Hong Kong morning (afternoon) news 13 October

Today's interpretation of the news. Nothing made up or unsubstantiated of course.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
In an open letter, a group of Chinese ex-politicians and leaders has lambasted China's attitude toward freedom of speech, even comparing it to the colonial era in Hong Kong and Macau (which was colonised by the Portuguese) where democratic rights were established. This is important, because it includes censorship of "Premier Wen Jiabao's repeated calls for political reform and deprive the people their right to learn about it". In fact, a speech which Jiabao made in Shenzen about this topic had parts deleted before it could be considered by the Chinese media. Lots of open letters like this are published in China which usually achieves nothing bar the signatories getting into hot water with the government, however, the high profile nature of the people who signed this doc means they will probably all be fine. Weirdly enough, two people who signed this letter previously worked for the CCP - the Central Propaganda Department. Go figure.

China, her neighbours (meaning the Yank's floozees, South Korea and Japan) and the USA are on the verge of having a squawk about China's actions on the South China Sea. China reckons aggrieved parties (meaning South Korea and Japan) should deal directly wth Beijing. Washington said that it is committed to coming up with a multilateral solution (meaning China should back the fuck up and let South Korea and Japan do what they want before they cock around with easy and cheap US-shipping routes, I'd imagine). Its going to boil down to China telling the States to go away, and the States saying no.

HONG KONG
The Hong Kong SAR government expressed disappointment that the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, has officially announced that he will not prosecute all the officials who cocked up so badly during the hostage situation in Manila which left 8 Hong Kongers dead. Instead, because they are buddies of his, he is going to blame two journalists and aim some tiny charges at high ranking offials.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's airline, over the last two years installed these fancy economy class seats so that passengers could recline without disturbing people sitting behind them. They have moved them off aircraft that serve long haul destinations because of the amount of people who claimed they are uncomfortable. Bully for you complainers... like economy class on all airlines isn't uncomfortable.

I have mentioned Lau Wong-fat before. He is the oke who owns 700-odd properties in Hong Kong and always seems to be in some sort of shit. Well, ithappened again. It was found out that he has leased one of his plots of land to an illegal paint-balling business. Being the owner, he is partly culpable. Oh and he's also a bigwig in government. Corruption is rife around the world, my pretties.

Donald Tsang, CEO of Legco will make some yearly address tomorrow. Listening to a politician speak is totally the most engrossing thing ever, innit?

SPORT
South Korea was given the green light by the FIA during its pre-Grand Prix inspection.

The only story in sport today relevant to Hong Kong is that Colin Montgomerie will be playing in the Hong Kong Open next month. Wank wank wank. He's won it before though.

Hong Kong morning news - 8 October

Courtesy of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and The Standard.

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?