The Formal Complaint

I sent the letter below to Albert Ho who is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong as a follow up to my series of letters with the EPD. I included my real name and links to the various Emails I've received from the EPD.

Councilor Ho,

I do not think that you are my geographical representative; I have looked on the Lego-Co web page but the geographical areas for the various members are not listed as far as I can find. However, since I know that you and your party have an interest in the area I am concerned about I thought it might be appropriate to send you this letter voicing my concern over the activities and programs of a governmental department that I find very disturbing.

Recently a student group in the school I work for placed posters around our campus with a telephone number and the URL of the Environmental Protection Department. The posters encouraged students to “Put this number on your speed dial and use it” The number is to report vehicles that they think are emitting excessive exhaust to the EPD. After contacting the EPD in a series of Emails I discovered that this is indeed an EPD program and they do encourage people to report smoky vehicles using that number. While I complain, as do many others in Hong Kong of the poor air quality this program is simply evil and I, and I believe many others, would appreciate the Legislative Council requiring them to put a stop to it.

This program should be stopped because one of the hallmarks of a Fascist state is that it encourages citizen to spy on one another. This program is, ideologically speaking, little different from the practices of having children report “anti-revolutionary” attitudes of their parents during the Cultural Revolution in the PRC. The fact that the consequences to the drivers turned in by this program are trivial is beside the point. I believe that history shows us that any time a government can abuse power it will. The less accountable the government is the more likely the power will be abused. I cannot imagine many government officials less accountable than Hong Kong bureaucrats. How long will it be before they decide to stop sending simple warning letters to the drivers reported and issuing summonses to have their vehicle turned up?

This program should be stopped because it also violates our right in Hong Kong to face our accusers in court. The report is anonymous. Suppose a number of your political critics all sent your license plate number in using this program and then found a way to publish the fact that you had been cited 12 or 15 times for a vehicle with excessive smoke in the exhaust? Would such an action damage your reputation? The potential for abuse of a program like this by non-governmental factions is as great as the potential inside the government; probably more so. And yet, if you were harassed by a person or group using this program you would have no way to face them, stop them or defend yourself. If you believe that the press in Hong Kong would seek to tell your side of the story then you are mistaken. While less physically painful than being bludgeoned by a baseball bat the political effect would be the same.

This program should be stopped because it is useless and provides no benefit to Hong Kong. Assuming that the officials in the EPD are more enlightened than I have given them credit for and take steps to prevent abuse, if all that occurs is for a warning letter to be sent to vehicle owners then I must ask: “What is the benefit of the program?” There is already a yearly inspection for all vehicles in Hong Kong. Any vehicle that emits excessive pollution should be dealt with at that time. Is a warning letter from the EPD going to scare someone into repairing their automobile three months early? If there are no “teeth” in a program like this it is useless. If there are “teeth” it is Fascism. In either case it is a program that needs to be done away with.

This program must be ended because it will not do Hong Kong any good to obtain large goals such as universal suffrage if our society is held hostage to programs administered by government organs that encourage citizen to spy upon one another. Open societies are based upon trust and mutual respect. They are also based upon toleration. This type of program encourages citizen, in this particular case secondary school student, to develop an intolerant and accusatory attitude to those around them. A society where citizens are constantly looking for flaws in others that can be reported to the government or to bully them into particular modes of behavior is not a society I want to be a member of.

This program should be stopped because it does not matter how laudable the goal if the means used to reach the goal are evil the program is evil. This program is evil because the means are evil. That is particularly true in this case because the only thing this program accomplishes is to make work for a clerk at the EPD and to give people reporting smoky vehicles a feeling of self-righteous moral superiority for having turned someone in as a polluter. Great evil is done because small evils are allowed. None of us wake up and say “I am going to become a great sinner today.” Instead, we chip away what is good letting the end we desire justify a little loss of ethics, honor and morality here and there until we are what we hate and do not understand how we became what we are.

There are many things we could do to improve air quality in Hong Kong. This program is not one of them. Sir, please see to it that the EPD ends it soon.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who does not believe that the end justifies the means

The Final EPD Email

This arrived in my mail box today from the EPD:

Dear Mr. Fai Mao,

Again, please note that the number 2838 3111 is open for public to report pollution complaint to us to follow up. It is not necessary to send us the poster you mentioned. Anyway, thank you for bring this matter to our attention.

Notice I did not post the senders name or their Email. Unlike previous Emails this one came from a real person with a non-public Email. I will honor their privacy by not revealing who they are.

However, the telephone number IS for the public to complain about smoky vehicles and that would mean that the people encouraging middle school and high school students to "Put this number on your Cellphone" to call are, in fact, legally encouraging children to spy upon adults and society at large.

Despicable.

The Basic Law in Hong Kong gives us the right to face our accusers. Except in this instance.
The Basic Law in Hong Kong says we are innocent until shown to be guilty. Except in the matter of taxes and this instance.

There is already a vehicular inspection program in Hong Kong so this program is a waste of funds and manpower.

