HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
interest has been shown in the prevention of pollution of our living environment and keeping Hong Kong clean generally. I believe the time has come to mount a Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign on the same lines as the Keep Singapore Clean Campaign. It is clear that only a campaign on a massive scale will achieve results.
The campaign must be based on two things: persuasion and enforcement. In the past, there have been various campaigns but these have been confined to one district at a time and have relied on persuasion only. While persuasion is a necessary ingredient of any campaign, it is clear that by itself, it will not be sufficient. We must also prosecute offenders. We should, if possible, pick on well-off and important members of the community rather than poor people. If the occupant of a big chauffeur-driven car can be successfully prosecuted for throwing a cigarette end or a bit of orange peel or something of the sort out of his car, then we will get some useful publicity. The impact will be much greater than if a poor person was caught and fined.
If a heavy fine were to be imposed, it would of course be useful, but for this type of offence, the actual amount of the fine will not be important. It is the ridicule and the inconvenience which will have a deterrent effect. As soon as people realize that it is quite easy to avoid depositing litter in the streets and public places and that if they do, they run the risks of prosecution, then success will have been achieved. Of course, we must in fact make it easy for the people by providing more litter bins. For instance, at Ferry Concourses, there are usually hawkers selling ice cream or soft drinks. At such places, particularly more litter bins should be placed.
The campaign should not be confined to Urban Areas only. We are now opening up areas of our countryside for recreation. It is very noticeable that young people are flocking to the countryside in large numbers. This is just what we should encourage them to do. However, it will inevitably create a litter problem, particularly as open-air picnics are now so popular. At weekends and holidays, litter wardens should be sent to the more popular picnic areas. They should start by advising picnickers how to avoid creating litter and point out that it requires very little effort to dump empty tins and other refuse in litter bins. If this is followed by a few prosecutions of offenders, the lesson will be driven home.
I have mentioned the Keep Singapore Clean Campaign. From all accounts, that has been a great success. There has been a dramatic improvement. Not only are the streets cleaner but the people themselves are trying to reduce dirt and refuse. What has been done in Singapore can also be achieved in Hong Kong. We have the means if only we set our minds to it.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The ultimate aim is not merely to reduce the expense of sweeping and cleaning the streets. It should be to make people proud that their home is in Hong Kong. No one can be proud of living in a district where the streets are dirty and smelly and litter is everywhere, but if the place is cleaned up and people themselves participate and help to keep it clean then it must inevitably give them a sense of belonging.
Sir, I have much pleasure in supporting the motion before the Council. (Applause).
MR. SOLOMON RAFEEK:-Mr. Chairman, last year, when my turn came to speak in the annual conventional debate on the motion now before us, I dwelt at length on the economic situation then facing us. I said it was not true that the prosperity commonly attributed to the whole Colony applied in fact to everyone. I warned of the unhappiness lying just below the surface of appearances, just as we Chinese have a saying (Mr. RAFEEK quoted in Chinese)-Gold and jade in appearance, but rotten as soaked cotton within, and I said if we were not careful, the so-called "boom" could end with a “bang". My main theme this year is again the economic situation-because the interval has continued to see the rich get richer, with little improvement for the poor. The "bang", which last year was merely a figure of speech employed to illustrate a point, is today almost around the corner, for the inflation which was then a trickle, is now a flood, and the result of the pressures that were then merely feared, is now a reality. I think most of us around this table today will find it difficult not to agree that the year has seen the cost of living rise out of all proportion to normal income. Even though certain incomes have also risen, an extra dollar in the pay packet can no more compensate for alarming increases in the cost of pork and vegetables than a cat can overtake its tail. For at least six months, the high cost of vegetables has been a talking point in thousands of households. Next to rice, it is vegetables that make up the main portion of a meal in Chinese homes. Many of the poor do, in fact, do without meat, but can we sit by complacently as the day rapidly approaches when they must also do without vegetables?
A local poet, Mr. WONG Man, in his work "Between the Two Worlds" refers to women who pass his home from work nightly with their heads low. He refers to them as the salt of the earth, the real people. (Mr. RAFEEK quoted in Chinese at this point) I am sure it will pay the Government to ponder these words, to remember that housewives by their hundreds of thousands in Hong Kong, are the salt of the earth, the real people. It is dangerous always to turn a deaf ear to their protests in the market. For these blow up and fester, and then it will need the most painful surgery to correct.
