Hong Kong's news 5 January

After a disruptive month where I have been flitting around the world at my own bankrupting expense, it's about time I get stuck back into good old Hong Kong affairs, so here is your first edition of Hong Kong news in 2011, courtesy of the South China Morning Post (paywall).

This is the lead picture on the front page. Hurlworthy.

It is indeed what you think. This pic was taken of a beach in New Zealand. Those shadows are sharks. Between the bathers and the shore. Vom.

Onto news:

HONG KONG:

Hong Kong officials are struggling to stave off an imminent waste disposal crisis. Basically, there is no space in this city to throw away the rubbish. A few months ago Legco (HK's parliament) decided to reduce the size of one of the parks to develop a waste disposal site, but this was overturned without a new solution being mooted (well done, greenies). So more stuff is being thrown away by Hongkongers with nowhere for it to go. In a city with no space, that's problematic.

Hong Kong has a new police chief called Andy Tsang Wai-hung. This appointment is notable because he actually has a long and respected career as an investigative officer. Weird how sometimes is it experts in the field, rather than politicians, who are elected to top jobs. The appointment needs to be ratified by Beijing but this is expected to be a formality.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL:

China's new stealth fighter jet, the J-20 will undergo test flights within the next few days in Chengdu, if weather permits. This is earlier than the Western World expected (much like the conquering of the economic world by China - do no politicians read the newspaper?), with US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, going on record previously saying that China would have "no fifth-generation [military] aircraft by 2020". Although it is expected to take at least ten years until China can mass-produce the plane.

2000 university students were asked to select China's top cultural symbol. The top five picked were Chinese characters (as in writing) which was voted number one, followed by (in random order) Confucius, calligraphy, the national flag and the Great Wall.

The Chinese economic planning agency has outlawed "price-fixing by monopolies" - so now we have yet another country in which these laws will be ignored. The words used in the SCMP seem to indicate a distaste for big business. Saying "monopolies" in that glib quote I used above seems to be incorrect - they should have said "businesses" or "industry-leading companies" methinks. The language indicates bias.

If you wonder whether the shitfest over the Victory Mosque built at Ground Zero was the type of ridiculous incident that only went on in the West, think again. Confucianists who live in the former philosopher's home town of Qufu are up in arms because a Christian church is being built there, allegedly disrespecting/insulting Mr Confucius. Confusianists insist that if a temple of their own was built in Jerusalem, Mecca or the Vatican the local governments and people would not allow it. Truly conservative religious people... well there's not much to pick between them, is there?

Iran has invited a whole lot of countries around the world - including China - to come and inspect its nuclear sites (which it insists are for energy and not weaponry) before a meeting with the UN Security Council next month. From what this article says, it looks as if the USA, Britain, France and Germany have not received invitations. (Probable reasons include the fact that the USA and Iran don't smaak each other for shit, Britain agrees with everything the USA does, France hates burkhas and Angela Merkel refuses to wear one.)

Australians affected by the flooding in Queensland are being warned to stay out of the ubiquitous water for reasons other than being swept away: snakes and crocodiles which usually inhabit the river outside the city have been swept into it. As if normal flooding doesn't cause enough problems. More rain is expected tonight.

SPORT:

A swimming pool and sports track (which I take to mean athletics) in Wan Chai will be moved for the new high-speed rail between Hong Kong and the closest Chinese city of note: Shenzhen. The government says that these will be rebuilt but I would like to see where in Hong Kong the leftover space for these two facilities is.

Mitchell Johnson, the Australian cricketer, is pissed at the UDRS (Umpire Decision Referral System) because Alistair Cook, caught at mid-on after skying a shot off Michael Beer was given not out after the TV umpire reversed the decision because Beer had bowled a no-ball. Yes, Johnson hates the system because a player was correctly given not out. Huge failing of the system, isn't it? Idiot.

