Flying Sand | Crass casino cruise ship bosses who bleat about storm season losses should save tears for real victims – and Hong Kong taxman
City operators of lucrative gambling sessions at sea claim recent storms have left them counting the cost, but considering the billions they rake in just beyond the reach of Hong Kong gaming and tax laws, it’s hard to feel their pain
In recent weeks tens of millions of people around the world have been killed, injured, displaced or dispossessed by storms and floods so extreme as to give – you would think – even the most strident climate change denier pause for thought.
From Hong Kong to Havana and all points in between, communities have been literally torn apart as swollen seas whipped up by unprecedented winds destroyed the lives of those who – in the main – were already poor.
The carnage is magnified by shockingly lax disaster planning and underfunded emergency response strategies in a world which appears, increasingly, to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
In Macau, which as a result of the gambling dollar boasts one of the highest per capita gross domestic products on the planet, 10 people lost their lives when Typhoon Hato ripped through the city leaving in its wake a close-to-home example of this price-value principle in action.
With this in mind, it was with an overwhelming sense of disbelief and incredulity that I read the post-storm reflections of Kent Zhu Fuming, the president of Genting Cruise Lines which operates Dream Cruises and Star Cruises ships from Hong Kong.