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
interest has been shown in the prevention of pollution of our living environment and keeping Hong Kong clean generally. I believe the time has come to mount a Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign on the same lines as the Keep Singapore Clean Campaign. It is clear that only a campaign on a massive scale will achieve results.
The campaign must be based on two things: persuasion and enforcement. In the past, there have been various campaigns but these have been confined to one district at a time and have relied on persua- sion only. While persuasion is а necessary ingredient of any campaign, it is clear that by itself, it will not be sufficient. We must also prosecute offenders. We should, if possible, pick on well-off and important members of the community rather than poor people. If the occupant of a big chauffeur driven car can be successfully prosecuted for throwing a cigarette end or a bit of orange peel or something of the sort out of his car, then we will get some useful publicity. The impact will be much greater than if a poor person was caught and fined.
If a heavy fine were to be imposed, it would of course be useful, but for this type of offences, the actual amount of the fine will not be important. It is the ridicule and the inconvenience which will have a deterrent effect. As soon as people realize that it is quite easy to avoid depositing litter in the streets and public places and that if they do, they run the risks of prosecution, then success will have been achieved. Of course, we must in fact make it easy for the people by providing more litter bins. For instance, at Ferry Concourses, there are usually hawkers selling ice cream or soft drinks. At such places, particularly more litter bins should be placed.
The campaign should not be confined to Urban Areas only. We are now opening up areas of our country side for recreation. It is very noticeable that young people are flocking to the country side in large numbers. This is just what we should encourage them to do. However, it will inevitably create a litter problem, particularly as open air picnics are now so popular. At week ends and holidays, litter wardens should be sent to the more popular picnic areas. They should start by advising picnickers how to avoid creating litter and point out that it requires very little effort to dump empty tins and other refuse in litter bins. If this is followed by a few prosecutions of offenders, the lesson will be driven home.
I have mentioned the Keep Singapore Clean Campaign. From all accounts that has been a great success. There has been a dramatic improvement. Not only are the streets cleaner but the people them- selves are trying to reduce dirt and refuse. What has been done in Singapore can also be achieved in Hong Kong. We have the means if only we set our minds to it.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
269
The ultimate aim is not merely to reduce the expense of sweeping and cleaning the streets. It should be to make people proud that their home is in Hong Kong. No one can be proud of living in a district where the streets are dirty and smelly and litter is everywhere, but if the place is cleaned up and people themselves participate and help to keep it clean then it must inevitably give them a sense of belonging.
Sir, I have much pleasure in supporting the motion before the Council. (Applause).
MR. SOLOMON RAFEEK:-Mr. Chairman, last year, when my turn came to speak in the annual conventional debate on the motion now before us, I dwelt at length on the economic situation then facing us. I said it was not true that the prosperity commonly attributed to the whole Colony applied in fact to everyone. I warned of the unhappiness lying just below the surface of appearances, just as we Chinese have a saying (Mr. RAFEEK quoted in Chinese)-Gold and jade in appear- ance, but rotten as soaken cotton within, and I said if we were not careful, the so-called "boom" could end with a“bang". My main theme this year is again the economic situation-because the interval has continued to see the rich get richer, with little improvement for the poor. The "bang", which last year was merely a figure of speech employed to illustrate a point, is today almost around the corner, for the inflation which was then a trickle, is now a flood, and the result of the pressures that was then merely feared, is now a reality. I think most of us around this table today will find it difficult not to agree that the year has seen the cost of living rise out of all proportion to normal income. Even though certain incomes have also risen, an extra dollar in the pay packet can no more compensate for alarming increases in the cost of pork and vegetables than a cat can overtake its tail. For at least six months, the high cost of vegetables has been a talking point in thousands of households. Next to rice, it is vegetables that make up the main portion of a meal in Chinese homes. Many of the poor do, in fact, do without meat, but can we sit by complacently as the day rapidly approaches when they must also do without vegetables?
A local poet, Mr. WONG Man, in his work "Between the Two Worlds" refers to women who pass his home from work nightly with their heads low. He refers to them as the salt of the earth, the real people. (Mr. RAFEEK quoted in Chinese at this point) I am sure it will pay the Government to ponder these words, to remember that housewives by their hundreds of thousands in Hong Kong, are the salt of the earth, the real people. It is dangerous always to turn a deaf ear to their protests in the market. For these blow up and fester, and then it will need the most painful surgery to correct.
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