The Correspondent April - May 2000 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

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The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Koug

The Correspondent is published 6 times a yean Opinions expressed b; rvriters in magazine a¡e not necessarily those of the

LEASING HOT LINE:

Mr. Raff Leung 9225 0014

(License No: S-005773)

- Taiwan election. Asian mismanagement.

Obituaries 21 Ross Way 24 Sing Sheng 25 Benno Gross

2 6 vr"¿iu I Press council musings by Professor

Frank Deaver.

Club. Publications Comittee Convanor: Dave Garcia P ¡o du c Lion'.

Fcc

The Correspondent

27 *t^By The Numbers I society 2B

Ed.itor: Satl Lockhart

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18 ProfessorJames Seymour

Valentine's Day dinner

General Manager Gilbert Cheng

Lunchlines

Co-convenor:

Diplomatic Reception FCC reception for Hong Kong based diplomats.

19 Stephen Vines

Freedom of the Press Committee Convmor: F rancis Moriarty

lÉ{

Carl Rosenrlrrist

Con ¿cn or:

Entertaimeot Comittee

3RD TO 25TH TYPICAJ- FLOOR PI¡ÂI

Ilouse Comittee

o'Rourke wonders about worrying for a living.

by photographers killed in action in Indochina.

Convmor: Dave Garcia

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Cover Story 10 Saigon quartet: the story of the search for the missing bodies of four photographers shot down over Vietnam in 1971. 14 Photographs from the Back Wall exhibition

Comittee

Membership Committee Col¿u¿nol; Hubert van Es

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F"ut rr"

Mark Landler

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Finance Comnittee Convmor: Ben Beaumont (Treasurer)

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Jonathan Mirsky reviews Stephen Vines' book on the Asian crisis. Around the FCC in Pictures

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Faces

Benno Gross

Lnrrnns &

ANITIoUNcEMENTS

From Kevin Sinclair #1434 I opposed the work to the upstairs dining room and veranda, not so much because of the changes but because of the secretive way in rvhich the work was contracted without people having a say.

I still think the general membership should have been consulted. Having said that, I must in fairness congratulate Philip Segal on the finished article. The dining room is superb and the veranda is even more comfortable than before. Combined with excellent food, unmatched service and reasonable costs, it makes the outlet a compelling place to dine. \Arho was it who said the ends justify the means?

\Iff

From Ann Jacklin (Brian Jeffries' sister)

a copy of the February/March Correspondent and imagine my surprise not to Today

received

mention embarrassment on reading that the total sum of donations in memory of Brian "is in excess of f32,000. I would be grateful if in the next issue you could please correct this to read "in excess of f2,000" which we felt was a superb and very generous result. I do apologise if this was an error on my part and please pass this on to 1re¿¡ readers. Thank you for publishing the letter anyway. An explanation from David Thurston#4121 I doubt it is your fault. If the magazine production people use a Mac computer, which I know they do, the 'pound sign' is obtained by pressing the option key and

the 3 key That's probably how the 3 got inserted,

CRISIS MANAGEMENI DIVISION

KIDI\AP & RAI\SON{/EX The threats of Kidnapping, Extortion and Wrongful Detention are unpleasant facts of life in today's global business environment. American International Underwriters (AIU), in cooperation with the Foreign Correspondents' Club, has put together an insurance program specifically to help members of the FCC deal with these crisis situations. The program offers pre-defined benefits and pricing and includes the services of Kroll Associates, the world leader in Crisis Management consultin g.

through a miss-hit. From Vernon Ram #4788 Your masthead in the February-March issue states that "The Correspondent is (meaning, I presume, will be) published 6 times ayear." The last page of the same issue (FCC Faces,/P. 36) carries a deadline: 'A monthly portrait of FCC Irreplaceables." Exactly how do you propose to fit 12 faces into six issues? I think members should be told. Editor's note: How tu rtt 12 faces into six i,ssues? Good question Vernon. I thinh ue'll change the headline to

"bimonth\"

to simþliJy the equation. T'hanhs

for catching

the

mistahe.

EloctioR Come to Mo Tat SØan on Larnma Island and discover Hong Kong's newest venlre for al fresco dining and great parlies, Located on the beach, Cococabana offers a laid back Mediterranean-style atmosphere. Enjoy our exotic cocktails and balcony dining set against the sofl sound of waves on the beach and spectacttlar views over the South China Sea to Hong Kong. Live

Don't just sit back and criticise the Club from the safety of the Main Bar. Do something about it. Stand for the Board and take part in running the FCC.

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Lunch or dine four times in one month at any of orlr restamrants in SOHO and enjoy a free junk trip to CococABANA. Casa Lisboa 2s69 9631. Cafe Au Lac 2526 8889

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Cococabana can be reached by ferry from the Aberdeen Fishmarket ol by junk. Our own boat, Le Junk, is available for hire at very reasonable prices.

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Latin music and Salsa parties can also be enjoyed on a

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From the President ff I -l-

his is my last column as President, as the encl

a sometimes tumultuous

but ultimately

productive draws near. -year The Club's financial recovery continues, with profits in February after interest and depreciation of$265,000. Not bad for the shortest month of the year, and with the Lunar New Year slowing things down. A few more months like this, and we will have paid for all of the renovations undertaken this year on the Main Dining Room, Verandah, and other parts of the building members seldom see (frre doors, staircases and the other boring but essential areas we need to tend, as we of keep the building up to code). \A4rile a somewhat stronger economy is partly responsible for our better frnancial outlook, there are a few key reasons why things have bounced back so strongly, from a $500,000 operating loss in April 1999 to a $357,000

operating surplus in February (and an operating surplus in every month since November). For a start, General Manger Gilbert Cheng and the first-rate office staffhave kept a keen eye on food and beverage costs. Food costs are now down to about 28Vo of sales, compared with between 39% ar'd 4l% ago. On ^year its own, this saves us $1 million a year. Beverage costs are down, too, and at the same time, we are working to bring you a better selection of drinks in the Club. Dave Garcia, head of the House Committee which now

incorporates the F&B Committee, has recruited a professional sommelier to overhaul the fine but sparse wine list. Also, you will have noticed an emphasis on improving the range and visibility of our whiskies, following a successful single malt tasting at Bert's on March 24. Ãgrappa list may come next. The other big saving has come from lower administrative and catering costs. Again, this is thanks to Gilbert, Chief Accountant Alex Lee, Office Manager Racquel Chung, and the rest of the administrative team. They are a delight to work with, and do their jobs as well as the Dining Room and Bar staff do theirs. The best part of my year as President has been the chance to work with these fine people. In future, I hope that the successful Cash McCall evening of blues in the Main Dining Room will set some sort of precedent. Because we were able to arrange sponsorship of the evening, Members were able for $300 to have drinks, dinner and an extralong show

Being a member of the FCC entitles you to use a variety of clubs, in cities across the globe. Richard Stokes went sampling ow many of you have lost that little blue glossy list of Clubs which are affiliated to the FCC? Perhaps it's time to ask for another copy (or

with a Grammy Award-winning artist who charges $300 just for admission at the Jazz Chtb. Thanks again to Gilbert, Dave Garcia and Hugh van Es for helping to arrange that. Not only did everyone have a good time, but the Club set a record for turnover that da¡ not including holidays and the Handover of 1997. Similarly, it would be nice to do more lunches like the one in March with the hilarious journalist and humourist PJ O'Rourke. The Main Dining Room hasn't been that packed since the return of Chris Patten to Hong Kong, and I have trouble remembering when it was the scene of so much laughter. PJ also presented the

prizes at the single malt tasting in Bert's. Our thanks again go out to Dave Garcia, a close friend of PJs.

Most importantþ at the end of this Board, I'm proud of the wide range of professional events we've staged this year, and the continuing active role we have played in press freedom issues. These two aspects of our operation are the most important, in my view, and are the things that keep me a member. Thanks to Mark Landler, Liu Kin-ming, Rahul Jacob and Michael Mackey for their work on booking speakers, and to Francis Moriarty and Kin-ming for the work on the Freedom of the Press Committee. To Saul Lockhart and the rest of the Constitutional Committee, which included Board and non-Board volunteers, a big thank you for plenty of hard work done. The Companies Registry willing, the Board will be putting to the membership in May, just before the AGM, a series of proposed constitutional changes, one of the most important of which would give every member of the Club, of whatever status, a vote for President and First Vice-President. These will be posted in the Club at least three weeks ahead of any Extraordinary General Meeting that would be needed to pass them, so keep an eye out. Finally, I hope that as many people as possible take an active role in this year's election for the new Board. During the political upheaval of 1999, many people remarked to me their wish for a different kind of Board. The only way to achieve this for sure is to run yourself, or to make sure you urge someone in whom

#,,k',^:!#, THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL.NÍAY

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checkout the Website),

you can enjoy visiting

and get a partner club on your tra\/els updated on local chat over sensibly priced food and drinks. I hope that FCC members who travel further abroad would be able to give feedback on other clubs too. FCC of Japan (Tokyo) The Club handout advises it is one of the largest press-clubs in the world, founded in 1945, with a resident membership now of 2,000 people and open everyday from l1.00am until midnight. It's located on the 20th floor of a fairly typical older-style office building known to locals as "Yurakucho Denki Biru" and most taxi drivers seem to find it, as it's almost opposite the JR train station. Yurakucho roughly translates to "Pleasure Town" and in the past had something of a reputation, with the nearby Marunouchi district office 'salarymen' stopping by for some chicken skewers, a few beers and perhaps something extra before staggering off to the suburbs. The area also borders on Ginza (a bit like Central), where nightlife can be very expensive indeed. You'll need to buy a book of vouchers (perhaps 5,000 yen would cover some basic food and a couple of rounds ofdrinks) and pay a surcharge of500 yen as an admin charge. Guest membership lasts for up to 29 days. A small beer costs 380 yen (about HK$27) and a club sandwich 1,200 yen (about HK$85). The main bar area gives a spectacular view over Tokyo, though a bit too smoky for my comfort (many places in Tokyo have restricted smoking now and it seemed that every journalist was a committed chain-smoker), also there is a sushi bar and western style restaurant.

