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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  • Apple iTunes Music Store finally comes to Hong Kong

    I can buy music legally (HK$8 per track).  

    I got slightly over-excited by this news, and purchased an album that I later realized I had ordered on CD a couple of days earlier.  Whoops.

    I still haven't quite figured what is available.  

  • EPL might cost more, or it might not

    Last week the UK TV rights for the English Premier League were sold for £3 billion.  Does that affect Hong Kong viewers?  No, because the rights for other countries will be sold separately.

    But here’s a stupid story in the SCMP based on the incorrect assumption that international rights are included in the UK deal, and that Cable TV and Now TV will have to  “buy the international rights from the British broadcasters”.  No, they won’t.  They will bid separately and all the money will go to the EPL.

    The article is padded out with quotes from people who don’t want to pay more (well, there’s a surprise) and an accountant who prefers to pay nothing and watch the games through dodgy online streaming.  The best quote is from so-called (but unnamed) “media analysts” who think that fees might rise by “as much as 30 per cent”.  Well, yes, they might.  Thanks for giving us that insight…

    English Premier League TV rights deal to hit fans

    71pc increase in cost to British broadcasters, to HK$36 billion, is likely to be passed on when they sell rights overseas, meaning higher fees for HK viewers

    John Carney | South China Morning Post | Jun 17, 2012

    Hong Kong soccer fans can expect to pay more to watch English Premier League matches after the signing of a record-breaking £3 billion (HK$36 billion) broadcasting deal in Britain.

    The league’s domestic agreement with BSkyB and British Telecom is worth 71 per cent more than the current deal, and suggests local broadcasters will have to pay far more to continue carrying matches of the world’s most popular soccer league.

    Asian media analysts say the three-year agreement could lead to subscriber fee rises of as much as 30 per cent after providers buy the international rights from the British broadcasters. The deal begins after next season, when local Cable TV’s current deal also runs out.

    The news strikes soccer fans in the midst of the Euro 2012 Championship in which many EPL fans who might subscribe to Cable TV’s i-Cable  are packing local sport bars to watch Now TV’s exclusive broadcast of the matches.

    Just last month, sport fans learned that they might not get free television broadcasts of the London Olympics as talks drag on between the sole local rights holder, Cable TV, and over-the-air broadcasters ATV and TVB.

    Freelance writer Ed Mathews complained that cost of watching the EPL was already too high.  "It would be cheaper to watch your pick of the best matches now in a sports bar," Mathews said.

    Teacher Sean Holmes shared the sentiment, complaining that local broadcasters use soccer to attract new viewers, but continually charge them more.  "It’s also an increasingly inferior product," Holmes said. "The best footballers in the world play in Spain in La Liga. I’ll be cancelling my subscription and just watching La Liga in the future."

    But not everyone had a bad word to say about what soccer fans have to put up with here.  "I don’t care because I already watch it via an internet feed for free anyway," accountant Francis Powell said. "So you could actually say I’m grateful for the quality that i-Cable’s broadband provides."

    Cable TV did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did PCCW , which runs Now TV.

    Elsewhere news of the potential fee rises was met with an air of inevitability.  "I would welcome the opportunity for the general public to view the Premier League for free," tourism lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun said. "But we have to realise that we’re living in a commercial world and the Premier League has become huge worldwide."   But he said providers should show "social responsibility" and make sure fees remain affordable.

    Toby Cooper, owner of The Globe bar in Central, said the EPL’s periodic switching between i-Cable and Now TV put off home subscribers as it compelled them to switch providers. However, he believed most bar owners would accept any fee rises because the channel pays for itself.

    "The Premier League is just something you have to have," Cooper said. "The price is going up because everyone wants to watch it. It’s the biggest league in the world and the interest here far eclipses La Liga and Serie A. That’s not going to change."

  • How others live

    Turns out that if you are a royal princess flying on your country’s national airline you only have to get on board the plane about a minute before the doors close – and the flight takes off on time.  And your luggage gets tagged with VVIP and is on the luggage belt super fast.  But do you get the same terrible food, I wonder?

  • Spelling mistake

    This advert for “VNAilines” has been on Flyer Talk for weeks and weeks:

    image

  • A box of cheese

    French cheeses delivered by Classified.

     20120518_151156

  • A moral and legal limbo

    Possibly the Letters Editor of the SCMP deliberately publishes Pierce Lam’s increasingly hysterical letters in their unadulterated form so that we can get the full beauty of his unique literary style.  Or maybe he’s an idiot.   

