The Correspondent, May 1990 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

ll t

ED KOCH

MEETS THE PRESS

WOODY EDWARDS ASIAN MEMORIES

ANOTHER GREAT ANNIVERSARY ON ICE

CONTENTS

TTIE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS' CORRESPONDENTS

COVER STORY About 300 FCC members and guests had amemorable evening leüing theirhair down onthe eighth annivervry of the Club at the T}yearold former ice

CL[IB North Block, 2 Lower Albert Road, Hong Kong. rax: 868 86 4092 Telephone: 521 1511, Fax

storage President

building.

Sinan Fisek,

First Vice-President

Paul ul Bayfietd, Bayfr

Second Vice-President

ASIAN

lrene O'Shea.

Goverr Correspondent Member Cnvernors Robin Moyec Peter Seidlitz, Bob Davis, Michael Shuttleworth, Steven Vines.

Woody Edwards, old As¡a hand, past FCC president and former Associatd Press bureau chiel looks back on the Korean war and the wars in Vietnm as well as the people who fought them, covered them ors¡ffered inthe crossfire. 7

Journalist Member Governors Karì Wilson, David Thurstòn, Cynthìa Hydes.

Associate Member Gover nors \{endy Hughes, Bryan Lloyd, Saul Lockhart, Dorothy Ryan.

Club Managen Heinz Grabne¡ Club Steward: Julìa Suen.

MEET THE

Tf,[ CMNEPüIIETUT ffNNEPfHIX

PRESS

Ediúon P Viswa Nathan

Ed Koch, for l2years mayorof NeùvYork City, tells Club members

Editorial Supervision: Publications SubCommittee: Paul Bayfi eld (Chairman), David Thurston, Saul Lockhar Wendy Hughcs

O WoodyEúr,ards

O Ed ldoch

whyhe losthis reelection bid, why he is ag¿inst Jesse Jackson, how he is helping at least one newspaperto hstits cirqiation, and why he is quite

OThe Correspondent

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Skelchb@k in Hong Kong and Tai*an

CANON HONG KONG TRADING CO., LTD.: Room 1101-3 &1121-2, Peninsula Centre,67 Mody Road, Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong CANON lNC.: PO. Box 5050, Shinjuku Dai.ichi Seimei Btdg., Tokyo 163, Japan

happythathe is no longer

writers are not Opinions expressed by witers necessarily those of the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

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Associate Member Philip Nourse records I(enya's war on poachers and the continuing campaign to save the elephantfor

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Fu:

838 7262

The Correspondent is published monthly for md on behalf of fie Foreign

posterity.

Correspondents' Club, by: PRINTLTNE Ln), Unit B, 18/F Harvard House, l0ll11 Thomson Road, Wanchai,

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Managing Dir€cton P Viswa Nathan, Operations Directon Debbie Nuttall,

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8 11

Technology

Media

Club News

NewMembers

Itwas allin the Cards

Crossword

Video Club

l MEET THE PRESS

MEET THE PRESS

Ed Koch : Fallen but feeling quite liberated

ANSIVER:

AM alwavs asked if I am distressed

tftut I lost the last election. The answer is: No. And people are

always shocked because there were so

many who thought that somêhow or other my life would come to an end if I were not the mayor of the City of New York. But the truth is I feel liberated. There were only three mayors who served for three terms - Fiorello H I¿ Guardia,(1933-45)Robert F Wagner (1954-65) and myself. There are, without question, people who have been in high position in government, who feel distressed when they leave government. The reason is, someone who held a high position in governmant is really good and can do in three hours what someone in the private sector lakes eight hours to do. So they have five hours to remember'who they were. I don't have that problem. And, when I come home at night and go to bed a little after midn$t I know that nobody is going to call me at 3am to tell me that a cop has been shot and I have to go to the hospital; or a water mains is broken and I have to

go to the scene.That doesn't happen to mb any more.

People who have known me say now that physically I look younger. And I know it's true; but it happens also to do with the fact that I went on a

diet Diet, which I rec- thetoUltra-Slim ommend all of you. I lost 33 lb in three months and I am working on to lose ultimately 40 lb, and I will do it in about a month. But I do much more than simply promote Ultra-Slim fast. I am a lawyer. I was a lawyer before I went into government. But now I am a partner in a rhajor

law firm, Robinson Silverman. That

trn

coRRESPoNDENT MAY

1990

takes a lot of my time. I am also involved in the media. I do a column once a week in the New York Posf. \Mhat is interesting is That New Yorþ Post said that 15,000 more people buy the Post on Friday than any other day of the week because they want to read my column. I have a televison show. When that

show started in January, our rating went up from 1 to 3.7. I have a radio show everyday as a commentator on the news of the day. That's the one I like the most because it needs no preparation since I have an opinion on everything. All these things fill up my day and night and I don't have to recall what it is that I used to do. I am proud ofwhat I did. But it is a closed chapter. When I came into office in January 1978, the City of New York was on the edge of bankruptcy and there \Mas no spirit. Somewhat like Hong Kong not on the edge of bankruptcy, but no which is: spirit. Or, the kind of spirit "Gee, what's going to happen to us?" I turned that around. I made the City of New York revert to balanced budgets. So, even though today we have finan-

cial problems, our problem is no different from that of any other city and we are capable of dealing with it. I did something else that I am very proud of. I gave its spirit back to the City of New York. I don't say that in any arrogant way. I believe in telling the truth. People ask me, "If you were such a good mayor, why is that you were not returned to office for a fourth term?" I believe that I lost for two reasons. One

