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SCMP Reporter

Should rear-vision CCTV be mandatory for trucks?
I was both saddened and angered when I read that, yet again, another pedestrian had been killed by a reversing truck ('Cameras urged after man killed by reversing truck', April 15).
Once again we heard demands for cameras to be installed to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
Installing rear-vision CCTV on all trucks in Hong Kong will be expensive, and such cameras are not always effective when it comes to preventing accidents involving reversing trucks.
I note that  'the driver had not got his colleague to help him check behind while the truck was reversing'.
Almost invariably there are at least two people in the cab of any commercial truck.
Instead of installing cameras, may I suggest a 'low-tech' solution to the problem? It should be a requirement that the colleague of the driver leaves the cab of the truck and assists whenever a truck is reversing.
Indeed, I would go further and suggest that legislation should be enacted to provide that where the colleague fails to do so and an accident occurs, that individual should also be charged with an offence, the gravity of which should be equal to that of the charge or charges faced by the driver.
Patricia Quong, Stanley
Should the sex trade be legalised?
Newspaper reports on the four young women found killed  in dilapidated buildings invariably referred to them as prostitutes, thus convicting the victims posthumously, in public, of a crime against which they had no chance of defending themselves.
Were they prostitutes? For the conviction of prostitution, the law requires evidence of the exchange of money for sex. But money changing hands in amorphous circumstances can be an ex gratia payment unrelated to sex, such as money  received for entertaining friends.  Escorts charge customers for companionship which, like friendship, is not for the law to regulate. Only liaisons in single-women's premises are liable to the legal implications of prostitution.
Prosecutions need witnesses to prove prostitution beyond reasonable doubt. Often this happens when an undercover police officer poses as a customer  to gather  evidence.
In criminal law, innocence is presumed. Until proven otherwise, whatever happens inside single-women premises is legal and needs no legalisation. The law is duplicitous if it accepts hearsay about widespread prostitution when legalisation is contemplated, while it can convict only a handful  practising as prostitutes.
The  question  is how to legalise it and not whether we should. One can't even begin to imagine how prostitution could have helped reduce the number of immoral seductions, sex-driven marriages and rapes.  Society must have honest relations with the oldest profession, just like  in China before the 19th century or the Netherlands nowadays. Hong Kong's hypocritical attitude towards prostitutes is a remnant of colonial influence from the Victorian period. Legalisation  exculpates the small number of women convicted every year and emancipates a social conscience that has long been muddled by affected righteousness.
If the four women were prostitutes, society owes them the same respect it  pays to professionals killed  on duty.
Charles Fung, Mid-Levels
On other matters ...
The Transport Department said  running a regular ferry service to Mui Wo was not economically tenable. The Humanist Association says that is not the point.
The point is the people living in Mui Wo and nearby places must have a ferry service and, besides that, it would be to the detriment of Hong Kong if there were  none.  An inter-island ferry service is also  necessary.  The outlying islands have  cultures all their own, and much would be lost without regular  transport for people and goods.
The government keeps repeating this no-subsidy policy, but it will have to pay if that is what the situation demands. There are too many people who would be left out on a limb.  However, don't believe these  companies  demanding excessive subsidies. I would suggest instead the establishment of a Mui Wo people-owned company as a co-operative.  An extra leg on the Peng Chau route is another possibility as the inbound ferry always fills up after docking in Peng Chau. The business sector could pay the higher fees  to use the  super-fast ferries which apparently are too costly to run, even though the decision to purchase them for this route was made by First Ferry.
However, most passengers are  people on low incomes, such as students, senior citizens and the unemployed.
They need a fairly regular ferry service and the so-called slow, 50-minute service would be ideal, given its decent pricing.  At 50 minutes from Mui Wo to Central for the slow ferry, the time difference with the fast ferry is only 15 minutes. Why not give a few extra revs to the slow ferries during business hours and drop that difference down to 10 minutes?
Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong
It has been more than nine years since I moved into Pacific Palisades in North Point and I have never been happy with the management office. On some occasions when I have made a complaint, it has taken a year for the office to deal with it, and  it should  provide better service than that.
One concern is  the estate's no-dogs policy, which has not been enforced.  Despite several  residents'  complaints,  dogs are still seen within the estate and the management office does not seem to have resolved this problem.
Furthermore, the gate guards do not handle traffic properly, particularly at night, and this leads to drivers using car horns late at night.
Leo Hung, North Point



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