Desperate Hongkongers turn to crime or suicide

The Straits Times ^ | July 19,2002 | By Mary Kwang

[vannrox]

Desperate Hongkongers turn to crime or suicide

Unemployment is placing a strain on society, particularly young people, who fall prey to criminals

By

Mary Kwang

HONGKONG CORRESPONDENT

A 17-YEAR-OLD made headlines here several weeks ago by stealing two lunch boxes, costing around HK$50 (S$11).

He said that he was driven by hunger to steal the food for his younger brother and himself. The boys live with their father on public welfare.

The Hongkong police said that crime, like robbery and shoplifting, rose in the first half of the year over the same period last year.

The poor economy was cited as one cause for the increase.

In the depressed economic condition, unemployed adolescents, numbering 90,000, are easy prey.

Increasing numbers of youngsters have been caught peddling pirated video cassette discs.

Sleazy Internet cafes, fronts for prostitution dens, hire teenage girls to provide sexual services.

Dr Wong Hung of City University expressed fears that as 70 per cent of jobless youths had parents who did not finish secondary school, the second generation would also remain poor.

The economic slump has placed great strain on relationships or resulted in broken relationships.

Some Hongkong men have had to abandon their mistresses across the border.

Young women in Shenzhen advertise in Hongkong newspapers for men to maintain them as kept women.

The local media carry stories almost every week of people who kill themselves to escape debt or despair, making the current suicide rate the highest the territory has seen.

This week, for instance, there were at least four suicides.

Among them was a 30-year-old hairdresser who had been jobless for over a year.

She killed herself after yet another row over finances with her mother.

When the latter learnt of her daughter's death, she said: 'My burden is lighter.'

She blamed the recession on the government, which has been taken to task by many others for policies contributing to the territory's economic ills, such as in housing and immigration.

But labour leader Cheng Yiu Tong, who is also an Executive Councillor, said that the current slowdown has made the government less complacent.

He said that administration officials used to brush off unions' concerns about unemployment.

'Now, when deciding any policy, the government considers whether it would create jobs or would cause people to be laid off.'

Top Hongkong officials have been working hard, airing a slew of proposals to cut down jobless numbers.

The suggestions, most of which have yet to be implemented, include incentives to get Hongkong companies to move back to the territory from China; reducing the number of low-skilled immigrants coming to Hongkong; and work sharing.

At present, Hongkong is obliged to take in 150 mainlanders daily for family reunions but the government is asking Beijing to slash the number by half.

Almost all the ideas have attracted criticism, reflecting society's great dissatisfaction with the administration.

But however unpopular the strategies suggested by the government might be, some segments of society recognise the administration's determination to solve the unemployment problem.

The Hongkong Employers of Domestic Helpers Association sees the writing on the wall, with the government making moves to get households to hire local maids.

At present, there are 240,000 foreign domestic workers in Hongkong.

Mr Joseph Law, spokesman for the group, told The Straits Times: 'We used to be called the Hongkong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association.

'But we dropped the word Overseas from our name two months ago.'

Copyright @ 2002 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

[vannrox]

Sad, but interesting. HK is now under Chinese control. I wonder if this was the same kind of condition under UK control. I don't really think that this is unique to China, but I think that the recession is global. I wouldn't be surprised if the economic conditions in HK was identical as that on both Mainland China and the UK.

[Map Kernow]

Hong Kong was in much better economic shape under the British---that's why over the course of nearly 50 years so many Chinese risked their lives to flee to Hong Kong from the Communists. There was street crime and prostitution under the British, but not the kind driven by unemployment and despair that this article speaks of. "Yes, Virginia---Communism really does suck."

[untenured]

Hong Kong was in much better economic shape under the British---that's why over the course of nearly 50 years so many Chinese risked their lives to flee to Hong Kong from the Communists.

The Asian financial crisis began in earnest on July 2, 1997, the day after HK returned to China. Maybe history will record it as a coincidence, and maybe not.

[Red Jones]

incredible; but something tells me the mainstream media will not tell this story ... ... after all, it would make conservatives who oppose communism look good ... ... it can't be reported in mainstream sources.

[Red Jones]

thanks for clueing me in.

[tsomer]

"The real problem faced by HK is competition from other Chinese cities."

I'm not buying this. I don't recall the exact source but I recall reading that businesses were being lured across the border into the mainland by the Chinese. The usual attractions were sited for the exodus: more room, access to labor markets, etc. The point is, however, that subsidized competition is not free market competition.

So it's more like an unfriendly corporate buyout. China has swallowed Hong Kong and is now digesting it.

[staytrue]

Hong Kong has the same economic laws as it had under the English. The difference is an open border with China. The mainland chinese that border Hong Kong are much much better off at the expense of the unskilled labor in Hong Kong. Overall, it is a plus for most. Plus Hong Kong was very into "high tech" which has been a disaster everywhere. Political laws of course have changed dramatically in Hong Kong.

[Map Kernow]

Hong Kong has the same economic laws as it had under the English

Ah yes, but there's this dramatic difference after July 2, 1997: those laws are administered by officials of the so-called "People's Republic of China." The "bourgeois" concept of "rule of law," so important to the success of Hong Kong while a British colony, means little or nothing to Chinese Communist cadres. For Chinese "New Wave" cinema fans, I recommend Zhang Yimou's "Story of Qiu Ju," which among other things is a damning indictment of law in the "PRC," as well as a chance for the sumptuous actress Gong Li to play a dramatic role without dressing up like a Shanghai hooker throughout the movie.

[tsomer]

"there's no government incentive to do this; only a business incentive. "

Sounds like you would know better, but I'm still skeptical. I can't see the People's Republic just leaving businesses alone, ever.

Of course I've been wrong before...