And he bought it after it has been evaluated at three times its value, years ago. And he gave it to me as a gift. Then, a radical reporter John Hess, some of you may know, works for the Obseruer said that this turtle is park

KOCH:

came to Hong Kong

-property

and how could it possibly be given to the mayorl I thought to myself, I like the turtle; I don't love the turtle; if I keep this godamn turtle , it will become a cause celebre. So I called the new

they assemble from all over

the world.

take speaking engagements and I get paid for it, though what I do here today I am doing for free. QUESTI0NT Since

you hque said

parks commissioner appointed under the new mayor'and said, "Take the godamn turtle back!" And that's where the turtle is today. Now, Jesse Jackson. I

earlier in yowr sþeech that Hong Kong lacks sþirit and you take credit for þutting the

sþirit back into the City of New York, do you haue any

word of aduise for our gouernor, Sir Dauid Wilson, on how

believe that Jesse Jackson is a

very able, charismatic, intelligent person whose philosophy is antithetical to the best well-being of the United

to þut some sþirit into Hong

was simple longevity. People get tired of you. They saw me on the news every single night at 6 o'clock. Why? Because New York City

was on the news every single night and I was the spokesman for the city. And people get tired after

l2years.

Secondly, I never sugarcoated anything

that I said. In 1981 when I was running for reelection on the first.occasion, I said to peo ple at that time,'You know, if all the people that I have alienated over the past four years gottogether, you could throwme out. And if you did, I'll get abetter job, but you won't get a better mayor". I think that in 1989 people

concluded, after they threw me out, that I was right. QUESTION: Can you tell us sotne of your obseruations about dealing with the

media ouer the 12 years? K0CH: Dealing

with the media? Let me

sum it up for you.

I hate the press. The statement I refer to on all occasions is one that I made to a reporter who is relatively a nice guy, Doug Jonston of Channel-7

television. He said, "Hold the elevator, mayor." This is after I lost the election and was already becoming a reporter and so forth. And I held the elevator. Then he said, "Now that you are one of us, you have to be more congenial". And I said to him, "That now I am one of "us", do I have to like "us"?" QUESIION:

I wonder what you are doing

in Hong Kong exceþt þromoting Ed Koch and þossibly acting as a consultant to Sir Daaid Wilson.

KOCHr

because John Hancock Insurance Company invited me to come and deliver two lectures to their major executives who

ED KOCH was New York Cityrs mayor for 12 years. Taking office in 1978, Koch successfully lifted the city administration from near bankruptcy to balanced budgets. But in subsequent years Kochrs views on national and international issues became too controversial and his popularity began to fade and when he ran for a fourth term last year New Yorkers voted him out of office. Now, a practising lawyer, television personality and radio presenter, Koch addressed an FCC professional luncheon on April 26. Excerpts:

Y I I

The Governor

Hong Kong.

Sir David Wilson? Who's he?

Kong?

K0CH: Well, I don't know if he can put the spirit back

States as I understand it. He has a right to be in this Democratic Party. He is on the radical left, I am certainly not on the radical right. I

...No, it's not a reflection on him; I don't know him so I

cannot make

comment

about that.

regard myself to be mainstream and there are many other people on the radical right of me. The Democratic Party is big enough to

I believe that we ought to

be doing what

Maggie

Thatcher has done and what Canada, Australia and, per-

haps, some other countries are doing. I believe that a number of the United States included countries should -guarantee a certain number

-of permanent visa applications which would only become due after independence has been lost to Hong Kong and

it becomes a part of People's Republic of China and if they decide that they want to leave they will have a place to come to. The United States never had such a poliiy of providing a guarantee that you can come some time in the future. I believe that we should change that.

I think that the British policy may bring a certain amount of stability. I think it is outrageous that the British changed their policy vis-a-vis their various British subjects.In fact, I have cor-

respondence in my book - which I urge you all to read, the book is called

All

the Best and

rather graciously-. Her letter was good, my letter was good. I know if I had

written to President Bush, he would have said,"Thanks for your supportive note'. But, she... she read it! And she responded. I said that I thought it was, in a way, a form of racism that if the British subjects of the Falklands had to be repartriated because Argentina had won the war. Of course, her response was that there are only 800 of them. Yes, that's alactor. How many have you got here? Five million? That is a little

Ynore difficult. But I think that we should do what she is doing. In that she has allocated 50,000 visas for roughly 250,000 people. How do you get along with Jesse Jackson these days, and how is QUESTIONT

your eternal snaþþer?

it is my major best cor-

respondence with lots of people. I hasten to add I keep none of the royalties. I gave all of it to the City of New York

to the WNYC Foundation. But it is

K0CH:

Let me take the second one first.

The first parks commissioner I appointed bought from the Parks

Department a bronze turtle that was

great book. One of the correspondence is with Maggie Thatcher. She responded

because all 13 other turtles have been vandalised and there was only one left.

no longer being used in the

park

encompass all of us.

But I don't want either the radical right or the radical left to dominate my party. And I beìieve that there is no chance of the radical right dominating it, but there is a change of the radical left doing so. And every time we let them dominate in our primaries in

recent history, we go down

resounding defeat. I believed that it was quite possible that Jesse Jackson, who was number two in that race, could win in New York. I criticised him. There is not a single criticism that I made I would retract; and there is not a single criticism that I made that any-

one has disputed with respect to its

validity. I disagreed with Jesse Jackson with respect to his position on unilateral disarmament; I disagreed with him on his position on new social programmes that we could not afford; and, I disagreed with him on his position of the Mid-East. That's my right. The black community was absoiute-

ly incensed, In retrospect, I will

say

this: I would never say something nice about some other candidate that I was

THE CORRESPONDENTMAY 1990 5

MEET THE PRESS

FORREST ED\A/ARDS

REMEMBERED YESTERDAYS opposing. For example, I would never say, "Garry Hart is no good, but...he is an environmentalist". I will just say, he

QUESIION: Would

is no good. You clearly could never say that about Jesse Jackson. He represented something symbolic to the

Mount Everest.

