• [094]  WTO Interpreters' Pay  In Eastweek (no link) there is a report on a 21-year-old Korea-born man living in Hong Kong.  Since he spoke Korean and was not working, he interviewed for the the temporary interpreter position during WTO MC6.  He was interviewed by a Hong Kong person, a representative from the Korean consulate and a white police officer.  The interview lasted about 45 minutes, with questions about background and interests, and then he had to speak in Korean, Chinese and English.  He was accepted and worked for 14 days from December 6.  Initially, he was posted at the Hong Kong International Airport where he interpreted for the police who asked Korean visitors about why they came, where they would be staying, when they would be leaving, etc.  On December 17, he was posted at the hospital where he interpreted for the police who were interrogating injured Korean farmers.  He said that he was called a running dog, among other things.  He also worked at the Kwun Tong and Wong Tai Sin police stations for the interrogations there.
   
  So how much was the running dog paid?  HK$150 per hour, eight to ten hours a day, fourteen days in total.  The total take was more than HK$20,000.  Professional interpreters were in big demand from the media.  The Eastweek reporter called up a Korean language center and was quoted a price of HK$1,500 per hour.  Furthermore, the reporter was expected to deposit the money in the bank first.  It did not seem as if there was no demand ...

• [093]  The Missing 150,000+ In The Missing Letter  First about the missing letter (see Ming Pao).  When Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang went up to Beijing to meet President Hu Jintao, the democratic legislators asked him to forward a letter by hand.  According to Legislator Margaret Ng, the letter was delivered on Saturday at 12:40pm.  But Donald Tsang said yesterday that he had not seen the letter yet.  Where did the letter go?  In any case, this letter has been released to the public.  Then there is the matter of the signees.  There are theoretically 25 democrats in the Legislature but only 24 signed this letter.  Who was missing?  Lau Chin-shek?  No, he signed.  It was "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung who did not.  Why?  One explanation could be found in a careful reading of the text.
  
  In the middle of the letter, there is a phrase underlined in red.  The translation is: "On December 4, tens of thousands of Hong Kong people got into the street."  What is the significance?  In press conferences, conversations, essays and speeches in the Legislature, the operating phrase had been: "On December 4, 250,000 Hong Kong people got into the street."  But in a letter to President Hu Jintao, it was not possible to use 250,000.  Why not?  Because Hu Jintao, Zeng Qinghong and others in charge of Hong Kong affairs knew that the real number was 60,000-80,000 (either through reading the newspapers as in The Numbers for 12/4 Hong Kong and through their own intelligence).  To insist on 250,000 in a letter to Hu Jintao would be interpreted variously as intimidation, dishonesty and/or ignorance.  Worse yet, what if Zeng Qinghong responds to this letter by condemning the 250,000 figure?  So this is deftly massaged away by saying 'tens of thousands.'
   
  In 2003, the 7/1 march organizers claimed 530,000 marchers while all other independent organizations came up with less than 200,000 (see The Hong Kong 7/1 March: Crowd Size Estimates).  At that time, the Civil Humans Rights Front spokesperson denounced all those dared to challenge their number for betraying the cause of democracy.  For December 4, 2005, there are now 24 legislators who have betrayed the cause of democracy in their letter to President Hu Jintao.  By signing this letter, they have wiped away at least 150,000 pro-democracy marchers.  Is this why Long Hair refused to sign?  Will the Civil Human Rights Front spokesperson denounce these 24 traitors?  Ooops, this is impossible because the Civil Human Rights spokesperson responsible for that 250,000 figure is Lee Cheuk-yan, who is one of the 24 legislators.  In discussing the discrepancies between his number and all the others, Lee said that his volunteers can count better.  But apparently he has just signed a letter with 150,000+ bodies missing.  Can he count?
   
  If I can make my position clear: the number itself means nothing, to me or anyone else.  What I object to is that the democrats should come up with a number that is completely at odds with professional results.  My objection is based upon my respect for scientific truth but also on the grounds that such lies can bite back in a huge way, as is the case here with the letter to Hu Jintao.  You may think that nobody will notice, but I will.

• [091]  Taishi Village Update  From Reuters AlertNet:

A Chinese human rights activist held by police for more than three months after helping a village protest in southern China was released without charges on Tuesday, in an unusual official concession to protestors.  Guo Feixiong, a writer and advocate of democratic change, told Reuters he was released after being in police detention since mid-September and holding a month-long hunger-strike.  Police had charged him with "disturbing social order", he said, but prosecutors told him on Tuesday he would not be indicted.  However, they accused him of being a "ring-leader" of anti-government protests in Taishi Village, near Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, Guo said by telephone.  "They said I'd personally commanded villagers on how to depose the village leaders and organized them to surround the village committee offices," he said. "The charges were absurd." 

...

In recent days, Guangzhou police have also released four or five villagers involved in the protests, said Zhao Xin, a human rights campaigner. Altogether, about 20 villagers were detained and later released.

• [090]  The Andrés Gentry Profile  I am number 13 in the series of the Q&A series here.  If you were not aware of this series before, you should check out all the previous ones here.  This is a full detailed illustration about the diversity of the blogosphere.  Everyone (such as SimonWorld, Glutter, T-Salon, China Herald, Running Dog, etc) was asked certain common questions, but look how different the answers came out to be.  I have said often before: "If everybody else talks and thinks the same way that I do, I would be first one to jump off this planet!"

• [088]  Kids' Stuff  (Xici Hutong)  Here is an elementary school test question in China: It is the evening.  A small child is facing the sun.  Could you please write in the words East, West, North and South in the four boxes according to where the directions should be?
  
  This child got a score of "minus four." 

• [087]  More Police Stories at WTO  There are three more translations at the bottom of the post The Police Stories at WTO.  I consider these to be authentic, because they are genuinely arguing for the viewpoint from the police side.  At the same time, these open letters have obviously not been cleared through the HK SAR public relations department because this statement would never be approved: "Pepper spray is a natural product and does not harm the human body.  If it is available on the market, it is a good seasoning."
   
  In respect to the cherished rule of law in Hong Kong, the 900 or so people who conducted a sit-in on Gloucester Road are technically guilty of breaking the law for illegal assembly and disrupting public order (to wit, forcing a stop to all vehicular traffic on a major road).  Notwithstanding all that, I have never yet read or heard a convincing argument as to why any individual holding a Hong Kong ID could leave the seige at will (and I personally know some who left).  Cable TV news showed people waving their Hong Kong IDs and then the police let them walk away.  The police sources all argued why all 900 or so people must be arrested even though only a few were suspected of actual violence.  However, they insisted that all must be taken back to the police station to sort things out.  That is, all except for Hong Kong residents.
   
  In the United States, these cases would be thrown out eventually for civil rights violation due to selective enforcement (e.g. you cannot stop and search only blacks and latinos on the New Jersey turnpike or the New York State thruway while letting whites go).

• [086]  Avian Flu Reports  There have been several well-publicized cases of human infections as well as incidents in which mass culling took place in China.  Is something being covered up here?  Phoenix Weekly has four different reports from scenes of outbreaks (Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Anhui, Hunan).  All four reports involved sending their own reporters into the epidemic zone to look for possible cover-ups, including dodging the police road blocks and getting to ground zero.  One reporter even got onto the famous bird island in Qinghai.  If Phoenix Weekly was hoping that any one of the four leads would yield a huge story, they were disappointed.  They got zilch.
   
  So why was it so easy for the reporter to go around the police road blocks?  On one hand, the police officers were sent down to the villages from the city and they did not know about all the ways to get into the village.  On the other hand, for example in Hunan, "One villager who owned a motorcycle found a way of making money -- he made more than 100 yuan by taking a reporter into the village.  Thus, there are now villagers waiting on motorcycles several miles outside the village; when they see outsiders, they will go and ask if these are reporters who need help to get around the police blockades."  In this sense, China is now more and more a market economy that responds to demand-supply.
   
  Meanwhile, from Boxun, comes a avian flu story in Guangdong province.  A reader in county XX (note: the name of the county was concealed) said that he believes that a large number of chickens had died in a certain town in a neighboring county.  At first, some villagers were worried that the government might cull all their other chickens so they secretly buried the dead ones.  Later, someone got lazy and simply threw the dead chickens directly into the river, so that there were dead chickens floating down the river.  On December 20, the reporter went down to the village and indeed saw very few chickens.  An old villager said, "They've all been culled."  According to a local cadre (name concealed), 133,000 chickens and 40,000 geese have been culled with only 5 yuan per chicken due to the poor financial situation of the local government.  Boxun goes on to mention that experts believes that if the avian flu really appeared along the Dongjiang river which supplies water to Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen and even Hong Kong and that dead bird carcasses were thrown into that river, then the avian flu virus can survive for many days in the cold and damp environment, then the contaminated water will pose a grave threat to the people downstream.
   
  Now this latest Boxun story is not even a good one.  There are no identifiable individuals, so no one can get into trouble and yet the name of the town could not mentioned.  Why?  Because the second that the name is mentioned, the local government will probably invite all the press in for inspection to prove the Boxun was wrong again.  P.S.  I'll leave it as an exercise as to what the expert opinion on avian flu virus transmission is.