The government either needs to follow the law or admit that they take orders from Beijing and that the Basic Law is a sham.

Holy Cow! I hope that Hu Jintau comes to Hong Kong and his Red Star limo gets reported for smoking like an old-man in a brothel. I hope every school kid in Hong Kong reports him and the EPD sends him a letter.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger rides the bus

Another Reply from the EPD

The Environmental Protection Department replied again today. Here is what they had to say:

Dear Mr. Fai Mao,

Referring to your email, please be informed that the telephone No. '28383111' is an EPD hotline for general public to report pollution matters including smoky vehicle to EPD. In addition, we do not place posters in school about spotting smoky vehicle and encourage children to make such complaint. Thank you for your e-mail.

Now, don't miss understand. The program still appears to me to be either an egregious attempt to recruit citizens as spies or a total waste of time. Neither of those are good things for governments to be engaged in. However, it appears that who ever put up the posters in the school I work for was not doing something that is "officially sanctioned." Or, this guy could simply be unaware of that policy. I find it really interesting that who ever printed the posters put an emergency number on them, the web address of the EPD and the instruction to "Put this number on your mobile phone's speed dial."

I think it would be funny if these posters turned up all over town and somebody got arrested for improper use of an emergency number? But I have a sadistic sense of humor.

I must admit to being surprised that the EPD spent so much time on this.

Here are links to the previous post in this string
Post #4
Post #3
Post #2
Initial Post

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who thinks that sometimes being Green is really being Red

The NAZI Bureaucrat Replies

This morning I had the following Email:

Dear Mr. Fai Mao,

Thank you for your complaint on 5.2.2009 regarding excessive emission from a vehicle 123yyy.
Please note that we cannot take action on this case as 123yyy is not a valid vehicle registration under the register of Transport Department.
Thank you again for your concern on the environment.

C.S. Li
Mobile Source Control Section (1)
Environmental Protection Department

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has no way to simply contact them unless you are spying on someone so I filled out their form and posted a link to my post about this evil scheme in the online form.

It does not even look like a human read the reply. If he'she/it did they didn't read the post otherwise they'd have responded differently.

Until Next Time

Enviro-NAZISM is not being a responsible citizen

How wonderful! On the day I have time to post again I am given a topic that sets my blood boiling.

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is encouraging children to call a number and report the license plate of vehicles if they see "Black Smoke" in the exhaust.

This sounds, at first hearing, innocuous enough but isn't. Having citizens SPY on each other is one of the hallmarks of a Fascist government and that is exactly what this is, just like what happened in the Cultural Revolution, and in NAZI Germany and is still happening in North Korea and Zimbabwe. What is next? Having kids turn their parents in for disagreeing with THBT?

In a practical sense, though ideologically less severe is the problem of someone simply sending your license plate in out of spite, malice or boredom. Suppose they do this MULTIPLE times. This looks like a practical joke waiting to happen. It also looks like a nearly anonymous way to harass someone you simply don't like.

It would be worse if the EPD did more with these complaints than sending the owner of the vehicle a "warning letter." Taiwan used to offer a bounty to people who turned in cars that didn't meet pollution control standards. School kids would go to parking lots and copy down license numbers and turn in thousands of cars because the probability was that at least some of them would fail and they could then collect the bounty. I know this happened because I have friends in Taiwan and their son earned walking around money this way. What happens if the EPD decides that if a driver is reported for this three times then they must go and get their vehicle inspected at a cost of three or four hundred dollars per whack or pay a traffic ticket?

On the other hand, in a sense, if all the EPD do is send a warning letter then what is the point? After all, if I have a car that is in need of service, with clogged fuel injectors, bad valves or fouled spark plugs that causes the engine to emit more pollution than it should I'd probably know it. Performance suffers, fuel efficiency suffers and the vehicle does not run right; not to mention I'd see the smoke in the rear view mirror. So, what is the point of a warning letter? If I'm driving a car like that and haven't fixed it then a simple letter with no legal teeth is useless.

It would appear to me that a program like this really has only two purposes.

1. To allow people who want to flaunt their environmental conscience to feel important by doing something when they are, in fact only padding their sense of Self Righteousness .
2. To allow the government to say it is doing something about a problem when it isn't

Neither one is good reason.

This program is evil. Simply evil. The fact that they are trying to "Save the Earth" makes it even more so because it gives a certain segment of the population the impression that they are helping to reduce pollution when they are not. It also potentially alienates others from environmental programs that would be useful and for which government and community support is needed.

If the EPD is so concerned about vehicular pollution then why not do something that would actually reduce it instead of having a program like this?

Why not require automobiles to pass a pollution control emissions test yearly? (This may be done already. Since I don't drive I can't say.)

Why not standardize the fees for all the tunnels so that drivers take the tunnel that is the most direct route rather than waiting at the one that is cheapest for 30 minutes with their engine idling? This would make a huge difference in the amount of air pollution emitted each day

Why not require all vehicles in Hong Kong to run on Propane? If someone wants a car that can be driven in China then let them park it in Shenzhen or pay a huge license fee and let them know that they will not be able to gas it up in Hong Kong.

