Macau passes COVID-19 testing drive with flying colours but hesitancy still a drag – Editorial

Macau passes COVID-19 testing drive with flying colours but vaccination hesitancy still a dragEditorial      Macau passed its COVID-19 mass testing campaign last week with flying colours, proving once again that our city has an indomitable can-do spirit. All the citywide programme’s 614,465 test results proved negative – which is 100 percent positive for our city. Another 101,786 tests conducted outside the programme also all proved negative – another positive

August 9, 2021 | BY admin

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A city of avid mask wearers – and too many vaccination waverers – Editorial

Editorial        COVID-19 statistics released by the local government last week reaffirmed that Macau is not only a city of ubiquitous facemask wearers but also a city of too many vaccination waverers. The Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced last week that over 200 million facemasks have been sold under the government’s facemask purchase scheme since its launch on January 23 last year, i.e. just one day after the Health Bureau (SSM) confirmed

May 10, 2021 | BY admin

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Press freedom put in perspective – Editorial

Editorial        Press freedom, which is guaranteed by Article 27 of the Macau Basic Law, can only be properly understood in its specific socio-cultural context. In other words, press freedom like all other kinds of freedoms must be put in perspective. Like all rights and duties, also press freedom involves the mutually interdependent aspects of the absolute and the relative. All freedoms have their limits. Macau’s radio and TV broadcaster TDM, which is owned by the

March 29, 2021 | BY admin

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A glimmer of light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel – Editorial

Editorial        There was finally a glimmer of light at the end of the pitch-black COVID-19 tunnel on Saturday when Macau’s first batch of novel coronavirus jabs arrived after a 30-hour truck drive from Beijing. The vaccines arrived in good time – less than a week before the Chinese New Year so that our health workers can get the shots before the prolonged Spring Festival holidays which potentially are a high-risk COVID-19 period.Long public holidays such as Christmas

February 8, 2021 | BY admin

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Biden should not waste chance to reset relations with China – Editorial

China Daily editorial        The new US administration claims it has adopted “strategic patience” in its approach towards China. Yet China was frequently mentioned as a challenge in the Joe Biden administration’s telephone diplomacy over the past week.But there is a variety of pressing issues, such as the pandemic and climate change, requiring cooperation between the two countries as soon as possible.Nearly two weeks have passed since the Biden administration took

February 2, 2021 | BY admin

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Time for realistic hope about China-US ties – Editorial

Editorial         Hope is perhaps the most archetypal human trait but it must be a realistic aspiration based on an analytical process that faces hard facts and eschews wishful thinking. Realistic hope is the right way vis-à-vis the announced and expected policies of US President Joe Biden and the ongoing fight against COVID-19.For us in Macau, Biden’s future China policy is of paramount importance. Macau is an inalienable part of China and that’s why we in Macau

January 25, 2021 | BY admin

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Adelson – a go-getter who helped Macau get ahead of Vegas – Editorial

Editorial I talked to US gaming mogul Sheldon Adelson for the first time on May 19, 2004, one day after the uproarious opening of his first local casino, Sands Macao, which was jammed by a crowd of 15,000 lured by false reports of free 200-pataca gaming chips, resulting in scuffles and sheer bedlam that 250 police officers struggled for hours to control. However, Mr Adelson wasn’t ruffled by the crowd chaos. I met him and his wife Miriam by chance during a visit to the casino when

January 14, 2021 | BY admin

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COVID-19 pandemic –a black or a white swan? – Editorial

Editorial       Is the COVID-19 pandemic a black or a white swan? That’s a question that is still being discussed by commentators and scientists around the world one year after the novel coronavirus “came from nowhere” as some prefer to put it.Of course, nothing comes from nowhere. The novel coronavirus came from somewhere, but we still don’t know its origin. It’s still a riddle to be solved by virologists.The June issue of Portugal’s Pulmonology Journal features

December 30, 2020 | BY admin

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2020 – a year of woe and pride for Macau – Editorial

Editorial      2020 has been a year both of woe and pride for Macau. Owing to the dreadful impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the outgoing year has been the hardest for our city since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region in 1999. Our inadequately diversified economy has been severely afflicted by the global health crisis, its tourism, retail and gaming sectors in particular, although virtually every local business segment has been hard hit since early

December 23, 2020 | BY admin

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COVID-19 triggers solidarity – and insanity – Editorial

Editorial      The global COVID-19 crisis has brought out the best and worst in humanity – solidarity and insanity. The venerable Bangkok Post reported last week that about 150 Thai and foreign customers were arrested at a nightclub quite appropriately called Insanity in Bangkok last week. According to the report, there was no social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and most of the clubbers weren’t wearing facemasks. Some discarded drugs were found on the

December 15, 2020 | BY admin

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Grand Prix copes with COVID-19 & pell-mell Guia Race – Editorial

Editorial      The accident-riddled but injury-free 67th Macau Grand Prix (MGP) showed our city’s resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic even though the annual motor-racing weekend needed to be held in a scaled-down version.Luckily enough, unlike some of the other races, the helter-skelter Guia Race in particular, yesterday’s Formula 4 race –which made its local debut – proved its mettle – and local drivers Charles Leong Hon Chio and Andy Chang Wing Chung finished as its

November 23, 2020 | BY admin

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More civic education needed to prevent crime – Editorial

Last week’s announcement by the Judiciary Police (PJ) that 31 local suspects in a massive credit card data scam include 13 university students and two secondary school pupils was not just startling but also worrying. I was flabbergasted when I edited our reporter’s article about our city’s latest organised fraud case. How is it possible that university students are allegedly involved in swindling on a large scale? Did no-one teach them the difference between right and wrong? Of

November 3, 2020 | BY admin

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A welcome rapprochement between two giants – Editorial

Last week’s visit by Fu Ziying, the central government’s highest-ranking official based in Macau, to the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) and courtesy call by a USJ delegation on Macau’s first chief executive, Edmund Ho Hau Wah, who is now a state leader in his capacity as a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), can only be described as “significant” and “amicable,” as a source of the Catholic Diocese of Macau

October 27, 2020 | BY admin

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Clarification on Confucius quote preceding yesterday’s editorial

Harald Brüning      I have been contacted by several readers – who happen also to be my friends including a local sinologist – about the quote that preceded yesterday’s editorial headed “Mature enough for reflection”. The quote attributed to Confucius reads: “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”I received the quote from a former Hong

October 20, 2020 | BY admin

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