• [085]  ESWN Culture Debuts  The first of the special top EastSouthWestNorth spin-offs (ESWN Culture) has just made its debut with the post Zhang Yimou's Harmonious Society done by Lawrence Li.  Temperamentally, I am of the type who would just 'do it' rather than planning and executing all the details.  This is another way of saying that things did not go according to the plan.  In fact, it went poorly.
   
  For the first step, I registered a domain name (note: it was an individual domain name set up as a small enterprise business website) and I obtained an Internet service provider (note: I am using an Internet service provider and not a blog service provider such as blogspot or typepad).  Before I even did anything, I found out that this domain without even any content as yet is blocked by the Great Chinese Internet Firewall.  Yes, the blank home page was invisible by conventional means but it could be brought up via proxy servers.  I therefore lay claim to the world record for being blocked -- dead before arrival.  I would guess that the entire IP range of that Internet service provider is blocked.  In case you are curious, the name of the Internet service provider is ... Yahoo!.
   
  For now, I have decided to launch ESWN Culture as a sub-directory here.  In time, there will be a different logo, its own domain name and so on.  Any post that appears at ESWN Culture will also be announced here.  For now, it is just a matter of convenience for those who have specialized interest in culture (art, literature, film, music, etc) and do not want to bother with the political and social stuff here.  In the long run, I see that ESWN Culture will become a much better standalone entity than if it were allowed to languish here and be lost in the cacophony.  I agree that this is a smaller market, but it is a very dedicated and passionate market.

• [084]  The Onslaught of MSN Spaces  In 12 Good Reasons to Learn Chinese, Ethan Zuckerman noted that of the Technorati top 100, 12 are Chinese; and all 12 are hosted by MSN Spaces.  "A search for the string “spaces.msn.com” on Technorati yields over 2.1 million links. Searches for “bokee.com” yields less than 3,000 links… and they all appear to be on MSN Spaces blogs, which are linking to Bokee blogs."
   
  I would have to say that this is a function of what Technorati is indexing right now -- they are indexing MSN spaces and they are not indexing Bokee (at least not well).  I share the same frustration as I rely on Technorati to see who is linking to EastSouthWestNorth.  Over the past three months, the number of MSN Spaces links have been jumping up (see this updated list of 40 that I know about) and they come for not the usual reasons (for example, Wang Ning's Blog (sub-titled 'False Liberal Experiences at the Animal Farm') linked to What Is On My Bookshelf with a biography of my father).  Meanwhile, the other part of the Chinese blogosphere is by and large a void to me.

• [083]  ESWN Is Worth $1,000,000  According to Blogshares, there are 1,000 shares outstanding for EastSouthWestNorth and at 11:08 25 Dec 2005, each share is worth B$1,015.89.  Thus, the paper net worth of EastSouthWestNorth is 1,000 x B$1,015.89 = B$1,015,890.  Unfortunately, this is just paper net worth and it won't buy me lunch.  Two other people own 4,000 shares between them, so that are holding more than B$4,000,000.

• [081]  Blurred Faces  The convention in publishing news photographs is that faces are blurred for cause (to protect the innocent, to shield a witness, to prevent embarrassment, etc).  At Wenxue City, there was a collection of photographs taken at the Chinese nude photography contest held in Qingdao.  So whose face is going to be blurred in the news story?  Surprisingly, the nude model's was shown.  Instead, all the photographers got their faces blurred (click here for a high-resolution photograph).  What is the problem?  Are they embarrassed about taking photographs of nudes?
  

• [080]  My Self-Indulgent Google Search  I searched for EastSouthWestNorth and I am up to 216,000 mentions.  Great?  I looked carefully and this is the most hilarious one:
  
  Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort ...
   
  216,000 Google links will not mean as much as a single mention such as this one from Foxymoron: "I suggest Roland's site for daily translations of Chinese media" or even on the blogroll of Maureen Fan Reports.

• [Administrative Note]  I apologize for the slowing down of blogging here.  The WTO MC6 week has certainly been a major disruption in daily routine.  But that was not the only reason.  
   
  There will be a couple of major changes around here.  First, I have been struggling with the sudden surge in popularity of the EastSouthWestNorth blog since October.  It is a nuisance because I realized that I have begun to assess the impact of each and every statement that I make.  Everything and anything that I say can offend somebody or the other, and I have been agonising over each and every post or comment.  Alas, as of today, I have made peace with myself.  I don't care what any of you think -- I will be me and that is the end of it.  The consequences in terms of lost traffic is immaterial to me.  I do not live for that.  I live to be myself.  Therefore, over the next days, please expect to see a torrent of very upsetting things that I have held back!
   
  The second part will occur slower over time.  It is increasingly clear to me that EastSouthWestNorth is really many things at the same time.  People come here for very different reasons, and those reasons are not always compatible with each other.  Over the next few months, I hope to break this blog into a number of brand extensions (such as Culture (Art & Literature); Society; Public Opinion; Politics; Media; translations from Chinese media; Latin America; Iraq; etc).  These brand extensions will exist as external sites or internal division.  The advantage will be to allow other people to particpate in their area of interest without forcing them to carry unfairly the baggage of the rest of the site (including the 'politics' and the personality of the individual blogger).  But you can always come to the ESWN main site, which will continue to have the same range of interest and the same brand personality.  The only discernible difference is that many blog posts will appear on external sites (e.g. the Curbside @ WTO experiment).

• [078]  Hong Kong By The Numbers  The following are survey results from a telephone survey of 1,207 persons conducted by the Hong Kong Research Assocation between December 22 and 23, 2005.
   
  Q1. How do you feel about the political reform proposal not being passed by the Legislature?
  Delighted: 31%; Disappointed: 51%; No feelings: 18%
   
  Q2. Who bears the most responsibility for the political reform proposal not being passed?
  Pan-democrats: 52%
  Hong Kong SAR government: 19%
  Central government: 13%
  Pro-system: 6%
  Hong Kong citizens: 2%
  Others: 2%
  No opinion: 6%
   
  Q3.  How do you feel about the pan-democratic legislators voting against the political reform package?
  Satisfied: 34%
  Dissatisfied: 58%
  No opinion: 8%
   
  Q4. Who is the biggest loser when the political reform package was not passed?
  Hong Kong citizens: 44%
  Hong Kong SAR government: 22%
  Pan-democrats: 11%
  Pro-system: 6%
  Central government: 6%
  Others: 4%
  No opinion: 7%

• [076]  The Real Story of the Shanghai Fire  At first, there was a striking sight in Shanghai of thick smoke engulfing the Jinmao building, currently the highest building on the Chinese mainland, in the Lujiazui financial and trade district.  Firefighters rushed to the scene and found the smoke was from a nearby construction site of the Tomson Riviera, which is Shanghai's most expensive housing project with an average cost of more than 110,000 yuan ($13,620) per square metre.  The fire was put out in less than one hour.  Photos are from Reuters, Reuters and AP. 
  
  So what?  But there is a media-related story (see ChineseNewsNet).  The sight of the billowing smoke drew reporters from as many as 20 media entitites to the scene.  While taking photos and videos at the construction site, some security guards got into fights with the reporters, causing photographic/video equipment damages worth several tens of thousand of yuan.  The construction company has apologized and will reimburse the media for the losses.  So here is the best photo: while a reporter is wrestling with a security guard, the other reporters are busily clicking away ...
  
  Related Link: Journalists get smacked down attempting to cover Pudong fire  Shanghaiist

• [075]  Fighting for Democracy in Hong Kong  I recommend the series by Daisann McLane at Slate:
  - Out in the Field With Hong Kong's Radio Pirates
  - An Extraordinary Night in Hong Kong Politics
  - The Protest Capital of Asia
  - A Consciousness-Raising Tart
  In particular, please note that she went mountain climbing with the radio pirates at night time to observe a broadcast!

• [074]  Meme Of Four For Me Too  Following Mister Bijou's example:
  - Four jobs I've had in my life: Media Audience Measurement Specialist; IBM 360 Assembly Language programmer; DEA/FBI translator; SUNY at Stony Brook housing department clerk (and I was "God" on that job because I decided who could get a room and I assigned roommates).
  - Four movies I could watch over and over: Aguirre, The Wrath of God; Les Parapluies de Cherbourg; Berlin Alexanderplatz; The Year of Living Dangerously (for the Richard Strauss lieder sung by Kiri Te Kanawa, of course).
  - Four places that I have lived in: In order of decreasing tenure, New York City (USA); Hong Kong; Sydney (Australia); Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
  - Four TV shows I love to watch: V; Monty Python's Flying Circus; The Prisoner; Twin Peaks (note: don't watch the movie!).
  - Four places I've been on vacation: Siem Reap (Cambodia); Yunnan; Huangshan; Taos (NM, USA).
  - Four websites that I visit daily: China Digital Times; Daily Kos; Technorati; Yannan Forum (because I keep hoping that it would come back)
  - Four places I'd rather be: Blank; blank; blank; blank.  If you can't be happy with where you are, you are screwed.