Why not give a subsidy to the bus companies and MTR so that they can lower fares to encourage ridership?

Why not allow the use of electric scooters on roads in Hong Kong? Electric cars are impractical but several companies make one person scooters that can travel at about 50 to 60 Kph with a 50 Km range; perfect for many Hong Kong commuters

Why not restrict delivery times to business so that delivery trucks do not clog the streets at rush hour?

Why not take steps to make Hong Kong more bicycle and pedestrian friendly?

Why not make the MTR put up some parking garages at some of the stations in the N.T. so that people could drive to Tai Wai and then take the train on in? Park & Ride, hmmmm, where have I heard of that idea before?

Because doing the things listed above would take civil servants who were more concerned about reducing pollution than simply keeping their over paid, iron-rice-bowl jobs. Because it would not be something the construction cartels that the civil servants use to brown their noses want.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes that pollution is a real problem that needs solutions not based in the Cultural Revolution

Which came first?

Now we have melamine tainted eggs as well as milk. These may just be the tip of the iceberg.

What is really scary is that in the last several years I remember these other food related scandals as well:

1. A year or so ago a distributor in Hong Kong was caught selling rice that had gone moldy and been re-polished. It caused hallucinations and liver damage.

2. Fake soy sauce made out of human hair.

3. Fake fungus that looks like hair that may have actually been less dangerous than the real vegetable

4. Cancerous fish tainted with something called "Malachite Green"

5. Baby formula mixed with corn starch

6. Anti-freeze in tooth paste.

7. Moon Cake filling that was kept for years and was covered with mold

8. Poisonous fish sold as cod

9. Pesticides in dumplings

10. Antibiotics that were anything but.

11. Cooking oil that was sold as new but was really filtered cooking oil that had been discarded by restaurants

12. Halal cookies made with lard.

The story BBQ pork made from cardboard and industrial cleaners however was not true. But, can you blame people for believing it?

These are just the one's I can remember off the top of my head.

I have a friend up North who warned us about eating the freshwater crabs that come from China. Crabs are scavengers and he said that the people who raise them have been caught feeding them dead rats and dogs as well as plain old garbage. I don't like crab so they were easy for me to avoid.

There was a story on ATV this weekend about what are known as "Cancer Villages" in China where the water is so polluted with heavy metals and other toxins that the cancer rate is hundreds of times higher than normal. Question, do they water vegetables with that water and if so, are those vegetables sold in Hong Kong?

If I went into product recalls this list could get really long.

If I wanted to write about working conditions I could write a book.

China may be about to reach a point of no-return. There are enough people, even those who live in China who are afraid of the goods being produced here that they simply will not buy them. They'll either source those products elsewhere or do without them. I think this is kind of analogous to the situation US automobile manufacturers caused for themselves in the late 1970's. At that time the quality standard of US cars was absolutely horrific. We called them 50,000 mile throwaways. They were ugly, poorly designed vehicles. What a shame. The 1950's & 1960's were, in many ways the golden age of the American automobile and they fell off that pedestal really fast. It was at that time that the Japanese cars improved their quality and many US consumers decided that they were better off with a Toyota, Nissan (Called Datsun at that time) or Honda. Once that happened it became very difficult to regain those customers unless the Japanese makers pulled a similar stunt and only Subaru obliged. Now 30 years later, the US automobiles are actually a pretty good product but can't get those loyal Toyota buyers back.

Now suppose it wasn't just GM, Ford and Chrysler? Suppose it was all the wheat, all the apples, all the oranges, all the beer, wine, whiskey, bottled water and soft drinks, all clothing, machinery and services combined? This is where the Chinese are headed if they are not careful. What happens if the "Made in China" label has been so tarnished that it has the same cache as "Made in Detroit." What if people are willing, as happen to the American auto industry, to spend MORE for a Toyota made overseas than they are for a Chinese Ford?

If that happens, Hong Kong might not be such a great place to live.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who isn't normally given to economic fear mongering

Batman Couldn't live here

This is just funny.

The people in mid-levels are more concerned about the noise the plane doing the photography will make than the water quality in the harbor

That is just sad

Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Comic Book Hero Blogger

Green Red and Orange

The article above is from the New York Times which is getting to be a less and less reliable source for news. However, this looks to be spot on from what I have seen about China. I'll not go so far as to say that air quality, or lack of it will be the downfall of the CCP but it wouldn't bother me if it was.

What is good is that stories are finally beginning to appear in the Western press about the incredible level of pollution in China and the rest of Asia.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger calls it the the "Ewww Yuck, Slimes!"

Going for the Gold in Air Pollution

This was just an interesting article to me. I would be willing to bet that the PRC officials are lying through their teeth. They'll close the factories. They'll probably pump a billion gallons of water into the deserts North West of Beijing to keep the dust storms out.

I wonder how many dissidents they will imprison, torture or kill during the Olympics?

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is distrustful of the central government