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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  • Football Sanity Index

    I often find myself watching EPL games not really knowing which team I want to win.  So recently I have taken to supporting (strictly on a match-by-match basis) whoever scores higher on the Football Sanity Index.  There are many factors involved, but the main ones are the recent history of hiring and firing managers, transfer policy, and generally how well the club is run.

    Did someone mention Manchester City?  First they were Thaksin Shinawatra's plaything, and Sven-Göran Eriksson was sacked apparently because they had been too successful in the first half of the season. Now with their super rich new owners they are rushing around trying to buy up the most expensive players in the world, so far with gratifying lack of success. 

    It appears that Robinho was surprised as anyone to find himself at Manchester City rather than Chelsea, and his performances seem to suggest that he is not entirely happy with the way things turned out.  Then there was the ridiculous way that Gary Cook and his colleagues behaved in waving wads of cash at one of the oldest and grandest teams in world football and their petulant behaviour when their bid for Kaka was rebuffed by AC Milan.  Mark Hughes will be glad to get out at the end of the season, and of course Sven is now available to return as manager after being sacked by Mexico.  Go on, you know it makes sense.

    Last Sunday, Manchester City lost to Fulham, who have been one of the success stories of the season under Roy Hodgson, a highly experienced British manager, and in spite of having a dodgy foreign owner they score very highly on the FSI and it's good to see them doing well.

    Last Sunday's other game was between Aston Villa and Everton, with two more experienced British managers in charge.  Everton get a good FSI score, but Villa have out-spent almost every other club in the EPL and again failed to qualify for the Champions League.  Does that remind anyone of Leeds United?  In the Peter Risdale years they spent very freely but it all went wrong and they found themselves in administration and down in League One (aka the 3rd Division).  They will soon be joined there by Charlton, who made the mistake of hitching their wagons to the Iain Dowie Travelling Circus and then sending it on its way again only a few weeks later. 

    After equally brief spells at Coventry and QPR, Mr Dowie is now working his magic at Newcastle alongside Alan Shearer.  I've already expressed my bewilderment at this appointment, and in a season when Roy Keane quit and Tony Adams was sacked as Portsmouth manager, why do clubs imagine that inexperienced managers are the answer? 

    At least Paul Ince had some experience as a manager before taking over at Blackburn, but was a grand total of two years in League Two (the 4th Division) really enough?   Almost certainly not.  Was it realistic to expect that he could make the transition from Macclesfield and MK Dons to the Premier League so quickly?  Would any other organization take on an inexperienced person and then sack them a few months later?  Almost certainly not. 

    Middlesbrough appointed Gareth Southgate as their manager 3 years ago although he had no experience – but at least they have stuck with him, so they now score rather higher on the FSI than Blackburn or Newcastle.  

    Or Portsmouth, who should surely have understood that a recovering alcoholic who had failed at a lower league club might not be the perfect choice as manager.  They have recovered somewhat under Paul Hart, who started out in management more than 20 years ago (at Chesterfield) and enjoyed some success at Nottingham Forest a few years ago.  Who'd have guessed that someone with 20 years experience would be more effective as a manager? 

  • Expensive bargains

    Supermarkets in Hong Kong are constantly trying to trick their customers with bogus discounts.  It's not exactly news, but yesterday's Consumer Council report provides confirmation of something that most people in Hong Kong must have noticed.

    I think we're all used to those ridiculous yellow labels in ParknShop that advertise so-called "discounts" that bear no relation to reality, but what is striking is how brazen they are about this – one example given in the report is that both Wellcome and ParknShop increased the price of San Miguel from HK$5.90 to HK$6.50 and then immediately had a special offer at HK$12.30 for 2 (yes, that's right, a 4% increase ).  Then when the promotion ended, the price changed to HK$6.10. 

    They do this all the time, presumably hoping that customers will forget how much they paid last week, and of course in the UK it would be illegal (retailers have to be able to prove that the item was previously sold at the higher price, and not just for one day).

    Even more bizzarely, supermarkets apparently charge more on Fridays (Chain store 'bargains' in fact dearer – subscription required):

    Some 207 items in ParknShop – or 71.9 per cent – were most expensive on Fridays, while 158 items in Wellcome – or 54.9 per cent – cost the most on the day. The finding was based on the average price of the same item on the 21 Fridays in the survey period.

    Most items were cheapest on Thursdays – 52.4 per cent of them  in ParknShop and 47.6 per cent in Wellcome.

    The real problem here is lack of competition. Carrefour struggled to find sites, and key suppliers refused to do business with them because their prices were too low.  Without any competition laws, the power of the big two supermarket chains is preserved and oligopoly lives to fight another day.  That seems to have been enough to scare off Wal-Mart and Tesco.