Hong Kong news 27 October

Today, as budgets are limited (we spent the extra money on booze) we rely solely on the South China Morning Post (SCMP), that mouthpiece regurgitating every fleck of spittle emanating from Hu Jintao's imperious mouth.


SPORT
I am doing the sport first today, as there actually is some news, and South Africa features. Now I know stuff all about horse racing, but the newspaper seems to be very happy that a South African jockey, Anton Marcus, is going to be riding in the Cathay Pacific International Jockey's Championship at Happy Valley Racecourse in December. He will be the first South African flag bearing participant in this race, although a chap called Douglas Whyte from South Africa has oft competed here under the Hong Kong flag. It seems from a small editorial on sport page 2 that South Africans have been very successful here, all representing differing nations though. The paper goes on to say that our nation has made a huge contrbution to Hong Kong racing. This is all pretty cool, because Hong Kong is the most horse-racing befok place I have ever been. So it is BIG NEWS!

The Wallabies and the All Blacks are set to lock horns in Hong Kong on Saturday in a Bledisloe Cup match being touted as a mere preparation match before the World Cup next year. There is absolutely no new angle on this whatsoever.

Paul the Octopus went to calamari heaven. Boohoo. I'm so fucking sad.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
Feel for Indonesians. Last week reports surfaced of torture being carried out on random citizens who don't give two shits about politics. Yesterday 113 people were killed by the combination of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, a tsunami and a volcanic eruption. Interestingly, a friend of mine travelling back from Australia was on a plane which had to make an emergency landing in Jakarta. All African passport holders were forced to remain on the plane while it was being fixed (while the others sauntered nto the airport) for fear of them gaining illegal entry into Indonesia (because of the hordes of South Africans making their way there?!). Give me South Africa any day. At least you can fight off criminals. Good luck beating a volcano with a cricket bat.

There's this blind lawyer who pissed the Chinese government off and him and his whole family have been placed under house arrest. The USA has now decided that this doesn't sit well with them and have instructed their ambassador to go and check out the conditions in which he lives. I expect the Chinese embassy in Washington DC to send a delegation to Gitmo forthwith.

Anti-Japan protests continue in China with the city of Chongqing joining the fray. Basically, China and Japan both reckon they own the same set of islands. A few weeks ago a Japanese vessel arrested the captain of a Chinese vessel within the boundaries of the islands and it caused big diplomatic kak and sparked off protests in both countries. The ones in China seem not to be dying down though with Chengdu, Mianyan, Deyang, Sichuan, Langzhou, Hainan and five others, all having loads of folks marching down the street smashing up Japan-made cars and singing about how much they hate Japan.

China has unleashed a new high-speed railway which will cover the 200km between Shanghai and Hangzhou in about 45 minutes. Although the train has been measured doing 420kph (a world train speed record, from what the SCMP understands), it will operate at around 350kph.

That big-ass French public strike and protest against raising the age of retirement from 60 to 62 seems like it will become law as it was passed - 171 votes to 150 - by the Senate. It will go to the National Assembly next where it is expected to pass there easily. Expect lots of angry French people. No, I mean angrier than normal.

We feature again: South Africa is set to build what will hopefully become the world's biggest solar power plant at a cost of R200 billion. For that amount of money we could build a big enough fucking hotel to house all 50 million of us. As things stand, California is building the biggest one first which should power 750 000 homes, but it is expected that ours will eventually be 5 times the size of theirs. The newspaper alleges that 83% of South African houses have electricity. Really?

Hillary Clinton has added a stop in China to her 2-week Asia visit scheduled sometime soon. I think Hu Jintao might have a family emergency right at that time.

HONG KONG
You may have read recently that Singapore wants to buy the Australian stock exchange or some such shit. Well it's freaked Hong Kong out and now they're planning in trading for an extra hour every day - with the start of the trading day being moved half an hour earlier and another half hour removed from the 2-hour lunch break. The real consternation seems to be whether lunch will go from midday to 1.30pm, or 12.30pm to 2pm. The lives of rich people are just never easy, are they?

