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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  • Vote, vote, vote for, err..

    It’s election day in Hong Kong. Never mind that the District Councils have been stripped of most of their power, or that Mr Tung will appoint his own representatives to supplement the elected councillors, the excitement is palpable. Well, no it’s not, actually. Last time less than 40% of the electorate bothered to turn out.

    I can’t vote because I am too lazy to go and apply for a Permanent ID card, but even when I do have this privilege I am not sure I will know how to exercise it. The British government never quite trusted the people of Hong Kong enough to give them democracy when they had the chance, and the PRC government are in no hurry either. So we have a bunch of politicians who are reconciled to perpetual opposition and who don’t have to face up to the harsh realities of being in power. One of the trickiest aspects to being a politician is that you have to compromise between what the voters want and what it is practical to give them, and it is those choices that define the parties. Here the parties can promise the earth, knowing that they will never have to deliver.

    I suppose we just have to hope that as elected politicians are given more power, they will also learn to act more responsibly, and that Hong Kong will eventually have a fully-functioning democratic system. I don’t think I’ll hold my breath…

  • World Champions

    Being English, I get quite used to sporting disappointments. So when England started beating the southern hemisphere nations in the lead up to the Rugby World Cup, I fully expected that they were peaking too soon, and would contrive to lose in the quarter-finals.

    The game against South Africa seemed to confirm my worst fears – up until the last 20 minutes, England looked second best against very committed opponents. Then the game against Samoa was more competitive than expected, but again England came good in the end.

    The Wales vs. New Zealand pool match should have been a formality for the Kiwis based on pre-tournament form, but Wales gave them a major fright, and suddenly England’s quarter-final looked a lot tougher – if Wales won, England would play New Zealand, and even the expected game against Wales suddenly seemed more daunting. Cue the quarter-final exit I had been fearing, perhaps!

    Wales did give England another hard contest in the quarter-final and led at half-time before the inevitable English fightback.

    Now I was starting to get a bit more optimistic – if England could win without playing that well, and could fight back against determined opposition, then perhaps it really could be their year.

    The two semi-finals were compelling matches, and what can I say about the final? Gripping stuff, with an absolutely incredible ending. As England drove forward in the final minutes of extra time, the commentators calmly explained that Jonny Wilkinson was waiting to have a drop goal attempt once they got close enough to the posts. It looked too good to be true, but events then unfolded exactly as they had predicted.

  • 4 times a day

    Visiting the doctor in Hong Kong is quite an experience. I tend to avoid going unless I think it’s something serious, but my wife was brought up to believe that the doctor can help even if you’ve just got the common cold (or “flu” as it mysteriously seems to be known by most people).

    Patients apparently feel cheated if the doctor doesn’t give them a selection of pills and potions, so you almost invariably walk away with several small plastic bags containing paracetamol, Vitamin C, cough syrup, etc., etc., plus a bill for HK$150 – HK$300 for the consultation and the medicine.

    Of course, since all I have is a common cold, the medicine just relieves the symptoms. In the UK I would feel embarassed at wasting the doctor’s time, but here you pay for his services and they seem happy to indulge their patients. At least they have stopped handing out antibiotics quite so freely, something that was very common in Hong Kong until recently.

  • Spike

    After the fiasco with their preview edition (or was it just me that couldn’t read their PDF file?), the first issue of Spike was widely available (as promised), even in the New Territories.

    Having read most of the first edition, I have to report that it is very good indeed. My only real criticism is that the mix of current affairs, business, satire, and reviews is perhaps slightly confusing. The layout is clean and simple, but I think it might be a good idea to separate the different sections in a slightly more obvious way. Personally, I could live without some of the humorous stuff, but I’m sure everyone will have different preferences.

    Hemlock is apparently involved in some way*, but I am not sure in what capacity.

    —–
    Later

    *Or maybe not, based on his comments, which seem to be similar to mine!

  • George Bush strikes another blow for free trade

    In amongst all the economic gloom of the last few years here in Hong Kong, one bright spot has been the garment industry. Exports to the United States and Europe have growing rapidly, and 2002 was a particularly strong year for many companies. Not that they do much manufacturing in Hong Kong (too expensive), and neither will you have heard of most of the companies – they’re not Hong Kong brands, but international brands that sub-contract manufacturing to this part of the world. These days the factories are across the border in Guangdong province, usually owned by a Hong Kong company that retains an office here that deals with the buyers in the States and Europe.

    One of the more confusing aspects of this industry is the way that tariffs and quotas influence the business decisions. Why should Mauritius have dozens of garment factories? Or the Maldives? Simply because it is possible to export garments more freely from those countries, whereas exports from Hong Kong and China are subject to quotas and tarrifs. If you are a long-established garment manufacturer you will have a certain quota of garments that you can export each year, and as long as you carry on exporting you will keep the quota for future years.

