Bishop José Lai (黎鴻昇) also received the Silver Lotus, and obviously, not everybody is rejoicing… in 正報, 論盡媒體 but also (and even) in 澳門日報! I am sure his answer is: 「唔係，我相信唔係。」(No connection, I trust there is no connection)
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Chan Meng Kam (陳明金) celebrates his medal with a splash!
Getting a Silver Medal obviously means a lot to legislator Chan Meng Kam: 7 full pages of ad in total today were printed in Macau Daily News (澳門日報)! On these pics, one wonders who is the actual sponsor and who is the actual recipient… I can't imagine what it will be like when Mr Chan gets the Gold!
Monday, December 07, 2015
Kiang Wu's board
As I was quite intrigued by Mr Fong Chi Keong's bragging about 8 members of the legislature being members of the board of the Kiang Wu Charitable Association (the organisation behind the Kiang Wu hospital), I checked, and of course Mr Fong was… right! The whole list can be found here.
The lucky winners who will "supposedly" support Mr Fong, whatever he says or wants are:
As honorary board member (榮譽理事): 高開賢 Kou Hoi In (indirectly elected)
As vice-president (副主席): 張立群 Victor Cheung Lup Kwan (indirectly elected)
As president of the executive committee (理事長): 馮志強 Fong Chi Keong (appointed)
As vice-presidents of the executive committee (副理事長): 劉永誠 Lau Veng Seng (appointed) and 陳明金 Chan Meng Kam (elected)
As managing directors (常務理事): 蕭志偉 Sio Chi Wai (appointed) and 馬志成 Ma Chi Seng (appointed)
As vice-president of the supervisory committee (副監事長): 歐安利 Leonel Alves (indirectly elected)
Four of them are appointed legislators (out of the 7 appointed in total)!
Friday, December 04, 2015
Kapok: Hooked on junkets
By mid-2015, gambling-related crimes had already gone up by more than a third, with loan sharking cases and unlawful detentions being of particular concern. This trend was just confirmed by Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak during a media briefing held on December 2nd: for the first nine months of 2015, the overall increase in gambling-related crimes stabilized at 34% (1,118 cases in total), with loan-sharking offences increasing by 40% year-on-year and unlawful detentions by a staggering 112.5%! Mr Wong also previously insisted on a turning point in March this year, with no further explanations being given.
In fact, quite the contrary: the Secretary was adamant in downplaying the significance of this highly noticeable jump. For him, in official speak, the rise was not to be attributed to the “adjustment in the gaming industry” — even though many junket venues are shutting down and all analysts seem to concur that credit lines have been crunched. Furthermore, he insisted on the fact that most of the victims and suspects of these crimes were “non-residents” and that these offences had no spillover effects on the rest of the community, as demonstrated by a slight decrease of the overall number of crimes over the first nine months of the year. To support Mr Wong’s claim, I would even add that gambling-related crimes appear rather limited in scope, representing a mere 11% of the total number of crimes (10,347 over the period), whereas revenues attributed to “gaming” amounted to 85%! Still, there was and there will continue to be an upsurge…
Ultimately, what I find really suspicious are these efforts at attenuating the meaning of everything. This of course goes beyond Macao and local politics: most modern politicians tend to “shelter” public opinions just like a mother or father protects her or his own children from hearing too blunt a disturbing reality and eventually one always benefits from showing that he or she is fully in control of the inner workings of any situation. No wonder then that Mr Wong would remark that the Dore case — theft and default in repayment put together — exclusively resulted from the shortcomings of the gambling promoter itself, and had therefore nothing to do with the ailing situation of the gambling industry. Yet, just like it is pure hypocrisy and manipulation to use the palatable and entertainment-minded word “gaming” (博彩 bocai or even 玩樂 wanle) instead of the highly hazardous and irrational term “gambling” (赌博 dubo), “adjustment” actually means a complete revamping under duress of the industry that has made Macao a “success” over the past decade. Article 118 of the Macao Basic Law has not changed, but drawing policies that will promote “tourism and recreation” in line with Macao’s interests has taken a whole new meaning.
Contrary to what some lawyers and foreign observers profess, it is highly debatable to univocally state that “the territory would not have achieved what it did if the [gambling] industry had been over-regulated.” First, because remaking history with “if” is pointless. Second, because one could infer that whatever the legal framework, investors would still have been tempted by the proximity of such a huge market, especially in a monopolistic position and with a cultural background somehow favoring games of luck. Third, because a lot of rich Chinese millionaires, whatever the origin of their wealth, saw Macao has a way out and on top of that credit did not have to be guarantied by the casinos themselves. In short, Macao was bound to be a magnet.
