And you thought your life was eventful...

Not like this!

Orwell Award 2006

Before 2007 gets too far along, let's give out the Orwell Award for last year's finest example of doublespeak.

A late entrant (29 December), but the undisputed winner, is this gem from the home page of the South China Morning Post. (I didn't read the full article because the Post charges for access to its sacred writings, unlike the more entertaining NOT the South China Morning Post; however, you can read the story [from AP] here).

Military spotlight on Taiwan
The central government [of China] on Friday said it would strengthen its military ability to thwart rival Taiwan's push for independence while vowing it was committed to the peaceful development of the world's largest army.

Too late for common sense?

The Hong Kong government's sudden new-found concern for the territory's heritage, following the Star Ferry protests, is welcome if belated (and somewhat limited, since it appears they have ruled out direct acquisition of threatened historic buildings). However, Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho has made it clear that this new awareness will not extend to scrapping the Central Bypass scheme, saying it is too late to cancel a project that has been in the planning stage for four years. Perhaps he hasn't noticed that it's also been opposed by a large proportion of the public for that time, and even been the subject of attempts to stop it through the courts?

Let's examine the government's logic behind this project:
1. Move the Star Ferry to somewhere that's inconvenient for most passengers.
2. Demolish the familiar and popular existing Star Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier.
3. Reclaim part of the already excessively depleted harbour that no one wants to lose.
4. Use the land thus constructed to build a road no one wants (and , let us not forget, a shopping centre no one needs, but which is probably the real driving force behind the project).

The fact is that most of the traffic likely to use the new bypass could be eliminated by:
- accelerating the proposed extension of the MTR Island Line to Kennedy Town (and eventually to Aberdeen via Pokfulam); and
- reducing the ridiculously exorbitant tolls for the Western Harbour Tunnel, so traffic between Kowloon and Western District has no incentive to divert via the old tunnel and travel through Central in order to save money.

Is it really too late for common sense?

Other Views:
Star Ferry: The Beginning of a New Social Movement?

Making It Better:
Friends of the Harbour
SOS - Save Our Shorelines

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

Don't take much interest in Christmas. Used to be great fun in the old days when it was simply an orgy of commercial excess, but now I find that people are tainting the whole thing with a lot of religious mumbo jumbo.
--Peter Cook

I was planning to post various Christmas stuff, but as usual time got in the way. However, as we are still within the twelve days of Christmas, and in any case tomorrow will be Christmas Day in Russia, I guess it's not too late. Not that the date means much anyway, since one of the few historical facts we can be reasonably sure of about Jesus Christ is that he wasn't born on the 25th of December (nor in zero AD; most historians of the period place his birth around four years earlier).

We owe the present date of our Christmas celebrations to the Emperor Constantine, who wanted to usurp the place of the Roman Festival of Saturnalia when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire (a move from which it has never recovered). Most of our cherished Christmas traditions have nothing to do with Christ, but are either pagan survivals from the various festivals that celebrated the Winter Solstice (as the Chinese still do), like the Christmas Tree and the Yule Log, or Victorian inventions, like the Christmas card and the popular image of Santa Claus in his red robes.

Similarly Easter took over the place and some of the customs (all those eggs!) of the spring fertility festivals which were also common in many cultures. Some religious purists reject all these non-Christian accretions to their faith, but I welcome them as part of mankind's continuing tradition of celebrating the great cycle of the turning seasons.

Anyway, back to Christmas. I haven't tried to post a picture here before, so let's try. The cartoon above was borrowed from Private Eye (please subscribe so they'll forgive me). The funny thing is that when I first read the caption, I took it as a satire on Tony Blair's vacuous New Labour political correctness, until I saw the word "Tory" in the smaller print. Which just goes to show how little difference there is between Britain's two major parties these days.

In his Christmas Eve message, Pope Benedict XVI made a special appeal for the protection of children. He could make a start by protecting them from the priests of his own church.

I have one more Christmas item to post, but that can wait a day or two. If you've already celebrated Christmas, I hope you had a good time. And if I have any Russian readers, Merry Christmas to you!

Seems Like a Brand New Day

Hong Kong's Internet access is still rather iffy following the earthquake off Taiwan that damaged several undersea data cables just after Christmas, but is getting better gradually. However the difficulties of access during the last few days have provided me with a perfect excuse for my blogging lethargy. Normal service will be resumed soon.

Meanwhile, looking at the New Year celebrations around the world on TV, I was struck by how positive and joyous everyone seemed. We all know that 2006 was in many ways a horrible year, and that on any reasonable assessment of probability, in 2007 the Iraq War will continue to get bloodier, Israel and the Palestinians will remain at lethal loggerheads, human rights violations will worsen further around the world, terrorist bombings will take innocent lives at random, the rich will get richer while making sure the poor stay poor, more countries will seek to acquire nuclear weapons to keep the imperial US off their backs, thousands of square miles of tropical rainforest will disappear, and global warming will bring the planet a step closer to destruction while politicians do nothing effective about it. Yet in the face of all the evidence, we persist in looking forward to a better year than the one just passed.

