Benson Yeung at Hong Kong Today

We have a “Cold Temperature Warning” issued by the Hong Kong Observatory today. The temperature we had was 12 degrees Celsius. You might think this is crazy. I’ll tell you why it’s not. Hong Kong residents are used to having mild autumns. In fact, even winter here and now can be warm. If you are prepared for a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius and then encounter 12 degrees, you can find yourself in considerable trouble. Also, homes in Hong Kong are generally not heated. We’d have old or diseased house-bound individuals suffering from hypothermia and its complications. Hence, we have this very warm “Cold Weather Warning” from the government department, at the temperature of 12 degrees Celsius.
This leads me to ponder about what happens in the economy now. The unemployment rate in Hong Kong is really low by world standards. Nonetheless, our media is screaming “jobs cut” left, right and center. Yes, those jobs are going. What the media does not mention a word about is that every day, the labor department still posts over two thousand new jobs. That’s a lot of new jobs for a small place like Hong Kong. I am not pretending all is well. The temperature of the economy has definitely dropped. Nonetheless, I think we are probably at around 12 degrees Celsius, a considerable distance from the freeze poing. For those readers reading this from Hong Kong, I’d say Hong Kong is still much warmer than most parts of the world, both economically, and geographically. The jobs are here. The opportunities are here. The entrepreneurs are grasping this temporary low to create their dreams. Don’t just sit in the cold (12 degrees Celsius) and shiver. You can end up having a temperature.

Photo credit: http://www.zitrec.com