ARCHIVES : SUMMER 2007
EXPAT OF THE WEEK SPECIAL
(HK Standard)
DISCRIMINATION TODAY
As last year, the image-conscious health food chain McDonalds Hong Kong is promoting UN World Children's Day through a Singing Contest. The application forms are only in Chinese. Long live international understanding and global awareness.
THE ANGUS VIEW
That "recovery" in the stock markets...
Depends how you define 'recovered'. Remember how Tsang manufactured the 'recovery' of the HK$ back in the post-97 crash? He used govt money to buy up the $ / shares in the Hang Seng and then later introduced the MPF scheme to sell all the stocks back to the public - brilliant really, that means that the public has paid for them twice: once with their taxes and the second time with their pension funds - thus keeping the rich rich and the poor paying for it. Well, after that useful experiment (thanks HK!) MPFs have been introduced all over the world - only this time in advance of the crash. NZ's was introduced (or should I say, rushed through parliament) in June this year. In the US, they have the plunge protection team (PPT) which is a division of the Federal Reserve which creates money out of thin air and goes into action whenever there is any kind of downward movement in the share indeces. They don't literally roll the printing presses these days (it's a lot easier than that now with computers) they tap in the amount of US$bn that's required and buy up the whole stock market. If you look at the daily graphs for the Dow Jones, you can see where each pile of cash has been thrown in as there's a huge spike in the price before it starts to fall again. In the past, we've all been led by the nose and told the wonders of the 'free-market' - well here's the reality. When it's your (the plebs) money, it's a free market: when it's rich people's money, they 'inject liquidity' (create money out of thin air) to save them. The change in direction is due to the FR cutting interest rates. It's another patch, George. China, India, Russia etc are already bailing out of US$ holdings because the currency is so devalued (because so much of it has been created out of thin air); one of the few reasons to carry on holding US$ was that interest rates were rising which went some way to offset the loss in value. Now, they have a falling US$ AND lower interest rates. The Euro/Yen/Ruble look like safer havens in the long term.
VOCATIONAL CONFUSION GIRL GIVEN LIGHT SENTENCE
A well-known former Secretary for Security and mop lady has been given the opportunity to to "make good" and rescue her tarnished image by grabbing a seat in Legco after doing a deal with the DAB. The woman, who suffers from what psychologists call "vocational confusion", admitted masquerading as a politician whilst in reality she is a failed yes-woman from an era Hong Kong would like to forget. In sentencing her to a humiliating contest against a competitor with brains, charisma and a programme, James "Nematode" Tien, JP said:"We just can't lose on this one."
MORE WESTERN DECADENCE
(Supplied by Angus)
TASTELESS JOKE OF THE MOMENT
Q.: Why is the Hong Kong Stock Exchange like a certain type of gay man?
A.: It's always struggling to find a bottom.
(Bum, bum.)
GOLDENBALLS OF THE WEEK
And the prize goes to China Light and Power Chief Executive Andrew Brandler for suggesting how kind his company is in holding prices stable for nine years, despite the fact that the company has just announced a 23% rise in profits to more than six billion dollars. Perhaps the monopoly CLP has been overcharging us for nine years and more. Who knows? Brandler gave the impression on RTHK (naturally unchallenged by the poodlish Government broadcaster) that the company was under the pressure of international fuel prices (i.e. oil) when everyone knows it is the one of the biggest burners of dirty China coal on the planet. Greenpeace wrote in 2005 that: " China Light and Power’s (CLP) reliance on coal-fired power generation across Asia is estimated to have exacted a cost to the environment of around HK$30 billion in 2004 - three and a half times the group’s 2004 profits. CLP are not only Hong Kong’s largest power company but also have extensive investments across the Asia-Pacific region. The problem is that most of these investments are in coal plants. CLP continue to ignore the impacts of using this dirty energy source, instead of investing in a clean, sustainable renewable energy source like wind power. If CLP were to switch their investment from dirty to clean energy, this would help to overturn the damage they had caused the environment and the peoples that live in and would help give us all a better future. If CLP continue to ‘stick their heads in the sand’ by burning coal in the region, carbon dioxide will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere warming our planet even more and causing ever more drastic changes to our climate." Nice snow job, Andrew!
THOSE DUMBED-DOWN HONG KONG CONSUMER COUNCIL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO WATCH
1. Hermes ties: did you check the wrapping? Insist on having yours ironed before you leave the shop.
2. Lip gloss: is the package intact or has some dirty domestic helper or shop assistant tried it before you?
3. South China Morning Post: you never know how many foreigners have touched it, do you?
4. Lift buttons: with SARS at bay only temporarily, demand continued disinfection as your right.
ON OTHER PAGES: Page 98
-Hong Kong Monopolies: why we need them.
Page 198 - Park 'N' Shop: Supermarket chain or social welfare
facility?
TYPHOON CONSPIRACY UPDATE
NTSCMP's typhoon
coverage seems to have forgotten that last year's
non-typhoon was not about the stock market. The Legco was
in special
sitting to allow the police to continue to violate our
rights. A
number 8 signal would have adjourned the sitting and the police
would
have had to remove all their wiretaps.
