Teaching China to Drive on the Right Side of the Road

This is the first step to allowing China mainlanders to drive into Hong Kong.

In March, HK drivers without Mainland China licences will get special permits for one day trips into China, called “自駕遊” (traveling by driving yourself, zi gaa yau). It is the first stage to allow drivers from both sides of the border to cross freely. Does anyone see a problem with this?! I see no mention of supplementary driving education or test to verify drivers understand the regulations on the other side. Speaking of the other side, Hong Kong and China drive on opposite sides of the road!

Now to put it into a social and current context, visitors without cars are already blamed for the tension between the mainland and the special administrative region (link to my previous post). And more blame on pregnant mothers being parasites to the Hong Kong welfare system. Tourists on foot loiter in random areas on Hong Kong’s narrow sidewalks. What will you get with drivers in petrol-fueled machines who usually drive on the opposite side of the road, who are not used to Hong Kong’s narrow roads and relatively stricter regulations? It also poses a higher challenge for border staff to filter out pregnant mothers and deny access, which was the solution proposed by the government and York Chow (Health department). Henry Tang, which mainland Chinese merchants are you pleasing by signing this? I didn’t need more convincing to not vote for you, now I’m registering just to vote against you. (Disclaimer: this is not a political endorsement.)

So, About that video of a Chinese Professor calling Hong Kongers “Dogs” and “Bastards”…

The year of the Rabbit has not brought a gentle mood to Hong Kong. Blow after blow of incidents heightened the tension between Mainland China and Hong Kong. Here are recent news stories and personal experiences that happened recently:

–         Mainland pregnant women exploit Hong Kong’s overloaded emergency rooms and delivery wards just so they can birth a child into Hong Kong residence status. They cross the border during the final moments of pregnancy, putting themselves and their children in danger and straining Hong Kong’s under resourced hospitals. <SCMP>

–         On Jan 5^th, a staff from the D&G store at Tsim Sha Tsui’s Canton Road denied Hong Kongers from photographing the store but allowed mainlanders to, subsequently leading to a protest outside the store:  <Yahoo news>

–         Over the weekend I watched the film A Beautiful Life (不再讓你孤單), a stereotype of Hong Kong vs China characters.

–         Today, a video has gone viral on Facebook amongst Hong Kongers, showing a Mandarin television talk show of a Professor calling Hong Kongers dogs and bastards

The video that has gone viral: Mainland Chinese Televsion: Hongkonger are dogs 中國電視台: 香港人係狗 (Mandarin with English subtitles)

Lazy Sunday at Lazy Al Molo

How should I begin? On Sunday afternoon, I returned with friends to Al Molo after opening night for a full serving of veal ravioli. Alas, it is only served during dinner :( This pouty face occured several more times during our meal.

Well, fret not, for I am at the restaurant of the king of pasta and there is an abundance of pasta dishes to choose from. Actually only 5-6 pasta dishes, and my friend complained about the limited menu. I disagree; I believe shorter menus allow quality over quantity. A long menu tries too hard to please too many people and sacrifices quality. The wine and drink lists, on the other hand… I don’t know about their quality but there were sure a lot to choose from!

Firstly, we ordered an appetizer to share – yellowtail sashimi. I believe it is served with

Want to support illegal street vending? There’s a Facebook group for that! Version egg waffle (雞蛋仔阿伯)

An update to the elderly gentleman selling Hong Kong egg waffles (雞蛋仔) illegally:

The whiners and grunters of Hong Kong have taken protesting to a new dimension – the digital dimension. Usually the middle aged working class take to the streets on weekends to protest wage issues and property prices. This time, it is about an elderly local snack vendor, whose target market includes adolescents and young adults with lots of time to “hea” (chill) on weekends in search of the perfect egg waffle. So instead, there’s a Facebook group for that!

