Communist pigs

The Chinese Government has once again shown that it is uncivilised and barbaric by executing a mentally disabled drug dealer. Britain now needs to pull on the gloves and pressure China internationally to reform and improve its Human Rights. Engagement obviously makes no difference to these communist pigs. This total disregard to basic human rights by executing the first (quite blatantly mentally ill) European in 50 years, and telling the international community to fuck off should send a shiver of fear through Hong Kong. If they can so boldly ignore the protests of a major trading power-they can do anything.

Driving and sleighing

On the 12th day of Christmas....

Snowy days

Playing in the snow

Joseph's carol service

beauty queen bowls over middle aged Hong Kong judge

Another grave miscarriage of justice in Hong Kong?Should the employer have been fined and banned from employing any more domestic helpers? Another case of ingrained racism against other Asians in Hong Kong?

Beauty and the maids (From The HK Standard)

A one-time runner-up in the Miss Hong Kong pageant, who is said to have hired and fired 45 maids in five years, has accused three of her current four maids of stealing almost 150 items of children's wear from her home.

Diana Lee

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A one-time runner-up in the Miss Hong Kong pageant, who is said to have hired and fired 45 maids in five years, has accused three of her current four maids of stealing almost 150 items of children's wear from her home.

The maids Marites Alberto Saddaran, 34, Aubrey Leal Garcia, 25, and Ginavilla Velasco Gongob, 41 have pleaded not guilty to stealing the clothes from the Old Peak Road home of 45-year-old Winnie Chin Wai-yee between August and November 3.

Appearing in Eastern Magistracy yesterday, the maids suggested Chin second in the beauty pageant in 1981 was a shopaholic and that she frequently asked them to get rid of unwanted clothing.

They also said Chin, who is married to banker Ma Ching-yeung, had a bad attitude and often used abusive language including calling them idiots with no brain.

Her husband is a member of the Tai Sang Bank's Ma clan. The couple have two sons and a daughter.

Quoting figures from the Philippine consulate, the maids' defense lawyer claimed Chin had hired and fired 45 maids from 2004 to 2009 a figure that Chin disputed.

Chin, a merchant, claimed the maids took 79 shirts, 46 trousers, three skirts, three jackets, 15 pairs of shoes and two rucksacks together worth more than HK$30,000.

In her testimony, Chin said she had thought in October that some of her children's clothes had gone missing but did not suspect anyone. Then she saw Saddaran put a pair of her eldest son's sports shoes under the bunk bed in the maids room that she shared with Garcia on the evening of November 3.

Chin said that when Saddaran was questioned in front of the other maids she confessed and begged for another chance.

After a report was made to police, Chin said, more children's clothes were found in cabinets the three defendants used. The other two maids then allegedly admitted their involvement.

The maids' lawyer suggested that Chin was addicted to shopping, which sometimes resulted in arguments with her husband.

Because of her purchases, the lawyer claimed, Chin had to clear her children's wardrobes two to three times a year. On that, Chin said that I think shopping is a woman's prerogative.

But she insisted she did not shop that frequently and denied having arguments with her husband.

Asked if she would from time to time ask her maids to dispose of unwanted clothes, Chin said she never allowed her maids to keep her children's clothes nor did she give them gifts.

I would store my eldest son's clothes for my second son, Chin said. Those that were not needed I gave to my relatives.

Chin also said she fired about 30 maids during the five-year span. Some had left on their own accord having failed to meet her requirements.

In one case, Chin said, she suspected a maid had stolen money, and other maids in the household resigned in protest when she decided to report the case to the police.

Chin admitted that one former maid had gone to the Labour Tribunal and had won her case.

Magistrate Henry Mierczak ruled the three maids had a case to answer. The case continues today.


UPDATE-RTHK
Three maids of ex-beauty queen convicted

16-12-2009
Three Philippine maids, who worked for a local celebrity, have been found guilty of theft and jailed for three months. Their employer, a former Miss Hong Kong runner-up, Winnie Chin, accused them of stealing some of her children's designer-label clothes - worth $23,000. The maids said they had been given the items. The magistrate, Henry Mierczak, sided with Ms Chin, saying she had been an honest witness - and that the maids had engaged in theft for a period of time.

Joseph gets glasses

Note from a stranger

I received this 'spam' e-mail this morning. So poetic it deserves a mention.


Ave, my dear friend

Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love.
I live for you, my honey, I breathe for you, my dear, I wake up for you every morning http://matchamour.com/31795/
You will be everything to me! I will love you as long as the stars light up the heaven, as long as the sun whisks away the darkness of the night and touches the earth with loving warmth. All I need is to find you wherever you are now. And I am here for you, my sweetheart, help me to find your kind heart and deep soul.

Looking forward to get a note from you
Lera B.