• [072]  The Brilliance of Dick Lee  In Discussions on Civilian Journalism, I lamented that there are many civilian anti-WTO blogs, there are even police blogs but there are no blogs by Hong Kong Police Comissioner Dick Lee or the South Korean farmers' leaders.  So how will we ever find out about the secret negotiations in the backroom?  Have no fear, because the Hong Kong weekly tabloid magazines have the resources to come up with the truth.  In fact, the latest issues of Eastweek and Next Magazine have front-page articles on how Dick Lee brilliantly outwitted the South Koreans.  So maybe you can't read Chinese, but EastSouthWestNorth will bring you the truth.
   
  First up, Next Magazine has the headline "The Inside Story about how Big Brother Number One defeated the Korean farmers' leaders."  In essence, the story was this.  At shortly before 8pm, three South Korean farmer leaders were invited to consult with the police at a Wanchai hotel.  Dick Lee came into the conference room and said, "The situation in Wanchai is out of control.  If you don't tell them to stop, the police will have to suppress them."  The South Korean leader said: "We will not negotiate with the police unless the South Korean consul is here."  So Dick Lee left the room and the three were left waiting.  Meanwhile, tear gas was being released in the streets.  At 9pm, Dick Lee told the press that the police has "detained" nine hundred demonstrators on Gloucester Street.  At 11pm, Dick Lee returned to conference room where the South Korean consul had arrived.  Lee said, "The police will arrest the demonstrators."  Then he left without any negotiations.  The South Korean leader said: "Dick Lee was very gentlemanly when he spoke.  But he had no intention of negotiating with us.  He asked us to come to the hotel and made us wait.  In the end, he only told us what his decision was."  During the waiting, the demonstrators in the street were leaderless.  Such is the brilliance of Dick Lee.
   
  Next up, Eastweek has the headline: "The secret strategy of the police."  In essence, the story was this.  Late on Saturday night, Dick Lee who had been acting in the background as the spiritual leader of the Hong Kong police stepped in personally to have a summit meeting with the South Korean farmers' leaders.  At around midnight, the parties agreed to meet at a neutral location (namely, a Wanchai hotel).  The meeting lasted for a full hour.  Dick Lee began by stating that the police was firm on arresting the 1,000 demonstrators in accordance with the law.  He asked them not to resist, or else he would have to take action to suppress them.  Then he softened up by promising that the demonstrators would be moved out in groups in a cooperative fashion so that there are no casualties on either side.  In the end, the Korean farmers' leaders agreed to order the demonstrators to be arrested peacefully.  A senior police official said: "Big Brother Number One always likes to reason with people.  This is how he deals with his subordinates and that is why people admire him.  We did not expect that he would use his strong points to put an end to this large-scale disturbance without bloodshed."  Such is the brilliance of Dick Lee.
   
  Of course, these two stories cannot both be right.  Good luck on trying to figure out which one is right ...  my choice is: none of the above.  If you are an English-only reading person, then you need to ask: just what kind of crap is the 95% Chinese-reading population being fed day to day.  But do you want the same as well?  If so, you can come to this website and then be disabused of it.
   
  P.S. Let me say that I have great deal of admiration for people such as Dick Lee, because they don't seem to get terribly upset (in public, at least) when such stories appear.  In this story, Dick Lee was said to be brilliant.  If I were him, I would accept the accolades even if the explanations are totally erroneous.  At other times, there may be completely different and conflicting versions about how dumb he was.  Somehow, he manages to keep a stiff upper lip.  That is why I admire people like that, because I would have gone ballistic!

• [071]  Key Investment Indicator  (Xici Hutong) In January 1979, 56-year-old Hong Kong businessman Henry Fok began to make contact with the Guangdong province government.  He proposed to build a five-star hotel -- the White Swan Hotel -- with US$13.5 million of his own money.  This would be the first five-star hotel which was a joint mainland-Hong Kong venture.  Fok recalled: "At the time, people who invest in China were most concerned about sudden changes in policies.  That year, there was a mural titled 'Water Festival, Song of Life' at the Beijing Capitol Airport with a nude female figure.  That mural was the subject of a big debate on the mainland.  Each time that I went to Beijing, I checked to see if the mural was still there.  If it was there, I was more reassured."
  
  (From Wikipedia: " Yuan Yunsheng returned from 16 years of exile in Manchuria to be assigned by the State to paint a mural at the Beijing airport in 1979. He chose for his subject the Dai (Thai) people of Xishuangbana, whom he portrayed in his Water Festival, Song of Life on the background of a floral jungle motif, working, dancing, and, of course, bathing. However, the bathing mural on one side of the room eventually proved too problematic, and it was covered up in March 1980. Although the mural was proudly displayed in many official Chinese publications from October 1979 to early 1980, minority cadres from Yunnan began to object that the bathing mural was simply too offensive for public displayal and denigrating to minorities. It had also been causing a disruption in the dining room where it was exhibited due to the crowds of people who went to view it.  While the nudes eventually proved so controversial that the mural was covered up, and I understand that it has since been uncovered, covered, and uncovered again.")
   
  I would not given a damn about any of the above but for the fact that a Xici Hutong commentator observed wrily to the effect:  

Mr. Fok, there is no need to go to Beijing just to check out any mural.  This is the Internet age.  All you have to do is monitor the status of Furong Jiejie (Sister Hibiscus) for policy changes.  As long as she gets to do her thing, there is no radical change.

See The Real Story Behind Sister Lotus.

• [070]  Curbside in The Standard  Curbside @ WTO executive editor Susan Rossi wrote about the project in The Standard.

That same Saturday night, violence erupted in Hong Kong and Curbside was put to the test. Our team members were in various locations close to the action. With SMS, we were able to stay in close contact, using the newsroom to keep everyone updated. As a result, we had a story about the situation up on the site at 8.29pm, while it was still happening. Being an online publication, we could update the site as necessary. Photographers using digital cameras uploaded photos quickly. Our readers could see some of the first still images of the unrest.  Hours later, Curbside was publishing personal accounts of the events and galleries of photos. Not limited by word count and pages, we could publish as many and as much as we wanted. 

...

Vivian Kwok, the co-executive editor of the site, worked as a business journalist for Next magazine before joining the masters degree program at HKU's Journalism and Media Studies Centre. For her, it was a wake-up call for those in traditional media.  "News Web sites' speed is particularly threatening," she said. "We don't have to wait or meet deadlines. Just click the 'publish' button. The entry barrier for a Web site is much lower than a newspaper, too."

• [069]  A Hong Kong Police Woman's Blog  At this previous post, The Police Stories at WTO, I lamented the lack of information from individual police officers.  At the bottom of that post, I have added a blog post from a police woman.  I'll remind you that this is one and only blogger, apparently a member of the Hong Kong police.  This does not represent the force as a whole.

• [068]  What Is A Real Riot?  What exactly are the gold standards for a real riot?  Recently, in talking about the anti-WTO demonstrations in Hong Kong, the two local gold standards appeared to be the 1985 taxi strike riot and the 1967 riots.  With due respect, in the global scheme of things, neither are significant in scope and intensity.  For comparison, here are three days of rioting in Caracas in March 2004.  This was a small-scale riot since it had no popular support but it had all the standard weaponry (such as Molotov cocktails and steel balls launched by slings) that never showed up in Hong Kong.  By contrast, the 1989 uprising in Caracas (known as Caracazo; see Wikepedia) saw about 1,000 killed in the streets.

(March 1, 2004)  The Streets of Caracas - Part 1
(March 2, 2004)  The Streets of Caracas - Part 2
(March 3, 2004)  The Streets of Caracas - Part 3

Just remember this -- these are the global standards, but the South Koreans never took them here.  I would therefore be reluctant about calling the South Koreans in Hong Kong mobsters, rioters, terrorists and all that, because they had the choice to be just that but did not.

Even by Hong Kong standards, the worst in my memory is not being mentioned.  So I will remind everyone about this:

October 1st is the national day of the People's Republic of China (PRC), capital Beijing, commemorating its founding on that day in 1949. October 10th is the national day of the Republic of China (ROC), capital Taipei, commemorating its founding on that day in 1911. Each republic has its ceremonies for the its national day.

But for the people of Hong Kong, the day of October 10th does not have the best of memories. Being a capitalistic British colony situated next to an avowedly communist country, it had a great deal of political ambiguity. On one hand, the United Kingdom is a part of the free world that is trying to repel the red menace. On the other hand, this little colonial outpost can be easily overrun by the People's Liberation Army and there are ample nationalistic reasons for a strong China to take back its own territory that was forcibly ceded to the British during the Opium Wars. Thus, the British colonial administration preferred to take a low-keyed approach to political affairs.

On October 10th, 1956, a minor dispute related to the hanging of a large ROC flag in the a public housing settlement in Kowloon led to a mini-riot. At 10 o'clock that evening, an armed mob appeared and systematically began to block traffic on the streets as well as assaulting pro-PRC factories, schools and unions. The police was nowhere to be seen, either because they were unprepared to deal with urban riots or because they did not mind assaults on pro-PRC people. The riots went on until October 13th and was stopped with a massive display of force with order to shoot to kill from the local police and the British army after the wife of the Swiss consul was killed by a mob which stopped her car by stoning and torching it. The British was also forced to take action because Chinese Premier Zhou En-Lai asked the British representative if China was going to have to send the People's Liberation Army in to restore order, since the British obviously could not. The total bill for damages related to the riots was almost HK$5 million, which was a tremendous sum at that time.  A total of 60 people died, 45 being shot by the police and 15 at the hands of rioters.

