Like the city itself, Hong Kong’s news channels are so crammed full of stuff happening today that it seems they’re about to burst.
Activists who hate broadcaster TVB plead with viewers to switch off their televisions to bring the station’s ratings down during its anniversary gala show, while a charity standing to benefit from TVB sponsorship asks its staff specially to tune in. We can presume that anyone needing to be told not to watch would have preferred to see the programme, while those having to be urged to sit and stare at the mindless tedium would have preferred to be doing something else. If all concerned did as requested (a big if), the net result would have been an overall increase in human unhappiness, and probably no meaningful change to TVB’s ratings.
Quote of the day, incidentally, must be from a Ms Lee, who tells the Standard: “Watching [TVB] makes people silly.”
Over at the Airport Authority, some sort of mega-tiff breaks out between chairman and ex-KPMG boss Marvin Cheung and sub-committee chairman and second-tier property tycoon Vincent Lo about whether to use a site for a transit system for a third runway or a shopping mall for tourists. I always thought these great and good were appointed to these statutory bodies as a pat on the head while technocrats made actual decisions, but it seems some can’t resist meddling. Marvin is one of the tycoon-bureaucrat elite that thrived under former Chief Executive Donald Tsang, while Vincent went rogue and supports CY Leung, so we are invited to believe that this squabble is political, though it looks more like a couple of schoolgirls tearing each other’s hair out over some tittle-tattle.
Note how the Standard, which would instinctively shoe-shine both men without thinking, handles this in its editorial: with great even-handed earnestness, as if the world gives a damn about these puffed-up bores. Most right-thinking people will take a plague-on-both-houses approach. We don’t want another runway – it just means more people, for heaven’s sake. And we don’t want another shopping mall either. So just leave it as it is. Sounds good until you realize… the site’s currently a golf course.
Flicking over the page, what do we find but the cherubic features of Antony Leung, former Financial Secretary and then Greater China Chairman of private equity giant Blackstone. He has joined privately held property developer Nan Fung, who are presumably infatuated with his Mainland connections, figure-skating wife, or some such. The South China Morning Post regales us with details about the real-estate company and gently reminds us of Leung’s Lexus-related problems all those years ago (which seem almost quaint compared with today’s gory mayhem).
The Standard goes one better, suggesting that Leung might team up with Legislative Council President Tsang Yok-sing in a bid for Chief Executive in 2017. Its source is a certain Bastille Post website, which as they say is 30% owned by parent Sing Tao group. What they don’t mention (though they have alluded to it) is that the other 70% is owned by a Sing Tao executive director and outgoing CEO, Lo Wing-hung – so it’s their own JV they’re citing. Either they’re really proud of getting a major scoop before the new site is barely started, or they’re inventing zany fictitious stories to hype it up. Time will tell, though the idea of a Tsang Yok-sing/Antony Leung ticket sounds about as likely as… a charity telling its staff to watch pap on TV. Or maybe Sing Tao are part of a nascent Tsang/Leung/et al alliance, though that sounds too stomach-churning for words. (Any chance of Ms Lee running?)
Finally, one or two eagle-eyed types noticed that the list of scholarship awardees that featured Chief Secretary Carrie Lam’s son also mentioned one Dickson Pearson Guanda Poon. Despite a series of prominent and nubile wives, luxury retail tycoon Dickson Poon has no children, so we can rule that out. If anyone finds (can be bothered to find) a link, however, they might like to note that Friends of Cambridge founder and Bank of East Asia boss David Li’s wife Penny is… the Harvey Nichols Dickson’s sister. Small world.
Antony Leung’s wife was an Olympic diver. Dee Poon, daughter of Dickson, is very much with us.
…luxury retail tycoon Dickson Poon has no children…
Not true. Not only does “the Dick” have a fine collection of ex-wives, he also has li’l ones. With his first Yang wife he has a daughter Dee, who is a social-lite.
Isn’t Dickson a bit lite in his loafers, hence the lack of offspring.
I distance myself from the above comments. I’m told Dickson is a fine chap, who spent his summers working as a lumberjack.
http://youtu.be/5zey8567bcg
My my, Lexusgate revisited. ( RTPR lapses into nostalgic daze…)
Doesn’t that bring back fond memories when the things people in high positions did wrong were so trivially funny – like lumberjacks wearing high heels in bars. Real Monty Python stuff.
