, say 35 years, with tax hikes after that period. Then the young could capitalise their families and young minds would bring new technology into the system. Under this alternative system the attitude to work changes, where 'doing housework' and 'working in the garden' are within the category and the unemployed are not so titled. If the purpose of work is to create wealth and if employer and employee are at odds to get the most wealth out of the amount of work done, there is tension between them. When work is done for satisfaction and still brings benefit then it is hard to draw the line between what is work and what is play. As to how much; the figure comes to about 10 percent of the total of government spending in a British costing for this scheme. There is no shortage of money in Hong Kong. Territorial Benefit is a way of effecting distribution of the financial resources, increasing equality, self-reliance and self-respect. There is no idea of unemployment. Under the alternative system of giving everyone a universal grant the labour market has to be deregulated, abolishing any law on minimum wage or maximum length of average working day, obstacles to part-time work, with choice of lower school leaving age and of course, no compulsory retirement. No means test. The aim is to tackle poverty more effectively. Part time work does not negatively affect standard income (there is no 'unemployment trap' where jobs are hardly better paid than unemployment benefits after tax deductions). Also, someone may not want to join a worker-managed firm, but does find the work in that place interesting, so low salary is not a problem and both employer and employed feel fine about it. Co-operatives will not be the only system functioning, which is perfect, as then there is more choice. Such system also means those doing housework, or minding the baby, anyway get a basic income. Women will be economically on a more equal footing as earning power is access to purchasing power - the bread winner has traditionally called the shots - so any deference given to the men will be given because they are men, not because women are financially dependant on the man. So unemployment has gone, also poverty. Work quality has improved. Power relations governing paid and unpaid work is better. If this is so clever then why was it not introduced ages ago? Among tribal people something similar has been done. In communes also, on small scale. If people were reasonable from the beginning, such system may have established itself earlier but life does not follow the path of logic. Today there is increasing dissatisfaction with the status quo; only now are people generally, in some countries, anywhere near looking at alternatives. People are inherently conservative, they resist change. This means there is a certain inertia which has the positive effect of granting stability and consolidation. It gives some permanence to affairs and allows a culture to achieve a recognisable form. But when people have progressed on one path for that long they have forgotten why they were travelling in the first place, it is time for renewal. Thus alternative systems. Sadly, it is the experience that certain deep changes only come about under conditions of acute loss. In the West, an increasing number of people are finding themselves without paid work. It is evident that 'a deeper pool of the unemployed' is part of the capitalist system. This is not tenable. Only now are people taking note of this radically new system. Co-operative systems and processes are timely. Laissez-faire Social Welfare Meanwhile, back in Hong Kong, there is no guarantee that the present situation will go on indefinitely, neither is there any especially significant factors which say it will not - 1997 and all that included. But this does not mean people can leave well enough alone. Without timely attention the situation will worsen; unless the idea is to throw destiny into the arms of fate! A system must change with the times or it will not fit its epoch. So, among those matters that need attention to build a better life in Hong Kong for more people, the HA makes it's demands: Immediate increase in allowances for the aged. Better allowances for supporting needy parents and children. Non-Contributory Central Provident Fund (CPF) needed - Hong Kong has the money in its massive Reserve Fund so no need to siphon HK$20 billion from out of the economy which is the cost of such a scheme given 1993 prices. The 1992-93 surplus was around $24 billion, there you are! With that start, and intelligently safe, low risk local investment - and with privatised accounting at no cost to government administration - then, put the money generated into an industrial development bank to promote small scale enterprises and anti-pollution measures, or some other economic development plan. Or, instead of a CPF, Hong Kong needs a vastly improved form of social security, to buffer people against down-turns in the economy. Immediate implementation of retirement pensions for people over sixty without demands of not-working. Link all social welfare benefits to average annual salaries increases. Non of the above can easily be provided under any of the old systems. Capitalism out-prices everything for a sizeable majority, while socialism puts too heavy an administrative hand over its wards and comes off little better. Humanism through co-operativism proposes to provide people with the necessary resources, expertise, training and vision to enable them to take control over their own lives, and to explore and develop social alternatives. In the meantime humanism sees the need to protect the most disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society from the negative consequences of social, economic and political instability and change. What is needed is a system of services where effective control is maintained at the local community level. People in local communities are in the best position to determine the best form for their own services, so that they are truly responsive to local needs. For this it is necessary to set minimum standards in housing, health care, education and so on; also, to provide resources and expertise to help local communities to carry out these tasks; to ensure equal opportunity among the regions and communities by positive discrimination in resource allocation. This is why the HA has always proposed that real power be given to the level of the District Boards in the various districts of Hong Kong. When conditions allow: Recognition of the difficulty in today's society for the middle aged (from 45) of getting re-employed. Review what can be done to relieve plight of single parent families. Friendly pre-marriage guidance needed, with acceptance of premarital sex, and better comprehension of the widespread and century-upon-century customary practise of extramarital sex. Study conditions causing family tragedies, spouse and child abuse. Elderly Least possible reliance on private home care services for the elderly as government run institutions are easier to control. The annual salary rises of workers throughout Hong Kong to be reflected in increases in payments to elderly - retired workers who have given their lives to the territory - in line with rising costs, based on index of daily needed goods and services. There are strong arguments against the privatisation of social welfare services as that change does not necessarily mean higher quality service, greater choice or more efficiency. Duplication of services and consequent under-use and closure causes problems for those caught in the interim while market forces play themselves out. It is the elderly who are the victims. The HA proposes: Immediate introduction of benefits to all persons of the age seventy and above. Free transport passes for anyone over sixty. Immediate raise in the 'fruit allowance', the social security food allowance that presently stands at HK$750 a month (1992). Elderly people given opportunities to serve each other, recognising their continuing potential and usefulness and to offer them dignity in old age by extending their participatory life. Skills sharing ventures where the elderly teach their skills to anyone wanting to learn. Elderly outreach teams catering to elderly street sleepers. Co-operative gardening projects to supply some of their own food. Community involvement according to choice with voluntary schemes accounting for the active aged and the more dependant. Seek to integrate all aged people fully into the life of the local community. Homeless More flexibility by Housing Department on lifting restrictions on granting compassionate housing to single people living in private apartments. Most homeless people are not there by choice but because there is nowhere else to go. Ninety-nine percent do not like sleeping in the street. An information centre is needed to handle and analyze street-sleepers' problems and to provide various services, including medical care and personal consultation. More active stance by the Immigration Department to get identity cards to all the homeless so they can claim social security, accommodation, etc. Temporary hostels needed for the homeless, usually in the categories of: young people moving out of strife ridden parental homes; those released from institutions; one-parent families; the aged, and addicts. Urban Services Department to take care not to remove street sleepers blankets during clearance operations, but to give verbal warnings and inform Social Welfare Department before sweep operations. Housing Department actively should seek to house the homeless, with or without a contact address, and not only the over sixties. Penal Reform Rehabilitation not punishment. More flexible regimes, more space. Vocational and educational training and self-responsibility to stave off dependence on the prison system. Gambling not allowed. Independent complaints against prison officers and medical staff. Warm (cool but adequate in Summer) and comfortable clothing of utility character, regularly laundered. Daily variations in the menus; meaningful work; good lighting and plumbing; uncensored mail and privacy for visits, half-sentence conditional working release scheme and Pre-release Employment Scheme to achieve smooth re-entry into society. Correctional Services Department staff to be involved in prisoner rehabilitation to bring sense of job satisfaction; which staff also need training in non-violent response. Refugees The arbitrary detention of refugees is an international problem, highlighted in Hong Kong by the government's treatment of the Vietnamese refugees - a people at the centre of a regional problem that has international impact. Arbitrary detention contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention of the Rights of the Child. The plight of the displaced peoples of the world point at a fundamental failure of territorial administration that is world-wide and general. This cannot be understood without taking a close look at those areas that seem to be standing outside of the refugee problem. While there is no persecuted outflow of people from the USA, or Britain, or France for example - though all of these countries have problems with their ex-colonies, dependencies and protectorates - the places where these developed nations have economic influence do have refugee problems. Russia suffers both cause and consequence of refugees as it tries to hold its patchwork of annexations together. Vietnam is being squeezed economically by the USA, meekly followed by others, to bring down communism there. The result is people seeking refuge. The people are victims of political-economic repression. Those fleeing their situations are not the responsible ones. Vietnam is the world's third largest exporter of rice (grown in the verdant South) but the government uses the wealth to maintain a powerful army, dominating Indo-China. The people starve. Understated, this is mis-management by government leading to every kind of social injustice. Again, people flee. Yet under the antiquated United Nations 1951 Convention definition of 'refugee', many of these peoples are not declared refugees. Nor are the similarly plighted Afghans, Burmese, Filipinos or Sri Lankans, to name a few. From the developed nation's point of view, to open up the criteria allowing in extra millions as refugees, would burden an already burdened U.N. budget - the money allocated from the developed countries as aid to refugees. Every measure is made to narrow the 'window of possibility' rather than widen it. The result is today seen as increasing numbers of displaced persons without any franchise on human rights. One day these displaced millions may actively militate against their plight! Sadly, their cause will be manipulated by local power seekers. Which ever way, the homeless, stateless and penniless, besides being a disgrace to our pretending civilization, remains a danger to any peace or stability in whatever remote place in the world, however far removed from the flash point. This economic blockading according to political colouring is repeated according to ethnic origin with one 'tribe' pitted against another. Much of this tribalism - as in Northern Ireland, but most obvious in much of Africa - is caused by false lines of demarcation drawn wholesale across countries, not giving heed to the bio-region, or the traditional ethnic lines marking differences which already took generations of violent warring between tribes to establish. For an example of a bio-region take a valley leading down to the sea which forms a series of interlocking ecologies that together can produce all that a community of people need for a good life - from grazing to rice to fish. Start drawing Euclidean ruler lines to make minority group monopoly sections and the entirety of the whole is destroyed. The rich buy in from elsewhere to make good any lacks but the poor simply suffer or turn to more obvious violence. There are environmental refugees: those that have to move as their homeland has become untenable because of climatic shifts or desertification owing to deforestation, or poisoned by acts of Man, or submerged in questionable dam schemes to feed cities and newly industrialised zones. There are refugees because of displacements within territories as factions vie for rights: just because they never crossed a border such destitute also fall outside of the U.N. definition. While the U.N. withdraws from taking an expanded responsibility and is hard put to pay for what is on its present agenda, the monetary wealth of the world is cornered by an increasingly unaccountable few. Today, it is not just the powerful nations, like the USA, Germany and Japan, who are gathering the wealth to their own coffers but the banking corporations and multinationals who are aware of the limitations of mere countries and hold the accumulations in readily transferable form throughout the world. These are the root causes keeping refugees in the headline news. As long as people and leaders of nations see refugees as a problem of 'over there', refugees will stay in fashion - part of changing modern times - it has to be understood that refugees are victims and it is not as if the refugees themselves can change things. The term refugee has to be redefined in the light of 21st century actuality because we can't ignore the human crisis. Refugees should have the right to choose solutions of voluntary repatriation when they are happy about conditions in their place of origin. Meanwhile, local integration programmes are needed where refugees can become self-supporting within their countries of refuge. The Hong Kong situation calls for an understanding of the foregoing by the general public. It is not good enough that our legislators proclaim that they are following the wishes of the people in stopping funds and speaking of