An official government report attributed the riots to underworld triad members, but did not spell out what these people had hoped to gain from their actions. The report declined to address the common knowledge that the triads (such as the 14K) were intimately connected with the Republic of China government, and that the rioters were acting like military troops directed by leader elements.

Given the political constraints that the British colonial government was acting under, it did not want another repeat performance in the future. What it did was not necessarily democratic or legal, but it was effective. In 1957, in the latter part of September, the Hong Kong police arrested 1,527 triad members, of which 119 were expelled and 785 were sent to jail, for the crime of being a triad member. In 1958, 1,075 triad members were arrested in September and another 100 more in the first week of October on similar grounds. Thereafter, similar campaigns took place in September each year. It then became a seasonal pattern in September/October that the top triad leaders would have vacations in Southeast Asia, the middle-level triad members would spend vacaztion time in neighboring Macau while the lower-level triad members would go into hiding. The differences in 'vacation plans' were obviously due to what each individual can afford to do. The alternative was to spend a few days at the Chatham Road detention camp at government expense.

This is an ignored episode in Hong Kong history, as if people cannot deal with the fact that the KMT controlled Hong Kong for a few days and committed acts of horrible violence while the British colonial government went missing in action.  Where were you on October 10th, 1956?  Most of you weren't born yet, but you can ask your elders about it.

• [066]  Headline News  The following appeared at The Dukedom of Aberdeen blog:

(translation of news report)  
South Korean farmer demonstrated in his own country; he was beaten to death
While demonstrating last month against trade liberalisation in South Korea month, a 68-year-old South Korean farmer was injured in the head and neck by police shields.  After being treated for 33 days in a hospital, he finally died from his injuries on the day before yesterday.  This is the fourth death of a farmer since the demonstrations began last month in South Korea.  The South Korean premier has apologised and said that the authorities will investigate this incident and discipline/punish the police officers who were involved.
 
The Duke then wrote:

Anti-WTO people can use this to say that the Korean farmers are "rebels with a cause"; those who are compulsive about "peaceful and rational expression of opinions" can use this to oppose excessively violent behavior; the Hong Kong police can be proud of themselves; the anarchists can use this as anti-system material.

Please proceed to your own seats and take what you need.  We hate the color gray.  We like the world as either black or white.  You are either with me or against me (better yet, you are either good or evil).

I am the most ungenerous and cold because I use someone else's death as a topic of conversation.

• [065]  My Tear Gas Taste Test  At the get-together last night, there were souvenirs from the WTO demonstrations.  First item, an authentic bottle of Korean soju wine.  The taste test found it sweet but not too alcoholic (but see Shenzhen Zen).  Second time, a used tear gas canister.  I sniffed it carefully with my nose but could not detect any smell.  So I thought nothing of it.  Two minutes later, my lips were burning and I had to reach for water.  It may be called 'tear gas' but many people have reported that effects other than causing tears are more prominent.

• [064]  The Real Hong Kong Person  There is no definitive summary of what transpired at the New Media & Social Transformation Conference.  I have published a sketch of my talk The New Media & Social Transformation Speech, but that does not mean much when it was the Q&A sessions that were surprising and revealing.  Since there are no transcripts, all we have are individual memories distributed across different websites and blogs.  However, irrespective of any substantive issue related to the conference theme, I would like to point out a very specific occurence during my session.  Pranjal Tiwari was the ZNet representative for China.  There was an question from the audience directed to him which went something like: How can you be the representative for China when you obviously don't look Chinese at all?  His response was something like: "I came to Hong Kong when I was two years old.  I am every bit a Hong Kong resident as everybody else."  Yes, that is a huge problem in Hong Kong.
   
  I have traveled all over the world in my life.  I have learned never ever to make any assumptions about anyone.  I am of Chinese descent and hold American citizenship.  But when people challenge my ties to America (as in, too recent and shallow), I point out that my maternal grandmother was born in San Francisco in 1882 and that would probably make me more 'American' than the majority of 'Americans.'  So the rest is just racist prejudice.  When I had to take my mother to see the speech therapist in Hong Kong, she turned out to be an East Indian who was more fluent in Cantonese than I am (actually, she was so astonishing that she once appeared in a movie for precisely that shock effect).  So this is a simple plea and reminder against stereotyping.  You can do so only at the risk of making yourself appear as a fool.

• [063]  I Am Nobody  In Hong Kong, everybody who is somebody got a SMS message: "Secretary for Security urge the public not to go to Wanchai and Causeway Bay."  I did not get jacksh*t on my mobile phone.  Ergo, I must be nobody.  An InMediaHK member was asleep when the phone rang and this message woke him up.  He was outraged and dialed the reply number '12281218.'  He was told that "the number that you have dialed is not valid ..."  He used his residential phone to call back and got beeped after punching in four numbers.  He wants to know: "Who is calling me?  Who can I complain to?  Does anyone else have that problem this morning!?"  Well, all I can say is: "Get real!  I was in Prague (Czech Republic), my phone rang and someone in Hong Kong wanted to tell me about a Chinese medical doctor.  Holy crap!  Whom do I complain to about my roaming charges!"

• [062]  The Best Asian Weblog  That is definitely what ESWN is not.  According to the results, ESWN got a total of 85 votes, which is probably less than the number of visitors per hour there.  No doubt this amazing performance was due to the powerful campaign plea.  There is a reason why his colleagues at his company tells him not to touch anything on sales and marketing.

• [060]  Reading The News Carefully  This is based upon a Xici Hutong post commenting on a Southern Metropolis Daily article.  This is the story about a pipeline in which school girls in a town in Sichuan were kidnapped and transported to Qingdong town in Guangdong province to work as prostitutes.  About the SMD article itself:

The Qingdong government mobilized more than 270 police officers who made 21 operations to inspect 32 suspected places of ill repute, 3 hotels, 3 hostels, 21 rental houses; demolished 6 illegal businesses, 55 beds, 36 partitions, 18 massage beds; closed down 4 unlicensed hair/beauty salons; arrested 23 suspects.  The police announced that they achieved a major breakthrough.

Nine young girls were rescued from Qingdong village, thanks to the kindheartedness of a patron.  Here is what the girls said:
- "There were thirty to forty prostitutes at our place, a number of them being kidnapped here.  We were rendered unconscious and sold here ... to work as prostitutes here."
- "There are about 70 or 80 similiar places in Qingdong town."
- "Raids?  Of course there were raids, but it was useless.  Each time that the police come, the boss would receive a phone call.  Then we all stay in.  It may be chaotic out there, but nothing happens inside."

Okay, now do the mathematics.  

There were 70 to 80 places, but the police inspected 32 + 3 + 3 + 21 = 59 places, and closed down 4 unlicensed hair/beauty salons.

70 to 80 similiar places with 30 to 40 girls per place means 75 x 35 = 2,625 prostitutes in this town, of which a number were kidnapped and forced to work.  How many girls were rescued in the announced police raids?  None.

In order to kidnap the girls, watch over them and escort them back and forth to their work, there should be at least several hundred workers.  How many were arrested? "23 suspects", some of whom may be released later.

As for the major breakthrough, it would be one if only the Qingdong town could figure who the corrupt moles within their police department were.

• [059]  Media Trust  Should you trust the media to report objectively what you tell them?  Hmmm.  You ought to decide for yourself.  In any case, Taiwan DPP's Lin Yihsiung was probably sure that he would not get a fair deal and therefore imposed a series of conditions for his press conference (via ChineseNewsNet): "All print reporters must publish the entire 1,500 word statement.  Please confer with your director and if you can't do so, please don't bother to come because it will be a waste of your valuable time and it will spare the embarrassment of my asking you to leave."
   
  Lin also spoke freely about his checkered history with the media, including the demand for NT$180 million in damages for inaccurate reporting by Liberty Times.  Since no one from that newspaper was present at the press conference, Lin said that if they reported anything about the press conference, "we'll have to talk about that later."  As for the fact that United Daily had nobody present, Lin said: "I don't have any good friends at United Daily."  In addition, Lin pleaded for mercy from the electronic media.
   
  I regret to say that I don't know which media outlets reprinted Lin's statement in total.  Even if they did, how many people actually read this kind of stuff?
   
  Lin is a stalwart of the Democratic Progressive Party and his public announcement was a plea for self-reflection and pragmatic steps.  If you don't know about Lin, please consult this Wiki entry.  This entry is extremely understated with "On February 28, 1980, his mother and twin daughters were murdered at home."  Eh, this is being extremely kind as the KMT secret police had Lin's home under 24/7 surveillance and the murder could not occur without their knowledge.  So the Wiki entry "The suspect still remains unknown today" is totally unacceptable to me forever.

• [058]  Close Contact  Among the photos of the so-called clashes between the police and the demonstrators, the most impressive parts have to be the overwhelming number of media workers, often standing in between the two parties.  Was there any truly rewarding photographs or videos as a result?  Yesterday, the South Korean farmers went to the South Korean consulate, there was some jostling with the police and one farmer slapped a Hong Kong police officer in the face.  The Sing Tao photographer was right there and you can almost hear the thud.
   