That Christmas feeling

Found myself home alone this morning, so went out to get the paper and some xmas lights and decorations. The town is full of Christmas 'stalls' selling bratwursts, cakes, Paella(!), mulled wine, hot Baileys, Turkey barms and scarves, hats, overpriced handmade decorations and ethnic wares and food. I decided to have my large Americano sat outside under the lights, even though it was only 2c the outdoor tables were packed!
Bizarrely the adjacent stall was selling kangaroo, ostrich, venison and wild boar burgers -I had an extremely tasty kangaroo burger with my coffee. Reading my newspaper with the smell of chestnuts being roasted(corny-but true!), and buskers singing carols, I realised that being here over Christmas definitely feels more festive than being on a beach in the Philippines, or having a barbecue in Hong-Kong. Walking back past the Salvation Army Band, a guy playing xmas tunes on his accordion, and an opera singer, I felt the 'Christmas spirit' about 2 weeks earlier than usual. Now where was that mulled wine?

Whatever you do-walk quickly and don't look up!

Woman threw 5 choppers out of window

12-12-2009
RTHK
A woman has been fined HK$1,000 for hurling choppers out of the window of a 10th floor flat during a row with her husband. A court heard that Chen Xiaoqing, a mainland two-way permit holder, had been threatened with a knife by her husband in their Choi Hung home. She was fined after her clear record and guilty plea were taken into consideration. Her husband, Tang Kwok keung, was fined HK$500 for criminal intimidation. In another case, a 61-year-old woman was sentenced to 12 months probation, after she admitted accidentally dropping a knife from her window in Shek ip Mei. The woman said she dropped the knife, after trying to place it back on a rack next to the window. She later turned herself in. The maximum penalty for allowing objects to fall from height, is a HK$10,000 fine, and six months imprisonment.

Jack's Nativity

Seagulls and ducks

This life

Heidi says 'Nein!' to minarets

The Swiss have outlawed the building of any more minarets(not mosques) in a very bold move.
As a democratically elected government they certainly have the right to do so. It would be plain wrong to ban mosques and the freedom to follow the religion of your choice, but this is not what they have done. Although astoundingly boring, Switzerland is a very pretty country indeed, in fact that is its only redeeming feature- beautiful green rolling hills and mountains with quaint Germanic, Hansel and Gretel houses. Switzerland inspires images and memories of the Von Trapps, and Heidi(maybe that was Austria, same-same) frolicking happily in the meadows. Switzerland has never been known for embracing foreign culture, unless you are a rich Nazi escaping wartime Germany. Why change now?
As far as I know, minarets are not an integral part of a mosque. Visit any mosque inside airports in many middle eastern countries, and they don't have minarets. Although minarets are a common sight in the hills throughout the Balkans, they are a part of those countries' cultural heritage, not in inward looking Switzerland.
Personally I love minarets, just under 2 decades ago I slept on the roof of a hostel in the old city of Jerusalem for an extended period. I absolutely loved awaking to the sound of the call to prayer from hundreds of minarets in the hills below. I even bought a tape and harassed my neighbours for years with the sound of the Koran on full blast. I must buy another.
The case against minarets in the UK is far less clear, and I'm sure that Switzerland's move is only the first attempt within western Europe . In my opinion, the drab grey terraced towns and cities of Northern England are much more aesthetically pleasing with the addition of minarets and mosques-the more the merrier I say. As for Hong-Kong, anyone who has seen the mosque outside Kowloon park, has to agree that it is a very welcome oddity in an otherwise skyscraper obsessed (Buddhist) city.

Dubai-Liverpool of the East

The Dubai government today announced that they would not guarantee the country's debts. The effects are shaking markets throughout the world. As we all know the sheer scale of the developments that have been undertaken there have been staggering. We have watched as they embarked upon awe-inspiring building projects-and thought 'How do they do it?' The simple answer is-'on the never never' , 'on HP'. They were just doing the same as everyone else has been doing for the last 20 years-buying their sports cars, houses and huge TV's-amazed that the bank were foolish enough to give them the money, and knowing quite well that they would never-ever be able to pay it back, but pushing that knowledge right to the back of their minds. The only difference with Dubai is that they never pushed it to the back of their minds, they knew full well what they were doing the whole time, but thought ' lets see how much we can get'.
Dubai should be twinned with Liverpool, funny that they were interested in buying Liverpool football club until recently, great minds think alike. Simply put- if they are foolish enough to give it-take it.
I was in Dubai a few years ago as ever, on the cheap. I had 9 hours between flights, and decided to explore. I walked about 4 miles into the centre, past what seemed to me a huge building site in the desert. I took a few detours through new suburban areas, which were gated, immaculate and eerily deserted, apart from a few Filipino gardeners and maids. The city itself was vibrant and exciting. The docks full of junks, fishing boats and small freighters being loaded and unloaded by Sri-Lankans and Indians. It was starting to occur to me that I hadn't seen any locals working-what did they do all day?
It was only upon entering the bazaar that I saw locals(well Arabs, they could have been from any of the surrounding nations) working. They manned the spice stalls and the fur(!) and jewellery stalls. I liked Dubai, it felt safe, it was clean, but it still had a heart- in the bustling markets, and all along the harbour. Over the years I have travelled to numerous places in the Middle-East, but Dubai was the easiest. I sat on the beach yards from the markets, enjoying the warm winds blowing in from the Persian Gulf. I took a bus back to the airport content that I'd used my 9 hours to the full.
Dubai is not the first oil state to spend all of its money on massive projects that would never be sanctioned in the west(yet all these projects are cynically completed by western companies). Dubai at least appears to have spent the money on structures that have improved the overall infrastructure, who cares what they look like-skyscrapers can only be an improvement on all encompassing desert.

