Ordinary Gweilo

It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writing (mainly) about Hong Kong

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  • No-one wants to come

    You may be aware that several countries joined the European Union on May 1st. This had led to a deal of idiotic speculation in certain British newspapers about the flood of refugees (from these countries) who would be arriving in Britain to take advantage of welfare benefits, the great weather and the marvellous food. Or something like that.

    This seems to be a peculiarly British delusion. Some people do really believe that there are millions of foreigners who are desperate to come to Britain for one reason for another, and something has to be done about it. Never mind that there is precious little evidence of it happening before when other countries (such as Spain, Portugal and Greece) joined the European Union a few years back. Now the floodgates are open, and of course there is indeed no evidence of a large influx of immigrants from Lithuania or wherever, as David Aaronovitch points out in The Guardian.

    The reality is that the poorer countries that have joined the European Union over the years have generally done extremely well out of it, and the general trend has been for their nationals to return home as the economy has improved, not for people to leave! Ireland is probably the best example of this.

    Nevertheless, immigration remains a sensitive subject in the UK. This led to one of the one of the most disgraceful decisions made by any British government in recent years, when Hong Kong people were denied British Citizenship in the leadup to the Handover. This was based on the wholly irrational fear that millions of people might leave Hong Kong and move to the UK. Of course it was never going to happen, but there is this strange idea that (1) large numbers of people will want to give up everything and move to a foreign country, and (2) that most of them would choose Britain as their destination. No, I don’t think so.

  • Just like a Travel Inn

    There was an interesting piece in the Sunday Morning Post this week about conditions in Guangdong factories.  This story seems to have originated with comments from the boss of Ultimo (a lingerie company in the UK), claiming that conditions in the dormitories at factories producing her company’s products were similar to that of a ‘Travel Inn’ (budget motels in the UK).  This was followed up by the Daily Record (a Scottish newspaper), which published a story about the low wages and poor conditions for workers in the factory, and the SMP picked it up.

    The Daily Record illustrated the story with photographs (reprinted in the SMP) from the factory and a Travel Inn showing that this comparison might not be entirely accurate.  I can only assume that Ms Mone was probably shown (and possibly stayed in) a room for visitors or Hong Kong staff.  These are often described as ‘dormitories’ but they are very different from the accomodation provided for the workers.  They probably won’t be luxurious, but they will have aircon, en-suite bathrooms and privacy.  As usual, one rule for the rich and another for the poor! 

    However, I think she is probably correct to say that this factory (which I have never visited, by the way) is better than most.  Western companies do normally visit the factories and check on the conditions, and may insist on improvements before they start to place orders. Nevertheless, this is one of those stories that won’t go away.  The basic facts are:

    • Workers in China are paid much less than their equivalents in Europe or the USA. 
    • Factory conditions are often not so good. 
    • Workers are asked to do overtime (or may be given no choice). 

    All this is undoubtedly true, but the reality is that pay and conditions in these factories are very attractive compared to other ‘opportunities’ available to manual workers in China.  The dormitories may not be luxurious, but they are probably not much worse than the homes the workers will have left behind to come and work in the factory.  Also, they normally stay their for only a few years and can earn enough in that time to live quite well when they do return home. 

    It also needs to be put into context. Conditions in Hong Kong factories 40 or 50 years ago would probably have been worse, and during the Industrial Revolution in Britain life was very tough for the working classes.  In fact, let’s be honest – working in a factory is not normally a particularly pleasant experience anywhere, and those of us who work in offices have it easy.  So when journalists or activists (or just about anyone) from ‘Western’ countries visit factories in China, it’s really no surprise that they are ‘horrified’ by what they see.  You have to wonder whether they have ever been to a factory in the UK!

    This story is covered in more detail in the excellent Asian Labour News, which tries to put these things into perspective and separate fact from fiction.  Stephen hasn’t yet followed up on this story, but in the past he has met with management and visited factories to check for himself after similar stories were published in US or UK newspapers, and often found out that there was much more (or less) to the story than it first appeared.