• [057]  Special Wedding Guests  (Apple Daily, Ming Pao)  At the Hong Kong City Hall, a couple was getting married and getting their photos taken when some South Korean demonstrators showed up to hand them protest flyers.  The couple was mildly surprised, but the farmers were quite friendly and they had a slightly unusual wedding photograph for all to remember with.  The newlyweds even chanted "Down down WTO" with the farmers.
   

• [056]  The Promise  On Thursday, I went to see Chen Kaige's new movie The Promise.  What is my review?  Notwithstanding this previous post The Silence of the Press, I recommend that you see it.  My reasons are quite complex.
   
  I know that the plot is predictable since everything was predicted within the first few minutes.  And I also know that the production costs were obscenely exorbitant.  
   
  Here, as always, I will digress with some personal history.  I came from a movie family, my dad was an executive producer at a monopolistic movie company and I list famous movie stars among my acquaintences.  I watched a lot of movies.  My best year was 1966, when I watched 132 movie (Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, and all and any trash movie) according to my diary.  When I went to study overseas, the numbers went down a bit.  The State University of New York at Stony Brook was quite enlightening as the Student Union rented movies such as Debbie Does Dallas and charged only US$0.50 for admission.  I purchased Cahiers du Cinema and Sight and Sound regularly.  I was a member of the culturati.
   
  And then everything went dead in 1992 after I saw the movie Toys starring Robin Williams and directed by Barry Levinson.  Here was a complete waste of a movie for which someone invested US$40 million to make.  How many hungry children can US$40 million feed?  For the next ten years, I saw no movies whatsoever because of my disgust.  I cannot and will not support this industry anymore.
   
  Since moving back to Hong Kong in 2003, I resumed watching movies again.  So along comes The Promise billed at production costs of HK$340 million.  Was this a total waste?  Not in the manner of Toys.  I do not know how you will react to this movie, but you will have some form of reaction that I cannot predict with certainty.  Your reaction may be related to the movie itself, or with the contemporary social situation in China, or whatever.  But you will react and you should examine the reasons why you react that way.  It is like that your reaction will go beyond immediate responses to the aesthetic values but more to the overall situation in Chinese society.  That is worth the price of admission.

• [055]  The Older ESWN  Someone just sent in an email about the photograph that appeared in this old post Forgetting and Forgiving.  I could not remember what this was about, so I had to click on it myself.  I was unprepared to be overwhelmed once again by the rush of emotions.  
   
  The ESWN website has grown by leaps and bounds in the past two or three months, and many of you are barely aware of its entire history (in the Blog Post Archive and Brief Comments Archive, which do not even include ESWN v.1.0).  If you are a recent visitor and like what you see now, I would recommend a visit to those archives.  There are some facetious items, but there are others that are emotionally overpowering.  I won't tell you what is what. 

• [054]  Non-violent Resistance  Here is another soft-powered English-language blog from a Chinese journalist.  His three recent posts all touch on subjects that were addressed by me before.  Very interesting observations and perspectives.  In From Dingzhou to Dongzhou, Bastards Will Get What They Deserve, there is an update on the Dingzhou incident (see The Shengyou Reporter's Field Notes).  There are three very nice photographs.  In Now Let's Talk about Chinese Journalists' Ethics, there is a discussion of journalistic ethics in reference to Coal Mine Deaths and The Price of Development -- is it alright for the reporter to write up a side exchange between the interviewee and the accompanying photographer?  In Here's A Sloppy Story (see The Shanwei  (Dongzhou) Incident) this gets back to the age-old issue about resentment against those tricky interviews from western media.
   
  On the Howard French NYT article, The World In My Eyes wrote (in translation): "The New York Times definitely does not know about my blog, otherwise it would not be saying that the Chinese government is deleting or blocking all the blog posts that discuss the mass incident in Guangzhou (note: there is a full translation from English into Chinese of the initial NYT report on the incident on the blog hosted at Tinya Club).  I think that the Chinese government ought to sue the NewYork Times for libel, ha ha, and then use my blog as evidence: "You see, we not only let "Our World" translate your western media report and we even allowed discussion  As a newspaper famous inside and outside of China, how can you ignore the objective facts and accuse us to censoring news?"  Ha ha, which lawyer is willing to participate in this lawsuit for the government."
   
  Please note however that this particular post (together with a full translation of the Howard French article) originally also appeared at the Tinya Club blog "Our World."  It was promptly deleted.  "The World In My Eyes" is an alternate location and is hosted on wordpress.com.

• [053]  Welcome, Book Lovers  Which is the blog post at EastSouthWestNorth that drew the largest number of email responses in the entire history of the blog?  Surprisingly, it is not that infamous Tibet post.  Instead, it is What Is On My Bookshelf.  It turns out that there is a hidden audience out there for the bookish kind of stuff.  I'll have to think about what I need to do for this market segment.

• [052]  HKU Blogs WTO  In The Standard today, A. Lin Neumann covers Curbsite @ WTO.  

The site, Curbside at the WTO (http://curbside.jmsc.org), was the brainchild of students studying under New Media Professor Andrew Lih at HKU's Journalism and Media Studies Centre. Their goal is to bring "live" coverage of the WTO protests, activities and assorted matters to the community in real time, using blogs, photo galleries and stories from students and, in some cases, Standard reporters.

In the virtual newsroom, participants chat with each other from morning to very late about developments, story angles and schedules; online editors share gossip, give assignments and field queries.  Information is posted all day long via an open-source software called Joomla and the result is an online digest of breaking news, analysis and commentary by a wide variety of contributors including others in the online Hong Kong blog community, principally Roland Soong, who operates the popular EastSouthWestNorth blog.

One example: while much of the Hong Kong media was overhyping the pushing and shoving prompted by Korean protests early in the week, Curbside staff Andrew Lih ran a photo for Soong of a TVB reporter wearing a crash helmet on camera when there was no violence anywhere in sight. It was an Emperor's New Clothes moment that caught the spirit of the blogsphere. Now those of us in "old" media have a whole crew watching over our shoulders, reporting faster than we can and critiquing our work as we go along.

For the HKU bloggers, it has been a satisfying week. "It didn't seem possible that it would all come together into something real, and work," said student editor Susan Rossi in an online interview.

It is unfair that the outsider should get the detailed description.  I urge you to visit the Curbside @ WTO and look at all the other wonderful stuff.

• [051]  Blogging WTO From The Inside  In the post The Frustrations of a WTO Blogger, I was being grumpy.  If you try really hard, you can find out some of what is going on.  Here are the blogs by Caroline Lucas and Glenys Kinnock at The Guardian.  Both wrote about the green room.

[Lucas]  The development package is currently being discussed in "green room" meetings (ie selective – and undemocratic - negotiating meetings among the key players) ...

[Kinnock]  Another day of endless speeches before the late night convening of the "big boys on the block" in the green room, where they continue with their haggling and horse trading.  This shadowy world excludes dozens of those countries who stand to lose or gain.

We need an anonymous blogger from inside that green room.

• [050]  My Life With Michael Turton  Hey, I'll let Andrew Leonard explain at Salon.com: "The conversation that is online discourse is a multivoiced, multisourced labyrinth of eyewitness accounts, academic analysis, propaganda, invective, evangelism, and good old-fashioned news reporting. It's a million, a billion, Michael Turtons taking issue with a million, billion Roland Soongs, all annotated with a million, billion footnotes. Somehow, it all adds up to something that gets awfully close to the truth."  As for me, if you ask if I am right, I will tell you that I don't know.  The moment that anyone takes me for being 'right', I will tell you that we are totally lost.  I give you my personal opinion based upon what I know, but nobody should ever believe that I have all the information at hand or that I made the right assessment.  
   
  If I can simpilfy this: I am a person who reads a lot, I relay certain things to you and I tell you how I feel as a person with a particular history and background.  That will not make this true or universal in any sense.  Michale Turton, many others and yourself will feel very differently.  My only objective is to tell you what I as a sentient human being with a particular historical background feels.  It does not make my assertions true or false in any sense.  Above all, dear reader, you are the only person who can decide for yourself.  My sole contribution in this process is that I may have helped you make up your own mind.  You should never ever take what I say as true; if you do, you are wounding me immensely.
   
  P.S. There is a reason why EastSouthWestNorth gets more attention than other China-related blogs.  It is precisely because of an open declaration such as the one above.  I am not here to tell you what you must think.  I am here only to remind that you must think for yourself.  I may not have told you everything; you can try Google, Baidu, Yahoo! and all else and try to find out for yourself.  Or maybe they are all crap (which I tend to think so ...).
   
  P.P.S.  I am gratified that Andrew Leonard would even pay attention to what is happening in the so-called Sinoblogosphere.  This is at least better than "Who cares?".

• [049]  The Best Show in Shenzhen  According to Southern Metropolis Daily via Ming Pao, the best viewing spot is at the glass window near the second floor elevator of the SEG Electronic Market in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen.  There are spectators with camera in hand, and they are watching the various pickpockets in action in the small plaza below just outside the building.  You can hear people saying "Oh! The image quality is not good enough" and "I miss the shop of the tweezers getting into the trousers!"
   
