We are going to take a quick look at top Asian destinations for health travel. This will give you a brief overview of what is available and will provide a starting point for deeper research.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, which has been allowed to maintain a high degree of autonomy in all internal matters such as economics and culture. The SAR carries forward its standards for medical treatment from its century-long tenure as a British Crown Colony. It has 12 private hospitals accredited by the UK’s QHA Trent, with several having dual accreditation with JCI. Costs are quite low, being maintained at 20-23% of US costs as a matter of government policy. A medical-government alliance has begun a concerted effort to grow the role of Medical Tourism in Hong Kong. At present about 7% of patient beds are filled by medical tourists, a percentage which is growing rapidly. No visas are required for stays up to 180 days.

India

India is a major player in Medical Tourism, greeting over a million medical tourists per year in 2010. Unlike many countries, India provides a wide range of medical services, with emphasis on heart surgery, joint replacement, bone marrow transplants, and other advanced procedures. At present, 10 major hospitals in India have received JCI accreditation, and the Indian government is actively encouraging international accreditation and improving medical infrastructure problems which currently hinder the rate of growth of Medical Tourism. Medical costs in India are among the lowest in the world at 10-20% of US rates. The most populous democracy in the world, India has a healthy economy and encompasses vast geographical and cultural diversity. Visas are required for entry, but are relatively easy to obtain.

Malaysia

Malaysia will soon welcome nearly a million medical tourists per year to its shores. The country is largely English-speaking, and medical facilities are subject to a strong internal accreditation organization, the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health. In addition to national accreditation, many of Malaysia’s better hospitals are also seeking international accreditation. Medical facilities are concentrated largely in Kuala Lumpur, perhaps one of the most beautiful cities in Asia. Medical costs average about 25% of those in the US, depending on a somewhat erratic exchange value for the ringgit. Medical services are expanding from their initial focus on cosmetic surgery to procedures for more serious ailments.

Philippines

The Republic of the Philippines, consisting of thousands of beautiful tropical islands, has been growing as a destination for medical tourism by about 8% per year. There are tight cultural, economic, and political ties between the Philippines and the United States, which may increase the role of the Philippines as a Medical Tourism destination. A substantial proportion of American medical professionals have been trained in the Philippines, reflecting a solid tradition of medical training and culture. The Philippines government has set a goal of attracting about 750,000 medical tourists per year, a goal that seems soon within reach. Medical costs in the Philippines average about 20-25% of US prices.

Singapore

Singapore is considered to have the best health system in Asia, and one of the best in the world. Long an active destination for Medical Tourism (about a million medical tourists per year!), providing medical services to international patients is the primary goal of a multi-agency government-industry partnership. Medical Tourists come from across Asia as well as from around the world. Medical costs are not the lowest, averaging about one-third of US rates, but Singapore’s reputation as a clean, safe, cosmopolitan city-state where English is widely spoken makes the added expense worthwhile to many. A growing number of Singapore’s hospitals are receiving international accreditation, with more than a dozen JCI accreditations as of 2006. A constant tropical rainforest climate makes Singapore a delight at all times of the year.

Thailand

Thailand is perhaps the most active Medical Tourism destination, welcoming around two million medical tourists each year. One hospital alone treated over 50,000 US patients in 2005 at an average cost about 30% that of the US medical system. Nearly any medical procedure can be supplied somewhere in Thailand. Although many Thai physicians and nurses are US or UK trained and hold those professional certifications, the Thai government does not emphasize the role of international accreditation of their hospitals. However, a few of the best private hospitals have obtained JCI accreditation.

It is a well-known fact that space is a luxury in Hong Kong, whether it’s residential, commercial or office space. According to both CBRE’s semi-annual Global Prime Office Rents survey and JLL’s Premium Office Rent Tracker report, Hong Kong remains the world’s most expensive office market in 2017.

A few extra square feet here and there could easily eat up the finances of start-ups or freelancers who could invest that money into growing their brand rather than paying an exorbitant monthly rent for office space.

A “work-from-home” setup seems like an inviting solution but, let’s be honest, working on that business proposal while sitting on your bed or in your living room is hardly conducive to productivity. There’s always the temptation of putting off work due to the myriad of distractions in one’s home.