BP, Tuen Mun
Asian
markets are down over 4% this morning and the skies look dark...
Typhoon Sepat is fast approaching... Taiwan. No excuses this time
around (unless we get a computer glitch :) )
Love your blog. Regards, PB.
CHINA TO RECALL "SHODDY GOODS"
After years of complaints by Hong Kong consumers, Mainland authorities are said to be seriously considering recalling a number of its products distributed in Hong Kong public life. These include a number of well-known politicians, business tycoons and patriotic triads. "The goods in question are substandard, flaky, fail to live up to expectations and are potentially dangerous," said a spokesman for the Consumer Council. Two well-known products, the Rita Fan Dom Doll and the Jasper Tsang Halloween Mask are rumoured already to be earmarked for early withdrawal to Peking. The much appreciated Ma Lik range of "Peking Plush Poodles" has already been "discontinued", sources say.
EXPATS OF THE WEEK
(Harry The Horse)
THE THINGS THEY SAY
Cheng Sing-ho, 23, pleaded guilty in July to two counts of using a false instrument and one of forgery. Another charge of forgery was placed on the court file. Cheng was in the final year of the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws course when he was charged by the ICAC this year.
(HK Standard)
A HONG KONG CLASSIC RIPOFF
Naxos, the brainchild of Klaus Heymann, is a Hong Kong based record company which has now virtually cornered the market in classical new releases, largely because the wily company still gives artists a flat fee (said to be minuscule) and no royalties. Naxos records are available at HMV in Hong Kong for HK$ 49.00. Eager to beat Universal Music and others to the tape with unrestricted downloads, Naxos has launched Classicsonline and offers the same basic product in 192 bitrate MP3, a shadow of the original CD, for over HK$ 60.00. The gross yield of a CD accruing to Naxos are usually HK$ 25-30 and the overheads of producing the sound file, a CD, a case and liner notes and then promoting and distributing the same reduce this to a ten dollars or less per CD. Yet Naxos and Heymann have done very well out if it all, thank you. Now that the enormous digital and comparatively overhead-free ripoff has been launched at Classicsonline it remains to be seen what percentage of the profits will be given back to the underpaid artists. Their contracts may well have surrendered CD rights but not MP3 rights. Perhaps someone ought to gather them up into a class action and make sure they get their just rewards in this great leap forward of digital enrichment. So HK isn't it - -selling an inferior product for more money and keeping all the profits for yourself? Or perhaps Mr Heymann has founded an artists' benevolent fund we know nothing about. Many of the artists on which the company was founded are now retired and living in Eastern Europe. They could surely do with a bit of extra cash.
THAT TYPHOON CONSPIRACY IN FULL
Sirs,
I'm not sure if you've noticed the dodgy behaviors of the Hong
Kong Observatory (HKO).
Typhoon Pabuk had top winds of 90km/h and T8 was hoisted, while
last years 250km/h Typhoon on a Wednesday morning didn't receive
no grading except for a T3 ...
I have a sneaking suspicion there is a force
majeur governing our HKO and, no, it isn't strong winds
... but perhaps it is the HSI (Heng Seng Index)...
A couple of coincidences:
- Yesterday happens to be one of the worst drops in the history
of the Nikkei and the Heng Seng... - Thursday Pabuk hits us
directly and we didn't receive any warnings because winds are too
weak, but Friday afternoon was different for some reason... -
Last years Typhoon, however, with triple the wind speeds didn't
receive no higher warnings - T8 was hoisted just in time for the
stock market to close down before London/European Investment
bankers wake up to start early trading ... at least that's what
it looks like
I imagine the following scenario: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/chungking/525623
Some high ranking guy from Heng Seng Index (HSI) calling some
high ranking guy at the Hong Kong Observatory at 1 p.m.:
HSI: Sik cho fan ma ah? This is HSI ... is this the HK
Observatory (HKO)? HKO: Hiah! Mei sik, mei sik... how can I help
you lah? HSI: Aiyaaaa, Have you heard the news? The Markets are
paniking! HSI is down 3.3% and London trading is about to start
in three hours laaaah!!! HKO: AYAAAAAA! I already lost a $ in
JUST ONE DAY ... YAUMENTAYAH LAAAAH! HSI: Yaumantay,
yaumantay indeed .... But you can help, lah... just hoist
TYPHOON 8 Warning right away before London starts paniking!
HKO: Cannot LAH! Typhooon is to weak and last year we didn't
raise T8 at tripple strength of Typhoon lah! HSI: AYAAH ... big
difference... last year was Wednesday morning, lah and good
trading day lah!!! Today is bad trading and Friday afternoon lah.
Just Raise T8 warning now! MOMENTAYAH, nobody will ask questions,
lah, everybody get's into weekend earlier lah!!!
HKO: HI, HI ... MOMENTAY!!! Typhoon 8 will be hoisted right after
lunch right before London trading starts! Everybody go home
NOW!!!!
What do you think?
