Tag Archives: SCMP Comment

It’s been a while since I guffawed loudly on the bus while reading SCMP.  This morning it happened twice, TWO LAUGHS from me before Mid-day, a hitherto unheard of event.

The first was the main headline: “Cardinal Slams ‘brainwashing’ schools plan.”  I assume good ol’ Cardinal Zen, can’t see the irony as no doubt he was brainwashed at a young age, hence his adherence to a strange obscenely rich sect, led by a strange German, based in the Vatican City.  Lets be clear here, Zen does not want anything to interfere with his own system of brainwashing in Catholic schools.  Catholic education is designed to remove freedom of choice when it comes to religion, and at the same time is expanding in poor countries as poor people are more likely to believe in their promise of an everlasting heaven as they suffer their hell on earth.

Lets not go into the whole predatory priest thing, it’s been done already, but I’ve mentioned before that church’s obscene opposition to condoms which can mitigate poverty in these poor countries, not to mention HIV.

The second guffaw, related to the story: “Philippines rejects US envoy’s sex tourism claim. ” The US Ambassador said last week that 40% of men visiting the Philippines were sex tourists, hardly worth a chuckle, but the retort from New Tourism Chief, Ramon Jiminez, had me rolling on the floor.  Mr Jiminez took issue with the diplomat and pointed to data from immigration and passenger exit surveys that showed NO TOURISTS admitting to having sex holidays: “Instead, responses showed visitors indulging in Shopping, sightseeing and visiting friends and relatives.”  Now I might be wrong here, but I don’t think the Philippines immigration form has a Sex Tourist option under reason for visiting, I could be wrong, maybe I just never noticed it before, but even if it was there, do they seriously believe that anyone would choose that option?  Surely he is joking, or dumb, or both.

A final point does spring to mind, more irony in fact.  It’s a bit rich for the American Ambassador to opine from the high ground, when in fact the USA was instrumental in creating the demand for sex around their Military bases in the Philippines, not to mention supporting Marcos as he and his cronies impoverished the country, and as we know poverty forces women into tough choices and prostitution is one of those choices.  So Ambassador, STFU!

“The seeds of prejudice are being planted in the minds of Hong Kong Children as young as three, a study has revealed.” Thus spake the SCMP today.
The article goes on:

“They were shown pictures of people with different skin colours to help them answer and were asked to give marks out of four.

One of the descriptions, “black is friendly”, scored an average of only 2.43, whereas the friendliness of white-skinned and yellow-skinned people were rated at 3.42 and 3.14 respectively. Another description which said “black is beautiful” scored only 1.37. The children gave significantly higher scores to white- and yellow-skinned people – 3.19 and 2.96 respectively.”
Now the question can only be, how can a 3 year old be “innately” prejudiced?

Ah further on we find an answer of sorts:

“Commission chairman Lam Woon-kwong said the study results showed that prejudice among children may be escalating. “We cannot underestimate the problem of discrimination at an early age. I hope the government can set up policies to start teaching the correct values at pre-school,” he said.

Professor Wong Wan-chi, of the department of educational psychology of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was surprised by the study’s results. “Children usually do not have discriminatory attitudes at early age. As these attitudes do not exist by nature, it has more to do with their education,” she said.

Wong said parents and teachers should be more sensitive and careful about their own behaviour.”

So now we know it’s learned behaviour, the “prejudice” is coming from the environment, in the case of young children, their home, or in other words their parents, so why should the government be responsible to change this behaviour, and in fact, how successful can it be if your parents are racist, sorry prejudiced.

As a last aside, if you look at the respective figures for the yellow and white responses, it seems that these kids have an overtly healthy regard for caucasians, which, were I an Asian parent, I would find very worrying.

A good quote from SCMP yesterday: Duncan Abate, a committee member of the Hong Kong Federation of Employers says: ” It is not the role of bosses to reduce our growing poverty, but that of government.” He goes on to describe the new proposed minimum wage as ‘intrusive.’  And then the clincher, he has: “No idea” how to reduce poverty but is pretty certain it should not be done through higher wages!  Oh, if brains were dynamite, the noise of Abate’s brain exploding would scarcely elicit a ‘pop’.  I think he means the government should keep subsidising the lowest paid, with cheap housing and social assistance so employers can keep paying them twenty bucks an hour.

We’re not advocating the minimum wage here, we would prefer companies illustrate their oft quoted but essentially meaningless ‘social responsibility’, by paying a wage that an individual can live on.  Say maybe just HK$8000 per month?

All over the world economists and wealthy individuals are advocates for Adam Smith and his invisible hand, mistakenly using the argument to defend the positive morality to be had ‘pursuing our own self interest.’  However Smith was well aware that, in general, the interests of the merchant class were fundamentally opposed to those of the general mass of society and would in fact deceive, oppress and exploit society, if given the opportunity.

Welcome to Hong Kong.

An editorial in yesterdays SCMP suggested the government could solve the severe shortage of nurses in Hong Kong by employing Filipina nurses.  Great idea.  The editorial then states that the Hospital Authority cites the major stumbling block is language; most patients are Cantonese, forgetting of course that the majority of Filipinas in Hong Kong pick up Cantonese quite easily.  The editorial failed to mention the most salient reason… racism.  It’s no secret.  There are some in Hong Kong, albeit a significant minority, who believe Filipinas are no better than servants, and the use of ‘dogs eyes’ towards them, a term once exclusively reserved for the ‘gweilo’ who looked down on the local, is common.  When I first came here, I was shocked by  a young kid abusing his domestic helper in a McDonalds: “You’ll do as your told he shouted and I’ll have what I want.”  I was apoplectic at the obnoxious wee shite, I very nearly ‘cuffed him on the lug’ as they would say in Scotland, sadly, I learned it was normal for 10 year old brats to abuse their helpers in this way, the spoiled little emperors learn it from their parents.  Another time I had the misfortune to engage one of Hong Kong’s very few talkative taxi drivers who spent the journey regaling me with his exploits with prostitutes in Shenzhen.  I jokingly asked: “Why don’t you go to Wanchai where there are Filipina prostitutes.”  He  turned around while driving, looked at me as if I were mad and held his fingers to his nose.  And then there was Chip Tsao, a one-time columnist with HK magazine, amongst others, who, in an article he claimed was satire, called the Philippines a ” nation of servants.”  He did apologise and again emphasised his satirical intent, only problem is Chip, satire is supposed to funny!

Of course there are many local people who treat their helper as one of the family, but as long as there is this racist undertone towards domestic help in general and Filipina ones in particular,  don’t expect to see any Filipina nurses in Hong Kong anytime soon.

What’s in a name?

Reading SCMP today, you really have to wonder, how many of us more plebeian types, would get away with being a serial copper slapper.

Not once, not twice, but three time, most definitely not a lady.  Of course in the current climate where no one is responsible for their actions, she claims “bipolar depressive disorder”, this used to be known as being an arrogant cow, but now being an obnoxious bitch has it’s own medical term, which allows her a crutch to explain her pathetic behaviour.  If she can’t behave in a public place, not to mention safely drive a car, then she doesn’t deserve to be allowed out in public and most definitely needs a nice rest inside somewhere secure.

Try slapping a copper anywhere else in Asia and you won’t be on the streets long!

So what’s in a name? Everything’s in a name in Hong Kong.  Justice is never blind to the possible ramifications of upsetting someone with clout.  Call my Auntie. Do you  know who I am?