Hong Kong needs to take control of its taxi drivers
Hong Kong needs to take control of its taxi drivers.
It seems passengers don't decide where they will go, taxi drivers do - they won't take passengers across the harbour or some other destinations.
I have been visiting Hong Kong regularly, from Sydney, for more than 20 years, attending many trade fairs and business meetings. I have often had to wait like the proverbial dance hall wallflower for a taxi driver who deigns to be my partner. Declaring I want to go to the other side of the harbour, they don't want to go to.
The law which requires them to not unreasonably refuse to take a hirer to where they want to go is simply flouted.
It is a disgraceful way to treat locals and an even worse way to treat frequent visitors like me who actually spend money in your beautiful city.
My complaint to the Transport Complaints Unit got me exactly nowhere. I'm dreading my next visit in October.
Bruce Propert, Sydney, Australia
So you've been coming to HK for 20 years and you still don't know how to tell which taxi rank is cross harbour? Despite the fact that Cross Harbour taxi ranks have a sign stating that very fact? Or that taxis with an out-of-service sign up are actually looking to cross the harbour to go home at end of shift?
As for a disgraceful way to treat locals - just about every local knows how to tell which taxi is cross harbour.
Posted by dave on 28 August 2007 at 11:35 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, scmp_letters
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Green pressure could harm city, says Li Ka-shing
Green pressure could harm city, says Li Ka-shing
Li Ka-shing warned yesterday that conservation campaigns and calls for limits on high-rise buildings could damage the interests of everyone in Hong Kong.
The remarks by the chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) (SEHK: 0001) were the first time a leading developer has hit out at the recent tactics employed by groups that are seeking to improve the city's environment through legal means.
...
"It affects the [government] revenue, which is everybody's revenue in Hong Kong," Mr Li said.
...
If by "everybody's revenue", you mean the revenue of large property developers, who make huge profits at the expense of the actual population, then I suppose that's true. If you look at it otherwise, then it's blatantly untrue.
As Chris says here, and Alice Poon points out here, the relentless skimping on contruction costs (thin, single layer walls, no double-glazing, no centralized air-conditioning) which increases the profits of the developers leaves the eventual owners with increased running costs (air conditioning, heating, etc).
Slightly increased construction costs would result in developments with lower over environmental impact and could also result in substantial reductions in running costs, as Chris points out in his linked article.
James Tien Pei-chun, another developer who is also chairman of the Liberal Party, month urged the government earlier this month to hold public consultations on urban development immediately before a decision on a project was made, to avoid last-minute objections.
Mr Tien, as well as not apparently understanding the whole "public consultation" thing in the first place, is also in charge of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
You know, the very same Tourism board which raised no objections to the recent destruction of the Star Ferry, one of Hong Kong's signature attractions. Which is raising no objections to the imminent destruction of the markets in Wanchai and Central. The Wanchai one is particularly egregious, as they're clearing it to allow vehicular access for a development.
Some somewhat related articles from AsiaSentinel.com:
Contrary to popular outside belief, the big HK property tycoons are not superb businessmen. They've come up in a system with a captive core-revenue generating mechanism which requires very little business acumen.
If they were good businessmen, they'd recognise that there's a clear and growing market demand for more environmentally aware developments. Better insulation, recycling facilities, centralized air-conditioning, use of sea-water for cooling, more effective use of internal space, and use of solar power for minor power use. These are all things which are just starting to be incorporated in commercial developments, and which should really be in residential developments.
There's a small market for developments which are more concerned about their impact on the environment. It will grow over time, if there are properties to cater for it. Unfortunately, the system is closed and there is no competition.
As Alice Poon says in her post, we need proper standards to force the developers to pay more attention to the damage they're causing. I don't think there's going to be much chance of this government bringing in such legislation though. Not when it would upset the only public they pay attention to: the tycoons.
Posted by dave on 27 August 2007 at 19:40 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, green_issues, scmp
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Airport needs new procedures
K. W. Chow, for the director of immigration ("Staff at airport hitting targets", August 13), replied to my letter on the time it took to go through immigration at Chek Lap Kok ("Long wait in line out of order", July 31).
As I am a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I assure him I am able to read my watch correctly. The use of averages is known to miss fluctuations, and a 92 per cent standard does not yield good-quality service. Indeed, why should visitors wait in line on average 15 minutes to leave? I have not experienced this type of wait when leaving other places.
Further, while eight counters were open, Mr Chow admits that only 15 per cent of visitors used the three counters that had almost no traffic, as I observed in my letter.
Thus, the procedures should be improved so that visitors leaving Hong Kong are not subject to long waits.
Jerry Hausman, professor of economics, MIT, Boston, US
(Unlike most of the times I quote a letter to the SCMP, this time I don't think the writer is unhinged.)
One of the issues which Prof. Hausman mentions above (and which was referred to in the Director of Immigration reply earlier) was the average time taken to go through outbound immigration. The Immigration Department has spent a great deal of time and effort to speed up the processing of residents as they go through the various border controls we have in Hong Kong. Much of this effort has been the replacement of paper based systems with electronic systems, and the whole SmartID system.
If Prof. Hausman had glanced to his right while queuing, he may have noticed some people approaching turnstiles, using a card of some kind and apparently being processed electronically. Total time through inbound or outbound immigration for those lucky people? Under a minute, depending on the volume of people. When I return to HK usually, I don't stop walking from leaving the plane to collecting my bags.
So how to get one of those electronic cards? Well, you have to be a permanent resident[1] with a SmartID card. Unfortunatey for Prof. Hausman, that means that you must be resident in HK for a period of 7 years.
[1] I've heard rumours that the electronic system will be extended to non-permanent residents, but I've not heard anything concrete about that. UPDATE: Spike confirms in the comments that the E-Channel at the airport is usable by ordinary residents.
This short processing time naturally makes the average processing time look very good. And, as the vast majority of border crossers are permanent residents, the costs benefit analysis is clearly on the side of improving the experience for permanent residents.
One of the primary drivers behind the whole speeding up of the immigration process has been the land-based borders (we're supposed to call them 'boundaries' now) with China. The Lo Wu border, for example, can handle several hundred thousand travellers per day, largely thanks to immigration on the HK and China sides being largely electronic. There are queues at the non-electronic immigration gates there too, but they're nothing like the airport queues.
Note that this doesn't change Prof. Hausman's point at all: there are still far too few Immigration officials manning the Visitor gates at the airport and this can create a poor first (or last) impression as to the efficiency of the airport and Hong Kong.
The Immigration department separates the categories according to equipment required to process the travel documents. Permanent residents just have their ID cards scanned, Ordinary residents will require a passport stamp, while visitors will require a visa sticker or stamp. Officers at non-visitor gates will almost certainly not have the equipement required to process visitors and this is a big part of the problem. It's 2007, we should be entirely electronic with visitor records now. The Australians have electronic Visas, so why doesn't HK record a visitor visa on the passport number electronically?
There is a way to bypass the long visitor queues, if you're a regular visitor: Frequent Visitor Card. Unfortunately, it requires that you have come to Hong Kong three or more times in the last 12 months, but it may be of value anyway.
Posted by dave on 18 August 2007 at 14:26 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Travel, scmp_letters
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Walking in Soho
I've been in Hong Kong for ten years now, and sometimes I tend to take it for granted. Lately I've been basically commuting between Brisbane and Hong Kong. My few weeks at home[1] tend to be spent with family and running some quick errands before heading back downunder.
Today, I wanted to see parts of HK I hadn't been in for a long time. So I went up to Mid-Levels. Really. I'm not yer standard corporate expat, with a company supplied flat. I live in North Point and scratch a living as a small businessman. A night out with the missus is usually a few happy-hour beers in Wanchai and Thai-food in one of the Dai Pai Dongs in the back streets of Wanchai.
My great-uncle (Suk-Gong for you Chinese Speakers) has a stall in the Peel Street market, so we go there frequently to meet that part of the family. As we were leaving there yesterday by taxi, we saw all these new restaurants and pubs. Normally, we'd walk down the hill and take the bus or MTR. (Or tram, if the scratching a living part isn't going too well). So today I went back to look around the area.
There was a time when I used to be around Lan Kwai Fong quite a bit. Back when the F-Stop was going, I was a regular, because of the bands. The Fringe club was always interesting, and if you were really hammered you could sing a few verses of "Let's all gob on Maggie" in Hardy's before the Black Watch kicked your head in.
That was some time ago (and the PLA don't go around picking fights in any bar I've ever been in, so that's one positive thing about the last 10 years) .
But anyway, back to Soho (the area South of Hollywood Road), which is a maze of narrow streets above the Central Business District of Hong Kong, but below the main residential blocks of the Mid-Levels. It's also a maze of little restaurants and pubs. It reminded me of certain parts of Paris or London, although it's a lot more vertical than either. Very pleasant, apart from being a lot of hard work to clamber up the vertical streets.
I have cousins who live up in that part of the world, and it certainly seems like a pleasant place to live, if you like to eat well and have a good time. (Of course, none of them do. They pay exorbitant mortgages for shoeboxes to live in a place with lifestyle they don't like. They'd be happier living like us in a larger flat which is a shorter walk from Chiu-Chow food and a short minibus ride from the place where the fishermen sell their catch in the early mornings. [There is really nothing like buying your day's fish fresh off the trawler from the South China Sea.])
It was quite weird walking through Hong Kong with lots of Europeans around. And most weren't even tourists! Very odd. I had to remember to day "excuse me, pardon, comin' through!", with the occasional "Yo!" for the larger Americans.
[1] There's a certain type of Chinese person who doesn't believe that any foreigner can consider HK as home. To that person I say: "These are my shorts. I wore them to walk up to the Peak in the August. Eat them."
Posted by dave on 07 July 2007 at 18:33 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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New Star Ferry Pier
I went out the the new Star Ferry pier today for the first time. Taken by itself, it's a pleasant building with lots of open spaces and pleasant breezes. There are nice views of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon and it would probably be a great place to take photos from in the evening.
So why was I spitting with rage?
Because this chuffing piece of faux-Edwardian neo-colonialism is about half way across the harbour, that's why! As you walk all the way out to the ferry pier itself, you see the constant reclamation work bent on filling in the harbour. By the time you get to the Star Ferry, you really are half-way across the harbour! You feel like you could spit on Tsim Sha Tsui. (Probably the best thing for that place...) The feeling of separation from Kowloon is diminished and the knowledge that the government doesn't care about this place is palpable. They will destroy one of the world's great deep-water harbours for profit.
Posted by dave on 07 July 2007 at 18:33 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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MTR treatment of wheelchair bound
There's something I've been meaning to blog about for years, and I've never gotten around to it.
If you're in a wheelchair, there is ostensibly help available for you to get from street level to platform level. An MTR officer will operate the stair climbing robot for you and accompany you all the way.
While this sounds like catering for the disable, what it really says is that "you're so much trouble, one of our people has to take half an hour to help you do this simple thing."
Posted by dave on 07 July 2007 at 18:33 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Clear Skies
One things which has been bugging me for the last week or so is: why do we have such clear skies for the 10th anniversary of the handover? Normally the sky would be an unpleasant brown colour at this time of year, but things have been amazingly clear for the past few weeks. Being able to see Lion Rock from Causeway Bay is not normal.
Have the barely regulated, highly polluting factories in the Pearl River Delta been ordered to shut down for a bit so that the world's press don't come away from the Handover anniversary with tales of chronic pollution?
UPDATE: possibly just a change in the local prevailing wind direction.
Posted by dave on 29 June 2007 at 22:51 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Kung Hei Fat Choi
Ho Hum, Kung Hei Fat Choi, or happy Chinese New Year, to those that observe that sort of thing.
And, to any idiots who maintain that global warming is a fiction of the left, would you like to explain why this was the hottest Chinese New Year on Record in Hong Kong?
I saw a high of 27 °C in Victoria Park this afternoon. Normally Chinese New Year is a day to wrap up in heavy silk clothes, but today was t-shirts and shorts weather.
UPDATE: We've got the air-con on! In February! Holy hand grenade of Antioch!
Posted by dave on 18 February 2007 at 20:25 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Not Asian but gweipor
Not Asian but gweipor
With reference to his letter "Either black or white" (February 16), William Hung Chi-kin obviously did not ask me, the child of mixed-race marriage, how I am generally perceived by society. His opinion that the answer would be either "as black" or "as Asian" is way off. Having grown up in Hong Kong, I have rarely been considered Asian, much as I would like to be. I am considered a gweipor. When I speak in Cantonese (fluently, may I add), I can guarantee that the initial reaction is jaw-dropping surprise or embarrassment - depending on whether comments have been muttered that the offending party thought I would not understand.
Mr Hung obviously did not ask my fellow Eurasian friends either who, like me, are proud to be of mixed heritage and would love to be recognised for it.
CHRISTINE DE SANTIS, Repulse Bay
With all due respect Ms. De Santis, you have failed to grasp Mr. Hung's point.
In a predominantly White culture, a Eurasian such as yourself (and my own children) will be viewed as something 'less than white'. Thus, if you were to go to London and ask people what you were, they'd call you Asian (or more likely a Chinese, because Asian generally means something slightly different in London).
The reason you are not called Asian in Hong Kong is because of the innate racism of the Chinese. As someone who is half-Chinese (I'm assuming this because you speak fluent Cantonese like my children do), you will be viewed by the local Chinese as something less than a full Chinese, so they elevate you to the rank of the race 'below' Chinese and call you a GweiPo (Western Woman).
(Gweipor: there's no R on the end of that word. If you've been handicapped by an education in Received Pronounciation and feel the need to write R's on the end of words which are not pronounced with an R and no R for words which are rhotically gifted, you should be aware that many people think you have a speech problem. Idea does not have a pronounced R at the end, while deer does.
UPDATE: I don't mean to single out the Chinese for racism as if no other group was. Any group which defines itself by ethnicity will regard those with mixed ethnicity as not really part of the group. I'm sure many Irish people wouldn't regard my kids as being completely Irish, for example.
Posted by dave on 18 February 2007 at 00:21 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Hong Kong, Personal, scmp_letters
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Harrumph
Slightly disappointed last night to find that Carnegies has got an exemption to the smoking ban. Those few weeks when it was smoke free were quite pleasant. Still, there wasn't too many people puffing away last night, so it wasn't too bad.
We were in the Wanch last Friday night, and even there was smoke free! Pretty amazing, if you're familiar with the Wanch. We left after one drink because the band ("The North") were pretty dreadful. Guys, use your payment from the gig and buy some guitar tuners. Please.
