Reenita's Wisdom

Mayor Bloomberg at Hong Kong's C40 Workshop

Mayors Michael Bloomberg of New York City and David Miller of Toronto tell reporters what most impressed them about the Chinese Mayors’ discussion about increasing sustainability in their cities.

New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the new chair of the C40 Climate Leadership Group, applauded Chinese mayors gathered in Hong Kong last week for taking proactive steps towards building low carbon environments in their cities.

City officials and senior representatives from over 30 cities around the world and 120 officials from cities and provinces of mainland China gathered at a C40 workshop in Hong Kong last week to explore the challenges and opportunities of creating low carbon cities that offer a high quality of life.

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This story was written for the Asian Wall Street Journal’s “China Real Time Report.”

A new survey into consumer behavior in China overturns a commonly held belief: China’s biggest spenders live in big cities…and small towns, too.

Up to now, many global companies, especially luxury brands, have focused first on building a presence in China’s biggest cities such as Beijing and Shanghai — called Tier 1 in marketing-speak — that boast a population of 8 million or more. The thinking? The bigger the city, the higher the earning power and the more money there is to spend on luxury goods.

To read the complete story, please click on this link which will take you to the Asian Wall Street journal: In China, Even Small Cities Spend Big.

Just show up and be bridal, my mother advised. She had been planning this party for years, and would be damned if anyone interfered with what she saw as her ultimate moment of glory.


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Hong Kong women are celebrated for their style, glamour and a certain je ne sais quoi that is commonly perceived to result from the power of their purse. But even though women are freer, more educated, and enjoy more legal protection than they did just 20 years ago, “success” is still a long shot.

Young women fill in application forms at job fair (The Standard)

In 1997, Hong Kong signed the UN Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which calls for 50 percent female representation in leadership positions in governments, political parties, trade unions and other groups. Despite this, startling gender inequalities are woven into Hong Kong’s socio-economic fabric – creating a huge barrier to female success.

Various research points to a clear gender gap vis-a-vis leadership positions, especially political leadership.

“People generally think there is equality,” says former legislator Mandy Tam Heung-man. “But, in fact, the inequality is subtle, because now women have higher educations, and there are more female professionals. Even in the government’s senior posts, there are more women, but if you look closely at the government’s structure, only two to three females are officials.”

In corporate life, with lower salaries and fewer promotion opportunities than men, women do not share an equal voice in decision-making – a huge cause for concern in a society where women comprise 54 percent of university graduates, and 47 percent of the workforce.

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The monsoon season may not considered to be the ideal time to travel in India but if you are looking for a green spa retreat amidst the chirping of birds around a large lake then try the Coconut Lagoon. Situated on the banks of Lake Vembanad, the largest lake in Kerala, this unique health resort offers ayurveda, yoga, and kalaripayattu (ancient martial arts) in old world Kerala style living. It provides the perfect retreat from fifth gear living and its core values abide by the the name of its owner, the CGHearth group, which stands for Clean, Green, Healthy Earth. In the monsoon season, the air is dense with moisture making the flora of the Kerala backwaters seem greener and even more abundant than the rest of the year. [...]