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October 31, 2007
Regina Ip

I know this democracy thing is a bit messy, having to mingle with the masses and all, but could Regina Ip look any more awkward in her public appearances? Best of all, we get to do this election all over again next year.

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 [boomerang] Posted by Simon at 16:43
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Hong Kong Halloween

When and how did Halloween become such a big deal here? I can understand why Park n Shop and Wellcome want to flog as much as possible, but how does importing this pagan celebration fit in to the city's cultural landscape? Will we see politicians standing by the road side with a pumpkin and will anyone be able to tell the difference?

Tonight I'll have the pleasure of taking my kids around to get their body weight in lollies and chocolate, which they will thoroughly enjoy. I'll also have the pleasure of having to ask numerous young adults WTF they think they're doing sticking their hands out for lollies...it's often hard to tell if they're dressed up. Meanwhile everyone else will be trying to scare the living daylights out of young kids. I suppose that's the deal: nightmares for candy.

Couldn't we come up with something better?

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 [boomerang] Posted by Simon at 13:24
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October 29, 2007
Stupid HK things

Why does the SCMP insist on using the most inane breakout boxes in history, simply so they can have a number in large type in the middle of an article? Typically the number is a repeat of some factoid from the attached article. For example in today's world section the box says "The numer of cars it would take to produce the equivalent emissions in a year: 440,000" in talking about the California forest fires. The article has the same information in paragraph three...but the editors assume you won't get that far. How about this: number of useless factoid boxes with numbers in today's SCMP?

Secondly, what's with the idea of politicians standing by the road side and waving to speeding motorists? If that's how politicians here promote themselves then one needs to reconsider their marketing techniques. Have there been any wave inspired car accidents yet? Has anyone driven past and thought, "I like how he waves, he's the one I'm voting for"? And can breathing noxious car fumes for hours at a time be a good thing for those aspiring to rule over us?

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 [boomerang] Posted by Simon at 11:37
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October 23, 2007
Voting Tsang style

voting1.jpg

Sure it's been done to death (pardon the pun) but The Don's no retracted view of the Cultural Revolution as extreme democracy proves something interesting. First what the Don said:

Mr Tsang was speaking to government radio RTHK on Friday.

"People can go to the extreme like what we saw during the Cultural Revolution. For instance, in China, when people take everything into their own hands, then you cannot govern the place," he said.

When challenged that the Cultural Revolution was not really an example of democracy, Mr Tsang said "[It] was the people taking power into their own hands. Now that is what you mean by democracy if you take it to the full swing."

This falls back on a typical fallacy: that democracy means "the people taking power into their own hands". If I'm not mistake, that's anarchy, a state that more accurately describes the Cultural Revolution. Democracy isn't just about going to a ballot box every so often, although that's a start. It's about that vote being equal for every member of society, rather than having functional constituencies that allow vested interests to have a veto and vote in Legco. But it is also about a free press, independent courts, rights to assembly and protest.

On the other hand, the Cultural Revolution is the complete opposite of that. Indeed it was largely about a meglomaniac running riot (again, pardon the pun) over his country in order for him to consolidate his grip on the party and country after the disaster of the Great Leap Forward.

No-one really believed The Don when he campaigned on "solving" the democracy issue within the next 5 years. But the lack of understanding shown by his inept comparison is enough to make one hope that we don't get Tsang-style democracy anytime soon.

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 [boomerang] Posted by Simon at 13:39
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October 01, 2007
Froth

Apologies for the lackidasical posting...there's some life changing events going on.

Catching up on some reading and came across David Webb's Incredibubble article...go read it and start worrying. Bubbles are fun to watch up when they burst they tend to make a mess.

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 [boomerang] Posted by Simon at 11:00
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