Society & Politics

  by Alvin Kor Nineteen-year-old Jamella Mangali Lo needed a double lung transplan. She didn't get it. In October, she passed away after two anxious weeks of waiting. Since her death, the Hong Kong government announced it will resume the debate on making all citizens potential organ donors unless they explicitly state their objections. But experts doubt whether the so-called "opt-out scheme" can be implemented in a society dominated by traditional beliefs about life and death. The number of voluntary organ donors in Hong Kong is not keeping up with the rising demand for organs. Nearly 3,000 people are currently waiting for transplants, according to government figures. Although Hong Kong has seen an overall increase in organ donation, from about 4.2 donors per million people in 2005 to about 5.4 in 2015, the figures lag behind those in other developed societies. The United States has 27 organ donors per million people while Spain has 36. Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man said the government will discuss the possibility of an optout scheme to boost the city's donation rate. Under the scheme, all Hong Kong residents will be put onto the donors list unless they submit an objection letter. Spain, the first country to adopt the opt-out organ donation system, has the world's highest donation rate. There are organ donation coordinators at every hospital. They counsel the patients and their families, and help facilitate their communication with medical workers. This successful "Spanish model" has prompted other countries, including the United Kingdom, to discuss the possibility of having a similar system. Twenty-four European countries have adopted opt-out schemes. But it is questionnable whether a majority of Hong Kongers can accept the idea of giving away organs after death. Yip Chun-hin, a 22-year-old university student, thought that this practice could be difficult to implement, because according to traditional Chinese beliefs, organ removal amount sot desecration of the dead. The belief is that the body needs to be buried whole and …

  by Phoebe Chau Hong Kong streets have become too crowded, even for cats. Some of them have to be killed, the governent says. A total of 6,053 cats were enthanised from 2011 to 2013, according to government figures. But some orginazations in Hong Kong say serilization is better than euthanasia. A plan named "Trap-Neuter-Return" was introduced in 2000, aiming to ease the problem of too many wild cats by reducing their birth rate instead of euthanizing them. The Hong Kong Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals been practicing TNR for 15 years and sterilised 51,000 stray cats. Meanwhile, The Hong Kong Non-Profit making Veterinary Clinic has been running the Community Animal De-sexing Project since 2008, which works the same way as TNR, and so far has sterilised 1,310 cats. "It is the most effective and civilised way to help homeless cats," said Zoie Cheng Kam-shan, public relations manager at the Hong Kong NPV. But sterilisation, which is carried out only in certain territories, isn't getting the task done. "The reproduction speed is too high," Ms Cheng said. "There can be six to eight baby cats per litter." The Dogs and Cats Ordinance contains no specific regulations for cats as they are seen as less threatening than dogs. "The Hong Kong government has extremely poor regulations on animal breeders," said Vivian Chiu, an education manager at SPCA. Ms Chiu said 90 percent of cats for sale in pet shops come from illegal breeders. Hobby breeders will not need any license for breeding. "Hobby breeders are exploiting the loopholes of the regulations," Ms Chiu said. "The result is cats are growing up in places like hell. Most of the cats raised by them are fragile." Some people try to help the cats on their own. "I have fed the …

by Terrance Zheng   On October 25, Sam Wong Bo-long and his staff took the last photo together at Spirit Bookstore in Sai Wan. They bid farewell to the second-hand bookselling business founded by Wong's grandfather in 1958. "We really don't want to leave the neighbourhood," he said. "We will surely come back if we have the chance in future." Spirit Bookstore, first opened in Mong Kok, relocated to Sai Wan some ten years ago when the rent skyrocketed. History has repeated itself and this time Mr Wong, the third generation in this family business, has to shut down the store. Rent in West Central District is set to rise mainly because of the MTR's Island Line western extension. Rent for the 500-square-feet space soared to around $40,000 per month and Mr Wong is forced to say goodbye to the neighbourhood. "We were hoping to tough it out but the situation has not improved," Mr Wong said. "Even small bookstores upstairs in building in Mong Kok would rent more than $30,000 a month." Mr Wong admitted the lack of online promotion might be a cause of the decline of his shop but the reading attitudes among Hongkongers, he said, have also changed. "When people want to relax, they go shopping and watch movies, but they would seldom read a book in a quiet corner." He said many Taiwan readers would travel from urban areas to small bookstores in the peripheries of the city. But that, he believed, is unlikely in Hong Kong. Some old local bookstores including Dymocks and Well Read Shop, also closed earlier this year because of soaring renting. But that has not not deterred Taiwanese bookstore chain, Eslite, to expand. The chain has opened up its second store in the city. The shop in Tsim Sha Tsui offers other services besides book selling, including light meals, shoes and accessories. "It's just a trend. Bookstore chains with a …