Posted by dave on 19 January 2007 at 14:14 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Winter in Hong Kong
Ah, it's that time of year when no one seems to be able to make the connection between it being cold outside, it being cold inside, and all the windows being open.
Does anyone in Asia south of, say, Shanghai and north of, oh, Sydney have a single clue about keeping your home warm?
Posted by dave on 11 January 2007 at 07:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Rants
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Finger on the close button
For some reason, for the the last few days I've been getting irritated by that stalwart of the Hong Kong office culture, Mr. Finger-on-the-close-button.
He (or occasionally she) is the one who's finger gravitates to the close-door button in the lift just after he's entered. Usually, this is when other people are still trying to enter the lift. In extreme cases, this can be when other people are still trying to leave the lift!
The door won't actually close on someone — there's a sensor which prevents that — but it'll partially close and open again, which restricts the access width and is pretty annoying when people and trying to get in (and out).
At the root of this behaviour are the same impulses which drive the Cross Platform Sprinters and the Train Door Shovers: Lack of consideration and Self Centeredness.
Posted by dave on 30 November 2006 at 14:21 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Fush'n'Chups
Recently there was a spate of whinging in the letters page of the SCMP about employing Native English Teachers (NETs) with 'regional' accents. These letters usually took the form of Home Counties Englishmen aghast that anyone could understand the garbled vowels and forced consonants of anyone from north of Watford, west of Reading, or south of Guildford. In their minds, a 'regional' NET was either Rab C. Nesbitt, Worzel Gummidge or Jimmy Nail.Or even worse, American! The Horror!
They feared that impressionable young minds exposed to such regional accents would end up speaking like Glaswegian dockworkers and be tragically unable to communicate with anyone. Well, anyone other than Jimmy Sommerville, or Billy Conolly, presumably.
As an Irishman, I'm naturally blessed with the most mellifluous of accents and it's only fitting and natural that my children should follow my lead in pronounciation. (In English only; learning my Cantonese pronounciation would do them no favours.) I've figured that having an actual native speaker of English at home would render them immune from the worst excesses of language education.
Imagine then my consternation, imaginary reader, when Number One Daughter wreaked havoc on the perpendicular pronoun!
"Look at the new boy, fulled wuth drid", she recited one evening.
Kiwis! Yat ho lui had been contaminated by kiwis, a dreadful disease where the 'i' and the 'u' are swapped around in the brain. Extreme cases can lead to a spastic jerking movement known as hakka, which unfortunately has nothing to do with the pleasant lady who cleans our building.
Posted by dave on 28 November 2006 at 13:27 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hats 'n' Coats
You can tell it's winter in Hong Kong because, as the temperature drops below 25 °c, all the woolly hats, scarves and overcoats get dragged out and people start to appear as if they'd just stepped off the piste.
We're not quite a the North Face jackets yet, but they journey into work this morning was a bit bizarre for the numbers of jackets and scarves on display while I'm still in shirt-sleeves thinking that's it's pleasantly cool.
Posted by dave on 24 November 2006 at 08:47 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Uncritical of spam
TVB's Money Magazine just had the most uncritical piece on unsolicited electronic messaging I've seen since the last time I listened to a spammer.
There was some token mentioning of how excessive spam can cause a waste of time and loss of messages, but the entire body of the piece was from the point of view of the direct marketers, claiming that any legislation on unsolicited commercial messaging would affect their businesses and how people really want to be sold to at home anyway. And one gem: "Some people want to receive offers about holidays".
Yes, legislation and do-not-call lists will have a negative impact on telemarketers, spammers, robotic telephone calls and other intrusive selling practices. That's the whole point! That business model is intrusive and invasive and nobody wants it.
No, "opt out" is not a good model for unsolicited commercial emails, because the damage to the recipient is multiplied: First, she gets the spam, then she has to jump though the unsubscribe hoops, causing at least one more email to be sent. (And, incidentally, confirming to the spammer that a real live person reads that email address, so the spammer will then be able to sell a list of confirmed active addresses to another spammer, thus increasing our hapless victim's spam load.)
(*Never* click on the unsubscribe option on a spam. All it does is confirm your address. Just delete it. I used to recommend reporting them, but the few ISPs who still allow spammers are little more than criminal scum these days, and will happily pass your details on to the spammer.)
"Opt In" is where someone elects to receive commercial emails. If you're on a mailing list,or you've subscribed to updates from websites, you'll be familiar with this. It's the only proper and ethical way to do email marketing: compile a list of people who are interested in your product, and who have said they wish to receive information about it. It's also more efficient marketing as it's going to be far easier to sell to someone like that than to someone who's not interested in your stuff.
Spam is theft. Theft of time, theft of resources and theft of goodwill.
Theft of time: the recipient must spend time to delete or report spam mails received.
Theft of resources: the emails or calls use bandwidth on the network and take up disk space as well and incurring extra computer resources to process. For automated phone calls, they can come to you when you're overseas and you get hit with roaming charges for unwanted calls. (When I'm in Australia, my phone bill doubles mainly due to automatic calls like that.)
Theft of goodwill. After having your inbox flooded with offers for pump'n'dump stocks, rolex watches and pharmaceuticals (viagra, cialis, etc), are you going to consider actual buying one?
Spam is theft, spammers are thieves.
Posted by dave on 21 November 2006 at 20:17 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Last Star Ferry to Central
On Saturday, November 11, the Star Ferry sailed for the last time from Tsim Sha Tsui to Edinburgh Place. The Central terminus has now been moved to the new Ferry Pier Complex, about ten minutes walk away.
The new Central pier is a garish and charmless monstrosity, too far away to attract the amount of casual traffic that the old one did, and too exposed to be comfortable in the summer time.
The old pier (and Queen's Pier, next to it) are being landlocked as part of the process of reclaiming even more of Victoria Harbour to build the Central and Wanchai Bypass, so the 15% of total trips in the average day which don't use Public Transport can be subsidised even more by our tax-dollars. Not to mention destroying whatever is left of the harbour.
Posted by dave on 15 November 2006 at 13:15 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Rants, transport
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Indonesian Domestic Helpers
I was out earlier on and noticed a group of Indonesian Domestic Helpers that seemed to comprise all of the types of the young lassies that you see out and about every day here.
There was the ordinary DH, in jeans and t-shirt, looking just as her Filipina colleagues would. (Although they'd rant on about her being a Muslim...)
There was the devout one, wearing the hijab to protect her modesty by covering her hair.
The third member of the group was the butch, possibly a lesbian,probably just prefers to have short hair and not get hit on by predatory Pakistanis all the time.
Finally, there was the party-girl. Wearing skin tight jeans and a top apparently made of string, and not a lot of string either, clearly out for a good time.
Posted by dave on 06 November 2006 at 01:48 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Cosplay in Hong Kong Park
Out and about earlier on, I spotted these cosplayers in Hong Kong Park.
My son was amused by them: he even identified the show they were playing, but he only knows the Chinese name, not the English or Japanese name.
Cosplay is a fancy word for dressing up and pretending to be characters from a TV show.
Posted by dave on 06 November 2006 at 00:28 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Foreigners don't eat lunch
(Or The Annoying Bigotry of Weird Expectations.)
"Foreigners don't eat lunch", my client said, "but we're taking one of the consultants to lunch and he's a foreigner too, like you, so you should join us."
"What?! I eat lunch every day!"
"No you don't."
"You came over yesterday, when I was having my sandwich!"
"That's not *lunch*, that's just eating food in the middle of the day. Lunch is when we heui yum cha."
"OK, OK, I'll come. But any chicken's feet, and I'm going to order the Kangaroo Curry."
"But they're so cute!"
"And so very, very tasty!"
"Weirdo."
And the foreign consultant? A Shanghainese living in Montreal. Oy.
(And just in case anyone at work is reading this: my dramatic license is #1023887, and I am a registered smart ass in the State of Queensland.)
Edit: just tidied up the last part a bit - not very relevant.
Posted by dave on 13 October 2006 at 13:35 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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So much for that
Well, so much for the going down to see the fire dragon thing. Approximately 7 million people had exactly the same idea. But just to add insult to injury, apparently every basket ball player in Hong Kong had arrived early and there was a ring of six-footers at the front of the crowd, so that, excepting some freakishly tall Watusi and a few giraffes, the only way to see anything was to hold the video camera over your head and angle the screen down.
Viewing an event through a periscope wasn't going to be any fun for me, let alone two small children, so we gave it up as a bad job. Just 5 years ago, we were able to get up really close to the dragon, but now it's just another mass event complete with policemen enforcing order.
Posted by dave on 07 October 2006 at 20:46 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Mid Autumn Festival
So, it's Mid Autumn Festival now and, living near Victoria Park, we thought we'd bring the kids down to see all the lanterns. We get down to Tin Hau, across the road from the MTR station and we see the queue to get in, which appears to start inside the MTR station itself and wind around Park Towers the long way. The queue is about ten abreast and moving very slowly. I'd guess you're looking at 20-30 minutes to get from the MTR station to the entrance to the park, so that you can share the wonder with all 7 milliion Hong Kongers, all pushing and shoving.
No thanks.
Some quick distraction and we bought some lanterns for the kids, then grabbed a taxi back. We'll take them down to the Tai Hang Fire Dragon tomorrow.
Posted by dave on 07 October 2006 at 00:03 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Greed is Good
From Thursday's SCMP:
It appears that free-market practitioners find it difficult to articulate their environmental position. Maybe a layman can help.
As we know, Hong Kong's success is built on its accomplishments in business. Success in business comes from strict adherence to the principle that greed, counter-intuitively, benefits mankind, whereas compassion (as in discredited ideals such as socialism and communism) does not. The key point is that the free-market system needs little maintenance, and any misguided meddling by populist lobbies has disruptive effects.
Once this concept is grasped, it becomes blindingly clear why calls for business morality are actually counterproductive. Pollution is neither good nor bad, only profitable or unprofitable. If business cannot profit by reducing air pollution, it will profit by creating it.
I would therefore suggest that our free-market practitioners carry on as they were and our nattering prophets of doom on global warming mind their own business.
JIM SWAN, Kowloon
On the one hand, part of me thinks that this is evil. "Compassion does not benefit mankind". If that were true, we wouldn't be human. We would be Kif or Vulcans or some other race where we would leave our children out to starve and only the strong ones would come back to us.
On the other hand, a part of me (a very small part) admires the succinct way the argument has been presented in pure market terms. It's boiled down a complex argument to the balance sheet and demonstrated why corporations are not reacting to global warming.
But on the gripping hand, it also highlights a shortcoming of the free-market system as it exists today. It only looks at the extreme short term and it ignores external effects or costs which can be passed onto others. "There is no profit to be made from recycling, cutting carbon emissions, or curtailing deforestation *today* therefore we will not take action".
But what about a longer term view? If nothing is done about air pollution now, what happens when it makes working and living here impossible? All of those businesses who ignored it will go under. It turns out that a decent environment is actually a critical long-term consideration for business, but it has no apparent immediate profit.
If the cost of cleaning up after themselves was imposed on corporations, they would behave more responsibly. As it is, they behave like sociopaths, ignoring the costs of their actions on others as long as they percieve some benefit to themselves.
The short-sighted view of the free market Mr Swan espouses ignores some of the inputs to making a free market work. The market won't work if there are no people to work it, no air to breathe or no place to live. In short, the free-market is not independent of a functioning society or a healthy environment, no matter what the Randroids would have you believe.
Of course, the key point that "the free-market system needs little maintenance" isn't true either. Any market needs regulation to prevent abuse. Unrestrained free trade (laissez-faire) leads to monopolistic abuse.
Posted by dave on 05 October 2006 at 14:59 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Star Ferry Star
It's not compulsory to carry a star on the Star Ferry, but...
Posted by dave on 02 October 2006 at 22:21 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Photography
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Ugly American
I am at a loss as to how the United States is losing the moral ground through its treatment of terrorists, as Philip Kennedy suggests in his letter "Moral ground lost" (September 29).
It is comforting to know that people like Mr Kennedy are looking out for those who care nothing for human rights or life.
I am sure that Daniel Pearl, the journalist murdered in Pakistan on the instructions of jailed terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was afforded all the rights and protection to which he was entitled under the Geneva Conventions. That might explain why his beheading was videotaped and his body was cut up into pieces, to the delight of Muslim extremists worldwide.
If you are dealing with a monster, it is my belief that you should treat him as one. We already provide far greater rights to Muslim extremists captured in the "war on terror" than they deserve.
Yes Craig, the USA should define it's national motto to be "hey, at least we're slightly better than some extremist terrorists!"
And I thought that in America you were "Innocent until proven guilty"? None of the detained Muslims have been tried yet.
Posted by dave on 01 October 2006 at 01:37 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Tax oddities
From this morning's SCMP:
The issue of spreading the tax base is a valid one. I should know. As a member of the professional middle class, I have to hand over about four months' pay in salaries tax every January. However, I must disagree with the financial secretary and the chief executive on the introduction of a GST. It is a horrendous tax to implement, and costly at that. This cost will be passed on to the consumer on top of the proposed 5 per cent tax; driving up inflationary pressure, pushing up interest rates and causing a slowdown in the economy.
Why not levy a flat 5 per cent tax on dividend income instead? It would be easy and cheap to administer at source and, more to the point, it would be more equitable, with those lucky enough to have spare cash to play the stock market paying their way.
MARK NEWMAN, Sai Kung
I pretty much agree with his sentiment here: GST is a useless proposal which will do more harm than good, and seems like exactly the sort of braindead and moronic proposal we could do perfectly well without here in Hong Kong.
I've highlighted one part in Mr. Newman's letter above and that's what I'm going to kvetch about. Four month's pay is one third or 33%. The maximum tax rate in Hong Kong is about 16% (IRD Tax calculator.) How on earth can you pay twice that?
Assuming that Mr. Newman earns 10 million HK$ per year (and has no wife, mortgage, kids or other allowances, he'll only pay 16% of that in tax.
Assuming that Mr Newman makes H$600,000 per year (HK$60,000 per month, a pretty respectable middle professional salary), is married (wife doesn't work) and has two kids and a mortgage ($100,000 interest), he'd pay HK$31,300 per year, or 5.2%. (This doesn't include his retirement fund, which is also tax deductible.) Plus, he could go on a course, have an aged relative dependent, have more kids, give money to charity, etc, all of which would lower his total tax bill.
Now I know there's this annoying thing called provisional tax where you're supposed to pay next years salaries tax in advance, but you only ever get stung for two years at a time once.