Actually, I would argue quite the opposite: lax regulation of THE industry delayed necessary adjustments and long term vision — money was simply too easy to make — and we are finally witnessing the beginning of the unraveling of the promise made back in 1993 when the Basic Law was passed. Before Dore, there was Huang Shan in May 2014, with some HKD10 billion vanishing in smoke, so clearly the “adjustment period” is closely related to the “new normal”, for better and for worse.
Published in Macau Daily Times, December 4th 2015
In fact, quite the contrary: the Secretary was adamant in downplaying the significance of this highly noticeable jump. For him, in official speak, the rise was not to be attributed to the “adjustment in the gaming industry” — even though many junket venues are shutting down and all analysts seem to concur that credit lines have been crunched. Furthermore, he insisted on the fact that most of the victims and suspects of these crimes were “non-residents” and that these offences had no spillover effects on the rest of the community, as demonstrated by a slight decrease of the overall number of crimes over the first nine months of the year. To support Mr Wong’s claim, I would even add that gambling-related crimes appear rather limited in scope, representing a mere 11% of the total number of crimes (10,347 over the period), whereas revenues attributed to “gaming” amounted to 85%! Still, there was and there will continue to be an upsurge…
Ultimately, what I find really suspicious are these efforts at attenuating the meaning of everything. This of course goes beyond Macao and local politics: most modern politicians tend to “shelter” public opinions just like a mother or father protects her or his own children from hearing too blunt a disturbing reality and eventually one always benefits from showing that he or she is fully in control of the inner workings of any situation. No wonder then that Mr Wong would remark that the Dore case — theft and default in repayment put together — exclusively resulted from the shortcomings of the gambling promoter itself, and had therefore nothing to do with the ailing situation of the gambling industry. Yet, just like it is pure hypocrisy and manipulation to use the palatable and entertainment-minded word “gaming” (博彩 bocai or even 玩樂 wanle) instead of the highly hazardous and irrational term “gambling” (赌博 dubo), “adjustment” actually means a complete revamping under duress of the industry that has made Macao a “success” over the past decade. Article 118 of the Macao Basic Law has not changed, but drawing policies that will promote “tourism and recreation” in line with Macao’s interests has taken a whole new meaning.
Contrary to what some lawyers and foreign observers profess, it is highly debatable to univocally state that “the territory would not have achieved what it did if the [gambling] industry had been over-regulated.” First, because remaking history with “if” is pointless. Second, because one could infer that whatever the legal framework, investors would still have been tempted by the proximity of such a huge market, especially in a monopolistic position and with a cultural background somehow favoring games of luck. Third, because a lot of rich Chinese millionaires, whatever the origin of their wealth, saw Macao has a way out and on top of that credit did not have to be guarantied by the casinos themselves. In short, Macao was bound to be a magnet.
Actually, I would argue quite the opposite: lax regulation of THE industry delayed necessary adjustments and long term vision — money was simply too easy to make — and we are finally witnessing the beginning of the unraveling of the promise made back in 1993 when the Basic Law was passed. Before Dore, there was Huang Shan in May 2014, with some HKD10 billion vanishing in smoke, so clearly the “adjustment period” is closely related to the “new normal”, for better and for worse.
Published in Macau Daily Times, December 4th 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
Kapok: Make no mistake
In the past few days, in the wake of the horrendous terrorist attacks in Paris, I have been confronted by the best and the worst.
On the side of the best, you have the numerous private and public messages of outrage, sympathy, solidarity, fraternity, etc., expressed loud and clear, by friends, colleagues and strangers alike.
Both in Hong Kong and Macao, the SAR governments were very prompt in issuing communiqués extending condolences to the families of the victims and wishing the injured swift recovery. In Hong Kong, an emotional vigil took place Monday evening in Tamar, gathering some 2,500, including most of the senior diplomatic representatives as well as the Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive himself. In these moments, despite adversity and distress, humanity regains its face as countless faces standing as one. I and we are together, able to commune beyond our differences.
And then, I have been witness to passing remarks made by well-intentioned acquaintances that are truly appalling, especially coming from well-educated people. One posted an emotional message on a social media platform explicitly arguing that there is somehow a “good” immigration, one that is “humble” and thus able to blend in, and… the other one. Another person, a claimed socialist, matter-of-factly told me: “well, not all Muslims are terrorists, but you cannot deny that all terrorists are Muslims!”
I am myself from Paris. My parents live near the locations that were targeted. I go to some of these places each time I am in the City of Light, and on Friday, very close friends of mine, together with their children, were supposed to go for dinner at Le Petit Cambodge and have a drink at Le Carillon. No need to say that I was thus extremely shocked by what happened, and spent most of my Saturday making sure that my loved-ones were safe. Even now, I keep peeping at the list of the victims with a clear sense of apprehension that I might stumble upon a known name. I will be in Paris for a week starting next Monday, and can already feel an immense sorrow sinking in.