Fred
IT'S THAT HONG KONG PANIC MOMENT
Like all essentially peasant cultures, Hong Kong lives in two modes: apathy and panic. Yesterday afternoon, the populace was again gripped by the latter as it rushed headlong for the place 90% of Hong Kong people consider the ultimate haunt of boredom and atrophy: home. Our MTR correspondent reported swooning old folk, pregnant women pushed out of the way and a general air of Doomsday. It was a bit blowy out.
Meanwhile as usual, the Government showed how cheap and unprepared it really is, despite all its reams of policy documents and echelons of civil servants. The crucial Hong Kong Observatory weather bulletin website crashed within an hour and the telephone networks jammed. Surely it might have been possible to turn on specially prepared proxy servers and exchanges but that might need investment, foresight and a sure and decisive hand. On Monday and all next week, a new stock market crash looms, one rarely seen before. The headless chickens are gathering in the farmyard. All in all, it's time to buy that sack of rice and pull down the shutters.
GRATUITOUS SCMP PLA PIC OF THE DAY TO DELIGHT ITS PEKING BACKERS AND REMIND US WHO'S BOSS
TOP OF THE FORM
LINES ON THE DEATH OF MA LIK
So, farewell then Ma
Lik,
Or Lick Pe-King as you were known
In the vernacular.
"Sign up demented pensioners in North Point and bus them to
the
Polling booths on election day with promises of free bags of rice
at Lunar New Year."
Yes, that was your catchphrase.
You popped your clogs on lucky eighth of the eighth,
The same day in fact as the glorious Motherland
Was beginning the final countdown to its great sports day
propaganda event,
Smog and human rights record permitting.
Perhaps you were trying to tell us something
After all.
(E J Wong, Patriot, 17¾)
THE LATEST PCCW RIPOFF
With broadband prices falling all over the world, PCCW reacts to the market reality by increasing charges overnight by over ten per cent. Changing providers is impossible for many, as for me in my building in Stanley. It behoves companies holding monopolies to behave in a responsible and non-exploitative fashion. I have no choice of electricity provider either. That is also owned by the Li family. Long live free market Hong Kong.
I-SPY SHAU KEI WAN
A domestic helper employment agency in Hong Kong. Displaying humans in the year 2007 like slaves to be bought does indeed qualify you as some kind of wanka.
THOSE NEW DOT NAMES IN FULL
.blog For any site featuring aimless personal reflections and links to trivial news stories.
.nerd For any site devoted to reviewing new electronic gadgets.
.psycho For any site devoted to conspiracy theories.
.celeb For sites devoted to immortalizing present or has-been stars and starlets.
.nigeria For any site intent on gathering your credit card data to defraud you.
.pink For any girlie site offering beauty hints, slimming aids and shopping updates.
.tufton For corporate sites flying the flag for boring companies and men in suits.
(That's enough dots. Ed.)
EXPATS OF THE WEEK
(Harry The Horse, Angeles City, Phillipines)
SCMP PROPAGANDA NEWS
You know you're in the Third World when military leaders appear on the front page of newspapers.You know you're reading a Communist Party stooge publication when they follow the Peking line of building up the image of the murderous automatons of Tiananmen. South China Morning Post: the unreadable in full pursuit of the indefensible.
LOOKALIKE
Enid Fenby writes: " I am sure I am not the first to note the considerable similarity between stand-up Jewish comedian and Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert and Jimmy Durante, late American pianist, comedian and actor. Were the two men ever seen together? I doubt it. I am still waiting for a cheque by the way." ( Keep waiting. Ed.)
RESTAURANT REVIEW
As Hong Kong battles the inevitable insect pests of the torrid summer, one restaurant in Stanley takes the lead in alimentary hygiene.
GOLDENBALLS OF THE WEEK
And the prize goes to Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges for talking a whole minute on RTHK (naturally unchallenged by the reporter) in celebration of the Hong Kong Jockey Club's record profits without using once the G word - gambling. HKJC CEO Engelbrat instead talked about horses, trainers and the "services" offered by the "Club" - also without mentioning why they have monopolised the very un-horsey soccer betting and how self-respecting people can defend the widespread degradation and social mayhem brought about by the Jockey Club's organised gambling racket in Hong Kong over many decades.
HK GOVERNMENT APOLOGISES FOR SEX SLAVES
ANGUS WRITES: What's the story with this one? I only ask because my social conscience has been pricked, naturally...ahem!
NTSCMP replies: We just mean it is ironic that the Chinese in Hong Kong and the Mainland get so shirty about the comfort women of World War II and demand apologies and compensation from Japan all the time - including yesterday - when they keep hundreds of Thai, Filipino, Mainland and local sex slaves themselves. The above screen capture is from sex141.com, one of the top few dozen websites in HK. It advertises sexual services. One woman brothels are not illegal in Hong Kong. The gals are often forced into it by triads, family and economic circumstances. The brothels of HK yield mighty revenue for the landlords. We believe they are charged swingeing rents at places like the Harilela Mansion. It's a taboo issue in the English press anyway. The SCMP and Standard both run ads for callgirl (and callboy) agencies. Of course, many hookers are just greedy sluts I guess. But no different in spirit to the typical HK married relationship of sex for Cartier and Prada.