By Catherine Xu Thousands of participants at the annual gay pride parade shouted out this year's theme "yell out for equality" along the route from Victoria Park to Central Government Complex yesterday. More than 30 groups signed up as committee and participants for this year's pride parade, with the same goal to fight for LGBT rights and equality. Hilda Lau, a volunteer at the parade, explained the meaning of the giraffe, the theme visual of the year. She cited the Chinese idiom "wait until our necks become long", which symbolises the LGBT community's long fight against discrimination. "I found more young participants taking part in the parade this year and there're more people joining the pride parade here than in my home country," Li Po Chun, a Spanish participant said. Apart from LGBT rights, sex‐related banners also waved in the parade, such as "Sex work is also work" held by Midnight Blue, an organisation founded by a group of male sex workers and labour right supporters for sex workers in Hong Kong. "As a minority group, sex workers are always pressurized by the media, and the charm of the work is hidden. I stand out today to show my support for a sex diversified society. The society should embrace differences among individuals," said Chu Bei, a volunteer at Midnight Blue. Asked about how the legalisation of same‐sex marriage in the US earlier this year might affect Hong Kong, Chu said the US's first step can make Hong Kong people reflect on legal rights for homosexuals, but "it's still a long battle in Hong Kong". Ding Lau‐bin, a transgender protester, made a dress with paper medicine boxes and brought it with her to her third pride parade. "These are medicine we (transgender) have to take every day, my friends and I took one year to make this dress especially for the parade to make people understand how much …

By Julieana Wu Everyday at 9 pm at Winnie Poon Yam Wai-chun's office in Kowloon Bay, Mrs Poon's husbandwaits for her to finish so they can go to the market together to pick up ingredients for dinner that Mrs Poon will cook. Today, an elderly man is asking Mrs Poon where to get a vaccination. A woman drops by, home from her holiday in Malaysia, and hands Mrs Poon's assistant a packet of pastries. They have a brief chat and she soon leaves. Mrs Poon, 61, is the district councillor of Telford Garden in Kowloon Bay. She was elected in 1985 to the then District Boards, which was renamed the District Council in 2000. For the past 30 years, Mrs Poon has worked seven hours a day, five days a week advising her neighbourhood. She is a social worker by profession, wife to a civil engineer and a mother of three. "I was like taking three jobs at the same time," Mrs Poon said, recalling the early days of her career when her children were small. "Being a district councilor is very hard," she said. "It's even harder for a woman." In the previous District Council, female councillors made up 23 per cent of all members, the highest proportion of women ever, according to the Home Affairs Department. In the current council, it dropped to about 21 per cent. That means there are 89 women compared to 418 men for the 18 districts. However, the number of female registered voters exceeded that of male in 2015 with about 1.9 million women to about 1.8 million men. A survey by the Women's Commission also shows that women tend to engage more in community activities, which the District Council deals with, compared to men. "Women's issues are ignored nowadays," said lawmaker Emily Lau Wai-hing, …

By Viola Zhou China's Communist Party has decided to allow all couples to have two children, putting the 35-year-old One-Child Policy to an end, according to Xinhua News Agency. The announcement was made after the party's Central Committee concluded its annual plenum today. The strict family planning restriction was introduced in 1980 to curb the fast-growing population. Most couples were allowed to have one child only, with exceptions made to ethnic minorities and families with hukou, residence in some rural areas. The policy was later loosened so parents could have a second child if both of them were born the only children. One-Child Policy has been criticised for causing gender imbalance because of the traditional Chinese preference on boys and violating human rights, while Chinese authority has stressed on the its contribution to the economic boom. China's ageing problem has been worsening in recent years, causing the working force to shrink. In 2013, the policy was then further eased to allow couples to have two children if one of them was an only child, but the number of second-child applications remains low. Many experts quoted by mainland media in the past two years suggested that the One-Child Policy be scrapped to solve the problem of ageing population. Edited by Crystal Tse. Copy-edited by Mari Chow.