• [025]  Hong Kong By The Numbers (10/10/2007)  (HKU POP)  (1,008 persons interviewed by telephone September 17-21, 2007 about the District Council elections)

17%: aware of the District Council elections
84%: Critical consideration: stand on livelihood issues
11%: Critical consideration: political alignment
41%: Main factor: past performance
31%: Main factor: platform
 
77%: Prefer voting for an individual candidate
14%: Prefer voting for a political party
29%: Inclined to support the democrats
  9%: Inclinded to support the pro-China camp
60%: Considered themselves to be moderate or non-partisan
 
75%: Proportion of voters who planned to vote in District Council election
 
54%: First problem to be tackled: livelihood
25%: First problem to be tackled: local district problems
  6%: First problem to be tackled: economy
  4%: First problem to be tackled: employment/labour

• [022]  The Most Overpowering Television Ad In History (10/09/2007)  (Pro States in Flames)

[in translation]

A few days ago, I saw the most awesome television ad ever on Linfen TV.

Three women met in the middle of the street and the following conversation took place.

A (to B): "Didn't you get a vaginal infection?"
B: "I was cured at Hospital XX."

B (to C): "Didn't you get a uterine pelvic infection?"
C: "I was cured at Hospital XX."
 
C (to A): "Didn't you get a chlamydial infection?
A: "I was cured at Hospital XX."

A,B,C shout in unision: "We all got our sexually transmitted diseases cured at Hospital XX!"

• [020]  Place Your Bets (10/09/2007)  With respect to my report on Oriental Daily Sues Uwants For Information on Internet User 'TheOne88', bets are being made at the HK Golden Forum on my immediate future:

• [019]  Taiwan By The Numbers (10/09/2007)  (TVBS)  (1,233 persons age 20 or over interviewed by telephone in Taiwan on September 27-28, 2007.  The telephone numbers were drawn randomly from the telephone directory and then the last four digits were randomized.)

Q1. There has been five presidents in Taiwan: Chiang Kai-shek, Yen Chia-kan, Chiang Ching-kuo, Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian.  Which one of these presidents made the greatest contribution to Taiwan?
  9%: Chiang Kai-shek
  1%: Yen Chia-kan
49%: Chiang Ching-kuo
12%: Lee Teng-hui
  8%: Chen Shui-bian
  2%: They all made contributions
  2%: None of them made contributions
17%: No opinion
 
Q2. Overall, what was the contribution of former president Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan during his lifetime?
44%: More positive than negative
  9%: The positives and negatives cancel each other out
17%: More negative than positive
30%: No opinion
 
Q3. Overall, what was the contribution of former president Yen Chia-kan to Taiwan during his lifetime?
26%: More positive than negative
  5%: The positives and negatives cancel each other out
15%: More negative than positive
64%: No opinion
 
Q4. Overall, what was the contribution of former president Chiang Ching-kuo to Taiwan during his lifetime?
77%: More positive than negative
  7%: The positives and negatives cancel each other out
  4%: More negative than positive
15%: No opinion
 
Q5. Overall, what was the contribution of former president Lee Teng-hui to Taiwan?
41%: More positive than negative
13%: The positives and negatives cancel each other out
23%: More negative than positive
23%: No opinion
 
Q6. Overall, what is the contribution of current president Chen Shui-bian to Taiwan?
18%: More positive than negative
10%: The positives and negatives cancel each other out
52%: More negative than positive
21%: No opinion
 
Q7. Overall, do you feel that President Chen Shui-bian has been leading the state policies in the right or wrong direction over the past several years?
25%: Right direction
53%: Wrong direction
22%: No opinion
 
Democratic Progressive Party supporters (21%): 71% right direction, 17% wrong direction
Kuomintang supporters (29%): 4% right direction, 86% wrong direction
People First Party (5%): 5% right direction, 86% wrong direction
Taiwan Solidarity Union (2%): 65% right direction, 30% wrong direction
Independent (43%): 16% right direction, 49% wrong direction

