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Founded in 1997 in reaction to the sale of the SCMP by Rupert Murdoch to Peking-friendly billionaire Robert Kuok, in exchange for satellite broadcasting rights in Mainland China, NOT The South China Morning Post is Hong Kong's first and foremost online English publication and is committed to press freedom. Proud to be electronic but never a mere blog. " I think of Dr. George Adams and "NOT the South China Morning Post" as kin to the lone Chinese who challenged the column of tanks at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989." - Editor and Publisher Magazine, "Bible" of the Publishing World " One of the top fifty names on the international Web." - Online Journalism Review PODCASTS in glorious low bitrate MP3: NTSCMP v Hemlock Podcast 1 : Part 1 / Part 2, Podcast Two and Podcast 3 (a review of Hong Kong 2006). Listen also to Joe McGinniss, distinguished USA investigative author currently preparing a book on the Kissel family tragedies. FREE HONG KONG BOOKS : Games Hong Kong People Play / The Great Hong Kong Sex Novel. Karan Armstrong & James King sing "Glück das mir verblieb" (a.k.a. the Mariettenlied, Mariettalied or Marietta's Song) from Erich Korngold's opera Die Tote Stadt. Berlin, 1983. MUSIC OF THE MONTH : Korngold's Cello Concerto in C Major at last on YouTube!! The short work has a searing central section where Korngold quotes not so much from (1946), the film which inspired the piece, but from what is for me one of the greatest of all Hollywood films and all film scores (Korngold himself thought it his best): Between Two Worlds (1944). Fifty years after his death in obscurity and exile, the great Austrian composer's works are almost all now committed to disc and in 2009 his finest opera Die Tote Stadt is to be given its British premiere at Covent Garden. (For Kathy) - The Second Movement of Korngold's Violin Concerto... and the Love Duet from the First Act of Korngold's Die Kathrin....and for me: Richard Strauss's Morgen, the closing scene of Wagner's Parsifal and the central adagio excerpt from Korngold's Piano Concerto For The Left Hand. ALWAYS NEWSWORTHY : THE POST'S OWNER IS THE MAIN CAUSE OF THE ORANGUTAN'S EXTINCTION AND HIS BIOFUELS ARE BRINGING POVERTY TO MILLIONS...
WATCH A REVEALING VIDEO ABOUT BIODIESEL AND THE DESTRUCTION OF BORNEO. READ A RECENT NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT BIOFUELS AND FOOD PRICES. "SIR" DAVID TANG PETITION
"We the undersigned object to the recent knighthood of the rich Hong Kong tailor David Tang and call on the British Government to quash this title, awarded for no good reason to this fatuous vainglorious socialite and jetsetting media bore." ENCOURAGER LES AUTRES
(RTHK) BUDGET BONANZA
LOOKALIKE Brenda Kuok writes: "I am sure I am not the first to notice the staggering resemblance between " everything but the laughter" humourist Nury Vittachi and Mini Me from the Austin Powers James Bond spoofs. In his constant self-satire as wannabe popular novelist and faux Asian guerilla journalist, has Vittachi at last discovered a sense of humour? Let's hope so." KWEER KUOK KLAN UPDATE The intrepid David Webb reports :
An alert reader draws our attention to this by the United States Treasury, and this statement by President Bush, imposing financial sanctions against Mr Lo Hsing Han (Mr Lo), his son Steven Law (also known as Tun Myint Naing), and Law's wife Cecilia Ng, and various companies under their control, for providing support to the military junta currently ruling Burma. The Treasury says it has identified ten private companies in Singapore held by Cecilia Ng, including Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd (Golden Aaron), which it is sanctioning. The designation freezes any assets which are subject to US jurisdiction and prohibits all commercial transactions by any U.S. person (including US banks) with the designated persons. According to the US Government: "In addition to their support for the Burmese regime, Steven Law and Lo Hsing Han have a history of involvement in illicit activities. Lo Hsing Han, known as the "Godfather of Heroin," has been one of the world's key heroin traffickers dating back to the early 1970s. Steven Law joined his father's drug empire in the 1990s and has since become one of the wealthiest individuals in Burma." What the Treasury didn't mention, but we can tell you, is that Golden Aaron is the joint venture partner of Chinese government-controlled CNOOC Ltd (CNOOC, HK: 00883, NYSE:CEO) in exploring for oil and gas in Myanmar. According to an in the Myanmar official daily, the first contract was signed on 22-Oct-04 in a ceremony attended by CNOOC chairman Fu Chengyu and Golden Aaron director Mr Chua Chay Jin. Incidentally, the only other reference we can find to "Chua Chay Jin" also relates to Myanmar - back on 27-Apr-98, he visited a Myanmar ministry when he was General Manager of Myanmar Kuok Oils and Grains Ltd, presumably related to Singapore-based , part of the privately-held Kerry Group controlled by Robert Kuok, who also controls SCMP Group Ltd (0583), Kerry Properties Ltd (0683) and Shangri-la Asia Ltd (00069), which owns 59.16% of Traders Yangon Co Ltd, which owns the , Myanamar, opened in Nov-96. It is part-owned by Mr Lo's Asia World Co. Ltd conglomerate. VERSACE RETURNS
Enid Fenby writes: "I couldn't help noticing that the edition of the Hong Kong Standard announcing the return of comic legend Nury Vittachi runs an unfortunate front cover headline the same day:"Backing A Loser". You can't make this stuff up." JUST FANCY THAT !
