Ordinary Gweilo

Banks obviously make a bit of an effort to "disguise" the letters they send out with credit cards inside (by not putting the company name on the back, and a using special address).

Doesn’t really work, though, because when an anonymous looking envelope arrives in the mail, my first thought is that it must be a credit card.  The very fact that it does not have any company name on it makes it very unusual, and the piece of cardboard inside is another giveaway.

Are thieves patiently waiting for an envelope that has "your new credit card" printed on the outside, or can they figure this out the same way that I can?    

On days like this, you can check where the storms are heading using this from the Observatory’s website.

Pierce Lam is at his pompous best in the SCMP letter column (Linguistic prejudice), complaining that the English Schools Foundation is selecting children based upon their ability to communicate in, er, English:

Hong Kong is about the only city in the world that tolerates a partly publicly funded institution with an admission policy that discriminates against most of the population on linguistic grounds.

It is the English Schools Foundation’s declared policy to give preferential admission to native English speakers. One practical effect of such a discriminatory policy is that local Chinese children are excluded from the plush facilities bestowed on the foundation by the colonial government. ESF primary schools keep turning away local Chinese children who would have no problems of admission if sent to schools in England, Australia and North America, simply because their Chinese-speaking families have been long-standing Hong Kong residents.

Spoken language may incarnate prejudice. How many foreign-born Chinese children articulating in fluent English have been "seen" to speak Chinese in admission interviews because of their non-western looks?

The ESF was set up to provide education using English as the medium of instruction. So, logically enough, they only admit children who can communicate in English – the majority of whom are (unsurprisingly) local Chinese.  Yes, local Hong Kong Chinese, whatever Pompous Pierce may choose to believe.

I missed this marvellous letter when it was published by the SCMP last Thursday, so I am grateful to the author of the following letter (published yesterday) for drawing my attention to it.

Letter writer Pierce Lam ("Linguistic prejudice" June 1) has been lambasting the English Schools Foundation for what seems like eons. He obviously has some long-standing grudge. Mr Lam, why don’t you tell us what the big bad ESF has done to you?
JENNIFER EAGLETON, Tai Po

Well, yes indeed.