I suggest you have serious words with your HR department, Mr Newman. The return they're submitting to the IRD is twice your salary if you have to pay 33% tax. Salaries tax is pretty cut and dried here.
Posted by dave on 18 September 2006 at 12:56 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Earthquake
I think we just had an earthquake! 19:55 local time. There was a distinct tremor and kids looked scared. It lasted a few seconds.
UPDATE: Yep, it's official, we had a 3.5 (on the Richter scale): Minor temblor shakes HK.
The HK Observatory hasn't updated it's list yet: HKO: list of locally felt tremors since 1979.
Posted by dave on 14 September 2006 at 19:55 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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PT Demands
Recently, there was an article in the SCMP concerning an upgrade in the frequency on the Tung Chung Line (TCL), not due to increased demand, but due to increased demands from travellers. They felt that the eight minute headway on the TCL was too long.
(Also see: Tung Chung Line Train Service Enhancement.)
MTRC responded by promising to buy enough additional rolling stock to go to four minute headways during the peaks, but opined that passengers only used the centre of the trains in any case, the part near the escalators.
So why doesn't the MTR just shorten the trains from eight to six carriages to cover the bits near the escalators and provide the more frequent services without buying new rolling stock? One eight train car per eight minutes or two six train cars per eight minutes. This would require some extra drivers, but drivers are a very small fraction of the cost of operating a rail line.
Posted by dave on 08 September 2006 at 00:20 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, transport
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Failures of Comprehension
From the SCMP a few days ago:
As compensation to build the potentially money-losing extension in Kennedy Town, the MTR Corp wants to get the police quarters in Ka Wai Man Road - a premium sea view parcel of land with a potential income of HK$6 billion. That is a whopping profit.
Wait a minute; the MTR Corp is a listed company and decisions should be based on business logic.
If it is not profitable, why build the extension? I don't see any reason why we would give the rail operator such a precious parcel of land. If the government auctioned the land, the Treasury would pocket almost HK$3 billion. This money belongs to Hong Kong people and should never be a gift to anyone.
It is just not right from the citizens' view. It is also wrong to subsidise any project and not follow a business logic in business operations. It's like a telephone company asking the government for a large gift so it would extend its phone lines 3km further. What a joke!
Inde Au, Wan Chai
You'd think that experience would help quell the fanatics of the Church of Privatisation. But, even after the disaster that British Railways became, some people still think that every enterprise would be magically better off in private hands, or where a bunch of shareholders can demand short term profits.
Railways don't make a short term profit. Railways make it possible for the businesses they serve to make money by allowing workers to get to work, allowing shoppers to get to shops, even allowing transportation of goods and products (although that's on a relatively small scale in HK).
Urban Railways, when operated as a business by themselves, are extremely unlikely to be profitable. Even in Hong Kong, where the city is small and densely packed, car ownership is low, and there's a fully integrated fare system, the railway does not make money.
Or maybe it does, if you look at it right. With greater access to the Central Business District and the suburbs, it is easier for people to move around and get to work. This greater flexibility means that workers can travel from further away to the CBD and increase the productivity thereof. (Imagine if you had to have a parking space for every office worker in Central...)
This greater productivity leads to (hopefully) greater profits, which leads to larger tax revenues which would lead to greater profits for the largest shareholder of the MTR, HK SAR Govmn't.
So The MTR *is* acting for the financial benefit of it's major shareholder, HK Gov't. By increasing the mobility of HKers, MTR increases the ability of people to find work, consume products or in other ways prop up the economy.
Posted by dave on 07 September 2006 at 01:44 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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More gibberings
From this morning's SCMP:
Falun Gong are pests
Falun Gong occupies considerable space at the Star Ferry piers every day, playing videos and uses loudhailers to protest against the central government. This nuisance causes great inconvenience to passengers.
The group is clearly abusing its right to freedom of expression. Members have had their say for more than four years now. It is time their demonstrations were banned. This noisy nuisance must stop.
ANNA NAIDU, Central
Yes Anna, we should completely cave into Beijing and destroy what little is left of "One Country, Two Systems" just so you don't have to put up with nuisance. Nice of you to take the long-term view.
UPDATE: As I said in the comments the FLG tendency to use 'torture porn' — graphic illustrations of the tortures allegedly inflicted upon their members by the Chinese Central government — is extremely upsetting and should really not be exposed to minors. The only way to prohibit the display of this material would be declare images of tortured and dead humans to be obscene. This would kill the circulation of the local tabloids, and, as that sort of legislation would make some tycoons lose money, it will never happen in this town.
The FLG are a cult, and they exploit the gullible and weak. In this, they are no better or worse than other cults, like Moonies and Mormons. They do have one good point, in that they expose the entrenched inhumanity of the Chinese Central Government, and for that they must be tolerated.
Posted by dave on 02 September 2006 at 10:40 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Bangkok Thai
on the advice of a Thai friend, we decided to go have dinner in the new Bangkok Thai restaurant in Causeway Bay a few weeks ago. This restaurant was recently opened, but is part of a larger chain, so we were expecting decent Thai food.
Inside, it looks the part of an upmarket Thai restaurant - pictures of the King, elephants, etc. (There's probably a kit, like you get with the Oirish Pubs.) It's very busy, and one or two of the staff are Thai, so we're getting the 'good restaurant' vibe.
Alas, it was downhill from there. rozen, small shrimp in the Tom Yum soup, poor quality ingredients, appalingly slow service — the rice crackers we were given were the high point of the meal, and had to last us for what seemed like hours until our food arrived. Pathetic.
To add insult to injury, we were charged more than we would have been charged in Tom Yum's in Wanchai, a very fine Thai Restaurant on Hennessy Road.
Final Verdict: Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Ahooga! Ahooga! Avoid the entire chain!
Posted by dave on 01 September 2006 at 23:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Food, Hong Kong, Reviews
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If this isn't a T8...
After last week's fiasco, when we basically had an almost direct hit by a Typhoon, the observatory didn't hoist the T8 because it only hit the The Mother Chucking Airport, there's another one on the way:
(What was happening out on the western islands was closer to a Typhoon 10 - Direct hit, with 200kph+ sustained winds.)
(click on the image for live updates, which probably won't work after the typhoon has passed.)
If this doesn't result in a T8 on Friday, what will?
UPDATE: Bugger, it's turned south and faded away.
Posted by dave on 09 August 2006 at 22:57 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Official policy of HKU?
From todays SCMP:
Can I take it from yesterday's Monitor column that arch sceptic, myth debunker, fat-cat exposer, government shamer and all-round good chap Jake van der Kamp has tossed his lot in with the scientists who believe humans are causing global warming ("Stop throwing yuan into a leaky bucket and use proper water pricing", August 3).
Hold steady, Jake. The power of your incisive arguments is that you almost always draw upon hard data. Aside from the end-of-the-world-is-nigh gang, a huge number of good scientists out there, myself and many colleagues included, aren't joining in with the hullabaloo. When the data is in on global warming (and I don't deny that a major effort should be made to collect it), we'll let you know.
In the meantime, you might want to check the internet for an article by Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University in Australia. It's entitled "The problem with global warming is that it stopped in 1998".
Otherwise, keep up the good work.
JASON ALI, Sheung Wan
I wonder is the letter writer above Dr Jason R. Ali, the Assistant Professor of the Department of Earth Sciences of Hong Kong University?
Bob Carter is a thoroughly discredited source. He cherry picks his data and is sponsored by various vested interests in the energy producing sector. See:
- BOB CARTER:OWNED (and then some )
- "Scientists" respond to Al Gore
- Another questionable friend of the Friends of Science
- Tim Lambert on Bob Carter
- Sourcewatch: Bob Carter - where we see that he's involved with:
- Sourcewatch: Institute of Public Affairs - "a right-wing, corporate funded think tank based in Melbourne. It has close links to the Liberal Party, with it's Executive Director John Roskam having run for Liberal preselection for a number of elections. Its key policy positions include advocacy for privatisation, deregulation, reduction in the power of unions and denial of most significant environmental problems, including climate change."
If the letter writer does indeed work for HKU, which is a publically funded institution, surely us taxpayers have a right to academic staff who are more than paid right-wing shills, or who parrot the views of such?
I'd really like to know if Dr Ali (if indeed it was he) was demonstrating the official University stance on Global Warming.
Posted by dave on 04 August 2006 at 22:30 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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CPU Prices
Be careful if you're shopping around for PC parts this week. The Golden Shopping Centre in Sham Shui Po has the new AMD and Intel prices, while the Wanchai Computer Centre and 298 Hennessy Road still have the old ones.
As there was a huge reduction (some prices halved!), the price differences can be thousands of dollars!
I strongly suspect that the prices in Wanchai haven't changed because there's a fleet in, and the PC dealers are hoping that they'll make a good profit out of the sailors. Why should the bar-owners and ladies of negotiable affection get all the profits?
Posted by dave on 30 July 2006 at 17:41 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Reading Comprehension
The Sunday Morning Post is online these days and the letters page serves, as always, to keep track of the pulse of Hong Kong.
I never met Chris Patten, so he has no reason to try to confuse me, as he attempts to do in David Evans' interview in Post Magazine (24 Hours, July 23).
I'm sure that Patten was rubbing his hands together and cackling "Muahahahaha! Selikoff is confused! My work here is done!"
Patten confides that he normally wakes up around 7am.
But then he comes up with a statement that makes me wonder what happened to that logical world I thought I was in a moment before: "So quite often," he says, "like this morning, even though I didn't get up until seven, I woke up around six." Really? Well, if you have any idea what he means by that, I'm all ears.
A friend told me, "Well, he woke up at 6, and stayed in bed until 7." I have no idea how my friend knows that.
Your friend knows that because he is capable of reading plain English, unlike you, Mr. Selikoff. The distinction between "woke up" and "got up" is pretty clear and not a secret code or a disturbing habit of the upper classes.
Then, he said he "glances" at the Financial Times and the International Herald-Tribune. My friend tells me Patten meant he reads both quickly.
Again, this is plain English: dictionary search for 'glance'.
Patten also says he doesn't get too much time to relax, but later says he reads a lot and is taking "the whole of August off to stay at our house in France".
Reading is not necessarily a relaxing activity. He may be reading work-related materials or similar. Also, taking one whole month off if you've been working weekends isn't excessive.
Oh, well. What do I know? The answer may lie in all those egg tarts.
Shorter Art Selikoff: "Chris Patten said something I don't understand so there must be something wrong with him."
This is one of the stupidest letters I can remember seeing in the SCMP since, well Patkin's last missive.
Posted by dave on 30 July 2006 at 12:38 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Do Randroids Dream of, well, anything?
Recently, one of our local characters (by which I mean right-wing idiot) has been writing LTEs (Letters to The Editor), some of which you can see here:
The Lights Out campaign is a small thing, trying to make HKers think a little aboutther environment.
A few days back, Phil Ingram said:
Which garnerned comments from Simon in support of Phil's view that there was something suspicious about an environmental campaign having a website, and in which Simon was obviously unable to deal with comments critical of his rather odd worldview.
Here is his reaction to Phil's post and the reactions to it:
It appears that my letters to the editor about Lights Out For Hong Kong, have been getting some free publicity from two of (what I think are) Hong Kong's less reputable bloggers. (They know they are.) It is a pity these anonymous authors have to live their lives in the gutter, with what appears to be a stream of hatred, sarcasm and moral relativity. One in particular really has nothing important to say at all - just a cut and paste, followed by a few inane comments.
People like that always seem to attract a small following of the very worst too. I could say more, but they just dig their own graves. (Also, I just don't have the time to spend right now - even if they end up driving more traffic to this site.) They are usually best ignored.
You will note that he provides no links to either Phil's posts or any of the other bloggers.
I'm certainly not an anonymous blogger, although Chris at Ordinary Gweilo sort of is, and Fumier definitely is
So, I attempted to post the following on his site:
On the contrary, these bloggers have been attempting to engage you in a discussion of your ideas.
Time after time you refuse to engage in discussion of your points, preferring instead to claim some percieved moral superiority even as everyone else is sniggering at you.
You have beliefs which are outside the current mainstream. You must be prepared to defend those beliefs with substantive discussion if you want to convince others of the correctness of your beliefs.
If you can't do this, you come across as someone with *received* beliefs who has never thought them through.
Why should anyone accept your point of view if you can't explain to them why it's the rational and correct choice?
(And, just so you know, "because Ayn Rand said so" won't convince anyone.)
OK, I didn't put the last point in, because I though there might be a slight hope that he'd actually publish the letter.
Predictably, the post is still 'in moderation'. Simon is completely unable to deal with anyone questioning his worldview. And he ignores where he can't dismiss, dismisses where he can't delete, and deletes where he can.
Posted by dave on 22 July 2006 at 01:03 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, People, Rants, Weird Stuff
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First Pervert of Summer
The daily trudge to the slave pits of Kowloon Tong was slightly enlivened this morning when a pretty young lassie scampered onto the train at Admiralty clad in, well something very small. My initial thought was that she was either coming home from a club or had a first period gym lesson and had already changed. A pleasant sight, indeed, even if she was only slightly older than my daughter. (Well, OK, about 10 years older, which would make her about 16.)
The day was subsequently en-deadend[1] when a dribbling pervert[2] also in the carriage walked over next to her and STARED. I'm not just talking about an appreciative glance, or even an up and down checking out. This was a full goggle leering stare. An "I'm remembering every detail for my next break-time" stare.
Then, not content with that, he whipped out his mobile phone and did the world's most obvious "I'm pretending to find a number in the phone book, but I'm really taking a picture of your bum"[3] routine. He was holding it at arm's length pointed directly at her.
I did glare at him, and he saw it and returned the blank expression which means "you're not really going to do anything, even if I am guilty as sin". I suppose I should have called him a 'ham saap jaai" (perverted little boy), but I didn't fancy a fight before going to work.
She got off after two stops to meet someone on the platform who had to be restrained from going back into the train to administer a well-deserved beating and the little creep got off at the next stop leering at whatever pictures he'd taken on his phone.
It was only after he got off, that I remembered that my phone takes pictures too, and that I should have immortalised the little creep on youtube.com. D'oh!
[1] probably not the right word; hordes of zombies didn't suddenly rise up from the track bed, for example.
[2] The sort of spotty oik whose career in the mail-room of a small company finances his hobbies of collecting obscure Japanese porn, listening to insipid Canto-pop, and changing his phone every week.