blockades. That is an easy way out to nowhere. It is too obvious that the people of Hong Kong are being disturbed and footing bills that should be paid by others. The release of a constant stream of negative information on the refugees here has resulted in sweep-it-under-the-carpet measures. Of the massive funding that arrives for the refugees, most of it goes to administration and security. Why were all these prison-like refugee camps built so readily? Was the government cleverly building a territory-wide prison system, envisaging massive social dissent in the not too distant future? The refugees are forced to become passive recipients - the women in the camps are not even allowed to cook for their families! A minority criminal element is blown out of all proportion by an ever populist press and little is said about the majority of talented, ordinary, humble refugees who wait out there self-imposed terms as best they can. A brief history of the situation is given by Heather Stroud, of the group Refugee Concern Hong Kong: 'For many years resettlement was seen as the only solution for all refugees. This changed with the massive exodus of people from Indochina beginning 1975. By the late 70s and early 80s countries of first asylum had begun to panic as they feared that the huge numbers of refugees crossing their coastline would upset the delicate ethnic balance and create a security threat to their country. Apart from Hong Kong, (Philippines and Japan which were difficult for asylum seekers to reach) the countries of first asylum began pushing boats back out to sea. The result was that the laws in the remaining first asylum countries hardened. Those who did make it to resettlement countries and who did well, then, (if not directly, but certainly indirectly), encouraged others to leave their homeland. By the late 80s and early 90s the solution of resettlement was recognised as having become a part of the problem. This then led to the screening policy being enforced.' Hong Kong has to assist in every way the economic development of Vietnam. Domestically, it has to give the refugees more control over their living situation, more participation and more responsibility to see to their daily affairs and to keep costs down. The Tai Ah Chau detention centre is another opportunity lost. The costly security measures were enormous, guarding what? Instead of a self-reliant isle with everything from vegetables, fruit and chicken in abundance, with sea fishing and beaches for the children - there is a prison camp in the middle of nowhere. Unaccompanied minors should be housed in hostels among the general community. The Humanist Association opposes the mandatory deportation of Vietnamese refugees to Vietnam. Of the refugees that arrive in Hong Kong, ninety-four percent of those 'screened' have been filtered out from holding any refugee status, this shows a contradiction in that procedure. This contradiction works against the applicants. The HA concurs with Heather Stroud who holds that, 'There are individuals at risk of persecution. There should be more information available to asylum seekers so that those who feel they could return home in safety and dignity are able to make an informed and realistic choice.' The screening is simply a device to buffer the responsible governments from shouldering the burden they created. Those defined as 'economic refugees' are victims of the Capitalist-Communist struggle, which itself is complicated by economic mismanagement in the refugee's countries of origin. Those individuals have few options in Vietnam and chose one among the few that offered them a future - escape and the call for refugee status. Under the rules of the game - they made it. They got to a 'free' territory. Now those in charge want to change the rules. Those Vietnamese people are politically victimised in Vietnam because of other's beliefs - which is even worse than victimisation because of their own held beliefs. All they want is the right to a decent human life. If the capitalist countries would stop their political-economic blockade against Vietnam, that country would have the possibility of economic development and political stabilisation - no matter the ideological banner. That the forced transport procedure got started in secrecy - and as everyone knows, dark deeds are committed in secret or when this is impossible, then covered up - and this shows that policy's ignominious character. Where lies the honour in such a solution? It appears no country wants to be known as the responsible one in this mandatory deportation. In all matters concerning the affairs of people there had better be openness. Secrecy has no benefits except probably in a surprise attack in war, which itself is reprehensible and a last resort tactic. Open government in all matters is the only way democracy works. Everyone will fare better on learning the ways and means of co-operation and openness. To see the urgent appeal in the eyes of those Vietnamese could one day be reflected in our own. Let Hong Kong treat the Vietnamese more like difficult guests than aliens. Then, possibly, the international community can be more sympathetic to those citizens of Hong Kong that search for a way of life under the democratic banner, wherever in the world. Unfortunately, it has to be recognised that resettlement can now only be viewed as a partial solution - people want to go home. 1. Central Medical Insurance Scheme - A Real Solution, by Dr. Alexander Yuan, June 29th, 1991. 2. UN 'Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons', point one. 3. From the Collectif Charles Fourier, c\o Foundation Roi Baudouin: rue de Brederode 21, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. 4. For further details see the book, Convivial Future, by Michael Bassey. 5. Policy Directions - the Greens (Western Australia) 1990, p67. *************************************************** Chapter IX Let's Talk About It Platform - Part 8. Mass-Media - Freedom of Information Ordinance - Official Secrets Act - Work Ethics in the Media Code of Ethics for Journalists. Science and Technology - bio-technology - eugenics - telecommunications - Copyright, Counterfeit and Luddism - Culture: Let's talk about it! Mass-Media Freedom of the press is inextricably woven into the weft and weave of democracy and is regarded as one of the most important guarantees of a free and democratic society. Democracy depends on discussion and debate while good government depends on reaching consensus. To reach consensus, free debate and an exchange of ideas is imperative. The unprecedented mass of information thrust on the public overwhelms today, even the 'experts' are floundering. The media is the means of dissemination of all of this information and it is important that the media is kept clear of obstructions. Handling the information by the recipient is another matter. Press freedom is not something for the media alone to ensure, it has to be seen as a fundamental human right that safeguards other freedoms. So it is not for journalists only that the HA fights for freedom of the press. An independent and impartial press assures that the lonely voice of any oppressed minority can be heard; by protecting individuals and groups from the tyranny of convention and consensus in society at large. Because of Hong Kong's colonial legacy certain laws which were imposed to maintain the authority of the colonial rulers are still acting over the legal system, these need amendment. The fear of patriotic societies and Communism over the border meant laws against propaganda were enacted as were laws dictating against joint efforts with political groups outside Hong Kong. Anti-trust laws preventing monopolies and mergers working against freedom of the press need to be given weighty consideration, also, the formation of a widely representative Media Council to promote and defend press freedom while at the same time ensuring the media meets a high degree of professionalism. While journalists feel this is a good idea in principle they also feel it is not so in practice. It needs the full support of the newspaper owners, not only financially, but also their willingness to respect and abide by its rulings. It must not be used as a censorship body. The UK's National Union of Journalists (NUJ) scorns their country's Press Complaints Commission and they express great doubts about the effectiveness of self-censorship. A submission they made in respect to an enquiry on the need for a Privacy Law, ran, 'any legislation that puts prior restraint on free reporting, or that would allow a person or body subject to press enquiry to use the courts to prevent such enquiry is unacceptable... There is too much restrictive legislation already.' The NUJ wants to...'boost, not restrict or punish, responsible free reporting, to raise the standing of the press in the public mind; and to provide genuinely aggrieved parties with a real redress against unfair coverage, by means of a ready correction of factual inaccuracies if they find their way into print.' In principle privacy legislation is to be welcomed but only if it is accompanied by greater rights of freedom of information, eg., as contained in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. No matter how carefully privacy laws are drafted, they could be used by business people and politicians to cover up mistakes and indiscretions, contrary to public interest. Also, government must not be given exemptions to the extent it is able to hold information inaccessible to the general public - particularly personal data. Freedom of Information Ordinance As part of the efforts to gain and maintain freedom and independence of the press Hong Kong needs a Freedom of Information Law (FOI) on its statute books, also a Privacy Law - anathema to journalists' unions. Of course an FOI Act will cause disruption in the 'orderly processes' at first - the question is toward what end those processes? - until Government minds its manners and starts volunteering information, in the style and intent of such Act. That's part of the democratisation process! The USA and Canada have such Act, they also have titled officials empowered to generate the necessary co-operation to ensure free access to information by the general public. Australia and New Zealand also have a Freedom of Information Law. Britain - which has great influence on Hong Kong - under its Conservative government, does not have such a Freedom of Information Bill, but the Labour Party has put the Bill on their agenda in the event they are ever elected. The Liberal Party has taken an more aggressively democratic stand by taking up such a Bill. One exemplary Bill has been drawn up by the Campaign for Freedom of Information, an authoritative group that has wide support in the British parliament. In the Bill, anybody - whether journalist or private citizen - could require that government departments, state corporations and other public bodies supply specific information within 30 days. Appeal can be made to a special tribunal if information is refused. There are restricted categories: territorial security; personal information on individuals (Privacy Law); but there is a 'public interest' clause overriding secrecy in case of danger to the public or injustice is involved. The Bill also recognises a journalist's duty to protect information supplied in confidence. However, unbroadcast film of, for example, street demonstrations, would not be made available to any requesting party under the Bill, that is, should the police want to view such an item for their surveillance work. Here in Hong Kong the Journalists Association held a seminar on March 1st 1991 on the need for this territory to have a Freedom of Information Act. The Humanist Association supported the Journalists Association in this endeavour as the media should be provided with the information on which the Government bases their policies and decisions. People have a right to see information that a government has collected about them, with a right of correction. People have a right to know how their government works and those affected by government decisions have the right to know how those decisions were reached. People have the right to know how the government is spending their money. The HA wants to ensure that administrators embrace these principles which makes their job easier and achieves open government. Access to information is a powerful mechanism of accountability. Whether a Privacy Commission is needed, as proposed by the Law Reform Commission in March 1993, is debatable. This would, it is assumed, enable individuals to claim compensation for sufferance as a result of incorrect use of information, or incorrect information, either held by government or the private sector. There is no doubt that personal data should be protected. The public would have the right to ask organisations if they hold data and if they suspect replies are not true can initiate investigations. The Commission would have the power of entry and seizure with a court order. International trade demands such legislation. Judgemental information and information furnished by others, such as police intelligence, will not be made available. But all these are merely administrative measures. What is needed is a Freedom of Information Ordinance. Protection of confidentiality: journalists to have the right of protection of their sources of information and many people outside the circles of journalism agree with that, however, in extreme cases where people's lives or a life is in danger or some major belongings' are at stake, then the journalist may feel free to break that agreement. But the onus is on the journalist and no law should prevail against that freedom. The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) chairman, Daisy Li Yuet Wah, replying to questions from the HA on the FOI regarding the point of recognising a journalist's duty to protect information supplied in confidence, was: 'As far as I understand it the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) of the UK has provisions laid down clearly showing procedures for police to follow in seizing journalists materials. Certain categories of materials, namely those obtained in confidence, are under protection from seizure. Hong Kong's Law Reform Commission in its report on police arrest recommended the government adopt PACE standards. However, there is a concern about what exactly constitutes 'journalists materials'! Concerning the Official Secrets Act, which the HA would like to see scrapped altogether, Ms Li has it that: 'The Official Secrets Act 1911 was replaced by a 1989 Act and extended to Hong Kong in 1992 by an Order in Council. Though the new law is an improvement over the old draconian law, it is still far from satisfactory. The major fault of the 1989 act is the lack of recognition of public interest as a defence. Furthermore, application of the new act to Hong Kong by Order in Council meant that the law will be in place only until the change in sovereignty in 1997. The situation beyond that is totally unclear and with the relevant provisions in the Basic Law on theft of state secrets, which open up for interpretation by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), it raises particular concerns among journalists. Our stance is to urge the government to localise the Act before 1997.' The HKJA finds the following laws need reviewing as they may be used to undermine press freedom: Official Secrets Act 1989; Television Ordinance: Telecommunications Ordinance; Broadcast Authority Ordinance; Emergency Regulations Ordinance and Emergency (principle); Regulations (censorship and suppression of publications); Crimes Ordinance (on treason/sedition); Police and Force Ordinance (section 50 - 7, on search and seizure); Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (section 30); Registration