• [018]  A PR Disaster for Anson Chan (10/08/2007)  (Ming Pao)

• [017]  Oriental Daily Sues Uwants For Information on Internet User 'TheOne88'  (10/08/2007)  (Ming Pao)

• [014]  What Did Regina Ip Say About June 4? (10/07/2007)
   
  

(SCMP)

The verbal war between the camps in December's Legislative Council  by-election has heated up, with pro-establishment Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee disapproving of the pan-democrats' street campaigns, calling them cosmetic and recalling opponent Anson Chan Fang On-sang's suppression of her in the government.

Speaking on RTHK's An Hour More, Mrs Ip talked openly about the widely reported story that Mrs Chan, then chief secretary, had barred her from being promoted to directorate grade eight. Mrs Ip had been acting in that grade while holding the position as security chief.

She said Mrs Chan had two reasons for the decision, which "mystified" her. "Firstly, she said I was too aggressive. I found this peculiar. Every administrator has ambition or aggression. Even she wanted to become the chief executive. Secondly, she said I gossipped about [the preceding secretary for security, Peter] Lai Hing-ling behind his back."

(Apple Daily)

Yesterday, Regina Ip refused to declare her support to vindicate June 4th.  In addition, she opposed the democrats' Legco motion to vindicate June 4th because she believed that this would only intensify the conflict between Beijing and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China chairman Szeto Wah criticized that her views about the June 4th massacre were just like those of former DAB Ma Lik in that they both tried their best to deny the history of the June 4th massacre and support the suppression of the student movement by the Beijing authorities.

Yesterday, Regina Ip was asked repeatedly about her position about the June 4th motion if she were elected to the Legco.  She only said that she had seen the television coverage back then and she felt the same wasy as any Hong Kong person.  But she believes that mourning over June 4th is a personal matter which should not be politicized.  Therefore, she opposed the Legco motion.  "Some people want to politicize this issue in order to create a conflict between the central and SAR governments."  She said that one can mourn over June 4th personally, but there should not be a motion about June 4th at the Legco.

(Ming Pao; Yahoo News)

When asked about whether she would support the the motion to vindicate June 4th, she replied first that she felt deeply about June 4th just like any other Hong Kong person.  "At the time, I was pregnant and I watched television every night.  The doctor warned me not to get too excited because that might dead to a premature delivery."

Regina Ip added that the June 4th incident should not be a source of conflict between the central government and Hong Kong.  She pointed out that some people often use the June 4th incident as a political issue and create conflicts, especially within the Legco.  That is not a good thing for Hong Kong.  "When this is debated at the Legco, it becomes a political topic.  It is no longer as simple as personal mourning and grieving.  There are deeper implications which should be carefully considered."

Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China vice-chairman Lee Cheuk-yan said that Regina Ip was only trying to minimize June 4th.  He said: "Why shouldn't June 4th be raised as a political issue?  The June 4th incident began as a political issue.  She is saying that in order to sweep the historical fact of the massacre underneath the rug."  Lee also said that Regina Ip is trying to show her loyalty to Beijing on one hand while trying to offend Hong Kong people who believe in the vindication on the other hand.  The net result is that she failed to please either side.

(Sing Tao)

Regina Ip said that she felt the same way about the June 4th incident as the Hong Kong people.  In 1989, she was pregnant and her doctor advised her not to get too excited and affect the baby.  She also believes the people of Hong Kong are admirable for persisting in mourning over the June 4th incident over the years.

But she felt that the June 4th issue should not become the core issue or contradiction between the central government and the people of Hong Kong.  She pointed out the "vindication of June 4th" is a political issue at the Legco and not a matter of "personal memory and grief."  "Besides personal feelings, a Legislative Councilor must also see what is in the best interests of the people of Hong Kong in terms of politics and policies."  She believes that the politicization of the June 4th incident (especially at Legco) is not a good thing.  As to whether she would support the motion to vindicate June 4th, she will decide if she gets elected.