[3] I mean, if you were to see Steven Spielberg with a full camera and lights crew all looking at Harrison Ford in a hat with a whip, there'd be an infinitesimal chance that they were just pretending or practising or something, but to think that this guy might *not* be making a movie would be clearly laughable.
Posted by dave on 12 July 2006 at 23:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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TVB almost, but not quite entirely, useless
Just now, TVB cut from showing to Wimbledon Men's singles live to the news. After cutting back, there was about 30 seconds of tennis before Federer took the title from Nadal. That last set, which was almost entirely obscured by the news might just have been interesting to tennis fans!
I was honestly actually expecting them to announce the final result in the news and cut back to the commentary crew covering the awarding of prizes, so they did better than expected there...
Posted by dave on 10 July 2006 at 00:06 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Rants
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Regal Airport Hotel
We were just out at the Regal Hong Kong Aiirport hotel for a lunch buffet. It was appalling, quite possibly the worst food I have ever had in Hong Kong. And that includes MacDonalds and the Pizza Bar (best damn snails in Hong Kong, but 'extra garlic' does not mean a pile of raw garlic on your pizza!).
How bad was it? If you've ever seen Jamie Oliver's School Dinners, it was like the food before Jamie stepped in. Almost nothing had any taste at all apart from the coffee which tasted of mud.
Even the choice was appalling: pasta, sausages, rice, fish and chips (although the fish tasted like cold, boiled mechanically reclaimed chicken and the chips tasted like Macdonalds fries heated up in the microwave an hour ago and left to cool), and some dim sum from a packet.
Perhaps it was the school which dictated the choice of ingredients, but the hotel cooked and served the food and they should be ashamed of the resuts.
Of course, this being Hong Kong, there were several other guests who were complaining about the food, while shovelling as much as possible into their gullets.
And to think I warned the wife not to eat too many oysters...
Posted by dave on 09 July 2006 at 15:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Food, Hong Kong, Rants, Reviews
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Hong Kong Banks
Havng spent most of today investigating options for starting a business bank account, I'd just like to say that, while all Hong Kong banks suck, HSBC sucks diseased ostrich eggs through the syphilitic pores of a dead badger.
Posted by dave on 07 July 2006 at 00:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Will the five-day week improve the work-life balance of Hongkongers?
Spotted in this morning's unlinkable SCMP:
Will the five-day week improve the work-life balance of Hongkongers?
I don't think so, because many Hong Kong people still have a mindset that performance depends on working time only but not ability and effort. In order to avoid layoffs, employees must work much longer on weekdays and they sometimes go back to work in the office on weekends.
I work in a company where employees sit for over 12 hours but just check their private e-mails and websites. Luckily, their employer thinks they perform well because at least they are hard working. How can we have an improved work-life balance in a five-day week? We should change the mindset about working attitudes to achieve a work-life balance.
Derek Chan, Ho Man Tin
I've often wondered about the reputation that Hong Kongers have for working hard. My own experience doesn't really reflect that. Although there are many exceptions, in my experience, most Hong Kongers think that "working hard" means "working long hours", most of which are spent forwarding emails[1], yakking on the phone, or just plain surfing the web.
It all basically stems from a big problem with the Confucian philosophy which underpins much of Chinese life. Staff are expected to be available whenever the Emperor (or boss) wants them, and so remain at their desks until 8 or 9PM (or until the boss leaves). Often, they're not actually doing anything, just being "ready". A certain kind of Chinese boss regards this as his due and will often complain about anyone leaving the office before he does. Of course, he'll still only reward making money for the company (actual effectiveness), but he'll punish perceived slacking (i.e. leaving before 8pm).
What ends up happening is that all the effective staff either get promoted to be bosses themselves or they (rightly!) regard working for that type of boss as a sucker's game and go elsewhere. In this way, the boss is rewarded with the sight of his increasingly ineffective staff staying later and later and accomplishing less and less. He often can't understand why things aren't getting done, despite his staff being there all the time.
This type of boss is often a product of such a workplace himself, having arrived at the top by being the least effective or least offensive of a sorry bunch.
[1] "You'll have good fortune if you send this to five people!!!1!1!eleventy-one!!!!"[2]
[2] Funnily enough, they often don't appreciate getting those emails back 500 times...
Posted by dave on 06 July 2006 at 09:57 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Hong Kong, Rants
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Displays for all to see
From Saturdays SCMP
We refer to Alan Sargent's letter on the English used in LED displays on Kowloon Motor Bus vehicles ("Blink and you'll miss it", June 5).
KMB's Electronic Bus Stop Announcement System, introduced in 1998, informs passengers of upcoming bus stops with voice announcements in Cantonese, English and Putonghua and corresponding LED displays. The length of the Chinese and English LED displays correlates with the length of the voice announcements, and the Chinese version is shown twice to match the Cantonese and Putonghua.
The system is checked regularly and any abnormalities are rectified promptly. Passengers who observe any malfunctions should note down the bus registration number and call the KMB hotline on 2745-4466.
To help passengers, names are also displayed at bus stops and detailed route information is available on the KMB website.
SUSANNE HO, head of corporate communications, KMB
Ms. Ho has clearly not read the original letter very clearly. He wasn't complaining about the displays not working, he was complaining that they show the English name for about five seconds, before staying in Traditional Chinese until the next bus stop. (If the announcement is being made in Putonghua, why aren't Simplified Characters used?)
While it is very useful to have the next stop displayed like that, it surely wouldn't be much of an inconvenience to have the display cycle between both languages all the while. Perhaps KMB think that only people who can read Chinese use their buses?
Posted by dave on 10 June 2006 at 09:49 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Suit Sir?
A letter in Tuesday's ever unlinkable SCMP:
My wife and I were with a tour group that travelled through several cities on the mainland, and then we visited Hong Kong on May 16-19.
We visited several of the traditional tourist sites in Hong Kong, and then decided to walk along Nathan Road. During this walk, we, as westerners, were singled out and constantly confronted by very aggressive vendors who wanted us to purchase various items.
These vendors stood in our path, touched us and belittled us if we did not listen to them or when we told them "no". At one point I became so frustrated, I started to be verbally aggressive towards the vendor, until my wife stopped me.
We found this behaviour very offensive and violated our right to privacy.
We told other western tourists of our experience in Hong Kong and advised them to avoid the Nathan Road area, especially the south end.
We are aware that the city of Hong Kong is concerned that tourists leave with a positive impression of their time in the city, and we feel that aggressive vendors along Nathan Road leave a negative impression on tourists.
Even though I enjoyed my time in Hong Kong, the one experience that I recall the most is my negative experience along Nathan Road. When I tell my friends of my travel to Hong Kong, one of the things I pass along is the way I was treated on Nathan Road.
Well said sir! The constant touching and grabbing and "suit sir?" from the South Asians and the "Copy Watch?" from the local triads have combined to put me off going to Tsim Sha Tsui at all. Those guys, and all the crooked camera and electronics shops, need to be cleared out of what's supposed to be our 'premier tourist district'.
I would personally reccomend that tourist do not go to Tsim Sha Tsui at all. If you want electronics, go to Sham Shui Po or Mongkok.
Posted by dave on 01 June 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Taxi hassles
Well, I don't want to steal Fumier's Schtick, but Hong Kong Taxi Registration No. KS 499, it is customary to stop at red lights in Hong Kong. Going through a pedestrian crossing (on Canton Road at 18:15 tonight) at 50kph+ when the green light is given for pedestrians is just stupid. I'm amazed there wasn't a trail of bodies and viscera attached to your vehicle when you got through. Just because you had your hand on the horn doesn't mean you have automatic right-of-way.
Posted by dave on 20 May 2006 at 21:51 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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print100.com
Oh look, Print100.com has an English section now. Is that new?
Posted by dave on 29 April 2006 at 00:15 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Bra Ad of the Week
(With apologies to Avedon Carol.)
This bra ad by Wacoal (motto: "Making Mountains out of Molehills"), has been appearing in the MTR stations recently.
(Sorry about the reflections - forgot to bring my circular polariser.) It's not too unpleasant to look at — attractive ladies in their skivvies are normally quite pleasant on the eyes, after all.
However, one part of it has been bugging me:
Fancy Strapes? Oh dear. Obviously a typo. On a huge advertising campaign in the MTR, where 2.4 million people per day realize that Wacoal can't spell.
But what if it isn't a spelling mistake; what if they really are offering 'fancy strapes'? What is (or are) strapes anyway?
A common sexually transmitted disease found among native mountain people of virginia.
"That dirty inbred Katy has got a nasty case of the strapes."
Hmm, not the nicest of things to get with a bra.
(Oh and if you're wondering why this post is dated before noon and didn't appear until midnight, the explanation is quite simple. I started the post, realized I had to go out and photograph the poster, then ended up in Sham Shui Po and bought a new motherboard. Honest, it all seemed logical at the time.)
Posted by dave on 26 April 2006 at 11:13 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Chinglish, Hong Kong, Humour, Silly Stuff
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Yum Cha
I had to travel to darkest Kowloon for Yum Cha on Sunday and it really crystalised just why I dislike the whole experience of Sunday Yum Cha so much.
It's not the food, which I quite like. A good feed of fried and steamed dumplings and shellfish is quite good food. I'm not a fan of chicken's feet or the bony tthings on offer, but it's yum cha, so you can pick and choose what you want.
It's not the company - We were there with the in-laws, neither of whom speak English. Thery're usually occupied with feeding and playing with their grandkids at these things anyway, so I normally bring a book, or my Palm. (A surprising number of Chinese restaurants have free wireless internet.)
It's the fact that you are surrounded by people who are determined to eat while shouting as loudly as possible and smoking as much as possible. It's difficult to enjoy your lunch when the table next to you seems to be composed of chain smokers with Tourette's FECKING Syndrome.
Posted by dave on 18 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Buggle Lau
I just saw an interview with one Buggle Lau from Midland Realty on TVB news. I do believe that may be the silliest name I've ever come across. It makes all the Pianos and Apples seem quite ordinary.
Posted by dave on 16 April 2006 at 19:45 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Effects of Global Warming
Here's a great use of Google Maps to show the effects of global warming and the rise in the sea levels.
Hong Kong with 14m rise. (click on 'Flood SAT', there's no maps for HK.)
What's surprising to me is how little Hong Kong island is affected. Victoria Park, Tamar and a lot of the reclaimed land to the north of the island is gone, but Central, Wanchai, Causeway and North Point are pretty unscathed. Kowloon, though is inundated.
I've nearly always lived on higher ground in Hong Kong, and I'm certainly going to keep it that way!
(Via the ever-wonderful Making Light.)
Posted by dave on 02 April 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Current Affairs, Hong Kong
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Hong Kong Architecture
There's something slightly jarring about these pictures: Michael Wolf: Hong Kong: Architecture of Density. (via.)
Perhaps it's the flat perspective he's chosen; it makes the towers look like they climb to the sky. Whether he's used a shift lens, or just photographed from the middle of the buildings, it's extraordinarily effective technique. Even for someone like me, who lives in Hong Kong, these pictures are impressive and yet alienating.
I much prefer his "corner houses" project: Michael Wolf: Corner Houses.
Posted by dave on 15 March 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Links, Photography
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The Escalator Shuffle
What's with that silly shuffle some people do when trying to get on an escalator? You know, they walk up to the escalator, stop dead waiting for a nice looking step and move on to it. When it's in a busy place it's very annoying as the crowd crowds into the backs of people forced to stop by someone who doesn't know how to use an escalator.
I've first encountered it in Hong Kong, and just put it down to your average Hongkies complete lack of awareness of what's going on around them: "Oh shit! It's a moving thing. Wait, wait, I learned how to do this is school. Put one foot on the moving thing and then the other! I'm so clever! Why is that gweilo glaring at me?"
Other examples of this include the "I'm hurt you're beeping at me" look, even though the person has been meandering all over the road and there's a queue of traffic behind her.
And, of course, there's the Hong Kong classic "Lets all stop at the top of this escalator in the busiest MTR station during rush hour and discuss our plans for the day."
But you see it here in Brisbane as well. Normally it's older people, but youngsters do it too. Perhaps they're from more rural parts and unfamiliar with all the conveniences of modern city living.
Posted by dave on 27 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Australia, Hong Kong, Rants
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Corner Windows
Traditional style rounded corner to a old building in Wanchai. The windows are taped up as this building and the block containing are all scheduled for demolition as part of the Wedding Street Redevelopment.
Posted by dave on 23 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Photography
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Fung Shui Corner
After the visit by our Feng Shui Master, we found that we needed to have a corner of the living room with the Wood element. This means wooden shelves and plants. So here's our Feng Shui corner:
I'm not sure if the Sifu insisted we need the Magnetic Monkeys or the Octopus, but they're the right colours for Wood Element, so they can't hurt.
Strictly speaking, that's not an octopus, as it only has six tentacles. A Hexapus, perhaps?
Posted by dave on 21 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Hong Kong, Photography
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Zhongshan-Shenzen Tunnel Redux
In his Monitor column on 14/02/06, Jake Van Der Kamp argues that the real reason for the Zhongshan-Shenzen Tunnel is to remove Shenzen's stranglehold on Cross-Boundary revenues:
Imagine yourself a senior Shenzhen government official. You happen to sit astride the chokepoint of road access to and from Hong Kong and you and your mates in the Guangdong provincial government have a great deal of authority over who will be allowed through and who will not.
It is the ultimate in toll booths and you have so tight a control over it that you do not need to stick out your hand directly at an actual cross-border toll booth. You can collect your money in much more refined ways.
For instance, you can control the issuance of cross-border vehicle licences and keep them in such short supply that the prices or rents for them go way up.
...
The study estimates that the sting for road haulage across the border is $1,200 a trip. It is no wonder that our port is under competitive strain. We are not talking peanuts here.
One of the reasons the Mainland (and Shenzen in particular) can get away with profiting from Hong Kong is that we're probably the richest city in China. Mainland Chinese want to make as much money as possible from anything to do with Hong Kongers, and I think they tend to view us as not really part of China.
But on this issue, the bridge vs tunnel cost is $60bn vs $6billion. Is the total saving worth paying a little extra to Shenzen? We're going to pay the 'sting' anyway, and it's highly unlikely that Zhuhai will charge much less than Shenzen, so why risk huge environmental damage to Lantau and line Gordon Wu's pockets with taxpayer money when the Guangdong government will provide us with almost as good a connection for far less money?
