HARBOURFEST

The few serious bloggers seem to be making a song and dance about the HarbourFest report. It blames everyone in sight for incompetence and waste, and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

Well I would just like to say that I disagree entirely.

Sure it wasn’t perfect but, for the record,

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED HARBOURFEST.

I WISH THEY’D DO IT ANNUALLY.

And the “waste”? It’s only HK$100mln for Pete’s sake. That’s a drop in the ocean. The HK government budget for 2004/5 expects expenditure to be HK$252,860mln this year, and revenue to be HK$203,837mln. $100mm barely touches the sides. It is 0.004% of expenditure or 0.005% of revenue depending on how you look at it.

Perhaps if they stuck with HarbourFest and made it an annual event, and cleaned up dome of last years problems, then it might start to feature on major bands international schedules and become an annual tourist draw in the manner of the Sevens.

But no. Short-term’ism, as always, wins the day. A little bit of money was lost and no-one can see past the end of their noses to the bigger possibilitles so they're all bleating and whining like a bunch of kids.

WELL YOU’RE ALL MAD. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH HARBOURFEST IS THAT IT WAS A ONE-OFF, NOT A REGUALR EVENT.