Our Desk | Stating the obvious

Brook Yang

The past two weeks I spent holidaying in Japan’s diverse Kansai region has left me with three obvious impressions: A) the supply for consumption is endless both in types and quantities; B) standing out from the urban commerce are still the local heritage and customs (whether listed as a “national treasure” or not) C) public transportation, i.e. the rail system, not only serves as a reliable and efficient form of commuting but has also become closely integrated into residents’ lifestyles.
Returning to our bustling town here, I see a miniature of the city cycle I grasped in Kansai, as a fertile ground with both glimmering lights hovering over the entertainment and retails sectors, and charms exuded from the heritage sites and folk traditions; and of course, with jostling throngs of visitors. However, residents here are not at ease.
They wish to breathe fresher air; they desire to solve the lack of housing; they hope to enjoy efficient public transportation such as a railway system that is still being built from scratch after a decade.
Furthermore, in the creating of new reclaimed urban zones from the sea, they are facing the master planner’s inclination to widen the city’s inequality; in the preserving of historical landscapes over the hills, they are fearing a tendency to lose the city’s essence as a seaport.
To counter the possibility of an unfortunate fate for their beloved town, many have voiced out by appealing to obvious values.
Local group Root Planning did so yesterday by citing urban planners and heritage experts including Portugal’s most renowned architect, Siza Vieira. In plain words, Vieira advises Macau to preserve its architecture of old. He says, “it is important to keep this. All the interesting towns have this, (…) it contributes to the richness and freshness of the town.”
Activists and reporters likewise did so by criticizing the government’s intent to create a wealth gap among future reclamation zones by concentrating public housing complexes within one zone yet planning green areas with low-density commercial residences within the others.
In fact, Macau has received so much advice indicating the obvious, as every time a big worldwide name comes to town for a summit or a forum, we reporters would seize the chance to get a comment.
On sustainable development and equality, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences, last March suggested the government plan the city and carry out policies that could simultaneously protect the environment for the future whilst reducing inequality.
In plain words, he says, “the decisions being made today about the design of the city will be there for thirty, forty years. So you have to think about things very hard now.” He prompts us to consider that “every city really needs resulting, planning public parks, public transportation. It really has to embrace the entire city,” and that “we ought to think about the design of the city, very much in terms of the environment, but also in terms of equity, fairness, affordable housing and not having economic segregation.”
But why do we – living alongside a remarkable GDP figure with international attention here – still need to state the obvious over and over again, as common sense is constantly neglected or denied by our administrators?