  The most active period during the day is between 11am to 3pm.  Most of the people who come here are buyers with cash, especially foreigners.  The reporter observed a foreigner with a big beard coming down.  A team of four pickpockets approached him.  One stepped in front of him and deliberately slowed down.  Another two came up to him from both sides to get his attraction.  Meanwhile, a fourth man took out a pair of tweezers from an umbrella and reached into the foreigner's trousers.
   
  The photos below show a botched attempt, in which the pickpocket got a boot in the backside. 
  

• [048]  The WTO Ads Get Reviewed  The Hong Kong SAR government paid for two 30-second television ads to promote WTO.  The first ad (see comment) explains that WTO brings more choices (as in mobile phones).  The second ad (see comment) explains that WTO brings cheaper products (as in oranges).  
  
  Ming Pao proceeded to ask some WTO attendees for reaction to those ads.  Mind you, these are not the usual leftist critics in universities.  According to Francis Matambalya (representing the government of Tanzania, which is one of the 'least-developed countries' under the WTO classificaiton): "Our oranges are tasty and juicy.  But because of the tariffs adn quotas set by the developed countries, 80 percent of our oranges cannot be exported and just rot in the fields.  Even if oranges are cheap in Tanzania, say 100 oranges for US$1, we would still be unhappy.  If the oranges can be exported and the prices go up, then our nation will have more income."  He also said that it was "shallow" to describe WTO as "buying cheap products" because this does not represent all of the facts.
   
  Patrick O'Rourke (representing Ireland) also disgreed that WTO is as "simple as buying cheap products.  Oranges are imported into Ireland and sell at US$1 for two.  But he questioned: "Cheap food can be unsafe food.  When you encounter avian flu, don't you want to pay more to buy more expensive chicken?"  He said that developing countries uses unhealthy and ecologically unsound methods to rear animals and grow food in order to bring prices down.  "Our farmers keep their calves in the mountains so as to satisfy the national requirements for environmental protection, food safety and hygiene.  Of course, the prices are higher.  But consumers only know to buy cheap goods.  The government subsidizes the farmers and the true beneficiary is Nature."  He also said that characterizing WTO as the bringer of "cheap goods" is "shallow" and "only tells half the facts about WTO."

• [046]  How To Get Website Traffic  This is an elaboration of the Comment #36.  How does a 'politically sensitive' website get its viewers?  For this site, the crucial question is: Are you pro- or against-Chinese government?  I believe the following is true -- if I were pro-Chinese government all-the-way and up-and-down-the-line, my traffic would be less than 0.1% of what it is today.  Why click on some website for some commentary when it is completely predictable?  It is wasting your time (as well as mine).  If I were pro-'democracy' (whatever that means and I can tell you that I have absolutely no idea what that means) all-the-way and up-and-down-the-line, my traffic would probably be less than 1.0% of what it is today.  The only difference between 0.1% and 1.0% is the receptivity of the English-reading population out there.  For all those who don't get it, the traffic to this site is precisely due to the refusal to be automatically pro- or anti-Chinese government and the willingness to examine any individual case on its own merits.
   
  The second thing about this website is the injection of the personal element.  You may want to make your arguments on the facts and the facts alone.  Trust me when I say that it is important to build a brand personality.  A large part of the traffic to this site is due to the fact that people recognized a sentient human being behind all this.  That person may be quirky, but the idiosynacracies are what draw people back here again and again.  You have no idea how many people are mesmerized when I start babbling about my family.  A simple post like What Is On My Bookshelf will draw many more visitors than any political rant.

• [045]  Next New Business Idea  According to Danwei, there are job opportunities to work for comapnies which use "human and automated means to monitor and analyze chatter on blogs and online forums in China, and sell the intelligence gathered to corporate clients who want to know what is being said about their brands."  With due respect, there is a much bigger business beyond this.  I would like to offer corporate services for any number of shills who will overpower any website or forum which is critical of your company!  Trust me, this will be worth a lot more than intelligence gathering alone.  To pervert Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, man did not exist in order to comprehend the world; man exists to change the world and that is the whole purpose.  I am sure that my one and only one employee can start enough spam websites and pay off any search engines to ignore your critics.  For further details, please do not contact me because the whole idea (while perfectly workable) repulses me to the extreme.

• [044]  Three Represents/Three Representatives  According to Wikipedia, the theory of Three Represents is as follows:

• [043]  Caught In The Act  From Chonginq Morning News via Yahoo! News, here are some photographs from a surveillance video system.  First a middle-aged woman entered a certain upscale gift shop.  Then two other men came in and talked to the two shop assistants.  The woman then wandered over to the register while looking at the display shelves.  Then she reached for a mobile phone next to the monitor display, put into her pocket and then walked out of the store.
  
  Yes, so this thief was caught in the act.  But how are you going to find her?  By the way, there was just over 40 yuan of money stored on the phone.  The money has been used by the thief to purchase snacks.

• [042]  Personal Experiences  In the comment titled What Do Senior Uncles Know?, there have been enough emails that I think it warrants a general comment.  I was not trying to compile a TIME magazine-like list of significant events in the past 50 years based upon the consensus of eminent historians.  I was just trying to tell you what I lived through personally.  

So when I mentioned the 1967 riots in Hong Kong, it meant the following -- personally, I remembered that I walked down the street to go to school one morning.  Along the way, I saw a brown paper bag with the words "Compatriots, do not approach.  This is reserved for white-skinned pigs and yellow-skinned dogs."  What did I do?  I walked around it and went straight to school.  I didn't call the police or anything, because someone else can do that.  I just cannot afford to be late for school, because they would never accept the excuse that I had to call in a bomb!  Most bombs were duds, and the live ones were triggered instead of timed.  So I had no fear.  Most of my blog readers are much younger and will have no empathy with how people like us felt back then.  
 
Also, I was visited by an old friend of my parents today.  She recalled: "There was a day in 1967 when they imposed total curfew in all of Hong Kong and Kowloon.  This was the only day in the entire history of Hong Kong when all that happened.  Your mother and sister were trapped on the Hong Kong side.  Meanwhile, your dad was bleeding from his chronic problem in Kowloon.  You were too young to know or do anything.  I and my doctor husband drove down to your place, put your dad in our car (which has MD plates) and took him to the hospital.  We had to take the risk at a time when nobody was allowed to be in the streets.  I will never forget the sight of the completely deserted streets as we drove towards Queen Elizabeth hospital."  That was why that item made the list.
 
On my list of events, some email correspondents pointed out that I did not list the date of June 4, 1989.  During that period, I had two full-time jobs, I worked 20 hours per day 24/7, and I preferred to sleep under my office cubicle because it was a waste of time to go back and forth to my home.  If China had been annhilated by a meteor from outer space, I would not have known or even cared.  What I know about June 4, 1989 is learned through reading years later.  To me, it is like the Nanjing massacre.  I wasn't there, but I appreciate that it meant a lot to those who watched it happen.
 
As another example of personal experience, let me tell you about 9/11.  I remembered that it was a beautiful Indian summer day in New York City.  At 830am, I stepped out of my apartment building and I saw a beautiful blue sky.  I went down to take the subway train at Union Square to get to Grand Central Station.  Then I got out at 43rd Street, I crossed Vanderbilt Avenue (which runs from 42nd Street) and then Madison Avenue (which runs from 23rd Street).  When I reached Fifth Avenue, I turned uptown (and northwards) to reach my 45th Street office.  But I sensed that something was very wrong here.  The pedestrian traffic had completely stopped.  I was facing north and I saw that everyone had stopped and looked southward.  People appeared to be in total shock.  So I stopped too and I turned around.  Fifth Avenue is a long and straight street, and when one looked southward, one used to be able to see the tall World Trade Centers all the way downtown.  The sight that had shocked everybody was the twin towers in flames.  A lot would happen later on that day.  But I prefer not to write about it here, because it will bring in other people who may prefer not to reminded of what happened on that particular day.  That was why 9/11 was on my list.
 
Let us accept this -- as individuals, we have lived through various experiences through personal circumstances.  Some things will have greater immediacy than others, so let us not challenge each other for political correctness in terms of those personal experiences.  I have other experiences too, like the one week that I spent in a general ward in Queen Mary Hospital for a general checkup as a 10-year-old, and all I did was to watch fishermen die from throat cancer presumably because they ate too many salted fish.  Yes, I had to watch the person in the next bed slowly expire.  
 
So please give each other some personal space ... I respect yours, so don't push into mine ...

• [041]  Curbside @ WTO  At the New Media and Social Transformation Conference, the question was directed at the speakers about how they intend to cover the WTO MC6 meeting in Hong Kong.  My response began with an advertisement for the Curbside @ WTO website.  This project comes to you from The Standard and the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong.  In terms of manpower, this project will be bigger than many local/international media since it is staffed by more than a dozen journalism students who will be working as bloggers, photo bloggers and video bloggers.  In addition, the EastSouthWestNorth and SimonWorld bloggers will support them by blogging to the same website about WTO MC6.
   