Trust me, when I say I condemn the attacks and I see only criminals of the worst sort in the perpetrators of these acts – cowardly slaughtering acts – I do mean it.
Yet, one has to be careful with passing comments, especially because we have a unique responsibility in this part of the world in promoting European values and heritage. European values do not equate with Catholicism, far from it. Ancient Greece and Rome are the matrix of European civilization — Renaissance rings a bell? — and a significant part of our neoplatonic filiation only survived because of Arab intellectuals. Heritage is a bit more than street signs, and what truly matters in regards to cultural encounters is the ability to have dialogue, exchange and cross-fertilize — the rest is misplaced nostalgia.
To my Macao friends, I say it clearly as this might prove useful for this community: it is a classic phenomenon for the last wave of migrants to try to “close the door” on the next one, as it is somehow afraid the latter will challenge its hard-gained status. Discrimination against Italian and Portuguese migrants was as bad as the one against people from North-African countries, and they are all today an integral part of the French society. Beyond the international context, what is not working anymore in France is the “integration” drive, both at school and at work. Moreover, any religion is a form of ideology that can be used for different purposes, and both the Basque separatist movement ETA and the Irish IRA were packed with Catholics.
Finally, the ones who suffer the most from terrorism right now are the Muslims themselves and we are no strangers to that state of affairs.
Ultimately, it is troubling to hear senseless words from people who come from a place that has only 0.3% of Muslims… or it just proves a point: ignorance is to be fought if humanity wants to ultimately prevail.
Published in Macau Daily Times, November 20 2015
On the side of the best, you have the numerous private and public messages of outrage, sympathy, solidarity, fraternity, etc., expressed loud and clear, by friends, colleagues and strangers alike.
Both in Hong Kong and Macao, the SAR governments were very prompt in issuing communiqués extending condolences to the families of the victims and wishing the injured swift recovery. In Hong Kong, an emotional vigil took place Monday evening in Tamar, gathering some 2,500, including most of the senior diplomatic representatives as well as the Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive himself. In these moments, despite adversity and distress, humanity regains its face as countless faces standing as one. I and we are together, able to commune beyond our differences.
And then, I have been witness to passing remarks made by well-intentioned acquaintances that are truly appalling, especially coming from well-educated people. One posted an emotional message on a social media platform explicitly arguing that there is somehow a “good” immigration, one that is “humble” and thus able to blend in, and… the other one. Another person, a claimed socialist, matter-of-factly told me: “well, not all Muslims are terrorists, but you cannot deny that all terrorists are Muslims!”
I am myself from Paris. My parents live near the locations that were targeted. I go to some of these places each time I am in the City of Light, and on Friday, very close friends of mine, together with their children, were supposed to go for dinner at Le Petit Cambodge and have a drink at Le Carillon. No need to say that I was thus extremely shocked by what happened, and spent most of my Saturday making sure that my loved-ones were safe. Even now, I keep peeping at the list of the victims with a clear sense of apprehension that I might stumble upon a known name. I will be in Paris for a week starting next Monday, and can already feel an immense sorrow sinking in.
Trust me, when I say I condemn the attacks and I see only criminals of the worst sort in the perpetrators of these acts – cowardly slaughtering acts – I do mean it.
Yet, one has to be careful with passing comments, especially because we have a unique responsibility in this part of the world in promoting European values and heritage. European values do not equate with Catholicism, far from it. Ancient Greece and Rome are the matrix of European civilization — Renaissance rings a bell? — and a significant part of our neoplatonic filiation only survived because of Arab intellectuals. Heritage is a bit more than street signs, and what truly matters in regards to cultural encounters is the ability to have dialogue, exchange and cross-fertilize — the rest is misplaced nostalgia.
To my Macao friends, I say it clearly as this might prove useful for this community: it is a classic phenomenon for the last wave of migrants to try to “close the door” on the next one, as it is somehow afraid the latter will challenge its hard-gained status. Discrimination against Italian and Portuguese migrants was as bad as the one against people from North-African countries, and they are all today an integral part of the French society. Beyond the international context, what is not working anymore in France is the “integration” drive, both at school and at work. Moreover, any religion is a form of ideology that can be used for different purposes, and both the Basque separatist movement ETA and the Irish IRA were packed with Catholics.
Finally, the ones who suffer the most from terrorism right now are the Muslims themselves and we are no strangers to that state of affairs.
Ultimately, it is troubling to hear senseless words from people who come from a place that has only 0.3% of Muslims… or it just proves a point: ignorance is to be fought if humanity wants to ultimately prevail.