    Each different type of garment is subject to different conditions, and for some reason lingerie (underwear) has been exempt from quota. However, with an election coming up in the States, concern about loss of manufacturing jobs has prompted the Bush administration to impose quota on imports from China. Apparently this is specifically allowed under the agreement that was made when China joined the WTO (the exact words are “if the President believes that he can win a few extra votes by clamping down on imports from China, that’s fine by us.”). China was so desparate to be accepted into this international club that they agreed to almost everything that the USA wanted in return.

    The next problem for the garment companies is that they don’t know how these rules will be operated. Who will get the quota, and how will it be managed? Will local companies be favoured? Until they have some answers it is very difficult for them to plan future growth.

    Some companies are already operating (and expanding) in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines, which don’t seem to be perceived as such as a threat by the Americans, and so are not subject to these new restrictions. These countries look like being the big winners, and although they are all worried that when the Multi-Fibre agreement expires in 2005 they will be unable to compete with China, this week’s developments reinforce my view that the US will continue to find ways to limit imports from China regardless of the WTO or any other international agreements.

    It was a long time ago when I studied Economics, but isn’t it generally accepted that international trade is a good thing and that protectionism helps no-one?

  • I thought Hong Kong was a safe place

    Coming to Hong Kong after living in London for so many years, one of the positive differences is the much lower level of crime and the general feeling that it is a safe place to live.

    It was therefore a rather rude shock to find that someone had stolen a package of DVDs that I had ordered from Amazon.co.uk. I discovered the empty package in the rubbish bin next to the mail boxes in my apartment block. Apparently the postman had left the parcel on the shelf about the mail boxes, and someone had figured out that it might contain something valuable. Two clues here – the Amazon logo and the customs declaration. They might as well have put a large label on it saying “steal me”…

    I have had a run-in with Hongkong Post on this subject in the past. My complaint was that the postman makes only a half-hearted attempt to deliver the item, and then takes it to the Post Office for collection. Everywhere I have lived so far in Hong Kong, the Post Office is located somewhere inconvenient – the best was close to the next MTR station, but the rest have required longer bus journeys or a taxi ride. Worse, the only time I could go to the Post Office was on a Saturday morning. In the UK, ParcelForce are notorious for the same problem, but at least they are willing to re-deliver on an agreed date, a service that Hongkong Post does not offer. I’d even settle for a re-direction service to a more convenient Post Office (such as the one a few hundred yards from where I used to work).

    Anyway, this time the postman hadn’t taken it back to the Post Office, or knocked on my door to deliver it (there was someone in all day), or left it with the security guard. He had just left it in full view of anyone who happened to be passing. Doh!

    _________

    I reported the theft of the items to the management company, and they sent along a guy who resolutely refused to believe that the items were delivered by the Post Office. That made me rather upset.

    I spoke to the Post Office and they apologized but hoped that I would understand that they couldn’t pay compensation. No, of course not, why ever would I think that the Post Office could in any way be held responsible if their staff were so stupid.

  • Swimming

    Monday 17 November

    It’s the middle of November, but the outdoor swimming pool is still open. Perhaps this is compensation for the delayed opening at the start of summer caused by the panic over SARS, but very welcome nonetheless. Swimming in the open air is much better than being inside.

    Most people think its too cold for swimming outdoors, so there are only 2 or 3 other people in the pool, and the lifeguards are huddled under an umbrella wearing their jackets.

    When I first came to Hong Kong, I stayed in a hotel that had an outdoor pool on the roof (which doesn’t narrow it down very much). A few days before Christmas I went up for a swim on a bright sunny day and got some very strange looks from everyone else in the lift, dressed up warmly in their winter clothes. Yes, in Hong Kong, if it’s 20 degrees it’s cold as far as most people are concerned.

    When I moved out of the hotel and into an apartment complex, the place had a pool but it was only open for a few months in the summer and only until 7 pm. Apparently there are rules about how much lighting is required if the pool is to be open after it gets dark (Hong Kong is more subject to this kind of petty bureaucracy that you might believe based on its reputation as a bastion of free enterprise). The pool was really for kids, and too small and shallow for serious swimming (not that I am a particularly serious swimmer).

    The next place we lived had no pool of its own, but it did have a good public pool nearby. Like most of the public facilities it was clean and well-maintained, but the changing rooms left something to be desired and security was a bit of a concern.

    Then we moved again (this is Hong Kong, right) and this place had a small pool that was (hurrah!) open 24 hours a day. No lifeguards or attendants, no tickets, just a pool. Of course we still had the usual warped thinking that it is “too cold” in May and October to go swimming outside – only mad people would do that, right?

    Now we live somewhere with better facilities and slightly more enlightened thinking, so I can go swimming outside at 8.30 p.m. in the middle of November. Sometimes life seems quite good!

  • The place has gone to pot since the British left

    The Guardian has been losing columnists at an alarming rate – mostly to The Times, which apparently pays twice as much. This seems to have prompted them to employ an 84 year-old woman to bleat about how some bad people in Hong Kong stole money out of her bank account. This is more of a problem, she says, because “Hong Kong is outside British jurisdiction” as if that made any difference to anything.