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  • Summertime

    Our outdoor pool opened at the weekend, which cheered me up. Most private-sector estates in Hong Kong have pools, but (as I have mentioned previously) they are often only open for a few months in the summer and close at 7 pm. Fortunately, ours is open longer and later, so I can go swimming after I come home from work. All part of my boring life.

    It is very common for children to go swimming under the supervision of their domestic helper. However, they are not allowed to use the pool (goodness me, where would it end if you let the servants swim in your pool). There is also a rule that anyone coming into the pool area has to purchase a ticket, and some people do seem to sit there sunbathing and reading the newspaper so I suppose that’s fair enough.

    On Saturday morning these two rules were combined to produce a daft result – one of the Filipina helpers was forced to pay for an entry ticket so she could sit by the side of the pool supervising her employer’s child. Well, rules are rules.

  • C for business

    Some people always fly business class, others never do.  Personally, I sometimes manage to fly business class, but I can never quite convince myself that it’s really worth the extra money.  I have yet to be blessed with an employer who felt that I was (consistently) entitled to this benefit, so I mainly have to rely on upgrades – usually with frequent flyer miles, but Virgin did once give us (myself, my wife and our son) a free upgrade on a trip back from London.

    Having said that, my very first trip to Hong Kong was in Virgin’s Upper Class (and paid for by the company who sent me out here).  Having previously only travelled within Europe, and normally in economy, I was pleasantly surprised by the legroom, the reclining seat, the limousine service, the lounge, the TV and the better quality food.  Definitely living in the style to which I wished to become accustomed.

    Unfortunately, they then decided that Virgin’s Premium Economy was good enough, though they briefly switched to Cathay, and I discovered that business class didn’t always mean the same thing!  At the time I don’t think there was a great deal of difference between Premium Economy and Cathay’s business class.

    Since then, Cathay has significantly improved both the legroom and the seat in business class, whilst Virgin has introduced a curious arrangement whereby you sleep on a ‘bed’ that is almost on the floor and almost flat, and offers a food menu that is available whenever you want it.   Both offer video-on-demand (Virgin in all classes).  I haven’t flown with BA, but they claim to offer a flat bed in business class.  In response to this, Virgin is introducing a new cabin which will provide a totally flat bed in Upper Class, and goodness knows what they will offer on the new Airbus A380.  The new Upper Class Suite is supposed to be introduced to the Hong Kong-London route before too long.

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  • Out of gas

    According to the SCMP (subscription required) on Saturday, investors are now wary of companies afflicted with Compulsive Asset Shuffling disorder, and shunned the placement of shares in Dong Fang Gas, into which the property portfolio of PCCW was recently injected (as mentioned here a couple of months ago).

    Investors have been reluctant to buy the placement shares of Dong Fang Gas Holdings, the property unit of fixed-line carrier PCCW, despite the lure of a hefty discount. Yesterday’s lacklustre response left PCCW holding too many shares of Dong Fang, in breach of the minimum 25 per cent float requirement. The company has applied to the stock exchange for an exemption.

    Or, according to The Standard, PCCW has successfully placed 237 million shares in Dong Fang Gas and raised HK$628 million:

    the share placement received a warm reception from investors and was 1.25 times covered, the source said.

    I suppose there are always two sides to every story. Citibank priced the offer at a discount and yet was unable to place enough shares to meet the 25 percent free float requirement, which doesn’t sound like a success, but it depends what they were expecting – at least they did place some shares, and within the indicated price range.

    The story in the SCMP mentions the Vanda fiasco, which saw Hutchison generating cash and a few lucky shareholders selling their shares when the price spiked, whilst everyone else was left out of pocket. Since then Vanda has been renamed to Hutchison Global Communications, but the share price is still in the doldrums. It’s therefore quite understandable if investors are nervous when another member of the Li family starts shuffling assets.