The buzz around the bar was quite good, with the

staff mostly young, polite and cheerful. I didn't find much information on social functions, though plenty of working-lunch type events were listed. It didn't have anything like Bert's and the bar seemed to slow down around 11 p.m., with everyone keen to catch that last train home. Just around the corner from the FCC building was a nice little English style pub called the Rose & Crown, a useful find with friendly staff serving bitter and dark beers from Sapporo. THE CORRESPONDENT APRILMAY

The Manila Club. With a history going back to 1877 and in its fifth relocation, the Manila Club has kept its tradition of commonwealth membership only, along with the deep patina of the original mahogany bar top. The Makati address is a little confusing, as it's a bit of a drive from the main hotels and business district, so you'll need to find a meter-taxi driver (watch out for the tricksters) familiar with the location. The club is in what appears to be a shopping/light industrial estate and though lacking the exterior grandeur of previous sites, the warmth of the staff inside more than makes up for this. Rollie, the bar chief, was full of information about I\4anila and good tips - one of which was the local drink Calimansi (a small type of lime fruit) and soda, a great way to refresh the taste

senses.

No need for vouchers here, a very sensible settlement of the bill by credit card was accepted, and no surcharges involved. Draft san-mig beer costs 30 pesos (HK$ 6) and Remy

Martin 140 pesos

(HK$2S) for a good shot, with cigars at similarly bargain prices. Each Friday, the snooker table gets converted into a large buffet and a traditional curry lunch is set up. At 350 pesos (HK$70) for all you can eat including desserts, this was a tasty treat. The regular menu looked I'aried with Western,/Asian dishes including several Pinoy favourites the Chicken adobo was a hit. Club - was on the thin side and I didn't see membership

anything like Bert's, so the Manila Club seems best for a good meal and conversation with the very welcoming staff. I'll be back I Groucho Club (London)

This club is said to be one of the buzzing media hangouts in London, sure of bumping into the trendiest people and eating the best snacks over cocktails. They wouldn't let me in though....

I arrived hoping for a Saturday brunch and it was closed, with only a couple of staff in the reception area, who told me they'd never heard of the FCC Hong Kong and their membership manager was on away so nothing could be done about a temporary pass. So, I settled for lunch in the next door trattoria Signor Zilli, which was friendlier, with al fresco tables and good for Soho people-watching. I

2OOO

--l

T Fntrunn

Uüopry¡ES fon a t¡uing I

Satirist, political commentator, author, Foreign Desk Chief for the Rolling Stone and registered Republican, PJ O'Rourke had an FCC luncheon crying in the aisles.

y topic this afternoon is,

Þ l

worrying,

because worrying is what all of you really do for a living. I mean, this is the post-

industrial economy, right. You are not in in media; you are not in business; you are in worry. Thank you, worrying about that. Worry is simply what every managementJevel person does all day, except for the guy with the nose ring down in corporate communications, who is nibbling hashish brownies and putting the web site together. He is not worried. But the rest of us are worried. Now, personall¡ I think that this worrying is the secret to all successful nations in the modern world. The French aren't worried; they are too busy taking three months'vacation and screwing up the Euro. The Russians aren't worried; they are drunk. TheJapanese were so busy actually making things that they didn't have time to worry, and look, where it got them. Their money exploded; little fluttering pieces of Yen all over communications; you are not

the place. But we worry, we worry. And I bring you good news about this worry. That we have only two things to worry about that can't be treated with Viagra politics and

the economy. (And actuall¡ President- Clinton tried treating politics with Viagra and it worked, it worked!) Now, politics are always frightening, specially in an election year, oî in any election year. Actually I think, .

Taiwan's yoyo stock market has made that pretty clear. And America has just been an awful place in recent. times with these horrible candidates making pests of themselves. I mean, that's basically how Bill Bradley lost in the United States. He would come to people's houses, knock on their door right in the middle of Ally McBeal, and want to know if any voters would go outside and shoot some hoops. I was for Steve Forbes myself because Steve had already won 'Who wants to be a millionaire'. Actually,

after the egg campaigning he did for Bob Dole, I thought Bob was rested and he is ready. All the candidates: George W, Ross Perot, Pat Buchnan, the nice thing about these people is once the election is over, they disappear; they absolutely go away, except, of course, for the one that wins. And who cares, who that

impeachment year, than cover politics during an election year. You see, during impeachment, America's politicians, they couldn't get up to too much really. I mean, they couldn't do much harm because they were too busy; they were really busy hating each other, you know. They didn't have time to bomb Yugoslavia, or destroy Miscrosoft, you know. I felt, there was just no downside to the impeachment. When Clinton won, so America was spared a premature Al Gore presidency. And Al was able to go back to his previous job as a sequoia in Redwood National Forest. The Republicans got hurt for prosecuting Clinton, and that was great. I thought that was just fine too, because all the Republicans had done since they took over Congress was, play dead during budget negotiations and go to meetings of the Conservative Citizens Council with bed sheets over their heads, and talk about the President's sex life. Otherwise, everybody came up a winner in the Clinton impeachment. Paula Jones got a nose job. Monica Lewinsky got a Barbara Walters interview. Linda Tripp got a reason to stick to that diet. And Newt Gingrich got some how-to-do hints about sex in the workplace. Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosovic got the air

I mean, Bill Clinton has proved one thing as long the economy is good, it does not matter -who's the President. You could have a rutting dog in the Oval Ofhce, and we did! So we don't have to worry about domestic politics most of the time. And international politics are pretty calm at the moment, unless China isn't kidding about Taiwan, in which case it would be interesting. I personally thought that international politics were scarier last year during the air war in Kosovo; I was just in Kosovo during November. And there is a saying they have in former former Yugoslavia that only the odd-numbered world wars begin in the Balkans. But the United States taught the world an important lesson in Kosovo wherever - we, the there is oppression, or suffering, or injustice, United States, will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it is happening. So, if anything does happen in Taiwan, I think Mongolia should look out. is?

eanwhile, during the air war in Kosovo, if Hillary Clinton looked really happy there for a while, it was because of Slobodan Milosovic. Bill Clinton had finally found somebody he could screw and not get indicted for it. Although, Hillary is not as huppy as New York City Mayor, Rudi Guliani. He's over the moon. He has got this suburban Chicago chic campaigning in New York City by kissing Yasser Arafat and ordering pastrami and veveeta on white bread at Kosher Delis. He's a very

strikes that they needed to keep their domestic approval ratings up. And Bill Clinton's opinion polls went so high that he started dating again. Plus, I think, that we have to consider the blessings

And we don't have to worry about the economy either. The economy is doing great. I mean, in most places. Unless you still have got your portfolio invested in Indonesia. In that case, I have a handy "Emerging Markets Investor Counselling Kit", which I will pass out after lunch - consisting of a big bottle of sleeping pills and a plastic bag to tie over your head. The economy is doing so well that we are all making fortunes selling Amazon.com shares to each other. Convenience stores are putting $20 bills in the "Take one/Leave one" tray. World Bank is giving toasters to Malaysia. This is wonderful this diarrhoea of money - fiduciary El Niño blowmoving around the world; this

ing Mutual Fund floods to one place and T:bill droughts to someplace else; cash winds lofting real estate prices into the sky; speculatory lightening strikes

sending currencies down in flames; junk bond mudslides; price,/earning ratio hurricanes. Well, actually, may be, we do have to worry about the economy. Right now, people don't know what to

do; people don't know whether to lay around the Riviera clipping interest coupons on bonds, or sit around the kitchen table clipping discount coupons in newspapers. I mean, one minute people are loading their possessions on top of the Ford and fleeing the Oklohama dust bowl. The next minute, people are buying dust futures on the Chicago Commodity Exchange. Very confusing situation. May be, we should do something to tame these wild excesses of capitalism.

to millions and millions of future US high school students

trapped class

in the dreary confines of American history

finall¡ they've got a chapter that rock and rolls.

- not everybody in America was as enthusiastic Now,

about impeachment as I was. Some people said that the

impeachment distracted President Clinton from the business of governing. But, I feel, distracting politicians from the business of governing is like distracting a bear from eating your kid, you know; or from eating your wallet, I mean. An;rr,vay.. I enjoyed impeachment for the same reason that I enjoy having a Republican Congress and a Democratic \Arhite House. Because it causes gridlock. I love gridlock in government, because what I hate is when we get "bipartisan consensus". Bi-partisan consensus is like, when my doctor and my lawyer agree with my wife that I need help. So, we don't have to worry about politics.

Havel, Nelson Mandela, John -Kenneth Galbraith, Oprah, Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger. So, if any committee could consider such matters as product safet¡ Çnvironmental impact, and whether a corporation has any of those terrible "glass ceilings", and any committee could allocate capital accordingly. But there is some problems with this idea. For one thing, Kim Bassinger is a very strong advocate of animal rights and avery persuasive woman. And we could wind up listening to Kim Bassinger. And if we did what Kim Bassinger wants, we could wind up with a retirement fund portfolio that consisted of one million little bunny rabbits who have been rescued from medical testing. That won'tbe so good. So, maybe, we don'twant a committee.

happy guy.