KOCH:

overwhelmingly voted for him. In New voted forJesse Jackson. Black voters. So, I estranged them because I was so direct. Do I regret it? Would I do it over? I say the same things is - he good on education, good on family obligation, and he is against drugs. I would do that. But I wouldn't do that for any other candidate.

I K0CHI You

paid off.

am not a member of

in Hong Kong for

24 houts. Would you tell us what you like the bæt and the least about Hong Kong so far?

K0CH:That is very difficult. But in the hotel that I am in it was breath-taking from the window of my bedroom which

opens on the river (Voice from the audience: "Harbour"). Well, there are two rivers in my city. And ,what's a bay or harbour but an extension of a river? And across this bay (again a voice

from the audience: "Harbour"), yes harbour, was this extraordinary site. It's like living in Queens and watching Manhattan. It's extraordinary. That's the best.

I haven't seen anything that is bad.

I haven't. What you want from me? I live a golden life. Sheltered, they don't show me anything bad, whereever I go.

/t was uer! symþathetic of you to say that the United States should

don't have to say it. You

Chinese conømunity in New York? KOCH:

We do very well. Huge numbers

of Chinese come into the City of New York. It is one of our largest growing groups. I think we do very well and, in

addition, we have very lenient rules with respect to refugees r4rho can establish they are political refugees. But you have to understand that even though I had my own foreign policy when I was the mayor, I was not able to execute it.

QUESTION: be lunching

understand that you would with the þresident of Taiwan.

I don't know...I am not sure if it is with the president. But I am going K0CH:

to Taiwan.

6 TI{B CORRESPONDENT MAY 1990

believe that the Soviet Union

decided that they couldn't meet us in

terms of expenditure if it came to armaments when their economy is

Forrest (Woody) Edwards \Mas twice president of the FCC int967 and in 1970 - when he was in Hong Kong as head of the Associated Press bureau. A long-time Asia hand, Woody now lives in retirement in San Francisco.

going down the drain. So they threw in the towel. And they are going to open up their economy.

QUESTION:

During ),lur years ìn office,

I think that the People's Republic

what was the biggest mistake that you

has too, in examining its economy, con-

haue made?

cluded, no matter what the rhetoric is, that communism does not work. And that even if they want to keep trying to make it u'ork, which is their right, jt is nice to have a cash co."v called Hong Kong. That's what Hong Kong is to the People's Republic. A cash cow. And,

My biggest mistake...I will tell you. I believe that I assisted the black KOCH:

community to

greater extent than any

appointed more

blacks to high positions in government than any mayor before me.I appointed the first black police commissioner, the first black parks commissioner, the first black deputy mayor of economic development and a whole host of others. More black judges than all the mayors before me in the aggregate. Nevertheless, I suffered politicaþ wittr respect to the black community. It is very painful. And I thought to myself, what is it that I did that I didn't do well and how could I have done it better? Maybe I am too impatient, maybe too quick on the draw...That's part of the New York spirit, so to speak, I am no better than you but you are no better than I am. That is the way I deal with people. ITe never done anything that would convey to people that they have to treat me with greater respect than I would treat them. But a lot of people would like a guy who is more subdued, less confrontational, more plastic.

QUESTI0N:

allow Hong Kong þeoþle to emigrate to the States. How did you deal with the

the

don't look like one. You look nice.

mayor before me. QIJESIION: You haue been

for supporting the Contras in Nìcaragua. I did too in both cases. And i1

Never been

black community. Many of them did not agree with his positions, but they York City, 93 per cent of the voters

a strong national defence.'lhey stood

you tell us why?

said to them, rGet yourself

another mayor.r And they did. slogan in China now is "One country two systems". Do you belieue that a city with two systems can QUESTION: The

work? I think it can work and I hope does work. Why is it in the interest of

K0CH: Yes,

the People's Republic to make it work? For the same reason that it is in the interest of the Soviet Union to change its system and allow capitalism in. They're bankrupt in East Europe and the Soviet Union. They didn't do it because they are gracious and nice. They did it because they came to the conclusion that they cannot meet us in the area of war. To the great credit of Ronald Reagan and George Bush (I am not their number one defender, I didn't vote for either of them), they stood for

you don't slaughter the cash cow QUESII0N: If my memory serues me right, a few years ago the US Suþreme Court

declared the gouernment of the City of New Yorh unclnstitutional. Would you like to exþlain? KOCH:

The City of New York had, up

until recently, a government which was different in great part than any other city government. We had a bicameral legislature with a City Council and a Board of Estimates, which was compa-

rable to the Senate but nevertheless different. While they both had budgetary authority, the Board of Estimates has total authority, with the mayor, over land use, zoning, development, etc. And presidents of each of the five boroughs who sat on the Board of Estimates were equal, even though one of the boroughs had only 380,000 people while another had more than

two million. They together with three citywide officials made up the Board. And a Federal judge said that it violates the principle of one-man one-vote, so it had to be done away with and the pow-

ers that they exercised were to be

given, in great part, to a new city council and partly to the mayor.