Given that Zhuhai knows Hong Kong truck drivers (and associated companies) will pay $1200 to go via Shenzen, there's no way they're going to charge less for a shorter route to the Western Pearl River Delta. I can easily see it being more, and the reason being quoted as "well, you're saving four+ hours over having to drive via the Humen bridge".
The 'Market Price' in this case will be how much *additional* squeeze can be put on Hong Kong truck drivers to take a shorter route. I do not for one second believe that the Zhuhai authorities will selflessly forego the extortion fees they see Shenzen collecting from Hong Kongers.
('free-market? What free market? It's all heavily entrenched interests trying to distort the market as much as possible in their favour. Ideologues who think that there's some kind of 'invisible hand' which will magically make business fair are deluded. There is no real free market in Hong Kong for these kinds of things.)
Posted by dave on 20 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Current Affairs, Hong Kong
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Wanchai Market Fish Stall
Our regular fish stall in the wet market in Wanchai:
Posted by dave on 19 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Photography
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What the heck is up with the weather?
What the heck is up with the weather? Greenland is melting, and it's just dropped more that ten degrees here in the last two days!
Posted by dave on 19 February 2006 at 01:28 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Cars Are Necessary?
From Feb 16th's SCMP, there's this letter:
Cars Are Necessary
Correspondent N. Millar ("Tax cars heavily", February 11) says there is no need for anyone to have a motor vehicle in Hong Kong.
Does the writer want the elimination of all private cars, buses, taxis, delivery vehicles and ambulances, and a return to horse-drawn transport? Or is N. Millar merely taking a swipe at car owners?
I worked in Central. There was no bus going anywhere near my office, and the only reasonable choice on a hot humid day was to take a taxi or use my car.
Increasing the already punitive taxes on new cars might stop many, but not the rich, from replacing old cars with safer and/or more environmentally friendly vehicles.
COLIN CAMPBELL, Mid-Levels
Well, for start, claiming that the inital letter writer was proposing a blanket ban on all forms of motor-vehicle is disingenous. I'd even go so far as to call it a straw man.
Hong Kong has probably the best public transport in the world, with a mostly integrated ticketing system and regular and frequent services. There is certainly no need for most ordinary residents to have their own vehicle unless they live somewhere remote like the Northern New Territories or their job requires regular transportation of heavy or bulky items.
It must take all of five to ten minutes to walk from Mid-levels to Central, and it's downhill. And there's the Mid-Levels Escalator, although Mr Campbell may not be close to it. To use a car to do a five or ten minute walk is crazy and irresponsible. Is Mr Campbell willing to pay for a whole day's parking charges just to save himself a little perspiration in the morning? If you don't need the car during the day, why not just take a taxi? It's not like Hong Kong Taxis are expensive.
Oh, I forgot. You get Big Face by driving a big car and none for arriving in a taxi.
Posted by dave on 18 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, People, Rants
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At The Market
Chris (Ordinary Gweilo) and Paul (The Valley) have noted that they're not always trusted to go to the market on behalf of their wives/families.
Paul:
Just as I was heading out the door for a walk this morning, Mrs. "The Valley" asked me to pick up some fruit on the way back. Normally, she wouldn't dream of letting an ignorant foreigner choose the fruit as there'd be issues with being overcharged and of being given the crappy produce.
The simple solution to this dilemma is to accompany your wife to the market for many years in a row, so that all your regular suppliers know you as so and so's husband. After doing this for a while, and especially if your wife is extremely fussy about the quality of the vegetables/fish/meat she buys, the various stall owners will be extremely keen to make sure that you get the good stuff.
It's quite common, for example, for Ah-Seng in the frozen meat shop to get out the good new Zealand lamb ribs from the freezer at the back, and not the half-defrosted stuff at the front; or to insist on the good lean Australian steaks rather than the 90% fat ones they have on display. And, of course, he always insists I need a another slab of beer. You can never have too many slabs of beer.
or there's the gentleman in our local fish shop who, when another customer said he should just give me the dead fish because I wouldn't know any better, said "Choi! He's buying a fish to steam for his children! You can't feed children dead fish!"
And he's right, of course. If you're going to eat seafood at all, it should be as fresh as possible. I remember as a boy catching mackerel and trout in Ireland, then cleaning them and cooking them straight away. There's nothing that tastes as good as a fish you caught and cleaned yourself half an hour ago fried in a little butter, or just dropped on the barbecue.
More than one guest has been surprised at a hotpot by the bowl full of live shrimp. Chinese guests, because they expect that gwailos will only eat large pieces of cow, and Gwailos because they're not used to their dinner trying to escape.
When buying seafood for dinner, the food isn't fresh unless it starts twitching on the way home.
Yess... I have been told in no uncertain terms that I am not allowed to choose oranges. Only women can do this, apparently. What a puzzling world we live in.
Ah now, this is a different thing. There are oranges for eating, and there are oranges for Bai San or making offerings to the gods. Oranges for Bai San must be very round and pleasing to some unknown sense that only Chinese women possess. And probably the deity in question too, of course. Also, if the Joss sticks aren't inserted into the oranges during the course of worship/fortune seeking, the oranges may be eaten afterwards. I think the reasoning is that the deity has already had the divine portion of the orange, and we're just having the left overs.
My suggestions that we should offer Wong Tai Sin a nice slab of beer always fall on deaf ears, though.
Posted by dave on 17 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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MTR Weirdness
Normally on the MTR, you'll see people transporting suitcases and other slightly bulky items. Today I saw a man transporting a washing machine.
And not one of your petite top-loaders; a full-size, front-loading washing machine. Lord alone knows how he even got it through the gate. And the worst thing? He was an old man, so only paying half the fare. He probably got to transport that thing all the way from Chai Wan to Tsuen Wan and only paid under $10 for the priviledge.
I reached for my camera, but even with less than one second to turn it on, it took long enough to reach into my bag and take it out that he was gone.
Posted by dave on 16 February 2006 at 09:00 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Zhongshan-Shenzen Tunnel
SCMP: Tunnel bid could sink cross-delta bridge plan, from the SCMP:
An underwater tunnel between Zhongshan and Shenzhen has been endorsed by the Guangdong government, and experts say the project could scuttle the long-awaited Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge.
...
A tunnel was widely seen by Guangdong academics and officials as a better alternative to the expensive and controversial Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge, and would make that project redundant, said veteran China observer Johnny Lau Yui-siu.
"It would be cheaper and easier to build. The Guangdong government has set aside money for the project. If it goes ahead, I fear the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge will no longer be necessary."
Supporters of the project say the tunnel, which would probably land in northwest Shenzhen - has many advantages over the bridge. It would cost 6 billion yuan to build, compared with $60 billion for the bridge.
And about bloody time too. The Hong Kong - Zhuhai- Macau Bridge (HZMB hereafter) is a ludicrous boondoggle intended to waste huge amounts of taxpayer money by giving it to Gordon Wu's Hopewell Construction company. (Time: The Ties that Bind.)
There are many things that are ridiculous about the bridge:
Lantau Landfall
Landfall on the Hong Kong side would be on Lantau Island, bringing heavy freight traffic into unspoiled wilderness, destroying historical sites, etc. This is allegedly to allow freight access to the north Lantau Port areas and the airport, but seems to be anexcuse to pave the entire northern coast of Lantau Island
Weather
The bridge would be adversely affected by regional weather (Typhoons and high winds), which would shut the bridge down for weeks every year. Currently, bridges in Hong Kong are closed during Typhoons. The western side of the Pearl River Delta seems to be hit by more Typhoons than Hong Kong, so I'd expect more adverse impacts from the weather.
Odd Design
A Y-shaped Bridge?! (Look at the map on that page and note the lack of a connection on the Macau/Zhuhai side. There's intended to be one leg to Zhuhai and one to Macau.)
No Rail Link
There's no rail link. There will only be vehicular access, and the bridge is primarily intended for freight. Currently, it takes about an hour to go from Hong Kong to Macau by Ferry. It's 25km from Central to the airport, 29km for the bridge and a few km between the airport and the landfall point, so probably 60km in total. You're not going to be able to do that journey in less than one hour, not with Hong Kong traffic, CIQ, heavy freight traffic, etc. So there's no time-saving for passengers, purely for freight, which would no longer have to go around the Pearl River Delta.
No Time Saving
As mentioned above, there'd be no real time saving from HK to Macau. Also, because of where the traffic from Hong Kong would enter Guangdong, there'd be little in the way of appreciable time savings to Guangdong and other cities around the delta.
Freight Only
Heavy vehicles cause much more damage to a road surface than light vehicles. When calculating highway maintenance costs, a reasonable estimate of the damage to the surface would be the vehicle tonnage multipled by one thousand (or ten thousand in Australia). To build a bridge to take these loads and not have to close it for maintenance every year, and also to allow for the inevitable increase in heavy vehicles sizes is just going to cost more and more. Also, the final design will be heavy and unattractive. A tunnel doesn't have to be light and elegent and can be built to take heavier traffic.
I note that there's already a HK Government Project Management Office: HZMB Project Management Office Telephone Directory. This probably means that there'll be a tremendous loss of face if the project has to be cancelled. This is inevitable in this sort of situation, but what tends to happen in Hong Kong is that face must be preserved even at an astronomical cost to the taxpayer.
Note: some placenames (Macau, Lantau) in this article are spelled in accordance with Hong Kong standard practice. Some of the linked articles spell these placenames differently (Macao, Lantao). This is in accordance with Mainland (PRC) standard practice.
Posted by dave on 13 February 2006 at 11:08 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Current Affairs, Hong Kong
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English Language Proficiency
I'm just watching a programme on TVB Pearl about the English Language Proficiency test, and how a large number of English teachers can't even pass it. Some have failed four times in a row! When interviewed, those who appear to be failing the test continuously speak very poor English. Certainly, they can't speak with the degree of fluency you'd expect from an English teacher.
How on earth can people who are, at best, minimally competent in a language be expected to teach it competently?
Posted by dave on 12 February 2006 at 21:13 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Beautiful Plumage
Spotted on my travels through Wanchai the other day:
It's an Ex Parrot Shop! It's shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the Choir Invisibule!
Posted by dave on 11 February 2006 at 14:38 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Humour, Photography, Wibbling
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Robber Barons
Tom Legg, over at Dai Tou Laam notes two incidents of the US Justice Department putting pressure on banks doing business with countries that the Bush Administration doesn't like.
- US Extorting Banks To Follow Dear Leader's Policies;
- US Rumour-mongering To Isolate Political Opponents.
I thought these right-wing Bush following types loved free enterprise? I mean, here they are criticising a company for making money in a country they consider to be evil, while:
- Dick Cheney supported South Africa during Apartheid and opposed the release of Nelson Mandela; (link)
- The Bush Administration does business wih Uzbekistan, where they boil dissenters alive; (link)
- Both are oilmen, and very closely associated with Saudi Arabia, a country which makes Iran look like Amsterdam.(link)
So it's OK if they make money in a country which isn't liked by most of the world, but it's wrong for anyone else to do so. Hypocrites.
Posted by dave on 06 February 2006 at 02:03 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Current Affairs, Hong Kong, Rants
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Fart Away Dream?!
While looking for show details on the TVB website, I noticed the following typo:
 |
Episode 4 Most of the cars we buy have top speeds in excess of 100 miles and hour but we spend our days grinding around the slowest roads in Europe. For most of us, the high-speed, super rich world of Formula One is a fart away dream which requires thousands of pounds just to launch a career. Now for the first time, Be a Grand Prix Drive changes the game and makes the drama possible for anyone. |
(And TVB have hideous table based HTML as well. I've removed a lot of their crap as it doesn't work within a CSS based site like mine. I've also removed the Chinese characters as they don't contribute to the point. I severely doubt that the same typo is made in the Chinese text.)
Posted by dave on 05 February 2006 at 01:23 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong, Humour
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Playing MahJongg
So, it's the third day of Chinese New Year (or at least it was when the game started) and we're playing MahJongg with a Feng Shui Master.
Or, my wife is playing and I'm just trying to follow along. Notice how everyone is wearing some item of red clothing, which is thought to be lucky.
Posted by dave on 01 February 2006 at 14:08 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Holidays, Hong Kong
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Avian Flu
There's been more news of dead H5N1 infected birds in Hong Kong. This brings the grand total of cases to two wild birds.
Remarkably, and quite unlike the SARS era and the recent WTO coverage, the media isn't attempting to whip things up into a panicked frenzy. Perhaps they've taken the large amount of criticism over the WTO reporting to heart. Or maybe they just haven't found a bio hazard suit to fit Emma Jones yet, like that silly stunt with the TVB reporter in the crash helmet at the WTO frontlines. (Tom Grundy, the guy in the chicken suit.)
Given the enormous impact of the whole SARS fiasco on the Hong Kong economy, I wonder would the news media jump on an Avian Flu bandwagon quite as quickly as they played up SARS? SARS turned out to be no more dangerous than any other form of pneumonia, but the WHO declared it a potential pandemic and we all know what happened then. I know people who sent their kids to distant relatives in other countries, or who left Hong Kong with the clothes on their backs, never to return. Meanwhile, several countries refused to accept travellers from infected countries, and there was a massive hit to Hong Kong's economy which we took years to recover from.
Posted by dave on 30 January 2006 at 14:35 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Current Affairs, Health, Hong Kong, Science
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Come Here, Fat Boy!
 |
er, I think that should read Kung Hei Fat Choi!, the traditional geeting at Chinese New Year. It's the Hair — sorry — Year of the Dog so, according to ancient tradition, you are now allowed (and required!) to sniff the bottoms of anyone who comes to your house. |
|
Posted by dave on 30 January 2006 at 01:12 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Holidays, Hong Kong, Silly Stuff
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Hot Pot
It's that time of year: 
Time for Hot Pot!
Posted by dave on 28 January 2006 at 21:57 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Holidays, Hong Kong, Personal
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Chinglish @ classifiedpost.com
The SCMP online edition maintains its usual high standards of English:
Posted by dave on 20 January 2006 at 14:16 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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KCRC
Over the past few days, there's been a spate of incidents on the KCRC, Hong Kong's second railway company:
- Gov't to lead railway probe: KCRC
- Safety Concerns Plaguing KCRC
- KCRC trains shift to manual operation
- East Rail service under close watch
- Joint probe into train defects set
- HK to take new measures to secure train safety
Now, of course, all of the incident are caused by the discovery of some cracks on the trains. This led the KCRC to switch to manual operations to relieve stress on the trains, and this led to a reduction in the quality of service (to a level which is still vastly superior to anything you might find in, say, England).
