First up, as if you needed any more sticks with which to poke the SCMP in the eye, this insert came with the paper today. What excellent use of juxtaposition and irony putting this word next to this picture.
Remember that hostage bus situation in the Phillipines a few weeks ago? Well, 8 of the victims who died were Hong Kongers, so it's quite the emotional situation here from what the papers have to say this morning, as both carry front page news about it today. The basic premise is this: The Filipino government botched the whole rescue operation and ordered an inquiry afterwards after what The Standard called an "international outcry". The results of the inquiry were released and blamed a few members of government who happen to be buddy buddy with the President Aquino, so El Presidente has decided to blame two journalists who interviewed the killer. This is pissing Hong Kongers off as they want justice for the murdered victims of their city/country/special administrative area.
Derick Chan Po-fui, head of ICBC, China's biggest commercial bank lender by market capitalisation, has been busted for accepting HK$3.3million (about R3.6milion) of bribes to extenda client's loan repayment window. Although Chan is a Hong Konger, ICBC is a Chinese partly state-owned bank so he's in massive shit. Two others, Zhang Enzhao and Liu Jinbao, have been caught accepting bribes at state-owned banks, and were dished out 15 years in prison and a suspended death penalty sentence respectively. Corruption is a big deal here - one should not ever fuck with the Chinese government.
The USA has cancelled the visit of one of its aircraft carriers to Hong Kong. Washington swears it has nothing to do with diplomatic objections from Beijing and is because of "operational reasons". And my bum is a brinjal.
These two headlines are on the same page of the SCMP today: "Dumped baby may have lived briefly" and "Helper admits killing baby after birth in toilet". A pretty strong newsday for infanticide, wouldn't you say? Terrible, terrible. The baby in the first story was found in a plastic bag on a hillside. The "helper" who killed the baby in the second story threw the child out of a window. Stunning.
A passenger oin a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong had to be restrained and hand cuffed to his seat because he threatened to open the aeroplane door while they were in mid flight. I can advise you from personal experience that this is NOT the case on Qatar Airways where staff initially thought I was joking, then didn't actually know what to do when they realised that the girl on drugs behind me really had plans to do so. Not my best flight.
Graham McDowell, Ryder Cup hero, will join Rory McIlroy in November's Hong Kong Open golf tournament. Golf is popular in Asia, and the Open here is sanctioned by the European Tour so it's great news all round for HK golf fans.
Roger Federer backed Hong Kong to be the host of the 2023 Asian Games while on a stopover en route to Shanghai. "I won't ever play in the Asian Games but sport is always good for a city". He also went on to mention that his double gold in the Olympics in Beijing was one of the finest moments of his career. A man endorses a tournament he can't play in and then tells a story about a different city... pretty pointless endorsement all round then, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment