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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  • For those of you watching in black and white, Arsenal are in yellow

    Spike is still trying to “add value” to the articles it reprints from The Spectator magazine. The current issue contains a piece about Will Self which will probably make little sense to most people in Hong Kong given that it is largely about how many magazines articles he writes and TV programmes he appears on:

    Unlike other literary grandees, he’s game for more or less anything. It’s hard to imagine, say, Doris Lessing showing up alongside Melinda Messenger on [talent show] Shooting Stars , or Julian Barnes being quizzed by Paul Merton on Room 101.

    A sub-editor has helpfully added the description of Shooting Stars for Hong Kong readers who will probably have never seen the program (I don’t think it’s ever been shown here). The problem is that Shooting Stars is actually a comedy game show hosted by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, not a talent show. What about Room 101, then, guys, is that one of those shows about renovating your house?

    They also changed “tube” to “London Underground”. Good grief.

  • Doing Business In China

    I’m amazed that Ron posts this stuff, but it provides an amazing insight into the perils of doing business in China. Well worth reading!

  • Arriving

    My sister is arriving in Hong Kong today (with two of her children) and will be staying for a week.  This is her first visit to Hong Kong, and so I need to show her around, which probably means that I won’t have much chance to post to this blog for the next seven days.

    I was thinking back to my first visit to Hong Kong.  There are three things I particularly remember about arriving here – the first was the hair-raising arrival over the rooftops of Kowloon, the second was the chaos of the old Kai Tak airport and the long queues for taxis, and the third was the heat and humidity as I walked out of the terminal building.  In addition, the taxi ride to my hotel in Tsim Tsa Tsui was always evocative – and the places on the way are probably fairly typical of the older parts of Hong Kong with a mix of industrial and residential developments.

    These days, arriving at Chek Lap Kok is much less exciting, and the airport itself much more efficient, but also larger and more anonymous.  There’s normally no need to take a taxi, and certainly the queues seem much shorter.  For most people, the first sight of Hong Kong is now from an Airport Express train or a vehicle on the Lantau Expressway, and the view is of shiny new Tung Chung town, the mountains and the sea. 

    I am not particularly fond of Singapore, but the drive along the highway from the airport is one I always enjoy.  I am not sure that I can explain why, but the traffic is normally moving smoothly and they have obviously gone to great trouble to make it seem ‘green’ by the large amounts of vegetation they have planted.  Arriving in Bangkok, on the other hand, you are immediately thrown into the chaos of the city and the perpetual traffic jams. 

    The Airport Express is clean and fast, and is quite a relaxing way to arrive in Hong Kong, and it is a short walk at each of the stations to the taxi rank.

    Of course, coming here in February you also miss out on the heat and humidity.  Right now the weather is actually very pleasant, all the more so after the long spell of cold and wet weather we have been enduring.

    So, all in all, I reckon that my sister’s first impressions of Hong Kong are likely to be rather different from my own!

  • Toy Stories

    Steve Jobs (wearing his Pixar hat) has announced that he has broken off talks about renewing his company’s deal with Disney, and according to The Economist this means that Disney will be able to make “Toy Story 3” itself.  Anyone who has compared the Pixar films with other recent releases from Disney will realise that this is not a very attractive prospect.  Pixar are perfectionists who have proved themselves highly accomplished at making movies that entertain kids and also appeal to adults, whereas Disney seem to have totally lost their way.

    It is possible that if Comcast suceed in their bid for Disney, this could change the situation (allegedly the biggest problem is that Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner cannot stand each other).  Eisner has plenty of enemies, including Roy Disney, who recruited him many years ago but recently resigned from the board last month in protest at the way the company was being run.  I reckon Disney need Pixar much more than Pixar need Disney, though breaking up a long-term partnership is bound to create some problems.

    I think anyone with young children will appreciate the Pixar films – it’s rare to find children’s films that are so clever, funny and well-written.  Dreamworks have a reasonable track record with computer animation – “Shrek” is funny, but a little bit too knowing, whilst “Antz” suffers from having, well, too many ants. “Ice Age” is slight, but amusing in parts, and “Chicken Run” is clever but not very engaging.  However, no-one can match Pixar’s track record.

    “Toy Story 2” is highly unusual in being better than the original, though both films succeed because the toys have been give individual characters that make them interesting and engaging.  Both films have clever storylines and good jokes (even if some of the better ones are repeated in TS2), plus some moments of real pathos.  Even Randy Newman’s songs seem to work quite well. 

    Presumably Pixar will eventually turn out a stinker, and they already have to contend with extremely high expectations from critics for each new release (and, to be fair, Finding Nemo did get some bad reviews), but for now the name Pixar is as close as you can get to a guarantee of quality.

  • Sweet Chariots

    I have added Sweet Chariots to my list of Hong Kong blogs.  A fellow Brit, and a colleague of Simon (whose blog persuaded me that if he could do it then I could).  He’s obviously a rugby fan.

    My recent post about comments on blogs seemed to provoke surprisingly strong feelings, but one useful thing that came out of it was that Ron reminded that I am probably not doing very much to promote other blogs.  There are two main reasons – the first is lack of time (you can call it laziness if you wish), and the other is that I am unsure what to do for the best.  I don’t feel inclined to have a huge long list of blogs on my main page, and I am restricting myself to the ones that I personally read on a regular basis, so that there is some element of recommendation.  What I intended to do was set up a longer Blogroll on a separate page, but I had technical problems and then I forgot about it.  I’ll try to get back on the case.

    Any recommendations for Asian or world blogs much appreciated! 

  • Boring books

    The Irish writer Roddy Doyle has caused a certain amount of controversy in Ireland by criticising James Joyce.

    I have to say I’m with him on this one! When I studied English at ‘A’ level, we weren’t given a very attractive selection of books – there was the obligatory Dickens (Bleak House) and Shakespeare (Coriolanus!), Milton’s Paradise Lost, and James Joyce (Portrait of the Artist). I found Dickens rather hard work, and I don’t think I’ve ever quite understand the point of epic poems, but the biggest challenge was James Joyce. Fortunately, ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a relatively short work, but if I had been reading it for pleasure I have no doubt that I’d have given it up after a few pages.

    Eventually, after reading it several times, and having parts of it explained, it did begin to make some sense, but I have never picked it up since, and the idea of starting on his longer works is distinctly unappealing. I read books to be entertained, informed and enlightened, but so-called great works of literature hold little appeal if it is a hard slog to get through them. I have certainly enjoyed some critically acclaimed books, such as Umberto Eco’s “Name of the Rose” and “Foucault’s Pendulum”, and I was a fan of Graham Swift before he won the Booker Prize, but equally I have (somewhere) a number of books I bought because they won the Booker Prize, but which I never managed to finish.

    According to The Guardian:

    James Joyce reading groups in [Dublin] are oversubscribed, despite the fact that one group took seven and a half years to get through Finnegans Wake. These groups are particularly popular with retired “ordinary Dubliners” , who say they didn’t have time for the almost 1,000-page novel before drawing their pension.

    I think I’ll stick to reading books for enjoyment, and that means Roddy Doyle and not James Joyce!

  • The sack race

    Being a manager of a football team is one of the strangest jobs going.  No specific qualifications or experience are required, and the recruitment process is often carried out in full public view, with some candidates announcing to the world that they want the job, others that they don’t (even when they do).  Nothing can be taken at face value – managers often say they aren’t interested in a particular job, and then accept it a few days later.  Newspapers fill their back pages with speculation, often no more than wishful thinking on the part of the club, its supporters, the possible managers or their agents, or simply something that a journalist has made up.  For example, right now, Glen Hoddle is being touted as a possible manager for Southampton at the end of the season when Gordon Strachan leaves, mainly because he had the job previously (as if that was some sort of recommendation).