I would much rather cover politics during

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL-MAY

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aybe, we should select a committee of wise and principled individuals to guide the global investment markets Valcav

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Fnnrunn ay be what we want is a government. Government should do the investing for us. First the US Government could take the rvhole Social Security Trust Fund and put that in stocks and just take over the free market. That way government could consider rvhat's best for us all. Now, the US Government could have, for example, bought shares in Microsoft in the early 80s. If America had its Social Security Trust Fund in Microsoft stock... Well, I'll tell you. My mom's assisted care facility would consist of a whole bunch of butlers and maids assisting my mom at her chateau in the south of France. But the IJS Government can't buy Microsoft shares, because Bill Gates andJanet Reno just don't get along all that well. So, what the government would do actually would be to buy the shares in the Studebaker Automobile Company. That would be the socialll' responsible thing to do. Because, Studebaker is a healy industry. Hear,y industry provides high-paying jobs for skilled and semiskilled workers. And Studebaker Automobiles produce very little air pollution because there are onll' about 200 of them left on the street. True, Studebaker is out of business, but if the government could leave a big box of investment money in the empty lot where the Studebaker factory used to be, and low-paid skilled and semi-skilled workers could come by and take what they need. Now, I said that we don't have to worry about pol-

SoIe Agent: East West Internøtional Ltd. Tþl: 2851 0988 Fax:2891 6919 w u 7D. unibrortr s. çsp¡:"; ";

itics right now. And that we don't have to worry about the economy But I'll tell you what we do have to worry

about; what we always have to worry about; what everybody in every country in the world has to worry about all the time. Ar-rd that's not politics, not the economy, but the combination of politics and economy when politicians get economic ideas and when the -economy gets politics. And, of course, in America, there's nothing like a Presidential election to boil that particular pot of stupidity soup of politics and economlcs.

I've covered lAiashington for more than a dozen )'ears and I've met plenty of politicians. I know them, I like them. Politicians are wonderful people as long as they stay away from things they don't understand, such as working for a living. Once politicians start to meddle with our jobs and businesses, they become ratchetjawed pur\/eyors of monkey-doodle and baked wind. They are piddlers upon merit; beggars at the doors of accomplishment; thieves of livelihood; enly codling tax lice applauding themselves for giving away other people's money. They are pig-herders tending that sow-who-eats-her-young, the welfare state. They are muck-dwelling bottom feeders growing fat on the grievances and disappointments of the electorate. They are the ditch carp in the great river of democracy. And that's what one of their friends says. Politicians don't seem to understand the most basic law of economics, which is this: when buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things that get bought and sold are legislators. It's as simple as that. See, politicians think that everyone that has a problem, is somehow a "victim of economic injustice". Politicians think that capitalists cause all of society's problems. I mean, you know how Bill Gates likes to sneak off the Microsoft campus at night and sell crack and get teenage girls pregnant. Politicians have no understanding of the two fundamental rules of a free society: 'Mind your own business', and 'Keep your hands to yourself'. Bill, keep your hands to yourself. Hillary, mind your own business. ow, there are some bad people

Now Avaülable At Major Pubs & Supermerkets I

in the free

market. My broker! I won't argue. But there are some worst people in politics. Take for example, America's most promiBill Clinton, Al nent elected officials at the moment Gore and Trent Lott. Would you hire any of these men? I mean not to lobby. ButI mean, for a realjob? Would you hire any of these men to morv your lawn? See, Trent Lott would be trying to make a deal with the lawn not to grow anymore. Gore would be talking to the lawn, asking the grass if dandelions were an endangered species (and asking the grass for some illegal campaign contriblrtions while he was at it). And Clinton wouldn't be able to make up his mind about power mower or push?; rotary or reel?; do the lawns - or the back?; rake and then mow or the other front first way around? So, Clinton would give up and be in your THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL-T4{Y

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kitchen raiding the refrigerator and hitting on your

I c

baby-sitter. You see, the free market is an unfair thing, a terribly

unfair thing. We all knolr, about that. But the only alternative to the unfairness of free market is politics. nd, personally, I'd rather start a Mike T1'se¡ Quick Bite fast food chain than trust politics to solve my problems. How many times have American politicians supposedly simthe tax code? And what happens every April plihed 15th in America? It's like a house call from Dr. Kevorkian except it lasts longer. Then there's the campaign finance reform that McCain was completely wrong about. Money for John from special interests, such as either comes elections ourselves. We are all special interests. We know how horrible we are. We know we are not any good. But if the money doesn't come from us, it has to come from

the government itself. That is, the people who want to run the government have to get their campaign money from the people who run the government already. You see something slightly "East German" about that? Now, the Republicans said that they were going to "make the government smaller". And they succeeded with their part of the government. The Republican -majority in the House of Representatives is definitely

taller and take a dozen strokes off your golf game. And there are the Republicans. They are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.

Democrats run on the Whining Spoiled Brat Platform: "You said, we are going to have a drug.f¡.. America and I want my free drugs now". \A4rat the Democratic politicians promise is "More"; a whole lot more of something to be named at a later date. And rvhat the Republican politicians promise is a little less of whatever the Democrats are promising. Plus death penalties.

he Democrats say, 'We don't know what's wrong with America, but we can fix it". The

smaller.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have been renting out

the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory for Chinese weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, while Al Gore was raising money from the Indonesian equivalent of the Gambino family. I tell you, every election, it's a reluctant march to the polls for me. I hate to vote. Of course we have to do it. We have to vote; otherwise, the person our spouse was for would win. You know, even if you start out with the lowest

possible expectations, political systems

will still

dis-

appoint you. Basicall¡ there are only two political parties in the world today; there are really only two there are the right-wingers who political tendencies

are stupid about most things and the left-wingers who are wrong about everything. Now, in America, we have, of course, the Democrats. the party They are the party of government activism that

says, government

- smarter, can make you richer,

Republicans sa¡ "There's nothing wrong with America, and we can fix that". But all politicians, no matter what party they belong to, and no matter what country they come from; all politicians want the government to solve every problem in life. From curing cancer to scheduling car pools for soccer moms. The American Go'r,ernment can't even

run a post office. I mean, government has trouble figuring out where mail goes. And mail has got our address right on the front of it. What we've got in America is something very similar to what we've got in every democratic country in the a choice between liberals who can't learn world - past, and conservatives who can't stop living from the in it; between Democrats who want to tax us to death, and Republicans who would prefer that u'e get shot with an assault rifle by the member of some lunatic

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to rest, somehow more peacefull¡ would be if someone went to that very ridge, walked on it, tasted the thick

jungle heat. The families could not, or would not, go. But they could have a representative r'r,ho had known the fallen four. If such an opportunity arose, I wanted to be that witness.

1995, the opportunity seemed imminent in a stranger's phone call. Bill Forsyth, a retired air-force photoanalyst working as an MIA investigalast, in July

tor in Hawaii. had stumbled on Burrows incident." He was inquiring whether

The last picture of the photographers Kent Potter (right), Larry Burrows (center), Henri Huet (back to camera), Keizaburo Shimamolo (left at Ham Nhi, Vietnam, boarding the helicopter on February 10, 1971

Four of the Vietnam War's finest combat photographers FCC member Larry Burrows, Flenri Huet, Kent Potter, and Keisaburo Shim¿¡¡sts were shot down in a helicopter over the Ho Chi Minh Trail on February I0,I97I. After nearly three haunted decades, the Associated Press' Richard Pyle joined the search for his colleagues' final restingplace. This article is reprinted with permission from Vanity Fair. iven the member of cameras on hand, remarkably few pictures were taken that day. But to the half dozen photographers and reporters rvho watched the helicopters depart, the details are indelible. To these correspondents, and to scores who covered the conflict, February 10, 1971, was perhaps the most tragic day of the Vietnam War the day that four of - down without a trace. their own, four of their best, went After the crash, Henri Huet's fiancée, the Swedish journalist Inger-Johanne Holmboe, wrote to Asia hands, to diplomats in Hanoi and elsewhere, to anyone who might have been able to help. "If nothing happens, I am going to find him myself," she added in longhand at the bottom of one letter. For a number of years, Holmboe, now 55 and living in Stockholm, 10

believed her Henri would simpl;' walk through the door of her apartment somedal'. Burrows's son, Russell, 22 at tlrre time of his father's disappearance, defiantly clung to the idea of recovering his remains. "Flowever certain you are of something," says the New York businessman and archivist, now 51, "1's¡ are obliged

to prove it conclusively if you can, to fill in that fraction of the decimal point. You have no choice but to go as far as you can." Off and on o\¡er the years, Russell Burrows fielded long distance calls from newsmen and friends offering ne¡r' minutiae about the crash. The cause, over time, began to possess me as well, becoming a kind of personal mission. Scattered bits of metal and bone were lodged somewhere on a far-off hill, and I had grown to believe that the only rvay rt'e could lay the dead THE CORRESPONDENT APRÌL-\,IAY

2OO0

"the knew if

anyone, back in 1971, might have recorded the map-grid coordinates of the crash site. I thought immediately of correspondent Peter Arnett, who had covered the war for AP. In 7972, before he departed Saigon, Arnett and I had packed 10 years' worth of deteriorating bureau fìles into metal trunks and shipped them Stateside for safekeeping. The papers were still in his Virginia basement. I phoned and asked him to check for a memo I had written, outlining the crucial details that AP Saigon had gathered on the crash. He was back on the line in minutes. "Five pages," he said. "I'll fax it to you." The emotions of that day in Saigon had been mysteriously preserved in the wording, the grammatical choices l'd made, the familiar idioslncrasies of the old typer.r,riter. I found the coordinates on page 4, provided by the pilot who had witnessed the ambush. I conveyed these to Forsyth for his investigation. Then, several months later, Michael Putzel made a key discovery. 'v\4rile

rummaging through old files in his Washington home, he located one of the

investigation team was clambering through the jungle, amid half-buried cluster bombs. Their find: pieces of cloth, a crushed US-style steel helmet, a tooth, a possible bone fragment, metal and plastic remnants of a Bell helicopter, and scraps of 35mm film, the emulsion eroded.

