Nightmare in Hong Kong

What happens in Hong Kong doesn’t stay in Hong Kong. If it’s bad, it sends a shudder through the urbanscape of the world. It could happen anywhere. Well, not exactly. Hong Kong is a vertical city, constricted horizontally, packed with people with nowhere to live but heavenwards. The fire that engulfed the block of subsidised public flats at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po had killed 75 at the time of writing, with 270-plus still missing.

Hong Kong’s deadliest in 77 years so far. Three construction company executives were arrested for manslaughter and dredged up residents’ complaints about shoddy renovation—the flats are old, built in the 1980s—and inflammable materials quickly took over the internet. Bamboo scaffolding, too, is believed to be a major cause of Wednesday’s (November 26) fire spreading so rapidly. In 1962, a similar fire had killed 44 and made hundreds destitute. In 1948, a fire had killed 176. In 1996, the Garley Building fire killed 41. Hong Kong has always been a lesson in the hair-trigger dangers of dense urban housing and workspaces. Almost every major Indian city, for instance, is vulnerable to such conflagration, especially where the construction is old. And yet, a tragedy like this usually changes little, until the next time.

The Travails and Travels of Kash Patel

Kash Patel is in a spot. But he will brazen it out, as long as his boss sees no chink in his loyalty. Conservatives are tearing into him for: one, his use of executive protection, FBI SWAT teams at that, for his girlfriend, aspiring country singer Alexis Wilkins; two, his use of the FBI director’s official Gulfstreamjetforpersonaltravel at reportedly taxpayer money. It doesn’t look any better given Patel’s 2023 outburst at predecessor Christopher Wray, saying he didn’t need “a government-funded G5 to go to vacations” and that the plane should be grounded. Patel is the first unmarried director since J Edgar Hoover. His predecessors never sought regular executive protection for their spouses. Moreover, Wilkins leaves in Nashville while Patel divides his time between DC, Las Vegas, and Nashville. He flew to meet friends in Scotland on the jet. He flies regularly to heavyweight fights or hockey face-offs on it. To stop journalists tracking the flight’s data, he had its trail erased, not realising such tactics are easily circumvented. Democrats are having a wetold-you-so moment, watching MAGA’s outrage. But then, the latter are not expected to read Marc Fisher’s damning recent New Yorker piece on Patel titled ‘Hatchet Man’.

Jamaican Farewell

The eighth of nine children, James Chambers was born poor, very poor, in St James in 1944. Then he moved to Kingston, changed his name to Cliff, and did what he really wanted to do. He wrote his songs and sang them, producing hits like ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want’ and ‘Wonderful World, Beautiful People’. Then in 1972 he played Ivan Martin, a gun-toting young rebel. The legacy of Jimmy Cliff, who died at 81 on November 24, will always be bringing reggae and Jamaican music to the world. Bob Marley owed him. Bob Dylan called his ‘Vietnam’ the “best protest song ever written”.