Regina Ip was also asked by the case of Wang Dan.  She said that Hong Kong is a unique and attractive place and it was understandable that Wang Dan wants to come here.  She personally has no problem with Wang Dan coming here.  But it will be up to the Security Bureau to approve his application based upon his stated purpose.  As to whether she will provide any assisatnce to Wang Dan, she said that it was inappropriate to comment since she has not been elected yet.

Other newspapers: The Standard, Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po covered the radio interview, but reported nothing about the June 4th comment.  Oriental Daily and The Sun had nothing on Regina Ip's appearance at RTHK at all.

• [012]  Hair! (10/07/2007)  (Apple Daily)  In recent year, beauty pageants have proliferated in China from the national level all the way down to the village level.  This proliferation also means that the quality has suffered.  For example, at the Chinese Grand Final of the World Super Model Competition held in Jiujiang (Jiangxi province), many of the competitors were inexperiences novices and their clothing did not always fit.  Therefore, there were certain errors made in the swimsuit competition, including the display of pubic hair.  In the photograph below, Apple Daily had to apply pixels because it would be classified indecent/obscene with near certainty.
  
  Here is the original photograph at the mainland Chinese website Sohu.com.

• [011]  Why Is This Sort of Thing Popular On the Chinese Internet? (10/05/2007)  (163.com)

A 7-minute-19-second video clip is being circulated on the Chinese Internet after its first appearance in a local Xiamen website.  According to informed sources, "The characters in the video are second-year students from the Xiamen Number Five Middle School and the Xiamen Y Middle School, as well as some recent school drop-outs.  These people go about creating trouble and they filmed how they beat up people.  Those video clips are posted to podcasts and QQ video for fun and glory."

The video (see link) shows an isolated spot by a wall surrounded by trees.  Four students took turns assaulted a girl wearing a green top.  At first, two girls were quarreling.  After one said, "How can you do this to me if we are friends?" a girl in blue slapped the girl in green and there was a tussle.  During the process, the girl in blue kicked the girl in green viciously and tore at her clothes.  The victim kept repeating, "Don't do this!"  Then a girl in white pushed the girl in green against the wall and kicked her.  While the victim was crying, the specators were laughing, yelling and commenting in Minnan dialect.

Related Link: Paparazzi and Celebrity Blogs Most Popular  Josie Liu, China in Transition

• [010]  How To Monopolize The Textbook Market In China (10/05/2007)  (Southern Weekend)  

With the start of a new school term, our battle with Company A begins once more.  My company is in the business of distributing supplementary textbook guides for elementary and secondary schools and we represent several Beijing-based publishing houses.  The quality of our products is high -- these come from top national publishing houses with good reputations.

Our biggest competitor is Company A, the local powerhouse that belongs to the relevant government department which supervises school textbooks and guides.  Company A has a near monopoly of the market for supplementary textbook guides.

In the past, the market for school textbooks and supplementary guides was dominated by the local Xinhua bookstore.  In recent years, the central government introduced reforms to break up the monopoly.  Thus, the provincial government formed Company A.  Today, Company A has the monopoly in supplementary guides while Xinhua has the monopoly in textbooks.  While it seemed that the former monopoly was broken up, the reality was that the two companies do not have overlapping businesses and they face no competition.  The students have therefore not benefited.

Company A monopolizes the market through the following methods.

The supervisory government department publishes a list of "recommended books" in order to "purify the books used for teaching in elementary and secondary schools and to guarantee that they use excellent, authentic publications.  This way, the students do not become harmed by poor-quality contraband books and audiotapes."  This goes against articles 30 and 35 of the anti-monopoly laws.  It goes without say that the book list contains only products for which Company A has exclusive rights to distribute.  We could not have access to those books from their publishers no matter what our price offer is.  The supervisory government department requires all education departments and schools to order from this book list.  This eliminates any chance for companies like ours to compete.

