Public Eye has received a distressing email from a South Asian reader whose landlord wants him out. He has a two-year lease, but his landlord exercised the option to end it after the first year with one month's notice. His nightmare began with his search for another flat. Each time he finalised a deal, the landlord refused to rent upon finding out he is South Asian. He has many messages from estate agents saying his race is preventing him from getting a flat. The man has a wife and two children. They have to leave their home by October 3 and now face the prospect of sleeping in the streets or waiting until the landlord gets a court order to evict them. But how can this happen, you might ask. Did an anti-racism law not come into effect in 2009? Yes, it did. But that law is not even worth the toilet paper it was written on. In the last five years, the Equal Opportunities Commission has taken only one case to court, that of a South Asian boy accusing the police of racism. Unison, the ethnic minorities support group that fights racism, tells us the refusal to rent to South Asians is so widespread that estate agents do not even bother to show flats to such renters. Everyone from the commission's chairperson Dr York Chow Yat-ngok to top government officials expressed revulsion when a small group of whackos used the L-word against mainland tourists. Education officials scramble to find school places in border towns for Hong Kong-born mainland children. These children get special immigration lanes. But are officials equally concerned when South Asian families cannot rent homes because of their race? Stupid question. We forwarded the reader's email to Chow. To his credit, he has assigned someone to the case, but we won't hold our breath. Our anti-racism law exists only in name. Unlike elsewhere, our anti-discrimination watchdog cannot even proactively root out racism by using people to pose as renters. The reader's predicament makes us think of the cover of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's maiden policy address last year. It shows six smiling children, including South Asians, to stress unity. What a joke.

How to ensure the best use of money? Bill Gates uses his to fight global poverty and diseases. Our tycoons donate to have faculties in foreign universities named after them. Our government ensures the best use of public money by outsourcing street-cleaning to private contractors. Street cleaners work 8½ hours a day, six days a week for HK$7,500 a month. They miss out on the Mandatory Provident Fund and other benefits because the government renews the outsourcing contract every two years, making the cleaners new employees. A spokesman described this exploitation as ensuring the best use of public money. And what about our bureaucrats with fat salaries, chauffeurs and homes on The Peak? Well, that's the best use of public money, too. Public money must be spent to keep them fat and happy so they can dream up ways to make the best use of public money.