Oasis Airlines

Been busy!

Oasis Airlines was grounded on their maiden flight yesterday. I was hoping this little airline would get a big start. Unfortunately, they were sideswiped by Russian red tape, which was not the airline’s fault. They had previous approval to fly over Russian airspace.

On a related note, the Hong Kong government is still restricting free competition on some airline routes, and all bus routes. From what I understand, Cathay Pacific is the main culprit for the air routes. (Were they the ones that opposed Oasis getting a license to fly in and out of Hong Kong as well?)

On an unrelated note, Teddy Wang’s father has a legal bill of $560 million for contesting his son’s estate. The cost of (in?)justice is very high in this city. Certainly lawyers should be rewarded for their intellectual ability, but this case needs more investigation. Surely it does not cost half a billion dollars to verify four pages of a hand written will.

Let’s Have a Five Day Week – Where Possible

Yesterday, the SCMP reported that some business leaders supported a five-day working week. I support this idea as long as it is a voluntary practice. That is, I think businesses should be encouraged to adopt a five-day working week where possible, without legislation to force those businesses to do so.

If it is practical for a business to bring in a five-day working week, I think they should work towards doing that. In some cases it might not be possible. For example, what would be the impact on a small trading company of a five-day week? Would they lose valuable orders because they did not spend time on Saturday getting the details of a shipment ready on time? How about banks and shops that want to open seven days a week? This is something that companies and five-day week advocates need to think about.

However, if a company, can arrange its affairs so that its staff don’t have to work on Saturday, or can just work alternative Saturdays, then Hong Kong Capitalist says: "Go ahead, make their Saturday."

Kennedy and McKinney

The American media has reported that United States Democratic Congressman Patrick Kennedy crashed his car, and police suspected him of driving under the influence. At first, it appears there was some sort of preferential treatment given to the congressman. Instead of undergoing the usual sobriety tests that police officers give to potential offenders, he was supposedly driven home. The story is that other more senior police officers gave the order that he not be tested.

This comes after another recent instance, where another prominent Democrat, Cynthia McKinney is alleged to have hit a police officer trying to check her credentials for entry into a government building. She is now under a Grand Jury investigation.

Were it not for a free press, these stories would have never appeared. After his initial denials of drinking, Congressman Kennedy claimed that he could not remember anything of the incident, and blamed an addiction to pain killers.

What is particularly disgusting is that both these congressmen have tried to run rough-shot over the very people that are charged with protecting them. It would be sad if either or both of these congressmen were re-elected.

At the same time, America should be thankful for a free press, guaranteed under its constitution. There are plenty of dictatorships that survive because they are able to suppress the press, and stop true horrors from being reported. A free press and unfettered free speech is something that we should all cherish.

Some General Observations

These are some issues that have been on the radar:

1. Comments on the electricity consultation paper are closing on March 30. If you favour free markets, please send your comments in support of free markets by then.

2. Over 500,000 students demonstrated in France last week against labour reform, but only a handful protested against Islamic threats to free speech.

3. Over 1000 arrests and only one person now facing charges over the WTO riots in Hong Kong. The protesters showed a contempt for Hong Kong’s rule of law, even attacking Hong Kong policewomen with long sticks. Maybe the police should have been quicker to arrest the nihilists and charge rioters with assault rather than public assembly violations.

4. There are reports that the Russians helped Saddam during the war in Iraq. They are now supporting Iran in its bid to build a nuclear power plant. Watch as the American State Department sits on its hands and does nothing. Watch as they fail to build "international support" against a rogue nation that actively supports the elimination of Israel and America.

5. A Christian mystic in Afghanistan now faces the death penalty for converting from Islam. The penalty is proscribed by Sharia law, which America has helped to bring to Afghanistan by allowing it under the Afghan constitution. (Exactly the same law that the Taliban operated under too.)

6. The Democrats want tax cuts and more social welfare. Despite what the government says, Hong Kong is already a welfare state. As long as the government accepts the idea that parasitism should be rewarded and productivity penalized, this will continue.

Defending Free Speech

The Undercurrent is an Objectivist campus newspaper that is being distributed around universities across the United States. It is an excellent newspaper and I had the privilege of writing an article for them last year entitled Religion versus Spirituality.

