Posted on 04/25/2003 12:24:36 PM PDT by blam
Hong Kong unmasks in slow return to normality
By Andrew Gumbel
25 April 2003
Hong Kong is still the city worst affected by the outbreak of SARS, but the past few days have seen the first tentative signs of life returning back to normal.
The number of probable cases reported by local hospitals peaked about a week ago and has fallen steadily since. Most of Hong Kong's secondary schools reopened this week after a three-week hiatus. Residents who fled the city in panic at the beginning of the outbreak are beginning to trickle back home. Taxi-drivers and bus riders are starting to take off the surgical masks that have become a near-ubiquitous feature of life in the Far East.
And even cultural life is slowly returning: the Hong Kong Film Festival, which opened to half-deserted auditoriums two weeks ago, was sold out for its last two nights on Tuesday and Wednesday.
To date, 109 people have died of SARS in Hong Kong, and hundreds more have been treated in hospital, most of them for lengthy stays. And although the news has been getting better, the World Health Organisation does not yet consider that the disease is under control by any stretch. Containment, for the WHO, means more than just a slowdown in local infection rates. The organisation is looking for a sharp and sustained drop in new infections over a period of weeks, not just days.
The president of the Hong Kong Medical Association, Lo Wing-lok, said this week: "In three months time Hong Kong can return to almost normal, not completely normal." And the territory's health secretary, Yeoh Eng-kiong, agreed that the epidemic "is going to be with us for some time".
In contrast to Beijing's foot-dragging over the crisis, Hong Kong's leaders have unveiled a $1.5 billion package of tax breaks, loan guarantees for businesses and short-term janitoial jobs to clean and disinfect the homes of victims. The package is huge, equivalent to one per cent of the territory's annual economic output, and will provide temporary employment for 21,000 people. A similar package unveiled by Singapore is 11 times smaller in monetary terms.
On the other hand, the economic impact to date has also been devastating. Shops, hotels, restaurants and cinemas have reported a decline in business of more than 50 per cent. The usual incoming flow of Australian reef fish and other culinary delicacies has ground to a halt. The Great Eagle Hotel, with 487 rooms, is less than 10 per cent full.
The travel industry has also been devastated, and although the past few days have seen the first arrivals queues in weeks at Hong Kong's airport, almost all the incoming travellers are returning residents, not tourists or business visitors. Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's main carrier, reports planes flying virtually empty even though the schedule has been cut by 45 per cent. The company is believed to be losing about £2 million a day.
As for street life, some people seem more willing to embrace the return to normality than others. A New York Times reporter estimated that about half the city's taxi drivers have taken off the surgical masks they have been ordered to wear, as well as a handful of passengers on city buses. The roller coasters at the Ocean Park amusement park were doing reasonably good business over the Easter weekend, although managers there estimate their overall figures will be 80 per cent down on last year.
On the more negative side, some officials at Hong Kong's secondary schools refused to comply with the order to reopen on Tuesday. One student, Tom Leung, told the Associated Press he and his classmates resented being treated like "lab mice". About 200,000 students were supposed to go back this week, and another 900,000 - including primary schools - are due to return on Monday.
"Today Americans would be outraged if U. N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all people of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government." - Henry Kissinger in an address to the Bilderberg Conference at Evian, France, May 21, 1992. Transcribed from a tape recording made by one of the Swiss delegates.
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