Macau’s got talent

Last week’s behaviour of the retailers of tobacco seems to reveal that the strong efforts of the talent campaigns in Macau are gaining traction. We now have international chains like 7-11 demonstrating commercial behaviour that collides with the fair rules of the commercial code and of an advanced civilization. We have legislators who pass a bill to increase the price for the coming Monday. We have consumers that have a vice – oh well, even Pope Francis liked it! – who try to buy cigarettes and cannot. We have the market working in a way that only shows that the lack of civilized behaviour still resides within the brittle bones of the population and of their political representatives. There is an expression in Portuguese that is almost impossible to translate into any other language that goes like this: “Xicos Espertos”. To assist my editor and dear readers Macau is full of smarty-pants that do not really understand the society they are living in but pretend to know it scientifically. We have seen it in the past with milk powder and other essential goods. Tomorrow it will be frozen meat or flowers or even fireworks. This time it happens to be tobacco. Instead of acting in the interests of society, some of our legislators prefer to know better. The so-called free market economy that some defend with gritted teeth in some areas – real estate, for instance – is now replaced by market regulation. Hopefully, we will not need to have our food rationed in the future. Hopefully, we will still have polluted air to breathe in the near future. Or even oil to put in our cars to go to the casino-free oasis of Coloane. Recent happenings may lead us to conclude that the ‘Macau’s got talent’ show really needs to be renamed and upgraded to ‘Macau’s got smarty-pants’. What some may not have understood is that 2014’s May demonstrations may be just around the corner as people know what their priorities are much better than those who do not know their people’s needs, such as sufficient and affordable housing, high quality public health services, traffic control, unpolluted air to breathe – or even professional opportunities other than the easygoing gaming, gaming and gaming option. We all know our politicians are very keen on improving the quality of life of the Macau population but it seems that recent priorities give us a contrary answer. Hopefully, they have talent enough to make Macau an even better place to raise our kids. *Part-time Lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong