Yesterday’s hilarity was brought to us by Laura Cha, the establishment worthy who said that freed slaves in the USA had to wait 107 years for the right to vote, so the people of Hong Kong can as well. If we want to be charitable, we could point out that she also admitted to Les Echos that three administrations’ inaction on growing inequality was part of the problem, adding that had been an Executive Council member all the time.
But do we want to be charitable? Or do we want to skewer these people who insult our intelligence with ignorant and offensive blather? Could it be that fairness or even-handedness towards this lady right now would be misplaced, and that for the greater good we need to show these buffoonish shoe-shiners no mercy, but cause them as much pain and embarrassment as possible?
That sounds more like it. So…
It seems that among her many positions, Laura Cha is an independent non-executive director of HSBC. She also sits on the esteemed bank’s ‘Nomination Committee’ 
(whatever that is – not to be confused with the 1,200-strong Chief Executive Nomination Committee, on which, as a National People’s Congress deputy, she would also sit). And, to make everything just positively exquisite, she is on its Conduct and Values Committee. This sub-board aims to ensure that the company ‘acts responsibly towards the community’ and ‘ultimately helps people to fulfil their hopes and realise their ambitions’.
How’s that skewer coming along?
Anyway, some bright spark has launched an on-line petition urging HSBC to distance itself from (‘denounce’, indeed) Laura’s distasteful and stupid remarks. It’s here, and takes just seconds to sign.
You can also add comments. Hard to know where to start, but Laura’s ‘slave’ quip reveals something about how Hong Kong’s ‘elite’ thinks. One of the impulses behind disenfranchisement of blacks after Reconstruction was lowly southern whites’ need for someone to look down on and their fear that even ex-slaves could out-compete them. Strip away the inherited wealth, the flashy chauffeur-driven cars, the sometimes questionable college degrees, the on-a-plate appointments to prestigious committees, the Gold Bauhinia Stars and the cartelized industries, and Hong Kong’s ruling class includes a fair bit of mediocrity. Many of them wouldn’t last five minutes on a level playing field. The clever, creative, energetic kids with umbrellas frighten them.
This doesn’t necessarily apply to Ms Cha herself: for all I know she worked her way up from sweeping the floors at the Stock Exchange. I see that she went to university in Wisconsin. Not sure why – nothing personal – but my immediate reaction: cheese.
I declare the weekend open.
Yup – skewer nearly ready . . . just putting the odd cube of cheese in between the baloney & Cha for a cracking kebab . . .
signed with comments
Nice one!
Could we also have the Hemlock treatment of a few other bumptious worthies? Alex Lo, Semen, and a Regina or two spring immediately to mind, although others can surely add to the list.
It seems to be a consequence of power corrupting, petards hoisted and all that, that ethics committee members behave the most deceitfully, off-duty police crash the most, media doctors appear to be on their death-beds and stock exchange chairpeople go bankrupt.
By their arrogance and ignorance, the Laura Cha, GPS,’s of this world show off their inferiority complex, insecure in the knowledge that in no other historical period or culture would they last 5 minutes.
Perhaps this is the reason CY hasn’t resigned yet? If the keystone goes, the rotten structure both supporting it and being precariously held in position by its weight will be revealed in all its suppurating, Nematode- and ant-ridden glory.
Impale on a long thick splintered spike from bottom end…and slow roast applying lemon juice…then feed to the hogs of war…er…dogs.
…how come when a white guy calls The Dolphin Hater…”Semen”…it’s ok…while Oneleg gets labelled racist for “Proboscis Face” ? …
Ooh, can I nominate Michael Chugani? He see-saws wildly between almost making sense and cane-toad-licking levels of insanity. The column where he mocked journalists who received death threats was truly something to behold. (To paraphrase: You call that terror? Pfft! Bunch of wusses!)
Why is it that she thinks that her opinion and analogy are even remotely useful. She typifies the mindset of the “rich and famous” in HK who look down on everyone. If she really wanted to highlight some inequalities, just look in her own back yard and the plight of the 250K domestic helpers modern day slavery and how they are treated.