With the current threat to free speech from Islam, the students at The Undercurrent have just put out an excellent mini-issue to address this threat and have arranged for a mass distribution across campuses. I recommend this issue to anyone who might be interested.

United Nations Threat to Free Speech

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the United Nations is threatening free speech with talk of a blasphemy code of practice. Details of the story are here and there will be more comments about this on the blog later today.

Update: According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

The European Union and a group of Islamic countries said they backed UN action to stop "defamation of religion".

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference is lobbying for the UN to include language against blasphemy in the tenets of a new human rights body. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said he supported the idea.

This in effect represents complete capitulation to the Islamic extremists by the EU. If implemented it would represent a victory of savagery over rationality. Free speech is man’s most basic right and this represents another step on a very deliberate slope of European appeasement.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, the Prime Minister has closed down a Chinese language daily for two weeks for printing cartoons of one of Islam’s alleged icons.

Anti-Smoking Lobby’s Tactics Backfiring

Yestereday’s SCMP noted that Clear the Air has filed 1,500 objections to the Liquor Licensing Board on the grounds that the restaurants allowed smoking. Clear The Air even objected to a recent application by a restaurant set up by Igor’s even though it was going to be non-smoking restaurant. Annelise Connell is their vice-chairwoman and is a regular letter writer to the SCMP.

Of course Igor’s who applied for the license have since reversed their policy and will now be a smoking restaurant.

According to the SCMP, Igor’s said the objection by Clear the Air will cost Igor’s weeks of lost revenues. Further the paper notes that NO applications have been rejected by the board on the basis of smoking policy, but it adds that objections by Clear The Air add two months to the time it takes for a license to be approved. I have a full article on a related theme on the Capitalist Solutions main site.

New Power Company Already Allegedly “Under Investigation’

With the possibility of a third power company in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reports today that one of the partners of this company may already be under investigation by the SEC:

It is understood the Securities and Futures Commission is investigating Vertex’s share-trading for possible market manipulation.

Vertex’s share price rocketed as much as 105.88 per cent in volatile trading on Thursday following China Hong Kong Power’s announcement that it was breaking into Hong Kong’s market.

So they announce they want to break into the market and straight away there are rumours they are going to be investigated. The whole dual power company model stinks – really really stinks – and this is the last kind of stunt one would expect the government to pull.

I will have more to say on the power companies in due course – The Stage II Consutlation Paper is sitting on my desk as I type.

A Drug Addict?

Annelise Connell of Clear the Air writes a letter today in the South China Morning Post entitled Pro-Smoking Disgrace. She makes the following comment about one Mr. Leung – has she ever sat down with him or even met him before?:

Mr Leung, a self-declared smoker, may be in denial about his own drug addiction, but that is no reason to make false statements in Legco. His flippant remarks show his disregard for public health.

From his public remarks, Ms Connell has no problem in clinically diagnosing Mr. Leung as a drug addict. This kind of psychologising is a gross attack on Mr. Leung. Ms. Connell has earnt a little blip on the Capitalist Solutions radar, I am sure this won’t be the last comment on her letters.

Backchat’s Person of the Year

The police heroes came first over the Korean farmers in this year’s RTHK Backchat’s Person Of The Year Award. Congratulations to the police, it is a recognition of their hard work and heroism. Unfortunately a significant minority voted for the South Korean farmers, their supporters and apologists. These farmers were the same people that attacked Hong Kong police women with large sticks. (BTW these girls were not wall flowers, they stood their ground.)

What is telling is that the Korean farmers wanted to keep their subsidies and tariffs, whilst a lot of the other anti-WTO protesters wanted to see these kinds of agricultural subsidies lifted. I can never understand why they invited the farmers, they were diametrically opposed to free markets. Those who voted for the farmers are guilty of moral relativism including two of their apologists who were blabbing their mouths away on Backchat.

Anyway, let’s hope the police will go ahead with the trials against the Korean farmers that have been arrested. Of course, in line with the principles of justice, the police need to provide the official evidence against the farmers for judgement in a court of law. I am confident they will.

Once again congratulations to the Hong Kong Police. Their victory today was a victory for justice.