The Economist - USA (2022-01-22)

14 The Economist January 22nd 2022
Letters

Elections in Hong Kong

I was appalled by your descrip­

tion of the swearing in of Hong

Kong’s new legislature as “a

mockery of democracy”  (“Pli­

ant patriots”, January 8th). The

Legislative Council election

was open, honest and fair,

returning 90 legislators from

different political back­

grounds. It was facilitated

throughout in the same way

that other elections have taken

place in Hong Kong since its

establishment as a special

administrative region of China

in 1997. All of the elected legis­

lators are committed to act in

the interests of Hong Kong and

the country. No country, by its

constitution or ethics, would

allow treasonists, traitors,

foreign agents or other forms

of non­patriots to take part in

its political system. 

Your serious but baseless

accusation that the polls were

“rigged” is shameful. If any­

thing was rigged it was the

deliberately distorted image of

Hong Kong that has been

manipulated from the dark

side of one’s personal internal

bias. Voters were and will

continue to be free to cast their

ballots and make their own

choices. There is legislation

specifically in place to prevent

anyone from rigging polls. 

The right to vote, stand for

election, and the freedoms of

speech and of the press are

enshrined in the Basic Law.

The exercise of these rights, as

covered in the provisions of

the International Covenant on

Civil and Political Rights

applied to Hong Kong, is well

protected, provided that it is

done within the confines of

the law, such as not endanger­

ing national security. Any legal

actions taken by the Hong

Kong police are strictly based

on evidence and in full accor­

dance with the law. 

No country has a monopoly

on democracy. The democratic

development of Hong Kong

has been well defined under

the Basic Law; it will be pro­

gressive and accord with the

actual situation of Hong Kong,

in adherence to the principle

of “One Country, Two Sys­

tems”. The violence and law­

lessnessin2019,fuelledby

foreigninterference,threat­

enednotjustthepersonal

safetyandsecurityofHong

Kong.ItalsothreatenedHong

Kong’sruleoflawandjudicial

independence;judgeswere

targetedforintimidationand

courtsdamagedbypetrol

bombs.TheNationalSecurity

Lawhasswiftlyandeffectively

restoredstabilityandsecurity.

johnk.c.lee

Chiefsecretaryfor

administration

HongKongSpecial

AdministrativeRegion

Politicalboundaries

Lexingtoncapturedthepoliti­

calchallengesChicagofaces

overpolitical­wardmaps,

whichshouldbea progressive

andtechnicalissue(January

1st).TheChicagoAdvisory

RedistrictingCoalition,an

independentgroup,hasdevel­

opeda “people’smap”.Unlike

thebackroomgerrymandered

mapsdrawnbythecity’scoun­

cilmembers,thepeople’smap

isbasedontheinputofresi­

dentsacrossthecitythrough

commissionsandtransparent

publichearings.Itkeeps

neighbourhoodsintactandin

thesameward,strengthening

thevoiceofcommunities.It

alsodoesawaywiththe

infamous“lobsterward”and

otheroddlyshapedtracts.

Adoptingthepeople’smap

wouldbea welcomeprogres­

siveactintheWindyCity,

wherepoliticsblowshotand

hard,eveninfrostyJanuary.

timsmith

Chicago

Honeycombing for votes

As someone who has tried to

introduce the Penrose square­

root method of voting to an

association of associations, I

was intrigued by the concept of

quadratic voting (“The public

squared”, December 18th).

Experience, however, tells me

that the system is likely to go

the same way as that of Pen­

rose because there is no simple

way to explain it. Like the

European Union and United

Nations, the British Beekeep­

ers Association looked at it and

decidednottoadoptit.We

struggledtofindanysignif­

icantorganisationthathad.

Elegantlyworkedexamples,of

whichweproducedseveral,

canexplainthebenefitsof

thesevotingsystems,but

changerequiresthosewho

disproportionatelybenefit

fromtheexistingarrange­

mentstoagreetoa newsystem

thatwatersdowntheirvotes.

Asthesayinggoes,turkeys

nevervoteforChristmas.

martinsmith

PastpresidentoftheBritish

BeekeepersAssociation

Stoneleigh,Warwickshire

Looking down their noses

“A world of two halves” (De­

cember 18th) looked at north­

south antipathies around the

world. The power of these

stereotypes is impressive. One

factor is the dichotomy that

up=higher and down=lower. It

may also reflect an uncon­

sciously anthropomorphic

view of the world, mapping the

body onto the Earth. So the

north represents the head and

mind, whereas the south is

associated with organs of

procreation and elimination. 

richard waugaman

Clinical professor of 

psychiatry

Georgetown University

Washington,dc

The perceived distinctions

between north and south goes

beyond international differ­

ences, such as the euro zone’s

frugal north versus its Club

Med south, or even inter­

regional ones, as in Belgium or

Italy. It also applies within

cities. In Chicago, for example,

the North Side is seen as

prosperous and safe in con­

trast to the South Side, so

much so that a few years ago

the French foreign ministry

issued an advisory to French

citizens visiting the city to

avoid the latter. And when I

lived in London years ago we

rarely went south of the river,

other than trips to Wimbledon

and the National Theatre, as

the attitude was that there was

little worthwhile there. 

animesh ghoshal

Des Plaines, Illinois

Massachusetts definitely has

this dynamic along the coast.

Cape Ann is seen as serious,

hard­working and no­non­

sense, especially compared

with Cape Cod, the quintessen­

tial tourist destination in New

England. I also lived for a bit in

California. In San Francisco I

wasn't surprised to hear Los

Angeles derided as a place of

lazy layabouts. But in laI was

surprised at the contempt for

people from San Diego. Ange­

lenos thought it was they who

lived in a hard­working city,

whereas San Diego was the

place for layabouts.

alex maslow

Boston

Virtual, not virtuous, reality

Arthur C. Clarke predicted the

metaverse in “The City and the

Stars” (Schumpeter, December

18th). The book describes an

advanced but stagnant

civilisation on Earth, where

“sagas” provide “all that any­

one could desire”: 

They were the inevitable end

product of that striving for

realism which began when

men started to reproduce

moving images and to record

sounds...In the sagas, the

illusion was perfect because all

the sense impressions in­

volved were fed directly into

the mind and any conflicting

sensations were diverted. The

entranced spectator was cut off

from reality as long as the

adventure lasted; it was as if he

lived a dream yet believed he

was awake. 

Once folks figure out how

to connect directly to the

human neurostructure, rather

than through our present

crude access of eyes and ears,

we might expect a portion of

the population to disappear

into the electronic pipe

dreams of metaporn and

metadrugs. O brave new world.

peter turchi

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Letters are welcome and should be

addressed to the Editor at

The Economist, The Adelphi Building,

1-11 John Adam Street, London wc 2 n 6 ht

Email: [email protected]

More letters are available at:

Economist.com/letters