She and her ilk (Vag, Semen, Tang etc) only care about protecting their current position which was given to them on a plate. She is both thoughtless and clueless (like our current leader) and should stop putting both feet in her mouth at the same time.
Based on her paranoid outburst she should also resign from her position on the HSBC board as she clearly has no sense of values or the HK community. Another hideous specimen of HK officialdom………take the BGS and shove it where the sun does not shine
Once again the Democrats missing the opportunity of an open goal, and it’s left to the boy Hemlock to slot it in. Ms Cha (known as ‘Lai’ to her friends) must be feeling as sick as a parrot. I hope.
signed and forwarded
Hong Kong Resorts family . .
From the SCMP http://www.scmp.com/article/92305/commissions-laura-cha-woman-all-seasons
This is funny to read now
“Mrs Cha’s appointment last July was challenged by some on the grounds that she had a conflict of interests. This fear of conflicting loyalties probably stems from her impeccable connections.
Her father-in-law is Cha Chi-ming, the chairman of three listed companies: China Dyeing Works International, Hong Kong Resorts International and Mingly Corp.
He is also a member of the working committee for the Special Administrative Region Preparatory Committee and was on the Basic Law Drafting Committee.
Mrs Cha’s husband Victor, is the managing director of China Dyeing Works and a director of Hong Kong Resorts International.
Mrs Cha firmly rejects rumblings that her strong family connections to listed companies with significant China connections could lead to a conflict of interests.
‘It is very obvious that I alone could not control the SFC which is a policy-making body, there are many people in our organisation so that any abuse would be extremely difficult,’ she said.”
Tom Lehrer said that satire was dead after Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace prize.
If there were any doubt, HSBC having a Conduct and Values Committee would seem finally to nail the coffin shut.
PD:
Every human community in history has had and still has people like her.
Mediocre, dimwitted power grabbers who contribute nothing and take as much as possible. With zero moral values.
It is a natural human trait with many.
It’s just that in Hong Kong they have been let loose since the handover, with no one to counter them, as Everyone in power is one of them now.
I’m surprised it’ts taken this long for them along with Beijing to ruin Hong Kong. Thought it would happen faster. The true face of Hong Kong is showing, and it is not pretty, is it?
Good skewer! I support PD: more Hemlock skewers please
It’s hard to imagine how people like this actually navigate higher education – or in Laura’s case navigated two degrees. How weird is that.
With such a useless mind, the HSBC position can be safely ignored. Laura’s there to help sidestep provincial China minions when the Bank wants to open (yet) more branches and/or to get a seat at the table of the latest dodgy deal with the princelings, or whatever other door opening is required. Community service or whatever it’s called is smokescreen. If she was even a middling, or only occasionally crap, lawyer she would be ripping off western companies trying to enforce intellectual property.
I see Le Laura was at University of Cheese during the Vietnam era. What’s the betting she was campaigning for Civil Rights and for the power of student revolt? Or maybe she was stuck in the library the whole time; whatever. Either way, nothing useful stuck.
Is there anybody in Hong Kong’s elite with a brain??
Ms. Cha is also the chairwoman of the taxpayer-funded lobby shop for investment banks entitled the Financial Services Development Council. If it’s such a great idea, why don’t they pay for it themselves?
I think she started her career as the cha-lady of the HSBC branch in Mongkok.
Yup: signed the petition.
To all you folks who like to have a drink or 2 ( 3…..) after work downtown, here is a useful and fun suggestion: instead of going to the bars, buy a few cold ones and go down to Tamar and have a street party. The atmosphere is great, you have a good time in the crisp autumn air and you save a pile of money $$$ not going to LKF.
And it is all for a good course. You can tell you grandkids about it.
She’s on the “Conduct and Values Committee”?
So what was she up to while her colleagues were assiduously accumulating the proceeds of laundering money for international drug cartels?
I think we should be told!