When the storm settles, Dubai will have the tallest building in the world, some amazing resorts, and a city full of modern houses, shopping malls etc. These things have already been built, and even if the bailiff comes knocking on the door-it's too late-the money has been spent.
Good luck to them!

Dead soldiers campaigning for the Tories

It seems to me that there is a different grieving mother paraded through the media everyday. The mothers are understandably grieving for their sons that have died in battle. These are the mothers of fallen soldiers. Soldiers that have given their lives in the service of their country. This is a fact regardless of the reasons for the wars they serve in.
This is a new phenomenon in this country-grieving mothers berating government policy in the names of their dead children. This has strangely coincided with The Sun's decision to back the Conservatives in the coming General Election. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp appears to be using these mothers for their own ends. Strange how an Australian has the power to try and affect British public opinion. Not that the British people have taken it at face value. Public opinion was firmly behind Gordon Brown, when The Sun launched a story about his untidy handwriting on condolence letters- most people thought the fact that he wrote them and his partial blindness to be a mitigating circumstance.
Growing up in a forces family with a father and two brothers in the army, I find complaining families a little disconcerting. The British army , is a volunteer army. A soldier is expected to follow the commands of his superiors, and the democratically elected government without question. This is a prerequisite, it is not a recent rule, it is an integral part of the job. Wanting to fight in a war, wanting to kill another human being isn't, but is not unknown.
Most young soldiers are quite keen to put all of their training into action and join their comrades in the battlefield, they are soldiers after all.
As civilians we find the idea of soldiers dying upsetting and hopefully war distasteful, but the reality is that soldiers understand that it is an inevitable part of what they do.
American soldiers may be another matter, as some would argue that the American military has a high percentage of recruits from socially disadvantaged groups-that is not the case here in the UK. Opportunities do exist in this country, and our ghettoes are actually not that bad-I've lived in them.
A British recruit enters the military with his eyes open about the benefits and the dangers.
These soldiers should be respected, they should earn more, they should have more help upon their return, and they must be remembered for the ultimate sacrifice that they have given for the rest of us, who cannot or will not do what they have done.
What mustn't be done though, is that the media(and political puppeteers) use their memory and speak for them against their wishes- a soldier may disagree with a war, but not disagree that he must fight in it.
Soldiers, soldiers mothers, and politics just do not mix. Object to the war, but don't object that soldiers fight in that war.

Funk Soul bro

Autumn days

New home

We are now settling into our new home here in Southport. We are 2 minutes from the beach(not that we're planning on doing any swimming!),cinema, swimming pool, train station, and we are right in the middle of the town. Our living room window looks right over the main tree-lined thoroughfare and shopping area of the town. Southport is only 45 minutes away from Liverpool, and just over an hour to Manchester.
The kids will begin school here on Monday, they will need to take a 5 minute bus trip to school. We walked back from the school this Monday, it was a nice bright winter's day and we passed through a really nice park with a pond full of ducks,geese and seagulls. Kids seem to like it here, although Jack does miss Mui-Wo beach, well he was the self proclaimed 'King of the beach'!
Parents' evening was last night, Jack has caught up with his reading, after having no school for 7 months, and his teacher said he is 'happy-go-lucky' and 'not phased by anything' just like his brother( the same teacher taught Joseph 3 years ago). It was the same for Joseph, who has become football mad again, well not again but more so.
Teosdee, of course is happy here-it's not Hong Kong.
It's 3pm, the sky is clear, but the air is crisp. I can feel the day rolling to a close, the birds are preparing for the evening ahead.We have seagulls and pigeons on the roof, and they spend the day flying up and down the street. There is a robin living nearby, it sits on the garden fence and watches me having a smoke in the morning. I have not become a bird-enthuisiast, but I miss the tropical sound of cicadas, locusts and frogs and watching bats fly past at dusk, so I notice the different sounds here. It is time to put the heating on, I can see the people walking faster to get home, now with scarves and hats with hands deep in pockets ready for a night encased in front of the telly.
Give me a night on the beach anyday-screw the birds, seagulls, crisp air, it is too bloody cold-for me! TV is okay though.