That system is basically now in effect. Whether it works or not, I can-

not tell you... In the new council, there will be 51 members compared with the present 35. Each of them will have jurisdiction over eight square blocks or ten square blocks. For a city with 175 different religions, races and ethnics groups and all

other powers that are pushing and pulling, you need a strong mayor. I belive, the present city charter weakens the new mayor. I hope I am wrong. I

HEN I was asked to contribute to Remembered Yesterdays I first thought of trying a derring-do

man who was known to entertain

occasional overnight guest. According to eyewitness accounts, Mike decided it was

time to extend his rail empire.

or a how-I-got-that-story. But I could not remember having any derring-dos. Or any good how-l-got-that-story yarns. So I settled for a few snapshot memories of some of the people I met or worked with during 24 years in Asia. The people are real. And, except for Albion, so are the first names. Some Asia old timers will rec-

He punched a small "tunnel" through the wall just above the shelves in his room and the adjoining room, laid a track, set up his remote controls, and waited. Came the right night, and Mike played

ognize most, if not all, of the characters.

emerged through the tr.rnnel, chuffed across

engineer. Headlight shining, smoke puffing,

whistle blowing, the Midnight Express the neighbour's high shelf, halted, then

Mike's Big Iæns Mike was a Life staffer in Korea, a fine

slowly backed up into the tunnel again. By that time, the story goes, an unclad

photographer with two hobbies: testing new photo equipment and collecting model trains. He came back from one Tokyo R & R with a prototype long lens and a fantastic model locomotive.'The

young lady was streaking down the hall,

lens was a monster. A three-foot stovepipe

supported by its own tripod, a huge hunk of glass at one end, a flange for a 35mm camera at the other.

He took it up to a ridge line observation outpost, planted it on a sandbag parapet, aimed it at a Chinese outpost on the opposite ridge across a narrow no-man'sland ravine. The first Chinese shell fell short, the second long, the rest a lot closer as they sought to knock out this new American weapon. By that time everyone was deep in reinforced bunkers. No one got hurt. Mike saved his lens. But he was not exactly popular in that sector for quite a while. Mike's new locomotive was a modeller's dream. A third the size of then existing American models, it had a headlight that threw a spot across the room, a device that puffed ersatz smoke and a whistle that would wake the dead. Well, maybe not the dead but certainly a sound sleeper. At the time the Seoul press billet was a semi-Westernised building of small apartments, each with a main room that abutted the main room of the next apartment. A foot below the ceilings, running wall-towall, were ornate but sturdy shelves, about 10 inches wide. Mike's next-door neighbor was a news-

screaming "kwi-sin kwi-sin" ("ghost"). The neighbour did not get angry until a week later. That was when he found out that one segment of Seoul's population refused to even come near a place inhabited by evil spirits.

Tape-recording Nixon Everyone, at some time or other,

has

probably wondered if some specific incident in his life could have had some effect upon future history. Could my use of tape recorders during

three interviews with Richard Nixon in Asia have had anything to do with the tape recorders of the Watergate years? I was using an earþJapanese portable

the night Nixon flew into Tokyo shortly

after Democrat Lyndon Johnson had humiliated Republican Barry Goldwater by 486 to 52 electoral votes in 1964. I met Nixon at planeside - that was still possible in those days. I switched on the recorder and asked his views on the Republican future. There was no objection to the recorder and he gave me a couple ofgood quotes. He also agreed to

A couple weeks, later I got a brief note from a Nixon aide on the trip. He wrote that Nixon had seen press coverage in the US of both interviews and had made two

comments: Every quote had been accurate. He wished all-reporters used tape recorders. A year or so later, when Nixon was iaying the foundation for his 1968 campaign, he stopped in Hong Kong on his return from a trip to Vietnam. This time the interview was in his room at the Mandarin Hotel. I pointed to my sizeable reel-to-reel recorder. He pointed to a coffee table belween two easy chairs. "That's more than you were carrying in Toþo." For some 45 minutes he outlined what he had seen in Vietnam, the difficulties in prosecuting the war, the problems of finding peace. As I was packing up, I said something about recorders being a nuisance but a lot more accurate than a pad and pencil, as well as protection against claims of misquotation. I also mentioned the use of four sound-activated Sonys in my bureau to

monitor Communist Chinese

and

Vietcong broadcasts and the use of two special Uhers to transcribe those tapes.

Years later I read that the bugging recorders in the Oval Offìce were Sonys virtually identical to mine. And the transcribing recorder on which his secretary accidentally erased those 17 minutes of Watergate tape was the same Uher model that I used.

Two differences: Over the years we transcribed thousands of hours of broadcasts wilhout an accidental erasure. We deliberately erased our tapes shortþ after transcribing so they could be used again.

a half-hour interview at his hotel the

When something snaps

next day.

For a correspondent, f¡ustration could hit in a split-second bang or fester for weeks. The only certainty: Sooner or later, one

This time, again with the recorder running, he outlined what he thought had to be done to revitalize the Republican Party and win in 1968. Incidentally, he beat Hubert Humphrey by 110 electoral votes in 1968.

way or another, it was going to get you.

Two bangers hit friends of mine using now-extinct handheld newsreel cameras. The French had just lost their war in

THE CORRESPONDENT MAY 1990

THE 7OO

BY ARTHUR HA¿KER

REMEMBERED YESTERDAYS to the edge of one fan. I must have

watched him for lìve minutes. He was in no danger. The fan was barely making one revolution every two seconds. (The Continental never had enough electricity to make it turn much faster.)

WHAT,S A NICE BIRÞ

LIKE YOU

DOING IN A PLACELIKE THf 5 ?