A poll by HSBC has identified climate change as the greatest care of Hong Kongers. Odd considering this is the least green city I have ever been to. It's not as though anyone cares enough to even pretend (like they do in Cape Town) to recycle or conserve energy. I'd imagine that HSBC interviewed wealthy people (green policy's largest target market) and not those who have to worry about money or housing or where their next beer is coming from.

23 samples of the plastic wrapping around a Halloween headband have been tested for safety by the HK SAR government. Conclusions thereof indicate that children could suffocate on it. Yes. It took this for them to realise that children can choke on plastic. I swear this is an actual news story.

Check this other cracking headline: "Diet, exercise and regular checkups are the key to staying healthy".

Hong Kong news 19 October

Welcome to today's edition of news relevant to Hongkongers. Usually, I read the South China Morning Post (a pro-Beijing publication, and HK's biggest selling English newspaper, also referred to as the SCMP) and The Standard (because it's free). Today, however, we're only using The SCMP as my lovely boyfriend went shopping for breakfast and bought it for me. I can’t be arsed to go downstairs, myself, and retrieve a The Standard. So we're all China fans today, I'm afraid. Let's get cracking:

Xi Jinping is set to become China's next numero uno. Image from the South China Morning Post.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
Current vice-president, Xi Jinping (I read that as Zee Gin-ping - and you've got to love anyone whose name sounds like gin, right?), looks set to replace Hu Jintao as the new President of China when Jintao's term expires at the end of 2012 after Jinping was yesterday promoted to the vice-chairmanship of the ruling party's Central Military Commission. I trust that Google is working like a dog in the Pentagon at the moment. It is expected that Jinping will face a harder reign than Jintao as he will have to grapple with boosting domestic (buying) demand, green policies and the growth of the liberal movement seeking political reform. It will be interesting to see what Premier Wen Jiabao does, as his term also expires in 2012, meaning he has two years in which to force through some of his own democratic policies.

For the hippies: China has committed to reducing its energy use per dollar of output by 17% by 2015 with a long term goal of cutting by 31% by 2020. Now, if you bunny-huggers could convince the US to get off its arse and do the same then you could all go and sing Kumbaya in the forest together.

HONG KONG
If any of you have been to London, you'll know what an Oyster Card is. Well here in Hong Kong we have Octopus Cards which one puts money on and then swipes the card for most public transport and small purchases in shops. Well, the company that runs these gadgets is in shit for selling people's information on to other companies and for asking for too much information about its customers to verify their identity. It seems Facebook and Google aren't the only demons out to get you. Soon companies will know what restaurant you search for, and whether you actually went there or not. The HK SAR (special administrative region) government has declined to prosecute Octopus Holdings for these transgressions, which is unsurprising in this very pro-business environment.

The Hong Kong Arts Festival has been awarded an extra HK$14 million worth of budget this year. This brings its total budget up to HK97million. Yes, nearly 100 million South African commercial ronts is being spent on an arts festival. If we didn't have to spend so much money on fixing stuff after Cosatu/ANCYL members broke/burnt/smashed it we could probably also do the same.

Three Hong Kong police officers set off for Manila yesterday for more intense forensic investigations into the hostage tragedy last month which claimed the lives of 8 Hongkongers. In case you missed it, the corrupt President of the Philippines cares far more about protecting his buddies than actually finding out what went wrong when an ex-cop killed a busload of people so it's up to outsiders to go and find out. Weirdly enough, this coincides with the Arms Deal investigation in South Africa being put on hold indefinitely. So it's nice to know that people in high places can really just do whatever the fuck they want - universally.

Someone driving drunk last night very intelligently didn't arouse any suspicion when he did a U-turn at a police road block last night. By chance, three police officers set off after him and after a 20-kilometre high speed chase, they apprehended him when he drove into a cul-de-sac. I think that if you manage to drive 20km with one eye closed, lining up the end of the windscreen wiper with the middle line so as to stay in your lane and without driving into anyone or anything, then they should just let you go for having skilz.