of Local Newspapers Ordinance (prohibition); Judicial Proceedings Ordinance (Regulation of Reports); Contempt of Court (need a comprehensive ordinance). On freedom of expression: Film Censorship Ordinance (political censorship); Places of Public Entertainment Ordinance (prohibitions); Summary Offenses Ordinance (section 4 - 29, on loud hailers); Public Order Ordinance (control of meetings and processions); Defamation Ordinance (criminal libel). Work Ethics in the Media The resolving of the problem of sensationalism in the press and invasion of people's privacy can only come about by personal implementation of ethical codes in the work place yet it is always treated from the intellectual standpoint rather than something that has to be operative on a day-by-day basis. While the term morality is not in currency, ethics is fashionable, but only the idea of ethics, not the practise. Mention of the ethical question by a staffer to a senior on a publication and the retort is too often likely to be, 'No time for that sort of thing!' A response given with a curt flourish or slight laugh. That laugh is the sign of discomfort because each of us has the murmuring of a conscience. It is this conscience and its development that needs attention. Is it true that there is no money in ethics? If money is something banked and counted, or something used to buy objects that go to individual grandeur rather than community well-being, then there is no money in ethics. However, if money is the medium of exchange between people where goods and services are supplied for work done and a distribution of the wealth is intended, then any anti-life stance is costly and a non-ethical standpoint is anti-life - therefore costly. Information disseminated should be fair, it shall do nothing which entails intrusion into private grief or distress. The right to publish is not questioned, rather the act of publishing. Consider the personal suffering brought about by uncaring press reporting, the damage wrought through ruined lives - and there is no need to weigh this against the good honest reporting does in the suppression of all evils as this is not questioned. Regulations, laws and such legalised constrictions are anathema to those who have achieved personal discretion in their affairs and who deal with others according to their educated conscience. Likewise in the job, any job, not only in handling publications and publicity. Any worker, from the more intellectual to those applying hard physical activity, can feel a responsibility that goes toward non-harming and need no reminding from government. But that is an ideal - so we have laws - but the HA wants less not more laws. We want laws 'for' press freedom not against them and pressure will not be exerted against press freedom where there is no fear of abuse of this freedom. Self discipline of the press is a positive factor, though currently it is taken in a limited context because of concern for what 'the boss', 'the government', 'China' and even 'mother', will do about certain words or ideas. Self discipline means discrimination and this word is used when attempting to speak of the highest flights of philosophical thought in relation to actions - ask the Buddhist, the Confucian, the Christian. Ethics in the press is of paramount importance to any individual in the chain of actions leading to publication because it means feeling good about work done. A good story well written or properly researched, without 'fear or favour' as the saying goes, handed over and published brings good feelings to each person involved. This 'good feeling' is no mere chancy thing. Indeed we human beings depend a lot on feelings and on emotional energy. Anyone trying to do his or her job without motivation, without inspiration, without recognition, will do a mechanical job of it - that is a job lacking feeling, lacking the all important human element. Some misinterpret this as professionalism. Unfortunately the mechanical reporter, writer, editor or publisher elaborates and decorates the seed of the story - fabricates a concoction and the public loses confidence in the press, the media, and becomes apathetic, disbelieving. What is the media response? Greater fabrication! A term let loose in South East Asia was 'developmental journalism'. Now although this concept was used to curtail press reporting on the corruption and negligence of private enterprise and government - particularly under Marcos in the Philippines - there was a useful element in it because without proper media appreciation and sensitivity to an act of enterprise or government then there would be no public support and what enterprise can get off the ground under such condition? Ethics in the media and at work generally is a must. It makes for a better society and of immediate concern to workers unions and societies, it brings positive feelings to individuals in industry - and it is still possible to make money! Code of Ethics for Journalists: A journalist has a duty to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards. A journalist shall at all times defend the principle of the freedom of the press and other media in relation to the collection of information and the expression of comment and criticism. He or she shall strive to eliminate distortion, news suppression and censorship. A journalist shall strive to ensure that the information he or she disseminates is fair and accurate, avoiding the expression of comment and conjecture as established fact and falsification by distortion, selection or misrepresentation. A journalist shall rectify promptly any harmful inaccuracies, ensure that corrections and apologies receive due prominence and afford the right of reply to persons criticised when the issue is of sufficient importance. A journalist shall obtain information, photographs and illustrations only by straightforward means. The use of other means can be justified only be over-riding considerations of public interest. The journalist is entitled to exercise a personal conscientious objection to the use of such means. Subject to justification by over-riding considerations of the public interest, a journalist shall do nothing which entails intrusion into private grief and distress. A journalist shall protect confidential sources of information. A journalist shall not accept bribes nor shall he or she allow other inducements to influence the performance of his or her professional duties. A journalist shall not lend himself or herself to the distortion of suppression of the truth because of advertising or other considerations. A journalist shall not originate materials which encourages discrimination on grounds of race, colour,creed, gender or sexual orientations. A journalist shall not take private advantage of information gained in the course of his or her duties, before the information is public knowledge(1). Having stated this code of ethics, note needs taking of the sentiment of 'news for profits' that determines so much of the Hong Kong media's business. Also the low pay of young journalists legging it around Hong Kong to dig out the news, who work long hours, for a salary half that of any equivalent profession. Always there is the shout for ethics in the press, particularly from the HKJA as that is part of its responsibility as a union. But it is not enough to just have a guiding code for journalists, though such guide is important. Each of us has to try to operate through our own ethics in day-to-day activities. But, ethics do not come out of the air. Like other values, they are received from others. Then the problem is, what were the models that moulded our ethics? Leaving things to chance, our ethics arrive from the strongest influence of our most immediate society and given the general state of things, that cannot engender objective morality with any certainty. So, there is the confusion as to where to turn for guidance - one person's ideas seem about as good as the next. Whatever the answer, it is imperative to understand the situation with enough personal objectivity to better the chances of holding to more open-ended views. The stand of the HA is that an appropriate ethical sense comes from developing an attitude in life that leaves others free. This attitude also leaves ourselves free. Science and Technology Regarding science and technology in relation to humanism and its qualification, the HA wants that technological and scientific activities take place within a framework taking into account the following measures: The return to Hong Kong of those specialists that saw themselves compelled to emigrate. Coherent co-ordination of plans in the scientific and technical areas with the social, cultural and economics areas. Sustained development in the field of science and technology through the re-alignment of institutions such as the University of Science and Technology to collect and collate skills and information for such institutions dedication to enable our youth and to co-ordinate foreign technological transfer. To ferment regional initiatives regarding scientific and technological developments while promoting wide participation of all sectors in the formulation of goals and plans. Creation of an Interdisciplinary Institute for the co-ordinated development of the sciences. Strong emphasis on information technology and the creation of open-access databanks at all levels. Intention to ensure that technology helps local small and medium-sized companies modernise and incorporate new technologies to make them more effective and efficient therefore competitive. Information Technology Given the emerging importance of this field an Information Policy is needed. To ensure extensive and unrestricted availability of advanced Information Technology (IT) to the territory, clear recognition of Hong Kong's status under the Co-ordinating Committee for Export to Communist Areas (COCOM) is needed. Legislation needed on social issues where IT impinges on civil rights, covering privacy, copyright, data protection and computer crime. Telecommunications Independent Telecommunications Council needed responsible for establishing policy, with board members from consumer-user groups outside of the business areas as well as technical people. The Council to weigh in against, for example, the July 1993 unearthed 'over enthusiastic' charging practices in provision of facsimile lines - which after all are just another form of electronic data, little different from voice - as per letters of complaint regarding Telecom in the Business Post. Let's have deregulation without free-for-all (among those in the business). Legislation needed to prevent any one company controlling too big a slice of the market or branch of the media. While opportunities for competition need to be opened up, strong advantages have to be given to local community services - in radio and television - to enable them to compete against the major internationals with their comprehensive satellite capability etcetera producing phenomena of 'cultural invasions' as experienced by India who's state-run television can hardly fend off Hong Kong's STAR TV. Local-regional radio and television stations are socially useful and need an independent channel. The HA gives importance to free information exchanges between all members of society. Local telephone calls to remain free, fixed by law, over those companies operating telephone line services. There are ample ways for telephone companies to make money, given they provide these services, without charging for local calls. Presently the line charges have a built-in amount to cover local use. Once the lines are installed it is merely maintenance and each month huge amounts are billed as line charges as every installation pays a monthly fee - open communication across Hong Kong has an amplifying effect on technology application and self-education. This helps keep people in touch. Bio-technology Legislation and supervisory control body to regulate experiments in bio-technology, particularly regarding ethics. Mandatory code of ethics to govern bio-technology firms. Code of practise regulating ownership of life-forms, species and human genes to cover cell and tissue culture, molecular biology and recombinant DNA, immunology, protein and enzyme chemistry, detoxification and waste management, and so on. Research facilities and companies engaging in bio-technology to be subject to strong controls, exercised by a supervisory body, against polluting the environment with their waste - with specific requirements to control their waste. Declaration of their research programmes with reports submitted to government. Research programmes approved by an evaluation group under a supervisory body - the supervisory body composition fifty-fifty executive to non-executives, the executives scientists, the non-executives environmentalists - constituted of people with a developed religious feeling, and community leaders. That body functioning to prevent human society suffering under the same mistakes that has brought about sea, land and air pollution, which has brought disruption to all life, including mankind. The HA opposes any form of genetic engineering, especially transfers of genetic materials between species, unless there is proof that the outcome will be benign, with the onus on application proponents to reveal all potential hazards of their proposals. Laws required for mandatory notification, assessment and monitoring of such proposals, including environmental assessments. No deliberate release of genetically altered organisms until new laws are enacted. Eugenics The HA has strong reservations on the way IVF technology is used. Embryonic autopsy serves a minimum of benefits to humanity, and contraceptive testing on embryos seeking 'quality control' gives personal registers of unseemly human conduct. Science can progress without extremes that go against life - natural motherhood is needed Manipulation of a woman's hopes by science tied to commerce, is not a human proposition - using women as wombs or egg factories and embryos as organic microchips. There is a difference between treatment and experiment. Choice and control are needed. There are orphaned children needing parents, there are men willing to naturally impregnate women - ask around in your circle of friends. Men who cannot father a child are in an equally difficult position and it is they who need to consider fostering needy children. Copyright, Counterfeit and Luddism. The sight of a press picture of a beaming government official gloating over the destruction of useful computer disks storing computer programmes and their accompanying valuable instruction manuals shows how far market monopolies go with government backing big business. This happened in Hong Kong, yet, at the same time the government in Thailand was actively condoned the reproduction of computer hardware and software, by whatever means, ignoring any claims protecting patents and copyright under the disclaimer that Thailand needed free access to that technology and information. That moment of sanity disappeared from Thailand. But how else can any nation that is behind ever bridge the ever widening technology gap that is increasing the divide between the haves and have-nots, the undeveloped, the underdeveloped countries and the developed countries. Once a worker was paid for his or her work directly and had control. When an inventor or craftsman produced an original artifact, then it was common justice that such person had rights over the model or manner of that invention. Ordinarily, that originator would gain a better living than the more mundane worker because more effort had gone into that production so the extras were earned by merit. Not so today. Such are the complexities of large scale production and marketing, and the methods of control over these and particularly over the distribution