Why on earth is a manual system less stressful to the components than an automatic system? Do the automatics have only two settings, Full Speed Ahead, and Dead Stop? Given that that's how most Hong Kongers — at least those who drive minibuses, taxis and buses — drive anyway, it makes no sense that manual operations would be less stressful. From my own experience, having been on the KCRC many times, it does have gentle acceleration and deceleration. It's probably a lttle better than the MTR. The whole thing seems like quite a lot of fuss over a relatively minor problem.
I wonder how much of this fuss is related to the upcoming merger with the MTRC? There's no need to talk down the share price of the KCRC as it's government owned, and likewise, most of the MTRC is government owned, so there's no real need to talk their share price up.
A stream of safety incidents and lack of reliability on the part of the KCRC will go a long way towards convincing the public that the KCRC should be absorbed by the MTRC, however. (Not that public opinion seems to matter all that much in Hong Kong, but sometimes it can be important.)
Posted by dave on 20 January 2006 at 14:05 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Loss of innocence
I, dear reader, have lost an innocence I would have sworn I would always keep. I have participated in something which goes against everything my ancestors stod for, fought for, and died for.
I have par— Oh God, it's almost too embarassing to admit.
Deep Breath...
OK, I have participated in Morris Dancing.
Stop! Stop! Don't all run away! I only morrised a little. I can give it up. It's not like I own trousers with bells on, or something! All I did was wave my hanky around like a spazz while someone else played an accordion.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I must learn the words to "Gathering Rhubarb".
Posted by dave on 18 January 2006 at 03:06 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Winter Solstice
It's the winter solstice today, and most businesses close early to allow families to gather for the traditional family dinner.
Of course, one of the "highlights" of going to your relatives flats at this time is a chance to observe how the southern Chinese deal with cold weather.
Now, us Northern Europeans, we'll close the flat to the outside elements and maybe put a heater on. Heat is, to us, something precious, and we love to have it. As far as I'm concerned, my home should be warm and welcoming in the winter time. I want to be able to go home and take off my layers of fleece and wool.
For the southern Chinese, it's quite different. No one heats their house. Therefore, everyone dresses as warmly as possible and therefore noone's house needs to be heated. So, even if your house is heated, you need to open all the windows because everyone is dressed as if all houses were freezers. Ergo, actually having a nice warm house is a waste of money because all of your Chinese relatives will complain about how your house is too stuffy because they've all turned up wearing arctic survival gear.
so in Hong Kong, almost nowhere is insulated. Almost all flats are single block outside wall, or equivalent. If you can imagine a garage in Ireland, with no cavity walling or insulation you'll get the idea. When it's cold outside, it's cold inside. While it only gets down to 10 °C here, it feels much colder.
Posted by dave on 22 December 2005 at 18:16 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Misunderstanding the Market
I've poked fun at Ms. Daswani before, but she's come up with another zinger in the Unlinkable SCMP.
Model for transport
Well-managed discount airlines are making profits in spite of high oil prices and selling air tickets so cheaply that it puts our public transport to shame. They do not have any "roadshow" infotainment income, yet they are able to charge less than public transport, calculated on a pro-rata basis. Sometimes the ferry ride to Macau is more expensive than the plane ticket. The airlines' fare structure is a good basis to force cuts in public transport fares.
NALINI DASWANI, Tsim Sha Tsui
The ludicruously low fares some airline operaters claim to charge are called "Loss Leaders". i.e., the first ten people to book get a loss-making fare, while the rest get a sliding scale of profitable fares. In. Ms Daswani's case, there's a few seats less than $170 (the cost of the ferry), while most of the rest of the seats are more expensive. The airline will make most profit on a route by charging exorbitant fees to business class users. i.e. Cathay Pacific's business class costs three times as much as economy class.
How does this translate to domestic public transport fares? It doesn't. There's no booking of seats or preferential treatment for early customers. Everyone who wants to use the service pays the same fare (unless they're an OAP or a child, of course). There is no scope for differential charges, or charging business users more than others, so the airline pricing model has no connection to public transport fares.
Posted by dave on 17 November 2005 at 06:21 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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IFC Fisheye
I think the IFC2 is bending slightly to the right...
Posted by dave on 13 September 2005 at 19:58 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Air Quality II
and, not two days after the last pic was taken, the view looks like this:
Posted by dave on 13 September 2005 at 19:56 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Air Quality
The air quality has been pretty bad lately. Here's the view from Oil Street, Fortress Hill across the Exhbition Centre to Central.
Pentax *istDS, FA 50/f1.4 1/2000 sec @ f11
The Exhibition Centre (the building in the foreground) is 2km away from the vantage point. The tall building is IFC2, which is about 3.5km away from me. This is not a trick of the lens or anything like that. This was taken with a 50mm lens on a DSLR, so the effective focal length is about 75mm. There's a very slight telephoto compression of the distance here, but not much.
UPDATE: Ho Kwok Hing, who many Hong Kongers will know as that gweilo in the canto-soaps, also mentions poor air quality with some pictures from a similar location.
Posted by dave on 12 September 2005 at 19:52 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Quiet
Things have been quiet for the last few days. Since I'm only back for a week or two, I've been recovering from working for a living, doing school stuff with the kids, going up and down to China quite a bit, dealing with a disk crash or two, and ogling at laptops.
The work in Brisbane wasn't the crippling death-march that Melbourne was, mainly because the pubs close earlier in Brisbane and you can't work your fingers to the bone without a pint or two afterwards. Even if you can only drink through a straw...
Both of the little troubles are now in Kindergarten, so there's been a certain amount of being Dad to be done, as well as getting the older one back into the homework routine. I'm running short on my ability to help with the Chinese homework, so I really need to practise some more.
We've been up and down to Shenzen a few times in the last week. KCR first class to Sheung Shui, then hop out and travel with the peasants for the last stop. It's quite pleasant in 1st as long as you choose the quiet end of the car. Why can't they mute the announcements in the first class car?
This last time, I went up to get some suits made. I have a regular tailor up there — a Shanghainese lady — who does a very good job. Very reasonable rates too. Unit 5091 Luo Hu Commercial City. She makes good suits, trousers, shirts and dresses. You'll need to speak Mandarin, although she speaks a little Cantonese and English.
One of my disks failed last night. Honest, it's never happened to me before, er, *ahem*. Sorry, yes, one of gizmo's disks failed last night and I was up until 4AM trying to salvage something from it. Luckily (I suppose) it wasn't anything essential on it; just /usr/src. Considering that fully half of the mission critical software on this server is compiled from source, that may present me with some problems later on. Right now I'll probably put some 250GB disks in there and mirror everything a few times. I know I should have copies on a machine served by a different ISP and power company, in a different country and on a different tectonic plate, but a second disk in the same machine is what I can do at the moment.
After a colleague's laptop made the supposedly fast desktops look like doorstops, (1.6 Ghz Pentium-M 30% faster than 3.0Ghz Pentium-4) the prospect of a decent laptop is quite exciting. Perhaps I can go from a laptop where Zork is the most advanced entertainment possble to one where graphically accelerated games rear their ugly (but well rendered) heads.
Posted by dave on 08 September 2005 at 21:50 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hello Kitty Princess
Yet another letter from the unlinkable SCMP
Issue a rainstorm warning that we can understand
I write regarding the disastrous rainstorm last weekend resulting in mudslides, floods, more than 100 people made homeless and at least one casualty. I am perplexed as to why this was classified as an amber rainstorm, with no emergency warnings. There were also strong monsoon and thunderstorm warnings. Most of us do not have a degree in meteorology, to figure out when it is safe to venture outside, so we rely on our Observatory to give us guidance.
On Saturday morning, I was completely soaked in five seconds. I stood in disbelief as my umbrella collapsed. I mustered enough courage to begin the treacherous two-minute walk to work. As I went along, the whole 55kg of me almost got blown off the street three times by squalls much worse than in any No 8 typhoon I have encountered in this city.
I then called the Observatory for an explanation. All I got was a standard technical answer as to what constituted an amber rainstorm warning and why they could not lift it any higher. At no point did they actually attempt to find out what the conditions outside were really like and what extra emergency measures ought to be taken immediately.
I really do not care what constitutes a yellow or red rainstorm. All I care about is safety for myself, my family and fellow citizens. What good are warnings if they do not reflect reality? The Observatory ought to be much more vigilant about our safety. This type of bureaucratic complacency just breeds incompetence.
L. LI, Mid-Levels
So, let's just get this straight:
- There were three warnings hoisted:
-
- the Amber Rainstorm warning;
- the Thunderstorn warning; and
- the Strong Monsoon warning.
- It was the height of summertime in Hong Kong, (also known as the rainy season.);
- You presumably have windows in your flat, to use to look outside and see if the weather is good or bad;
And you still think you should blame the Observatory for the fact that you got wet when going out in the rain?
You know, most people don't need a degree in Meteorology to figure out when it's safe to go outside. My own children appear to be capable of looking out the window and deciding if it's worth going out, despite not even going to primary school yet.
And as for your mustering enough courage to make the two-minute walk to work, that is one of the most pathetic things I have ever read. You had to spend two whole minutes in the rain? What are you, some kind of spoiled Hello-Kitty Princess?
I mean, I currently have a ten-minute walk to work with the constant threat of poisonous spiders, venomous snakes, man-eating sharks, ockers, bludgers, and drop-bears. (And my landlady looks like Pauline Hanson.) Do you hear me whinging about it?
Posted by dave on 25 August 2005 at 16:45 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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More Astroturfing
There's an interesting letter in this morning's unlinkable South China Morning Post. The link is, as ever, behind the subscription only firewall.
(You know, I'm sure that the scmp would make as much money from extra views on their advertising as they would lose by dropping the subscription.)
I applaud the belated step taken by Hong Kong in discontinuing the live airing of horse racing. It is high time also that Hong Kong took a hard look at RTHK's malpractice in airing a self-made weekly programme criticising, if not humiliating, the Hong Kong government and its staff.
This programme is outrageous by any standard. No other place would have a radio and television outlet using every opportunity to humiliate the very master that funds its operations like RTHK. We Hong Kong taxpayers will no longer tolerate the poor behaviour of RTHK.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
So what's this? No government broadcaster should ever be critical of the government? Possibly in the kind of authoritarian society the letter-writer dreams of while he sleeps in his jackboots, this is indeed the case.
In this world though, there's a long history of shows on the BBC and RTÉ (both state broadcasters) which comment on, and are critical of, the government of the day. It's not seen as subversive, just as part of the way things are. After all, if we change our government every few years, they must be doing something worthy of criticism, right?
While Hong Kong doesn't change the government as such, (we elect some members of the Legislative Council, but not the Chief Executive), why should we not at least be able to discuss the government?
The writer of the letter is probably one of those pro-CCP people who believe that you must never criticise the central government; that the CCP can do no wrong. That criticism is treasonous.
Sort of like those right-wing Americans who believe everything wrong with America is the fault of 'liberals' despite the right-wing party controlling all three branches of government (and controlling the press as well).
Posted by dave on 13 July 2005 at 11:42 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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What!?
See also eswnPosted by dave on 06 July 2005 at 11:21 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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The Miracle of Colour
Is it just me, or does this ad seem a little ironic, given how faded it is and how vibrant the other colours around it are?
Posted by dave on 24 June 2005 at 01:06 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Lok Ma Chau Demolition
The recent demolition of buildings at the Lok Ma Chau border crossing point was not all that successful...
Note how the buildings are not completely destroyed, but have mainly just fallen over. A competent demolition team will make the building fall vertically so that there is very little effect outside the footprint of the structure. As an example, may I direct you to the World Trade Centre, which fell as precisely as if it had been previously mined with directed charges designed to work along the lines of most stress, rather than being randomly struck by an airplane. Man, that Osama Bin Laden is a really good structural engineer!
Posted by dave on 30 May 2005 at 22:47 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: China, Hong Kong, Photography, Travel
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Changes to the MTR Map
The other day I noticed that changes had been made to the MTR Map displayed in the train carriage. If you look closely, you'll see that there are two new lines added on Lantau:
- The Tung Chung Cable Car; and
- The Disneyland Railway.
Normally, the MTR don't put a line on the Map until it's already open. It seems a little curious that they'd add these two lines well before they open.
UPDATE: Just noticed this morning, that the Asia World Expo is on there as well. Boondoggle.
Posted by dave on 18 May 2005 at 18:36 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Filipina Mormons
I just saw the strangest thing: Filipina Mormons. How bizarre.
Posted by dave on 04 May 2005 at 14:13 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hoison.com.hk
We went to Luk's Woodware, Queen's Road East, to get some furniture for my folks. As soon as they heard that some gweilos were involved in the transaction, the price shot up. This is the kind of nonsense I'd expect from a Tsim Sha Tsui Camera thief, but this is from a shop in Queen's Road East, Wanchai.
Friends of my parents have been dealing with Luk's Woodware for a number of years. They regularly have containers of furniture shipped over to Ireland. We reckon that they've been getting ripped off quite substantially on every container.
Posted by dave on 01 May 2005 at 00:07 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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More Nonsense from TVB
I was just watching the evening news on TVB, one of Hong Kong's two non-cable TV channels. In a summary of Easter events the world over, the news reader mentioned the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem where:
"...Christ was believed to have been crucified and buried hundreds of years ago."
*rolls eyes*
They also stated that most Catholics are from war-torn and third world countries. Whaaaaa?
As an aside, I've also noticed that, since they started putting English subtitles on the news, the quality of the English in those subtitles is appaling. Many of the native English Speaking news readers seem to correct the grammar as they go, but some feel quite happy to read out glaring and basic grammatical mistakes.
The new newsreader, David Nye, while reading out the sports, announced that some soccer player:
"scored from a frederick..."
when the subtitles clearly said he scored "from a free kick". What a maroon.
Posted by dave on 27 March 2005 at 19:43 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hong Kong Rugby Sevens
We went out for a quiet drink last night. Lockhart Road, in the heart of Wanchai District, was quiet. It seemed like a ghost town, with only the occasional cheer from those watching the Sevens on the big screen in another pub. (Devil's Advocate - they seem to have a funny cable TV subscription that gets them different channels from the other pubs.)
At about 8pm, the Sevens must have finished for the day, as the street was suddenly awash with people. I do believe that there's a member of the MLCCC in there somewhere.
Posted by dave on 20 March 2005 at 23:22 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hong Kong Blogging
Lamma is illuminated again as HKMacs moves to blogspot.com and escapes the clutches of PCCW.
