I created a word cloud from the text of the 2010-2011 Policy Address by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, from October 13, 2010. The Policy Address was titled “Sharing Prosperity for a Caring Society” and focused primarily on two core issues: the property market and social inequity, both of which figure predominantly in discussions about Hong Kong (& are pretty heavily intertwined issues, anyways).
While Hong Kong has always ranked number one in the Index of Economic Freedom, it also has one of the highest Gini Coefficients in the world (0.525 in 2001, although slightly lower more recently at 0.51, I believe) & one that has increased fairly consistently over the past 30 years. The Gini Coefficient measures income inequality within a society – as income inequality rises, the coefficient gets closer to one.
(As a point of comparison, the Gini Coefficient of the United States was 0.408 in 2000. Singapore scored 0.425 in 1998 and the UK scored 0.360 in 1999.)
With Hong Kong’s effective recovery (or near) from the recent financial collapse and something like HK$600 billion in the bank Tsang would probably have had a hard time selling his Policy Address if social equality wasn’t a major plank. It’s also Tsang’s last year at the helm so presumably he would like to leave a “caring” Hong Kong as his legacy project. It’s the kind of thing that politicians like to do on their way out the door.
The colour scheme was based on colours associated with zodiac of the year of the rabbit. 2011 is a metal rabbit year, which, to my understanding, means green & aqua colours (& possibily white? It needed white anyways).