Tusks recovered, packaged in bags bearing a Hong Kong government seal (meaning that they just came through Hong Kong port), in Macau were found to be hippopotamus tusks and not elephants. The three bags were found in a container suspected of containing illegal ivory valued at about HK$10 million. As an African it's so lovely to know that our hippos are being killed instead of our elephants. Whew!

SPORT
The next British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in 2013 will feature a match against an international Barbarians XV at Hong Kong Stadium. So Schalk Burger might be able to rip another Lions player's eye out without having to wait 12 years for the Lions to return to SA.

Shoaib Malik, ex-Pakistan captain, will lead his team at the Hong Kong Sixes next month. Interestingly, the squad includes one Shabbir Ahmed, who I am pretty sure was suspended for having a dodgy bowling action once upon a time. Imran Nazir is also in the squad - a man who has given the South African team all sorts of problems before; a magical talent who just couldn't make it work.

Tie Yana, Hong Kong's only entrant in table tennis for the Asia Games next month, has beaten Singapore's two top players in warm ups and elevated her world ranking from 22 to 13.

The Oceania Football Confederation has announced that it will cooperate with a FIFA investigation of allegations that its president planned to sell his vote in the current bidding war for the 2018 World Cup. Being from the country that hosted the last one, we all know how corrupt, full of shit and secretive FIFA is, so I cannot imagine that anything will ever come of this investigation. I recommend you read Ivo Vegter's FIFA related columns on The Daily Maverick. Like this, for example.

Hong Kong news 18 October

Welcome to today's run-through and interpretation of Hong Kong's news, courtesy of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and The Standard. The SCMP is chosen because it is the top selling English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, and The Standard is chosen because it is free and people stuff it into my hands when I walk around the city.

Protestors in China smash up a Japanese-made car. Image from SCMP.com.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
The Standard led this morning with a story about anti-Japan protests in China, and anti-China protests in Japan. There was a kerfuffle in the sea last week when Japan and China both laid claim to a portion of the water as its own territory, and both nations are now getting pissy with each other, less so in government, and moreso the man in the street. Interestingly, China banned protests in Shenzen and Guangzhou where the Asian Games are scheduled next month. Maintain pretty picture at all times when cameras might be present. Follow Beijing Olympics as example. It will be interesting to see who the USA sides with, with long-time agreements with Japan being tested against a powerful diplomatic Chinese prescence - one the US doesn't want to piss off.

The Chinese (propaganda) press machine has mounted and distributed an attack on the Nobel chaps for picking Liu Xiaobo as winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace. The People's Daily said that this year's award strayed from the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize. As if this year was the problem. Did you see who won it last year for doing diddly-squat?


HONG KONG
The SCMP's main story was that Bishop Tong, Hong Kong's top Catholic leader, admitted yesterday that "sex scandals have rocked the universal church, including the local diocese". Later on the page they said that the Titanic sank, apartheid ended and that the USA invaded Iraq.

The poverty-loaded people gap here in Hong Kong is fairly prevalent, much like South Africa, so there must be some sort of resentment in the other front page story of the SCMP: Hong Kong universities are ofering pay packages of up to HK$200 000 (about R180 000) per month to recruit top professors from around the world. Up until 2004, university workers' pay was linked to those in the civil service, but nowadays universities have more control over their own wage bill, and therefore moreoptions when it comes to recruitment. The demand for extra lecturers is due to the commencement of four-year degrees in two years' time and the deficit of educators required stands at about 1000. I have to read more to find out why the change in the tertiary education system though. Either way, the quality of education should not be compromised by unreasonable budgets, particularly in a staunchly capitalist country like Hong Kong.

