The Pulse：Long-term housing strategy, interview with Stanley Wong & Letters to Santa Claus

On Wednesday this week, Transport and Housing Bureau rolled out its Long Term Housing Strategy Annual Progress Report for this year. The government itself has previously estimated that up to 200,000 people may be living in coffin-like cubicles or subdivided flats. With more than 280,000 applicants currently in the queue for public housing the waiting time for a unit is, at 4.7 years. at a record high. The government has upwardly revised its ten-year plans for new public housing by 1,000 units to 280,000 so the shortfall has been reduced a little. But it’s still likely to be far from enough. With us in the studio to talk about that is Stanley Wong, Chairman of the Taskforce on Land Supply.
For Christians, Christmas Day, December 25th, is primarily a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. In the West, it’s been, fairly arbitrarily, observed on that date on the Gregorian Calendar since around the fourth century. Some Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate it on the December 25th on the Julian Calendar, which falls on January 7th. For the less religious, and particularly children, the figure of Santa Claus or Father Christmas, may be even more synonymous with the season. He’s a bit of a merger of different figures from different traditions. But whether we know him by his older names of Captain Christmas or Sir Christmas, or as Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, children around the world write to him every year to tell him their wishes. And many of those letters do get answered.
On Thursday, 12 members of Greenpeace scaled the Ferris wheel in Central to hang a large banner in protest against the government’s lack of control of plastic waste pollution. We’ll leave you with some images of that. A reminder to us all maybe to be a bit less wasteful over the holidays. Well, on that green note, the holiday season is upon us and it’s time for many to celebrate. From all of us at The Pulse, and at the risk of inciting the wrath of Donald Trump, Happy Holidays. Oh, and Merry Christmas.