QUEEN'S PIER LATEST
ANSON MOVES ON
JUST FANCY THAT
Look at the top of the photograph. The area we used to call the "Harbour" is now "Reclamation Area". We are pleased the Government is at last coming clean on this issue.
THE NEW MR FOOT IN MOUTH
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.
SEX EDUCATION HK STYLE
All those poor shocked children and all those copulating dogs. Don't the organisers know better than to project social niceties onto objects that just react to smells and pheromones? Some basic stupidity here. Dogs are more likely to be abandoned when they do not come up to human naive expectations of them. Perhaps this accounts for Hong Kong's throwaway pet culture. The SAA ought not to put its name to such ignorant nonsense. Shame on them - and on Hang Lung for providing the venue.
FUNNY OLD ENGLAND
As the British wake up to see flooding disasters they once witnessed with vague interest in Bangladesh now happening in their overpriced surburbias, let us note the adaptive power of the schools which already offer fish fingers to their kids every day of the week.
Meanwhile, in other parts of the great nation, the anticipated swamps, deserts and velds of climate change Britain are already being reflected in ordinary restaurant menus.
LOOKALIKE
ENID FENBY WRITES: " Private Eye pointed out some time ago the resemblance between J K Rowling's husband and her fictional character Harry Potter. Few people take this eminent UK organ in Hong Kong so I think my reminding your readers of this interesting fact ought to qualify me for a cheque from you at last." (No, it doesn't. Ed.)
LONG LIVE BAD TASTE : SUPPORT EL JUEVES
READER WRITES:"Kind regards from Spain. Here“s a story that might interest you. Namely: a Spanish publication called El Jueves (The Thursday, a sort of Mad magazine in Spain) has been seized by a Spanish judge. The reason - the cover showed Crown Prince Felipe making love to his wife, and saying: "You see? If you get pregnant, it“ll be the closest thing to working I“ve ever done in my life", an allusion to Spanish president Zapatero“s recent promise to reward any newborn with 2,500 euros" We note also that the web site is now down. This cover may be in bad taste but what the hell. The parasitic, inbred, greedy, hypocritical royal families of Europe and elsewhere deserve this kind of treatment. It also looks so much like Charles and Camilla., doesn't it?
THOSE DAVID LI DOCTORAL CITATIONS IN FULL
Salute Te o Davidus, pulcra bankorum et magnum defendor familia Liae Hongkongorum, qui nunc multa horribilis "insider trader" qualificat est. Corpulente, jocunde, non lingua britannicum possendi, arrogante et clarum cerebrum non competens, tu occasionus multa guffawae et opprobrum publicens et in Americanum persona non grata est. Non volens retirum et nunc ridiculensis figurum presentat. Gerontum idiocensis famila Liae est et populum urinam sur te. O mores o tempae.
HK BABES ON THE MAKE
This week: Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung
CRISTAL SLAGG WRITES: Come off it Hong Kong!!!! What's wrong with a pretty gal making a bit of extra pin money on a hot stock tip???? Has anyone seen the prices of goodies in Central these days????!!!??? So sometimes a gal has to bend a few regulations and shift a few million around in a hurry. So what!!!!!!!!!???? Get off it busters!!!!????!!! Here's one gal who says hats off to Charlotte and stuff all those boring Stock Exchange regulators!!!! What are relatives for!!!!! Geddit????!!!
Charlotte honey, how much Prada can one girl need???? I mean for Christ's sake, eight million US ought to be considered a bit on the heavy side, even by Hong Kong society standards, geddit?????!!!! As for that fat chump David Li, bet you won't be jetting of to the US any time soon!!!!! Maybe you can come up and see poor old Cristal and slip her few hot tips!!!! God knows, I need 'em these days with all my best honeys out of town and sitting on a beach somewhere with their boring wives and screaming kids!!!! David baby, I'm all yours!!!!!!! Geddit?????!!!!
(Cristal Slagg appears by courtesy of TVB)
HOW THEY ARE RELATED
Having the Chief Justice, a former Executive Councillor and a bigwig at the Bar Association in the immediate family must give arrogant buffoons like David Li a warm Teflon feeling most days - but if we look back a generation we see that even a Li can get the slammer for share dealing irregularities. The Hong Kong rich and powerful: one happy family.
