Monthly Archive for December, 2009

Roll On, New Decade

Published
by
cecilie
on December 31, 2009
in China, Government, Hong Kong, Injustice, Media, communism and corruption
. 9 Comments

So that was the end of 2009 - The Donald berated by Wen Jiabao for Hong Kong’s “deep rooted conflicts.” Being a cretin, or maybe because he’s catholic, the optimistic Chief Executive takes this to mean: Hong Kong must sort out its economic problems.

What is he ON? Has he never been in, or near, China before? Did he notice that just the week before, one of China’s most high profile and outspoken pro-democracy activists was sentenced to 11 years in prison for mildly suggesting that perhaps rampant corruption and gagging of anyone critical of the government isn’t the best way forward for China, and in fact that a higher degree of democracy …THUMP!

Upon which he was immediately gagged by a government which prides itself of being pro-democratic, having a high if not 100% degree of free speech, and being anti corruption.

This again came two weeks after all private internet sites and blogs were banned, amid talk of registering all mobile phone owners.

So yeah Donald, the Chinese government, all they care about is the economy, right?

Everybody else can see the noose tightening yet again in China around the neck of media freedom. If he doesn’t read into this stern warning what it really means: Keep the garrulous, relatively independently thinking population of Hong Kong under control, or else! he is even less with it than I thought. Then the talk of “harmony” started, which the D, not surprisingly, interpreted as: Hong Kong needs to make more money! And wash its hands after coughing and sneezing!

Ha. When these sinister, black-laquered helmet-haired geezers start talking about “harmony,” it’s time to start putting your head down and falling in line, for what they mean is China China uber alles, and everybody who doesn’t agree can go hoover themselves up.
Or some nice, if basic, accommodation will be provided for them, courtesy of the Chinese government, for 11 years for example.

If Donald still prefers to dig himself further down into La-la Hole in the Ground, he may well find himself in Tung Chee-wha’s position in a few months. This would be a great thing for Hong Kong … but that’s what we said last time, so maybe we should be careful what we wish for. My guess is he’ll get the sack within a year and a cadre from the Central government will be brought in to bring us some real harmony mainland style, as HK people clearly aren’t fit to rule themselves.

So happy new year, yoo-hoo, new decade, people! Isn’t it exciting? I’ve only just come to terms with it not being 19 - something anymore, so 2010 will be a cinch!

Flying - Isn’t it Becoming More and More Attractive?

Published
by
cecilie
on December 28, 2009
in Environment, Government, Media, Norway, Travel, politics and religion
. 3 Comments

So, another shoe-bomber has appeared, this time thigh bomber Muslim terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a rich banker’s son from Nigeria, whose, wait for this: Own father had warned the authorities about his son’s increasingly scary “religious” behaviour.

The authorities, meanwhile, didn’t see this as reason enough to put him on a no-fly list, although they had already had him in their sights before the father had warned them, and he was allowed to board the plane from Amsterdam with a lethal concoction strapped to his thigh while all around him non-Muslim passengers were stripped of their little bottles of shampoo, hair-gel and mineral water.

Charming! Air flight is getting more and more attractive, wouldn’t you say?

Meanwhile I’ve noticed, on the two occasions I’ve been flying this year, that the security personnel in airports seem to consist almost purely of persons of - Oh! “Middle-Eastern appearance.”

We can’t say Muslims, can we? No. And not all people of middle-eastern appearance are Muslims, to be sure. But there certainly are a lot of them working in airports, taking bottled water away from people.

Would it be an enormously huge leap of the imagination to perhaps think that one, just one of these people in charge of security at airports could possibly be someone not with the passengers’ best interest in mind but on the contrary let through people with less innocent substances on their persons than shampoo?

Just a thought. Meanwhile, the train is cheaper, better for the environment and - at least in China - has far better security than, apparently, that of European and American planes …

Seven

Published
by
cecilie
on December 27, 2009
in Injustice and Media
. 5 Comments

Seven is a huge number. There are seven seas, seven dwarfs, (sorry, vertically challenged male mythical figures) seven months - and more! in a year … we have seven limbs and seven orifices, and my birthday falls on the 7th. Also, and not many people know this: 7 is the only dimension, besides the familiar 3, in which a vector cross product can be defined.

I offer 7 dollars to anyone who can explain what that even means!
So we all agree that seven plays a big part in our culture and mythology. But this month I’ve discovered another way in which seven is huge: All household and other appliances are built to last exactly seven years. Or less!

This month I’ve had to buy a new vacuum cleaner, hi-fi system, DVD player, TV set (the old one was second hand so fair enough but: Only HK TV so almost never used!) and blender. And yes - I bought all these things seven years ago when I moved into my new gaff!
My printer’s also showing signs of giving up the ghost but I’ve only had it for six years and three months, so give it time.

Of course I realise that companies must make products that don’t last - how else can they sell the same thing again and again? But: Exactly seven years! Isn’t it amazing?

Christmas In, or on the way to: Winter Wonderland Pui O

Published
by
cecilie
on December 25, 2009
in Hong Kong and Movies
. 2 Comments


Well, ho ho ho everybody!

Oh, joke I heard today: What’s the difference between Tiger Woods and Santa Claus? Santa Claus stopped after three “Ho”s!

Merry merry.

Issmas Chrecstravaganza

Published
by
cecilie
on December 23, 2009
in Beauty, Hong Kong, Movies, Travel and religion
. 0 Comments

Everybody everywhere. You remember that awful day in your childhood (for some of you probably in your early twenties) when you discovered the truth about Father Christmas: Too fat to get through the chimney AND you only had central heating!