Based on this promising quarry, a decision was made to excavate. After numerous delays digging was set to begin in March 1998. And I was determined to be

THE CORRESPONDENT ¡\PRIL-r\IAY 2000

investigation team members flying to the site, I watched forest fires burn randomly in every direction, flaring, raging, dying out. "Half of southern Laos is on hre," a military offi cer remarked. Now, as we skimmed the tree line, Horst Faas, my old AP colleague, was leaning out the open helicopter door, hat flapping madly in the slipstream. He swivelled his 300-mm lens, seeking targets in the brown landscape. The vista seemed innocent enough. But, then, it always had, even in the days when danger lurked under

the double canopy. T o I

rLisa Hoshower and S/Sot Mrchael use prcKaxes and snovels excavation ln lhe background, Lao workers deployed across the hill

aerial photos he had taken the day after the helicopter went down. This, too, was sent along. In April 1996, Forsyth put Pulzel's print on a light box. Beside it, he placed a shot of Laos taken in 1971 by an SR-71 spy plane. Illuminated from beneath, each a hill, a ravine down picture took on startling clarity one side, and there, snaking through the blur of vegetation, identical white loops indicating the same winding roadway. Forsyth pinpointed the location on a map eight miles north of Route 9, f,ive miles west of the çle5s to the coordinates in my Vietnam border memo from Arnett's basement. And within weeks an

there.

Drumming steadily northn'ard, our little Frenchbuilt helicopter flirted rvith treeless ridges as each reached to meet us before falling sharply way to re't,eal a jungle-choked ravine. Ahead, the serrated ranks of the Annamites faded into the haze, the improbable peaks gray and faint, as in a Chinese watercolor. It was near the end of the dry season. As I sat with

could have chosen no better companion than Horst. A battle-scarred photographer who had twice earned Pulitzers, he had been Henri Huet's boss in Vietnam and a close friend of Larry Burrows. Togethe¡ we were accompanying a crew of US military search and foreusic specialists to a formerly namea remote spot in the Laotian bush less clearing now known officially as Site 2062, one that these men and \^romen believed, upon further inspection, would prove to be the fateful hillside. Asjournalists, Horst and I had often flown into such country, usually to a sandbagged outpost perched on some narrow hog-back ridge. But this part of southern Laos, the panhandle, we had known only in the abstract. It had been hostile territory, impossible to visit. Yet almost every day the stories we had filed from Saigon had alluded to the famed Ho Chi Minh Trail, a thor,rsand+nile network through which Hanoi's troops and weaponry had been funnelled to southern battlefields. The trail was an intricate ganglion of old French roads, backwoods corridors, and native footpaths. More than half a million Communist troops had 11

_T Covnn Srony T o

a lens for a Nikon F, standard equipment for Japan" many photographers covering the war.

y the end of the excavation cut short due to a profusion of unexploded ordnance in the ravine the site had yielded a poignant ledger of lives interrupted: four teeth, several belt buckles and boot soles,

Horst Faas and Rìchard Pyle on the site of the excavation.

passed over it during the war: thousands more maintained it, repairing damage from US bombs. For 27 years, the fallen helicopter had been embedded in one of these slopes shards of history, sunblistered in dry seasons, washed-by monsoon rains.

1992 under a diplomatic arrangement with Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The JTF's main mission: to recover the remains of some 2,200 Americans still "unaccounted for" in Indochina. (To date, the army's

Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii has identified more than 500, but it has shelves of bones that have so far defied analysis.)

As the pilot hovered for the benefrt of Horst's I remembered a grainy frame from 27 years before-snapped by a Marine photographer before takeoff that day. It showed Larry Burrows, seated inside the chopper, facing the camera and checking his equipment; Henri Huet, at the right-hand doorwa¡ conversing with Keisaburo Shimamoto, to his left; and Kent Potter, weighted down with camera gear and gazing into the distance. I thought of Potter young, camera,

adventurous, determined to succeed. Horst Faas and I spent three full days at the site, an experience so intense that it now feels as if we explored that hill for weeks. The Laotian-American team performed ingenious feats of archaeology and engineering. Native workers, under the direction of a leathery-faced, ex-military man in a green pith helmet, would hurriedly cut bamboo poles, lash them together, and erect KonTiki-like platforms, on stilts, sturdy enough to support crowds of people. US crews would rapidly open a 12

marked-off square of land, excavate, sift the dirt, then move on to the next. Surrounding them on all sides was a forbidding gauntlet of unexploded bombs, still deadly after decades. At many such sites, superstitions a black-andvillagers insisted on sacrificial offerings before excavation white water buffalo at times could - dictate the way we do commence. "Spiritual beliefs

business," explained Lieutenant Colonel James Ransick, commander of theJTF Lao detachment. The discovery occurred, quite suddenly, on our second day on site. Halfrvay down the ravine, where Laotian workers passed up buckets of dirt to the screening station, US Army staff sergeant Bill Adams, a mortuary specialist, reached into the narrow space between two rocks. He worked deliberately, even in the l00-degree heat. Adams prised one of the boulders loose. Half buried in the cavity, encrusted with dirt, was a small cylindrical object with a knob on top. Adams had been trained to comb a crash site for a walward tooth, a bone, or any human remains. But this, he knew at once, was clearly unnatural. The knob resembled a

detonator. Adams, standing, called out, "Sergeant Hoklen! Need your help!" "Bombie!" cried one of the older Laotian workers. They all dropped their buckets, some scurrying up the ravine others down the rocky creek bed.

two Seiko watches, a gold Rolex watchband, two more Nikon lenses (serial numbers obliterated), two Nikon nameplates (possibly from camera bags), 13 blank rolls of f,rlm (including one still inside a closed canister), a flare launcher, buttons from a uniform, a padlock ke¡ a survival knife, a 38-caliber pistol (probably carried by "broken aircraft the pilot), and a multitude of B.A.S. shit," inJoint Task Force argot. Two other items were particularly tantalising: a piece of a Leica camera body with serial number 996767 intact, and a religious medallion with the Virgin Mary on one side and "Cecile, 16-6-41" engraved on the other. Bill Forsyth had done the detective work that had brought us here. Now ours would begin. Once back home Horst and I determined, through Leica headquarters in Solms, German¡ that a same model M3 camera serial number 996767 had been sold by Leica retail branch in London in July 7, 1960. Records of the purchase no longer exist in files at Leica or Life, or among Larry Burrows's personal papers. But Burrows, who shot with Leicas, lived in London and had reason to have bought a camera that summer. His son, Russell, remembers that onJuly 1, 1960, while in Africa covering the independence of the Congo, Larry had been caught in a street riot, his gear smashed. "He patched together a working camera from damaged parts," says Russell, "but he surely would have bought new equipment when he came back." That accounted for the camera; Leica officials concurred. But who was Cecile? Logic suggested that the medal had belonged to Huet seemed to remember the talisman, and it appears in no known photos of him. A call to IngerJohanne Holmboe, Huet's fiancee at the time of his death, cleared up the

neighbour, Henri Huet, and it began, "Cher Henri, Jesuis tres desolee.." Holmboe now remembers she took it to her neighbour and, that night, realised its significance.

Huet told Holmboe that while recovering from his war wounds in a New York hospital in 1967 he had met Cecile, a Belgian photographer's model. The pair had travelled to Mexico and elsewhere and, upon his return to Saigon, continued their romance. After Huet moved to Tokyo in 1969, they decided to get married there. The New Year's postcard altered everything. It was a "DearJohn" note from Cecile, saying she had changed her mind. Holmboe remembers that as Huet stood before her, reading Cecile's words, a portrait of Cecile, painted by the artistic Huet, rested unfinished on a nearby easel.

Over time, neighbours Huet and Holmboe fell in love themselves. They planned a wedding. They imagined moving to Australia to start careers and lives anew.

A medal etched "Cecile, The two items remain on a shelf 76-6-+7." Identification army's Central at the in Hawaii, along with other Laboratory howeve¡ have not Authorities, evidence. "Kent civilian, matter of Potter, US yet resolved the the lone recovered" Potter being dead; body not can state, the four. Before off,rcials American among unequivocall¡ that this was the site of the crash, they must await further forensic analysis, including possible DNA tests (such as genetic samples from descendants of Larry Burrows that might match some of the artieica No.996767.

facts recovered).

But Horst and I need no further proof. To us, Case 2062 is closed. We walked on the hill, we breathed the jungle air. Any doubts about our friends' fìnal restingplace have now been buried, along with them. What we retain, today, are the images these four men took, on other hillsides. I I o 1

mystery.

On New Year's Eve 1970, a postcard from Paris had landed by mistake in her mailbox in Tokyo. It was addressed to her then next-door

arl Holden, a Marine explosives expect, made his way down to where Adams waited.

Holden squatted, then reached out a practiced hand, gently dislodging and lifting the object. He turned the cylinder over in his hand. "It's the lens from a camera," he said. 'They found a lensl," Horst shouted over to where I was standing, farther up the hill. He was elated, his grin triumphant. He waited on the bluff and then examined Adams's find. He could make out the letters: '\IIKKOR-H 35mm Auto T3 F-2.8cm 315907. Nippon Kodaku THE CORRISPONDENT APRIL-MAY

2OOO

Lisa Hoshower works at the screening station on a bamboo bridge A box with a sieve filters the earlh, while she looks for fragments THF, CORRESPONDENT APRILIIÍAY

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Covsn Srony

Sean Flynn, Duc Phong, Vietnam, 1966 - A young Viet Cong suspect cries after hearing a rlfle shot.

Henri Huet, Vietnam, 1966; Wearing a bloody bandage over the left síde of his face, medic Thomas Cole of Richmond, Va , cradles the head of Staff Sargeant Harrìson C D Pell from Hazleton, Pa , of the First Cavalry Division.

Oliver Noonan, Near Saigon, 1969; During an ambush by Viet Cong guerillas, a wounded soldier awaits evacualion.

A tribute to Indochina's

falle

VALDIVIA LIMITED

(est, rszs)

FINE ITALIAN WINES

photographers

Presenting

the estates

he Indochina wars claimed the

of 135 photographers many of whom were FCC members or who passed through lives

Jean Peraud, Tonkin, Vietnam, December 1, 1952, Hit by gunfire, a French Union soldier falls during the Batlle of Na San

the FCC's doors on the way to war.