CHEUNG KONG'S SLUMS IN THE SKY
LOYAL READER WRITES: Great site! Here's something to share with your readers... Attached is a notice that appeared in all lobbies and elevators of Laguna Verde in Hung Hom a Cheung Kong development managed by Goodwell Property Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of er...Cheung Kong Holdings. Check out the awards they've won for quality and service...They're great, just ask them! Anyhow...Goodwell Property Management also runs the Laguna Verde Residents' Club. I've been living at Laguna Verde since 2002 and have owned my flat since 2004. Upon moving here it became clear that the word "Management" was a somewhat dubious and perhaps exaggerated distinction. On June 16th apparently a knife and....get ready....fish head were discovered in the swimming pool. The notice picks up the story. But apart from fish-head throwing residents I've been battling "management" about smoking in the spa area of the club. Nearly every week when I use the sauna and steam area I would catch someone smoking. After a series of email exchanges where I threatened a writ based on the endangerment of health and safety, management agreed to my suggestion by broadcasting "Please keep the air fresh, please do not smoke in the clubhouse" messages. They were broadcast in English, Japanese and Cantonese---actually they only really needed to be in Cantonese. Then summer rolled along and I discovered that men were bringing their little girls into the changing room and rather than whisking them through to the pool area, letting them wander around. I'm not a father, but the idea of letting my daughter walk into a room full of naked men while wearing a tiny bathing suit...am I really the only one who finds that disturbing? I've been fighting management to stop this wholly inappropriate practice for nearly two years. I've contacted the Child Protection Unit of the Hong Kong Police twice to be told essentially that no crime had been committed so there was nothing they could do. Hmmmm, isn't the mandate of the Child Protection Unit to "protect" and prevent crimes by giving guidance and advice on the dangers of allowing a girl to wander around a room full of naked men while Dad takes a shower and sauna? All of this is documented by the way, letters, emails you name it. Big case file. Anyway, if any of your readers are as disturbed or disgusted by any of this, tell them to get in touch with either Thomas Chan, Senior Property Manager or Rebecca So who "manages" the club. Ohhh...Almost forgot, in July of 2005, a similar note to the fish head one went up in lobbies here. That one announced a pool closure forced by the discovery of faeces aka shit that someone had thrown into the pool. The notice informed us that it was not clear whether the shit was human or animal but the Leisure and Cultural Services Department had ordered the closure of the pool pending a thorough cleaning. Nice....
THAT NTSCMP DEMOCRACY GREEN PAPER IN FULL
1. ONE MAN ONE VOTE.
2. Er...
3. That's it.
LETTER TO RTHK RADIO FOUR
Hi George
appreciate the feedback - many thanks
jonathan
Dr George Adams wrote:
> My dear Ben and Jonathan,
>
> I have started listening to Radio 4 again after five years
as I now
> have a phone with FM attached. The chatter around tea time
drives me
> nuts and as for Lo King Man presenting opera, well bring
back the
> Rippon tapes. At least find someone who can speak English.
He sounds
> like a real dolt.
>
> BEN: at least you sound reasonably alive but I just got an
hour
> snapshot of your programme today. The undiscovered violin
concerto was
> execrable and I had to turn off. You followed it up with a
shot of
> Vespers I think which should be heard when do you think. The
Scarlatti
> was boring and we get enough of that in the morning. Then
you chose
> what I think was the worst piece of Brahms ever as if you
were afraid
> of playing one of his glorious symphonies. Anyone listening
would
> think classical music was not for them thanks. Try to
inspire and
> lead, not flatten us.
>
> Now to Jonathan. Like Jane and myself before you, you
deserve a
> Bauhinia medal for doing Morning Call. Good inteviews and
arts news.
> Too many bits of this and that (the other day you played an
> irrelevant sliver of Janacek's Intimate Letters the same
morning as the
> whole piece was heard so maybe Powergold is not in
operation) as if
> you are still in the Tsang mould. Far too much Baroque too.
And your
> erming is a real bind. It's not too late to train yourself
to simply
> STOP and PAUSE instead of saying erm. I managed it, so can
you. I
> counted twenty in ten minutes. It's a disgrace to you and
makes you
> sound so amateur when you're not.
>
> Are you still using Powergold by any chance, that dumb
programme
> designed for pop. If so, stop it. You both seem part
of the RTHK
> machinery now but that shouldn't stop you from putting on
some real
> classical good stuff, not this twiddling crap I heard today.
>
> And we never hear much opera (I don't count a bit of
Traviata as
> anything but a gesture) except Sunday and my God all that
Monteverdi.
> It's as if the station was sanitised and aimed at producing
> non-controversial Westernism.
>
> Working at RTHK under Tsang was the most depressing
experience of my
> life and almost destroyed my interest in music. Don't let it
happen to
> you both.
>
> Otherwise...very nice.
>
> GA
PARK N SHOP SUMMER SAVERS
One reasonably salmonella-free you hope chicken in a bag plus six peaches picked by non-genetically-modified Japanese: total HK$ 415.60. The more you buy, the more you save.
TOFANI SURVEILLANCE : THE FIRST CONFIRMATORY DENIAL
You should never believe anything until the first of the official denials arrives. Here's how our Hong Kong representatives in the United States reacted to news that Mainland spies and thugs openly operate to harass foreign journalists in Hong Kong. Notice that there is no specific denial of the actual incidents Ms Tofani describes, merely the broadest type of hogwash anyone at Xinhua could dictate in their sleep.
Your article, "A
change comes over Hong Kong" (Currents, July 1),
makes unfounded suggestions that Hong Kong is becoming a city of
"spying and repression."
Hong Kong continues to
thrive under the "one country, two systems"
principle, with a high degree of autonomy. Our core values as a
free,
open and pluralistic society have remained intact since the
establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in
1997.
Hong Kong people zealously safeguard the free and unfettered flow
of
information that is entrenched in the basic law of the special
administrative region. More than 40 newspapers and 600
periodicals are
published in Hong Kong. Major international news media
organizations,
including the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and
CNN
International, continue to have offices in Hong Kong.
