Jack Black

Secretary Tam appointed his adviser medical doctor Kuok Cheong U, this week as director of the Central Hospital and vice director of the Health Bureau to replace incumbent Dr Chan Wai Sin by early next month. The director-to-be is considered a guru in his field of medical imageology and is highly respected by his fellow physicians. Some observers say that Dr Kuok is on the ladder to climb to “number one” in the Health Bureau in town, as soon as current director Dr Lei Chin Ion steps down which is expected to be in less than a year. And from then on, Kuok will oversee the construction of the Islands hospital set to start in the last quarter of this year – another novelty that Alexis introduced this week.

The secretary-general of Caritas, Paul Pun, is against the idea of sending our elderly citizens to high-end nursing homes in Hengqin, saying that “it would not meet the imminent needs of Macau seniors.” The move to the neighboring island, according to Mr Pun, would make them lonely and isolated, as the venues are outside Macau. “A sense of family” and belonging is what they actually need. Unless the land to install those facilities, which Dr Tam is talking about, would be seamlessly connected to the city and under Macau’s jurisdiction, a “five minute” distance can quickly turn into a nightmare for family members.

Wednesday’s blackout affected roughly 100,000 households, disrupting daily life in a city of towering buildings and casinos that never sleep. The outage was triggered by an “abrupt short-circuit” at a transformer substation located in the northern district of Canal dos Patos. The chairman of CEM’s board Bernie Leong said that the massive blackout was a lesson from which to learn in order to upgrade their equipment and machinery. That is a very light (wrong word) approach to such a messy and potentially dangerous situation – the second blackout in just two weeks. Apparently, the proverbial “angel” that protects Macau (remember SARS?) was on duty again and nobody got hurt. But that was pure luck, out of a lousy hand.