In order to prevent "surreptitious behavior," Company A uses profit incentives to ensure that the education departments and schools will cooperate.  Suppose a book costs 10 yuan; they will offer it to the education department at 8.5 yuan; the school will get the book from the education department at 9 yuan; the students will pay 10 yuan.  In our industry, it is common knowledge that the cost of the book to the distributor is 2.5 yuan (or 3 yuan for a top quality book).  We are able to offer the book to the schools at 5 yuan.  Even if the school tags on some additional fees, the students should be paying only 6 yuan.  When there is no competition in the market, the consumers suffer the most.

This is a huge market.  Every subject requires a supplementary guide, and a student takes seven or eight classes.  The average cost per book is between 5 to 6 yuan.  The total number of elementary and secondary school students in China is 220 million.  You can do the calculation yourself.

The high prices under monopoly have displeased some schools such that they order from companies like us.  But Company A has "spies" at the schools -- they are usually students and teachers.  Company A will find out immediately when it happens.  Then the relevant supervisory government department sends out an investigation team.  They withhold the products to investigate whether these are contrabands; they suspend the school leaders pending investigating of receiving bribes.  After the hassles, the schools won't dare to order from the outside again.

Even with this blatant monopoly, some local educational departments may decide to order from other companies anyway.  Company A therefore recruits and pays the leaders from the local educational departments to consult on their teaching guides, which are then sold locally.  The leaders are paid on commissions, so that they receive more money if more copies are sold.  This obviously incentivizes the local educational department leaders to protect Company A's market.

Many competitors have dropped out of the business in our province, but we continue to hope that the monopoly may be broken one day.

• [007]  Why Does The Support Level For Mrs. Ip Keep Rising? (10/03/2007)  (Fat Doctor @ West Kowloon Slum blog)

I asked a doctor friend living on Hong Kong Island about her voting intention.  This is a middle-class doctor who has lived through Article 23, SARS and July 1st.  Her response should provide some food for thought among the pan-democrats:

Mrs. Chan or Mrs. Ip?  Of course, I support Ms. Ip.  From start to end, Mrs. Ip was consistent and loyal to her own path (most importantly, loyal to her own self).  Mrs. Chan is different, because she kept sitting on the fence and her positions and directions are constantly changing.  How can someone like that represent us at the Legislative Council?

The Article 23 affair actually shows that Mrs. Ip is a firm talent who is willing to plough ahead in order to accomplish the mission.  Honestly speaking, how many of the 500,000 marching on the street back then were really opposing Article 23?  Instead, those were angry voices unhappy about the economic and administrative woes.  Mrs. Ip was only following the script, which was ordered by Tung Chee-wah, who ultimately quit.

The past is over.  We are not voting for a Legislative Councilor.  Mrs. Chan was proscrastinating and waited until the last minute before announcing her candidacy.  How sincere is she about serving the voters?  Her sincerity lags far behind Mrs. Ip.

In the end, I really cannot think of any reason why I should support Mrs. Chan.  The outspoken and brave Mrs. Ip gives me greater confidence.  My vote will definitely go to Regina Ip.

If the pan-democrats are still uanware that there is pending doom and thus continue to behave like loose sand (Emily Lau is still saying bitterly that "Mrs. Chan does not represent the pan-democrats) and if Mrs. Chan does not work hard to fight, I think that we might as well as hand over the Legco seat to the Great Dictator who has re-packaged herself successfully. 

I don't know about starting a brand new website at this time.  But I can tell you one story about one lousy customer.

It was just after 11am, and a female customer walked into the restaurant with her two children.  She is a regular customer who often comes with her husband, who was parking the car today.  The woman said: "I want my usual seat."

The receptionist explained: "This is just after 11am, and we do not have a full staff yet.  Your usual seat is back in the farthest corner of the restaurant, and we will not be able to serve you properly."
 