    But introducing the James Bulger case into a debate about one boy injuring another boy in a football match does seem a little heavy-handed.

    Explain refusal to prosecute

    Your report ("No case for soccer boy over kick to head", April 17) raises grave questions of ethics and law.

    Jim Hackett, head coach of the English Schools Foundation’s soccer programme, said the boy who kicked the other boy’s head instead of the ball "did not do anything wrong". He must explain his stance.

    Uploaded to the internet, the head-kicking evidence is now in the public domain, available all over the world for viewing. It prevails over ill-advised censorship attempts to support the public’s legitimate demand for a fair account.

    It is disturbing that the police, after seeking legal advice, unconditionally released the 10-year-old boy previously arrested "on suspicion of kicking a 12-year-old in the head".

    The James Bulger case in Britain shows that doli incapax and the availability of evidence for public review and comment cannot preclude criminal prosecution. If the authority had other reasons for non-prosecution, it has refused to disclose them. Such a refusal has put the city in a moral and legal limbo and caused suspicions of partiality and incompetence.

    For every prosecution, the court will give detailed reasons for its decision. Every decision not to prosecute bears judicial significance as it denies the public from getting, and pre-empts the court from making, a judicial decision.

    In the US, grand juries and not bureaucrats decide whether to prosecute.

    As representatives of the people, juries do not give any reasons for their decisions. Bureaucrats aren’t the people’s representatives. They shouldn’t shorten the due process of any case of great social significance without giving reasons.

    Consider the Hong Kong Standard circulation case.  Elsie Leung Oi-sie, then secretary for justice, honourably gave three reasons for her much respected departure from doctrinaire tenets and made public her department’s account for not charging Sally Aw Sian.  Apparently these three reasons – allegations about the authority’s bad faith, its improper considerations, and public comment on publicised evidence – also apply in the head-kicking case.

    Would her successor act likewise and account for not pursuing the head-kicking act?

    No school can afford not to give all who witnessed an alleged violent incident a fair account. Hushing up would corrode the city’s moral fibre.

    Pierce Lam, Central

    Here’s the original report.  As you will see, the father of the injured boy seems considerably more reasonable and rational than Pierce Lam, though you do have to wonder whether Jim Hackett really said that “the boy did not do anything wrong”. 

    No case for soccer boy over kick to head

    Cheung Chi-fai chi |South China Morning Post | Tuesday 17 April 2012

    Police will not prosecute a 10-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of kicking a 12-year-old in the head during a soccer match last month.

    The incident, which angered parents and the coaches of both the teams involved, was filmed by a spectator and uploaded to the YouTube website, where it was seen by thousands of people before being removed.  The boy’s parents have been informed of the decision. The family of the victim will meet Justice Department representatives tomorrow to discuss the case.

    ‘After seeking legal advice, the arrested person has been unconditionally released,’ a police spokesman said yesterday. The force would not say what advice it had sought.  The boy was arrested and released on bail last month. He was asked to report to the police yesterday.

    The injured boy plays for a Kitchee Escola team. He was kicked in the head during an under-12s Hong Kong Development League match against the English Schools Foundation Lions at King George V School in Ho Man Tin.

    Philip Poon Hung-wai, the father of the injured boy, said the outcome was not a surprise. ‘I feel a little bit disappointed, though I had never wanted police to prosecute the boy. There must be a reason why the police released the boy unconditionally,’ he said.

    Poon fears the incident will send a message to children that violence will be tolerated. But since his son has fully recovered, he is not prepared to pursue the case further on his own.  He hopes to meet the parents of the 10-year-old boy, and even organise a friendly soccer match for the boys, in the hope of reconciliation

    Jim Hackett, head coach of ESF’s soccer programme, would not comment on the possibility of reconciliation, saying he believed the 10-year old boy had gone through quite an ordeal already.  ‘The boy did not do anything wrong. I still feel sorry about the boy, as thousands of people looked at the incident on You Tube,’ he said.

    A spokeswoman for the ESF said it was relieved at the boy’s release.

  • Conservative Tories

    I have read this several times, but I still don’t understand.  Aren’t all leading Conservative politicians in the UK also Tories?