Terror

CBS reporter Lara Logan assaulted in Egypt: CBS News

This was the first news I heard this morning and it really disturbed me. I usually wake up to Hong Kong’s local news but I switched to TVB Pearl for CBS late night news for international reporting and I find that American journalism is much more graphic. The segment on Lara Logan was a short statement – which I respected and found had a greater impact than the teary-eyed testimonies that followed of female soldiers being sexually assaulted on duty by male colleagues and the army turning a blind eye. I lived in the bubble of HK and Canadian media and four years of Comm studies could not compare to the three minutes that made me fully recognize the American Terror Tactic.

There are more issues to discuss, but back to work in my shallow, commercial city…

Communications student with international experience chooses to work in Toronto

March 15, 2010 – Toronto, Canada – The year 2009 has been tough to not only the finance and manufacturing industries, but it is especially depressing for its graduates competing with newly unemployed seniors. One of them is choosing to stay in Toronto to tough it out, even when a management position is waiting for her back home.

Video from Quaratined man in Hong Kong’s MetroPark Hotel

I don’t know how I would feel in that situation.

H1N1 in Hong Kong

Metropark Hotel in Wanchai is sealed off after a Mexican tourist is confirmed to have H1N1

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong confirmed Asia’s first case of the new H1N1 flu virus in a Mexican traveler on Friday, prompting authorities to seal off the hotel where the 25-year old man had been staying.

…Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang told reporters the man arrived on a China Eastern flight on Thursday afternoon after a stopover in Shanghai.

He had a fever and went to Ruttonjee Hospital for help on Thursday evening, Tsang said. The Mexican is now in hospital in a stable condition.

… “He didn’t leave the hotel (except to go to hospital) because he was feeling sick,” Health Minister York Chow told a news conference.

… The affluent financial hub on the south coast of China is widely seen as one of the best-prepared Asian cities to deal with the new H1N1 flu virus, given its experience in handling sporadic outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu, as well as SARS in 2003 which killed 299 people. >>

What is with Hong Kong’s luck with animal flus? I’m glad that HK has learned from H5N1 and acclaimed to be the most experienced with how to deal with the situation. I hope this really would control the situation.
My heart still sinks everytime I remember how SARS killed so many people. Even though I was in such proximity to the whole ordeal, my memory of it is very vauge. Classes were suspended, but I don’t even remember what I did during that time. My dad would still travel to and from China and completely wanted to shove my sister off when she urged him to wear masks and use sanitizer gels.

Why do I have such terrible memory? It seems like if I don’t write it down, nothng is worth remembering. Yet I remember so much trivial info — my semantic memory (aka encyclopedic memory) is much stronger than my episodic memory (aka autobigraphical memory). Suppression much?

Link: Another Cantopop star pulls an Edison

The background info:

Cantopop star Kelvin Kwan Chor-yiu has held his first press conference since returning to Hong Kong after being detained by Japanese police for cannabis possession.

The 25-year-old and fellow Cantopop star Jill Vidal (26) were arrested in Tokyo on February 24 at a busy shopping district. No charges were laid on Kwan but the status of fellow Cantopop star Jill Vidal remains unknown.

While Kwan did not openly admit he consumed the drug, he repeatedly apologised to the Hong Kong public and his fans over the incident. The pair were especially lambasted considering they were once involved in anti-drug campaign in 2007. He also says he will be stepping away form the entertainment industry for an unspecified time.

He is the godson of veteran Alan Tam, and Jill Vidal is signed along with her more successful sister Janice Vidal under retired pop star Leon Lai, married to model Gaile Lok. They have been rumored to be dating for a while.

This is so ridiculous. Hong Kong is a pretty hypocritical society. We all know that people do drugs, have sex, and take inappropriate photos all the time. The tabloid culture just enhances the finger pointing practice. Whatever man.

What I am interested in is his PR move. This is a perfect imitation of what Edison did. Has his statement been successful? or is Mr. Kwan truly being sincere? One of the female celebs involved, Cecilia Cheung, went on an interview to bash Edison’s statement in February for being all words and no action. Let’s hope Mr. Kwan’s PR can learn from Edison’s mistakes.