This quote below might maybe start another heated discussion, but here's somebody who'll stand behind her own words, not anonymously, and has even published them in her "semi-autobiography", serialised on the
www.cairnsmedia.com website. The book - 16 chapters published online so far - is a great read and gives some deep insights into the Lamma community and the diverse groups of Lammaites through her unique Main Street-based perspective.
It's all so-called "semi-autobiographical fiction", but it comes awfully close to reality very often, often just describing a situation without judging it, like below.
Check it out yourself at:
http://www.cairnsmedia.com/Archives%20-%20Fiction.htm
An excerpt from Emily's
"Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady":
"Illegal Island
"Emily isn't sure if Lamma Island is another "home of the free, land of the brave", but it's certainly an island of irregularities.
"Most Hong Kong people consider Lamma too remote as a place to live. Maybe the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (so named since the British handover to China in 1997) agrees. Its policies hardly reach the place.
"Some people operate unlicensed food stalls for decades. Patrons smoke in restaurants where smoking is banned. Illegal immigrants work at construction sites. Landlords dump industrial waste on government land. Southeast Asian domestic helpers work in bars. Chinese housewives gamble at illegal mah-jong parlors. Western residents do drugs with their friends at beach parties. No one worries until troubles erupt.
"Emily wonders: If all the irregularities were cleaned up, would half the residents then be unwilling to live on Lamma?
"Most civilized places have regularities on nearly everything -- from haircuts to pedicures. There, people have more protection, but lose some freedoms to do what they want, even / especially harmful things.
"Maybe Lamma is too civilized for regularities."