Your neighborhood coffee shop might be a tempting workspace, however, how many cups of coffee would you end up ordering to justify hogging that corner table with the lone charging dock? Imagine the dirty stares you get from other patrons waiting for you to vacate your seat. Not to mention the heavy foot traffic of customers coming in and out can derail your train of thought. Plus you will be the unwilling subject to whatever muzak the barista has chosen to play for hours on end.

So, where does that leave you, our intrepid entrepreneur?

Fortunately, a wide variety of co-working spaces have cropped up all over the city that now, finding the right one is just a matter of matching a flexible workspace to your taste.

At some co-working spaces, you can still enjoy that coffee-shop atmosphere without the terrible muzak, the din of conversations at every table around you, or the competition for prime seating locations next to the power outlet. Many co-working spaces have free-flowing coffee or tea, while some even come with its own barista that serves designer coffee in a casual and comfortable atmosphere that helps motivate your productivity.

Additionally, you won’t have to stress about being trapped in a long lease or astronomical office rental costs. Co-working spaces offer flexibility, whether you need the space for just a few hours a week, or a dedicated desk for a couple of months. You need not worry about maintenance and repair costs eating away at your budget, or having to personally purchase office equipment that you definitely have no room for in your 300-square-foot flat in Wan Chai.

Co-working spaces or flexible workspaces also give you the opportunity to rub elbows with fellow solopreneurs. Networking is key to any growing venture and co-working crosses your path with potential clients, partners, or investors that could raise your business to the next level. Professionals from various business sectors avail of co-working spaces, and each day brings you insights into your target market or potential solutions to that roadblock in your project.

Studies show that people empowered to choose a workspace that suits them well are much more productive than those forced to work in a drab environment. Finding the right workspace for you (or your team) is one of the best investments you will ever make.

Hong Kong is a popular destination to for incorporation of companies. This is because there is minimal red tape and quite easy. In addition, it is one of the biggest trading centers of the world. It can be ranked among the most liberal economies of the globe. There are some requirements that you need to meet in order to incorporate a company and firm. To start a Hong Kong corporation, you need at least one director and one shareholder. They both are not required to be residents of Hong Kong. However, the company’s secretary needs to have a residence in there. The corporation is required to have a registered office in the specified area.

A international Bank Corporation is required to have the word limited attached to the name. The Hong Kong government requires that the corporation have a business registration certificate. In order to get a certificate, the corporation must apply for a certificate of corporation from within the Inland Revenue departments.

To start a bank account in this residential area, you need some form of identification. You need to supply two proposed names and a photocopy of the certificate of the incorporation as well to the Inland Revenue department.

This process is quite simple and it guaranteed to take only three weeks to complete. An already formed corporation can be transferred to new owners in just two weeks. Corporations are guarded from banks as the government has kept measures to insure them. The banks are also allowed to transact in different currencies. In addition, This area is the home of world class banks. In addition, business can be transacted across board as the official language is English. These types of corporations are also known to offer convenient secrecy laws.

If you are looking for the Five Green Juice recipe, I can assume that you are also interested in weight loss. In fact, the 5 Green Juice is also one of the most popular vegetable juice recipes with outstanding results for weight loss and detox.

This recipe was originated from the traditional Chinese wisdom.

In Hong Kong, you can buy it fresh from any juice store. They are made to order and at a very economic price. If you are doing juice fasting, a daily glass of fresh green juice is highly recommended. Surely the 5 Green is on top of the list.

Even it is easily available and cheap to buy, you are highly recommended to make it at home. Because the best time to drink is first in the morning when your stomach is empty. DIY and your whole family can enjoy this healthy and delicious drink. If you don’t have a juicer at home, buy one. A basic home juicer will be able to produce this healthy weight loss drink in a minute.

The Five Green Juice Recipe

Ingredients:

2 celery stalks, 1 green apple, 1/4 cucumber, 1/4 bitter melon, 1/2 green pepper

Directions:

1. Wash all ingredients;

2. Seeded green apple, bitter melon, green pepper;

3. Put all ingredients into a juicer;

4. Do not add water

The taste is relatively sweet (green apple and cucumber neutralize the bitterness of bitter melon).

