Ordinary Gweilo

Just to end the week on a positive note (and at the risk of being accused of being “Pooterish” by the man with the big yellow blog).

The last few days have been fairly horrible in Hong Kong, with an all too obvious blanket of smog almost everywhere. I was starting to wish for a storm to clear it away, though having seen the impact of Hurricanes Ivan, Jeanne, Charley and Frances over the last few weeks, perhaps that’s not such a good idea.

However, we seem to had some stronger winds overnight, and this morning the air looked much clearer. I hope this is not an illusion, and that it’s not tempting fate to point it out.

It’s ironic that Reuters should write about the problem just when it is improving, though obviously the smog will be back before too long – given the concentration of factories in Guangdong, this is not going to be an easy problem to solve. I remember reading a few months ago that the air pollution should be reduced because they had closed some power stations across the border, but unfortunately it seems that was wishful thinking. However, according to Reuters there are official targets for reducing sulphur dioxide, so perhaps things really will get better before too long.