Since the Oriental Daily News announced a decrease in the selling price to $2, several other newspapers followed while some others failed to survive in the vicious competition and eventually shut down.

In my opinion, the price of a newspaper should not be opened to free market; that is, their price must be fixed. A newspaper is not simply a commercial product. It bears some special responsibilities for society, such as to report factual incidents happening around us. The newspapers that exist should be those that carry out these duties, but not those backed up by business giants.

Some people welcome the idea of the price of newspapers to be opened to free market forces. They argue that this can provide incentive for current newspapers to strike for improvement — for example, to have more colourful pages and better printing quality. However, if the competition in selling price continues, only few newspapers will ultimately survive and dominate the whole market.

Moreover, consumers will have fewer choices. This will be harmful to our sources of information, especially if the standpoints of the remaining newspapers are similar. Readers are the ones who lose at the end.

I sincerely beg all the newspaper readers to be more mature and rational. Quality, objectivity and credibility should be the most important criteria in choosing newspapers rather than merely the selling price.

I refer to the article headlined “Driving in the dark” in the January issue, about the economic hardship local taxi drivers face.

I understand that taxi drivers have their reasons to request rises in taxi fares because they are under the pressure of inflation. However, this does not mean that they have the right to deprive passengers’ interests so as to make more money.

Last Friday, I took a taxi in Sham Shui Po to Tai Kok Tsui. I was shocked by the taxi driver, who told me he did not know the way. I suspected he was lying, since the distance between Sham Shui Po and Tai Kok Tsui was not long enough for him to make much money. Then I lied and told him that I would go to Tai Kok Tsui to meet my friend and would go to Causeway Bay later on. Afterwards, he said he suddenly remembered the way and drove me there. Getting to Tai Kok Tsui and knowing that I was not going to Causeway Bay, the taxi driver berated me.

I do not mean to take one for all, but I think some taxi drivers should really behave themselves and be honest to their passengers. They are in the service industry in which most of their income is derived from their passengers. Cheating the passengers definitely does no good to them in the long run because passengers can turn to other substitutes such as minibuses.

Meanwhile, with the increasing taxi fares and the existence of substitutes for taxis, the demand for taxi service will inevitably fall. I think the government should offer some financial assistance to taxi drivers. Otherwise, we can hardly get a taxi in the middle of the night because this industry can no longer survive in the economic hardship.

I am a student at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Every time I walk to the canteen for lunch, I can see a lot of promotional counters set out in the open areas. People from different student’s associations and organizations distribute handbills there. If I take whatever they give me, I will receive at least eight little leaflets. However, these beautifully printed materials are usually just thrown into rubbish bins. The amount of paper wasted is too enormous to be ignored.

I appreciate that many different parties try to inform me about their background and activities . But throwing away so much clean paper is not what I have expected. Therefore, refusing the handbills is my only choice. Why don’t those students think of other methods that are more beneficial to the environment?

Moreover, distribution of handbills is a widely used method for commercial advertising. I cannot remember how many times the green groups have criticized this. I don’t understand why the students still use this advertising strategy.

Being the designers of a future world, we have the responsibility not to follow suit the past misdeeds. Let’s stop wasting paper now.

By the way, a paper collection box for recycling has been placed in a dark corner beside the canteen. Do you remember to put the leaflets that you have already read into that collection box? Does it help prevent wasting paper? Maybe, re-collecting and re-distributing handbills are better than recycling.

I am writing to comment on the denial of responsibility over the Vietnamese boat people problem by Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind in a meeting.

Mr. Rifkind believed it was solely Hong Kong government’s job to deal with the thorny problem. Most legislators were outraged as Hong Kong really had no say in the matter.

However, Britian did not want to shoulder the burden of taking in the refugees. Hong Kong was then ordered to take in 3,000 Vietnamese in 1979. Later, Hong Kong was declared as the port of first asylum. As a colony, we could do nothing about diplomatic policy.

It is definitely clear that Britain has no planning on resolving this problem. For the past 16 years, Britain has done little to help. We should have no expectation on the British politicians.

Instead of blaming anyone, we should concentrate on enticing all concerning parties to help. Action always speak louder than words.