|
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in Hong Kong in the early years of the 21st Century. Some of these
links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated,
misleading or even false. No attempt has been made to validate
their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of poverty are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring the relationship between distribution of labor and
per-capita GDP, for example. Perhaps
your paper could focus on life expectancy or infant mortality. Other factors of interest might be
unemployment, literacy, access to basic services, etc. On the other hand, you might choose to
include some of the possible outgrowths of poverty such as Human Trafficking,
Street Children,
or even Prostitution. There is a lot to the subject of
Poverty. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. *** Extreme Weather *** On
September 8, 2023, Hong Kong experienced unprecedented rainfall, resulting in
severe flooding and disruptions. The scenes of flooding and chaos were
unprecedented, leaving residents and authorities grappling with the aftermath
of this extreme weather event. It was
the heaviest rain in at least 140 years, with more than 200mm (7.9 inches) of
rain recorded on the main island, Kowloon district, and the northeastern part
of the New Territories.– adapted
from Microsoft BING Copilot *** ARCHIVES *** The
World Factbook – Hong Kong U.S. Central Intelligence Agency CIA www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/hk.html [accessed 29
December 2020] World Factbook
website has moved to ---> www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/hong-kong/ [accessed 5 January 2021] Hong
Kong has a free market economy, highly dependent on international trade and
finance - the value of goods and services trade, including the sizable share
of reexports, is about four times GDP. Hong Kong
has no tariffs on imported goods, and it levies excise duties on only four
commodities, whether imported or produced locally: hard alcohol, tobacco, oil,
and methyl alcohol. There are no quotas or dumping laws. Hong Kong continues
to link its currency closely to the US dollar, maintaining an arrangement
established in 1983. Excess
liquidity, low interest rates and a tight housing supply have caused Hong Kong
property prices to rise rapidly. The lower and middle-income segments of the
population increasingly find housing unaffordable GDP -
per capita (PPP): $64,500 (2018
est.) Labor
force - by occupation: agriculture: 3.8% (2013 est.) industry: 2% (2016 est.) services: 54.5% (2016 est.) industry and services: 12.5% (2013 est.) agriculture/fishing/forestry/mining: 10.1% (2013 est.) manufacturing: 17% (2013 est.) note: above data
exclude public sector Unemployment
rate: 3.1% (2017
est.) Population
below poverty line: 19.9% (2016
est.) Maternal
mortality rate: 29.8 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.) Infant
mortality rate: total: 2.7 deaths/1,000 live births Life
expectancy at birth: total population: 83.2 years Drinking
water source: improved: total: 100% of population Physicians
density: 1.96 physicians/1,000 population (2017) Sanitation
facility access: improved: total: 96.4% of
population Electricity
access: electrification - total population: 100% (2016) The
Borgen Project – Hong Kong borgenproject.org/category/hong-kong/ [accessed 6 February 2021] The Borgen Project works with U.S. leaders to utilize the
United States’ platform behind efforts toward improving living conditions for
the world’s poor. It is an innovative,
national campaign that is working to make poverty a focus of U.S. foreign
policy. It believes that leaders of
the most powerful nation on earth should be doing more to address global
poverty. From ending segregation to providing women with the right to vote,
nearly every wrong ever righted in history was achieved through advocacy. The
Borgen Project addresses the big picture, operating
at the political level advancing policies and programs that improve living conditions
for those living on less than $1 per day. ~
Covid-19 And Hong Kong’s Coffin Homes borgenproject.org/coffin-homes/ ~
Life Inside Coffin Homes In Hong Kong borgenproject.org/coffin-homes-in-hong-kong/ ~
Understanding Hong Kong’s Housing Crisis borgenproject.org/hong-kongs-housing-crisis/ ~
Record-High Poverty Line In Hong Kong borgenproject.org/poverty-line-in-hong-kong/ ~
Top 10 Facts About Poverty In Hong Kong borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-poverty-in-hong-kong/ ~
Education In Hong Kong: Problems And Solutions borgenproject.org/education-in-hong-kong-problems-and-solutions/ ~
Solutions To Hunger In Hong Kong borgenproject.org/hunger-in-hong-kong/ ~
The High Cost Of Living In Hong Kong borgenproject.org/cost-of-living-in-hong-kong/ How
Covid-19 offers Hong Kong a chance to tackle food waste and poverty Thomas Tang, South China Morning Post, 23 February 2021 [Long
URL] [accessed 23
February 2021] Food
can be rescued, though. It is heartening to see the intrepid efforts of non-governmental
organisations collecting food that is perfectly
good but unwanted and distributing it to vulnerable communities that
appreciate warm meals they probably would not have been able to access or
afford. It is a
telling indictment of Hong Kong’s situation where one in five families still
lingers in poverty. Nonetheless, this basic yet effective system of
recovering food that would otherwise been thrown away, to fill hungry
bellies, has a double benefit of tackling a social problem and an environmental
conundrum. Is
There Hunger In Hong Kong? Go.Asia, Food Crisis & Rescue, FOOD WASTE﹣FACT, Go Action, 27 December 2013 www.go.asia/is-there-hunger-in-hong-kong/ [accessed 14 January
2021] Most of
us can end the temporary experience of hunger. Unfortunately, more than 1.5
million individuals in Hong Kong do not have that choice. · 40% of
the Hong Kong population live in subsidised public
housing · At
least 170,000 people live in coffin, cage homes and rooftops · Over
1,000 people are homeless · Hong
Kong has highest income gap between the rich and the poor of any developed
economy in the world · There
are 644,000 working poor · 1 in 3
of our elderly are living below the poverty line · 1 in 4
underprivileged children do not get 3 meals a day · 1 in 5
of our children are living below the poverty line as at 2012 census report. Corona Capital: Poverty, Beer cans, Budget hotels Reuters Breakingviews, Hong Kong/London, 24 December 2020 [Long
URL] [accessed 24 December 2020] LOWER
INCOME -- More than one in five Hong Kongers
were officially poor even before the pandemic struck. An annual study
published on Wednesday showed the poverty rate hit a decade high of 21.4% in
2019, up a percentage point on 2018. The protests that rocked the city that
year, combined with U.S.-China trade tensions, were major factors. Poverty is
defined broadly, at 50% of median household income, but by any measure the
pandemic will have worsened 2020 numbers. Unemployment of 6.4% is already
more than twice the 2019 rate. In wealthy Hong Kong, the poorest residents live in metal cages Vincent Yu, Associated Press AP, Hong Kong, 8 February 2013 www.nydailynews.com/news/world/wealthy-hong-kong-poorest-live-metal-cages-article-1.1258661 [accessed 13 Sept 2018] 63-year-old
Lee Tat-fong, walks in a corridor while her two grandchildren Amy, 9, and
Steven, 13 sit in their 50-square-foot room in Hong Kong. Lee, like many poor
residents, has applied for public housing but faces years of waiting. For
many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities,
home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak.
For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage. The
67-year-old former butcher pays 1,300 Hong Kong dollars ($167) a month for
one of about a dozen wire mesh cages resembling rabbit hutches crammed into a
dilapidated apartment in a gritty, working-class West Kowloon neighborhood. The
cages, stacked on top of each other, measure 1.5 square meters (16 square
feet). To keep bedbugs away, Leung and his roommates put thin pads, bamboo
mats, even old linoleum on their cages' wooden planks instead of mattresses. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT
COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Prof. Martin
Patt, "Poverty – Hong Kong", http://gvnet.com/poverty/HongKong.htm,
[accessed <date>] |
