Author: Eric Sautedé
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Kapok | Being positive
Let’s start by what could be deemed “positive news” by some: despite (or because) of last week’s upheavals — the dreadful challenges brought about by undeviating ... -
Kapok | The letter versus the spirit
A lot has been said already regarding the so-called “clarifications” issued on August 3 by the Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) in relation to the forbidding of ... -
Kapok | The bickerers
The contrast is quite shocking really: on the one hand, legislators who are either appointed or not even elected, but rather endorsed by corporations and traditional ... -
Kapok | The variable geometry of the ‘one country’
The fact that Macao immigration has been barring some Hong Kong residents from entering the territory of the Macao SAR is widely acknowledged and documented. It ... -
Kapok | The more the merrier, really?
The very fact that 25 lists of candidates vying for the directly elected seats in the September 17 Legislative Assembly election have been recognized valid by ... -
Kapok | Half-full, I say!
Most things in life are about perspective. Even a supposedly clear-cut situation can be seen with very different eyes. Back in 2008, then American senator Barack ... -
Kapok | The art of euphemism
Macao has a bit more to offer than an unlucky hand at a Baccarat table on the Cotai Strip. By unlucky, I mean that although about ... -
Kapok | Suicide in Macao
Émile Durkheim was the first academic to dedicate a whole book to suicide. In his seminal work, the French sociologist was able to distinguish between egoistic, ... -
Kapok | The warning behind the praise
In the morning of May 9, while addressing a large audience supposedly representative of the Macao population, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhang Dejiang insisted ... -
Kapok | The pitfalls of populism
It does not happen very often but Mr Fong Chi Keong has a point when he warns the government of the dangers of “populism” in Macao, ... -
Kapok | Choice matters
Despite all the loathing at the pre-screening of candidates for the 2017 Chief Executive election in Hong Kong, having a somewhat contested selection process, with a ... -
Kapok | Smoking gun
Is it me or are we being treated worse than headless chickens with tar-filled lungs? An opinion survey on to smoke or not to smoke in ... -
Kapok | The facts, just the facts
With the advent of “alternative facts” and the dereliction of truth, the destructive and all-encompassing reign of opinion has come of age, with emotions as its ... -
Kapok | The virtues of optimism
For reasons most probably linked to my carefree upbringing, I am resolutely optimistic about human nature, and the capacity for good rather than self-destruction. Given the ... -
Kapok | The missing links
The results of the public consultation pertaining to the “Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan”, conducted from May to July 2016, have just been released. Although ... -
Kapok | Another tyranny of numbers
Back in August 2015, I remember musing about the irony that, on the one hand China was the place where the oldest census in the world ... -
Kapok | Frustrating exhilaration
Against all odds, the democratic fervour that has engulfed Hong Kong in the past two years appears far from being abated—quite the contrary. The clear cut ... -
Kapok | Between Scylla and Charybdis
It is again that time of the year when the executive power in Macao is trying very hard to look accountable to the people: the Chief ... -
Kapok | Political maturity
As Kenneth Chan, a former Civic Party legislator, puts it with a sarcastic bitter-sweet smile: advocating “universal suffrage” and “greater democracy” is not “sexy” anymore in ... -
Kapok | Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns
Being once again more in tune, on a daily basis, with politics in Hong Kong, I can now better appreciate how different things are on this ... -
Kapok | The age of submission
It is unsurprising that the proposal of a law reviewing the Electoral Law of the Legislative Assembly, put forward by the government in that very same ... -
Kapok | To hoist or not to hoist…
In this part of the world, and especially at that time of the year, the right meteorological prediction can often be a matter of life and ... -
Kapok | Living together
Being in France just a few days after the horrendous truck attack that took place in the Southern French city of Nice on Bastille Day, claiming ... -
Kapok | Fooling the Fools
It is indeed always moving to see the rich and powerful coming to the rescue of the rule of law, or more exactly the rule by ... -
Kapok | Popular sovereignty
Referenda can be divisive, very much so. And the vote over whether to remain in the European Union or not that is taking place in the ... -
Analysis | HK Vinexpo 2016: All about wine… this time truly for what is in the bottle!
As the name indicates, Vinexpo is all about wine and now surely one of the major exhibitions in the world for wine and spirit professionals. It ... -
Kapok | Of mountains and molehills
My, my, my, so many things happening and so many documents being released, all at once: the five-year development plan is now being discussed, the “Interim ... -
Kapok | Impotence in politics
Several reasons can explain why many governments around the world, in democratic or partially democratic and at least liberal settings, have become impotent, incapable of solving ... -
Kapok | Do as I say not as I do
In his first second-term policy address in March 2015, Mr Chui Sai On gave the assurance that consultative bodies would from now on be better regulated. ... -
Kapok | Legality vs. responsibility
Since the public unravelling of the Panama papers on Sunday, my nights have been significantly shortened. My, my! This is truly a gripping story! First, because ... -
Kapok | The malediction of the second term
To paraphrase Scott Chiang, the president of the New Macau Association (NMA), talking to the press after the rather suspicious circumstances of the “suicide by asphyxiation” ... -
Kapok | Now, a #fishballrevolution?
What just happened in Hong Kong should not leave us indifferent, and deserves better than short rehashes of the most police-friendly article of the South China ... -
Kapok | Make the results (truly) public
Reports released by any audit commission anywhere are often written in a dreary, matter-of-fact style, and deal with topics that, although of general interest and direct ... -
Kapok | Fair and… competitive?
On December 30, the official reports on the latest elections of both the Legislative Assembly (AL) and the Chief Executive (CE) were made public. At long ... -
Kapok | Hooked on junkets
By mid-2015, gambling-related crimes had already gone up by more than a third, with loan sharking cases and unlawful detentions being of particular concern. This trend ...