Posted by dave on 29 December 2004 at 09:31 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Blogging, Hong Kong
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Buying Cameras in Tsim Sha Tsui
There's another story in the South China Unlinkable Morning Post about people who've been ripped off buying a camera along Nathan Road.
Tourists tell court they were duped over camera
ELAINE WU
Two British tourists flew from London to testify yesterday about how they were duped into buying a camera for twice its normal price.
Advertising managers Nigel Down and his partner Nicola Katav appeared in Kowloon City Court as witnesses in the trial of salesman Yu Wai-tung, of Union Digital World, Tsim Sha Tsui.
Yu, 41, had pleaded not guilty before magistrate Bruce McNair to a charge of attempted fraud for inducing Mr Down to buying a camera for $11,500 on May 1.
Mr Down, a regular business traveller to Hong Kong since 1992, told the court he was duped into buying the 6.3-megapixel Fuji FinePix S7000 camera after Yu told him it had a resolution of 16 megapixels.
Mr Down first bought a Nikon D70 digital camera for $7,000 on Ms Katav's credit card. But he was convinced by Yu that the Fuji model was better, so the salesman ripped up the credit card docket to void the transaction, the court heard. Mr Down was then told he had to pay an extra $960 to buy a Memory Stick device for the camera.
"I thought we were being naive at this point because the credit card was being swiped so many times," Ms Katav said.
It was only after police in the course of an investigation entered the shop and talked to Yu that the couple found out what was going on, the court heard. Yu told one Fuji camera only cost $5,000 and the $11,500 Mr Down paid included a printer and camera lens. But the couple told the court they had not been told about the accessories.
The trial continues on Monday.
The guy's been coming to Hong Kong since 1992 and still hasn't figured out that camera shops along Nathan Road are criminals? Is he thick? Has he never read a single guidebook? Every guidebook that I've read stresses taking great care when buying cameras and electronics in Tsim Sha Tsui. If you ask anyone who actually lives here where to buy a camera, only a complete dribbling idiot would suggest Nathan Road. (Most locals would head for Mong Kok, or Stanley Street in Central.)
Please note that I'm not attempting to justify the actions of the camera shop scum. These guys are thieves and the cumulative damage they have done to Hong Kong's reputation is probably in the millions of dollars worth of people who will never come back or who spread negative word of mouth after being ripped off here.
However, where they are and what they do is pretty much common knowledge. Everyone knows that you have to be careful buying a camera in Tsim Sha Tsui. Everyone knows that they rip off tourists.
The bait and switch tactic used in this case is the classic tactic used by the unscrupulous operators: the victim is quoted a pretty good price for something, but is then told that that price is for an older model, or that there's a far better model for just a few dollars more.
Another point here is that you have to know what you're buying. The D70 is a DSLR, i.e. it's a camera which allows you to use all compatible Nikon lenses. The Fuji is a good camera, but it has a built-in lens. The markets for these two cameras are very different, and it's hard to see someone who wanted a DSLR changing his mind at the last minute and going for the Fuji.
(Note that the pictures are from the Sing Pao, not the SCMP, as the SCMP didn't have any pictures accompanying the article.)
Posted by dave on 12 December 2004 at 19:36 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hong Kong Rail Fares
The letters page in the South China Morning Post is usually good for cranks and general weirdness. Unfortunately, the newpaper refuses to keep its letters online more than one day, so they are completely unlinkable, even if you are a subscriber.
On Thursday, there was this classic letter from a lady (I think, based on the name) from Tsim Sha Tsui:
In Hong Kong, railway fares are based on the property values of the station that you patronise. So you have to be ready to pay a premium to use the new KCRC facilities in Tsim Sha Tsui.
An MTR ride from Tsim Sha Tsui to Causeway Bay is shorter than one to Sheung Wan. But you pay $2 more, or 22.22 per cent extra, for the privilege to exit from Causeway Bay, where property prices are higher than in Sheung Wan. If everyone has accepted this for many years, why are they discontented now with the KCRC fares to the new East Tsim Sha Tsui station? It is highly unlikely that KCRC will be able to recoup the construction cost, anyway.
NALINI DASWANI, Tsim Sha Tsui
It is, of course, in reference to the recent opening of the East Tsim Sha Tsui (ETS) station. The fare from ETS to Hung Hom is HK$ 3.9 and for such a short journey, some people have complained. If you look at East Rail Fare Table, you can see that this is HK$ 0.70 more than the journey from hung Hom to MongKok. Truly a princely premium.
However, going back to Ms. Daswani's letter, fares on Hong Kong's heavy rail systems (MTR and KCR) are generally distance based with some premiums based on crossing certain barriers. The trams, with their HK$2.00 flat fare are an exception, and not really applicable.
There are premiums based on crossing the boundary (i.e. going to Lo Wu and soon to be Lok Ma Chau), and crossing the harbour. The boundary crossing premium is about HK$15.00 and the harbour crossing premium is about HK$6.00.
When looking at the cost of a particular fare, you also have to bear in mind any alternative routes. For the new ETS station, it now offers a route from Kowloon Tong to Tsim Sha Tsui in direct competition with the MTR route. The KCR route costs HK$5.60 for that journey, while the MTR costs HK$5.60 as well. It seems obvious, therefore, that the KCRC fare is correct, allowing users to determine if the time savings from the shorter route will affect their route choice.
To suggest that the fares are based on the property values of the destination station is completely ludicrous. If that were true, you'd pay twice as much to go to Central and Causeway bay, and the MTR would probably have to give you money to go to Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong!
Posted by dave on 30 October 2004 at 11:40 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Creationists in TVB?
I've just noticed the following description for a documentary on TVB Pearl:
第二集《基因革命》繼續探討改造基因的發展和是與非。現時有超過 72,000個關於基因的實驗正在進行，當中有什麼重大發現？這些實驗秘密地進行，公眾所知的有多少？科學家害怕公開研究過程的原因又是什麼？不少患有各種先天性病症的病患者都因為體內基因出現問題所致，科學家認為只要能破壞這些「不良」基因，加以改造，就能改變人的免疫力。真的嗎？節目還會提出有關基因與藥物發展之間關係的問題；道德與科學，結局是哪個比較重要？
Its subject was DNA research and new encouraging developments in the field of medicine. However, it also contained a biased evolutionist claim about DNA. This article will reveal that the evolutionists “useless DNA” contention is erroneous.
I can't read the Chinese, but the English reads like some Creationist in TVB has a problem with science programs.
Posted by dave on 25 October 2004 at 22:26 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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TVB Oddities
I'm sure I just saw a trailer on TVB, one of the four terrestrial TV channels available in Hong Kong, for the upcoming Vice-Presidential debate between Dick Cheney and Lieberman. Um, that was like, four years ago. Try and keep up with current events guys!
UPDATE: Picture added! This was taken with my el-cheapo digital camera from the TV screen, so the quality is terrible, but you should be able to see what's going on.
Posted by dave on 05 October 2004 at 21:29 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Current Affairs, Hong Kong
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Election Day 2004
An image of election day on Hong Kong Island.
UPDATE: Hmmm, just looking at this again, it isn't obvious what's happening here, unless you're familiar with local politics. The poster on top, which is defaced, is for "Bull" Tsang, an anti-Tung Chee Hwah candidate. The poster on the bottom, also defaced, is for Cyd Ho, a local democracy candidate.
The middle poster, which is not defaced, is for the pro-Beijing DAB party, widely regarded as anti-democratic. There are rumours that they encourage this sort of partisan behaviour.
Posted by dave on 13 September 2004 at 01:45 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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One Country, Two systems
In Saturday's South China Morning Post, the unlinkable news source for all manner of crackpot letter writers, there was a letter from noted Hong Kong personality Margaret Chu of the One Country, Two Systems Research Institute. In this letter, she made the following statement:
Hong Kong permanent residents above a fixed age, other than expatriates and criminals, enjoy this right. We already enjoy universal suffrage.
Factually incorrect, insulting and denigrating a popular cause, all in two short sentences! Truly, we get value for money from our letter writers these days.
It's Factually Incorrect. She states baldly that expatriates do not get a vote even if they are permanent residents. Well, I have a vote, and I'm an expat. I spotted at least one other expat coming out of the voting hall, as well, so there's at least two of us. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are a few more than that.
It's Insulting. Notice how she cunningly groups expats with criminals. Does she think that all foreigners are criminals? Sounds pretty racist to me. As far as I know, in Hong Kong, those serving time in prison don't get to vote. I'm unsure about whether their right to vote is returned once they have left prison. It should be, after all, you are deemed to be rehabilitated once you've done your time.
It Denigrates a Popular Cause. There is a call for Universal Sufferage in Hong Kong. This is a plea to allow the people of Hong Kong to elect the Chief Executive by a popular vote. Currently he is 'elected' by a small group of 'electors' chosen to reflect interests friendly to Beijing. Given that we have free, and what certainly seem to be, fair elections to elect some of our legislative councillors, it only seems fair to extend that right to the office of what is effectively our Mayor.
Is this the quality of the research which we should expect from the One Country, Two Systems Institute? Insulting opinions which are factually incorrect?
Posted by dave on 13 September 2004 at 01:24 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Walking in Kowloon
Today I was out for a walk. I started by taking the MTR to Central. I contemplated taking the MTR across the harbour, but decided that I wanted to take the Star Ferry instead. Luckily for me, the same ticket card — the Octopus — can be used on most Hong Kong Transport Modes.
So I strolled from Central MTR station, via a few branches of Dymocks, to the Star Ferry. I always prefer to travel on the Lower Deck on the Star Ferry. As well as being 50 cents cheaper, it means that you can move around a bit more and enjoy the view.
The new reclamation occuring on the Hong Kong side of the harbour looks incredibly intrusive. It really feels like the new shoreline will be half way across the current harbour.
Once in Kowloon, I started to walk towards Lock Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. along the way I had to run the usual gauntlet of earnest Indian gentlemen trying to sell me tailor shops or copy watches. These guys must have a severely negative impact on the entire Hong Kong economy. I find it hard to imagine any tourist being happy to be regaled with "Suit sir? Suit sir? We do jolly good suit for you sir!" every ten paces.
I've often contemplated writing a Quake level where you get to walk around Nathan Road with a shotgun...
I always start to retort that I'm not a tourist, but, when I'm wandering about Hong Kong like that, I'm usually wearing a floral shirt, shorts and sandals. Now, while these are nice floral shirts — usually Armani or Abercrombie and Fitch, obtained for peanuts from the Sample shops in Wanchai — but, I sure as heck still look like a tourist.
I do notice that the MTR stations on the Tsuen Wan Line now have a cardboard cutout over Tsim Sha Tsui station, presumably so they can cope with the pending opening of East Tsim Sha Tsui KCR station later on this year.
I made my way to Tung Choi street in Prince Edward to get a few more tropical fish for the fish tank in the living room. The kids love having colourful fish around and it's also considered lucky to have fish in the house. The Cantonese believe that fish bring good fortune to a household.
Posted by dave on 05 July 2004 at 00:24 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Tianenmen Square
It's the 15th anniversary of Tianenmen Square today. Richard, the Peking Duck has some excellent articles about the whole thing.
Posted by dave on 04 June 2004 at 23:56 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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googlebombing
When googlebombing, I do believe that the text in the link has to be the desired search term.
Shaky's having trouble with asiaxpat.com,
That should do the trick. I loath referrer spam.
Update: following comments from Shri below, all general terms removed, but the obvious one left in.
Posted by dave on 27 May 2004 at 17:24 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Get Out The Vote!
Now that I'm a registered voter, you can rest assured that i'll be voting for Hemlock when the election comes around.
Posted by dave on 15 May 2004 at 00:52 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Harbour Fest
I'm watching the Harbour Fest video right now: Hong Kong Rocks. The music's good, but the commentary is awful. It's completely banal, frequently innacurate (The Jumbo floating restaurant is 'a must-see'?), and pitched at about the level of the frequent HKTA adverts which show, that we (people watching local TV in Hong Kong) should really come to Hong Kong.
My taxes paid for this? Give me $100 million Hong Kong dollars and I'll personally go and make tourists come here.
Posted by dave on 01 May 2004 at 21:13 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Basic Law
spotted in this mornings SCMP:
Almost everyone in the legal profession has interpreted what is, and what is not, in the Basic Law.
Academics and self-styled experts have done so, the Americans have frequently given their interpretation, and the British often disclose theirs. Even the president of Taiwan has given his comments. Who knows where a further interpretation will come from Africa, the Caribbean or Southeast Asia?
Yet we do not see any protest or objection in Hong Kong about those interpretations. But when the sovereign state makes an interpretation of the Basic Law, there is so much fuss and protest.
I am very confused. Why is it acceptable for every Tom, Dick and Harry to interpret the Basic Law, but it is not all right for our own country to do so? Now I feel fed up.
CHANG CHHANG-SAN, Causeway Bay
Because, you dribbling idiot, when other countries 'interperet' the Basic Law, they're just stating an opinion, when China 'interperets' the Basic Law, they are changing it to suit themselves.
Posted by dave on 24 April 2004 at 12:09 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Racism
We headed over Kowloon-side by MTR today and something happened which I haven't seen in quite a while.
I went over to an empty seat to sit down and the old lady on the same side got up and moved away. It used to be common that no one would sit next to the Gweilo, but it's not something I've experienced recently.
Normally, when old ladies see me coming with the kids, they go into universal granny mode. This involves making clucking noises, exclaiming "how cute!" in whatever language they speak and possibly offering small treats. Grannies everywhere are like this with small kids, regardless of whether the kids are likely to understand.
Posted by dave on 04 April 2004 at 19:58 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Kung Hei Fat Choi!
It's the year of the monkey!
(King) Kong
(Fay) Wray
Fat
Choi!
Posted by dave on 22 January 2004 at 00:18 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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It's Coooold!
It's cold here on Hong Kong Island. 10°C (50°) says the thermometer hanging out the living room window. This may not seem cold to any Northern Europoeans or North Americans reading, but it's damn cold when you're supposed to be in the Tropics! We're south of the Persian Gulf here! It should be hot!
For someone like me, who spend the first 29 years of life living mostly in dark, damp, north-western Europe, 10°C should be warm and positively balmy. So why am I so cold?
One of the reasons has to acclimatisation. Hong Kong's normally quite a warm and humid place, with the temperature over 25°C and the Relative Humidity around 70% or more, as you can see from the graph. There's also very little variation between day and night. Come 'wintertime' (or more accurately, Chinese New Year), the monsoon winds come down from Northern China and the temperature plummets, but the humidity stays high.