From one perspective this is pretty foolish behaviour - the unfounded optimism of a confirmed gambler, always sure that next time the dice will fall differently. Yet I also find this capacity for finding joy and hope in the darkest of times one of the most endearing human characteristics - and one that perhaps helps us to keep going when all logic would lead us to just give up. And maybe one day (it does sometimes happen), if we all do our bit to make it so, the future really will be brighter.

Happy New Year!

Rise of the Machines - Closer Than You Think?

Private Eye magazine (essential reading) reports in Issue 1173 that the British army is establishing a new worldwide satellite-based communications system called Skynet. To anyone who has seen the Terminator series of movies (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger before he switched from acting to a less reputable profession), this will either be an extremely disquieting omen, or an indication that someone in Whitehall has a wicked sense of humour.

The Rich: Not All Greedy Bastards

Slate has a list of the 60 largest American donations to charity in 2005. There are several interesting things about this list.

While there are plenty of familiar names - Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner of CNN, Oprah Winfrey, the odd Rockefeller and Ford - quite a few of those listed are much less well known. This suggests that their money is probably inherited ("family wealth" as the list delicately puts it) rather than earned through any newsworthy current ventures of their own.

Also noticeable is the absence of many other enormously bloated individuals who could easily spare a few million bucks: no Warren Buffett, no Larry Ellison, no Steve Jobs, none of Sam Walton's heirs (of course they could appear further down the top 100 list, and some have made big donations in the past). Essay question: compare and contrast with the Forbes rich list.

Another observation is that many of the donations are to already massively wealthy institutions: MIT, UCLA, Princeton, Stanford, Wellesley College, (probably most of these are the alma mater of the donor), the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library - rather than the less glamorous but infinitely more vital needs like clean water supplies and childhood vaccination in the Third World, medical aid for war victims (no shortage of those thanks to America's foreign policy), rainforest preservation and [name your own cause here].

Final note: much as I admire the work of the Gates Foundation, which does address some of these causes, I can't help feeling that the best service Gates and Allen could do for the world would be to provide more reliable software at a more affordable price!

Geography Lessons

Bash a broadcaster Part 3 - in fact several broadcasters this time.

ATV News reported the big storm in the Pacific Northwest of the US a couple of days ago against a graphic of a US map showing a hurricane approaching Florida. Well at least they got the right country, even if they're 3,000 miles off course.

Then TVB Pearl's news summary last night reported that Hong Kong Electric was applying to increase its prices, while showing on screen the head office of China Light and Power, Hong Kong's other electricity supplier, which serves the opposite side of the harbour. (To be fair, their full news later used this clip to contrast HKE's prices with those of CLP - they are already 35% higher, which may help explain why major shareholder Li Ka-Shing is Hong Kong's wealthiest man. And to be fair to HKE, they have reduced their emissions of pollutants by switching from coal to greater use of cleaner but more expensive natural gas.)

Finally this morning a DJ on RTHK Chinese language radio introduced Enya as a Scottish singer (she's Irish) singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Italian (it was Latin, "Adeste Fideles"). Close enough, I suppose - two Celtic nations, and two languages from the same location separated in time, in fact one descended from the other.

Am I the only one pedantic enough to notice this stuff?

Hey, that's no way to say goodbye

Bash a broadcaster part two:

Listening to the car radio (Chinese RTHK) this morning. With unusual good taste, they're playing a Jennifer Warnes version of a Leonard Cohen song. So I'm just getting into that Cohen mood of mellow melancholy, when they abruptly switch to the next item by way of a fusillade of gunshots. Ever heard of gradual transitions, you insensitive idiots?

Accountants of the Serengeti

I was behind a jeep going into the Tate's Cairn Tunnel this morning that had a sticker on the back saying Hunter on Board. Yeah, sure, in urban Hong Kong where just about every animal species is protected by law except the rat.

Or maybe Hunter is the driver's surname....

The Good, The Bad and The Brainless

It's not often that I have two opportunities in one week to praise Hong Kong's politicians, but last night's TV news reported that the Legislative Council passed a bill increasing the maximum penalties for cruelty to animals. Good for them!

However, most cruel treatment to animals in Hong Kong (and even more so on the Mainland) more often reflects ignorance and failure to understand their needs than deliberate nastiness. For example, a vet told me on Monday of someone who keeps three large dogs (Labrador Retrievers) on a small rooftop and never takes them out for a walk.