of the profits owing to the massive scale of operations and the multiplicity of middle-men, that the originator gets only a small dividend from that production. On average and in terms of quality of returns, he or she gets less than before. However, there is always the exceptions and those exceptions are the ones that hit the news. They extol the very epitome of capitalism with a big C. They are publicised as having made it for all to see, with up-beat interviews in glossy magazines. Then I too feel I have to reach for that - the unholy carrot of Capitalism. Reality, on the other hand, tells me that the higher a single individual is lifted - by the mass media that follows big business like a lowly jackal - the lower I need look to find the mean where ordinary people have to exist. I have this false image of that one who 'made it' held aloft to goad me on. It is the ordinary person that is left hurting and floundering along the road to technological completeness. It is he or she who needs that hardware and software and the attendant education in its operation. It is the undeveloped and the underdeveloped countries that need free access to the information because they have not got the money to pay the inflated prices that stem from economies not of their making. Why should Bangladesh, or Zambia, or Indonesia have to pay USA prices - especially when the essential backup is not provided at that distance. Even in Hong Kong, if I cannot afford to purchase the updates to keep abreast of the almost daily changes and upgrades, then I trail behind. Trailing behind is not much of a problem - the so-called 'illegal copies' allow those interested in trailing behind to hang on - they give a foothold into higher technology. The Golden Arcade in Sham Shui Po is an Eastern-styled bazaar of high tech products. Hong Kong has always been a place with a high profile Central District and hidden, squalid industrial areas. The wealth has been generated in those squalid industrial areas but the dream lay in Central with its High Fashion and High Finance. When it was seen that the young were educating themselves with copies of hardware and software, Big Business organised itself, got local sops to forward their monopolising schemes, and easily brought our government departments to heel. Thailand, among some more adventurous countries understood what it needs to move into the future and anyone going to Thailand these past couple of years can witness the remarkable changes, positive and bright changes, that that once 'backward' South East Asian country has managed. Given a supportive break the Philippines will soon get into similar high gear. Now that China is part of the Hong Kong equation, Hong Kong can take a different line by identifying with that 'Third World' country, China, because we are to become part of that country and can either move down a few notches or pull China up a bit. Whichever way the teacake rolls, at least - and at last - Hong Kong will become a real place! Since 1987 Hong Kong has been targeted by leading U.S software manufacturers and there has been no organised resistance and government sided with those roller-coaster North Americans. Of course, with Lotus 1-2-3 software programmes then selling locally at HK$10 per disk, while the price through the official agent is HK$3,120, who can accept such cost difference. The fact that a computer disk's information can be copied in seconds informs me of great advances in technology that are immediately applicable in the street and that should tell something to the programmers who put so much work into those applications programmes. The attitude in such productions has to be one of service to fellows at a nominal return for livelihood - not a fortune for an easy life. The fact that a computer operator today can copy these disks in seconds, and likewise photocopy manuals, means society has advanced beyond a dividing have versus have-not mentality. People have to learn to willingly share rather than horde and connive. While Communism has to learn to avoid using power blocks and not to step on the rights to individual freedoms; Capitalism has to learn to curb excesses in the freewheeling use of freedoms just because one day someone finds he or she is on top of the heap. The USA-exemplified consumerism and growth economy is no longer affordable as such an attitude has created imbalance - that's how capitalism works and how it is undermined by middle-men skimming off the cream - and it is widening the affluence gap because all statistics show the poor getting poorer as the rich get richer, particularly in those nations that are most poor. It is not so noticeable in Scandinavia or in Japan - where there are different problems. Given the option, a caring official could have sent that load of computer hardware, software and instruction manuals into China say, for its wider distribution. But no, HK$15 million worth were destroyed; 160,000 manuals and 53,000 computer disks wasted. That is computer crime. This is a regular enough occurrence. While the major software development companies are all set to crack their substantive sticks about the ears of pirate users in South East Asia, again and again, many little guys will unfairly feel the pain. While those firms pirating applications programs and reselling them as originals deserve no mercy from that stick, it is different when it is made plain that what is purchased is a copy of original work. That means no 'accredited agent' back-up services, tuition, or up-dates. This, by default, should mean these service features have to be provided at all sales points and guaranteed, as part of the high purchase price, in all territories where the product is on sale through accredited agents. When illicit copying takes place, none of the sales money gets back to the software firm, which firm has taken the place of the designer, having either bought all rights or employed the designer to develop the product. This raises a question: where, in natural law, does someone, having designed something, assume full rights over that design? Nowhere of course, in nature, by Unholy Hazard or by Grand Design, there is no copyright, as this is very much a freewheeling universe. Today's 'free market' is not so free! In man's conditioned universe, from the time of our early craftsmen, a man's original work was paid according to the merit it rated and from the earliest times the only way to copy a masterpiece was to build another one and even if it was not quite as good as the original it deserved almost the same price because of the work entailed. But the state-of-the-art has changed. Technology has made it possible to instantly copy computer software. It is antiquated thinking, also monopolist and materialistically money-grubbing to make the absurd demand that a false price be placed on an item that can be instantly and cheaply copied. As soon as this capability was achieved the entirety of the game changed, and software firms have to recognise this, whether they do so now or later is the only question. In the past the Christian church was against Galileo Galilei because he observed that the universe was not quite as the ancient Church had it. The sun did not progress around Earth, but quite the contrary and us humans were not the centre of the universe. Such was the fear generated by Galileo's insight that the Church authorities threatened to burn him alive - such talent, such a refined human nature - it can be presumed. The authorities committed his contemporary, Bruno, to a fiery stake, so Galileo withdrew his statement - about a solar system circumscribing a central sun - from public consumption and he offered a disclaimer instead. After thirteen years of committee debate in the Vatican (starting in 1980), the Catholic Church finally publicly admitted its error - made in the sixteenth century! How sad. Today I witness what happens when an institution cannot follow the changes; it established monopolies, writes new laws to cover 'emergent contingencies' that threaten its hold on power - and money is power in today's world. Largely, it is a question of scale. The comment is often made that software will cease to be commercially developed if pirating is not stopped because it will not be worthwhile for developers to be in the business. Not true. If it takes a designer six months to design and develop an applications program then the man-hours warranting payment are six months salary. That's all. If a company insists on holding the rights to such a program that company deserves the equivalent of six months salary as well and society could even be extraordinarily generous and give five times that because, after all, companies have administrations and at least one director. But firms in the software business speak of millions of dollars in annual profits! In any real world people put a penny to a penny when summing up the worth of goods or services and it is notable that in the real everyday world, these dizzying figures of large corporations are beyond conception. In fact they are nonsense because no one can find those millions of dollars. Ask the U.S. government to account for its world debt - there is not that much gold in circulation never mind in Fort Knox. Oh yes, on paper, in assets, stocks, shares, joint operations, diversified investments. But, that has nothing to do with the designer, that cost of design and development, on the street-price level. That is the level people have to deal with. Another person in the street who wants to use that software program and who understands all about the state of modern technology and the ease these things can be copied and shared should not have to pay that false price. Behold, when he or she does purchase 'legitimate' software then he or she learns that there are conditions to its use under copyright and certainly it cannot be shared. What's this? Firms have to buy multiple copies according to the number of staff they have! There is a question here: in all the world, when you purchase something it is yours. If it is yours then you can do what you want with it, otherwise it is not yours. Yes, certain items have conditions attached, a photograph can be hired for one time use, the photographer gets the original back again. A book can be hired, read and returned, or bought at a reasonable price. Of course you can photocopy a book but it would be too much trouble because technology didn't allow that with the ease software can be copied. The world is held in crisis today because of the mankind-made division between the haves and the have-nots, the rich and poor. Not only between the developed nations and undeveloped (in relation to distribution of high technology) but also within developed nations. This is precisely because the attitude taken by today's institutions, to technology, is like that of the Christian church before, when it refused to see and to adopt a new behaviour corresponding to the new insight and technology. Social disruption is a general phenomena while in this specific case we see a clear example of one of its causes. The commonsense answer is de-restriction or more limited conditions of copyright. Designers will not stop bringing out new applications programs because designers, like artists and craftsmen, love their work. It is fulfilling. Also, it fulfils a need in their own society so they feel useful and life becomes meaningful. Sure they should be rewarded and they need cash to live. They also appreciate independence. But let's get away from the idea where I must be a millionaire or I am nothing. Patents, design and copyright are legally distinct. A patent allows an owner of an invention to stop its unauthorised use. A registered design protects how an object looks. Copyright protects technical drawings, instruction manuals and computer software, besides its application in literature, works of art, music, films and recordings. Copyright only protects against acts of copying while patent or design registration can work against independently developed products. Copyright exists automatically, patents and designs have to be applied for. The independence of the artist-craftsman-designer can only be opposed by those with vested interests, the monopolist corporations that have narrow minded interests that revolve around their own survival in the jungle they have made and maintain. If a government department, or major business outfit, wants its own applications programs for its own specialised use then they can employ designers, as always - progress will not be stopped. In fact, when prices are reasonable and computer usage scaled down to neighbourhood size with access to technology from all over the technologically advanced world, then global sharing spontaneously takes place. Use is grounded to root at the local level with the result that the whole earth society is advancing step by step. Presently, development is out of kilter. It needs equilibrating and with equal opportunity and universal access, by the freeing of technology from limiting patents and rights, the entirety of society is placed in a state ready to develop into a balanced future of unknown far-reachingness fit for human life on human scale. Culture - Let's talk about it! The HA proposes a new cultural model that, despite functioning in a complementary manner, will be distinctly separate from the educational model. The HA understands the educational model as an instrument serving to form and inform the people, one that starts working with the first steps of the child. The cultural model though is an instrument that creates ambits of expression and freedom. So, education and culture in no way have the same objective. The confusion produced in today's world between science and technology, and between technological and cultural developments, has serious consequences. Humanism does not see that the technological development produced in the major centres of power has generated any equivalent integral cultural development. Nor does humanism see cultural under-development as an expression of technological under-development. As in other fields, the take-off of a society depends on its economic development and that development, in turn, depends on the social organisation, so the take-off of culture will depend, ultimately, on the organisation of the cultural means and on the relationship established between the people and those means. To postpone cultural development under the pretension that certain economic goals have to be reached first is a supposition that will have be put under the clear light of public discussion. A Hong Kong cultural leap will begin with the promotion of a great debate around what people want as a lifestyle and as an environing society's lifestyle, because the organisation of that society is the instrument used to develop culture. Art, philosophy and pure science, all need much discussion and their intent revised at the root, just as history must be studied more closely to note falsifications. Taking into account the above, there is little usefulness in proposing either more or less funds budgeted for cultural side-shows in cinema, or for folk displays or to enable some groups to dip into the telluric roots of say, Chinese culture. Despite giving all that some meaning, possibly related to emancipation from an imperialistic dependency, such has no real seriousness as a proposal nor as an objective. The Hong Kong cultural leap will begin with a debate - fixing the greater context within which measures need be implemented, and, in this context, discussions regarding the present Western dominant culture that is in many parts decrepid, violent and nihilistic - that should not fail to take place. What is demanded is a new and complete image of the world, and not some reference to the world of the discotheque. Thus, regarding the subjects of culture the HA disqualifies all the proposals made by others. Culture, in all cases, will start developing in parallel with the education that a child is given. The information will be complemented with the development of the child's ability to move and to think and feel - mental and emotional movements - and the aesthetic sense, in the field of those arts that give form to things, through painting, dance, in music and in poetry, and so on. Apart from educational institutions, arts co-operatives need to be in charge of reinforcing, in the cultural aspect, incentives for the development of childhood and youth as these can be organised on a more appropriate scale. Proposals: To build a structure with cultural autonomy separate from the university ambit but firmly supported by government. To gain the co-operation of the mass media that will place culture as a first priority. Promotion of exchanges with all the countries of the world, to enhance the cultural debate. Hong Kong not remaining enclosed in a cultural chauvinism nor importing extraneous cultural models. To review the arts strategy including aspects of policy that include freedom of expression, government support structures with at-arms-length principle, with representation, funding, evaluation standards, priorities, education, services and accessability. To engage the public and the arts sector in a wide ranging debate; to find a new way that has the human being of Hong Kong as its centre and that can also usefully serve the inhabitants of the world - that is what needs to be developed. 