I remember wondering if

thought he was in some strange tree in some strange wind, if he was enjoying himself or was terrified out of his

tiny skull I got up, switched off the fan. He fell onto the bed, took off on a wobbly flight toward the window, banged into the half that was closed, tumbled to the floor. I picked him up, set him on the sill, did a couple gentle shoo-shoos. A tgntative wingflap and then he tried for the tree. He should have made it he had managed to fly into the room-and up to the fan he didn't. - but Maybe he was dizzy lrom riding the fan, maybe-dazedfrom bumping into the

North Vietnam and some of us hung on in Hanoi for the expected return of prisoners captured at Dien Bien Phu. We were waiting at a riverbank landing area when the first PoW boat pulled in. Bob gave a final wind to his springdriven camera. A sharp crack and a whir as the spring broke. Bob slammed the camera to the ground, kicked it, picked it up, stalked to his waiting taxi, trailing a stream of profanities.

The rest I heard later from a French billet officer at the Camp de Press. Bob stormed up to the room he shared with his wife, a writer who travelled with him, and shouted just one word. "Pack." Within 90 minutes Bob and wife were at the airport catching a ride on a military

flight to Saigon. A Hong Kong-based cameraman took a similar hit at the China border. He had been filming the return of someone who

had been held prisoner by the Communists. The catch on his camera's film compartrnent failed, something else went

wrong, and a hundred feet of film spiralled to the

ground.

Frustration building up over time was more dangerous.

During the last months at Hanoi's Camp de Press, tension mounted and tempers frayed, exacerbated by a French stringer who was one of the most obnoxious and irritating men I have ever known. Mean-spirited, sour-mouthed, he sniped at everything and everybody in a high-pitched cackle that abraded the nerves of everyone except a cool, calm, unfl appable British correspondent.

The French command was flying

window One feeble spiral and he flut-

group of us over the Red River delta in an old cargo plane. A bare cargo compartment, no seats, rear doors tied open so'vr/e could look out and see for ourselves (they hoped) that they still controlled the area.

tered to the ground and the base of the tree. I went down to get him - hea couple hours resting in my room and would be strong enough to fly. An alley cat got

work of rice paddies, Albion cracked. Shouting "shut up" over and over, he began wrestling the cackler down the fuselage toward the open doors. It took the longest second I have ever known before we realised what was happening. Those closest grabbed the wrestlers and pushed them back to the front of the cabin. Others helped pry them apart. A

A pointless story? That depends. I once knew a Fleet Street byliner who, if he were writing this today, 35 years later, would recall that even back then he forsaw it as a portent of the fall of Siagon. The sparrow would be South Vietnam. I would represent an inept America that failed the rescue. It would be nice if I could see myself that way. A perceptive correspondent, knowedgeable, undersüanding, capable of a penetrating look into a years-away future.

The cackle started at take-off and never let up. At 5,000 feet, over a patch-

French newsman slapped the cackler into silence. Two others grabbed Albion and set him on the floor between them. I have always felt that the man I call Albion would have stopped short of the door. But cannot be 100 per cent sure.

Saigon sparrow It had not been a good day in Saigon as it was then called. Hot, humid, a sweaty clothes-sticking day day of going - afinding around in circles without a good solid hard edge for the story I wanted. The stairs to my room in the old Continental !,¡r'ere a drag. I unlocked the door, switched on the big four-bladed overhead

fan, stretched out on the bed. I cursed Saigon's three-hour siesta which made it impossible to reach any sources before wire deadlines in the US or in Europe.

lay there, half-awake, hearing an occasional faint chirp that sounded closer

than from the tree just outside my window. I looked up.

A tiny fledgling sparrow was clinging

REMEMBERED YESTERDAYS but oozing considerable blood. Jim was asoutherner. So, I think, was the general, At any rate they knew each other well enough for the general to call

him Jim. Jim, of course, called him General.

"Hell, Jim, you just got yourself an easy Purple Heart. Get that sulfa-ed and bandaged, get some dry socks, and get

back up there. Remembe¡ they're not shooting AT you. They're shooting OVERyou." A half-hour later Jim was hit again and came back down to get the bleeding stopped and another bandage,

"What the hell, Jim? You trying for two in the same day? Get patched, get dry socks, and get back up there. (It was a wet day and the general was a firm believer in dry socks.) "Remembel they're not shooting AT you. They're shooting OVERyou."

The third time Jim came down from

the ridge on a stretche¡ his abdomen was sliced open by a fragment.

The general got over to Jim and, according to the medic who had just

given him a morphine shot, Jim crooked a bloodied finger. The general bent down to listen. "G..........., General, listen to me. Those m............. are shooting AT us." Jim later claimed that he passed out at that point just so the general could not have the last word. (The barrage finally let up. The ridge line held. The anticipated attack did not

come. Jim recovered and was reassigned to headquarters in

Toþo during

Some are easier than others. There was the little boy and his mother ih a Hanoi area where Vienamese refu-

gees waited, hoping they would be among those the French would take south to Saigon. The boy, about two, stood naked in a roadside ditch while his mother used a tin can to dip water from a battered pail and pour it over,him. He stretched his arms above his head, clapping his hands

and laughing, The mother smiled and

a rehabilitation programme. I

hugged him.

three Purple Hearts,)

But there was the four-year-old in a hospital on Quemoy who stared at the bandage where his hand should have

never learned whether he got one, two, or

Forgeüing would be easier

There's no such thing as a fun war, So why, when correspondents start rehashing old memories, do they so often

dwell on the comic aspects? Most do not want to talk about, or even remembe¡ what war does to people. For some, probably for most, the hardest memories are of the children.

in hospitals, in

orphanages, in

refugee camps.

been.