    Seeking the Right Way to Win: Why Conservatives on Both Sides of the Atlantic Are in Crisis

    By ANDREW GIMSON  |  Time Magazine | Monday, Apr. 16, 2012

    Conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic are in crisis. To British eyes, the race for the Republican nomination looks like a disaster, with no consensus emerging about what a modern Republican party can offer. But U.K. Conservatives do not appear to have any solution to the ideological morass of their American cousins.

    A cursory glance might lead you to another conclusion. That’s because British Prime Minister David Cameron is nominally a Tory, and so is the country’s other major Conservative political figure, London Mayor Boris Johnson.

    Wikipedia has this to say:

    Tory – Current Usage

    In Britain after 1832 the Tory Party was replaced by the Conservative Party, and "Tory" has become shorthand for a member of the Conservative Party or for the party in general. Many Conservatives still call themselves "Tory" to differentiate themselves from opponents, and the term is common in the media.

    Boris Johnson?  All very well as London mayor (Boris or Ken – what a choice) but does anyone really seriously believe that he could become prime minister?  Being tipped as a future party leader is pretty much a guarantee that it won’t happen.

  • Back

    I see that Fumier is back. If you want something to read, I suggest you try there. Not here.

  • Despicable foreigners (again)

    Is the SCMP really so short of letters to publish that it can always find room for the incoherent ranting of Pierce Lam?

    This time he seems determined to make a more general point about a single incident in an under 12 football match.  You won’t be surprised to hear that the player who committed the foul was Caucasian and playing for an ESF team. 

    Probe kick incident thoroughly

    South China Morning Post – Mar 31, 2012

    Your editorial ("Adults must set sporting example", March 21) prevaricates and is clearly partial.

    To provide a context for the attack [at a schoolboy soccer game], it referred to circumstances not captured in the video, by referring to emotions that swelled on the losing side – the players, their parents and the coach who were losing hope over the game.

    Overenthusiastic parents and coaches are not uncommon in all kinds of junior competitions that take place all over the world every day.

    The main issue that your editorial sidestepped is why such a common experience of immense pressure to win resulted in such unusual violence in Hong Kong.  The comment about "parents rushing onto the pitch and getting into a shoving match with the coach" after the assault is misleading and irrelevant.

    Why is it misleading and irrelevant?

    It was imperative, and not just sensible, that concerned parents intervene in an unfair game that had turned violent, especially as neither the referees nor the losing team’s coach commanded confidence. All along, Kitchee Escola played a graceful and very respectable game.

    Was Pierce Lam there at the game?  Or has he just watched a video on You Tube that has been edited to highlight the fouls committed by the ESF team?

    The culpable English Schools Foundation Lions boy was a scapegoat if, as your editorial alleged, he "paid the penalty", although he "would not have harmed a fellow player and gained notoriety had those around him set the right example". Who are these real but unpunished hidden culprits?

    Surely the SCMP meant the parents at the game.

    Ben Lam Chan-bun, a spokesman for the league to which the two teams belonged, tried to wrap up the horrific incident, saying that Kitchee "only wanted an apology" and that "we don’t want to cause any trouble with the ESF; we know they are good schools" ("Shock at head-kicking in boys’ soccer match", March 13). This is a grossly myopic and irresponsible attitude.

    The parents and members of the winning team demonstrated remarkable self-restraint, and we must ensure that we will see justice fairly administered in the head-kicking case.

    The kicking incident was not a private issue between two boys or two teams.

    Really? Oh yes, because Pierce Lam hates the English Schools Foundation (ESF) and wants it closed down.

    Both Hong Kong and the world at large are concerned about the question posted in the headline of Jamie Spence’s letter ("What is root of violence in junior sport?" March 16).

    I don’t think a similar kicking incident would happen in Singapore, Tokyo or Shanghai, so why Hong Kong? To prevent a similar incident from happening here in the future, the concerned parties must investigate the case thoroughly and report their findings to the public.

    Pierce Lam, Central

    Does Mr Lam have any evidence to support his assertion that this would not happen in Singapore, Tokyo or Shanghai?  I don’t think so.   

  • All fingers and thumbs

    What is with people and their mobile phones?  There was a crazy woman in the airport today, chattering away on her phone whilst trying to complete the normally unchallenging business of getting through the automated immigration channel.

    You might think that putting your thumb on the reader would be easy enough, but this half-wit put her index finger down instead.  Not just once, but three times.  And with long pauses inbetween, whilst she talked on her phone.

    Eventually the Immigration Officer came and escorted her out.  I think they should refuse entry to anyone without the wit to know the difference between their thumb and forefinger.