“The Gods must be crazy” or not

The recent weeks have been absolutely fantastic for those who, week after week, try to find themes to fulfil; in this case, the left part of the third or fourth page of the – with all due respect to the others – best newspaper in Macau! Here are some examples: The strange case of the Association of gaming employees who want to cap tables Firstly, there was an association of individuals trying to defend their jobs in the gaming industry saying something along the lines: “We request the government to stop allowing more table games!” Oh, well, after almost fourteen years I still get flabbergasted by some of the comments and need to read them again in order to assess whether I’m reading correctly. Yes, Macau dealers want the government to stop authorising new tables to casinos. I don’t know who’s behind these ideas and therefore if someone knows who he, she or they are, do tell them that I’d be pleased to spring for lunch to understand the position. Maybe I’m the one who doesn’t know how to read signals. Government offering legal services Secondly, and in this case directly affecting my profession, we had a Secretary of the Macau Government offering legal services to the buyers of units in a construction development, the land concession of which is about to expire due to the inaction of said government. Yes, the Macau Government now provides legal advice to citizens who make a private deal with a private company. Not only the Macau Government but some high profile persons with highly respected professional credentials and offices announced their pro bono availability for those buyers. As to the latter, I’m all for true pro bono. As to the Macau Government, please let me know whether this is going to be the rule, as some clients of the office where I work may want to know that the government now offers free legal advice. That would also help us internally to forecast the future of the profession and prepare our trainees to start thinking about changing job. Hopefully, there will be no claims for illicit provision of legal services by the Macau Government! Humidity, the evil of our Internet speed Thirdly, well, if the above two happenings were not sufficient, then we had the declarations of a high ranking official stating in black and white that the reason for the low speed of the Internet in the tiny Special Administrative Region we call home is the HUMIDITY! Yes, I’m sure that the next step will be for the service providers to include clauses in their contracts disclaiming liability: ‘As a service provider we DISCLAIM all liability for any loss or damage suffered by Internet users. Such losses or damages are solely caused by humidity’. This is, since I have started pretending to study law, the best statement I have ever seen. Hopefully, this trend will be so strong that all providers of all types of services will categorically state it in their contracts. At least, I’m sure the government will provide free advice to those damaged users. Merry Christmas, My Learned Friends and Dearest Readers, and beware the humidity!