And the little girl who had been in

Seoul orphanage for two years. It was nap time. She was curfed up on her cot, crying softly, The Korean nun said she cried in her sleep every night, Some nights, when a window is open

and other noises have stilled, I hear a child crying next door. I get up and close the window It takes a long time to get back to sleep.

there first.

]Filoo*^oilJ S"nvilces

The truth: Maybe I remember Sparrow because I wish I had not shooed him out of my room until he was stronger. Maybe because there was nothing else worth remembering of that miserable, frustrating, boring, fruitless day. There were a lot of days like that, after

the French quit the North and before Dwight Eisenhower started sending US military advisers into South Vietnam.

Securing the lastword

Private Banking

Offshore Accounts

Mortgages fnsurances

Channel fslande and Isle of Man

Unit Iþust Advice

School Fee Planning

Property Search

Life, Home, Office etc.

Jim was an infantry captain on a ridge line in Korea the day the Communists began

Lloyds Bank servicee and expertise available to individuals through our ofrce in Hong Kong.

start of a major push to lake the position. The division general was at the for-

For further detaile contact Graham Donald, BZB2].gZltB6/266

an artillery barrage so sustained and intense that it was seen as the possible

ward aid station, just below the ridge crest on the relatively safe reverse slope,

when Jim walked down holding

makeshift bandage over a shrapnel gash on the arm. Not an incapacitatihg wound

8 THB coRRESPoNDENT MAY 1990 THE CORRESPONDENT MAY 1990

TECHNOLOGY

FRANCIS PEARCE

TECHNOLOGY

screening program each time a new disk is used on a computer. These programs are available, along with "antidotes" from

Computer viruses: The last laugh

Polytechnic's Computer Sciences depart-

The introduction of computers into publishing makes the press aTarget for high-tech mischief makers but afew simple precautions can help prevent contamination or limit damage and give the press the last laugh.

ZT\IB sritis I diankeot I ery alive

you haven't got a sense of humour you

tabloid "Sunday Guardia¡r" complete with a "colour supplemenf'printed in black and white and reduced to a single page to save readers' time. Earlier spoofs by the paper have included a regular edition that fea-

tured copy from all its columnists on events in ty¡rcgraphicaÍytopical San Serif

which tickled the advertising indusûYs frmny bone sufficiently to bring in a bumper crop of flrll-pagers in the same vein. Hong Kong's humerus has been given a tweak on occasion too. A South China Morning Post story on plans to move the annual Rugby Sevens tournament across

the border drained

the

alcoholic flush from a few cheeks a while ago and a lavistrly illustrated article on designer cats in the upmarket Peøk magazine had feline

fanciers'frr standing on end.

Ifs all good harmless stuff and - like - all the better for being played

most jokes

on someone else. It has been said that

shouldn't be in publishing. The joke wears a bit thin though when it becomes destructive, as in the case of computer viruses, a form of practical joke already visited on a number of local publications.Viruses are a type of self-replicating program which occupy strategic parts of a computer's memory or copy themselves over

eisting

data.

Some 30 years ago bored but brainy software developers atAT&T's Bell l¿bo ratories used to battle each otherwith pro grams they called organisms. The object of these games, called "Core Wars", was to be the first to write a program that

would clog up an opponent's computer system.

Since then, a lot of nasty little programs have been developed to destroy data with all the discrimination of a supermarket poisoner. They are spread almost always unwittingly - by exchang-

ing contaminated disks or use of an infected system, either by itself or through a

Hæ RANT Ê

LU,

variety of sources in Hong Kong, includ-

ing PC consultants and the Hong Kong

computer network. Publishers are at risk because growing numbers of writers now file copy on computer disk or over the tele

phone line using modems but the real drab in the docþard is the typesetter. If a contaminated disk is sent to a typesetter, unless it is spotted, it will infect the machines used to transfer copy for setting and then every other disk that follows.

More than 150 strains of computer virus have been found in computer systems in the US and Europe.. They mainly attack lBM-style computers but increasing numbers are aimed at Apple's Macintosh-microcomputer. Viruses were also reported to have attacked Sharp's X68000 personal computers in Japan recentþ So far three strains of anti-IBM virus have appeared in Hong Kong, with a program called Stoned being the most contagious. Most victims of Stoned only realise that their computers have been infected when they seize up and a message appears on the screen saying 'Your computer has been stoned. Legalise marijuana.".What drollery. The program replaces the commands in thefirst sector of a diskwhich allowitto initiate other programs, effectively locking a computer out of his or her files. Simply switching on the computerwith an infected disk or running a directory command to view its contents triggers the virus. Two other viruses, Bouncing Ball and Brain have also attacked systems in Hong Kong. Bouncing Ball sends a video tennis

ment. Most of the antivirus software is what is called "shareware" which means that they are available for little more than the cost of a diskette and can be copied freely without concerns over software copyright.