1. Extract from The Journalist, September 1986, newsletter of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. ************************************************* Chapter X Why No Separate Chapter On Green Issues Platform - Part 9. Green Humanism - Green trusts - Rio Earth Summit - "What? No Grapes!" - Hong Kong Needs a Green Political Party - Green Humanism Internationally World-wide Green Issues and Humanism - Brazil: Not By Domination, but Co-operation. The Internal Environment. Green Humanism Because I find it awkward to separate what is Green, from what is anything else, I see a future platform of action where all that is Green is implicit in the other proposals, whether concerning the economy, government style or whatever. Just as every act, essentially, can be said to be political, or at least that every act has a political effect, finally, everything has to be ecologically or environmentally sound or it just does not work for the human being. The human being is not separate from Nature, nor is the human being transcendant in the sense of not needing to give regard to what is natural. Humanist policies incorporate Green thinking. The Humanist Party is necessarily a Green Humanist Party. For me a true Green Party is an environmental concern group centred around social justice and human liberation, as these are key factors in getting people to care for the environment. This means that the human environment is the centre of reference. A quality human life means, for me at least, that people have decent affordable housing, wholesome food in sufficient quantity and reasonably priced, also socialized medical and health care, ample possibilities for employment and freedom of choice in all affairs. Participatory democracy is important. Given that these human needs are met, then surely people will care for their environment. Otherwise, the social pressure of having to struggle to survive should any of these factors be absent will disable people from giving proper consideration to their environment. So, I give social justice and the human environment priority because these are the immediate things - not because I belittle the value of other creatures and things. Given real freedom of choice, I believe human warmth and care will be shown to all creatures and all created things. It is this sense of stewardship that will determine a healthy future. It is ignorance on the part of people, even the most educated people - as they are mainly educated in the sense of being efficient producers and consumers or 'experts' leading to these - that is causing the ecological catastrophe so obvious today. People are the problem. People are born into situations not of their choosing. They are surrounded by a wall that prevents their clear seeing. This wall is built over years of injustice, years of attempting to grab the unobtainable - the televised perfection of pretty happiness surrounded by loved ones, sharp fashions, elegant automobiles and the rest. In reality the average person cannot easily afford education, basic housing, quality food or medical care. Not without selling their entire working life to an employer. Is that why the human being came upon the earth? I believe that this earth is the Garden of Eden. It is the Promised Land - but it is paradise going to hell. The task is to put it right again and there is no other time or place for this work than in the here and now. There is no one else to do this except me and you. There is the choice, to do it or not. People have no right to complain if they are not active in cleaning up the mess, despite that they did not make the mess. However, it is not a thankless task. As the HA we have formed a group precisely to enjoy the task, which would be Herculean if attempted alone. Certainly we are not the only group building a Green future, a human future. The Greening of Hong Kong needs a Green hue'd political party that is independent of the other political groups. A part of that party's work is to gather, hold and offer to others Green solutions to grey problems - including models of farming and gardening that display a sustainable method of food production, even if on a small scale. Also, to influence government policies to make them reflect human values, with clear communications among people. Environmental policies that place priority on the human being are needed. Active non-violence as methodology. Direct democracy. Emphasis on freedom rather than law and order. Direct communications - talking to neighbours first before authorities. Participation in production and services, with self management of groups - co-operative based systems and society. Full access to information of government and private projects where there is environmental-public impact. Resistance to any system that sucks energy and talent from clean alternatives. Use of Green alternatives. The HA to organise further studies to give broad-based solutions to the problem of pollution and to stop the deterioration of the urban and rural environments by establishing and implementing by-laws preventing environmental abuse - these need to have the necessary legal powers to put an immediate stop to polluters and not have to wait for procedural stages, acting on complaints and on ad hoc inspections by local conservation officials. A series of maps need to be produced of areas under permanent danger from natural calamity, for long term preventative action, meanwhile taking immediate steps of prevention. The HA questions how long the agricultural sector can be taken for granted. Will it always produce without intelligent agricultural policies because subsistence peasants-gardeners have no other life pursuit and accept sub-human lifestyles? Buildings not to be treated as commodities, constructed and sold for financial gain. Solar hot water panels, solar cells, heat and light sensors to control apertures, heat insulated glass, and heat ventilated roofs; these are the needs of buildings built with the end-user in mind and are energy efficient. Duplication of further examples of recycling as per Sha Tin's secondary sewage works that saves half its oil bill by using the methane by-product of its treatment process as fuel. The HA sees the need to sanction laws of preservation, conservation and improvement of the environment that foresee, in turn, the recuperation and improvement of those sectors of our environment already degraded. Also, laws that establish crimes against the environment and that foresee, at the same time, ways of preventing such crimes through programmes of ecological education. Note: where new laws are demanded by HA proposals, it is simultaneously considered that old laws that have outlived their usefulness be abandoned. Changing circumstances need new laws, but the guiding ethos leads away from a legalist type society to one of freedom and a minimum of laws. Letters to the editor on Green issues 26th May 1992 "Wanna Make a Green Million, Sir?" (To Sunday Post, business section - not published) Dear Editor, In reference to your article 'HK Bank May Launch Green Trust' (Money on Sunday) last Sunday. We would like to point out that a truly green trust would have no truck with that massive scale of investments, because control over the money is fraught with problems. Surely the Green investors would end up financing environmental problems. Even the one example quoted, that of The Body Shop, considered by the Green orthodoxy as a 'safe Green bet' deals mostly with cosmetics, a luxury for the developed world and nothing to do with Greening the Planet. As for Marks and Spensers, well, we'll forget that because it's too obviously nothing to do with Green issues. Green consuming is a necessary step - there is a place for The Body Shop and Marks & Sparks - but let's not confuse one thing with another. Let's get the priorities right. Most Green business is superficial as the production of environmentally friendly goods does not address the real problem, over production and consumption and growth geared economies. Neither does it address the structural and institutional obstacles preventing an authentic greening of industrial society. It does not deal with the problem of infinite growth as the mainspring of industry on a finite planet. Neither does it deal with the fact that corporations have legal protection from responsibility to people and planet. Nor does it deal with the enormous consolidation of power by transnational corporations and those governments and militia in their service. It doesn't deal with the ownership of land nor ownership of the means of production. It does not deal with the huge social inequalities of this world, the fragmenting of society and treatment of entire cultures as though they were simply another tradable commodity. Once upon a time a Trust was a special legal form for charitable organisations but the System took over that form to remove the trust so far from its original intention with their off-shore trusts, accountable to no one. Now the System is toying with Green Trusts! 20 June 1992 Diverse Solutions - The Rio Earth Summit '92 South China Morning Post (SCMP) Dear Editor, What on Earth was that Summit about? Money, it seems. So now the biggest polluters are to spend money on putting right what money put wrong. Of course they will have to earn that extra money to do that. Money is the problem, not the solution. The growth economy with its consumerism and greed are to blame Why would not the government of the North American people (excluding those people of the far north), the government that made such a fuss the world-over about its intellectual property rights, why would they not sign that principled manifesto on saving bio-diversity? Because the rain forests hold the key to one of the next 'great', or lucrative, industries and the commonwealth of substances thereto lie in regions demarcated by under-developed and developing countries. 'We can't have these poor, mainly illiterate peoples, control such important matters,' Mr Bush didn't say! The re-colonisation of such as Amazonia is now being worked out under the term 'internationalization', '...because those substances are far too important to mankind.' What are the following companies doing in the Amazon? Caterpillar International, Dow Chemicals, Massey Ferguson, W.R Grace, Gulf & Western, and Goodyear, all from the USA; Suzuki, Mitsui and Marubeni, from Japan; Lioquigas from Italy; De Buis Roenhssing from Switzerland; and Volkswagen from Germany which got a concession to convert 1,400 square kilometres of jungle in the Para region into pasture. Yet the public relations companies hired by these groups blamed such as the slash and burn farmers for causing environmental destruction! The Kayapo Indians - contrary to the negative propaganda - are experts in synergy, according to Darrell Posey, of Brazil's Institute of Ethnobiology of Amazonia: 'Research has, in reality, shown that the presumed 'natural' ecological systems in Amazonia are products of human manipulation. Old agricultural fallows are extensive and reflect human-engineered genetic diversity. 'Slash and burn agriculture does not mean these fields are abandoned after a few years. The fields may peak in production of staple crops after three years but the Kayapo consistently revisit old fields seeking lingering "riches".' Indigenous knowledge means money. Following on from extractive products, more recently, the pharmaceutical industries are the major exploiters of traditional medical knowledge. The annual world market value for medicines derived from medical plants discovered from indigenous peoples is US$43 billion and that is without considering natural insecticides, repellents and plant genetic materials. Then there are natural fragrances, dyes, and cosmetics. And more. Now is the time to protect the Intellectual Property Rights of native peoples and 'just compensation' for knowledge must be guaranteed. International demands that work through the building of monocultures are bringing about the demise of bio-diversity. Also, the destruction of native societies through materialism and consumerism following naive 'just compensation' has to be stopped. This can only happen with cultural and economic independence of native peoples. Money is the problem. Saving and enhancing bio-diversity is the solution. 