The customer said, "I don't get it.  I am a good customer and you won't give me my usual seat.  Well, if that's how it is, then I want this other table here."  At that particular table, the waiters and waitresses were quickly eating their lunch at the time so that they can start work soon.
 
The receptionist explained: "Our workers are eating right now.  We cannot just tell them not to eat anymore and make way for your party.  I am sure that you appreciate the difficulty.  We will be happy with any of your other choice of table in the front of the restaurant."
 
The customer huffed and puffed a bit, and sat down near the front entrance.  Several minutes later, her husband showed up and asked her: "Why are you sitting here?  Why can't we get our usual table?"  The same explanation was offered, and there were some more rounds of abuse heaped upon the receptionist.  Then the husband decided that he was wasting his time in talking to a receptionist.  He said, "There is no point in talking to you.  I need to speak to the highest level of management in this restaurant."
 
So the restaurant manager was summoned, and another round of the same explanation was made.  Here are some choice words from the husband to the manager: "You don't look like a restaurant manager ... you have a haircut in the style of street punks (="teddy boys") ... I cannot believe this restaurant chain would hire a street punk as the manager ... if they hire people like you as manager, they will be bankrupt before too long ... "
 
And then there was the final threat: "I had signed up for a frequent diner club before, but I want to cancel the card immediately."  The manager explained that he was willing to oblige.  However, club membership was premised upon paying HK$300 in cash in exchange for HK$300 in coupons.  If a customer wishes to cancel club membership, he needs to return the coupons before he receives the HK$300 in cash back.  This particular customer had already used his coupons.  When he heard the explanation, the customer said: "Give me the telephone number of your company headquarters right now because I intend to file a complaint against you and your restaurant ... do you know that I am a solicitor? ... you should be expecting to receive a legal letter from my office shortly ..."
 
Before the customer even made that telephone call, the manager had already called the company headquarters about the incident.  This incident occurred several days ago, but the solicitor's letter has not arrived yet.

The catchphrase has always been "The Customer Is Always Right."  However, there are several hundred thousand restaurant workers in Hong Kong and they are people who should have respect and dignity too.  Is there a marketplace for such a website?  I doubt it.  My doubt is not based upon lack of interest, but because these people work 12 hours or more per day, six days a week.  On workdays, they don't have time to read or post at websites; on their one day off per week, they have better things to do than pound on the keyboard to complain about lousy customers.  However, they seem to have plenty of time to complain to me while they serve food to me, so maybe I can start a regular series here (if not a dedicated website).

• [003]  Hong Kong District Councilors (10/02/2007)  (Those Were The Days)

[in translation]

Imperceptibly, the time has come for people to register to run in the District Council elections.  Although the various political parties are being overshadowed by the Legco by-election between the two ladies, they are holding political rallies.  Among the candidates are many young rookies in the camps of the democrats and leftists.  Their enthusiasm is driven by their desire to accumulate experience in local elections in preparation for eventual entry to the Legislative Council.  But they do not know that we are no longer living the 1980's and 1990's and joining the District Council has now in fact become the sure way of guaranteeing that they will never reach the Legislative Council.

The District Councils are a product of the British colonial administration era.  Back then, the District Councils were regarded as places to nurture political talents.  But that was three decades or so ago, when people like Lee Wah-ming, Liu Shing-li, Ng Ming-yum and others rose to the Legislative Council through the District Councils.

What are the District Councils today like?  What are the District Councilors like?  After the return of Hong Kong to China, the powers of the District Councils did not expand; instead, their powers were imperceptibly reduced by the government.  First, there was the appointment system, which reduced the representative nature of the District Councils.  Then the government treated the District Councils as places for consulting public opinion without any local administrative powers.  The District Councilors can express their own views on certain local minutiae which affects the three thousand or so people in their community, but they are powerless with respect to any higher-level policies.  For example, District Councilor A told me that he had been complaining about the bicycle path in his district for years without any government officials paying any attention.  How do political talents get nurtured as a result?