An exhibition of the work of some of these photographers is now

on display on the back wall of the Main Bar. The photographs are part of a travelling exhibition to accompany the book Requiem: @ the photograþhrrs who died in Vietnam and Indochina.

ZENATO

The book is the brainchild of two veteran Vietnam photographers, Horst Faas and Tim Page who, through great dedication and five years of hard work, managed to trace all those who lost their lives or disappeared on both sides of

The Veneto

the war. 14

WINNER

Luong Nghia Dung, South of the DMZ, Vietnam, 1972 - North Vietnamese infanlry dui'ing the offenslve across the DIVZ THE CORRESPOND[,NT APRIL-MAY

2OOO

Luong Nghia Dung, Hanoi, Vielnam, 1967; After completion of their Vietnam News Agency training, Luong Nghia Dung (second from left) and five other aspiring North Vietnamese photographers with their newly issued equipment THI', CORRF,SPONDENT APRIL-IVL{Y

2OOO

TEL: (852) 25557431 FAX: (852) 2873 1246 15

Drprovrarrc RncnPTroN

The recent annual diplomatic reception in the Main Dining Room was again a great success. Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa led the formalities of what the diplomatic corps have come to regard as one of the must-do events on the cocktail circuit.

Photos by Hu van Es

THE (]ORRESPONDE NT APIUI,-첫IA\'

2OOO

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IT CORRESPONDENf' APRIL-T,f,\\'

2OOO

LuNcnuNES

Asian Grisi was more

Taiwan Elections3 A Post mortem

î GFiSiS of manasement

China expertJames D Seymour is a professor at Columbia lJniversity's East Asia Institute . Michael Mackey reports hough the recent presidential elections on Taiwan were well covered events in Hong Kong by the time Professor Seymour stood up in front of an FCC luncheon audience, he is one of those rare speakers who can tread ground already gone o\/er and still find new angles, twists and meanrngs. He was very hesitant

in a positive

way giving the impression of searching for the right detail and an even more exactlng way to express rt. Some of the interest was in the firsthand details he spoke about, details

it,"a constant reminder of r'r,hat the KMT had done to prevent the emergence of democracy in the 1980s." Reassuringly or disturbingl¡ depending on your point of view, the KMT was up to ìts usual tricks, although perhaps with less skill. And it must be said less brutality. One of the visual aids used by Segnour was a political leaflet with a picture of a post bomb nuclear cloud. "Subtle is not the word for that," he said.

But the curious thing was the inability of

which ha'r'e already been forgotten in the momentum. "You turn on the TV and it was mostly (Vice President) Lien Chan," he said. There was, he said, 'Just no knowing the night before" with even the Mayor of Taipei not being able to call it. Part of

this was that the final phase of the election is by law without opinion polls so the population went into the election and its complex cross-currents not knowing how to locus. One of his interestins views was that "the anti Chen Shui-bian vote was equally divided and people didn't know which way to vote." One conventional view that never loses resonance

each time it is said is the dramatic slump in the Kuomintang (KMT) vote. "This is the surprise, that Lien Chan got only 23% of the vote," said Seymour in the tone of voice which indicated that he like many others in the Main Dining Room was still digesting that startling piece o[ inlormation. Chen's campaign was the real stor¡ however, although the detailed insight Seymour brought to bear is interesting, stripping away the myth which might arise that Chen's victory ultimately was pre-destined. Despite the freshness of his message and approach, "Chen had not been doing well despite a woman partner." The real strength of Chen's message was in the presence of his wife. Three times this brave woman had been run over deliberately and her presence by Chen's side at each rally, which ne'r'er really showed up in any reporting this correspondent saq was as Seymour put 18

the

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to exploit this as well as China's sabre rattling. This is not a topic that will go away either. Looking forward and this was a recurring theme in the questions session: \A/here do rve go from here?

Both the KMT and the DPP

are

challenged by their new environmenl, which is exacerbated by the fragmenting elfects of multi-member constituencies. Could the KMT disintegrate, he was asked? "It's such an unstable situation its now possible that the KMT will fade from the scene," he said, something that was unthinkable till a few weeks ago. Moments later he added, "it's very hard to reform something as corrupt as the KMT and they didn't do when they had a chance." But other events might supersede these local concerns; the world is changing around them too, changing as lunch was being digested and coffee sipped. Asked about the prospect of direct links across the Taiwan Straits, he was clear. "From the Taiwanese point of view these links could be established without any sovereignty implications." Clearly that is the case because at that moment, that is what the Taiwanese parliament is doing.

What remains to be seen is if they will follow Seymour's othel lines of thought and create a model where different political entities remain sovereign

whilst getting wealthier via trade. There were he pointed out several models for this, the US and Canada, the US and Puerto Rico, the EU. "If they study that they might come up with some ideas" he said of the lasr one, a suggestion that might delight some and infuriate others. The last has not been heard of this for a long time t.o come.

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL.ÑIAY

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Stephen Vines, former newspaper editor, correspondent, author and former FCC President, has some home-truths for Asian business. Michael Mackq reports teve Vines has a refreshingly different and it must be said an occasionally bitingly funny take on the Asian financial crisis. His basic thesis is that the financial crisis has little to do with megacapitalism but is based on a management crisis. In short Asian businesses are not the "whomp 'em stomp 'em" conglomerates they appeared to be back in the heady days of the early 1990s, but rather are highly limited creations of circumstance. 'Asia's largest companies are quite simply not world class companies," said the former Club President. The evidence he gave to support this was deadly although it came later in the exposition. Referring back to the heady da1'5 o¡ 1992-1995, he quoted from one of the "truly dreadful books that came out in that period. " The second point made in the exposition was the worthlessness of the so-called Asian values debate. Vines was to the point on this one, referring to it as "notoriously stupid". His riposte, which sadly he did not cover in the speech, but does at length in the book, was that these values were 'îalues thrown up by rapidly industrialising societies at a time of rapid capitalist

companies in Asia "are still characterised by nepotism,

still characterised by a lack of professional management." Worse during the boom years these firms had no research and development and marketing budgets, an explanation in part as to why there are no global

Asian brands. The only one that er¡er came close, Hong Kong's very own Tiger Balm failed to market itself properly. Those marketing failures, it should be pointed out, being themselves a reflection of management failures. It was "precisely because of these management problems that one

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development."

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More to the point he added it was "not a matter of regional, ethnic, racial explanation for this value system it was simply an explanation of a period in history. "

That being said, Vines has enough largesse not to detract from the achievements. FIe concedes that there were "very real and lasting achievements" such as economic growth. Korea managed in eleven years to double its GDP, an achievement that had taken Victorian Britain 58 years. Further, not only were Asian governments "peculiarly business-friendly" as it was put but they were investing money in education. Here there were a lot of impressive statistics which led him to conclude "governments were actually doing something

Tel:2914 2563

sensible. "

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Howeve¡ it all went wrong simply because at the end of the day management of Asian firms cannot cut the mustard. Here it gets sober. Vines view is that despite the leavening of the Overseas Chinese, most big THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL-rVÍAY 2000

Fax:2914 2675

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LuNcnuNES of the few potentially great Asian brands never really got off the ground." In turn this reflects another problem of the Asian conglomerates, their, as Vines put it, "enormous lack of focus." Their modus operandi is "a bit of this, a bit of that. They are not adding value to anything they do." And it gets worse. ines, who does not lack for apt sometimes witry descriptions, brands these companies "hotchpotch conglomerates" and "big warehouse companies." Of these there are two types. Those which are businesses run by businesspeople, usuallyjust one family and those such as CITIC and Renong in Malaysia which "managed to get so big because of their political connections (it was) nothing to do with their

Valentine's Day at the FCC caf a

tt aa

Absent member Ross Wuy lost his battle with cancer on March 9 in Atlanta, Georgia. Absent Member John McDougal/, Ross' former business partner, and Keain Sinclair remember Ross. Absent Member Chet Tschetter provided the eulogy.

t a

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business abilities."

This of course has big implications. "Its not a lot of fun in Asia being a minor-

ity shareholder,"

was

Vines' view and you were, as you digested the extensive evidence he offered, inclined to

From John McÐougall ot many people are aware of the parallel our

lives

agree with him. But the

man was generous to a fault and keen to galvanise the troops, said moments later there's "money coming your way if you can find any evidence of an independent director acting

And there was more much more. Much of it slightly depressing like a World Bank report saying that fourty percent of the business in Asra was conducted on the basis of bribery. Another World Bank report saying foreign companies were not responsible for huge capital flows a complex problem for which he offered no facile -solutions. Indeed it was the facile solutions of the Hong Kong government that caused one of those hollow laughs

week

before Ross's death and asked after Ross. Ross was in hospital at the time in Atlanta. I said he was still in there fìghting. Nick said he considered Ross "one of my successes". The loss of my best friend Ross, leaves me bereft. Indescribable. THE CORRESPONDENT APRII,-MAY

2OOO

hours.

For reasons too baroque to recall, the forthright

with multiple myeloma, called me about a

the New

his best friend, John McDougall, who both left Hong Kong and the FCC three years ago. It was in the mid-1980s, and we were having a beer in the old bar in Princes Building, haunted by China traders, guys in shady businesses and bankers and civil servants grabbing a forbidden drink in office McDougall had got into a blazing row with some stock

the problems that have arisen since he took ill. Stuart young enough to has given him absolute joy spend virtually every waking moment with his dad. for four years and And fight this disease he did nine months. Dr Nick Wickham,- Ross' doctor at the Prince of Wales Hospital when he was diagnosed

Jonathan Mirsþ's reuiew of Steþhen Vines' The Years of

minutes later I was laughing. You can't think of Rossie Way without smiling; he was such a good man, with such a robust and open joy of life. I was remembering an incident with Ross and

Robyn in 1976. Ross married for a third time in April 1991 to Teresa Gibbs, a journalist and FCC member. Their son Stuart born in 1996. During our numerous chats on the phone over the last few years, Ross mentioned how fortunate he has

been to have his 'tower of strength' Teresa. For, without her by his side, he could not and probably would not have had the will to fight this disease. Teresa has wrestled and coped single-handed with all

himself.