18th September 1992 'What? No Grapes!' (SCMP) Dear Editor, In support of the 'no grapes' campaign of the United Farm Workers of America. We support the efforts of the United Farm Workers of America in their campaign to educate Asia about the negative side of Californian grapes production, aiming to knock Californian grape sales, particularly in Hong Kong, the third biggest export market after New York and Los Angeles. We do this in solidarity with their aims, asking people to think twice before buying Californian grapes, to draw attention to the plight of the migrant worker grape pickers working conditions. We are also disturbed to learn of the widespread use of toxic-in-concentration chemicals, eg as hormonals, pesticides, herbicides etc. We note that even in the technologically advanced USA, farm owners give higher priority to placing pristine-in-appearance grapes - among other produce - on the nation's tables for their own profits in disregard to consumer's health and the farm workers and their families health. This topic relates to Hong Kong with its vegetables contaminated by chemicals, those locally produced but more harmfully, those produced in the SEZ for consumption in Hong Kong. One answer is to buy locally grown vegetables and to pay a little extra for that privilege - this will be a boon to our local producers. There needs to be an educational campaign here, run by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department of Government, on the correct use of chemicals. This campaign should be directed at all levels, from the elderly women who have small market gardens and who too freely use herbicides without realising the remnant toxicity of the land after its use (very recently I picked up ten dead myna birds from around a pond in a paddy field), to the level of the bigger producers - even those across the border - who's poisonings of people regularly hit press headlines. Tests have to be stepped up and toxic sources located and brought to the attention of the authorities over the border. It is said that those maleficent producers over the border are Hong Kong owned agribusiness firms. Confirming such rumours would enable local action. Whenever a product is given priority over the consumer - in order to get the most money in the shortest time for the least number of people - there are problems. Besides any educational campaign to make gardeners, farmers aware of the dangers they and their customers are made to face, a review must be taken by Government on the importance of gardening and farming, not forgetting inshore fishing. It is not too late to rescue our countryside and our shores. It is not enough to leave a few areas green. Those areas which have been farmed are also part of the countryside cultural heritage. We need a farming (and fishing) policy that lays out basic practical guidelines - eg., 'Don't shoot the pig, clean the pig!' (in reference to the law which forbids anyone keeping a pig or more than twelve hens in Water Control Zones - which law has caused great anguish to farmers). Agricultural land and our valuable marine areas must not be converted into building sites. Land conversion for reasons of cash profits for powerful groups and individuals must stop. Nor should government officers and private developers use environmentalism as reasons for holding up important projects that are needed by people such as hospitals, special homes for the needy, public housing, schools etc. Farming and fishing must be carried out in a manner that guarantees the future of those industries. Young people need to be attracted into those areas and with the application of appropriate, affordable technology this can be done. There IS a minority who would rather farm if it were to afford them a living, which it does not, not without a farm policy. In this age the farmer or fisherman should not have to be a peasant. The more development in Hong Kong itself, the more people here, and the more problematic the pollution and the worse our quality of life. We should get out of this narrowed vision and start looking to South China (the new airport should be out past Shenzhen somewhere!). The mainly Mexican grape pickers crossing the borders into the USA and suffering in their terrible labour conditions and injustices - especially the women - and bearing the brunt of agribusiness chemical warfare are paralleled in Hong Kong, in the living and working conditions of the Chinese Illegal Immigrants who, after-all, only want to work! We can learn from the United Farm Workers of America in their long struggle. In international solidarity we welcome Cesar Chavez to Hong Kong. (Note: Cesar Chavez died early in 1993.) We Need a Green Political Talk by Tony Henderson at Green Power's Friday evening 'Green Tea' - August 24th, 1990, Caritas Centre. The Humanist Association has always been affirmative about the Green movement taking on a more political stance. Here in Hong Kong there are environmental groups that hit out against pollution on a territorial scale and other groups that put their efforts likewise in the districts. Consumer goods monitoring; utilities watchdogs; anti-nuclear energy groups; organic farming interest groups; wild-life protection groups; great, all these are important. All are needed. Already Green Power does its surveys of political candidate's platforms, giving them marks for their green-ness with the hope that those voters with Green interests will know who should get their vote. This is particularly useful at the district level to let the locals know what others think of their candidates. Unfortunately we all know that enough of those people with political aspirations are less than honest in their declarations and will capitalise on fashionable trends to get votes. There is no political accountability, not just in Hong Kong, not anywhere. No politician is willing to be accountable. George Bush said he would never raise taxes once in office, but he did and that was the president of the USA. What hope have we got in politically young Hong Kong? So, when speaking about a Green political party I don't want to follow these others, whether conservatives or liberals or the state-socialists, because I suspect their intentions. Yet, I cannot afford to abandon faith in some form of political system. I don't see the need to be anarchist today, but rather want full participation, but on Green terms, not on the system terms. In the system, antagonism is promoted, because those already holding power don't need to get involved in antagonistic disagreements. They leave that to the lesser opposition groups, meanwhile, doing what they want - as they have the power! So I will not follow the system. I need a new system, simply, a co-operative system. To co-operate people need to use their hearts besides their heads. The system and those under its influence, overlook the heart, the dynamo of the human being. The human being is not a destroyer of the environment. A human being is sensitive to the natural and social ecology. The environmental disaster is the work of the sub-human, the unenlightened, the ignorant, the uneducated and the mis-educated. This is the chaos the Greens have to work in; this is the task. And that is why, to be frank, it is most unlikely that a Green Party will ever get anyone elected into office under today's system. I have understood that from the start. This is particularly true in Hong Kong with its undemocratic government system. It is true of any non-proportional representation system, such as in the UK and the USA, to name two western politically conservative societies. But, if a Green Party can offer candidates with interesting platforms that challenge the status quo in whatever district, or on whatever level, that is the most effective method to make sure Green voices are heard. Then people can see alternatives to what those people of the old mentality propose with their vague and empty promises as they shuffle for prestigious, high paid jobs. It has been said within the Hong Kong Green movement that Greenies can give their Green vote to those politically inclined individuals that have shown their sympathy and support for Green ideals, those that may have joined one or other of the Green organisations. I say no. It is not good enough that some politician, even some nice politician, plugs an environmentally useful item into his or her general agenda. That is not good enough at-all - even if it were to work out - which would be a long shot indeed judging by the number of items on any politician's platform that are actually carried through to reality. No, I definitely cannot rely on that which the proven 'probability theory' shows us is a most rare event. I want to have Green irons in the fire. There are a lot of bright people among the Greens, a lot of individual expertise, a lot of youthful energy. Placed at the service of the disoriented government it is dissipated, wasted, controlled, subdued and lost. What is needed is a positive, strong and colourful Green movement in Hong Kong that has its own identity. Already there are interesting individuals; one pops up now, then another, then another we didn't see for some time. A Green Party will help give continuity to the efforts of those struggling against the old tendencies, supporting those who have learned the hard way that human solidarity is the most important. The merits of the Green movement as it is today in Hong Kong must not be lost in trying to achieve a certain minimum of political organisation, because it is the very enthusiasm of these same individuals that constitutes the Green movement, that menaces business and the government - as the responsible institutions - by this very same phenomenon of 'they keeping popping up'. Any Green Party should be seen as an addition to what is already happening on the Green front. It must not absorb the energies of busy Green activists who already have their roles; or groups that already have their aims, their projects. So, I wont - as the protagonist here tonight - ask those people who are already connected with the established groups to be a part of this new Green Party. Rather, I will ask those who are free to join-and-start the Green Party to do so now. Let our first task be to get a membership list, immediately. Then, some of us founding volunteers can take roles so we can achieve a minimum of organisation to provide a model for district level groups. Our structure can reflect the structure of the Hong Kong government as we too will have executives in our different departments ready to give answers to government and private sector proposals on any topic that negatively effect our environment, whether in the places where we live or elsewhere. What we want is to establish a decent quality human life. Note: On the day bananas from neighbour Peter Barry's hillside orchard project were passed around the audience and, following the speech, people were invited to join the new organisation: Wong Mei-chi, Tam Siu-man; Liu Kin-ming, joined by signing the book that was passed around the audience of about forty people. Immediate proposals Implementing with more vigilance the legal norms controlling pollution. Detailed and active Conservation Policy covering energy, transport, public works, etc, to include all aspects of government impacting on society (thirty departments according to the EDP); working with a attitude of sustainable development and bearing in mind themes from the Rio Earth Summit, such as reduction of green-house gas emissions, and protecting bio-diversity. Regionalising everything as far as possible. A permanent staff be associated with that policy, under the EDP. Hong Kong to provide 0.7 percent of its GDP to help China's environment; as a start alternatives to the Three Gorges Dam project can be studied. Follow up Agenda 21, a guide to take Hong Kong into a Green 21st century. Consider a 'circulation economy law' where all goods manufacturers and distributers and consumers take maximum responsibility for the disposal of their end-products. They would recycle, re-use, sell or buy waste quotas to get rid of what's left over. Waste removal would become a specialised enterprise realising the old saying, 'where there's muck, there's money.' If HK$7.3 billion are to be spent on landfills as stated in Governor Pattern's October 1992 policy address, then at least build them with retaining walls and as cellular structures that can be capped for the removal and use of methane gas as with the Sai Tso Wan landfill project, near Kwun Tong. EDP estimated eight percent of the territories piped and bottled gas can be supplied from landfills. Better though not to waste waste in landfills. High temperature burning incinerators should be minimally used only for the most irreducible, non-biodegradable materials. Speed up implementation of sewage disposal strategy. Appropriate waste treatment plants in each bio-region - where a bio-region equates with a geographical district, wherever possible. Investment in scheme bringing all household waste into general waste system, feeding to local recovery-treatment centres - no to piping effluent out to sea without treatment. Rubbish transfer station built directly accessing sea for ease of transport. Legislation needed to require existing buildings be connected to sewage system. On the small scale, the districts need to pipe household waste underground to existing centralized systems and where there is no grey water disposal channels, to put these in place. Introduction of neighbourhood re-cycling systems with householder's participation - separating metals, glass, plastic and organic wastes - shrub and tree cuttings etc from parks composted for return to parklands; branches can be chipped for faster decomposition - recycling materials locally by introducing re-cycling neighbourhood systems of local disposal, not incineration or landfills. Research into useful by-products from waste treatment needed - advances are taking place continually around the world - including the marketing of finished products. A separate tax on householders for treatment of household waste is a scam - taxes are already paid as part of general taxation. Pollution tax on non-recyclable containers. Deposit legislation on all bottles and containers. Active district supervision against dumping, with big fines for big polluters and community service, cleaning up neglected areas - by all convicted polluters - imprisonment would be wrong except for grossly malicious acts. Company directors to be held personally liable for pollution offenses. Rename Environmental Protection Department to Pollution Control Department unless its mandate is changed - people assume it's staff are there for active protection but they only handle tight-criteria complaints and unlawful acts. In fact the EPD causes pollution because it does not exercise the controls that are within its mandate. Yet it proposes itself as though it were fulfilling that very function. Meanwhile pollution increases day by day. The EPD has to stick its nose into everything. Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong) recommend a division between EPD and its huge sewage treatment plans by the hiving off of the executive responsibility to a Sewage Authority(1), like-wise for a Waste Management Authority, with the EPD retaining control over planning and policy. These outfits need to work in co-operation with Ag. and Fish. Dept (fertilisers and composted materials) and users of waste metals, plastics, and other materials to decide on destination of weaned out commodities. Lawful requirement of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) be carried out on all developments (including sea bed dredging) regardless of size. Full details of EIA available to public. Conclusions to include mandatory demands to be met, by law. An environmental engineer under the EPD to carry out the EIA in conjunction with locals affected by such development. Public awareness campaign throughout private sector using environmental audit do-it-yourself kit issued by EPD. Public access to the Centre of Environmental Technology database for any interested person, not the present restriction of those in business or in industry. Implementation of industries incorporating costs of non-polluting operations into bottom line profits. Quantity waste producers, that is, construction and industry, to be monitored and charged on a different scale under the polluters pay principle. Promote and foster development of clean and safe industries with emphasis on waste minimisation during both production or consumption. Integration of appropriate technology at all levels of society. Ban on building-site fires other than for brewing tea. Tropical hardwood ban currently enforced through tendering requirements at government construction projects be actively promoted by incentive in private industry - including interior design architects and furniture makers. Heavy metal waste recovery scheme that pays for waste according to its quality. Oil recycling plants at bus depots, in ship yards etc. Public register of sale and distribution of toxic and hazardous substances, including track record from point of origin and disposal. Employment of mobile, temporary use, knock-down, high temperature incinerators to dispose of hazardous waste until that time when such substances and materials can be better handled. Energy conservation carried out generally. Import and export bans on CFC-foamed polystyrene type commodities, as used for insulation (as with polychlorinated-biphenyls - use other propellants in aerosols such as hydrocarbons, butane, propane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen; ban on dumping air conditioners, dehumidifiers and refrigerators, while providing neighbourhood safe-disposal service where chlorofluorocarbons can be removed and recycled, not forgetting similar vehicle appliances