Olympic Obsequiousness

Keeping its track record pristine, the Hong Kong Tourism Board has just come up with another asinine idea.

This time it will blow millions of dollars to install a 15 by 35-meter five-ringed Olympic logo outside the Museum of Art in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Tourism Board executive director ... hopes the logo will impress overseas TV audiences as much as it did when it adorned the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2000.

And he expects folks will flock to Hong Kong because of a symbol, one that will only be there until year's end at that? The Olympics aren't even happening in Hong Kong, save the equestrian events, for which the government intensely lobbied grovelled in a desperate bid to enhance the city's prestige. The obsequiousness is nauseating.

My prediction: other than Hong Kongers queueing for the opportunity to have their photos taken making the peace sign, most visitors will be hordes of mainland tourists, who are coming here anyway.

Everyone else will be at the real Olympics in Beijing.

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