  We are all aware that this is an one-time-only opportunity.  When the week is over, the students will have completed their course requirements and be dispersed all over the globe to become professional journalists.  Still, I would like to see what the product will look like when a group of teachers and students in conjunction with a couple of civilian bloggers can deliver compared to media companies worth billions of dollars in market valuation.

• [040]  De meest gehate weblogger van Hong Kong  How much of this blog post at De Nieuwe Reporter can you read?

• [038]  Day Two of the New Media and Social Transformation Conference  China Herald noted: "The conference is unfortunately not remotely accessble, unlike the Global Voices in London who start in half an hour, so it is very hard to take the HK conference very serious as a new media event. We might read about them in the South China Morning Post."  Sorry, Fons, it will definitely not appear in the South China Morning Post with certainty, because they were not there.  You will only find information about this only through blogs and websites.  As far as I am personally concerned, it was EXTREMELY important.
   
  I will explain why this conference is not remotely accessible.  This conference was made possible by the dedication of InMediaHK members (who are all volunteers!) on zero budget, using their personal networks, to take advantage of the fact that many speakers and participants would be in Hong Kong for the WTO MC6 conference.  This was an opportunistic conference without a mega-budget.  However, the participants would not be here if they did not believe it would make a difference.
   
  Will it make a difference?  I believe it will, and someday I will recount how this conference affected myself and possibly others.  Personally, I already have a few personal projects spinning in my head.  I won't discuss them until they come close to fruition.  I cannot tell you what they are, because some of them are cynical and manipulative in a malginant sense for what I consider to be a good outcome.  For now, I will just say that the sight of watching Chinese blogger Michael Anti mesmerizing the InMediaHK team at the legendary 7/1 Bar will be one of my fondest memories of all time.
   
  One of the questions that came out of this conference: Are you an optimist or pessimist about China?  I am resolutely an optimist.  I spoke about what I read right now on the Internet in China today was unthinkable five or ten years ago.  And I believe this is irreversible.  Michael Anti (in Chinese) might have placed his bet as follows: he would be a pessimist -- if everything comes through, he would be delighted in spite of losing money; if it all flops, he would at least wind up with the money.  Dear reader, what is your bet?

• [037]  What's Next?  Letters from China has translated portions of my profile at Next Magazine (see The Rise Of Hong Kong Bloggers).  I just spoke to the reporter tonight, as she wanted to get feedback.  I told her that someone asked, "Why did you tell them that you are unmarried?  Are you soliciting for a wife?"  The reporter did not ask to charge me for the advertisement.  She will never make it on the commercial side of the magazine ...

• [036]  Dumb, Dumb, Dumb  I was comfortably sitting at home today when the phone rang.  It was the organizer of the New Media and Social Transformation Conference.  He asked, "When are you coming?"  I said, "Tomorrow morning."  He said, "But you are supposed to be here speaking right now."  Oops.  I knew the date (December 9), but I thought it was tomorrow.  Luckily, I live one subway station away.  So I hopped on a cab and got to City University before the first speaker had finished.  I was scheduled next, so we didn't miss a beat.  Since I have done professional presentations for a few decades, nothing ever fazes me anymore.  All was fine.
   
  There were more than forty people at the session.  Afterwards, the group went out for an authentic Hong Kong curbside dinner (which literally means that you have to look over your shoulder to make sure that you won't get run over by a truck).  The Q&A went on for almost two hours.  What can I tell you?  Here is an interesting observation from someone: "There is a tendency for websites to become polarized in terms of positions and audiences.  Liberals go to liberal blogs and conservatives go to conversative blogs.  How do you propose to say something to both groups?  That is, to become a truly popular website."  I responded as follows: 

  I do this by becoming the single most hated blog in Hong Kong.  When I write about something like the number of marchers on 12/4, the democrats are howling that I am a Communist Party shill.  When I write about something like the new rules on avian flu reporting in China, the other boot falls.  So I am hated by all sides.  

  Why is my political position so ambivalent?  Because I have none.  As an American citizen, my greatest sorrow is to watch how political partisanship has destroyed all sense of objectivity among the citizens.  Take an event such as Hurricane Katrina and run a public opinion poll on satisfaction with the administration's performance?  Approval rates are 10% from Democrats, 15% from Independents and 90% from Republicans.  People don't look at the objective situation anymore -- everything is about partisanship calculations.  I do not talk politics to anyone in the United States anymore, because nobody is listening.  I am either talking to the converted or the enemy.  It is pointless.

  But when I write about something on my blog, I do not look at the party behind it.  If something is wrong, then it is wrong.  It is wrong to exaggerate the number of marchers just as it is wrong to order people to hide information about an epidemic outbreak.  If there is a pro-Beijing rally in which their organizers claim 750,000, you can bet that I will review the evidence and condemn them for lying.  If the Hong Kong government has the same orders about reporting avian flu, I would publish that information too.  After living through Free China, Richard Nixon, the Cultural Revolution, Monica Lewinsky, the War in Iraq and all that, I am now insisting on a world of truth.

  There is a second part about how I draw visitors from both sides -- I am always interesting.  You may hate me for one particular post because it damages your side, but you will come back tomorrow because you don't know what other surprises I will lay out for you and you may just really like it.  In the process, I hope to slowly wean people of that political partisanship, which is a grave threat to democracy and governance."

• [033]  New Media and Social Transformation Conference  This conference is being held on December 9-10 (Saturday-Sunday) at the City University of Hong Kong.  There are four sessions in total, but I will direct your attention to Session 2 (Saturday afternoon.)
   
  The title of the session is "Global citizen and new media."  Ease of travel and advances in communication technology have made us all global citizens instead of isolated nationals.  Yet, how much do we understand about other nations?  Most non-westerners or ex-pats will probably think that traditional mainstream media are woefully inadequate on China.  So how do global citizens get to understand other nations?  What can global citizens do to let other nationals understand them?
   
  There are four speakers in this session.  The common point about them is that they are new media (as opposed to traditional mainstream media).  Beyond that, they represent four very different models about how to facilitate border-crossing dialogue.
   
  Gabi Hal is from the indymedia network, which haa local websites in many cities and countries around the world.  This is a decentralized system in which local websites are autonomous, but also linked to each other in the network.  
   
  Pranjal Tiwari is the Hong Kong representative of ZNet, an internet-based magazine with information drawn from around the world.  This is a huge centralized system in which the website is a one-stop portal for alternative viewpoints and reporting from all over the world.  You go to the ZNet and you can get an incredible amount of alternative information.
   
  David Kootnikoff is the editor and reporter from Ohmynews based in Hong Kong.  As is well-known, the strength of Ohmynews is in the very large number of civilian reporters.  So this is a centralized system with a massive number of components.
   
  The EastSouthWestNorth blogger is the fourth speaker.  Unlike the others, he speaks as an individual global citizen rather than representing any organization.  He will review how the blog came to be what it is and what the impact is thus far.  This is a simple enough model that any individual blogger can do.
   
  If you have the time to spare, drop by at this session (or any of the other sessions in the program).

An Organized Crime squad undercover police officer with codename Edgeglass had penetrated the Wo Shing Wo triad, which claims a membership of 120,000 in Hong Kong.  On October 8, 2004, Edgeglass accompanied his captain (大佬) and another triad member to a night shop.  They met the person nicknamed White Haired Guy.  The captain went up and respectfully said hello, and introduced the two: "Hey, you two listen up.  This is Big Brother White Hair, the 'boss' (坐館) in the previous term (note: As noted in the movie Election, the 'boss' is elected by a council of captains to serve for a regular term)."  When White Haired Guy heard that, he nodded and smiled.  Then he lectured the two of them a bit before leaving.

In April 2005, the undercover operation was completed and the Organized Crime squad made mass arrests of Wo Shing Wo members including White Haired Guy.  Based upon the testimony of Edgeglass, the police charged him with the crime of "claiming to be a triad officer."

However, the trial did not progress smoothly.  The defendant's lawyer suggested that when Edgeglass met with White Haired Guy, he had found out that White Haired Guy was already no longer the 'boss.'  Therefore, there was no basis to charge the defendant with "claiming to be a triad officer" at the time of the meeting.  "Claiming to be a triad officer in the past" is qualitatively different from "claiming to be a triad officer at present."  However, do you believe that "smiling and nodding to the statement about being a former 'boss' means that you are presently still a member?  Is there reasonable doubt?

The judge agreed with this contention, and advised the prosecutor that the case would be dismissed in the absence of any other evidence.  As a result, the prosecutor amended the charge to "claiming to be a member of a triad society."  White Haired Guy was convicted of this charge and sentenced to 12 months in jail.  Ordinarily, this kind of charge results in 3 to 6 months.  The heavier sentence here was imposed in consideration that White Haired Guy was a veteran gang member even though he may not have been the 'boss' at the time.  (Note: This is the reason why triad gang members are advised to admit to this crime as early in their careers as possible.  This is known as 'cleansing the bottom' (洗底).  The sentence jail is shorter (especially for a juvenile), and they can no longer be charged again for the same crime under the principle of 'double jeopardy').

