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?
Ordinary Gweilo
It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writiing (mainly) about Hong Kong
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This advert for “VNAilines” has been on Flyer Talk for weeks and weeks:
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French cheeses delivered by Classified.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I don’t know whether to laugh or scream when reading the nonsense some people write in letter to the SCMP. Cynthia Sze is one of the small group who are occupied on a full-time campaign to remind us of the horrors of Hong Kong’s colonial past. This is ever so slightly undermined by the hysterical language they use. Here is one of her recent efforts (the last letter, at the bottom, from today’s SCMP)
Hire nurses from the Philippines
Since the Philippines has not had the good fortune of being a former colony of Britain, or of Australia, should Hong Kong not consider hiring Filipino nurses because of their second-rate US-style medical training?
Roger Philips implies this and is entitled to his opinion (‘British degree is superior’, February 14) in reply to my letter (‘Hire Filipino nurses to cure shortage’, February 11).
My point is that there is a simple solution to the city’s perennial nursing shortage by hiring Filipino nurses, as has been done with domestic workers over the past few decades.
Isabel Escoda, Lantau
Nurses need professional dignity
I refer to the letters of Melody Wong Wing-fong (‘Shortage problem can be solved’, February 23) and Isabel Escoda (‘Hire nurses from the Philippines’, February 23).
Ms Wong rightly notes the importance of moral education in our nurses’ training.
To discharge their duties well, health care personnel need professional dignity and a socially relevant self-image.
Since Hong Kong’s reunion with China, we have been proudly committed to full decolonisation within the Basic Law’s 50-year term.
We don’t want Filipino nurses if they, like Ms Escoda, are besieged by a colonial malaise of self-doubt.
Instead of showing us why the professional quality of Filipino nurses is reliable, she diverts attention to her doubt about whether the Filipinos could have been better educated if their nation had been colonised by Britain and not the US. We mustn’t suffer such servitude in our health care professionals.
Cynthia Sze, Quarry Bay
Grateful to Filipinos who nursed dad
Isabel Escoda suggests that Hong Kong should recruit nurses from the Philippines (‘Hire nurses from the Philippines’, February 23).
In 2006, when my late father underwent serious surgery in Leeds General Infirmary in England, he was looked after by several nurses, some of whom were from the Philippines.
I remember with gratitude the deep care and affection shown to him by the Filipino intensive care nurse as he lay unconscious after his surgery.
His own observations were that the Filipino nurses were ‘lovely people’ who did a ‘great job’ and ‘they can’t half sing’.
If Britain’s National Health Service thinks nurses from the Philippines have what it takes, then surely they have what it takes to work in Hong Kong.
Mark Ranson, Sai Kung
No substitute for nurses’ compassion
I refer to the letter by Cynthia Sze (‘Nurses need professional dignity,’ March 3).
Irony is apparently lost on your correspondent since she misconstrued my suggestion that Hong Kong could do with Filipino nurses (‘Hire nurses from the Philippines’, February 23), despite their having what Roger Phillips declares is just second-rate US-style medical training (‘More depth to British first degrees,’ March 2).
More irony is reflected in a report about National Health Service staff in Essex being given courses in compassion. Compassion can’t be taught, but the TLC in Filipino nurses’ genes is reflected in Mark Ranson’s description of the tender loving care his late father received from his nurse (‘Grateful to Filipinos who nursed dad,’ March 3).
Isabel Escoda, Lantau
Genes claim has no basis in science
I read with interest Isabel Escoda’s allegation about TLC in "Filipino nurses’ genes" ("No substitute for nurses’ compassion", March 14).
What we, peoples of various races, all have in our genes is DNA. Genetic stereotyping based on anecdotes is anathema. Lieutenant William Calley’s premeditated murder of innocent Vietnamese villagers at My Lai is no more a proof of murderous genes in Americans than any allegation of a good Filipino nurse at a British hospital is proof of compassion in Filipino genes.
It makes no sense to generalise anecdotes. For every positive example, there is at least a counter-example.
Cynthia Sze, Quarry Bay
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Oasis tried to convince us that it was the world’s first long-haul budget airline. It wasn’t, and it went bust.
The one area where Oasis had a competitive product was Business Class. Substantially cheaper than its competitors, for a perfectly reasonable old-style seat and good service.
Enter Hong Kong Airlines with a new service from Hong Kong to London Gatwick. They are operating Airbus A330s with 116 seats in two classes: “Club Classic” is old-style business class with fares roughly equivalent to Premium Economy; and “Club Premier” which provides flat-bed seats at a lower price than Business Class on BA, Cathay or Virgin.
The airline is well-established and has much stronger financial backing than Oasis, so there is no risk of them going bankrupt, but it remains to be seen whether it will be successful. Gatwick is a smaller airport than Heathrow, which can be good (less time spent in the airport) or bad (if you want a big choice of connecting flights).
If you are travelling to Central London there’s no big difference – both airports have fast train services to a London terminus (and slower, cheaper, stopping services). Heathrow is on the tube network, but Gatwick has direct train services to various locations to the south. Both are next to motorways (M25 & M4 for Heathrow, M23 for Gatwick), so it really depends where you want to go.
Meanwhile, Cathay has started adding Premium Economy cabins to its long-haul flights. Virgin Atlantic has been offering Premium Economy between Hong Kong and London for 18 years, and British Airways has also been offering it for many years, so what took Cathay so long?
Ordinary Gweilo 