Our Central Government rescued Hong Kong from total economic and political collapse in 2003 after the SARS attacks. It was expected that Hong Kong must make use of such help by rebuilding its economic structure and revamping its competitiveness. But this is exactly what Hong Kong has refused to do!
Instead of listening to our Central Government in Beijing, Hong Kong foolishly stuck to the decadent and parasitic "casino" culture by steering the whole society towards over-speculations in the stock and real estate markets, by creating huge unsustainable bubbles in finance and properties sectors, and by ignoring developments in sectors that can provide real productivity. In short, Hong Kong turned to the worst path that it could take, the deadly "casino path" that the colonial government of Britain guided Hong Kong to absolute death before the re-unification in 1997!
From 2003 to 2008, Hong Kong has done nothing to enhance its competiveness, its productivity, its economic strength nor its economic developments in or with Mainland China. The only thing done was to speculate in stock and real estate markets. This is like providing drugs or soft drugs to poison the body and mind of a human being!
The corrupted and parasitic culture manifested its ultimate victory when the local government spent billions of public funds to buy shares in the Hong Kong Stock Casino at the end of 2007, at a time when the bubble economy was already at its peak. There is certainly nothing to be proud of now. The stock price of the Hong Kong Stock Casino has fallen from almost $300 to $70+ or less by now. What a punishment sent from God!
Some feel sad to see unemployment rising rapidly in Hong Kong. But the funny thing is they don't realize that the lower unemployment rate in the period after SARS from 2003 was largely artificial manipulation! In the first place, many people who lost their jobs and could not find one had given up the job market and the statistics won't count such large number of "unemployed" as "unemployed." They were simply not part of the working force in Hong Kong and as such, the unemployment rate must go down.
What is sad about the rapidly rising unemployment rate in Hong Kong is that despite the artificial maniuplations in the last few years, the figure is still going up and up. Why? The "unemployed" population has been growing unstopped. So if the unemployment rate is 4%, you should at least double it because the figure has excluded those unemployed that were taken out of the market from 2003.
If you walk round the urban districts of Hong Kong, you will unavoidably hear bad news being talked by almost everyone in the street:
- The hotels in Hong Kong are dong badly and vacancy rate is rising rapidly.
- The "free-riders" from Mainland China are not coming to Hong Kong and their number is getting less and less.
- People are spending time at home and avoiding consumption outside.
- A father worries that his children will have more difficulties in communicating with human beings because they are spending too much time with their computers. Pity is that this father is doing the same.
- A proprietor of a SME is worrying about what biz will be like in 2009. He is expecting things to get worse and is thinking of wrapping his biz after the Chinese New Year.
- A supplier is feeling anxious and angry. Why? The goods sold to foreign markets in US and Europe are not paid and the buyers are using all sorts of excuses to avoid liabilities. He did get some deposits for the goods sold but unfortunately, the sum was not enough to cover his losses. Worse, he would have to pay more expenses for storage and shipping back the goods to Hong Kong. He has made up his mind not to continue his biz and he is also expecting that the factory in Mainland China will close by Chinese New Year.
- A woman suddenly cries out: "What will our next generation be able to do in order to survive?" No one says a word.
I wish you could see their face expressions when they were talking about the collapsing world before them. May be I should take a mini-camera and take some pictures of these moments.
You may ask why are things falling so quickly and so badly? Didn't the local government say that all we need to do is to speculate in the stock and real estate markets? Didn't the local government say that Hong Kong's economy is at its best looking from the last 20 years? Didn't the local government bet on the shares of the Hong Kong Stock Casino by buying at $155 a share? Why didn't the local government do anything to curb over-speculation and over-leveraging in Hong Kong? Why didn't they do something to cool the property speculations in Hong Kong?
Yes, a lot of questions and accusations now. But look you guys are the persons who are primarily responsible for the desperate situation of Hong Kong facing you now.
God, why have you forsaken us? Why are you doing nothing?
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