Ordinary Gweilo

Another day, another no.8 storm signal  in Hong Kong.

This one was somewhat unexpected, because Tropical Storm Fengshen was originally supposed to be heading towards Taiwan, but it changed direction and went right past Hong Kong.

The no.8 signal was raised late last night, and early this morning it was very windy and very wet, but the storm passed by and the signal was lowered after 12½ hours.  

I’ve complained before about the madness that overcomes everyone when a no.8 signal is raised during working hours and everyone tries to get home at the same time.  Of course, something similar happens when the signal is lowered during working hours and most of the population rushes to get to work simultaneously.

The problem here is that government thinks that people can’t be trusted to use their common sense.  So they have rules (here’s a 23 page booklet), and of course they don’t want to be too generous to employees so the standard rule is that employees have to be back at work 2 hours after the no.8 signal is lowered.

Two hours may sound long enough – but that assumes that you know straight away that the signal has been lowered, and then of course you may have to wait for shuttle buses and other forms of transport to re-start – and of course they are usually extremely busy.  Funnily enough, it is often quite windy and rainy during a tropical storm, so queuing up for buses is not exactly a pleasant experience. 

In a sane world, there would be an announcement, and people would get back to work if they needed to do so, or stay at home if not.