Hong Kong Polytechnic has develto Stoned called Stone breaker and another which is in circulation in Hong Kong is called Flushot. If one computer within a department or organisation is found to be infected the chances are that the virus is already spreading and it is essential to check all the disks in use. At the cost of a few hundred dollars it is worth calling in a PC consultant to carry out the checks and if necessary - recover corrupted data from disks. There are a number of simple precautions that can be taken to avoid contamination or limit the damage. Do not use

The virus that scared publishers the most has

fortunately bypassed Hong Kong

oped an antidote

pirated software programs because they

are copied in vast numbers and are an obvious source of contamination. Always

make a copy of the files you keep on a separate disk. Store applications software and files on different disks or if you have a hard disk put them in separate sub-directories. Check every "new" disk

certain number have been built up in

directory. It is advisable to keep no more than 16 files in one directory, incuding the backup files which aie made when a document is saved to memory. Clearly, you should also ensure that your typesetter is aware of the need to check disks

and once they are returned from the typesetter they should be screened

before use. The viruses that have so far struck in Hong Kong are relatively benign and can be cured without a great deal of difficulty. However, it may only be a matter of time before viruses which destroy data

thoroughly will reach this region over international data communications net-

find out how to make a sub-directory

works. But in publishing terms, perhaps the scariest virus has already bypassed HongKong. Iast year a virus almed at the Apple Macintosh made its way out of Canada which periodicalþ inserted into computer files a message calling for world peace. Fortunately for foreign correspondents even in the post-Cold War era

because some viruses, including strains of Stoned, lock users out of files once a

round.Justkidding.

that you use, It is worth dusting off the operator's manual for your personal computer to

there is still plenty of conflict to go

game style blob around the computer screen while Brain reproduces itself gradualþ throughout a disk and has been known to wipe a hard disk entirely. A simple check on whether a computer system has been infected by any of these programs can be made when the computer is switched on. IBM-compatible PCs run a diagnostic check on their circuitry when they are powered up. These three programs take up between one and three kilobyûes of a computels memory so, for example, a machine equipped with 256 kilobytes a¡rd infected with Brain will register 253 kilobytes available

A more effective check is to use a

trn

coRRESPoNDENT MAY r99o

THE CORRESPONDENT MAY199O 11

PHOTO ESSAY

Kenya shows was fortunate enough to make a long-awaited trip to Kenya shor[ly after Christmas. fumed with 25 rolls of film, a Nikon, a Canon and a selection of lenses, including a 10G300mm autofocus zoom,l set off for Nairobi wheie I stayed with old FCÇ hands Penny and Brian Carnelley in Giraffé Manor, a

beautiful colonial home surrounded by giraffe and boasting a distant view of Mount Kilima njar o'n T anzania. Perhaps the most spectacular partof my four-week stay in Kenya was a safari in the Masai Mara National Reserve, avast area of undulating grassy plains and probably the last place in EastAfrica w.here the Big Five - elephanL rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard - can be seen, It is Kenya's wildlife parks which afford some protection to threatened

Pictures and words

Philip Nourse

species, Hunted by ivory poachers and harassed by agriculturalists, elephants tend to stay within the relative safety of some of the parks, Since 1984, elephant numbers in the Masai Mara Reserve have risen sharply to over 1,000 with many herds moving north due to the increase in poaching elsewhere. Another great mammal that has suffered is the rhinoceros. The rhino of the Masai Mara Reserve are particularþ precious because poaching has virtually

eliminated them in other areas. including the world-famous Serengeti National Park. Rhino have valuable horns, a fact that has accelerated their disappearance, Money made from rhino horn is irresistible to the.poor in rural Africa, The high price stems from the use of rhino horn as a febrifuge in the Far East, not as

President Moi (lefi) aetsfrre to a forfurne ln conûscated

animal hides and rhino

horns.

12 rup

coRRESPoNDENT MAY 1990

MEDIA

A'sleeping tiger' stirs again Freelance writer M.G.G. Pillai (lefr) writes from Johore Bahrú, Malaysia, that he has been barred from Singapore for a report he wrote a few months ago. Given the politics of succession in the island republic, the pressures on correspondents can only increase, he says.

il r lvt lVl

OST COLINTRIES would

ting into "trouble". In 1971, I was one of

pleased ii a ioreign corresponäent *rttes anout them wrth an understanding and knowledge that comes from long association - his reports would provide, if nothing else, a more balanced view, even when he is critical. Indeed, There are government officials in almost every country in South and Southeast Asia

three senior journalists expellecl when the

who often complain, rightly or wrongly, that reporters do not fully "understand" the countries they report on. In Singapore, however, it seems that officials prefer that

Ç:.*

foreign correspondents simply clo not

'\..\=_*_

acquire local knowledge.

was not surprising, then, that I

an aphrodisiac as maintained in \4/estern

should be hit with a Singapore immigra-

mythology. Consequently, the rhino is not safe, even within protected areas. In 1986, a special Rhino Surveillance Unit was set up. In 1988, a surveillance count established that the number of rhino livine within the Masai Mara Reserve had increased from a mere 13 to 21. Ten years ago, visitors to Kenya could be certain of

tion ban, as I was on Sunday 8 April, apparentþ for a story I wrote a few months ago on Singapore's internal politics. I was told, privately, that I had "stepped on a sleeping tiger's paw". No one said the story was wrong, only that I had written about it and that "I knew too much". It appears that

seeing rhino in the parks. Today, they

once more the rules governing foreign cor4espondents, foreign journals and

wouldbelucþ.

newspapers have been changed.

The government says, often enough,

Hunting became illegal in Kenya as long ago as 1977,shortly before the election of Daniel T arap Moi as president. President Moi is a keen protagonist of wildlife conservation in Kenyà where "Ban the Ivory Trade" is a common cry. The world was awakened to the scandal of the ivory trade on 18th July 1989 when President Moi orchestrated the public burning of 12 tons of elephant tusks, much to the chagrin of international ivory traders, particularþ in the Middle and Far East. On Thursday 25th January 1990, President Moi unveiled a monument in Nairobi National Park, a monument depicting two protective elephants attempting to liftwith their tusks the dying elephant between them. The monument commemorates the

burning of the ivory inJuly 1989 and serves as a moving reminder of Kenya's commitment to stop the killing. In

14 rnp coRRESPoNDENT MAY leeo

that foreign newspapers and journals should not report on local events and issues that the local newspapers stay clear of if they wanted to circulate in Singapore.

