CITY AND SUBURBAN
Hong Kong offers oblations to Mammon blood sacrifices, but money preferred
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Hong Kong The great Temple of Mammon is encased in bamboo scaffolding. Bits of the fabric have been falling off and hitting peo- ple. Hong Kong's presiding deity is angry and must be appeased — by blood sacri- fices, if necesssary, though, as you would expect, he would rather have money. Hong Kong is not yet down to its bottom dollar, and its standard of living overtook our own some time ago, but since its god withdrew the light of his countenance a year or more ago, its stock of wealth will have just about halved. Great and small are afflicted. A dollar billionaire (US dollars, that is, not Hong Kong ones) puts one foot wrong and survives by the grace of his bankers. The Hong Kong Standard records its propri- etress's business troubles and the trial of three of her executives, charged with fid- dling the figures fbr their paper's circula- tion. This has come as a shock, especially to those of us who never knew that it was against the law. Down in what Hong Kong knows as the sandwich layer, the sandwich- men are trapped. Their homes in some ver- tical anthill may be worth half what they paid for them, they can keep up the mort- gage payments if they keep their jobs, but how can they be sure of that, and for how long? Jobs are being eroded, and the Chi- nese new year next month will not be a happy one. In the marble malls, the shops seem to outnumber the shoppers. Faced with this buyers' market, a camera shop called Trust showed the true spirit, by mak- ing a sale to a tourist at three times the manufacturer's recommended retail price. Challenged about this, Trust's owner retorted: 'We have to make money, you know. Hong Kong's a free market.' Mam- mon must have smiled on him.
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