But it gets worse:

Return of China Drool - Now With Cars!

Published
by
cecilie
on December 17, 2009
in Beauty, Dudes, Environment, Eyesore and Hong Kong
. 0 Comments

Following innumerable requests - from me - China Drool is back! Actually I don’t know if this guy would qualify as a drool if he hadn’t happened to be asleep at the time, but what beautiful colours, eh? I’m thinking: Vermeer!

Talking of cars, sleepy backwater Pui O is getting quite unbearable these days because of these metal menaces. I spend more time walking off the pavement to get around them than on the actual pavement. And I’ve been thinking this is strange, because the government has decreed (amazingly I have to say - this rule can’t have been set down during the time of the present administration) that on Lantau, only one car is allowed per household. Then the other day my friend told me the reason for this rural idyll looking more and more like Detroit.

When he and his wife bought their house a few years ago, they were advised by the property agent without any prompting from him, to split the house into two separate deeds just so they could have two cars. Being a lawyer he opted out of this, shall we say circumventing the law, and stuck to civic-mindedness instead.

Too bloody right! But he’s one of a tiny minority, the rest being people who don’t have cars at all. And when I say “cars,” I mean “vehicles that can accommodate a rugby team standing up, doing some light exercise.” Yep, two of these, or more, per household, is the norm. Nuke’em I say. A good Australian gave me a lift this morning though. Thanks geezer! But I’d still prefer to walk if it meant no more private cars in formerly beautiful Pui O.

Pui O Beach At Dusk

Published
by
cecilie
on December 16, 2009
in Beauty, Environment, Home and Hong Kong
. 8 Comments


“Do they know it’s Christmas time … la la la la, do they know it’s Christmas time …at all”

Interaction! Community!

Published
by
cecilie
on December 11, 2009
in Beauty, Beer, Cantonese, Cantonese, Cards, Dudes, Environment, Eyesore, Government, Hong Kong, Pollution, food and property
. 27 Comments

Wei wei, everybody everywhere. Now I’ve been writing this blog for two and a half years and the only time I’ve really felt like I’ve interacted with “the community” is when I wrote something criticising pilots. A shitstorm rained down and I’m still reeling from the aftermath,  but at least I got some reactions. So now I’m asking you, my readers, to write in on these simple terms:

Tell me ten things you love and hate about Hong Kong. Yes it’s been done before hundreds of times, but not by me. 

 

TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HONG KONG:

1. Beautiful dudes speaking Cantonese 

2. Yam cha

3. Tong Lau (Traditional HK style pre-war tenement buildings, especially with rounded corners)

4. My gaff

5. And everything around it: Pui O beach, Lantau nature

6: It never snows and it’s always summer, even in winter

7: Extreme funkiness in the old parts of town pre-destruction (see point 3)

8: It’s so easy to get everything done; phone repairmen etc turn up two hours early, not three weeks late

9: Honolulu restaurant in Stanley street

10: Total freedom (so far)

 

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT HONG KONG:

1: The way everything is engineer-driven (most of the following points spring from that)

2: Property developers

3: Concrete

4: Railings

5: The incessant public announcements on the Lantau ferries

6: Screechy bints shouting “ha-lou well-come” “can I helchtio” and breathing on my arm in shops; being patronised every day

7: The government’s 1972 mindset (see concrete, railings etc) and the increasing nanny-state 

8: The way the “real Hong Kong” part of Hong Kong is being destroyed, thus taking away almost all of the ten things I love

9: Signs

10: The “Hello Kitty”-fication of everything. Everything!

Please write in with your views.

60 Million Pieces of Paper

Published
by
cecilie
on December 9, 2009
in Environment, Government, Hong Kong, Pollution and Travel
. 7 Comments

have so far been used in the government’s valiant fight against the oink oink plague. Did I say 60? Hang on, that was at the beginning of last week, so it must be 65 million by now. 65 million pieces of paper filled in with squiggles, fake phone numbers, fake names and fake addresses - or just empty.

A tree monger would easily be able to say how many trees that is. I just know one thing: Many.

Many many trees, just in order to irritate people on their way out of and back into Hong Kong. How many potential mass murderers have been caught this way? I suspect about as many as will be caught when the far-sighted government starts its voluntary drugs testing in schools.

On the border of Shenzhen, travellers’ temperatures are checked twice, once surreptitiously as we walk past duty free (my friend was caught and had to argue for ten minutes) and once quite blatantly just before the passport check, with a gun to the head. I don’t really see how a piece of paper full of lies can in any way enhance such thoroughness.

Thousands of trees, hundreds of hours of people’s time; exactly the same number of swine flu patients. Is my theory. But what do I know? Maybe millions of lives have been saved by these squiggles.

Now there is talk of maybe stopping the tree massacre. Oh please say it’s true! Then I can start going back to Shenzhen with a spring in my step again. And maybe - just maybe! First Fcuking Ferry will stop its endless announcements about the “recent” outbreak of H1N1 and how we should wash our hands in liquid “soup” and “consau’ a daughter” and “wear a mass” if we detect any symptoms. Please - please! I’ll become a christian! Anything!

Randøm Bøckets

Published
by
cecilie
on December 3, 2009
in Beauty and Piles
. 1 Comment

Beauty comes in many forms, but plastic isn’t normally one of them.
But with the right light, the right beach and the right dogs, even these mundane objects can have their day in the sun.