What did White Haired Guy think?  He was not happy with being charged on the sole basis of what Edgeglass heard.  As quoted by Eastweek, "F*ck!  I am not the 'boss' now.  I was just bullsh*ting (吹水) with the guys and I get prosecuted?  Are they kidding?"  One can imagine that there are many other types of crimes for which pure hearsay will not result in conviction.  But in Hong Kong, nobody loves the triads (except for the triads).

White Haired Guy will also be facing more than 20 charges related to specific crimes.  According to the organizational chart in Eastweek, his team members were engaged in drug sales, illlegal betting (horse racing and football), loan sharking, protection racket, black market petroleum, counterfeit CDs and the mini-bus business between Taipo and Tsuen Wan.

实际上，这两个就在隔壁的论坛聚拢的人差不多，但两边的气氛是完全不同的。在色情文学这边，大家温良恭俭让，满口的恭维。即使有某人作品实在臭不可闻，大家也一样在鼓励，或者提供很专业的写作意见，甚至提供参考文献。当然，所提供的肯定不是《通往奴役之路》。没有漫骂、嘲讽，或以老大自居的自大狂。

反之，在正经论坛上，各类板砖飞舞，破口大骂有之，问候女性亲属有之，蔚为大观。还真是让我到现在都不明白，为什么笔下文字诲淫诲盗的时候人倒是比较谦恭，一旦认为真理在手，就开始大打出手呢？

[translation]  In practice, these two neighboring forums had more or less the same group of participants but the atmosphere was completely different.  On the erotic literature side, people were kind, nice and respectful with many words of compliment.  Even if someone's writing really stunk, everybody still gave encouragement and even provided professional-class writing advice and reading references.  Of course, they were not exactly going to recommend "The Road To Serfdom" for reading.  But there were no inveighing, harangues, sarcasms or self-aggrandizing egotism.

In contrast, at the serious forum on current affairs, verbal missiles of all types were flying everywhere.  Some people let out torrents of abuse, including asking about the female relatives of others.  It was quite a sight.  To this day, I still cannot understand when people write about sex, violence and criminal activities, they are relatively humble and respectful, but when they think that they have the truth in hand, they come to blows. 

• [018]  The Vigil outside Hong Kong Government House  From Yip Yum-chung (葉蔭聰) via InMediaHK comes a report at 10:30pm about the Civil Human Rights Front leaders and other citizens who remain outside the government headquarters building demanding a meeting with Chief Executive Donald Tsang.  At around 630pm, about 2,000 people were still there.  At around 800pm, the number went down to about 200 people.  At around 900pm, many Democratic Party members (including Martin Lee) and Article 45 Concern Group members planned to leave and were denounced by the citizens.  By 1030pm, the only legislators left were Chan Wai-yip, Cheung Chiu-hung, Leung Kwok-hung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Democratic Party's Cheng Ka-fu.
   
  That takes care of the roll call, and here is the more interesting news: the police seemed to have imposed their control by only permitting people to leave but not to enter.  If you have to eat or go to the bathroom, you can't come back.  Even reporters are not exempt.  
   
  Blogger's comment: (Sigh!)  Bring your own food next time and maybe a curtain too for an open-air restroom.

The first item has to do with the common woe of the "China hands" who have to cover China from afar.  What is really going on?  There are no "senior administration officials" to leak state secrets, so you have to read as much meaning from the public record.  At one time, Bai Hua (白樺) was being denounced for liberal tendencies over his novel/movie (苦戀, <<The Bitter Love>>).  On December 29, 1985, the Chinese Writers Association held a meeting in Beijing.  After the opening ceremony, Hu Yaobang and other central government leaders had their photographs taken with the writers.  Then Hu Yaobang walked straight up to Bai Hua, stuck out his hand for a handshake and asked what Bai was writing these days.  This was his pose, and once that photograph got published, people everywhere began to congratulate Bai.  It was a small gesture, but it was imbued with deep meaning by everybody.

The second item has to do with a meeting between Hu Yaobang and the recently deceased Ba Jin at Zhongnanhai.  Hu began by asking, "Elder Bai!  Have you read my essay?"  Ba Jin said, "No."  Hu said, "In my essay, I wanted to state up front that the criticisms of <<The Bitter Love>> ought to stop, but certain senior comrades did not agree.  So I had to put in the back.  You are an esteemed figure in the literary field, and you should give the younger writers some proper guidance ..."  But Ba Jin did not follow on Hu's suggestion at the time.  Instead, he directly offered his own thoughts: "Chinese literary artists have suffered many so years already.  They should be encouraged more and criticized less, especially the younger ones.  An example is that which is being directed against Bai Hua and <<The Bitter Love>>."

At this time, the news reporter Qi Ming (祁鳴) was recording the session with a movie camera and he found that his view was suddenly blurred.  He checked and then realized that tears were coming out of his eyes when he heard what Ba Jin said.  Later Qi Ming told Bai Hua: "According to the practice over the years, it does not matter how famous you are as a literary artist, when you listen to a senior Communist Party leader talk, you are supposed to agree and you don't express a different viewpoint.  But in the midst of the wave of criticism against <<The Bitter Love>>, Mr. Ba Jin could selflessly cry out on behalf of the writers."  Ba Hua noted: "To this date, when Mr. Qi Ming mentions this incident, he is still teary.  Through this story, I learned that Mr. Ba Jin spoke truthfully like this.  Yet today, there are still so many intellectuals who bow themselves disgustingly like slaves before power and wealth!"

• [010]  Coal Mine Work Rules  Every day, I learn something new.  First, you can read Stephen Frost's post at CSR Asia.  In the accompanying photograph, he wrote "The white sign hanging above (请你配合检身) requests miners to make - I presume - safety checks before going down the mine (I’m not 100% sure what 检身 means in this context)."
   
  Next, I read in Ta Kung Pao about the potential charges against the leaders of the Qitaihe coal mine (Heilongjiang, China).  In terms of labor management, there were mistakes in worker inspection, lax execution, short shifts; chaos in registration before descending, body inspections (檢身) and issuing of miners' lamps, including having workers descend without any inspections
   
  More interesting is this other charge -- "Mine leaders did not follow the system of leading the workers down into the mine."  It is stated that there is an excellent tradition at state-owned enterprises for many years that the workers work three shifts and they will see their leaders with them during each shift.  The Dongfeng Mine leaders did not follow this.  When the explosion occurred, there were no mine leaders down there.  Pending investigation, certain people will be held responsible according to the law.
   
  Now that should have been the best work rule possible (if followed strictly).  Which leader would allow unsafe conditions when they are also down there themselves?  Come to think of it, we would have fewer wars if commanders must join their soldiers in the battlefield, and there wouldn't be a war in Iraq if this was the rule ...

Although the two had a valuable lesson, but the fact that they think different from mainland student caused them to feel a little bit embarrassed.  "The Shanghai students cared about how the Chinese peasants are being exploited, how China can grow strong and compete internationally, but the Hong Kong students proceed from emotions and analyze the concept of fair trade from the viewpoint of public justice in see how unfair trade can be eliminated.  The Shanghai students have strong rich patriotic thought and regard the Hong Kong students as 'impractical/unrealistic.'  We may be missing a certain degree of patriotism."

That is a straightforward enough observation.  Unfortunately, most Hong Kong people still don't get it at all.  There are still those who think that the major issues for China are the revindication of June 4 or the freedom of belief for a certain religious cult.  They say that to their mainland compatriots, who look at them incredulously as if they are just the pack of SB (傻逼 ) that they are.

• [005]  Reject The Lies  Why am I being so harsh on Boxun in The First Avian Flu Case In Beijing?  I have got nothing against the website since I have quoted extensively from it and will continue to do so.  There is much that is very useful.  The problem is that pieces of it are outright lies.  
   
  I'll show you another example from the Harbin water crisis.  Basically, the report says that according to a source from the water works department, a quality inspector found via testing that there was a systematic campaign to poison the system.  In fact, there was enough potassium cyanide to kill 200 million people in the Harbin water system.  The poison had been distributed all over the water system.  By stopping the water supply for four days, the poison would be sufficiently diluted.
   
  Now this is patently absurd.  How does anyone put the poison in throughout the system?  How do you dilute it to harmless levels in four days?  How quickly do you think cyanide kills?  Etc.  Boxun said that the editor has not verified the information.  You don't need to verify the information.  You reject it on the grounds that there is no scientific basis (check Google/wikipedia on potassium/sodium cyanide, water system poisoning, etc).  If someone claimed that an UFO did it, Boxun would not have printed it.  This might as well as be an UFO.  If you drop 100 kilograms of potassium/sodium cyanide into a water pump station, the next person who drank the water along the line would be in a coma in about 10 seconds and dead within an hour, and the poison could never get to the other side of town.  Get real!
   
  Meanwhile, Boxun also published an essay from Liu Xiaobo.  It is titled 用真话运动瓦解现代独裁政 (translation: Use the truth movement to dismantle modern dictatorial governments).  The moral strength of Mr. Liu lies in the insistence upon the truth.  Using lies to dismantle modern dictatorial governments may work, but one may not want to live in the world that comes afterwards.  Do you really think people will stop lying, especially since they have seen it work so well?  The truth movement means rejecting ALL lies.