Published in Macau Daily Times, November 20 2015
Friday, November 06, 2015
Kapok: Money matters
In any polity of the world, public spending does matter. In fact, public finance is at the crux of public policy making and constitutes a necessary reality check on the transformative power of government. With money, governments are supposed to be empowered to do aplenty, even though, ever since the 1980s, worries about misspending and plain wastefulness have fuelled questions about the right size for the state – big or small – and of course the realm and span of state capacity and action. Having money does not necessarily make one smart, quite the contrary as our Dutch friends know very well. But being too frugal, either because of a lack of means or excessive cautiousness, is equally not a guarantee of effectiveness.
The execution of the budget of the Macao government was released last week and is under scrutiny in the Legislative Assembly. It concerns only the year 2014, and this reminds us that up to two weeks ago the one institution supposed to supervise the executive regarding spending public wealth was either working on a report for 2013 – in October 2015! – or simply and blindly trusting the monthly figures from the Finance department. For reasons only known to itself, the second permanent committee of the Assembly never finds the time to scrutinise interim reports in April or May. With the unfortunate and headline-grabbing suicide of the Director-General of the Macau Customs last Friday, the discussion over the budget has faded in the distant background, whereas the Chief Executive will present his policy address on November 17.
Clearly, it deserves attention, and slightly more than eye-catching and simplistic headlines regarding supposedly astounding surplus slides or inflated concerns about allegedly exploding public expenses.
First of all, the budget tells us that the Macao government is still very rich. We have accumulated some MOP246 billion in fiscal reserve and MOP131 billion in foreign currency reserves. In 2014, despite a gambling downturn of 7 months out of 12, we managed to add a good MOP77 billion to the fiscal reserve – actually more than in 2013! Bearing in mind that the government only spent MOP67 billion even without being that mindful, it can thus continue to operate for a few years – 5 or 6 – even if it waives all taxes, including the one on gambling!
Then of course, one has to look at the execution proper and the government has been pretty consistent over the years in downplaying its expected revenues and inflating its anticipated expenses. If the gap has narrowed compared to 2013 (earning 30% more and spending 30% less!), there is still a discrepancy of 10% more for 20% less in 2014, despite a slight contraction of 2.5% in gross gaming revenues (GGR).
Of course, with an expected dive of more than 35% in GGR and more than 25% in GDP for 2015, concerns seem legitimate. And yet…. The Finance Department already tells us that as of September 2015, the government has earned far more than it has spent, and based on previous fanciful anticipations, we can conclude that as of October 2015, all the administration’s bills for the whole of 2015 are already covered!
Then comes the fallacy of lavish spending, especially on civil servants’ salaries and wealth-partaking social sweeteners. Salaries of personnel only represent 22.6% of overall spending, pretty much the same as France, clearly less than Denmark and slightly more than Hong Kong, but definitely less than anybody else as a percentage of GDP (less than 4% whereas it is 13.3% in France). Then, as an overall share of GDP, public spending represents about 15% in Macao, against close to 39% in the USA or more than 57% in France, and about 20% in Hong Kong.
Far from spending too much, the Macao government is actually spending too little, especially on public infrastructure, in all its guises. Lost opportunities and an absence of substantial investment in the future is more detrimental than lavish spending. But this grim picture concerns 2014. Since then, a new team has been ushered in…
Published in Macau Daily Times, November 6th 2015
 |
| Earning more but spending less! |
Clearly, it deserves attention, and slightly more than eye-catching and simplistic headlines regarding supposedly astounding surplus slides or inflated concerns about allegedly exploding public expenses.
First of all, the budget tells us that the Macao government is still very rich. We have accumulated some MOP246 billion in fiscal reserve and MOP131 billion in foreign currency reserves. In 2014, despite a gambling downturn of 7 months out of 12, we managed to add a good MOP77 billion to the fiscal reserve – actually more than in 2013! Bearing in mind that the government only spent MOP67 billion even without being that mindful, it can thus continue to operate for a few years – 5 or 6 – even if it waives all taxes, including the one on gambling!
Then of course, one has to look at the execution proper and the government has been pretty consistent over the years in downplaying its expected revenues and inflating its anticipated expenses. If the gap has narrowed compared to 2013 (earning 30% more and spending 30% less!), there is still a discrepancy of 10% more for 20% less in 2014, despite a slight contraction of 2.5% in gross gaming revenues (GGR).
Of course, with an expected dive of more than 35% in GGR and more than 25% in GDP for 2015, concerns seem legitimate. And yet…. The Finance Department already tells us that as of September 2015, the government has earned far more than it has spent, and based on previous fanciful anticipations, we can conclude that as of October 2015, all the administration’s bills for the whole of 2015 are already covered!
 |
| All bills covered! |
Far from spending too much, the Macao government is actually spending too little, especially on public infrastructure, in all its guises. Lost opportunities and an absence of substantial investment in the future is more detrimental than lavish spending. But this grim picture concerns 2014. Since then, a new team has been ushered in…
Published in Macau Daily Times, November 6th 2015
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