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Mercantile exchange dream collapses, not many hurt

# 2013-05-19 17:03:46, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
Then-Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s policy initiatives in the mid-late 2000s were so gut-wrenchingly awful they are best forgotten. Think Zhuhai bridge, Lok Ma Chau Loop, education hub, high-speed rail tunnel to Shenzhen, Islamic bonds hub, arbitration hub, wine hub, cooperation, partnership and a...

Death to lifestyle mags?

# 2013-05-15 16:41:52, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
As if he doesn’t have enough burdens, on at least several occasions each week, the purchaser of the South China Morning Post receives a heavy glossy supplement of some sort, typically promoting a line of ugly luxury clothing or some preposterously named housing development next to a landfill somewhere. These extravagantly produced, full...

Well, it makes a change from hearing about trans-fats all the time

# 2013-05-14 17:27:38, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
The excitement over the Court of Final Appeal’s ruling to allow a male-turned-female transsexual to marry a (hopefully aware) male continues. The victor in the case proclaims the judgment to be the will of God and says that she looks forward to getting married in a church. This obviously calls for...

Amusing, positive and interesting things happen

# 2013-05-13 17:21:18, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
Hong Kong starts the day with a smirk. The Securities and Futures Commission orders the ‘unwinding’ of the sale of hotel suites at Cheung Kong’s Apex Horizon project on the grounds that it was technically an investment scheme that needed its authorization. In other words: give the mugs their m...

The Great Fiscal Cliff Disaster Outrage Massacre of 2013, cont’d

# 2013-05-12 17:32:33, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
A slightly tiresome, make-believe game of chicken plays itself out in the battle between the Hong Kong government and radical legislators filibustering the 2013-14 Budget. According to Financial Secretary John Tsang, failure to pass the bill on Wednesday could cause disruptions to welfare payments, ...

Andy Tsang, the radicals’ friend

# 2013-05-09 17:34:47, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
Forget the Japanese occupation, the 1960s riots or SARS. Chief Executive CY Leung declares that Hong Kong has never been in such a crisis as this – the filibustering of the 2013-14 Budget in the Legislative Council. The consequences if the budget isn’t passed will be dire and irreversible. What ...

Desperately needed: counter-tourism measures

# 2013-05-08 17:35:55, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
An op-ed in the South China Morning Post a few weeks ago called for a freeze in the number of tourists arriving in Hong Kong, and an end to the provision of land or public funds for facilities catering to outsiders rather than to the local population. China Daily has had two columns this week [...]

Civil Service coughs up biggest-yet PR hairball

# 2013-05-07 16:19:32, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
The observant and alert may have noticed a recent outbreak of particularly enigmatic Hong Kong government posters in locations usually reserved for exhortations to Look After Your Grandparents’ Teeth and Stamp Out Dangerous Bicycle Riding Now. The minimalist design simply says ‘Home Hong Kong’...

China’s 10,645th huge big step to open up Yuan announced

# 2013-05-06 16:43:30, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
The Hang Seng Index opens an amazing 20% up at 27,500. OK, so it doesn’t (it actually starts the day down a tiny fraction). But it would have done if the South China Morning Post’s front page were to be believed. To read the SCMP, you would get the impression that the Chinese government has [......

Great – but how does she keep those schoolgirl looks?

# 2013-05-05 17:05:39, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
A couple of surveys show that the majority of Hong Kong people believe the 1,200-strong Election Committee, which formally chooses the city’s Chief Executive, is not representative of the population. The shock here is that a significant minority (28-40%) seem to imagine that the rubber-stamp body ...

Not just fragrant, but with storm clouds and a duck

# 2013-05-02 16:40:18, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
Not a good end to the week for Hong Kong’s veteran icon of democracy Martin Lee, self-styled icon Anson Chan, the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Immigration Department. The Martin-bashing in the South China Morning Post and the Anson-handbagging in China Daily don’t say anythi...

Front-page news, or maybe not

# 2013-05-01 17:11:52, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
The South China Morning Post has some sort of quota system that requires it to run a front-page story every couple of weeks to maintain the never-ending saga of evil Western victimization of the up-to-now weak and innocent Middle Kingdom. Recent examples include a report on a study showing that Hong Kong immigrants to the [...]

And the mid-week mini-weekend is declared open

# 2013-04-29 17:19:34, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
In a world where 28,000 Chinese rivers have gone missing and women get surgery to have arms like Michelle Obama’s, it’s reassuring to hear some plain, simple truth. John Greenwood, inventor of Hong Kong’s currency peg, points out that a communist one-party state cannot accommodate a freely con...

Press celebrate Ugly People Day

# 2013-04-28 17:38:35, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
The May 1st public holiday comes early to today’s South China Morning Post, where page 1 is full of Ferran Adria, and page 3 (‘Leading The News’) replete with Annabelle Bond. These individuals (pictured below right) have two things in common. The first is that we have never heard of them. A qu...

We’re bored – let’s crucify a shoe-shiner

# 2013-04-25 16:42:48, Big Lychee, Various Sectors
“The pressure … has been growing steadily, with the media exposing more dinners than previously recorded.” Thus Hong Kong’s latest mega-scandal is born. Dinnergate. The story in a nutshell: former Independent Commission Against Corruption boss Timothy Tong allegedly misused public funds by t...