    (more…)

  • Just trying to connect you…

    It goes something like this:

    Me: "Hello, can I speak to Ms ——
    who is staying in your hotel"
    T: "Yes, can you repeat the name for
    me?"
    Me: (repeats the name)
    T: "Can you spell it for me?"
    Me: (spells the name)
    T: (spells out the name using the
    Tango, Bravo, Charlie, notation)
    Me: "Yes, that’s correct"
    T: "We have a lot of people of that
    name staying here.  Can you give me the first name?"
    Me: (gives first name)
    T: "Just checking for you." (pause)
    "No, I can’t find anyone of that name here."
    Me: "How about the Chinese name?"
    (says the Chinese name)
    T: "Can you spell it for me?"
    Me: (spells the name)
    T: (spells out the name again using the
    Tango, Bravo, Charlie, notation)
    Me: "Yes, that’s correct"
    T: Just checking for you." (pause)
    "How about —— —- —? (says totally different name)."
    Me: "No" (repeats name)
       
    At this point there
    are a few different options:
       
    T: "OK, Sir, just putting you
    through"
    (Phone rings – no
    answer.  Leave voice mail message hoping this is the right room)
       
    T: "No, I can’t find that name. 
    Can you confirm.."
    Me: "Oh, never mind" (hangs up, exasperated)
     
    T: "OK, Sir, just putting you
    through"
    (Phone rings – person
    answers, but it’s the wrong room)

    Needless to say, these phone calls are costing a small fortune.

    My wife is in Europe attending a conference with a few hundred of her colleagues from Hong Kong, almost all of whom have Chinese names. Not only do the names sound unfamiliar, but there is the added confusion of Chinese names being structured different (something that often causes problems when names are entered in a database). Who knows whether they have used the official name on the passport or the Westernised style of first name and family name! However, the fact is that the hotel (part of a very well-known chain) is hosting a large event for the company, and really ought to make some effort to sort out this mess.

    My wife just called and told me her room number, but of course she is checking out tomorrow!

  • ESF – Extraordinarily Stupid & Foolish

    Yesterday the executive committee of the English Schools Foundation voted against the appointment of Mike Haynes as chief executive, thus rejecting the advice of the ESF chairman and vice-chairman, who promptly resigned.

    The original decision to select Mr Haynes for the job was highly controversial because (1) he was a member of the committee that was set up to make a recommendation, (2) he had no background in education, and (3) none of the three panels of stakeholders recommended him after the interviews. The decision was made by a sub-committee including the ESF chairman and vice-chairman, who concluded that he was the best man for the job.

    Normally this recommendation would have meant that Mr Haynes would get the job, but a highly effective campaign by a group of concerned parents led to a rather unexpected outbreak of democracy. This seems to have distressed Mr Haynes and another un-named source, who feel that it has made the organization “impossible to manage” (quote from the SCMP). Sure, democracy can be inconvenient if you are autocratic and think you know best, but life seems to carry on fairly normally once everyone has got over the shock of being accountable.

    If the decision to appoint Mr Haynes was questionable, the attitude of the chairman and vice-chairman to questions from parents was even more high-handed and arrogant. The only arguments put forward to defend the decision were that the results of psychometric tests showed Mr Haynes was an ideal candidate; the need for a businessman to take charge of the operation; and the fact that the sub-committee had decided he was the best candidate. Hardly convincing stuff! It eventually emerged that Mr Haynes left school at 16 and didn’t have a degree, and that the “insurance company” he managed was actually a small brokerage – hardly the senior corporate executive that the ESF had been talking about.

    It is hard to comprehend how the chairman and vice-chairman of the ESF couldn’t see that both the process and their recommendation were open to question. [This reminds me somewhat of the mistakes made by the BBC’s board of governors, who dug themselves into a very deep hole by refusing to even consider the possibility that the organization might have made a mistake in the way they reported doubts about the Iraqi dossier.] Surely, anyone looking objectively at the facts would be able to see that there was something wrong?

    If the ESF was a private company controlled by the chairman then it would be par for the course to appoint someone in this way, but when you are running a non-profit organization that exists solely to provide education, funded by the government and parents, then you have an obligation to ensure that everything is done properly.

  • Price Wars and sweatshops

    I recently wrote about sweatshops and suggested that there was a conflict between the “social responsibility” policies of large retailers and the pressure they put on their suppliers to cut prices.

    It seems I am not the only one who thinks this may be a problem, as this report in The Guardian points out.

    Using their power at the top of global supply chains, companies with ruthless buying practices are squeezing their suppliers to deliver faster and more cheaply, according to Oxfam. The effect is to drive down wages and compromise the welfare of the workers.

    I mentioned Tesco and Wal-Mart, and the Oxfam report criticizes them, but of course they say that “they enforce rigorous codes of ethical trading”. Of course!