    The general rule in Hong Kong is that your local shopping centre(s) will only have a ParknShop or a Wellcome (or both, though given the way they 'compete' with each by charging the same prices, that hardly makes any difference). Yes, there are a few CRC supermarkets (mainly clustered in a few areas), but they seem to be uninspiring copies of Wellcome. 

    If you're lucky you may also have some local shops or a wet market, or there's City Super, who don't even bother pretending their prices are low.  But no competition for Wellcome and ParknShop in the mass market, unfortunately.

  • Megabox? No thanks!

    Well, I visited the computer fair in Mega Box (Unfair competition) and what a horrendous experience that was.

    They claim to run a shuttle bus from Kowloon Bay MTR station, but it actually leaves from the far-end of the Telford Plaza mall, and of course there was a long queue, so it probably would have been quicker to walk (if only I had known where I was going).

    The computer fair turned out to be scattered across numerous levels of the mall.  Basically they have taken whatever bits of open space they have and crammed as many stalls as possible into each one.  On the ground floor there was barely space between the stalls for people to stand and look, and so anyone wanting to get through had to push past.  On the higher levels it was a bit less crowded, but hardly a pleasant experience.

    Maybe there were some bargains somewhere, but I certainly didn’t find anything I wanted to buy.

    On top of that, the computer fair seemed to be causing chaos in the area, with taxis and buses being relocated to stop some distance away from the mall. 

    I don’t think I’ll be going back to Mega Box anytime soon – it’s not easily accessible by public transport or easy to get around: it has nineteen floors, and they don’t seem to have enough lifts for the size of the building.  Yes, there are some fast escalators (direct from L1 – L5 for example) so maybe if you know where you want to go then you can get there, but I don’t think I can be bothered with it. 

  • Unfair competition

    Today’s SCMP reports that computer retailers don’t like competition:

    Computer shops protest at cut-price festivals

    Computer retailers switched off the lights at their shops yesterday to voice their anger against cut-price computer festivals they say are ruining their business.

    Up to 300 shops at seven malls, including Golden Computer Centre, Golden Computer Arcade, Wan Chai Computer Centre and Mong Kok Computer Centre, switched off their lights for 15 minutes. The focus of their anger was festivals, such as one that has been running at the Mega Box mall in Kowloon Bay since last Thursday, where thousands of buyers look for bargains.

    They switched their lights off for 15 minutes?  Well, that’ll be sure to do the trick.

    Jacky Cheung, who owns eight computer shops in Sham Shui Po, said he suffered a loss of more than HK$1 million every time a festival was held. “Each of my shops makes HK$200,000 less during the month when the festival takes place” he said.  “The computer mall had fewer visitors in the four weeks before the festival and six weeks after it.”

    Suppliers offered discounts to computer festival participants, further dragging down the price, he said, adding that his business had dropped 70 per cent since its best days in 1997.

    The Computer Industry Alliance, which organised the lights-off action, called for a reduction in the number of festivals to save the industry.

    The Mega Box festival, launched for the first time this year, was held without the consent of industry players, Lui Kin-chung, a spokesman for the alliance, said. Shop owners who did not have enough staff to join the festivals faced unfair competition.

    Right.  So we have someone who owns eight computer shops in one small area complaining about “unfair competition.”  I remember visiting the computer mall in Windsor House many years ago to find that about half the shops on one level had suddenly shut down, and from reading the legal notices it was clear that they were all owned by one company.  So let’s see if I understand this: ‘fair competition’ is having multiple shops with different names who can all charge similar prices, and ‘unfair competition’ is an event that is run “without the consent of industry players.”

  • Not so bad, lah

    OK, so maybe I need to be a bit more positive.  Here goes…

    Had a problem with my iPod, so I took it to the service centre in Quarry Bay.  I'd booked an appointment, but I needn't have bothered, because when I went there (at lunchtime) there was only one customer waiting to be seen.  The service guy looked at my iPod and agreed that they needed to replace it. 

    The bad news was they didn't have any in stock, and they told me it would take about 10 days to get one for me, but the good news was that I got an email a couple of days later informing me that it was ready. 

    Ordered some books from Amazon.  I wanted the British edition, so I ordered them from Amazon.co.uk even though they were more expensive.  They sent me the US edition.  I complained.  They sent me a horrible "copy and paste" letter thanking me for letting them know about the problem.  I said that this was a rubbish response.  So they refunded all my money. 

    This is why Apple and Amazon are still making money whilst other companies are struggling.  Good customer service does pay off.  

  • Follow my leader

    File under "well, that's a surprise, I'd never have expected that" – American Express have followed the lead set by HSBC and devalued their reward points. 

    The conversion factor for Asia Miles (Cathay) and Flying Club Miles (Virgin) has been adjusted from 12:1 to 15:1,  meaning that you need 25% more points for each mile you redeem.  If we assume that the price that Cathay charges for top-up miles is the market value, this means you will be getting HK$0.016 for every HK$ you spend on your credit card (though presumably credit card companies pay much less for miles than members of the public).

