Shannon DeWitt
9-27-10
“Businesses want to be here, but in terms of people wanting to live (here), there’s still some way to go,” says Alex Fong, CEO of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. This quote is referencing the issues of bringing workers willingly to work in Hong Kong, China, while the pollution has become so bad and detrimental to people’s health that the air pollution related health care has accumulated to $1.4 billion dollars of the last five years. Air pollution has gotten so bad that not only are outside people, Americans for example, losing interest in moving here to work, but natives of the area are also considering moving away to avoid the health risks. The article states that a 2008 poll revealed that 40% of member companies had trouble recruiting people to work in the city because of air pollution. The people that are able to be convinced to move, who are willing to overlook the risks of catching the “Hong Kong cough,” have to be paid more for their services. This increasing pay-out to employees and increasing costs of healthcare is making it less attractive for businesses to be located in the city, and fears are rising in the country that businesses may just pick up and move to a more economically attractive location.
It interests me that the main concern of this particular article is the economic concerns, rather than the health of the inhabitants. Their health issues are mentioned, but only in reference to the costs of their healthcare and its influence on further labor immigration. If it is the economic concerns that will bring the most attention to the issue then I say that any attention is good attention. The air pollution in Hong Kong has become a very serious issue and should be addressed as such.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2010-09-24-hongkongsmog24_ST_N.htm
2 comments:
I can not believe that the pollution has gotten so bad in Hong Kong. I am too worried about the health of the people in the surrounding area. The problem with this, is it will be very hard to reverse the effects. If the citizens do not immediately try to fix or stop the pollution, it will only get worse, therefore cause more harm to the whole world. What happens in Hong Kong effects the whole world, especially pollution, so the world as a whole needs to fix this problem to help the health of everyone.
Kristina Reid
I can't believe that the air pollution has gotten so bad.Something should have been done to prevent things from ever getting to the point where people are rethinking entering the country. And the fact that they are still willingly bringing people into the country to work despite the conditions is just appalling to me.
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