the(new)mediaslut

Tony Henderson, for the Humanist Movement C-209 in Hong Kong, send his wish list to themediaslut for Christmas.

Tony’s wishes are in italics, themediaslut’s wishes for Singapore are in normal text.  

Wish List for Hong Kong:

That the air pollution is cleared up.
No more haze from Indonesia from Aug - Nov!.

The economy remains strong but more diverse.
Yes, but being the kiasu Singaporean, themediaslut wishes the economy to be stronger.

Speculation in property ceases.
Singapore govt has looked into by changing the law on estate stamp duties. Previously, buyers need only pay upon completion of the property, now they have 14 days to pay.

Future infrastructural developments stop and what’s already there is tidied up and Green’d.

Privatisation efforts cease in all sectors impinging on public services as per welfare state – especially in health and education – both need to be free of charges.
Increase in govt expenditure means the money has to come from somewhere. In Singapore, its a proposed 2% rise in GST to 7%.

Participatory democracy (with proportional representation) is implemented in whatever form, the western model or under the Beijing preferred system based on what we have now.

District Boards given real authority in local affairs and be responsible for handling the local budgets.

Co-operative forms of business get preferred investment instead of the top-down capitalist models.

Integration with the SAR given more attention, to share resources and facilities and prevent duplications.

The population stabilises.

Town centres made traffic-free and vehicle-free streets are made common-place.
themediaslut supports this totally. Why bother travel through Orchard Road during peak hours? Singapore should make Orchard Road a vehicle-free street.

Privately owned areas around commercial centres allow the public to use those surrounding places to while away the day according to social need and security staff not allowed to chase people away when they are not a security risk.

Hawker licenses are made available again and more freely issued to allow small businesses to reappear on sidewalks.
Singapore back to the 60s.. why not?

Busking is allowed.
Busking is allowed in Singapore, but do away with all those "rules"!

No more western-style cultural halls – instead, places where local bands and theatre groups can perform and practise, in every area of population density.
themediaslut wonders if the Esplanade is a western-style cultural hall? By the way, wouldn’t it way cool to have the Esplanade organise a Durian festival?

Widespread use of local species for green growth, to support habitats for local creatures, instead of re-cycled potted plants of foreign flowers and out-of-place palm trees.
Singapore love potted plants especially when we have foreigners in the county for meetings like IMF.

Concreting minimised.

Land use laws tightened to disallow conversion from agricultural-recreational to industrial-commercial use.

That Hong Kong moves nearer the proposed ideal of ‘Asia’s World City’ by simply recognising the full rights of non-Han Chinese citizen’s rights, including those marginalised thus discriminated against such as the Nepalese. Visa-free entry re-instated for presently restricted Asian nationals – Bangladesh a recent case.

Tony Henderson can be contacted at tonyhen(at)humanist(dot)org(dot)hk.