    There was a time when AE offered triple points (meaning an effective rate of 4:1), but that disappeared some time ago.  Yes, there are a small number of merchants who offer 10x points on the Platinum card, but you pay a hefty annual fee for the privilege of having that card, and the shops are not exactly renowned for low prices.  Or you can sign up for the Cathy/AE card and pick up some free miles if you're really desperate. 

  • Those recent Toon managers in full

    Newcastle United Football Club appoint Sam Allardyce, an experienced football manager.  He leaves by “mutual consent” after only a few months in charge, apparently because the new chairman doesn’t like his style of management.

    Newcastle appoint Kevin Keegan, former player, former manager, out of football management for several years, and known to be possessed of a short temper and therefore likely to resign at the slightest provocation.  He resigns after less than a year in charge.

    Newcastle appoint Joe Kinner, former manager of Wimbledon, out of football management for several years having resigned from his last football job because of serious health problems.  He has a heart bypass operation and has to stand down.

    Today Newcastle will appoint Alan Shearer, former player, who has no coaching experience, lacks a Uefa Pro licence, and has apparently turned down previous opportunities at the club (and with England), because he was quite happy being a TV pundit. 

    Well, it is April Fools Day

  • Too difficult for you, lah!

    Look, I've tried, really I have.  I've attended public courses, I've paid for private tuition, I've bought books…and yet my Cantonese is still rubbish – and I've always felt that somehow this wasn't actually my fault. 

    Now I'm delighted to discover that this might not be self-delusion, and that Hong Kong people don't really want foreigners to learn Cantonese.  They tell us it's so difficult, it's not really a language (it's a dialect, lah), and helpfully suggest that we learn Mandarin because it's so much easier.  Right. 

    In case we hadn't quite got the message, they make fun of our attempts to speak their "dialect", pretending that they don't understand the dumb gweilo who used the low falling tone when it should have been the low rising tone. 

    Hong Kong's most famous Norwegian Cantonese teacher, Cecilie Gamst Berg, isn't having any of this nonsense.  She plays down the importance of tones, arguing (rightly in my opinion), that generally the context is enough for people to understand what you mean, even if you get the tone wrong. 

    She also points out that Cantonese is actually quite simple compared to English.  No past or present or irregular verbs or any of that nonsense.  If you can learn the words, sentence construction is the easy bit.   

    Yes, I finally got round to downloading RTHK's "Naked Cantonese" podcast, and I have listened to the first three (only 97 to go), and I am feeling slightly more optimistic. Cecilie's approach is certainly quite refreshing, and the format seems to work quite well (she is teaching an RTHK presenter how to speak Cantonese).  

    If you haven't yet discovered this podcast, go to iTunes and download it now.  Or try You Tube.

  • Digital TV the Hong Kong way

    Last year I pointed out that TVB were not providing an English language commentary for the Rugby Sevens on Jade HD, even though there is an dual language option.

    Well, it was exactly the same again this year – if you wanted English commentary you had to watch Pearl with its grainy pictures.  Well done, those people.

    Well, what did we expect when the government gave away the digital spectrum to TVB and ATV?

    Last week ATV announced that they are going to ditch most of the new digital channels they launched last year (His TV, Her TV and Plus TV).  Yes, these are the channels that went off air from 8-10 pm each evening (when the HD channel was broadcasting). 

    Although they did have some English language programs (quite a few documentaries on Plus TV and football and tennis on His TV), the SCMP doesn't bother with listings for any of the digital-only channels and ATV doesn't have English information on its website either, so you are unlikely to know anything about these channels.   

    ATV's new service will include a channel from Taiwan, the CCTV channel they already have, and (if I've understood it correctly) the HD channel is going to be on air 24 hours a day, but with only a few hours of HD and the rest of time devoted to their news channel.

    Sounds enthralling.

  • Thanks for calling

    Continuing my occasional series on Hong Kong’s least loved companies, now it’s the turn of PCCW, or more specifically Netvigator.  Or, to be precise, the complete nonsense that it is their interactive phone menu system. 

    I wanted to find out more about their 30 mb/s fibre broadband.  Their website give a phone number and says you have to press ‘8’.  Well, yes, but that only gets you to the first of about 9 levels, and there’s still a lot further to go before you can speak to a person who could provide details and arrange the service.

    Bizarrely, the vast majority of the options seem to be dead ends, where all you get is a recorded message – and if there’s a way to go back up a level it isn’t explained.

    They’re a technology company, aren’t they?  So why can’t they design a system that allows callers to be connected to the right department quickly and easily?  You know, to buy something? 

    I’m not an expert on these things, but how about having a 2 digit code, so (for example) if I press ’33’ I get direct through to someone who can sell me a 30mb/s fibre connection.

    Yes, that’s right, I’m going through all of this to spend money.  I’m not sure why I bother.