and electrical transformers, capacitors and other equipment, say using foaming agents for polystyrene and solvents for cleaning printed circuit boards. Expanded use of the compact and mobile refrigerant recycling units. Factories discharging chemical waste - oily, noxious, flammable, toxic - to register, label, contain and store their waste. Contractors who transport or treat waste to be licensed. Replacement of present coal burning system with natural gas as per Hainan Island finds, and pipeline scheme already in the planning stage and fluidised bed combustion of coal or other efficient method. Amend Scheme of Control over power supply companies making it mandatory they purchase electricity from others. Research into re-using waste water from industrial plants, especially heavy water users. Oil recycling stations part of waste disposal facilities. Close monitoring of building developments in Permission Development Areas, with exemptions because work started prior to enforcement of Act closely monitored. Further developments to receive their own permissions. Introduction of electrically driven trolley buses and extension to tramways. Nominal registration fees for electrically driven vehicles. Take vehicles off the road directly if they don't pass a roadside emission control test where exhaust discharges are passed through a sampling device - diesel engines can be made cleaner burning than petrol engines if well maintained, though fitting catalytic converters makes petrol engines the cleaner of the two. More widespread vehicle testing centres and develop the spotter/inspection service further with mobile units. Stronger implementation of law regulating use of low-sulphur fuels. Strengthening of control measures over air pollution, with implementation of existing Air Pollution Control (Amendment) Bill 1992, with obligatory emission factors for medium and long terms. Anti-noise barriers along highways near residences. Floating booms around all fill and reclamation sites to prevent rubbish floating off at high tide. Flotsam and jetsam pick-up contracts to go directly to those engaged in the task, not to main contractors who pass the contract through middle-men - those finally responsible are not encouraged by the small final payments. Restructuring of Ag. & Fish. Dept. disengaging its present responsibilities over both conservation and exploitation - the Environmental Protection Dept. (EPD) should look after conservation. Change the Planning, Environment and Lands Branch to give Environment its independency and equal ranking. It is proper that the Ag. & Fish. Dept. handles mariculture, farming and fishing, but not conservation as this brings conflict of interest. Financial assistance to help pig and chicken farmers manage waste effectively to within the stipulations of the Water Control Zone requirements. Long term aim to re-introduce larger scale pig and poultry farming when livestock waste control methods are adequate. Development of Mr Ko Yu-lam's dung fermentation plant for general use - much cheaper than the Ag. & Fish. equivalent proposal. Make it an offense to import vegetables containing toxic amounts of pesticide. Better controls over large scale fish farming syndicates which over-feed stock for fast growth and pollute waters to the detriment of the environment and the entire mariculture industry. Ban on commercial trawlers using too fine or large area nets in-shore. Research into over-fishing locally. Fire breaks around hill cemeteries and barbecue sites - temporary country park wardens hired for fire-watching during Ching Ming and Chung Yang festivals. No developments in country park areas. Ban on any more golf courses. More areas to be declared Sites of Scientific Interest to protect local endangered species. Sites of Scientific Interest and conservation sites generally to have adequate buffer zones with controlled use of substances, eg., ban use of concentrated chemicals, and limitations on excavation and building, in their bio-region. Green the urban areas and clean the rural areas. Global Green Issues and Humanism There are useful pointers given by the world-wide Greens, which the HA finds paralleled in our own proposals. 'Consume less - share more - enjoy life'. That is the in-a-nut-shell recommendation of Penny Kemp, British Green Party co-chairman 1988-89 and Derek Wall, Green Party speaker 1989(2). They reminded us that the first 'Greenies' were scientists forced into building a political movement by fear of their own data. By the early fifties the concern of a few scientists crystallised into the 'Limits of Growth' report, which laid down that exponential growth was leading to the exhaustion of mineral resources, over-population, pollution and the destruction of natural habitats that are necessary to maintain the planet's life-support system. They also talked about the second root of green politics - social concern - which covers democracy, justice and freedom from oppression, not just the liberation of nature from excessive human demands but also the liberation of humanity itself. They gave arguments for socialism with a human and ecological face. Also, they saw the Greens as essentially decentralists wanting to dismantle bureaucracy and break conventional power structures, arguing that for both political and pragmatic reasons society needs to become more democratic and locally based. Greens believe in empowerment, they say, gained by breaking up concentrations of financial or political control. Hong Kong springs immediately to mind in their statements about Greens who do not feel that it is enough simply to elect representatives who are supposed to Green society - popular involvement is mandatory for positive ecological changes, adding that people will get involved only when they have a real say. Speaking of British politics these activists complain of the conservatives who only see green politics as synonymous with conservation, heritage and English values - but who can live with leaking atomic submarines, cracking nuclear power stations, more concrete motorways and continuing reliance and emphasis on the arms-export industry. While the activities of the Greens around the world have managed to lever ecological concerns onto the agendas of many countries, the British Greens agree that Green politics cannot simply be nailed on to old-fashioned ideologies. Two camps emerged among the German Greens, the 'fundis' or fundamentalists who refuse to compromise with the establishment, they are the revolutionaries; while the 'realos' or realists who admit that for example, a platform scrapping nuclear power just like that was unrealistic, also the realos would work in alliance with other political groups who support Green causes. By 1986 the German Greens had forty-four seats in the national government. Unfortunately the energy got bound up inside the Green movement and despite great advances into political life they could not sustain that momentum and today remain more of a protest movement whereas they could have made the transition to a political party. Many among the Greens didn't want that transition. Those were the fundamentalists who took control in 1987 and set about returning the party to its radical roots, then lost a no-confidence vote to the realos. There has been considerable dialogue on the differences between the 'deep ecologists' and 'social ecologists', but this remains a divisive issue today. Deep ecologists hold that ecological politics is about protecting the planet rather than helping people and regard humanity as just a single species among many, this leads them to reject human activities when they harm other living forms. But it is the social ecologists that move forward on all fronts today, seeking social justice, regionalism, co-operative systems - as against capitalist or centralist systems - and who work through non-violent means and ends - without a happy life people will never even begin to notice environmental damage! The kind of ideas that are gaining ground today are such as those of Permaculture, which develops sustainable systems of human livelihood where there is no contradiction between environmental protection and real community development. The question is, can the Greens remain non-violent under the threat of torture and starvation as occurs in some parts of the world or does armed struggle, even in defense of justice, invariably lead to an accelerating cycle of violent chaos? It also brings up the phenomenon of animal rights activism which causes damage to belongings and facilities. People are losing patience. Thus far, the Greens have not developed any strategy for liberating the most oppressed. At the same time, it has to be understood that those with power, wealth and who own the land are unlikely to give it back to the poor or to Mother nature just like that. The answer lies squarely in the court of non-violent activism. A grasp of Green concerns directly relates to the ongoing opening up processes so obvious wherever in the world today and to be aware of these themes is to understand much of what is happening. Not By Domination, but Co-operation At the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development - Brazil, 1992 - the USA showed its hidden agenda by refusing to sign the bio-diversity manifesto. Of course they want control over those as yet untapped resources in the futuristic genetic engineering field. The terms demanded by Third World countries as co-signatories are too much in their own favour, thought the Bush-led American government. It certainly highlights the bad intent of the so-called 'internationalisation' of such 'resource' as the Amazon. On superficial approaches, it sounds altruistic to say that the Amazon should be 'internationalised' because the Amazon holds very important substances that are too valuable for any one nation to control. However, the Medicine Man and his equivalent the world over has done quite well so far handling those precious substances while yes, there is an area where the Medicine Man could be assisted to have a clearer understanding of the processes and possibilities but of course that is not the route indicated by the big powers who want to steal his Medicine Chest. To take Brazil itself as an instance of what has to be done around the world when it comes to Rain Forests, Wetlands and so on, there are two things to get on with: a) to recover what has already been destroyed and b) to maintain what is still there. Most likely people around the world have forgotten all about the 'Brazilian Miracle' which was initiated with projects of megalomaniac dimensions that spoke of 'progress' and economic 'development'. Similar to the 'Green Revolution' which robbed the small farmer of his traditional cultivation technology and placed his lands in the lap of agribusiness - to what disastrous ends? Check out the Wheat Belt in the USA turning into a dust bowl! For example, in the south of Brazil, there is the unfinished Itaipu Dam, which construction has so far demanded the flooding of Parana Valley above the dam, and obliterating the Sete Quedas, the Seven Falls, a natural wonder once listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the greatest of all the world's waterfalls. The flooding also created an enormous lake and transformed the ecosystem of the river valley for many miles above the dam, and which effects are still unfolding - leaving even environmentalists guessing at the final outcome. So far the amount of concrete used would build a paved two-lane highway from Lisbon to Moscow! In the north of the country there are other huge dams, also built without any ecological consideration; Tucurui and Balbina. A network of smaller dams could have met the energy demands of those regions without such destruction. These are part of the Carajas Project in Amazon territory, a dream that has become a nightmare conceived around an iron-ore mine. There is also a railroad through the forest, a sprawling aluminium smelter and deep-water port complex and plans for cities, highways, steelworks, agribusinesses and colonization programs. These are the projects adored by the World Bank. The multinationals must have gloated wildly in speculation at the prospects. So much for the 'Lungs of the World' slogan which has gone from the media; now it is 'The Greenhouse Effect'. This brought Brazil to the headlines a couple of years ago because of the intentional burning of the forests there. In fact, Brazil's government was against that burning. Readers of the international press could not be blamed for assuming it was Brazil's fault, as though that was the only source, but burning takes place in Brazil for two months in the year only, while the major source of Co2, the emissions causing the Greenhouse Effect, are those developed countries at the forefront (discounting the major natural emissions from wetlands, sea mud on the continental shelf, etc) of the now 200 years old Industrial Revolution on a continuous day and night exhalation, by excessive burning of fossil fuels such as wood, coal and oil. Those major polluting countries have agents in Brazil who are primarily responsible for the destruction there today, for example in the conversion of whole regions into cattle ranching (list as per 'Letter....20 June 1992 - Diverse Solutions'). Let us not forget that the great polluters in the Third World are hunger and misery. An International Environment Tax, proposed by the first powers a few years ago is an applicable solution that would go part ways in redressing the problems. This would put in place the means for polluters to pay. The occupation of the Amazon is already well advanced. It is disorderly and capricious. To properly control what is going on there, needs a team of people who know the region. Such project would bring in ecological zoning to care for the different ecosystems, rain forest yes but also wetlands, mountain regions and so on. Remember the big lipped Indian Tribal Chief Raoni with musician Sting (or was it the other way around?) it is worth recalling that their culture has been dismissed as their lands were occupied by predacious agents in the service of the big economic powers. Rubber tappers are similarly ignored, though they too have their own ways and needs. Despite having their areas for extracting latex, the deforestation and intentional burnings are destroying their plantations. The struggle for the right to life of these victims of discrimination was the cause of the death of Chico Mendez which case hit the international headlines - but the only result was the labelling of Brazil as violent, but Brazilians are not a violent people, they are a people under duress. Greed is at the bottom of the problem but in poor countries this is driven by necessity and the results in Brazil haunt the gold-prospecting Garimpeiros. These unfortunates daily meet their own violence head on, besides having to contend with disease and having to suffer a daily life without food in sub-human conditions as they literally clawed for gold and a living. Also, mercury pollution in the rivers of that northern region remains very high yet the government has not given any new perspectives or strategies for coherent planning of the mining activities. The results of the Garimpeiros' precarious and violent lifestyle was seen in August 1993 by their carrying out the Haximu massacre of about forty Yanomami Indians after police ordered them to leave Indian territory. Brazil met with great success in producing pro-alcohol following the oil crises. But, the massive investments made what should have been a sustainable effort helping small scale farming and industry into big business opportunities for usurers. The Pantanal - Wetlands - located to the west of Mato Grosso is also a mineral rich and coveted region which needs the same stewardship protection as the Amazon. So far 'development' has