The success of the one country, two systems principle is
recognized by
the international community. I quote from the State Department's
Hong
Kong Policy Act Report for 2006, released recently: "Hong
Kong
continues to maintain its dedication to the rule of law,
adherence to
free and fair market principles, and respect for fundamental
civil
rights and human freedoms. Public debate on all issues is active
and
dynamic."
Monica Chen
Director
Hong Kong Economic
and Trade Office
New York.
(Letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer)
MAINLAND SURVEILLANCE IN HONG KONG
The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Loretta Tofani writes to NTSCMP:
"Dear Mr Adams,
I had the great pleasure of being treated in Hong Kong like I was
when
I lived in Beijing -- as a common criminal. I was kept
under
surveillance, threatened, mocked, etc. So I decided to write
about it,
and it was published in the (daily) Philadelphia Inquirer and The
Salt
Lake Tribune. Any chance you can publish it in the
NTSCMP?"
Of course we are only too happy to assist Ms Tofani. Let's see if the local media pick up on this.
The clerk at the small Comfort Hotel in Hong Kong seemed like a nice guy. I decided to trust him. After all, this was Hong Kong, the democracy. So I told him something I would never say to a hotel clerk in other parts of China: "I'm a journalist." What happened afterward has led me to see Hong Kong in a new way: as part of China's police state, where nearly everyone - whether in an official position or not - can be expected to participate in the Big Brother system of spying and repression. This may seem surprising for Hong Kong. Ever since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule on this day 10 years ago, China's government has appeared to respect Hong Kong's status as a "special administrative region." The region has its own laws permitting freedom of the press, assembly and religion - freedoms not enjoyed in the rest of China. Yet Hong Kong since 1997 has been populated with Beijing-loyal citizens from China. "Apparatchiks," Hong Kong Legislative Council member Martin Lee has called them. They help steer Hong Kong. I was in China in March, April and May, doing some freelance reporting on factory conditions. I did initial reporting from Hong Kong. One organization gave me a booklet in Chinese. I do not read Chinese. I speak Mandarin, but not well. At the hotel, I asked the clerk, Peter, to translate a page. He obliged. We discussed my stories. Then I left for mainland China. When I returned to Hong Kong two months later, I checked into the same hotel. I used the hotel computer, clicking on a map of China. "Are you finished with your report?" Peter asked. I said I wasn't, then disappeared into my room. Minutes later, I heard Peter speaking on the telephone. ". . . Map of China," I heard him say. "She's not finished yet; she'll be back. No, she's not afraid." I tried not to jump to conclusions. I thought back to when I was based in China in the 1990s for The Inquirer. My physician husband would say, "Bring out the Haldol," a drug for psychotic patients, every time I noticed an odd "coincidence": hotel workmen putting up drapes in my room at odd hours; repairmen "fixing" my not-broken refrigerator and air conditioner; the taxi "dispatcher" asking the driver for my occupation and nationality. But this was Hong Kong, the democracy, in 2007. That evening, a new clerk informed me that the air conditioner in my room needed fixing. Would I allow a repairman in that evening, around 8:30? "No," I replied. "The air conditioner isn't broken." The next day, Peter was back briefly. He asked if the repairman could visit my room that night. I felt sure a listening device would be part of the "repair." "Sure," I said. One hour later, I checked out. The hotel's front door shut behind me. I started making my way to the street. Suddenly the hotel door swung open and a clerk appeared. Her question seemed inappropriate: "Are you going to America? Or China?" I didn't answer. I checked into another hotel, Nathan House. Three days later, the maid asked for the phone in my room. I unplugged it and handed it to her. I didn't think more of it until two nights later. A man's loud voice, angry, sarcastic, woke me from my sleep around midnight. He was in the hotel common area. "Was her boss here?" he asked in Mandarin. "No," the hotel manager replied. "Her friend." "That wasn't her friend," he sneered. "That was an interpreter! An interpreter!" He was right. A college student, Yuki, using my cell phone, was helping me contact factory owners for comment for my stories. It's easier for a native speaker to get sensitive information over the telephone. The man continued the tirade, his voice getting louder and louder, exchanging remarks with a woman whose voice I recognized: the hotel maid. They discussed my personal life - I had come to China without my children - and my phone calls the previous day. Someone turned on a Chinese music CD at full volume - even though it was by then 12:40 a.m. "Let her come out!" he taunted. "Yes, let her come out!" cheered the hotel maid. I went back to sleep. In the morning I waited for Yuki. I told her about the night's events. "Don't worry," she said. "This is Hong Kong, not China. Anyone bothers you, just call 999. The police will come right away." I gave her a number to call: another factory. Yuki asked to speak to the manager. There was a long pause. Yuki was told the man was at lunch. "But it's only 10:30," Yuki said. The conversation ended. The hotel maid's mocking laughter rang through the hotel. "Something is wrong," Yuki said. Yuki tried another number, another factory. The result was the same. The hotel maid's laughter rang out again. We stopped. The morning's failure was not an accident, I felt sure. As we left the hotel, a man wearing a suit strode into the hotel common area. He was looking carefully at a black object in his hands, larger and bulkier than a calculator. Was it a machine to read and intercept the phone numbers Yuki had called? So perhaps he could call them and issue warnings? I believe it was. Journalists are under government control in China. Some have their work disrupted, deliberately. What does this mean for Hong Kong? The city needs a free flow of information for its capitalist system - a system China strongly supports, both for Hong Kong and itself. But my recent experience suggests that China's agents will whittle away at freedoms. They will use covert, guerrilla tactics of intimidation and disruption against those they see as threats. In Hong Kong, the appearance of freedoms - for religion, press and assembly - will remain. But the core will be rotten.
