Smog, schmog

Everyone's been going nuts about the super-high levels of pollution lately. True, Hong Kong's never seen this amount of smog before, what with the air pollution index (API) going off the charts in most of HK. But let's be honest here, when has HK air ever been fresh?

I remember when I was littler, I used to tell my friends, "You know you're in Hong Kong when your boogers turn black!" TMI maybe, but you know it's true. It's no different now and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Before the API existed, I'm sure this is how most HKers judged the quality of the air, among other things:

I can't say that I've noticed people doing anything differently ever since the pollution levels went up. You'd think they would all strap on a gas mask (or at least some sars/swine flu masks or something!?) given that a gazillion umbrellas pop open at the slightest hint of rain. Perhaps it's because nobody really knows know what extreme pollution does to us besides give us black boogers...