Ordinary Gweilo

The SCMP is often an even greater disappointment than usual on a public holiday, but today I feel I got full value for my HK$7.

Firstly, there is that old standby the Patkin letter.  This one (Shrill alarmism – subscription required) is up to Simon’s normal high standards:

Your paper’s desire to cause an outcry over global warming ("Global effort needed against warming", September 27) is just shrill alarmism. So are the efforts to scare us into action from Michael Chugani ("Feeling the heat yet, Donald?", September 28) and Frances Yeung of Greenpeace ("Wake up, Hong Kong,
global warming is our problem too", September 30).

Earlier this year, 60 scientists wrote to the Canadian prime minister saying that the Kyoto Protocol was wrong. For the record, none was called Ginger Spice or starred in M*A*S*H, as some environmentalists will surely  claim.

In a speech last week, US senator James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, cited recent studies showing the polar ice caps are actually expanding – making complete nonsense of Chugani’s claims of polar ice shrinkage. Senator Inhofe also noted that the left-wing media’s coverage of global warming is biased. I wonder, did the Post cover his speech? 

Did the SCMP cover his speech?  Why would they, I wonder?  "Republican senator accuses left-wing media of being biased" is hardly sensational news.  Especially not given that Inhofe is a staunch conservative who has "received almost $300,000 in campaign donations from oil and gas interests and nearly $180,000 from electric utilities since 1999" (according to American Prospect).

The only shrill voices I can hear are from the like of Mr Patkin and Senator Inhofe.  When the SCMP, The Economist and New Scientist start sounding the alarm about global warming I don’t think we are talking about the left-wing media – but maybe from Simon’s perspective these are all dangerously liberal publications.

That wasn’t all I got for my HK$7, oh no. The SCMP also published an opinion piece (that doesn’t seem to be on the website) by James Tien that stuck the boot into the government’s ill-considered proposal for GST and a bone-headed editorial (Coup leaders show little regard for the common good) written by someone who can’t get over the fact that the new Thai Prime Minister is a retired general.