been on a first-come-first-served basis, dominated by the powerful. Without doubt though the gravest situation is the misery that devastates millions of Brazilians. Sixty-seven percent of the population are malnourished with malnutrition reaching sixty-six percent of the infant population, causing 130 deaths for every thousand births. Four million people suffer hydatidosis, three million suffer mal de chagas and seventeen thousand new cases of tuberculosis are produced every year. Sanitary conditions and hunger are the main causes of disease and death yet many environmentalists - in the name of Nature - are opposed to projects that combine a better quality of life and technological progress. Brazil also need to industrialise and have the goodies so freely available in the developed countries, but they should not duplicate the West's errors, causing more pollution. Instead of taking this appropriate line of action, the industrially developed countries export their most polluting industries to undeveloped and developing countries which do not have the legislation or political will to resist. What the situation demands in Brazil and which is echoed throughout the Third World, or South, are policies oriented towards the social whole, a better distribution of the wealth and advances in production of new technologies and development. The environmentalists do not grasp the kernel idea when Malaysia protests at the West telling it to stop the destruction of its forests, threatening with boycotts. That is not the way those countries in the situation of Malaysia can be influenced because they too want the fruits of industrialisation. A proper dialogue demands a new social attitude which was not displayed at the Earth Summit. Those governmental and economic groups must be stopped, who, in the name of money, want to annihilate fellow human beings, hinder their freedom and impede the creation of new ways of living and evolving. The Medicine Man needs a decent house with good sanitation, education for himself and family, enough food, a plot of land and freedom to develop into a fully fledged and aware human being. In control of his own life he will not be a party to the destruction of the Rain Forest and his Medicine Chest will be overflowing with good things that can be shared. Green humanism internationally proposes: Disarmament. No nuclear weapons; no biological warfare; no arms transhipment. No transhipment of nuclear waste, either spent fuel or low level waste. No dumping of nuclear waste at sea. No toxic waste dumping at sea. All Out policy, leaving Arctic and Antarctic alone - no exploitation of resources - without territorial claims as they are there own territory's territory. Recognition of Green issues being global not just national. Support for rainforest and temperate forest preservation, wherever. To question working with multi-nationals. Discuss the need for rationalised industrialisation of undeveloped countries and to remind them of where the West's industrialisation went wrong. Oppose any dumping of banned or otherwise toxic compounds in countries other than country of origin and particularly in Third World countries. Strong cautions in contacts by government with World Bank and Asian Development Bank as their funding has: encouraged over-farming with exorbitant use of pesticides instead of funding integrated pest management programmes that do not use pesticides; promoted huge hydro-electric schemes to the detriment of the environments both human and ecological that has pushed people off the land; funded mono-cultures such as in tree plantations, eg., those called 'social forestry'; also, funded projects causing rain forests to be felled and water systems polluted. In effect these big global banks cause local poverty and siphon money to cities. Continued support of ivory ban; boycott of trading in rhino horn and tiger and bear parts such as gall bladder and paws - no trans-shipments of these articles. Fur trade - only farm-cultivated pelts allowed in and out of Hong Kong. Seal skins only from indigenous people trappers in Canada, Alaska, etc. No imports from drift-net fishing sources. Tighter controls over 'free trade' areas such as those with skimpy regulations covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since the 1970s about 300 foreign firms have opened plants by the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez. Deserts and rivers have become dumping grounds for toxic waste. The 400,000 citizens of that town live without adequate housing, sewage, clean water or other amenities. Well water along the Rio Grande is contaminated with raw sewage and cholera is in the water system; and in El Paso, on the Texas side, dysentery, hepatitis and tuberculosis are far above the national average. So much for cheap labour! The fault lies with US firms purposely avoiding environmental control and labour hire conditions which are better regulated in the motherland USA. 'The Internal Environment' Another talk given to - Green Power, at the Mariner's Club, in the summer of 1989. 'The magazine, New Directions, in an issue produced as part of the United Nations World Environment Day occasion, had a Green theme. In fact Green Power's co-operation, through Simon Chau Sui-cheong, made the issue possible. This kind of co-operation is important. In the editorial of New Directions we used the address of The Greens as presented at its 1st Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December, 1987(3). Within that address their was reference to a Law of Systems, Laws of Cycle and Rhythms, of Simultaneity, and of a law that speaks of ...the New Surpassing the Old (4). There was also mention of the possibility of overcoming the final absurdity of life - of overcoming the abyss itself - death. This may surprise people who assume Green themes are limited to plant pots and plastic bags. The internal environment is an area overlooked by most. Nowadays people in general are, at last, becoming aware of the external environment, through pollution. People don't yet see the violence of the world as an indicator of an internal pollution resident in the very life of Man. This violence, so obvious and so widespread today, no matter the culture, comes from Man - is in Man. It got there because of the strong influences from our still developing societies, from our social cultures, from our education, our families, our friends who meant no harm - taking the best cases! From everything surrounding us and in the past. I want to speak of the internal environment because this also needs a clean up and there are tools to do the job - and people willing to show others the cleaning techniques. Don't think the orthodox psychologists are in this department, nor the religions. Maybe they should be, but these days the one deals with the sick and the other the doomed! I tired of the gloom years ago, of the negativity dressed up as existentialism. Now I speak to others of liberation, of a process where the disjointed internal functions start working together again. This releases energy, opens consciousness, alerts being and gives direction. The work is in the internal environment which goes to mould the personal experience. In the system I study, this includes looking at.... 'the structure of man, with the centres, the levels of consciousness, the human types, personality and its roles, the reveries and their nucleus(4). The study is systematic - the aim is consciousness-of-self in daily life. The study of the internal environment can be carried out over a period of weeks, months but frankly over years, as we are ever changing beings in a never ending process. In this talk I only bring the possibility of the study to your attention. This proposal I see as an essential part of the Green theme because a human life cannot be realised unless there ARE human beings and the cultural conditions for the sustenance of human beings. In external work in the ordinary environment I attend to the mess and internally, in group work, I help others to clean up - each their own - internal mess. This is done with a light touch because the work is too important. I have abandoned the suffering because there is much beauty and endless life. Everything that has happened to me has 'impressed' me in one way or another. My mother, my father, my family's manners and the character of their relationships. The kind of friends I had when young and so on. Where I was born. All these circumstances formed me, whatever I am. I have been moulded by these impressions and in this sense I am conditioned in a certain way, and this is me. If this has taken place in a balanced way then that is fine, but too often, this is not the case. In fact, I have my own strangeness. We all have our peculiarities. In this sense I speak of an internal landscape or environment, and in the negative sense - of the positive well that can look after itself - internal pollution. People are becoming aware of external pollution. On my part I want to take a look at the internal pollution as well because this contamination stops me in life. Evidence can be noted on meeting a person, when there is an immediately dislike. No reason I may think, but no. This one reminded me of someone or something, an event, real or imagined, from the past. It should not be that other's problem, as it is my problem, but I give him or her a problem by my reaction. The opposite can happen, then I may speak of 'love'. In some moments my whole being is clouded over with bad feelings, so everything seems wrong today. This I speak of as a certain negative climate and this can contaminate everything I do and am in contact with. This brings suffering, but I differentiate between pain and suffering. Pain is due to physical problems and can be overcome, hopefully, thanks to progresses in medicine. Suffering is related to the mental - as anguish, loneliness, of desperately searching for something. My interest in locating and dealing with the internal pollution lies in the overcoming of this suffering. I may or may not be able to do something about external pollution but about my own internal environment, certainly, if I have the interest, I can clean up, step by step. Part of this process though is accepting that I can only clean up my own mess if I help others clean up there's. I cannot work alone, no one can and be effective. So I work in a group. There are three pathways to suffering, the past, the present and the future (5). The past conditions the present - until I free myself of its negative recordings. The present situation with its pressures, conditions the present state or leaves me free, according to circumstance. The future is either open or closed or uncertain, according to the image held - and all of these possibilities have a different effect on me in the present. So I can speak of the memory as a source of suffering, also the sensations physically acting on me at any moment. If these are stressful, they disorientate. And, if I imagine a problematic future, it is as if I were immobilized. When these avenues are clear, there is a general release. So what is it that effects this release - what defines the limitations? I myself and my friends see that it is the image held, whether it is the image of that past experience, the image held of the present reality or the image of the future. Everything resolves in this image. This image is something important because this is my internal world, my internal environment.(6) 1. 'Conservation in Hong Kong', November 1992, Friends of the Earth. 2. See, 'A Green Manifesto for the 1990s', By Penny Kemp and Derek Wall. 3. Which was followed by the 1st Green International, held in Rio de Janeiro, 8th July, 1989. 4. See 'Self Liberation', by L.A. Ammann, Latitude Press, San Francisco, 1992. 5. Ibidem. 6. See 'Contributions to Thought', by Silo, Mendoza, November 1988. **************************************************** Chapter XI An Association With A Difference Personal Experience - Not to forget, the individual - Self Liberation - The Human in the Human Being. Personal Experience One reason for giving The Internal Environment talk to Green Power was to emphasise the importance of personal experience in life as that colours our attitude and it is unproductive to have intelligent policies if the attitude of those responsible for putting them into practice is faulted. Here lies the reason why people have lost faith in politicians, in priests, in teachers, in others in the public domain who fail to do what they say. Or, as is better put, the don't feel what they think nor do what they feel and think. They are in personal contradiction. If people want to take due delight in living and to be of some use to others while going about it, then they have to overcome personal difficulties and strengthen those aspects related to living a life in a style that does not harm others. This can be done by developing an appropriate attitude; one which is also appropriate for the work of social transformation in the direction proposed by the humanist movement. This attitude in relation to the transformation of society consists in 'recognising the need to change the society we live in - having great faith that such change is possible - working enthusiastically for that change, together with others, in an organised way.'(1) Despite good intentions, organisers and helpers in their well wishing endeavour to build a more human world, are not exempt from bombardments by the system. The system - through its type of education, its values and its deposited way of thinking that has been incorporated through everyday influences - goes on affecting people, weakening them psychologically, making them doubt, leading them to think everything is as good as it's going to be just as it is. Or, even while recognising the need to change, the system makes people doubt or not believe that change IS possible since it seems a titanic task when confronted by those in charge today who appear all-powerful. At other times people feel apathetic - with all kinds of justifications. Also there is individualism, making it difficult when working as a team, a tendency towards 'originality' with the resistances which appear with commitments to organised work; all these are linked to the weakening effect of the system. These personal situations turn in cycles. They do not remain enclosed as isolated individual attitudes, they influence our living ambit and have a direct effect, causing the ambit to tend more in one direction or another. In this way, there are times when within an ambit it is possible to clearly recognise the urgency and need for social transformation, whereas at other times the mechanical tendency is towards conformism. In other words, there are times of great faith in change, and others of doubt or lack of faith; times when action is coherent with thought and feeling; and other times where there is inactivity, quietism and contradiction. There are times of solidarity, esprit de corps; and others of prevailing individualism, interfering dialectics and divergence; times of coordinated and efficient work, and others of ad hoc decisions, diffusion of energy and inefficiency. So it is proposed that everyone attends to the daily situation in regard to each our own internal environment to respond to these situations. Although the work of each person is personal, ultimately it is directed towards assisting integration and improving the contribution to the ambit; that is, to improve the quality of life. This also rules out lapses into therapy. If healing takes place it is incidental - the point is development, from a situation of health. People who need therapy need the attention of a doctor of medicine and when they have gained equilibrium, then they can make progress in development. As humanists our attitudes are better the more they are wrapped in humour to oppo