I've changed my mind...


..after seeing that they have today covered the stream and a right fucking pig's ear they've made of it too.

I don't hold with this "petition the local authority" lark -- civil disobedience will get the message across. Deface/damage the digger, pull down structures overnight and generally cause a nuisance. Then inundate the police with complaints. That's what these bastards would do if it was us fucking things up for them.

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Checking out of the island shangri-la

Because something was done in the past we cannot object to its being done now and in the future?
Because I live in a house I can't offer opinions about how the land ought to be developed in the future?
I know it's likely we will need more housing but how and where are important questions to consider. And the community has a right to be involved in those kinds of questions. Communities in other parts of the world take a strong and proactive role in determining how land will be developed or if it will be developed regardless of who happens to 'own' the land. I know this well as my family of origin happen to have been land developers and I know the great lengths they had to go to to get development approval from different levels of government - and that sometime the process collapsed on them.




The stream is most certainly 'life supporting'. And the fact that there are agricultural chemicals and other effluent discharged into the stream makes an even stronger argument in favour of its preservation. Natural water systems including streams, ponds and bogs are natural water filtration systems. They are 'living filters' that break down many of these human waste products into innocuous forms. Without them, those chemicals would be discharged directly into the sea, which doesn't have this same powerful filtering ability.

The 'laughable lily pond' is loved by many, children and adult alike. Today my kids were fascinated and amazed because they saw a small crab sitting on one of the Lily pads. Kids learn a lot from having access to natural resources like this.

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

Furthermore, the calls of Romer's Tree Frogs, an endangered and protected species have been recently heard in and around that stream by a a respected herpetologist from Hong Kong University.

_________________
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

Well it's pretty much doomed now.

It's a few feet away from the pile of crap dumped on the "agricultural land". Next heavy rain it will be filled up with silt and who knows what toxic muck.

Anyway, Albert Chan visited today and was shown that area. Don't know what he can achieve, but he said he'll get on to the Planning Department as well as the others already involved (and busily trying to avoid responsibility or action).

They've really taken the piss now - the rubble is sloping right down to the edge of the lilly pond.

Honestly, not much of this type of stuff gets to me normally, but this example of total selfishness really aggravates me. There are few enough natural places like this left in the vicinity of where many regularly pass by and some a**hole has chosen to mess it up for everyone. The person responsible for this is a ****.

I'm really properly saddened by the mentality of whoever is behind this.

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Some of my finest work:
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/12537/detail/

The lilly pond will cease to exist by tomorrow. Here's a protest model we could do well to emulate:

http://smashingtelly.com/2009/03/29/the ... on-on-sea/

There are parallels with Lamma.

Thanks for this - quite interesting!
What are the parallels you are referring to? Can you elaborate?

I guess you are suggesting that the some people's interest in protecting the stream and pond in YSL valley springs from their nostalgic attachments to symbols that somehow make more real their fantasy stories about who they are and how they relate to the world and not with real living community issues that actually affect people and the environment?

Or, do you feel that environmental movements in general are all rather self-indulgent and ultimately not meaningful to the busy 'normal' people who rush past natural trivialities to immerse themselves in the 'real world' of say. . . currency speculation (just as an example)?

_________________
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

First the Drainage Services Dept turned the stream into a concrete nullah. Streams are anarchic, unpredictable, and they are not even straight. Our valiant engineers had to rectify the situation, and generously applied geometry to improve nature's imprecision. Then after noticing the lack of famous landmarks on Lamma, they added a decorative mini Three Gorges Dam. Unfortunately it fell short of their expectations in terms of popularity, being now full of silt, plastic bottles, and dead cats. They might solve the problem by adding a big LCD screen on top of it, so that Lamma can have its first, and free, Bloomberg broadcast.

Convinced that the forces of progress had finally reached the darkest recesses of Yung Shue Long Valley, local developer, Mr. Fong, felt compelled to join the race to improve his ancestors' land and prove his patriotism. The fight against medieval superstitions and obscurantism, folktales and irrational beliefs resonated with his logical, no nonsense mind and his admiration for Deng Xiao Ping's philosophical tenet "Getting rich is glorious".
Destroying the lily pond seemed like a good starting point. Lily ponds are unproductive, only children and childish minds like them, they belong to fairy tales, he thought, let Disneyland have them, after all they can charge people for a photo opportunity.There is no place for lily ponds in the real world, where maximising profit rules. So Mr. Fong took it upon himself to modernise the valley. He got hold of some construction waste, flattened a piece of land which had been idle for too long, and created a platform for development. He is confident that other land owners will follow his example. He is now working really hard to enlighten the most conservative departments, and is looking forward to the day when finally no more frogs will disturb the rest of his fellow Lammaites, and bright pink tiled buildings will stand in lieu of weeds and trees, generating profit for generations to come.
Mr. Fong, a true Lamma hero.

