Social responsibility - on metrication

To: Director of Broadcasting, RTHK

I am a Hong Kong citizen locally born and educated, and have been a listener and viewer of RTHK programs for years.  I very much admire the high quality of your programmes, particularly TV programs, as they are informative, objective and are not so commercially oriented.  I do think that RTHK is taking on a social responsibility for the betterment of Hong Kong and has done a great job.  One particular aspect that I would like to draw your attention to, though few people talk about it these days, is the use of metric units as far as possible in your programmes, no matter formally (as in news programs) or informally (as in phone-in programs).

I am sure you are aware that the pre-SAR government had spent lots of efforts into metrication to bring Hong Kong inline with the rest of the world (except USA) in adopting metric units in education, industry and commerce, and public services in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.  However, with the dissolution of the Metrication Commission followed by the establishment of the SAR government, there has been considerable turn-back in the steps taken.  The media, which are critical to "educating" the public to get used to using metric units through setting examples, have almost completely turned their back against all metrication initiatives.  Examples are numerous, some obvious ones being the complete conversion of units of Government land and HOS flat sales into square foot (from sq. m) in all news programs, and full use of the imperial system in TV beauty contest programs.   What is most annoying is that even the government funded RTHK has been practising the same.  All such "efforts" the media are making are pushing Hong Kong backwards, making it stand out from the rest of the countries and territories around us, namely, Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, S.E. Asia, Australia, etc.

My questions are:

1) If it is not a policy of RTHK to defend and uphold the Imperial system of measurements (I think it would be foolish to assume so), does RTHK have any guidelines in its program production to adopt metric units as far as possible so that our younger generations who have, by now, been fully trained in metric systems at school will not be "re-educated" by the media to throw away the standards and take up the old stuff again (a waste of resources and a mismatch)? (I do not want to debate the superiority of the metric system here as this was an old issue.  Ironically, the UK has recently outlawed "imperial units only" trading at the retail level, but HK is now turning back to promote it, as can be seen in all major supermarkets!)

2) Do you agree that RTHK, along with other public bodies, should do something to educate the public that metric units should be used in daily lives instead of only in the classroom and on the drawing board?

3) If you think RTHK is morally obliged to do the above, would you actually take steps to ensure that this spirit is implemented down in all programs?  As a further step, would it be possible to produce some programs to remind the public that we need to be adaptive in order to stay competitive amid globalization, not only in terms of language, business and professional skills, but also being able to show our competitors/ partners that we are at least not as dumb as unable to tell our own weight (mass) and height in kg and m?

I have long wished to write this and one of your recent programs triggered me to drop you a few lines.  I would appreciate it if I can have a reply from your organisation and hopefully see some positive changes that might demonstrate RTHK's leading position in the broadcasting field.

Best regards

K.C. Yan