Emerging from Causeway Bay MTR station on Wednesday, it was apparent that many people had ignored the tropical storm warnings. Confronted by a deluge at Times Square, I, one of the unprepared, faced a soaking trek to my office until a good Samaritan arrived at my side and offered me space beneath his umbrella.
In my almost three years as a Hong Kong resident I have found that such acts of kindness are commonplace among the city's rank and file but don't expect the same treatment from the elite. They are more likely to run you down as you scurry across a rain-slicked side street, or deny the poorest of the poor a chance to earn a decent wage. How else to explain the wounded cries of the city's plutocrats when faced with the prospect of a minimum wage set at a paltry HK$33 per hour?
It's odd that nobody suggests Hong Kong is making itself uncompetitive when some greed-crazed property developer hikes the price of a dowdy shoebox 12 per cent in the space of one week. But pay cleaners the price of a latte for an hour's work? Surely penury for the business community can only be days away.
Maybe the employers of Hong Kong should be more like my friend with the umbrella and be prepared to surrender some of their own comfort so that those in need can be sheltered from poverty.