But this has not prevented anyone from reporting for magazines and journals that

President Moi's words: "Great objectives often require great sacrifices. I now call upon the people of the world to join us in Kenya by eliminating the trade in ivory once and for all." On the same hotJanuary afternoon, President Moi set fire to millions of dollars worth of animal hides and rhino horns, confiscated from unwary poachers, a spectacle witnessed by the world's press. The symbolic fire, which burned for many days, will remain etched on the memories of all those who were present on this historic day. I

The monument in Nairol¡r National Park unveiled by President Moi as part of Kenya's campaigrr against the

ivory trade,

Aboue:

Detail from

a commemorative plaque on the burning of 12 tons of ivory

in 1989.

do not circulate on the island. I do not live in Singapore, and the newspapers and journals I write for on Singapore are not readiþ available there because they are either too costly or sold in hotel or airport newsstands and out of reach of most Singaporeans. My position is unusual. I grew up in this

town, which is linked to Singapore by

three-quarter-mile long cause\ryay and was

Johore Bahru and in Singapore. Among my classmates in

educated

school and universþ are cabinet ministers and senior officials in both Malaysia and Singapore. I worked in Singapore for nearly 10 years as ajournalist, first with Reuters and laterwith The Singaþore Herald. But this did not prevent me from get-

paper we were working f.or, The Singaþore Herøld, clashed with the authorities and was banned.That ban, which appeared then to be linked more to my association with the paper than for any writing I had done, was lifted eight years later. During that time I was allowed in with special permission, for social visits of up to four days. 'When I did want to report, which was not

how favourable it is to Singapore interests. So, even if the articles are balanced, tine who writes regularly on Singapore would get on the wrong side soon enough. Inevitably, those who cover Singapore closely are the regional magazines and newspapers that Singapore tries to exclude. That coverage, by and large, is as correct as it could be. Singapore officials do not, invariably, respond tcl queries, espe-

cially on "sensitive" issues. They are quick to challenge in print any mistakes - real or perceived - that my appear. \\trich is why, the letters columns of many journals often have letters from Singapore officials challenging the accuracy of stories in them. Even with full government'help when covering issues and events for which the officials would like publicity, things can go wrong. Recently, an American television crew was in Singaporte to report on the government's efforts to get graduate women to marry. The crew could not have

expected a better reception but things soured when the crew callecl on an opposi-

tion politician. Previously friendly

ancl

often, I did ask for permission, which was sometimes given and sometimes not. When the Singapore government restricted circulation of Asian Wall Street

helpful officials would not give the TV

Journal, Far Eastern Economic

papers, whose queries they would not respond to in the first place, for libel. Premier Lee Kuan Yew's successful libel actions ensures that many a Singapore

Time

and Asiaweek, and banned

Reuiew,

their cor-

respondents, I was told - when, given my past dealings with the government, I had asked - that I did not need special permission to go to Singapore to report. That does not seem, on hindsight, to have been correct. The immigration offìcer who turned me away at the Singapore

railway station that morning was junior officer who did not knowor would not tell me if he did, why I was barred. He would not give me a copy of the order, which he handed to the Malaysian immigration authorities. He told me however that I would have to write in if I wanted to visit Singapore again.

From Johore Bahru, I checked and found that offìcials in a few ministries in Singapore were unaware of the ban and were as surprised as I was about what hap pened to me. Still, rumours about my

impending ban had circulated in

Singapore since January. I had not been to Singapore since early that month, so I did not hear of it. In Singapore and a few other countries,

officials are unhappy or get paranoid when internal political developments are reported in any great detail. But it is details like these that helps journalists and readers to understand a country. Often, it is not done with any malicious intent. But Singapore officials regard every revelation as one that pits the writer against them. Every article anyone writes is rated on

crew the time of the day afler that.

Unusually, in Singapore, some politicians have a tendency to rush to sue news-

charity does not have to struggle too harcl for funcls; he donates the rnillions he has received in damages to them. Mr lee is also suing the Malaysian newspaper, ?ize Star, over two articles that touchecl on the suicide a few years ago of senior cabinet minister Teh Cheang Wan. Recently, the Government-owned Chartered Industries of Singapore also got into the litigation act over a story in the Far Eastern Economic Reuiew about weapons sales to the Burmese government. Premier Lee Kuan Yew is not involved in the day-to-day administration of his government, according to Singapore sources. So the moves against the press, and the restriction of political debate and of the opposition must come from those who would take over from him. The differences and tension between Mr Iæe's successoç Goh ChokTong, and the younger Mr lee, constantly yapping at Mr. Goh's heels, portents a tra¡rsition more difficult than what has been predicted for Singapore. Mr Goh has the support of the People's Action Party cadres and the members of parliament while the younger Mr Iæe has the backing of the civil serv-ants, the police and

the armed forces. The pressure on the messengers of bad tiding, i.e., the writer of any report that government officials do not like or agree with, cari orìly increase.

THE CORRESPONDENT MAY

1990

PEOPLE

PÔLLL'IIDN IN THE ,ql\JD

AS I STAND HERT, IN

hH,qT ì'JIIL ôNÉ DAV BE 110Lf-ßlLL|ON

D0u-4[

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NEW, LHII.F ?

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HARBOUR.? NOT AGAIÑI,

ISN'T THAT A DEAD ISSUT ßV NÙLJ ?