The 5 Green Juice is exceptionally good at preventing high blood pressure, cholesterol disorders and constipation. People suffering from pimples and acne should also benefit from this drink. However there are a few things to note:

1. Not suitable for female during monthly periods.

2. Filter the pulp if you wish.

3. Drink immediately after juicing (or within 10 minutes).

4. Best effect on empty stomach, recommended drinking first in the morning.

5. Drink it at least once a week to achieve maximum weight loss and detox results.

America is the richest country in the world. I have no problem with people choosing to live in mobile homes, even in hurricane alley. But people should live with the consequences of their choices. Americans are richer than people in Hong Kong, yet there are no mobile homes in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is in the South China Sea, dead in the middle of “Typhoon Alley.” Almost every year typhoons hit Hong Kong. There are no flimsy houses or apartment buildings in Hong Kong because they would blow away. In order to have a safe and strong home, some poor people in Hong Kong must make many difficult sacrifices. They may not be able to afford a car, or afford to send their kids to school, or may not even be able to afford a pair of shoes for ten years while they save their money to buy a home. The poor people in Hong Kong may live without a home at all for years and work for years to save enough money to buy a home. Everybody has a choice. All people in the world’s richest country have many choices. The problem is that far too often they choose the path of least resistance because it is easy and if they fail there is a safety net.

There is a large disconnect between behavior and consequences in America. If you buy a mobile home in hurricane alley, you can expect relief if a disaster hits. Time and time again I see the aftermath interviews where the distraught victims of the storm vow to rebuild. Why? They love it there. Insurance (usually either government subsidized or mandated insurance) will pick up the tab. They will not rebuild to withstand hurricanes because construction costs would be too high. Also they would lose the natural beauty if their home looked like a bunker. If someone chooses to take the easy path so they can have what they want right now without suffering and sacrificing, then they should have to live with the consequences of their choices. In Hong Kong people realize that they will have to live with the consequences of their actions so they behave more responsibly and they make better choices when it comes to housing. Sometimes it takes them many years of saving, while four or five families live in a tiny cramped apartment with no privacy, but they must make the sacrifices so that they can have a safe home at some time in the future for the next generation. There is a big difference in character of people in America and Hong Kong.

The dearth of fire trucks in Asia.

I have never seen even one single fire truck in Hong Kong, Mainland China, or South Korea, yet few structures in these places burn down. Every town in America has a fire department and fire trucks. In spite of all the fire trucks and firefighters many buildings burn every year in America. Why the disparity? Wood is beautiful, natural, and easy to use in construction. Most Asians prefer construction materials that are less combustible than wood. Simply stated, Asian build using less combustible materials. Asians tend to be frugal and practical in most matters. They may spend a little more initially to use steel, rebar, concrete, and glass instead of wood but those materials go a long way in reducing fire hazards.

There are disastrous wildfires every year in America where many homes are burned. In the post disaster interviews, almost all the distraught victims of the wildfires pledge to rebuild, in the same location. Why not? Someone else will pick up the tab. It is beautiful there, and the price is right. In other words, it is easy. That sums it up. Americans like things easy.

If poor Asian nations can construct buildings that are not fire hazards, and will not blow away in storms, what can’t the richest nation on earth do it? The answer is that of course we can, but we do not want to. The fundamental difference is in the American character. Wood is beautiful, concrete and steel are ugly. Americans do not have to settle for ugly because we can afford what is beautiful, even if it is temporary. In addition to the beauty of wood, it is cheaper to build from wood and cheaper to live in a mobile home rather than a conventional home. Americans want things quickly. Where Chinese families may save to two or three generations to buy a home and make tremendous personal sacrifices to be able to afford a home, Americans do not like to make personal sacrifices.

Rewarding poor choices has become part of the American fabric and most Americans these days think it is a good thing. I disagree. If a person in America is a smart, hard working, honest tax-paying citizen, that person can expect little or no help from the government. If a person makes many bad choices in life, that person can expect substantial assistance from the government. Rewarding poor choices results in more people making poor choices. This results in changing the character of the people in time. Herbert Spencer put it more lucidly when he said:

“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”– Herbert Spencer (English philosopher, 1820-1903)

Instead of heeding Spencer’s warnings, the new American motto seems to be: eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may lose the gravy train.

