RESPONDING TO NAYSAYERS....

just after i emailed my friends to share CAN's first animated video, yesterday,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE_QaOjOHzw

i received the following skeptical response from one of hk's most famous and vocal opinion leaders.... the entire thread with my response is below. the first email in the thread is at the very bottom.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Joanne Ooi Date: Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 9:05 PM

Subject: Re: If you care about Hong Kong, please watch and share this clip.

To: MAJOR HK OPINION LEADER

dear d,

i'm glad you watched the video.

in answer to your questions:

all the facts stated in the video are drawn from published scientific studies or research conducted by HKU and HKUST. indeed, we work closely with all the leading public health and transport professors at cuhk, hku, and hkust, as a general rule. the fact about how a majority of the time, a majority of the pollution is hk-created is from a study conducted by HKUST. the death toll figures come from the hedley environmental index and are themselves cited as authoritative by the hk government. the fact about how indoor air quality is very similar to outdoor air quality is based on a paper which was submitted by professor tony hedley, hk's leading public health expert advising the WHO on air pollution internationally, to LegCo. we have all the information and sources stated on our website. as you can imagine, providing footnotes in an online video is not feasible or desirable.

the reason clean air network came into existence and why i quit my private sector career this year is because, for the first time in more than 20 years, the government is planning to revise hk's air quality management policy. it means we FINALLY have the precious opportunity to mobilize public opinion and do something about it. by "do something about it", i mean drown out the transport lobby by mobilizing a bigger voice. the centerpiece of our effort is a petition. but, on a broader, more profound basis, we seek to educate society at large about this issue. for that matter, we need to get the issue on the radar of a lot of hk people.

regarding grassroots mobilization, we are systematically signing up and recruiting district council people to conduct street discussion forums, mailbox stuffings and petition sign-ups. So far, we have signed up 40 DC members and 6 LegCo members, including the chairman of legco -- not bad considering that we only began in September and that each outreach requires one-on-one interaction. CAN has also spoken at most of the major hk universities. up one level in society, we have signed up more than 90 NGOs and professional associations. for example, the bar association is sending out our educational and petition flyer this week to their membership. on top of the mobilization pyramid, csl, clsa, tvb, star tv, and mtr are just some of the blue-chip household names supporting us. for example, csl has conducted an sms campaign to 2+ million subscribers, posted e-posters in their retail stores and messaged their employees to support CAN. other supporters are giving us free advertising and offering to message for us.

while all of this is happening, we are in direct communication with the government, edward yau's office, the epd and the transport department. they are well aware of what we are doing and consider us their partner in pushing forward their stated agenda (unveiled in july 09) of tightening hk's air quality objectives and passing a package of 19 abatement measures. according to the government, it plans to finalize the air quality objectives at the end of next year, giving us one year to mobilize the hong kong people.

while we seek to arm the hk government with more ammo, we are pressuring the government at the same time to accelerate the adoption of clean-up measures and enact legislation which is as stringent as possible, but still realistically feasible.

just to let you know, i assumed my full-time post as ceo of CAN on 1 october, but, thanks to the quality of the board, who include christine loh, markus shaw, elaine marden, winston chu and tony ng, we have landed running. there is yet a great distance to go, but i'm confident that we will make an impact.

i hope you will consider supporting us now that i have adduced some corroboration for the statements in the video and articulated our strategy for the next 12 months.

best,

joanne

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 1:30 PM, MAJOR HK OPINION LEADER> wrote:

But how are all your figures supported ? By what and by whom? And what is your definition of 'safe'? And most of all, what do you PROPOSE to do about cleaning up the sir to the extent of it becoming safe, or safer, in which case how much safer?

Surely its only logical that at least these questions are answered before anyone should sign your petition? Otherwise they would be doing so simply on your say-so and point-of-view?

From: Joanne Ooi

To: joanneooihk@gmail.com

Sent: Sun Nov 22 10:41:08 2009

Subject: If you care about Hong Kong, please watch and share this clip...

Dear Friends

If you care about HK's air, please take the time to watch this 2-minute video produced on a shoestring by Clean Air Network. Not a typical, boring, self-validating corporate video, but something that will make you chuckle, recoil and, i hope, REACT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE_QaOjOHzw

Seriously, if you care about Hong Kong, SHARE IT -- by email and on facebook.

It's very rare to send such a personal appeal, so I sincerely hope you will take 5 minutes out of your day to watch and SHARE THIS.

Thank you