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  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
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Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you wh at life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

9/11/2022 1 Comment

Good times never seemed so good!

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"Give kids the freedom to run around the playground and have fun without a mask"
This weekend as the South Stand opened at full throttle; they drowned out the negative nellies. Good times never seemed so good! 

The Hong Kong Rugby Union deserve our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for taking up the challenge to stage the event now. Full credit to fellow Yorkshireman Robbie McRobbie, CEO of the Rugby Union.

The Hong Kong Sevens started in 1976 at the Hong Kong Football Club due to a few beers around the bar one night. That decision paved the way for Hong Kong to develop what became the gold standard of Rugby Sevens tournaments globally.

Since those early days, the Sevens developed an iconic status as Hong Kong’s biggest party. And for sure Hong Kong needed a party after years of Covid, layered atop civil unrest and the financial downturn. And what a party. Yes, the numbers were down, as the naysayers pointed out. But, of course, you expect that with seating capacity limitations allied to ongoing travel restrictions. Yet, you wouldn't know that from the vibe in the stadium.

A few pundits got their knickers in a twist as folks sometimes flouted the mask rules. Still, exercising an appropriate level of discretion was the right approach. As The Hong Kong Standard pointed out, the public is ahead of the administration on readiness for relaxation. Still, even the Security of Security, Chris Tang, (sans masks) took a walk through the South Stand, posing for photographs with spectators. 

Last week's Global Financial Leaders Summit, the Sevens and this week's legal conference affirm that the government is pulling out all the stops to market Hong Kong's strengths. Thankfully attempts by western politicians to use Hong Kong as a tool in their struggle to suppress China fell flat. They'd called for boycotts, which failed.

What of the future? With our prime location in the heart of Asia, infrastructure, transport links, efficient services, and wide use of English, the sky is the limit to developing new and engaging events in Hong Kong. 

Several massive new venues will come on stream over the next 3-5 years. Thus, we need a plan to win back lost talent for the Kai Tak Sports Park, West Kowloon Cultural District, AsiaWorld-Expo/11 Skies and East Kowloon Cultural Centre.

Over 200,000 jobs have been lost in the tourism, convention and exhibition sectors during Covid. Hence, acute staffing shortages will dog the industry for some time, and there is still uncertainty about the pace and scope of the return to normal. 

In the meantime, voices are calling for us to develop a comprehensive strategy for the events sector. Airline capacity constraints, Covid rules, competing destinations, workforce supply limits and a strong currency will hamper the rebound. A return of the millions of Mainland visitors is improbable any time soon. 

So, use this time wisely to understand how we want to position Hong Kong as an events capital, set ambitious goals, and make those goals come true.

In the immediate future, scrap the vast majority of Covid restrictions, such as the onerous and costly PCR tests for people competing in events or working in the entertainment and hospitality industries. 

Covid restrictions were justified early on when the disease was new, vaccine rates low, and treatment protocols were being tweaked. But we've progressed a long way since 2020 and 2021. Covid is endemic - RAT tests will suffice if testing is still required. 

Further, we need to start normalising not wearing masks. Give kids the freedom to run around the playground and have fun without a mask. Finally, and most importantly, the worst is over; let us celebrate the success of Hong Kong.
1 Comment
Chris Emmett
10/11/2022 04:59:08 pm

Great news about the sevens but as Walter points out, it signals Hong Kong’s dynamic optimism. Increasingly, thinking people are rejecting the nonsense being talked up by those who put anti China rhetoric above the life quality of the Hong Kong people they claim to represent. It will be an uphill slog to convince Western politicos and lazy journalists who seem not to understand the principal of fact checking. But the tide of truth is coming in and the closer it gets to these people, even they will see what’s what.

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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