Anybody should have the right to choose to buy a mobile home, or live in an easily combustible wooden house if they want to. However, the home owner should have to live with whatever consequences arise from that decision. If the home is blown away or burned down, that should serve as an example to others. What lesson did you learn from the Three Little Pigs fairy tale? I believe that everyone should have the right to build their houses from straw or sticks if they choose to do so. However, I do not believe that I should pick up the tab for them.

Americans have been shielded from the effects of folly for a couple of generations now. If you want to see what the future likely holds for us, see the Mike Judge film “Idiocracy.”

1. Choose your category strategically. Most students choose to compete in the very popular Solo Verse category. While this is fine, be aware that it is the most popular category in the Speech Festival. This means that there will be more students competing in each event as well as more waiting time at the competition.

2. Plan out your short-term preparation goals. The competition date seems far-off at first. But those few months of preparation time always end up flying by. Understand and plan for each stage of preparation, so that your child isn’t scrambling to catch up as the competition date approaches.

3. Learn meaning first. The meaning of your poem is everything in this competition! If your child is unsure about what the poem actually means, then you can be sure the delivery at the competition will suffer. Help your child right at the beginning learn the meanings of the words alongside pronunciation. Once the meanings of the words are understood, discuss the larger themes of the poem and the poet’s feeling about the subject of the poem.

4. Learn pronunciation from a voice recording. Start with a high quality recording done by a native English speaker and get it on an Mp3 player that your child can easily access. Make sure your child listens to it everyday! This is the best way to learn natural pronunciation.

5. Help your child deal with nervousness and stage fright. Even well prepared students get nervous on competition day. I’ve seen kids who put in months of training only to fall apart up on stage in a new and daunting environment. Talk with your child about strategies to deal with the jitters. Remember public speaking skills learnt now will benefit your child in years to come.

6. Learn from those with expertise. Encourage your child to talk to other students who have been to the Speech Festival in previous years. Seek the help from teachers at your child’s school. You may also want to get in touch with a private speech trainer.

7. Focus on the bigger picture. Encourage your child to learn from the experience whatever the outcome. After the competition, celebrate your child’s accomplishment – participating in Hong Kong Speech Festival. Spend time together doing something enjoyable, go for a hike the next weekend or plan a special family dinner. Your child will look back on the Hong Kong Speech Festival as a positive experience and don’t be surprised if they ask to join the following year!

Founded on September 24, 1946, Cathay Pacific itself had its inauspicious and unexpected beginnings in the military, when Roy Farrell, an American, and Sydney de Kantzow, an Australian, forged a friendship during the Second World War when they flew Douglas C-47 Skytrains over the Himalayan “hump” from Calcutta to Kunming for the China National Aviation Company.

Acquiring a war surplus DC-3 in 1945, registered VR-HDB and named “Betsy,” Farrell, along with de Kantzow, inaugurated passenger service from Shanghai until political pressure forced the relocation of its operations to Kai Tak Airfield the following May. Equipped with a second DC-3, VR-HDA “Nikki,” the fledgling airline, adopting the Cathay Pacific designation, commenced charter flights to Southeast Asia. Two years later, it had a scheduled, five-destination route system, encompassing Bangkok, Manila, Saigon, Shanghai, and Singapore, over which it carried 3,000 passengers in five additional DC-3s and two Consolidated PBY Catalinas.

One of two local carriers with rival Hong Kong Airways, it was government-awarded the less lucrative southern routes, while Hong Kong itself was granted the northern ones to China and Japan.

Increasing demand nevertheless necessitated larger, more modern equipment, including the quad-engine, 56-passenger DC-4 Skymaster in 1949, the pressurized, 58-passenger DC-6 in 1954, and the upgraded DC-6B in 1958.

Absorbing competitor Hong Kong Airways the following year, it acquired its first turbine aircraft, in the form of the dual-class, 75-passenger Lockheed L-188A Electra, and was able to spread its wings to Sydney, Australia, and Tokyo, Japan, for the first time with them. Operating one DC-3, one DC-4, one DC-6, one DC-6B, and the two Electras, it carried 69,000 passengers that year.

The pure-jet era dawned in 1962, when it acquired the first of nine, 104-passenger Convair CV-880s, eventually replacing the L-188As with them, Passenger totals continued to climb-from 170,000 in 1963 to 324,000 in 1967.