J**

a daughter Siobhan by his second wife

Brian and David,

suggesting a raw collective nerve has been hit. This was when he characterised in what he said would be four words, the response of our own undemocratic and therefore unaccountable government as "arrogance, panic and long-term damage, the consequences of which are yet to be realised." Somebody was heard to say that's five words yes its five conceded Vines, after a moments deliberation. But it will be, I suspect, the only time he needs to correct

Ross (eight years my junior)

bought out Besley & Pike's Hong Kong interests in 1980; hence the birth of our company Mana Investments Ltd. Steven, Ross has three sons with his frrst wife Jan

independently."

Living Dangerously: Asia - From Financial Crisis to Millennium is on þage 31.

took.

seemed to follow in my footsteps. Our youth was spent in the suburb of Glebe, Sydne¡ Australia, attending the same local public school and in later years, joining the merchant na\y. We both worked for the same compan¡ he in Adelaide, I in Sydney. We frnally met up in 1955 for the first time. I in 1964, We transferred to Southeast Asia Ross following in 1966, being stationed for a period in Singapore before settling in Hong Kong. We

From Kevin Sinclair

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIT,-MAY

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broker about how many sides there were to the Eygptian pyramids. Things were getting heated. "Three bloody sides," McDougall insisted. "I've walked round the bastards." Four, insisted the financier. Ross, as always, brought peace. "\A4ro the hell cares," he said. "Have a drink." Ross and John they were inseparable. Both had grown up in the dockside working suburb of Glebe, John eight years the elder. He had gone into the merchant nar'y, then worked for a stationery compan¡ then been posted to Asia. Ross followed, a few years later. they Both had that stigmata of Old Asia Hands - been put ice cubes in their beer, a sign that they had

knocking back ale in Asia long before the advent of refrigeration. The two worked for a large stationery firm, then bought it out in 1980, forming their own company, Mana Investments. They did well. They could have done a lot better, financiall¡ but, what the hell, life was to be enjoyed. You would see them together,.joking, talking; their 21

OerruARv FCC golf day From the left,Tim Streel, Frank Miller, Ross Way, Gilbert Gilhooly, John lVcDougall and Ray Cranbourne

floor as the two worked on inducing the birth then and there. The effort didn't work but it did ger April dancing for the rest of the evenrng.

accuracy and recollection. He had good partners and as a tribute to Ross special personaliq', he was able to develop a \/ery loyal group of employees who have remembered him here today with their flowers and condolences. Teresa and Ross were often found at my favorite club, the FCC. As a matter of fact, I believe it was at the FCC rvhere they first met. For quite some time they could be seen having a quiet tete a tete. Located in Central Hong Kong, the FCC was a

oss was a keen and

competitive sailor and boat owner. He was an active member of the Royal

Stuart, by former wife Robyn and their daughter Siobhan, and his first wife, Jan,

and their sons Steven, Brian and David. who remember an honest, decent guy who

And by thousands of friends loved life.

From Chet Tschetter I first met Ross in 1972 after he moved from Bangkok to Hong Kong. Ross, like me and many other friends, had somehow

relationship lasted a lot longer than most marriages because after being pals for 40 1's¿¡r, they still found plenty about which to chat.

Ri':ååtrT,Håsr The Geebung Polo Club, Hong Kong Chapter, where a disparate group including importers, entertainers, scribes, poets, pianists and anyone else who could recite a poem (a dirty ditty would do) could stagger in. There were golf games and there were long lunches. The business got done, but you'd more often find the partners in the afternoon sitting at al¡ar than at a desk. Then, almost five years ago, Ross fell sick. His body

of the cancer was shockingly fast. One da¡ there was ruddy, uproarious Ross with his huge laugh and the next, you sarv this pale tiny gray figure. But he fought. And he had a lot to fight for. He'd met American journalist Teresa Gibbs in 1988. They were married in 1991. Young Stuart arrived in 1996, but Ross was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in June 1995, during Teresa's third month of pregnancy. He was not released from Prince of \A¡ales until several days after Stuart's birth. But that did not stop Ross from observing his son's birth at Matilda - "he cut the cord," Teresa wrote from Atlanta. He overnighted in Teresa's room with the baby and then returned to the hospital. "Mate," Ross said toJohn in several of their regular waned. The effect

phone calls between Atlanta, where the Ways lived, and Cairns in Queensland, rvhere the McDougalls settled after leaving Hong Kong, "I could never have pulled through this without her." Doctors said his survival was miraculous. But time

running out. In March, Ross Way, passed away from pneumonia, a complication of his disease. was

Determination and love had kept him alive for nearly five years. He is survived by Teresa and their four-year-old son,

been drawn to Asia where we all settled and made our lives for many years. Ross was a very outgoing and socially active person. He was a member of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, the Foreign Correspondent's Club, the Rugby Union Club, the Hong Kong Football Club and several other clubs where Ross was well known in our Hong Kong expatriate community.

was sad to see Ross suffer so much during these past five years, and I feel very privileged to have learned to know Ross in a different place and at a different time. The Ross I knew and recall was strong, healthy

and physically active. He was a \¡ery outgoing gregarious fellow with a ready smile. He always had a good word for everyone and was very'rvell liked by all. To us he was 'Rossy' and frequently 'Lossy' as many Asians had difficulty in pronouncing 'Rs' which most often sounded like 'Ls'. So 'LossyWay' he was! Ross had a quick wit for all occasions. Early in our sailing days we often raced in the Hong Kong harbour and were forced to dodge fishing junks and ocean going freighters while trying to maintain our racing course. Graham Aldrich was the helm for this race and Rossy was the foredeck hand. Graham needed to make a quick tack to dodge something and called the tack which Rossy apparently didn't hear. In a moment Graham turned the boat and Rossy stepped into thin air. In about five seconds he was clambering back on board at the stern with no one missing a beat. His onll' 6e*-.nt was you'll not have me walking on water just yet!

Hong Kong Yacht Club where I had the pleasure of yacht racing with Ross as one of his crew members and also to compete against him on many other occasions as a member of the Dragon Class fleet. Ross at the helm

truly special place where we met many of our friends who toda1, a¡s sharing in the warm remembrance of Ross Way. Ross was a friend to many rvho toda;' ¿¡s scattered the world over. I've spoken with friends in Hong Kong, Australia, Switzerland, England, and here in America who

of the bright orange yacht, D12, will be well remembered by many from our Saturday afternoon races at the Yacht Club. Ross was also a very keen golfer.

Hong Kong it was said you were either a golfer or a sailor, but never both. Ross somehow managed to do both for many years, but in the end, it was golf he really enjoyed, and it

have all paid great tribute to the memory of a dear friend. Teresa has been a real trooper in her loving care and devotion to Ross.

became his greater passion.

Ross was

one of a well-known

the FCC and often regaling their episodes upon the greens. He and his fellor¡' golfers had many friends scat-

Ross, Stuart and Teresa

this far without her care. Together they have a most delightful yolrng son Stuartwho was the apple of his eye. Stuart, I'd like you to know that your father was a super special guyl I also wish to credit Ross for his recognition of both the inward and outward beauty he found in Teresa. No couple could have been more fortunate in the love they found for each other. I also wish to mention Ross' delightful daughter Siobhan. She had a special father and he was ever so proud of his daughterl And now to our dear departed friend Ross1,, r,r,e all wish you smooth greens, a fair breeze and bright star to

tered throughout Asia and they would periodically travel to Bangkok, Manila, Taipei, Singapore and into China for a weekend of golf R&R. I recall his team of friends picking up trophies on a number of occasions and then the celebrations which ensued.

In order to enjoy these pastimes, Ross did need to do some work and he was a shareholder in a number of small Hong Kong businesses. Ross like many of us was a graduate of the university of hard knocks. FIe was an entrepreneur and learned on his feet. He was very well read and could talk on any subject with uncannl, Bordeoux Choblis Longuedoc-Roussillon

cannot say enough about the love

and attention she has showered upon Ross during his extended illness. Ross would not have made it

group of golfing 'hackers' frequenting

guide 1,s¡¡ way.

HAr nrEN TRADTNG Co, (HK) rTD. @

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ne humorous incident which I will not forget, was many years ago when a group

of us were

attending a big party at the FCC. Dinner had been served, the band was playing and many were dancing and having a great time. Somehow Rossl' discovered that my late wife April was two weeks overdue with our first child. The tune being ptayed at that moment was Chubby Checker's Twist. In a flash, friend Rossy decided to play doctor and had April out on the TFIE CORRISPONDENT APRIL-N,{ÀY

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THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL-MÀY

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OerruARv

Benno Gross "Flong Kong's most famous Danish photographer" died in Dublin in February.

Known for his broad smile and love of golf, former hotelier Sing Sheng passed away on March 4. Keuin Sinclair remembers pays a final tribute. n the 1980s and into the early 1990s, many of the FCC Main Bar regulars decamped from the Club at noon on Fridays and headed for the frrst floor of the Lee Gardens Hotel, in Causeway Bay. Waiting at the door to B^reet them was the debonair fisure of Shin Sheng. The master hotelier was impeccable, always, never silver hair out of place nor a crease in his superbly cut dark suits. He

looked every inch the perfect hospitality executive, which he

cronies at Fanling, and won. They went back to the outdoor bar and ordered a round of drinks. He took a sip, leaned back, and shut his eyes. lt took a few

minutes until one of this friends noticed his snooze had turned into the long sleep. Sheng was smiling. Shin Sheng was a much loved icon of the hotel industry. He was also a vastly amusing, good tempered and relaxed companion. He could speak easily with heads of state and cobblers on the streets of a Chinese coastal city.

was.