    The other problem is that although Hong Kong property companies may look attractive when the property market is buoyant, there is no guarantee that investors will benefit in the same way they would if they directly owned property. Especially not if Richard Li is in charge.

  • Dignity, always dignity

    Funniest sight of the week – elderly stout gentleman being lowered slowly into a Chinese submarine by two minders. Possibly not a good idea.

  • 5,6,7

    Hey look, I can do dull as well as the next man (see story below) Since Simon is away in China and not posting this type of stuff, I think I need to fill the gap. So, can anyone explain this phenomenon?

    Quite often, by around 5 o’clock I have nearly finished the things I think I need to do for the day, and I am contemplating leaving fairly promptly.

    However, in the next hour someone will ask me something, call me, or send me an email, and I will end up with another task that I reckon I could (or should) finish before I leave. So by the time it gets to 6.30 I realize that I’m not going to get it all finished much before 7, and I’m certainly not going to get away promptly as I had hoped.

    On the other hand, if I’m still quite busy at 5 o’clock, there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll finish (or at least reach a convenient breakpoint) before 6.30 and will be able to get away reasonably early.

  • Dull website gets even duller

    I know I’ll get into trouble for writing this, but I don’t think I really care.

    I periodically check Hong Kong’s most boring website to see whether they have managed to write anything even mildly interesting (no), and whether they have got over their obsession with blogging (apparently they haven’t).

    I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the latest subject of grave concern to them is the layout of the South China Morning Post. Apparently the front page dated 21 April has no less than three examples of single lines of text appearing at the top or bottom of columns. Gosh. This is a subject so dull that it makes the ‘Media Follies’ section of Spike look positively fascinating, and I can only assume that it was written by a sub-editor. No-one else would notice, surely?

    Incidentally, it also seems like complete tosh. I happen to have a copy of The Times at home, and a quick scan through the first few pages shows that standards have apparently fallen there as well, for it has countless examples of exactly the same thing, as if it mattered. Which it really doesn’t.

  • That explains it…

    Interesting piece in the paper on Sunday by Tim Noonan, who is convinced that Cable TV will drop ESPN and Star Sports this summer, now that they have exclusive rights to the English Premiership. He’s probably right, but I find it very strange – normally cable TV companies want to have as many channels as possible so that they can offer their viewers a good choice. The other thing I don’t understand is that in the UK you have to pay extra for Sky Sports, whereas Cable TV offer it in their standard package (yes, I know you can subscribe to a more limited selection of channels, but I don’t think most people do).

    Noonan thinks that ESPN and Star Sports will end up on Now Broadband, which presumably means that subscribers will have to pay for those channels if they want them. So what is stopping Cable TV doing something similar and offering them as ‘pay channels’, with the added bonus of intelligent EPL coverage?

    Meanwhile, it seems that the overseas TV rights are proving very lucractive for the Premier League, and will probably make up the shortfall in the domestic rights.

  • Best thing on TV

    I’ve recently finished watching season four of The Sopranos – on DVD rather than the bowlderised version on TVB Pearl.  I ordered it back in November, it was stolen and then replaced (did I mention that before?), and I finally got around to watching it just at the time that it was running on TVB.  Actually, I thought that I had missed it on TV, but yes they do show it a full 15 months after the HBO in the States.

    It almost goes without saying that The Sopranos is one of the best things on TV.  You can argue that it isn’t as good as it was, but then what is?  The impressive thing is that the show’s creator David Chase seems to have a clear idea of the show’s progression – season one was about Tony Soprano as a child (and Livia’s son), season two was about him as Janice’s brother, season three was about Tony and Carmela as parents, and season four was about their marriage.  Over the four series, the main characters have developed, and a host of others have come and gone.      

    If you haven’t yet watched season four and plan to do so, the rest of this article is one long spoiler, so you might want to stop here.</p

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