In sickness or in health

Sitting waiting to be served in the bank a couple of days ago, I was idling through Fortune Magazine's Special Issue Investment Guide 2012 when I came across this choice quote from Rajiv Jain:

High quality equities are the place to be - the Coca-Colas, the McDonald's, the BATs of the world.

(For those who don't know, BAT is British-American Tobacco.)

It's a sad commentary on the world that the companies making healthy profits in a sick economy are those dedicated to filling their customers with unhealthy crap.

Greenwash

No matter how many pictures of trees Chinachem may erect on their construction sites, the reality is they are covering another bit of Hong Kong with concrete. I know we need more housing, but let's not pretend that Hong Kong's future will be green unless we make some big changes.

Making it Better: Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong).

Underwater meditation

First of all "Kung Hei Fat Choi" and a happy year of the dragon to all my readers. Or perhaps I should say "Kung Si Fat Choi" in case a disgruntled mainland professor scolds me for not using Mandarin.

A heading on the South China Morning Post website today says "Old habits threaten giant mantra ray". Presumably the creature swims along the seabed chanting "Om mani padme hum" to itself.

But it's not only in Hong Kong that one finds such errors. The once-impeccable BBC News website has the heading "Murray though as opponent retires" today. I guess they are though with sub-editing.

Finally someone has reviewed this blog and "damned me with faint praise". While calling it "a very stereotypical HK blog by a male expat from the British Isle" (there's only one?), he does at least concede that my writing "is at least borderline literary". For these small mercies, thanks. Happy new year!