(SCMP) (Hong Kong Standard) GET YER SCHLONGERS OUT
FUNNY OLD BRITAIN
(BBC) POETRY CORNER ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET AND LYDIA SHUM R.I.P.
This is a sensational and thoughtful guide to political anilingus and is a welcome addition to both sexual self-help and Hong Kong's political literature. The author, who is now 89 and enjoying his retirement on an estate in the New Territories he bought cheap at the time, is a well-known sexologist (101 Positions To Take) and former civil servant who often crops up on radio talk shows and at important receptions. He recently backed Geena Hip, a lap dancer and performance artiste, in her bid for a Legco seat. Political anilingus involves a variety of techniques to stimulate political interest in the Chinese Communist Party including kissing, licking and sliding the tongue in and out of the host in public. Pleasure for the receiver comes from the feeling that he is being given unconditional support by a respectable old man in a suit who happens to be European and speak English. It's a disgusting habit and he ought to be ashamed of himself. PEKING OLYMPICS "DELAYED UNTIL 2017" SHOCK
Above: The UN report was actively discussed at the National People's Congress. Holding the Olympics in 2017 is the expected timetable Beijing will have to decide on following a United Nations submission of a long-awaited report on democratic reform. In concluding the report - described as "utterly disappointing" by the DAB in Hong Kong but by no one else- sources said setting the timetable for implementing universal suffrage "can help promote the ultimate resolution of the issues involved." To this end, the 176-strong Standing Committee of the National People's Congress will discuss at its bi-monthly meeting the UN's 18-paragraph report and recommendations from December 17-29. In an official report to top legislator Wu Bangguo, the UN stated that Mainland people are getting more pragmatic and rational, as they eagerly await a timetable for universal suffrage, which would help set the course for the country's constitutional development, end political squabbling and finally drag the nation into the 19th century. "Implementing universal suffrage for the Politburo first in 2012 is the expectation of more than half of the public, as reflected in the opinion polls," sources said. Enid Fenby writes: " Over four months ago you highlighted the mirth potential of Mr Tsang Tak-sing - telling a crowd of businessmen to be more patriotic and to oppose globalisation the day China bought the biggest share of Barclays Bank - and promised us more fun to come. You can really spot 'em! Well done." Very few people believe in the political acumen of Sir Donald Tsang, our Peking-appointed Governor, but what a masterstroke the appointment of Tsang Tak-sing to the Home Affairs portfolio has been already. It looks even better than giving Financial Affairs to his rival and telling him to push a sales tax. What personal or political gain people like T S Tsang see in mouthing outdated froth to a hostile public is hard to fathom. At 58, Tak-sing knows that he has no chance of real power and his whole career path now seems aimed at a kind of Dave Spart bloodymindedness and self-immolation in public. This man looks ridiculous and sounds even worse. What wonderful entertainment awaits us. Keep it up TS! FOOTINMOUTHNOTE: TS's speech was delivered the same day our beloved leaders in Peking - somewhat globalisationally - bought the biggest stake in Europe's biggest bank Barclays. Fanatics however never react to events. They put the same record back on the turntable. FUNNY OLD ENGLAND Dear Dr. Adams, I've been a longtime follower of the ups and downs of NTSCMP but became rather more interested when your site was apparently blocked for a while by the Li Ka-shing-owned ISP Netvigator.com because of your regular criticism of the business practices of other companies owned by him and his family. Of course, the usual denials were forthcoming, but it seems this is pretty much : "Li’s first job is to check the press for anything that relates to himself or his companies. He speaks English, but prefers to read Chinese, so relevant parts of the English-language papers are translated before his arrival. Li also pays close attention to what brokerage reports say about his firms. Those who provoke his ire can expect a call from one of Li’s lieutenants or a letter from his lawyers. Li has frequently withheld advertising from newspapers that upset him." More recently, inspired by your crusading efforts to reveal the truth behind that other Asian Godfather Robert Kuok's palm oil interests and their effects on fragile rainforest ecosystems in Malaysia and Indonesia, I started doing a bit of research. One of my earliest resorts was the web