Hong Kong flats are built with a single thickness of outer wall. There is no insulation there, windows are always single glazed. Older flats are not well sealed and there are always draughts. Indeed, many flats are located to get cooling breezes during the long hot summer months to keep the Air Conditioner bills down. This is fine for the summertime, but for those few weeks of cold weather, all the heat leaches out through the concrete walls, and the flat stays, at best, a few degrees warmer than outside. Even our flat, which is relatively new, and has well-sealed doors and windows is only 5°C warmer than outside, according to my thermometer.
Posted by dave on 19 January 2004 at 13:14 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Noise
My office overlooks a small street in Wanchai. Currently, there are roadworks in this street. Actually, there have been roadworks on this street for as long as I can remember. Anyway, for the last few weeks, there have been men digging up the road with pneumatic drills (jackhammers). They're hacking and they're hammering, hammering and hacking. They stopped for a day or so last week, and the silence was intense. It was difficult to concentrate with the sudden change. Now, of course, they've started up again, and it's almost impossible to concentrate because of the noise.
But, lucky me, they do stop work at about five o'clock. Which is when the traffic starts to get heavy and the beeping starts. Then it gets dark and the flashing starts. The beeping and the flashing, the flashing and the beeping. The hammering and the hacking, beeping and flashing. But you've gotta keep working; keep your nose to the grindstone, your shoulder to the wheel, and your eyes on the prize. Now try working in that position!
Posted by dave on 30 November 2003 at 23:11 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hong Kong Bloggers Meet
Well, it finally happened. A small (but perfectly formed) group of Hong Kong bloggers got together to, well, just get together, really. In attendance were:
- Phil
- Simon
- Ron
- UKJoe
- Ben
- Eyal
- and a visiting blogger from the US, Terry, who has some really nice photographs on his blog.
- Also non-bloggers, but commentators, including Jacksback.
- Oh, and me, of course, although I left early.
At least that was the state of play when I left at about 9pm or so.
Beer was drunk, talk was talked, and if you want a blow by blow account, well, you should have come along, really. Living vicariously through blogs only goes so far. No pictures were taken, but if you're comatose on the steps of Fenwick's tomorrow when I'm going to work, consider yourself immortalised.
Posted by dave on 26 November 2003 at 23:56 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Smart ID Card
I went down to get my SmartID card after work today - only to be told that I had to produce my passport as well. Rushed off home, and was back in under an hour. I went through the very streamlined procedure in under ten minutes and was back home before eight o'clock. It's really very smooth and organised.
Apparently my thumbprints are very difficult to read, though.
The immigration officer was so nice, she even wished me a happy birthday! It's tomorrow.
Posted by dave on 24 November 2003 at 21:59 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Smart ID Cards and a bit of a rant
Like many other Hong Kongers, it's time for me to exchange my Hong Kong ID card for the new Smart ID card, with built in chip containing some biometric information.
Like many others in Hong Kong, I went to the Official Smart ID Site to book an appointment. Unlike the BWG, however, I had no problems with the website, even though I used Mozilla on Linux.
Many HK websites are designed by dribbling idiots who have no experience with anything outside their cozy little Windows world. They design websites for the latest version of IE on the latest version of Windows and they never, ever check their site on anything else. They deliberately code using completely proprietary extensions which only work on Windows, or code effects which rely on IE's quirks to render properly. What's worse is, if you dare challenge their design work, they immediately go into a very defensive rant: "how dare you criticise me! I code for Windows and IE because only homosexual, communist freaks use anything else!" Etc, etc. You get the idea. Classic examples are the standardchartered.com, jobsdb.com, or one2free.com websites which only work on IE.
A counter example is the hsbc.com.hk online banking site which works very well under Mozilla on Linux, Solaris, whatever. And why shouldn't it? It's a website. There are standard protocols for designing them. There is no need whatsoever to code for one browser over another. It's arrogance, plain and simple.
My approach is to get it right with Mozilla (which is more standards compliant) and then make sure it looks about right in IE, which most people still use. Occasionally, I'll fire up Opera just to see what the heck it looks like, or I use Konqueror, but if it looks right in Mozilla and IE, the chances are pretty good it's fine in everything.
Except, of course for Netscape 4.7. That doesn't handle stylesheets correctly and is generally pretty broken. If you're using it right now and these pages look bad, it's your browser.
Posted by dave on 17 November 2003 at 22:36 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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A Chinese Wedding
We went to a Chinese Wedding tonight. My wife does wedding make-up for these, so she goes all the time. Tonight, however, the bride asked for me to take some photos and for the kids to go along. As my brother was in town, he came along as well.
Sanley's day started at about 6AM, when she had to go along and sort out the bride's makeup for the 'refusing the groom entrance' games. (A traditional Chinese Bride has to refuse the groom entrance for a little bit, even if they're actually living together.) Then she had to make sure that the make up (and it's a lot of makeup - the bride has to be flawless) was ok at the registry.
After all the legal stuff, a Chinese couple has to throw a banquet for all their friends (and colleagues, and acquaintances...), so at about 5pm, we all turned up in the Star Seafood Floating Restaurant in Sha Tin. Let me tell you right away, that this is not a real floating restaurant, unless Science has found a way to make vast quantities of concrete float. It's more like a building with a moat. Or maybe one which happens to have a two foot puddle around it.
So, first things first, I'm the photographer, so I lurk there with my Z1-p and FTZ-500. and take a few snaps. Only there are now three photographers (or maybe more) and all the others have Nikon D100s. (This is a state of the art digital SLR.) These other guys are flailing through shots, stopping only to change battery packs and the occasional CF card. I, meanwhile, am working on the zen of removing a roll of film with one hand while inserting one with the other. This is hard work.
Note to self: Never wear shiny shoes at wedding ever again. If you're going to be standing and taking photos, comfortable shoes are the order of the day. Also, you'd pretty much have to turn up naked to be the worst dressed guy at a Chinese wedding, so wear comfortable clothes. One of the witnesses from the registry ceremony came straight to the banquet in the jeans and polo shirt that he was wearing then. And there were people there (including one of the photographers) who looked like they made some time from their busy schedule of cleaning sewage pipes to pop along to the banquet.
Every combination of friends, relatives and colleagues of the bride and the groom was paraded in front of the photographers and we dutifully snapped frame after frame of people staring expressionlessly at the cameras. (Meanwhile the kids (including mine, sad to say) were running riot around, so we'd have to choose a moment when no sproglets were in shot. Pentax's autofocus is very bad at that, so I'd normally focus on the bride, then turn AF off and wait for the right moment.)
Meanwhile, Alan (my brother) took over the second hat I was expected to wear - that of Candid black and white photographer. Apparently the bride and groom had read some arty publication which glorified the candid black and white shot and wanted that. That stuff is very difficult to do. And you certainly can't do it while also trying to get formal colour shots. So Alan has my MZ-5, stuffed full of T400CN and Portra 400BW. (My Z1-p is stocked with Kodak Portra 160NC, a lovely film with gorgeous skin tones. This is ok for a Chinese wedding, were makeup makes people look like they don't spend too much time in the sun. At an Irish wedding, where half the girls have slathered on the orange foundation which makes them look like Oompa-Loompas, I'd want either 160VC or Fuji Velvia, to really make that orange sear your eyeballs and make you want to sing the Oompa-Loompa song.)
Luckily, after only four hours of group shots, the food started. (The last twenty minutes of shots were carefully chosen to avoid the tables being shuttled in by the staff.)
As is traditional at a Chinese wedding, Roast Suckling Pig was the first dish. Just think crackling, if you've never been to a Chinese wedding. Me, I like this. My brother, like many unsuspecting victims of real Chinese food, was a bit stunned. He didn't partake of much of the delicacies. A shame really, I thought the Snake Soup and the Abalone were rather good. As were the Scallops and the steamed Garoupa. I was put off by the Chicken, which always appears to have been starved to death because it's so scrawny, but which does taste quite nice, if you can eat around the bony bits. I donated all the fleshy bits to my little brother, as he'd avoided the earlier dishes, and was looking rather hungry. They didn't even have cider for him, just Carlsberg or 7up.
So, finally the wedding banquet is finished, it's time to go home. I have ten rolls of film to get processed. The guys with the Nikon D100s are smirking. "We save megabucks per year because we don't have to pay for processing and printing.", they say. And they're right. If you take a lot of photos, digital is yer only man. I am just waiting for the Pentax *istD to come here. Also waiting to win the Mark6 (Lottery) so I can afford one, of course. When you have no job, and the money is running out, thoughts of buying $20,000 DSLRs are a bit pie in the sky.
Posted by dave on 11 September 2003 at 02:25 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Hong Kong Nonsense
I was passing through the Wanchai Market today, and I thought of something: I should really build that little quiz site I've been thinking of for a while. "Pet Shop or Restaurant?" - I show a picture of the outside of a Hong Kong establishment, and the readers have to guess whether it's a Pet Shop or a Restaurant. This is a very Letterman thing. I should stop watching that show. Maybe I should expand the choices: "Pet Shop, Zoo, or Restaurant". Mind you, in China, there are places which combine the last two choices.
Posted by dave on 08 September 2003 at 01:44 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Summertime
Well, it's the end of summertime here in Hong Kong. This means the the rainfall is heavy enough to stun a mule and there is imminent danger of drowning while walking down the street.
Posted by dave on 07 September 2003 at 03:19 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Typhoon!
Barely one day after landing here, my brother is about to see his first Typhoon! Typhoon Dujuan is heading straight for us at a blistering pace. (You can see the current track here. Note that this will only show the current typhoon track. I must do something about showing the typhoon tracks I have records for at some stage.)
This one is really heading *straight* for us, which is quite unusual. Normally, they come up from the South, having trashed the Phillipines first.
Right now, the T8 is up (See here), and Hong Kong is starting to shut down. The ferries are locked down, the schools are shut, the busses will run until about 1630 and the MTR may shut down later. Shops and offices will close and everyone will go home and Play MahJong.
I was just reading the Big White Guy's site, and his Tale of Typhoon York reminded me of my experiences from that Typhoon. We were living in Wanchai at the time, in a slim building which was quite tall. We weren't that high up (only 16 floors, or about half way up the building, but we could feel the building swaying in the wind.
There hasn't been a big typhoon like York in the last four years, so I guess we're about due a biggie. Right now, we're on the 1st floor of a 6 storey building (That's one floor up, for those used to American floor numbering), and in quite a sheltered little valley. We shouldn't experience the swaying this time.
Update: 8:30pm: it's been upgraded to a T9!
Update: 10:00pm: It's been downgraded from a T9 to a T8.
As of 1:30am, it's been downgraded to a T3.
It never looked like much from here. We had to close the windows, but we have to do that anyway when it's raining. The winds never got up to the howl I've heard before, and the rain never got to the stage where visibility is under five metres, which happens when the black rainstorm goes up. Perhaps it's because this flat is low down, in a little valley and sheltered by taller buildings. Perhaps it's that the typhoon went to the north, and hit the New Territories hard, which it certainly did.
Update: 03:30am: All signals are down. I kind of feel for the bloke seen getting bladdered on the local News: "Well, there'll be no work tomorrow, so why not go out and drink. Er, and meet people." Yep, you wouldn't want people to think that Essex lads just want to drink all night.
Posted by dave on 02 September 2003 at 15:59 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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Ladies Night
Last night was entertaining. The missus was working late (until about 8pm), I'd been busy doing some consulting work, and then she decided that, as it was ladies night, we'd go out, and only one of us would have to pay for drinks. (Guess which one.)
So, we met one of her friends in Joe Bananas, where the average population of desparate men was scary. Funnily enough, I was one of the youngest guys there, and I'm 36!
Really strangely, there were SLG (Shore Leave Group) guys all over the place. Now, SLG are what the US navy calls MPs now, or "people who try and stop our 18 year olds getting pissed in every port". Normally, there's about two or three of them to every pub full of drunken US marines. And they generally do a good job. It's one thing to go picking fights when you're drunk, it's another thing to do it in front of your commanding officers. Or where reports will go back to your commanding officers.
But, there were no sailors, soldiers or marines. I couldn't spot a single drunk 18 year old with a military haircut anywhere. So why were the SLG around? Was there a squad of Special Forces around? Skilled at blending into pubs full of drunken Brits? If so, why did they need SLG? Maybe some blokes bought some SLG t-shirts off ebay.com.
Posted by dave on 22 August 2003 at 02:38 (GMT +08:00)
Categories: Hong Kong
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More Tourists Ripped Off
In the last few days, more tourists have been ripped of when buying cameras from the camera and electronics shops along Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, the main tourist area of Hong Kong. They go in to a shop, often they're invited in, and very aggressively sold electronics goods at two, three or more times the prices charged in reputable shops. Often, bait and switch tactics are used. If they try and complain, even with the aid of the police and the consumer council, they get nowhere, because of Hong Kong's loose consumer protection laws.
The thieves who run these shops are unapologetic about their dishonest way of life, and get very aggressive when questioned by reporters. They're lying, thieving scum.
If you're coming to Hong Kong, and think you might want to buy a camera, stay away from any of shops on Nathan Road between Austin Road and Salisbury Road. (This is the part where you come out of the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station.) The Danger signs to look for are:
- No prices on anything in the window
- Signs advertising 70% off, or some such huge discount
- No Chinese customers in the shop
- The only customers in the shop all look like tourists
- The sales tactics are very aggressive
One shop which was mentioned by name in the South China Morning Post for ripping off an Irish couple on holidays, was "Elegance Camera and Video Supplier" on the ground floor of Alpha House, Nathan Road. He sold them a camera for HK$15,000, when it was being sold nearby for about $HK3,300 elsewhere in Hong Kong.
Many of these 'shopkeepers' will have Triad links. The best bet is to just ignore them.
There are plenty of places where you can get cameras and electronics for reasonable prices in Hong Kong - don't let a few (OK, a lot) bad apples spoil the barrel. Fortress are a Hong Kong chain of electronics stores. They're not the cheapest, but if you go in and look around, you'll get an idea of what you should be paying for something.
I'm going to go out there in the next few days and take pictures of the sort of shops you should avoid, and the few camera shops in Tsim Sha Tsui which are ok to buy camera stuff in. Taking pictures of criminals in action is always risky, but I'm good at the stealth photography lark. I'll have my PZ-1p with a 20mm lens set at hyperfocal distance and the exposure pre-set. I won't need to raise the camera to my eye, just point it in the general direction of the shop. And I'll also have a mobile phone with 999 on speed dial.