Educated in engineering in St John's University in Shanghai, his wealthy parents sent him to California to study business. That ended in 1950. The money from home dried up and he went to work as an engineer for Pan Am. Later, he was posted to the airport, in sales

Shin had helped pioneer the great wave of hotel business over the border into China. As general manager of the Lee Gardens Hotel, and later as as chairman and CEO

of the group, he set up

badly

needed new hotels in cities such as Suzhou and Shantao. One item of pride was management of the vast 1,000-room Garden Hotel complex

instead

in the state. Pan Am was linked with lnterContinental Hotels which was in

he was known to thousands of friends had another hospitality role. He was coordinator of a

turn involved with the

informal) that

saw journalists, academics, diplomats, businessmen, dubious characters and strange companions sitting down to eat, drink and confidentially gossip. In those more easy going days, it was a great way to end the week.

It also built a lot of bridges, because Sheng, an amiable Shanghainese, also got along with members of the official Mainland family, including Xinhua offìcials gave

unparalleled opportunities for them to mix with Hong Kong reporters and analysts. But, above all, those were fun lunches and many afternoons a crowd composing Charlie Smith, Dick Hughes, Ronnie Ling and other notables would totter out to get a cab back to the FCC as dusk was falling. Shin Sheng, 74, died in Hong Kong doing what he liked most, laughing with pals. He had played golf with 24

new

Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. He came home to Asia in 1963 as sales manager, was later headhunted to

weekly luncheon meeting (strictly

and trade and business executives. This

of engineering, and he

became the airline's chief sales rep

in Guangzhou. On Fridays, Mr Shin or Sheng

From Ted Thomas

go to the Lee Gardens as general manager when that property opened in 1971 life member of the Skal Club of Hong ": Kong; was twice chairman of the Hong Kong ': Hotels Association, for many years sat on the Hong Kong Tourist Association Board, was a tireless traveller to Pacific AreaTravel Association conferences and was a well-known voice in travel industry circles. He had served on the PATA Board and many other industry councils. His judgement was sage. Above all, he was a good friend. Engaging, with a store of stories (mostþ risque) and a jolly chuckle, his friendship cut across all barriers. Up to the end, he was smiling, joking, cheerful. The end came quickly and Shin Sheng died as he lived, a smile on his face. I e was a

IHE CORRESPONDENT APRII,-MAY

2OOO

O #:?-'lrl,ï:*:]ir: ffi"nffi [3

good to say about somebody recently deceased, then certainly don't say anything bad. This gave rise to all sorts of nudge-nudge wink-wink innuendo, such as, "he never suffered fools gladly" in other words he was a bad

- sod, or "he remained a confirmed tempered old probably gay. bachelor all his life" Anyone writing about the dear departed Benno Gross would be faced with none of these qualms. He was that unique blend of professional, a consummate artist and a generous, warm-hearted friend. lle was a deeply committed family man, an exemplary father and a good husband. He also happened to be one of the finest and most gifted photographers that has ever graced Hong Kong.

Benno hated the thought of specialisation in photography and could turn his hand to anything. We used him almost exclusively over the many years that we were the publishers of Cathay Pacific's inflight magazine, Discouery. He was our photographer

of first choice for food and wine pictures and a consummate artist at destination photography. An example of this was the book he did for us on the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg surely one of the most boring territories in the world. Benno brought it alive. So painstaking was he when working on food and cookery illustrations that he designed and built a full kitchen in his Taikoo studio, and would spend all day on getting a single shot exactþ right. Benno's collection of antique cameras was a manifestation of his love and intense involvement with photography as a high art form. Nobody ever did it better. His annual calendars were treasured by all who were lucky enough to receive one, and his portfolio traced

the story of Hong Kong's recent history more vividly than any history book. He was good humoured, trustworth¡ and a true and loyal friend. It would be a f,rtting tribute to this exceptional artist if the FCC were to mount a retrospective exhibition of Benno's work on the now famous back wall of the main bar. Many of his legion of friends would love to have one his pictures, not only for their intrinsic and historical of THE CORRI,SPONDENT APRIL.MAY

2OOO

value, but for a lasting memento of a much loved colleague and companion.

From Peter Sherwood

I wrote a three-page piece on Benno for Media mag. Benno and I produced a coffee table book on Luxembourg (designed by FCC Associate member Peter Cook). The cover on the softcover edition of 10,000 copies is a wonderful shot of a brilliant full moon over the Queen Charlotte bridge in the middle of the city. Benno and I had had one or two small drinks at a bar in Luxembourg near the flat we'd rented. We staggered home at 2.00 a.m. I collapsed into bed, unconscious, only to be awoken by Benno around 3. He was excited by the view from the toilet window, a brilliant full moon, which he photographed and forgot about until I cursed him the next day for waking me. He then went downtown at midday and photographed the bridge with a heary filter. And later stuck the toilet moon on it. As VIP guests in Luxembourg, we were wined and dined (don't ask me why). We went as a guests of the airline to one of Luxembourg's fìnest restaurants run by a famously temperamental chef/owner and famed for its lamb and Irish coffee, of all things. During dinner, a lady by herself at a nearby table ordered an Irish coffee. The chef spent twenty minutes at her side making this amazing concoction on about four distinct levels. Perfect. As he stood back to admire his work, she took a spoon and stirred the hell out of it. The chef went nuts. Stormed out of his own shop and spent time pacing angrily up and down the highway out front, furious. After dinner our host asked if we'd like coffee. Everyone ordered regular coffee, except Benno. He very dryly ordered Irish coffee. The result was inevitable, and all ten people at the table were astonished that he didn't leave the place with a meat cleaver in the top of his head. I ears ago

Ì-

Asn Bv Tun Nuvrsnns

Mnnn

Bubble Bath

PFess Counc¡l a$ a

By David O'Rear

hree years ago (coincidentall¡ the day after the Handover) the house of cards kno'rvn as Asia came tumbling dor,r,n. The Thai baht devalued, the bubble burst, and

Frank Deaver, Professor of Emeritus of Journalism, lJniversity of Alabama, ar'd a member of the Organisation of News Ombudsmen, recently visited Hong Kong.

S$1.5 trillion less than before. At the same time (and quite unrelated), the share price of one particular American company began a long, steady climb from

US$58 to US$118, more than doubling.

Today, we hal,e another bubble: dot-coms, those

atchdog. That's a canine companion that gives a family the comfort of knowing their interests are being guarded by a fourlegged friend with healthy scepticism.

Watchdog. That's a name applied to the mass media, as they give the public some assurance that a representati'r/e government is being carefully observed and reported. Like its canine counterpart, the media must be alert, dependable, a little suspicious, somet-imes noisy, and always faithful. In its watchdog role, the press becomes the eyes and ears of the public attending, - In those interviewing, investigating, and reporting. functions, it is exercising not a special right of the press, but instead it is exercising all citizens' right-to-knorv. It was not a journalist, but a public official US President Gerald Ford who said, "...the public- has a right to know not only- what the government decides, but why and b1'what process." He well could hat'e added, "...at what expense, and who pays or benefits." Reporters are not infallible. They are human and they make mistakes. Sometimes a journalist writes or broadcasts an account that is not accurate, perhaps not fair. When media credibility is at a low ebb, the public may ask, 'lÀIho watches the watchdog?" Even some members of the media have agreed that their collective reputation could be strengthened if the public were reassured by some "reporting on the reporters." An exercise in defending media credibility has in many societies been the establishment of a Press Council s6¡¡stimss known as Media Council or News Council.- Bywhatever name, the council's purpose is to be that 'watchdog of the watchdog, " carefully observing

media performance and making itself available to hear public feedback about the media. Press councils around the world have metwith varying degrees of success. Sweden established the world's first such council in 1916, and with little change over its long history it still serves its societl'. The United States created a National News Council in 1973, and only eleven years later its flaws doomed

it to a short life.

No two press councils are exactly alike, but the successful ones bear some degree of similarity: 1) a free society in which human rights are respected; 2) a media system that is also free; 3) a "responsibility" social ethic; and perhaps most important, 4) a public perception that the council is independent and neutral.

To put it more succinctl¡ a press council must have credibility if its efforts are to enhance media credibility. An ideal definition of a council might be "a non-government, non-media, body of citizens, organised to hear complaints against the media and to evaluate the performance of the media; having no legal authority, no power of enforcement or coercion, but only the power of its respected credibility." \.A,rhile that ideal may not be fully practical, the most successful press councils are the ones most carefully isolated from both government and media control. Identification with government suggests some degree of censorship. Identification with media suggests some degree of self protection andjustification. Both undermine credibility. The most effective press colrncils are thus left with two initial challenges: staffing with members perceived to be neutral, and funding that does not inject potential conflict of interests.

hile minor representation of

both

government and media can be useful on a press council, the majority of members should be clearly independent and neutral. Academicians, social workers, and clergy are possibilities. From whatever vocation, they must be people who are widely respected and who are not identified with an ideological predisposition. A press council must identify the basic philosophy that justifies its existence and drives its operation. Freedom and responsibility must be harmonised. A council may wish to champion freedom in discourse with the media, but responsibility in discourse with the public. The two versions of the philosophy can cause council members much discomfort if they are not understood and balanced against each other. I THE CORRESPONDENT ;\PRILMÂY 2000

r.rp with the ratio between the stock price (P) and the company's earnings (E). The P /E ratio held fairly consistent, both over time and within industries, and so it got a lot of attention. Today, we have a problem. Its really quite embarrassing (don't say anything to the neighbours),

They came

but the most exciting stocks have ... no earnings. Never made a profit. Big losers (and I mean big). So, the only thing to do is to f,rgure out a new valuation, and what the analysts came Lrp with is stock price (P) divided by revenues (R), or PR.

profitless yearlings without a strategy beyond listing on whatever stock mar-ket will ask the fewest embarrassing questions (eg, "\Â4:rere's your profitable track record?"). Tomorrow it might be tin cans or bubblegum wrappers.