Paul Zimmerman, chief executive of Design Hong Kong has publically warned that the glut of property agencies and excessive rents that are too high for brand new businesses is going to kill the spirit of entrepreneurship in this city. The investment required in a new business here is to much, and too risky, he says.

SPORT
Graham Henry has fast-tracked Sonny Bill Williams, a rugby league convert, into the All Blacks squad after only playing five professional rugby union games. The NZ squad's next fixture is against Australia in Hong Kong at the end of the month. Piri Weepu is out of the contest after dislocating his ankle over the weekend.

This has nothing to do wth Hong Kong, but Samuel Eto'o again had to confont racist chants when he scored the only goal of the game as Inter Milan beat Cagliari yesterday. Will this ever end? The game was delayed by a few minutes because of the chants directed at Eto'o. The fans should be told that they may not attend the stadium for 10 games, or something hideous like that. It is absolutely shocking that this still continues after all that Football Against Racism wank. Come on Platini, this is your shit to deal with.

There is zilcho Hong Kong sports news from the weekend except for horce racing which I don't understand.

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?

Hong Kong morning news - 7 October

Brought to you by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and The Standard.

Bias alert: The SCMP is pro-Beijing and The Standard is kind of a pro-China nationalist paper, but it's a crap tabloid so you can't really tell.

This chap is Xie Zhenhua, National Development and Reform Commission deputy chief. The one who said the stuff in the first news item. Image from SCMP.

China shat all over the USA regarding climate change and told it to pull its socks up. According to the SCMP, Beijing has reformed its own policies in progressive fashion, and also only produces a quarter of the carbon emissions per capita of the USA. That being said, China has about four times the population of the US so the per capita argument works well for Beijing. Mother Nature though... well she doesn't give a shit how much pollution there is per person. She's into totals, I'd imagine.

On the front page of every paper I have bought since our arrival in Hong Kong has detailed the new social care health plan being touted in Hong Kong. Much like the troublesome too-positive effects that the NHS has on Britain, Hong Kong's excellent and affordable healthcare means that an ageing population is not dying, and is becoming a real strain on public health finance. The details of the new healthcare plan seem to be to get middle-upper to upper class folks to get off social care and into reduced medical aid packages, but the details still all seem to be pretty fuzzy.

Hong Kong does not have import taxes on beer and wine (although looking at the prices you'd never think so) but has a 100% tax on spirits. Some chap called Thomas Bohrer thinks this is grossly unfair and is on a mission to change it. So here's waiting for a "fairer" tax affecting the price of wine and beer... betcha...

The greenies are fighting Legco (Hong Kong's parliament) about expanding a landfill into a country park, and the bunny-huggers seem to have won as the government has declared that it won't begin dumping in the new zone until January 2012 (it was due to begin next month). I can't see why Legco has delayed this. SCMP reckons it's to win more support for the landfill, but whoever in their right mind thinks that they can win support for a landfill? Has it ever been done before?

A security guard appeared in court yesterday for accidentally shooting his gun into the roof of a shopping centre last Sunday. This is only notable because his name is Play Boy Choy Chi-wai.

The University of Hong Kong expects 6.2% GDP growth this year, up from the 5% it predicted earlier.

Angela Merkel has told Wen Jiabao that Germany will do everything in its power to have the EU recognise China as a market economy, but there are restrictions which have to be fulfilled, including China removing the much condemned policy of toying with its currency value. China overtook Germany as the world's number one exporter last year. Wen Jiabao is off to visit Italy next where Berlusconi is sure to do some sucking up.

Interestingly, and this was in the paper a few days ago, Singapore and Hong Kong are going to be replaced by Shanghai and Shenzen as the world's first and third busiest shipping ports respectively. Singapore is going to be knocked into second place by Shanghai and Hong Kong is due to drop into fourth as Shenzen carries on climbing.

The Standard informs us that a 97-year old woman was bitten on the toe by a rat - the 7th such attack this year. Eeeek! What an amazing piece of news.