Hong Kong news 25 October

Typhoon Megi did NOT strike Hong Kong over the weekend. It turned. So I am still a hurricane short of ever having experienced a natural disaster.

News today comes from our regular Beijing mouthpiece, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), and the China Daily. Oh, no, the retarded woman at the shop gave me the USA Today instead. And I was too retarded to fucking check. So I have one and a half newspapers here today.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
While Hurricane Megi may have missed Hong Kong, it did give parts of Taiwan a bedonnering to the tune of 25 deaths, 13 of which are due to landslides caused by the storm. Rockslides also buried parts of a highway on which a bus with 21 people in it has still not been recovered. How's this quote though? "Taiwan's transport ministry said yesterday that relatives of the missing people, including those from the mainland, would receive NT5.1million (HK$1.27million) if their family members were not found." That's about 1 million rand. If that was the policy in SA I'd bury a few cousins every time it rained.

Today's main headline in the SCMP is "Mainland whims fire up HK real estate". Now, you know how governments like to blame other people for their balls ups? Well, in Hong Kong they have embraced capitalism to a larger degree than even the USA. This means that society is awesome if you're rich, but can be quite tricky if you're poor. Also, when space is at a premium (the population density here is insane) then it becomes an expensive tradable product. Which means there is a shortage of it too (supply, demand?) and it means HK has a serious housing shortage, and that poor people can't afford to live anywhere except government-subsidised housing. Of which there is not enough. This article politely makes it China's fault. Not the Hong Kong governments. Pish posh.

Umm, Sarah Palin, the one yank who manages to find the worst of the USA and pack it all into one person, has her own TV show now called Sarah Palin's Alaska. I am dying to watch it. Can you imagine if we had something like "Dan Roodt's Free State journeys" or “Floyd Shivambu’s Sandhurst” on our own TVs. I would never miss it. Ever.

HONG KONG
I've thrown yesterday's paper away already, but on Saturday a bus fell of a bridge and landed on two taxis. It fell fucken far and somehow no one died, including the two taxi drivers who were napping in their stationary cabs. It makes me like HK taxis more.

A parallel with London: HK's public health service is excellent but it means old people don't die which makes it a bit of a strain on the public purse - god forbid the politicians had to cut back on expenses or something, yussus - so there is an initiative to revamp the health system. It's been in the news every day since I have been here with the emphasis being on rich people to go for private medical cover. The intricacies are not yet know though (or are still being finalised).

A three-dimensional porn movie is currently being shot in Hong Kong. Government hopes that this will boost tourism. Ja, because Thailand is really bout to give up the sex-tourism rep.

Hong Kong's news does get strangely similar to Britain's at times. In this instance, a chain of shopping malls (called Link) is not catering enough for disabled people. 18% of establishments do not conform to prerequisites.

SPORT
HK Rugby is pissy because not enough people have bought tickets for the NZ-Australia Bledisloe Cup match for the weekend - selling only 25 000 of the 40 000-odd ticketsd available. This is because these giant cretins are charging HK$880 (R800) for a seat.