Word: hong
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...Kong: 1. The Hong Kong restaurant on Mass. Ave. Heaven for those who love bar fights and MSG. 2. The source of that pain in your stomach the morning after the night you can’t remember (See Scorpion Bowl...
Every major metropolis has its share of slums; the U.N. estimates that one-third of the developing world's urban population lives in them, with nearly 40% of East Asian urban dwellers living in slum conditions. In Hong Kong, the worst of those are the cages, a notorious feature of this metropolis. Throughout the city, pockets of grimy, small, privately owned apartments are partitioned into about 10 cubicle dwellings, many with a shared toilet and shower in the corner. Most residents are the working poor, others are mentally ill, elderly, children and the occasional drug addict. Beyond the dwellings' crushingly...
...side of the city that you don't often hear about - even if you live in Hong Kong. Cage dwellings are often relegated to movies or urban legend, gathering a macabre mystique that has even piqued international interest: next month, a cage dwelling will be on display in Dusseldorf, Germany, part of an exhibition to raise awareness of the inhabitants' plight. But in Hong Kong, it's reality for a growing number of people, particularly in the current economic downturn, says Sze Lai-shan, a community organizer with the Society for Community Organization (SOCO), a Hong Kong-based poverty advocacy...
...cost bed spaces for low-wage earners. Landlords, looking to extract more money per square foot of living space, packed two to three iron cages that served as bunk beds into apartments. Fifty years later, these slums continue to be one of the negative by-products of Hong Kong's meteoric rise from a humble, fishing village into an international financial powerhouse. Asia's world city is now home to some of the world's wealthiest, claiming the distinction of having the most billionaires in Asia, and yet a third of its 7 million residents live in public housing...
...Hong Kong's financial sector, of course, has been hard hit by the recent global economic recession. Unemployment from May to July this year rose to 5.4%, up from 3.3% in mid-2008. And despite optimistic signs of recovery, the outlook for employment is bleak "as business sentiments remain cautious and employers are generally conservative in hiring new hands," said Hong Kong's Secretary for Labor and Welfare, Matthew Cheung, in a statement in mid-August. To stem the shock, the government has instituted relief measures including rental waivers for its lower-income public-housing tenants...