Hooray. Harbour Watchdog to Close It’s Office. According to the SCMP:
"Hong Kong’s biggest harbour protection group has closed its office in Central, and founder Winston Chu Ka-sun is planning to retire later this year."
This campaign was one big scare story, with claims that Victoria Harbour would be turned into a river. The whole premise of the campaign was that the harbour was somehow a gift from nature to the Hong Kong people. This raises a number of questions:
- What exactly do they mean by gift – who is the donor?
- What is nature in this case – how can it give a gift if it is not a walking, talking living being – or how can it know that people will come around billions of years later to claim it?
- Who exactly received this alleged gift?
- Why can’t people do anything with this "gift" except look at it?
The whole idea of preservation goes against the principle that in order to survive man must reshape his environment to survive. Ultimately, one has to ask if this harbour has more value as a view, or as a place where people can work, live and relax. Land is not cheap in Hong Kong and we need as much of it as we can get.