Larger, pure-jet aircraft materialized as the 154-passenger Boeing 707-320B in 1970 and the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, its first widebody type, five years later. With 12 of the former and three of the latter, it was able to inaugurate long-range intercontinental routes beyond Asia and Australia to Bahrain and Dubai in 1976.

Delivery of the first 747-200B enabled it to launch its first Hong Kong-London service on July 16, 1980, the type that became instrumental in its ability to pioneer ultra-long range routes, including those to Vancouver in Canada, Los Angeles in the US, and Frankfurt and Paris in Europe. Flights to Rome, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Denpasar, Auckland, and Nagoya followed.

In 1985, it took delivery of its first stretched upper deck 747-300 and its first next generation 747-400 four years later, enabling it to operate nonstop, year-round service to Europe and the US without payload restrictions for the first time.

Operating 735 weekly flights with 18 281-passenger L-1011-1s/-100s, eight 408-passenger 747-200Bs, three 747-200Fs, six 422-passenger 747-300s, and ten 361-passenger 747-400s in 1990, all of which were Rolls Royce powered, it served 38 destinations in 26 countries, carrying 7.7 million passengers with an average 75.9-percent load factor.

Today its fleet consists of the 251-passenger A330-300, the 280-passenger A350-900, and the 335-passenger 777-300ER, while its Cathay Dragon division operates the 164-passenger A320-200, the 172-passenger A321-200, and the 307-passenger A330-300. Collectively they serve more than 190 worldwide destinations.

Fila is one of the most popular sports brands in the world and the brains behind the Australian-New Zealand operation, is a former banker, Silvano Merlatti, whose official title is Chairman of SM Brands.

Silvano was born in Savigliano (Cuneo) on July 28, 1964. He is married to Emanuela and they have two children ages 14 and 16, both of whom were born in Hong Kong. Silvano started his career as an employee at Banca Commerciale Italiana, the biggest Italian bank at the time. After completing a rigorous training comprising four years of studies and secondments, he was posted to the International Division of the Head Office which was responsible for the Russian and Chinese areas. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Silvano’s talents came to the fore when he had the possibility to interact with the CEO of the bank and the CFOs of all the major customers of the bank. His brilliant management skills were on show and he was rewarded with a transfer to the Hong Kong branch.

Although only 27 he was the youngest Credit Officer of the foreign service at Banca Commerciale.

In 1994 Fila was one of the most important clients of the bank in Hong Kong. Silvano’s professionalism and competence impressed Fila’s Managing Director and he was asked to work for this major international company. Silvano started working for Fila in Hong Kong in 1995. His immediate duties included taking care of the financial sector of all Fila branches in Asia. Silvano was then later appointed Director of Sourcing and also became responsible for sales in Asia.

Silvano Merlatti is one of those people who thrive on challenges. This has become even more apparent during his long and impressive career. His greatest asset and what adds so much strength to his character, is his ability to function at his maximum, even when under pressure. Hong Kong, certainly, in the Nineties, was a vibrant and fascinating city, and proved to be a perfect place for Silvano to demonstrate his professional qualities. Over time however, life in Hong Kong changed dramatically. It became a city suffocated by pollution and the frenetic pace of its lifestyle was not suitable for what Silvano considered, to be ideal to raise his family.

He had always been attracted to Australia and its possibility of market expansion. In June 2002, Silvano seized a profitable opportunity in the acquisition of Fila Australia. He successfully headed a management takeover of Fila’s Australian subsidiary and established a new company called SM Brands. This new company acted as a vehicle for holding the Fila license in Australia. Silvano and his family moved to Melbourne on January 1, 2003. It was an adventure full of satisfactions and responsibility, and importantly was more family oriented.

Q & A with Silvano Merlatti

Who owns Fila?

“Since 2001 the majority of Fila’s shares belong to a Korean private equity firm originated by Samsung Finance”.

How much of Italy is still present in Fila today?

“I can say without a shadow of doubt that the DNA of Fila is completely Italian. Fila is inspired by the Italian culture; we are very fortunate to have this heritage, which saves us from the risk of becoming impersonal. The Italian flair is clearly visible in any of Fila’s products”.

What are the origins of Fila?