Today's District Councilors are just voluntary workers in their districts.  On behalf of the three thousand or so people in their districts, they worry about whether the street lights are working, they organize day tours and they buy discount moon cakes and Lunar New Year merchandise.  How do such District Councilors expect to become Legislative Councilors?

Let us study the history.  Since Cheng Kar-fu and Wong Shing-chi nine years ago, no Democratic Party district councilor has joined the Legislative Council.  What about the DAB?  If the democrats had not made way with their diamond list in New Territories East, Lee Kwok-ying would not have been able to sneak in.  In the 2004 Legislative Council direct elections, Long Hair never ran in District Council elections and the Civic Party barristers had no prior local political experience.  James Tien was a Hong Kong Island district councilor, but he ran for a Legco seat in New Territories East this time.  Meanwhile former District Councilors such as Woo Chi-keung all failed.  Being a District Councilor is no longer a stepping stone to advance in politics; if anything, a District Councilor is more likely to stay there forever.

Today, the people of Hong Kong are politically aware.  They want people with certain abilities and skills (such as barristers and former government officials) to become Legislative Councilors.  The District Councilors serve their neighbors, who may not support them for the Legislative Council.  The District Councils and the Legislative Council are completely different things!  The best Democratic Party District Councilor Fan Kwok-wai can win overwhelmingly within his own district, but can he get into the Legislative Council?  Today, the people of Hong Kong have two sets of standards for Legislative Council and District Council elections.  Just because they support someone for the District Council does not mean that they support the same person for the Legislative Council!

Lee Sai-man said that if you want to be a Legislative Councilor, you should not become a District Councilor.  To a certain degree, I agree with him because the citizens are keenly aware of the differences: you can be my District Councilor, but it does not mean that I will elect you to become my Legislative Councilor!  You want to enter the Legislative Council through the District Council?  This is not going to happen unless they double the number of seats in the Legislative Council.  The example of Kam Nai-wai show the political neophytes just what the chances are.

Unless the system of councils is radically reformed, the District Councilors will forever remain local volunteer workers.  The government pays them under HKD 20,000 a month to take care of all big and small businesses within the district.  This is cheaper than the government hiring an Administrative Officer.  It is objectively and subjectively impossible for the political parties to nurture political talents through being District Councilors.  Are the political rookies who are entering the District Council elections aware of the problems here?

• [001]  Hong Kong By The Numbers (10/01/2007)  (Ming Pao; Ming Pao)  Primary election results for the pan-democrats are in for the Hong Kong Legislative Council by-election.

 
Part 1 (10% of total score): Legislative Council pan-democrats.  15 votes (88.2% share) for Anson Chan and 2 votes (11.8%) for Lo Wing-lok.
 
Part 2 (10% of total score): District Council pan-democrats.  13 votes (86.7% share) for Anson Chan and 2 votes (13.3%) for Lo Wing-lok.
 
Part 3 (30% of total score): Pan-democratic organization members.  141 votes (64.1% share) for Anson Chan and 79 votes (35.9%) for Lo Wing-lok.
 
Part 4 (50% of total score): Hong Kong University Public Opinion Programme poll of 1,011 Hong Kong Island residents.  475 (or 47%) chose Anson Chan, 110 (or 10.9%) chose Lo Wing-lok, 303 (or 29.9%) chose "none of the above" and 123 (or 12.2%) said "Don't know/hard to say/blank vote."  Between the two, 475 (or 81.2%) voted for Anson Chan and 110 (or 18.8%) voted for Lo Wing-lok.
 
The final score was 8.8 + 8.7 + 19.2 + 40.6 = 77.3 points for Anson Chan and 1.2 + 1.3 + 10.8 + 9.4 = 22.7 points for Lo Wing-lok.

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