LAMMA ISLAND, Hong Kong – The few thousand people living on Lamma Island often view themselves as hidden away on a tropical paradise, an island without crime. Seeing the crowded, polluted and shyster-riddled big city on nearby Hong Kong Island makes us extra smug. But do we deceive ourselves and live in a false paradise?

Lately, we’ve shivered in our unheated, concrete apartments while enduring the coldest spell in many decades. Week after week, the temperature seldom rises much above 10 degrees Celsius. We wear many sweaters, but the chill persists. The Canadian North, even at -40, feels much better, at least indoors.

So the “tropical island” loses its luster, and more Hong Kong Island smog seems to drift this way too. At least we still have the low crime rate? Or do we?

Often I’ve looked out my office window in Yung Shue Wan, Lamma’s largest village, and spotted young prowlers, trespassing teenagers, on the neighboring rooftops. They climb however possible, even shimmying burglar-like along drainage pipes. Once on the roofs, they walk, run or jump to adjoining buildings and nearby ones. Ominously, they peer onto balconies and scrutinize the windows of taller buildings. Are these youngsters training for lives as hardened criminals?

Most buildings in Yung Shue Wan look structurally sound, but the rooftops involved, covering one-storey homes, appear weak, even flimsy. They’re for shelter, not rooftop parades. Even if the trespassers mean no harm, they may cause damage, perhaps crashing through into someone’s house.

Another Lamma Islander also has noticed crime and wrote about it on the wildly popular Lamma-zine Website (www.lamma.com.hk):

“It didn’t take long for the newly renovated playground to be vandalized. A number of padded boards near the ‘bouncy dolphin’ have been slashed with a blade of some sort…. I often go to the playground with my kids. We waited a long time for the renovation, so I was outraged to see that some infantile idiot had spoiled it for everyone else. While there on Saturday, I asked a few older kids if they’d heard who was responsible, and they all gave me the same name. I knew the lad they’d mentioned and approached him. He denied responsibility (obviously), but said someone else had already accused him.”

Maybe there’s no such thing as a crime-free village. But mainly, Lamma Island needs for the sunshine to return. Then its people of all ages should feel better about everything.

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