“Fila was established in 1911 in Biella Italy, manufacturing textile and knitwear. A change in the direction of the multinational occurred in the Seventies when the Fila family started investing in the sports world. Tennis became the greatest showcase for Fila. In fact, most tennis fans would have heard or seen the great Swedish star Bjorn Borg, who wore proudly Fila on court. The Fila brand and Borg became a perfect fit. Everybody wanted to wear a champion’s attire and success was guaranteed. Thereafter the garments exclusively dedicated to tennis have become more and more a fashion trend and have not been abandoned since”.

What is the winning feature of Fila when compared to the sports brands such as Nike, Adidas and Asics?

“Our greatest heritage is derived from the game of tennis and Fila continue to maintain this brand at the highest level. From a management point of view, we in Fila Australia are able to make decisions very quickly, and this is a great advantage in terms of market strategy”.

What is the greatest contribution Silvano Merlatti has made to advance Fila Australia?

“I consider the best managerial decision we made was in 2003, when we decided to open our chain of stores. Today in Australia we can count up to 20 successful stores, including six in Melbourne”.

In 2007, on the eve of the world financial crisis, Silvano showed the strength of his mettle with brilliant managerial skills. He concentrated solely on sales and cleared the warehouse. When the crisis struck in 2008, Fila could count on a considerable capital and relatively empty warehouse. By November 2008, he averted the disaster that financially crippled so many other companies. How many people are employed by Fila in Australia? Fila employs 100 people all over Australia and the company has a turnover of more than $20 million.

How do you see the future of Fila in Australia?

“We at Fila believe in sustainable development and we are forward-looking in our choices. To achieve our goals a major part of the sponsorship campaign is conducted at the grass roots level. We start at the schools and fund sporting events, as well as giving our sponsored players a huge discount on Fila products. This allows children to become attached to and familiar with the brand at a young age, but most importantly, it also allows the family circle and friends of the player to locate the brand and the outlets more easily”.

Second in the series on inspiring educational stories, “What’s working in education?” The Kelly Yang project in Hong Kong brings American creativity and critical reasoning in the mix with writing and a love of children. The workers in the project need outside resources to teach English, they serve over 600 students in Hong Kong every year and they also have a branch project starting in Beijing. But, their mission is to do so much more than just teach English, they inspire students to think more critically and creatively through writing, speaking, and debate. Kelly herself says, “When you think success, especially academic success, boils down to two things: the ability to think innovatively and come up with solutions, and the ability to communicate those ideas well on paper and in person.” Working with students from a very early age, the Kelly Yang project uses questioning to bring out students concepts and ideas, helping them build on the ideas of their friends until they come up with a solution of merit. The most popular class is critical reasoning where they discuss critical issues of today, building an argument, and then writing and defending it in debate.

Educators worldwide are discussing these issues. What are the best ways to encourage innovative thinking and critical reasoning? How can they be consistently brought out of student as they are the mainstay of entrepreneurial thinking, which brings about economic growth and development? What works in educational settings to inspire young people to tackle difficult subjects? The Kelly Yang project answers that question through relevancy. The project breaks down difficult subjects such as: privacy and the internet, the public funding of education, whether the rich should give half of their fortunes to charity & Bill Gates giving pledge. The young people in her schools tackle the world’s challenges and are energized by them. This is exciting to young people because what they are doing seems real and is likely to lead to their future success, which is key in this system. Speaking is also a key element of their curriculum. Every child is required to be able to speak in front of others from a very early age.

Further excitement is engendered in the children who attend the Kelly Yang project because what they write is published and then sold in bookstores. This gives students who come to her school huge pride as they see their work in print and sold publicly. English is the growing currency of the future in the business world throughout Asia. By merging English with critical reasoning Ms. Yang has a winning solution. She comments, “Critical reasoning is more important than ever in Hong Kong today. It is a skill which will not only lead to better test scores, but also a better country and world. Traditionally, critical reasoning and creative thinking have been lacking in Asian education, but with Hong Kong’s recent education reforms, these skills are now essential.”

Victoria Peak is the snazziest, most exclusive part of Hong Kong, with mansions overlooking the harbor and the sea. The breezes are fresh; the houses are well kept and attractive. But be prepared to pay up — even small residences clinging to the steep hillsides of this regal neighborhood cost millions, whether in euros or American dollars.

