Tag: Kapok
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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 ... -
Kapok | The plumber and the architect(s)
In the latest stages of the protracted public consultation regarding the amendment of the electoral law for the Legislative Assembly — remember, we have elections next ... -
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 | Five is five, not three
The yearly plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — the “two meetings” 兩會 as colloquially referred ... -
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 | Bottoming at last?
“Bottoming” is the new buzzword that has been on everyone’s lips for a few months now. It intends to convey the positive outlook that our whole ... -
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 | The holistic imperative
Occasionally taking a few steps backwards in order to get a better and wider perspective on one’s own status and development sounds like an imperative, and ... -
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 ... -
Kapok | Make no mistake
In the past few days, in the wake of the horrendous terrorist attacks in Paris, I have been confronted by the best and the worst. On ... -
Kapok | Money matters
In any polity of the world, public spending does matter. In fact, public finance is at the crux of public policy making and constitutes a necessary ... -
Kapok | Turning a blind eye
Come on, we should be gasping for breath with this Ng Lap Seng story! Keeping abreast of the twists and turns in this unraveling saga of ... -
Kapok | They talk, we listen
It was an epiphany of sorts. It was some kind of astonishment mixed with a sudden surge of exasperation: they were talking, we were listening, and ... -
Kapok | Who is in charge?
Back in my student years, I wrote a short essay about the massive peasant demonstrations that took place in France in the 1960s, which started before ... -
Kapok | The art of the meaningful
I am no economist, and yet I have enough interest in political economy to figure out when something is right or not. Such is the case ... -
Kapok | Accountable responsibility
For any political leader, probing the hearts and minds of constituents is of utmost importance, whatever the political regime. In a democratic setting, elected officials have ... -
Kapok | Head counts or headaches?
Censuses have been in existence for millennia, the first known having been undertaken by the Babylonians and in Pharaonic Egypt in the Third Millennium BC. The ... -
Kapok | Too many ways to be No. 1
Being in the news for allegations of vote-buying during election time is never a great thing in terms of image, to say the least. This is ... -
Kapok | The Fongchikeongisation of the minds
Honestly speaking, I never expected some of my friends – many of them educated – to fall victim to arguments that only the most cynical and ... -
Kapok | Social Responsibility
The summary of the 2014 Chief Executive policy address included a small box, oddly entitled “Tips for the Elderly”, in which we were told that elderly ... -
Kapok | The difference is Macao… or is it?
While coming back from Hong Kong yesterday, I stumbled upon an old acquaintance of mine, a man of venerable age, a man of the robe—a clerical ... -
Kapok | Collective Empowerment
José Pereira Coutinho’s arguments are pretty straightforward: Macao needs a long overdue Trade Union Law for three sets of reasons. First, because this is enshrined in ... -
Kapok | Embrace a full ban!
When conflicts of interests are too blatant, public debate can only be farcical, and yet it is revealing of the challenges confronting the new government. The ... -
Kapok | Groundhog Day
In the 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day”, Bill Murray plays a weatherman who falls victim of some form of never ending time loop while reluctantly covering a ... -
Kapok | The way ahead is long
Thanks to Linkedin, I sometimes get to read articles about management in general and human relations at work, in particular, that I would otherwise simply brush ... -
Kapok: Going back to politics
Politics in many a modern polity seems to have become taboo; a notion somewhat perceived as coming from the past, when ideologies reigned and ultimately proved ... -
Kapok | Chui II and beyond
Now is the time when people like me get asked by journalists what to expect from the policy address to be delivered by the Chief Executive ... -
Kapok | Better tomorrows
Schizophrenia seems to be a pathological feature of our modern time, and present day Macau is no exception. On the one hand, gaming revenues have been ... -
Kapok | Is that normal?
One thing is certain: it is indeed pervasive! And it is meant to be so! It has almost become a mantra, one that everybody repeats in ...
