in the phallus we trust

A few weeks ago Calvin Klein launched its biggest outdoor campaign in the world, a 27-story billboard across the former Ritz Carlton Hotel in Central, ear-marked for demolition just 15 years after opening. This huge billboard will be taken down on April 15, and rest in peace in one of our landfills. The environmental cost of printing such a billboard, and then throwing it away a couple of months later, is mind-blowing, but in a city where new skyscapers are demolished to make room for taller ones, Calvin Klein's marketing executives must have thought "what the heck.... a phallic skyscraper + our well-endowed black model wearing white briefs equals a super-phallic message...and we are in the business of dressing dicks."

After the Hilton, demolished immediately after completion and the Furama hotel, another skycraper will become rubble and be replaced by a taller office tower. Disposing of construction waste is cheap, despite the fact that Hong Kong landfills are nearly full. Somebody must have realised there is money to be made in incineration, and shortening the life of landfills makes "business sense".
Welcome to "premature ejaculation capital of the world"...where concrete erections disappear at the blink of an eye...leaving a big mess behind.

The 2008-09 budget is an invitation to waste more energy

Financial Secretary John Tsang has shown how much the government cares about the environment. With the excuse of improving people's livelihood and supporting disadvantaged groups his budget allocates HK$4.3 billion to subside domestic electricity accounts. The 2008-09 budget grants each residential electricity account a subsidy of $1,800. At present, about 15 per cent of households in Hong Kong pay an average of not more than $150 a month for electricity charges. Incidentally I pay less than that, mainly because i live on Lamma island, and can keep my windows open instead of relying on air-con.
Instead of rewarding households that save energy, the subsidy will enable even low income households to turn up their air-con, boosting the revenue of electricity companies. The real winners are the shareholders of HK Electric and China Light & Power, the loser is obviously the environment. So much for sustainability.