Beneath the Peak

Here are some immediate steps the Tsang administration can take to start improving our air quality. 1. Acknowledge that, while pollution from the Pearl River Delta is a problem, much of our pollution is created in Hong Kong. 2. Ban the import of all forms of diesel, except the ultra-low sulfur variety. Three months’  lead-time [...]

Air pollution in Hong Kong today topped 500 – the maximum value — on the government’s rigged scale. What will it take to get our leaders to stop issuing inane statements and actually do something about this? Share/Save

In the 2010 budget speech on Wednesday, John Tsang said the administration would consider moving government departments from commercial buildings to industrial buildings. I wonder how many of Hong Kong’s mandarins would agree to move into places that look like this? This is the second move the government has made recently to address the issue [...]

Following this week’s success with the Kindle, I downloaded my first paid book from Amazon, Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan. Despite being in Phuket, the download (ordered via my laptop but delivered directly to the Kindle via Amazon’s Whispernet) went without a hitch. And the Kindle’s highlighting [...]

…is a very talented man. But why am I not filled with confidence by the appointment of Microsoft’s former chief security executive as the new cybersecurity czar for the United States? (Insert obligatory BSOD joke here) Share/Save

Yesterday’s policy address by Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang was a missed opportunity, particularly with respect to the revitalization of the territory’s stock of old industrial buildings. The new measures will make it easier and less expensive for building owners (and large and medium-sized developers) to covert and redevelop old industrial properties. But these [...]

… that nine months into Barrack Obama’s presidency, David Letterman would still be poking fun at the Bush Administration? In Letterman’s Oct. 12* opening monologue,  two gags were aimed at Dick Cheney, one at W. That was followed by shot at John McCain. I tuned-out after he trained his sights on Sarah Palin in the [...]

This week’s Economist has a couple of interesting pieces on stories that I blogged about earlier in the week. Here’s there take on the Japanese press club story. It appears the Democratic Party of Japan has already started to dig up dirt on the Liberal Democratic Party, with an investigation of amakudari, (aka falling from [...]

A friend in London who manages corporate communications for a large multinational saw my earlier post about Japan’s press clubs and emailed me to ask: “Do you think we can assume that Japanese corporates will be under some pressure to now follow suit?” It’s a great question. Press clubs are supported by vested interests that [...]

A piece in this morning’s Japan Times suggests that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will make his news conferences open to all. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada announced a similar decision on Friday. This policy, which began under former Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) President Ichiro Ozawa, could be the start of something big. For decades, governments, [...]