site www.palmoiltruthfoundation.com. On my first attempt to load this site, however,I received a warning from my security software in the following terms: "You have attempted to establish a connection with 'www.scarcup.com'. However, the security certificate presented belongs to 'localhost:localdomain' [i.e. Netvigator.com]. It is possible, though unlikely, that someone may be trying to intercept your communication with this web site." Oh, dear! What, or who, on earth is www.scarcup.com? A Whois.net lookup revealed that the domain was privately registered by a US-based organisation known as 1&1 Internet Inc, of 701 Lee Road, Suite 300, Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, telephone number +1 (877) 206 4254. Not very helpful.I decided to risk it, accepted the bogus security certificate for one session, and tried a second time, when this popped up: Could it be that Li Ka-shing's Netvigator ISP was preventing me from accessing the Palm Oil Truth Foundation site, and if so, why? Does Mr Li perhaps share some common interest with Mr Kuok in covering up the truth about palm oil?So, a bit more digging, Page 18: "That year [1993], Kuok was also appointed by China’s government as a director and made a shareholder of Citic Pacific, the Hong Kong-listed arm of the Beijing-based government agency, China International Trust and Investment Corporation (Citic)… Another prominent director on Citic’s board is Hong Kong’s Li Ka Shing." So they are buddies, after all. … "Members of the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission are distributing materials that misrepresent the carbon balance of oil-palm plantations, according to accounts from people who have seen presentations by commission members. These officials are apparently arguing that oil-palm plantations store and sequester many times the amount of CO2 as natural forests, and therefore that converting forests for plantations is the best way to fight climate change. In making such claims, these Indonesian representatives evidently are ignoring data that show the opposite, putting the credibility of the oil-palm industry at risk, and undermining efforts to slow deforestation and rein in greenhouse gas emissions."..."Few serious scientists would support the claim that oil-palm plantations store more carbon than natural tropical forests. In fact, several recent studies show that oil-palm plantations, when established in place of peat lands and natural forests, produce more greenhouse gas emissions relative to natural forests. If the use of fertilizer and emissions from processing are factored in, the climate impact of converting natural forests for oil palm is even greater." Page 4; "LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR FOREST DESTRUCTION - "The ADM-Kuok-Wilmar alliance is a case in point, recently announcing 'rapid expansion plans' in relation to biodiesel. One subsidiary, PT Wilmar Bio-Energi, commissioned its first biodiesel plant in Dumai, Riau in January 2007 and two more facilities were scheduled to be commissioned later in 2007. Total capacity is 1.05Mt."..."Wilmar boasts that the location of the plants 'provides easy access to abundant cheap raw materials'. At the same time, between early 2006 and mid-2007, the ADM-Kuok-Wilmar alliance has made a fivefold increase in its concession area, gaining control of 570,000 hectares, of which nearly two-thirds have yet to be cleared and planted."..."In line with Indonesian law, Wilmar declared that its companies 'adhere strictly to a zero burning policy and do not engage in any logging activities'. Field investigation in July 2007 in Wilmar’s recently acquired holdings in Central Kalimantan Documented active and recent evidence of forest clearance." And…Page 6: "A handful of powerful players control much of the international trade in palm oil from Indonesia, among them Cargill, the world’s biggest private company, the ADM-Kuok-Wilmar alliance, currently the world’s biggest biofuels manufacturer and Synergy Drive, the Malaysian government controlled company that is soon to become the world’s biggest palm oil conglomerate. "Following business-as-usual logic, industry’s current expansion strategy – including taking advantage of concern about climate change to push palm oil as a source of biodiesel – casts an ominous shadow over our ability to cut emissions. "Much of the current and predicted expansion oil palm plantations is taking place on peatlands which are among the world’s most concentrated carbon stores. "Ten million of the 22.5 million hectares of peatland in Indonesia have already been cleared of forest and have been drained, resulting in a substantial and continuing increase in GHG emissions as peat soils dry out, oxidise and even burn. |
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