THE TALKING POTATO
Sometimes we are lucky to have real journalists, or at least real sound editors, visit our shores and find out what makes the horrid figures who rule our lives tick. Jonathan Dimbleby's programmes on the BBC World Service to celebrate ten years since the Takeaway did it wonderfully last week and this, interviewing Sir Gordon Wu and Sir Donald Tsang. Wu, the walking talking potato in a suit, was caught in a lovely sound bite saying that as ten per cent of Hong Kong's populace pay ninety per cent of the taxes, the same ten per cent should have ninety per cent of the say in how things are run. He believes less in "no taxation without representation" and more in " no representation without taxation". A delicious moment to hear the Dimbelbore team confirm this with such succinct focus. The fact that Wu only got rich because there were so many people too poor to pay taxes - and thus so willing to slave and die on his building projects - escaped the benighted plutocrat. Then it was over to Donald Tsang to hear him say that if we give the (unwashed toerag) populace the vote, we would soon have a welfare state of all things. As if being a member of the cosseted Civil Service were anything else but receiving the dole every month. Lovely indeed to hear these sad and sorry dimwits in all their full throbbing fascist Louis XIV idiocy. As to why these brain-dead horrors ever received knighthoods with these kinds of views, God only knows.
PERENNIAL NEWS AT THE STANDARD
We revealed some time ago how the SCMP was pioneering a new form of reading experience: the White Space Newspaper with more and more of the page being given over to blank newsprint. This move was welcomed by many. Not to be beaten, the doughty Standard is forging ahead with a new concept on its web pages: Perennial News. Its Metro section has been headed the past week by the same two articles of earth-shattering import: one about skydivers, the other about panda bears. The usual Hong Kong local news fare of choppings, cock-ups, cover-ups and token arrests is relegated to lower down the page every day. Apparently (we are assured by the Standard news editor) this is NOT an editorial decision to promote these momentous commemorations of our ties to the glorious Mainland but simply a sad reflection of the (under-)staffing problems at the Standard. Their Internet man is away. The Standard is staffed by 40 people in total. The SCMP has 300 editorial staff alone. The brave little paper nevertheless won seven SOPA Awards last month, including Scoop of the Year. Should we open up a Standard Fighting Fund? Anyone available to help the Standard with their web pages for free? The need is great.
HONG KONG KIASU SPECIAL
Kiasu fever in Hong Kong reaches a special pitch when it is combined with endemic fashion slavery and conspicuous consumption or when a monetary element is involved. See below for more Hong Kong Kiasu.
READERS' LETTERS
Something tells us they don't quite understand satire in Singapore...
Dear
Sir/Mdm,
Our
company, Potato Productions Pte Ltd, publishes the magazine
called
We saw on your website pics of the PLA’s troupe performances
in
LOOKALIKE
ENID
FENBY WRITES: "I saw a poster for the People's Liberation
Army troupe performances in
We look
forward to hearing from you the soonest possible.
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Office Manager
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'CULL BLOGGERS AND BRITS' CALL IN HONG KONG PORK CRISIS
WHY THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN TO POST JOURNALISTS
1. They are used to living in foul rooms not knowing their future.
2. There are no Government faxes to recycle in Gaza.
3. There are no Post correspondents. They use the wire services.
4, Gaza has no 7-Eleven or Circle K outlets to keep them fed.
5. They always send snappers on motorbikes when the bullets start flying.
6. They would get sacked if their friends organised an online petition on their behalf.
(That's enough reasons. Ed.)
HONG KONG KIASU UPDATE
UK TERROR LATEST
THE PEOPLE ARE THE HEROES NOW
As our dictators from Peking once more prepare to get their come-uppance in Hong Kong by means of another great democracy march, let us celebrate with an excerpt from the John Adams opera Nixon In China in a recording conducted by our own Edo de Waart of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. The people are indeed the heroes now.
Excerpt from Nixon In China - The People Are The Heroes Now (MP3).
Excerpts from the opera on YouTube.