West Kowloon is not so snazzy. In West Kowloon, miserable tenants pay thirteen hundred Hong Kong dollars every month (about US $165) for the privilege of keeping their belongings as well as their bodies in a wire mesh rabbit cage with a padlock to keep out thieves. The cage is usually one of ten to twenty installed by greedy landlords in apartments that would otherwise be un-rentable. So the landlord packs ten to twenty human beings in an apartment designed for three or four and reaps a monthly rental income of between US $1,650 to $3,300 from his downtrodden charges.

The wire cages are sometimes even stacked on top of one another, two to a column like blocks. Each cage, which measures 12 to 16 square feet (about three by four feet, or four by four), has a plank of plywood or a patch of linoleum as its “floor.” On top of this, each resident may keep a blanket and pillow. A combination padlock secures the cage door even when the dweller is in the cage, to keep thieves from stealing valuables while the tenant is sleeping. Unsanitary conditions in the buildings attract billions of fleas, and tenants use powders and sprays to keep vermin from hopping from one cage to another. It is a housing picture of hell on earth.

There are housing crises today in San Francisco, New York, London, and Paris — and in other big cities in the First World. These large urban centers, like Hong Kong, attract lower-income workers seeking higher pay and a better life. But First World metropolises rarely suffer from the monstrous, animal-like conditions that prevail in slums like the notorious Dharavi in Mumbai, the Tower of David in Venezuela’s capital, or the evil “Walled City,” Kowloon’s worst squatter slum of all, which was finally demolished by tractors in 1994. The “Walled City” at one time contained some 35,000 people living on six acres of land.

The housing crisis in Hong Kong baffles experts, who point to Singapore, where nine of every ten of its three million residents actually own their own homes. In Hong Kong, something like 35 per cent today live in rentals. How did Hong Kong planners get it so wrong?

Something like 7,100,000 human beings now live in Hong Kong and its 260 territorial islands and peninsula in the mouth of the Pearl River Delta. The area of Hong Kong is 425 square miles. That many people in that small a space gives us the highest population density on the planet.

Of Hong Kong’s seven million population, some 120,000 are at the bottom of the totem pole. They live in housing that is not only considered inadequate, but that would be considered unfit for domestic cattle or chickens in America or UK. The Society for Community Organizations keeps track of these poorest of the poor. It is a social welfare group in Hong Kong that has documented, with grim photographs, filthy apartments subdivided into plywood cubicles, each housing one person, or filled with coffin-like housing crates and cages, each rented as an individual housing unit as though it were a separate apartment.

These ghastly chicken-wire cage “homes” became popular in Hong Kong during the British colonial period in the 1950s. They catered in those days mainly to single men who came from the PRC to do manual labor. Some experts claim that the number of cages has fallen, as the worst have been condemned and the owners punished with fines.

Yet today there are equally dreadful substandard cubicle apartments which now house the 1.2 million of Hong Kong’s residents, about 17 per cent, who are considered below the informal poverty line, a number that varies depending upon whom you ask. It is generally held to be at roughly half the level of our median income of US $1,600/month. This is one of the world’s most expensive cities: Try living in here on US $800 a month!

Two factors have exacerbated Hong Kong’s problems. The first has been the steady surge of new residents from the mainland, people who often struggle for years to obtain a permit for one-way travel into this special zone. The second issue is related to first, and that is the spike in global financial liquidity, which has caused previously modest homes to soar in value. Though economics often trumps planning, here as elsewhere, other communities have done far better in managing this double whammy.

In Singapore, housing authorities put in place ceilings on prices, found grants for first-time buyers, and goaded builders to increase the supply of homes. None of this is happening in hapless Hong Kong, where a cruel laissez-faire capitalism leaves thousands stranded without a safety net.

The statistics boggle the mind: Housing prices rose 24 per cent in 2012 and while we don’t have the numbers yet for 2013, they probably rose by something almost approaching that figure again. Rents are even worse in Hong Kong because renters are often poorer and more easily duped and cheated. And the poorest of the poor are often desperate. They don’t fight back. In a cruel irony, it is largely money from Mainland China, which comes from rich investors who want better alternatives than flats in Beijing, that has fueled the rocket-like ascent of housing costs.

We pray here that 2014 may be the year we see some changes. Public outrage over simmering housing scandals is reaching explosive levels. There is now a list of 250,000 people waiting for public housing.

And the forgotten cage-dwellers of West Kowloon are losing hope that anyone wants to help.