Slowness

Last month, people just didn’t come, said my acupuncturist, herself preparing for a long holiday back in China. Can you spare me something for a sandwich? my corner newspaper guy asks; I had seen him working hard, standing in all weather, unable to shift his goods. I thought I had more friends, said an economist – the work they said would come never did, the foreign work turns out more promising. Ten years ago, I sat in a borrowed office at the US Consul in Hong Kong. I was scheduled to visit local officials, gathering news about their policy intentions. The Australian fellow, formerly in politics, a surfer, still young, representing one of the more aggressively entrepreneurial companies in the industry presented his case. They needed a couple of fair shakes from the Hong Kong regulator. Who in HK could make this happen? He sits back, the Chief Secretary. I’m not seeing the Chief Secretary, I say. We both know I’m good, but not that good. He slips back and I realize, he is asking me to help him keep his job. Either this, or it’s back to the beaches of Australia, pleasant but a backwater from the teeming cosmopolitan center of Hong Kong.