Anyone who doubts that many Hong Kong people need more education in this area obviously failed to watch TVB's Beautiful Cooking (美女廚房) contest a few weeks ago (22nd October). The audience laughed when some brainless bimbo clumsily dropped a live octopus on the floor twice, and again when another octopus, obviously distressed, was thrashing around wildly trying to escape another brainless bimbo who was attempting to lift it out of a tank.

Don't bother commenting that "brainless bimbo" is not a PC term - I know. But the octopus is an intelligent creature that can feel pain; the only dumb animals on this show were the contestants.

Making It Better:
There are many dedicated people campaigning for better treatment of animals in Hong Kong; here are a few:
- Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Hong Kong)
- Animal Earth
- Hong Kong Dog Rescue - this site also has a useful list of other animal welfare organisations in the territory

Listening to the people

In a rare departure from its usual practice, the Hong Kong government actually listened to the people for once, and announced that it is scrapping the proposed goods and services tax (GST).

Just about everyone opposed this tax: ordinary people because it was regressive and would transfer part of the tax burden from the rich to the poor; the business community because it would impose a heavy administrative overhead on every company in the SAR; retailers because it would hurt sales; the tourism industry because it would make Hong Kong more expensive to visitors, and therefore a less attractive destination.

Nevertheless, the problem that the tax was supposed to solve remains: the government's narrow tax base and over-dependence on revenue from property transactions. So here's a suggestion: listen to the people some more. Public concern about environmental issues in Hong Kong has never been stronger, particularly with regard to the filthy smog-laden air we have to breathe. So how about a pollution tax, or rather a targeted set of environmental taxes?

Tax retailers for giving out unnecessary free plastic bags that end up in landfills. Tax minibus operators that have not yet converted their vehicles to run on cleaner LPG. Tax the power companies for every unit of pollution they emit until they fit more efficient emission controls on their generating stations. Tax transport operators that don't fit new cleaner engines to their vehicles within a reasonable time. Tax excessive packaging. And so on...

You get the idea. Raise public revenue while hitting polluters in the pocket, until they find it cheaper to clean up their act than to continue dirtying the environment, thereby killing two birds with one stone. How about it, Mr Tang?

Making It Better:
- Clear The Air
- Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong)

Empty Promises

Hong Kong's Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee was quoted on local television a few days ago as saying that the Hong Kong government would do all it could within the one country two systems framework to assist the family of jailed journalist Ching Cheong. Which means they will do nothing.

Of course there are limits to what Hong Kong can do to influence the Beijing authorities, but as a minimum, the Hong Kong government could at least tell the Chinese government that no one in Hong Kong, even among the "pro-China" crowd, believes for a moment that Ching is guilty.

Too Much Monkey Business

An interesting fact from singer/songwriter Tom Robinson's website: "A download on iTunes costs [in the UK] 79p per track. The Performer gets 7%, the Writer 8%, Credit Card company 9%, Apple 15%, and Record Company 61%". As Tom says, go figure.

Furthermore, the greedy record companies are always moaning about their supposed losses because of illegal downloads, but they can't even be bothered to make music they already own available to those of us who are actually willing to pay for it. There is plenty of good stuff that has never even made it on to CD: to name just a few, two albums by Loudon Wainwright III, one by Vivian Stanshall, two by Dory Previn, and one by Kate and Anna McGarrigle are only available if you are prepared to pay inflated prices on eBay for the original LPs or get someone who has them to run off a CD-R for you. (Obviously I'm giving away my musical tastes here.) Even one Bob Dylan album (admittedly his worst) has only made a brief appearance on CD, and is currently only available on cassette!

Viv Stanshall's widow and a group of his fans have been campaigning for years to get his album Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead reissued on CD. To sign an online petition to Warner Brothers Records for this, go here.

The music industry, movie studios and software companies also try to make you feel sorry for them by inflating their losses due to copyright piracy. The figures they quote assume that everyone who acquires a pirated copy would otherwise buy a legal one, which is clearly nonsense.

Update: (August 2013). The LW3, Dory, and (finally) Viv albums are now available on CD. But that still leaves other masterpieces like Bright Phoebus by Lal and Mike Waterson (a whole story in itself) largely unavailable. And I've done a later story on the missing Dylan CD.

Disclaimer - I get a small commission from Amazon UK if you buy the brilliant Stanshall CD through the picture link here.

Annoying Programme Interruptions (APIs)

I turned on TVB's English channel soon after 8am this morning and found it relaying CCTV Channel 9 news. Switched to ATV, and they were carrying exactly the same programme.

Now I have nothing against China Central Television. The days when their "news" programming consisted largely of happy red-scarved peasants celebrating bumper rice harvests thanks to the all-encompasssing wisdom of Chairman Mao are long gone, and while I wouldn't trust their impartiality on topics like the Dalai Lama's latest speech or the pros and cons of Taiwanese independence, most of their English language news coverage is as professional as anyone else's.