None of this modern stuff “I want $2 Billion under the table and 18 apartments on the Peak. What do you mean ‘but you are the CS ?’ So what the fuck ? Gimme ! ”
In those days it was:
“I’m a 3- headed giant and I want a SHRUBBERY!”
Onleg misses watching his wife get out from the pool after a dive…tiny boobies but a bum to die for…Kleenex waster.
The Pythons are doing a reunion…stage…maybe there’ll be some jokes about stoning and curry…
Our last post didn’t make the censors here…whooo hooo 😉
@ GSBS – Seeing as the discussion has degenerated into Pythonisms, I see your Lumberjack song and raise you with a Black Knight (as a true representation of the entire HK Government)
http://youtu.be/dhRUe-gz690
@gweiloeye. In response Sir, I give you;
http://youtu.be/9foi342LXQE
Just change ‘Romans’ to ‘Brits’ and it applies. Sorry, Hemmers for hijacking the piece today, but you’ve got to laugh!
Many posters are demonstrating their age and/or their tendencies to waste their years of supposed sexual bloom on watching dated comedy.
Please stop. Quoting Monty Python lines only leads to other losers trying to one-up you, which reveals much about the nature of this tragic fandom.
Further to my last post…
Monty Python can be funny in the original format.
It is never funny when quoted by anyone ever.
It is particularly not funny when quoted by aging white men. In my experience, such people use Monty Python quotes as merkins for the inadequacy of their own sense of humour. These men are usually the type who break out in high pitched giggles when something unexpectedly humourous occurs or (more frequently) when there is a moment of acute and unexpected schadenfreude.
And linking to youtube videos of the original format is almost as bad as quoting.
In fact quoting Monty Python is almost as objectionable as posting comments that flaunt your gargantuan vocabulary by using rarely-encountered words such as merkin and schadenfreude.
And now for something completely different…
Schadenfreude (with a capital S, since it is a German noun) is a fairly common word.
Truth be told, I always found the MP-humor slightly over-worked. I once saw a snippet of a MP movie in a plane (Fish called Wanda) where a guy was dancing naked (I think) with a pair of knickers over his head. Apparently that was hilarious.
@Tiu Fu Fong
Please stop attacking these aging old white men otherwise I’ll have to report you to the EOC. AND NOBODY EXPECTS THE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION!
Peace brothers.
Let our Chinese brethren watch TVB variety shows and junk kung-fu movies while the gweiloes watch Monty Python without mutual recriminations (and using words words that gweilos don’t understand)
This was all written into the JD.
BTW – I happen to like MP !
GSBS : that’s a beaut with the Romans changed to Brits 🙂
PS: What is a merkin ?
PPS: I wonder if Raffy H will end up like the black knight. I hope so
I’m not white, so TFF is not attacking me.
TRP
Agreed. @TFF no offence meant. Always like your posts. It’s just MP takes me back to earlier days…
RTP(P)
A merkin is either –
– A citizen of the United States of America; or
– A pubic wig; or
– Both
I agree that there are too many sad old British bores on this blog. But it is still better than NTSCMP, where there is only 1 sad old British bore.
TFF does not like ageing white colonialists with their rattan canes and lesser-public-school innuendo, and particularly not their obsolescent hankering after a superannuated TV show of times yore and belated..
Ah, winter is coming.
… It is known.
….and as if on cue in late (actually early morning) breaking news, hot from the SCMP, your fount of old British bore knowledge and news :
“Monty Python troupe set to reveal plans for reunion stage show, their first live gig in more than a decade” !
@ Rory: Gee…. you’re right ! That’s a new one for me.
…not much call for Monty Python round here….
I am not old and not British, and don’t take life too seriously – unlike some.
Not Much call? It’s the singular most popular 1970’s British comedy show in the world…
Second only to “Some mothers do ‘ave em”?
Not round here it’s not.
@TFF “Many posters are demonstrating their age and/or their tendencies to waste their years of supposed sexual bloom on watching dated comedy.” I think you are confused here – it certainly wasn’t dated when most of us wasted our years of supposed sexual bloom on watching it – though some of us did manage to squeeze in a bonk or two between episodes.
@Dr – may I be anorakish here and point out that A Fish Called Wanda was not technically a Monty Python movie, though it did feature a Python or two? Whether or not one thinks the TV series has aged poorly (I don’t), Python’s Life of Brian is still one of the greatest satirical movies of all time (along with Dr Strangelove), and will remain so as long there are religious fanatics out there to offend.
Love Thy Neighbour was tops in HK…
followed by Up Pompeii…