A bookshop runs into trouble after holding what appears to be an informal Spanish class on its premises…
The owner of a Hong Kong independent bookstore has been accused of managing an unregistered school after holding a Spanish class at the shop earlier this year.
…[Owner Pong Yat-ming] stands accused of breaching the Education Ordinance by managing a school that was not registered or provisionally registered, according to the charge sheet.
The charge sheet also stated that he allowed somebody who was not a permitted teacher to teach at Book Punch. The individual’s name was given as Antonio Baro Montane.
Active Experiential Learning Company, the parent company of the bookshop, was charged with two offences – permitting an unregistered teacher to teach and owning an unregistered school
Sounds weird. All sorts of groups host lessons and training in all sorts of subjects, from swimming to Bible study. A store near my home offers classes in sausage-making. But here’s a clue…
…Book Punch and other local independent bookshops have been closely scrutinised by Hong Kong authorities in recent years. In July, a book fair featuring independent bookshops and publishers came under fire by Beijing-backed media outlet Wen Wei Po, which accused the organisers and participants of spreading “soft resistance” through a book fair.
Books with messages that “oppose China and disturb Hong Kong” were sold, the outlet reported.
In September, Book Punch said it was forced to cancel multiple events in the past two months due to “anonymous and false” complaints. The bookshop said some guests, such as university teaching staff and representatives of organisations, faced “top-down pressure” to withdraw from its events.
Shades of the tax audits of independent media. Why not just ban all bookshops that are not controlled by the authorities and be done with it?
In a similar vein;
An upcoming music festival has been told by police to remove two bands from the line-up.
The reason? The band names were deemed inappropriate.
Further, the organiser has been instructed to submit all performers’ song lyrics for approval.
The grip of the police state tightens.
@Young Charles
Clockenflap? Which bands?
How and when does a teacher become “permitted”? I taught a class for HKU SPACE for one term, and was never asked if I had a permit to teach. Should Hong Kong’s oldest university also be prosecuted for hiring an unpermitted teacher?
We live in ninny run nanny-police state now run by a weird cabal of redder than XJP die hard stalinists at TKP and WWP, blue revanchist police, and the Holden Chow-Junius Ho AHs.
@Mark Bradley
Not Clockenflap.
CT Music Fest.
Yellow and Teenage Riot have been removed from the line-up.
@Young Charles
Ironic that the star band at the Sevens was Kaiser Chiefs with their hit song “I Predict a Riot”
@HKJC Irregular
Seems like there is a different set of unwritten rules for foreign bands.
@HKJC
I had wondered whether they would be allowed to play “I Predict a Riot”.
Does anyone know if it was actually part of their set?
Our education system is rife with scams, many facilitated by lax enforcement of i=the regulations. Some cases of fake credentials have been prosecuted, but they are the tip of the iceberg.
Dodgy operators are allowed to register ‘international schools’ without a thorough scrutiny of their background, history and, most important, financial resources. The outcome has been significant financial loss to parents of prepaid fees and debentures when the schools folded. In addition, teachers and MPF contributions not paid.
A number of local schools have been in cahoots with mainland cram operators to facilitate mainland students to take DSE exams as locals.
One would have thought that the authorities should be concentrating on these issues.
Gweilos are often requested to spend time with locals in order to help them improve their language skills. This can come with a token gesture of gratitude in the form of a lai see packet. Beware, there are snoops everywhere.
This week the result of the nail-biting selection of which of three unis would host the new medical school was announced. Yet another waste of time and energy. There was never any doubt that the HKUST would get the nod. It has far higher rankings than Baptist and PolyU. Baptist was already rewarded via its connections to the Chinese Medicine Hospital in TKO while PolyU is not strong on research.
That the result was predetermined is borne out by the fact that HKUST has aready a plan under consideration at Town Planning Board to develop a large new campus along Clearwater Bay Road that will wipe out the only remaining green belt along the road and 650 trees.
While the new medical hospital was touted as one of the lynch pins for the Edu Hub at North Metropolis, money would be on HKUST staying put. Who would swop the bucolic environs of CB/Sai Kung for the grim stack of high rises on a vast construction site with few amenities that will be Hung Shui Kiu etc for decades? And a comment made by Sec for Health indicated as much.
Subtlety has never a strong suit of the HKSAR administration.
Hemlock
So the bookshop is the (deliberate) sower?