But if Hong Kong is going to license two terrestrial broadcasters, shouldn't they make some effort to carry different programmes? Otherwise why do we need more than one?

However, that's not the most irritating thing about Hong Kong television. Nor, annoying though it is, is TVB's habit of giving away the key plot points of films in the trailers they show. (At least it saves you having to spend time watching the actual movie.)

No, that distinction belongs to the so-called "Announcements of Public Interest" (APIs). Now some of these carry perfectly harmless and even useful public information, like reminders to register for upcoming elections, or that it's your age group's turn to change your ID card for the new smart card.

What pisses me off are the fuzzy pointless ads that tell you things everyone with half a brain doesn't need to be told: "be a happy family" or "be good to your children". Is it really necessary to spend the taxpayers' money on this kind of stuff? Does the government imagine that someone watching this will experience a sudden epiphany and think, "Oh, I should really be good to my kids - I never realised that before"?

Where do they think this is - Singapore?

What did you expect, Mr Bush?

The Washington Post reports that the Bush regime is increasingly blaming the Iraqis themselves for the violent chaos their country has descended into.

So, Mr Bush, you blunder with overwhelming force into a complex and fractious country and culture you don't understand for stated reasons that turn out to be totally phony; you bomb the hell out of its infrastructure; wipe out its functioning system of government; capture its (admittedly brutal) leader and put him through a blatantly unfair show trial; wreck the country's economy; set up a weak new government that has little public support and is riven by internal disagreements; refuse to listen to advice from either the country's neighbours or your own intelligence experts; and insist on "staying the course" when it has long been clear to everyone with any sense that you are steering straight for disaster. Then not only do you wonder why your illegal and uninvited invasion is not greeted with open arms, but up to 650,000 deaths later you blame your victims for their plight.

How much longer do we have to swallow this crap?

Fried(man) from Poverty

I have been reading with interest the adulatory tributes (such as this one in today's Hongkong Standard) to the recently deceased economist Milton Friedman. Certainly Friedman is worthy of note for his technical contributions to his field, which won him the Nobel Prize.

However, a far more dubious part of Friedman's heritage is the ideological underpinning his free market obsessions provided for the worst excessses of the Thatcher/Reagan era (which still lingers today), when greed, previously regarded throughout human history as a sin, was instead elevated into a virtue. The road to the Enron scandal essentially originated from the Economics Department of the University of Chicago.

Also dubious was Friedman's frequent citation of Hong Kong as the chief exemplar of the success of the free market. Certainly no one who lives here can fail to acquire a healthy respect for the merits of entrepreneurism, but I strongly believe that the biggest single contribution to the prosperity Hong Kong enjoys today has been the government housing programme, which over the last half century has lifted millions of people out of insanitary and dangerous squatter huts into clean, safe and affordable public housing. Today a third of the population still lives in public housing; at one time it was more than one half.

Could private enterprise have achieved this without government intervention? I doubt it.

And incidentally, the claim in a number of the obituaries that Friedman coined the saying "there's no such thing as a free lunch" should not go unchallenged. Certainly Friedman popularised it, but there is another claimant to its origination: science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein. There is no clear evidence as to which of the two used the phrase first; maybe it predates both.

Lame Ducks, Orangutans and Albatrosses

America's long national nightmare will not be completely over for another two years, but much of the world will sleep more soundly now that the Democrats have captured the House of Representatives.

At the time of writing, the Senate race is still undecided, but there is a chance that the Repugnants will also lose control of the upper house, leaving Bush a lame duck for the last two years of his presidency (though no doubt still quacking loudly). I fervently hope so.

Meanwhile, there seem to be a lot of animal stories in the news today, most of them bad news. Sadly, the illegally started forest fires in Borneo appear to have claimed the lives of many orangutans. Meanwhile, illegal fishing threatens the albatross.

Even the human animal species is threatened by the greed and stupidity of the human race, with unregulated use of chemicals causing brain abnormalities. Why are we so damn foolish?

What the Fox...

Fox hunting with hounds was banned in Britain in 2004. So why are the huntsmen still riding out in 2006?

As Stephen Moss says, "I don't want to see a hare torn to pieces, or a fox. But maybe I could stomach some other quarry for the handsome, hard-working hounds. The parliamentarians who, it has been calculated, devoted 700 hours to debating hunting and only seven to Iraq..."

One thing I've never understood about fox hunting (apart from the obvious question of why so many people find cruelty to animals entertaining): rabbits eat crops; foxes eat rabbits. Why do farmers consider the fox a pest, when it rids them of an animal that really is a nuisance?

Instant Karma

A man who caught a mouse in his house threw the living creature onto a fire, whereupon the flaming mouse ran back into the house, setting it on fire and completely destroying it.

My sympathies are entirely with the mouse.