EXPAT OF THE WEEK
(Harry The Horse)
EDUKAYSHUN TODAY
"A rat with a moustache" was the description offered to me by my supervising professor of Education at HKU. But my memory of Paul Morris is quite different. I remember he actually turned up one Saturday afternoon to talk to us wannabe education reformers of the INSTEP programme about seventeen years ago in a dingy corner of the university. He was a true education reformer, unlike all the impassive "researchers" at the university who were more concerned with things liks Study Process Questionnaires. I never saw him when I was lecturer at HKIEd for two years. HKIEd at that time was staffed mainly by former civil servants who perpetuated the worst education system in the world: rote, rote and more rote. A brief glance at the staff list in 2007 reveals an amazing quota of former Civil Service do-nothings, and now they are insistent that the HKIEd becomes a university. Two real objections here. Most of the staff are not able to teach at a university as they are dolts and dimwits. Secondly, the "students" have been rejected at least two or three times by every "university' in Hong Kong before they apply for HKIEd. Giving them degrees will not help. What will help the education system in Hong Kong is to build double the amount of schools so the teacher student ratio can be reduced by half to 20:1. Hong Kong spends like an African state on education, in fact by GDP percentage a good deal less. Paying teachers like accountants and lawyers would be another telling move. I have witnessed twenty years of education reform in Hong Kong and nothing ever changes. Taking the head of the ICAC with you when you get the boot is however a masterstroke of subversion. Well done Paul.
FAREWELL ANTHONY
(Rowson submitted by Angus)
NEW DENG TRIBUTE
HK PRESS FOUNDATION SHOCK
EXPAT OF THE WEEK
(Harry The Horse)
BOOM BOOM BOOM
As Hong Kong congratulates itself on yet another stock market record high, let us reflect on the sad fact that until recently, the city had more suicides than road trafiic deaths. NTSCMP's roving reporter was nearly flattened by the man lying under the black plastic sheet last Wednesday afternoon in Sai Wan Ho. He jumped to his death from a high building. The high suicide rate in Hong Kong is exacerbated by the Government's support for organised gambling, neglect of social welfare and the populace's uncorrected ignorance concerning mental illness.
LOOKALIKE
ENID FENBY WRITES: "I saw a poster for the People's Liberation Army troupe performances in Hong Kong in June 2007 and was struck by its similarity to the central scene from the hit Broadway musical based on that wonderful Mel Brooks film The Producers. Am I the only person to see the connection between the high camp and lavishness of these productions? If so, I really think I deserve a cheque of some sort."(No, you don't. Ed.)
KISSEL BOOK STILL UNTITLED
I am informed by the author that Amazon has got it wrong and the Joe McGinniss book about the Kissel murders will not be called "Greed Kills". I have always been of the opinion that a novel would be the best way to capture the events. Literature - which I read more and and try to write more these days instead of "news" - lives for ever. Investigative biographies thrive on facts but they often stand in the way of the essence of the story. Compare The Moon And Sixpence to a biography of Gaugin. Meanwhile, the appeal of Nancy Keeshin Kissel has been set for eight days in mid-April 2008. Most appeals rest on legal points, not on evidence, old or new. It will be interesting to see what new "evidence" the McGinniss book may unearth however. For most people in the gallery, the conviction certainly is safe. But even people who drug then pummel husbands to death are entitled to the privileges of justice. Let us see. An interesting point in any assessment of the forthcoming shock horror bio-journal is of course to what extent the J word (Jewish) will be used, a word conspicuously absent from nearly all the extensive media reports of the Kissel murders. One of the murdered brothers was a corporate asset stripper with more than a passing interest in effeminate Chinese young men. The other was a real estate crook. No doubt these latter things will be gone into at length and discussions of ethnic provenance and upbringing will surrender to political correctness. McGinniss' publisher, Simon and Schuster, is now a branch of CBS Corporation. Chairman of CBS Corp is one Leslie Moonves, great-nephew of David Ben-Gurion.
POVERTY COMMISSION UNANIMOUS
DESPERATE BARRISTERS
NOTE: Lord Justice Sir Stephen Richards got off. If you see what I mean.
THOSE SCMP SURVEY RESULTS IN FULL
POLICE SURPRISE PUBLIC
Monday afternoon's trip out from Stanley to see how the proles live came to a crash on bus 14. Dr Adams escaped unhurt. Amazingly enough, the police, instead of gaping at the scene with a five mile tailback (what we have seen the past nineteen years after any slight traffic accident in Hong Kong) actually got the bus and car off the road in ten minutes. Now that's real social progress. Hats off to HK Plod.
GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
How can someone be a sex offender if he hasn't had a trial? The evidence against Freeman is overwhelming but...
(Hong Kong Standard)
SURVEILLANCE TODAY
(The Times)
THE SECRET'S SAFE
A greater taboo than endemic Hepatitis B, racism, perceived penis size or why Miss China never wins Miss World is of course Hong Kong's rainy season, a closely-guarded secret and anathema to Government and tourism literature. If word ever got out that Hong Kong regularly has a month or two of rain the same time every year, there would be a shrinking of the GDP and a prolonged silence at the tills. Malaysia and other places acknowledge the obvious. Hong Kong soldiers on with denial.
POSTBALLS SPECIAL
APPARENTLY
MILAN SAYS BASTA
LOOKALIKE
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
McDonalds shows its commitment to the environment by organising a twice-monthly No Straw Day. On the first Monday of the month for example, straws are not used in their eateries. But what's this at every cash register on the first Monday of June 2007 in a Wanchai outlet? They must be long hollow stirrers. Or toothpicks.