Mr. Fong does not seem like a hero but he's probably not the demon insinuated by foreign body. He recongnizes the need for housing on Lamma Island and sees that as an opportunity to turn a profit. I say God Bless Mr. Fong! Who knows, if enough Mr. Fongs pop-up, that housing may just turn out to be affordable

Too bad about the lily pond and Roemer frogs but that's the American way. And after all, isn't Hong Kong really just a little splash of America in South East Asia

Fuck off.

No one is calling him a "demon".
Plenty of other epithets come to mind, but he's not trying to bring on the apocalypse. Just to make money and nothing else matters.

Higgsboson,
i think he deserves no less than a Silver Bauhinia Star. He brings affordable housing to the unwashed, and emancipates the masses from their feudal conditions, shamanic practices, and pantheism.

Worshipping false idols like natural features, frogs, cats and dogs should be eradicated.
"Destroy their temples, and then they will see the true light: there is nothing outside the Market"

Foreign Body, Alan, Granola Eater, and all the rest (or most of the rest) are nothing but Gweilos shaking their fist in the air.

You remind me of the Mexicans in America illegally but DEMANDING due process under the law, health care, education for their kids, and so on, and so on. In the end, they got nothing, which apparently is what you got - nothing. Not even the lily pond was saved.

It seems the Chinese have pissed on your lily pond. Good for them!

Higgsboson,

First of all, i am not a gweilo, nor am i here illegally, as i have lived in HK and Lamma longer than in my native country.

But even if i were here only for a weekend visit, i would still have the right to comment on the abuses committed by villagers who lease government land for agricultural purposes and then dump construction waste instead of disposing of it according to the law.

If you are happy to live in a landfill, fine. But you can't expect other people to share your preference.

Well Mr. God Particle, we know where you stand - apart from by the pond, pissing along with whomever else. . . you feel that anyone with white skin has no place voicing their opinion and participating in community affairs here in HK. Thanks for your contribution, now before you get get addicted to whatever high you enjoy by riling others, why not sit back down and give it a rest until some new, equally (or hopefully more) interesting idea comes along.

_________________
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

Except I have a permanent resident visa, I pay taxes, my wife and daughter were born here. I have a COMPLETE MORAL AND LEGAL RIGHT TO INSIST THAT THE LAW BE FOLLOWED.


This issue has absolutely nothing to do with race. Since that's the only point you want to make, consider it made.

You're either a bigoted idiot or pretending to be one to stir things up. In either case, I can only second Granola's motion.

Sorry Alan I didn't know I was taking on the Moral Majority.

I'd say bigots are those foreigners who think to tell the Chinese what's in their best interest.

And idiots are those foreigners who confront the Chinese for doing an honest day's work.

You people are out of line.

Honest day's work? That further shows your total lack of understanding. Firstly, what impact on the shortage of affordable housing do you think building out the YSL valley with village houses would make? You think prices will drop 50% or something? The Govt's village housing policy is an unsustainable environmental disaster and even the Govt knows that, but is too weak to stop it because it doesn't want to upset the Kuk, who exploit it for every cent they can. Even the eligible local's sons resident overseas come back to claim their plot or sell off the rights. How fair is that to the majority of hardworking HK Chinese?

Exactly what you're doing.


This is not a "Chinese want this and Gweilos are trying to stop them" issue. I only speak for myself because that's all I have the right to do. You however are pretending you know what "the Chinese" want. (And also imputing what "the Gweilos" want.) On what basis, I can't imagine, and don't really care, since even if you were Chinese yourself, which seems unlikely, you cannot speak for "the Chinese". No one can.

I really hope you're just taking the piss.

Sorry to bust up this love fest. I tried to wade through the environmental regulations yesterday to find out if a stream, such as it is, in an agricultural area is protected in Hong Kong. I couldn't find any specific regulations to this effect but have contacted some colleagues at Kadoorie Farm who deal with conservation issues in Hong Kong, as well as some colleagues at AFCD.

I have data for the past two years on Romer's tree frog detections in the area of the dumping, and there exist longer-term records, as well. This species is one of the few amphibians protected under the Wild Animals Ordinance in Hong Kong. I am not sure it will make a difference, but I have alerted AFCD that dumping is occurring where this species has been observed.

I will let you know what I hear.