As in hype

Bubble, bubble, boil and double The underlying premise for investors entering a bubble is known as the Greater Fool Theory. The GFT (pronounced "gift", particularly if you're trading your worthless stock for someone else's real money) says that somewhere out there is a greater fool than I who will buy this tulip bulb for more than I paid for it. As theories go it is a good there's no shortage of fools in the world. Even if you end up being the greatest fool of all, it just proves that the theory works perfectly 99.99% of the time.

has a market cap on the sunny side of Mexico.

Most bubbles deflate quickly, leaping off tall valuations at a single bound. Exceptions occur when someone with clout has an interest slow deflation. In the case of the Japanese real estate bubble, banks lent money to companies (mostly to speculate with), and only required stock as collateral. To avoid a wholesale collapse of the banking system, the value of shares and land had to decline only verrrry gradually. Banks never learn. Four banks lent Pacihc Century Cyber\A/orks over $90 billion to buy Hong Kong Telecom from Cable & Wireleìs ... and backed the loan with PCCW's stock. If the market crashes, Mr Li looks brilliant, and the banks look stupid. Bubbles all have one thing in common: one day they will burst like a beer bottle thrown from the 22nd storey of a housing estate.

Redefining valuation \4rho remembers stock dividends? Anyone? Today, only about 25Vo of the companies in the Dow pay

dividends, but at one time it was one of the most important means ofjudging the value of a company. As companies found quite logical reasons for not paying just like go't'ernments find good reasons dividends analysts had to find some not to give- tax rebates other way to hgure out what the stock should be worth.

THIì CORRESPONI)ì.],NT APRIL-MAY

2OOO

It does make sense, in a tlvisted sort of way. After all, the stock is for a company that's a bit light in the leadership department: The marketing director is still a little out of breath from his newspaper route, the financial controller loves her new Hello Kitty a real visionar¡ according computer, and the CEO has a five-minute horizon (he thinks long to the PR - lunch). At recent valuations, the company term is after Real world \A4rich gets us back to the real world (or economics; pick one). The conventional view is that bubbles aren't that bad, but reactions to them can be dangerous. After all, the market is so efficient that stocks (or tulips) are alwa¡'s properly priced.

This doesn't take into consideration two very important factors. First, money that pours into dot-com stocks (canals, real estate, tulips) isn't available for more useful purposes, like growing the economy. That's part of the reason why the big blue-chip stocks are doing so poorly: they're not as sexy as dot-coms. The second consideration is that as the bubble expands, people feel more wealthy, and so thel' ns¡ 6¡11' spend more but they also borrow more. US consumers todal' ¿¡ç leveraged to the eyebrows ... of the kid sitting on Daddy's shoulders. When the bubble bursts, that debt still has to be paid off. Oh, the American company that doubles its share price over three years? That was Procter & Gamble, one of the most successful consumer goods companies in China. One day last week (March 7) the stock fell 31%, wiping out US$35.5 billion in value. No reason for it, except that a quarterly earnings repor:t "surprised" market analysts. They were probably watching dot-coms when they should have been working. I Daaid O'Rea¡ Rzgional Economist at the

Economist it is

Intelligence Unit, thinhs þeoþle who belieae "this time different" are dffirent\ clued.

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some 20 FCC golf society members headed to Guam for our fourth annual visit. Once again we narrowly missed taking first place. Once again we never quite managed to understand the obscure scoring system, but they got lots more points than we did and the cup stays firmly rooted in Guam, even though they donated some of their better players to our team this year to help us out a little bit. It was a tribute however to the threat that we posed that Guam pitted such good players against us or maþe it's just that they are all good. We arrived (very) early on the Saturday morning after a late night flight from Hong Kong and after an hour's rest headed out to Talefofo golf course, one of Guam's finest, and the scene of several former FCC defeats. We thought that we were off to play a gentle

'0 scramble to allow us to acclimatise but found that we were actually playing the main competition that day. As if that was not enough of a shock, some of the Guam players seemed to know a thing or two about the game.

My own opponent, Bill Payne managed 15 pars 2 bogeys and an eagle for a level par 72 and his was - of his team not the lowest gross on the day. One (Louie Sunga) tlita2 under par 70. This is the type of

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We did have a couple of good performances however.

2OOO

trd relar enjoying the

much of them during the round while we wandered from one hazard to another.

THE CORRESPONDENT APRILMAY

{

golf with which we are not quite familiar. Nevertheless, our opponents as always were gracious and hospitable (and frequentþ amused), even if we did not see too

Sarah Henderson hit an impressive 87 for our best ladies' score and Spencer Robinson hit 86. The rest of

n March,

Julian Walsh and the FCC Golf Society travelled to Guam... and lost.

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The Year$ of tiuing DanSeFou$ly Absent member Jonathan Mirsky former correspondent for the Times, reviews Stephen Vines' latest book.

t last: a double kick in the teeth for two vacuous notions: there is something called "Asian values" which underpins "the Asian Miracle". Stephen Vines is what geneticists used to call a sport,

Photos by Ray Cranbourne and Terry Duckham

our scores were somewhat less impressive. Nelphen and Rhondi Yung managed 274 between them (it must be

in the genes) and (usually) Steady Eddie

Ruy

Cranbourne had an off day with a rate 3 digit score' Even Dr Mike Smith failed to make it to 2 digits' In fact

only three of us hit under 100. Quite shocking really

Guam International amble that we thought we us day. As if Guam needed any further advantages, they then introduced some rules that *... *uy above our sleep and alcohol impaired brains' ability to understand. Tired and confused we had another great day of golf, albeit with most of us playing with diffe rent interpretations of the rules' It made no difference of course. We then had to deal with a problem never experienced by us before, which was how to calculate a (Guam) team handicap where one of the players had a negative handicap.

lnte,nseciGtiB$ leasue The FCC Golf Society has entered a team in this year's intersocieties league and had its first match on March 20. We nearly won, but nonetheless due system we are now guaranteed a It must be said that all the semi-f,rnals. the in place will also make it to the competition the in teams The day was spiced up somesomehow. semi-finals discussions on the rules bizarte some to due what (who insisted on us taking a opponents with our in resulting subsequent wrongly) quite penalty and total vindication for correspondence written to taking things quite so not used are We the FCC. be right occasionally. Our nice to it is but seriously, next game will be on MaY 4.

to the scoring

Ross Way

l Sing $hong

Ross Way and Sing Sheng recently passed away. Ross and Sing had long been supporters of the golf

from the very beginning one of its most frequent and society golf the of Kong a few years ago. Hong left he until players in Thailand last most recently us with played Sing October. They were both great companions on the golf course and will be sorely missed. society. Ross was involved

a P

Nelson and Gina Kono of the Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) and David Sablan who all made the trip such a success.

THE CORRESPONDENT APRILMAY

2OOO

and the Philippines, were especially good bets because

they were examples of "strong government, some would call it dictatorship." Despite the assertions of some apologists that corruption is well-accepted among ordinary Asians,

"an animal or plant deviating suddenly or strikingly from the normal t'?e," as my Oxford dictionary puts it. As everyone at the FCC knows, he is a top journalist. But what makes Vines unique is that he is also a

Vines points out that in China in 1989, during Tiananmen, official corruption was the primary target of the angry students, and as corrupt regimes went

businessman.

was also the rallying cry. \Arhat Westerners didn't want

Vines would not dispute that the decades leading up to 1997 were ones of accumulation of vast wealth for some and a general rise in the region's standard of living. What he disputes is that there ever was a miracle from which we were told everyone should learn, as in books like William Overholt's China: The Next Economic Superpower and Jim Rohwer's Asia Rising.

His thesis is that "East Asia...is stuffed full of badly companies which grew in the asset bubble that developed before the crisis broke....the blunt fact of the matter is that Asia is severely deficient in world-class companies." Even after the 1997 crash, many financial leaders remain in denial: "Instead of acknowledging the shambles that characterises Asian corporate structures, they have lavished praise on the entrepreneurship and agility of these companies." After over 30 years of growth, sometimes into double digits, by 1998 all the Tigers and Cubs, excepr Taiwan, were showing negative economic growth. As Hong Kong, too, began to crumble, that stronghold of laissez faire entered the stock market in "the biggest stock market raid ever undertaken by a government," spending US$15 billion to buy almost 10 percent of the market's blue chip stocks. Sir Donald Tsang should read this book only if he is feeling extra strong. Vines charges that Western pundits excused the pervasive corruption of the region as a cultural advantage or alternative way of doing business. Some investment gurus like even suggested that the most authoritarian regimes, notably Indonesia, Thailand,

run

THE CORRESPONDENT APRII.MAY

2OOO

under inJakarta, Bangkok and Manila, anti-corruption

to grasp was that the

Asian Miracle, allegedly based on unique qualities of hard work, discipline, familยก and hierarchยก was simply

a phase, a cycle, like the European

Industrial

Revolution. In Hong Kong70% of listed companies are essentially family-controlled, in Indonesia it is 67%. "Preoccupied with shuffling their assets, selling some of them off, and buying in others at low prices," Vines writes, "they focus on controlling organisations rather than on developing good companies. In such familyownerships, supine yes-men isolate the patriarchs from reality. "

ombined with this Mr Vines finds "an edifice of lies, cheating, and outright robbery...The

fundamentals of good government, good corporate governance and the elementary morality on which good business practices are built were shattered."

Mr Vines says there is no shortage of redundant skilled managers ready to work for him behind his counters. "The crisis was not a lack of people ready to work hard, but of bad, voracious management which squandered the efforts of these hard-working people." I The Years of Living Dangerously: Asia From Financial Crisis to the New Millennium by Stephen Vines, Orion Business Books

f 18.99 31

TAnouNn Tnn FCC

Cash McCall blues The Cash McCall evening 1n the Main Dining Room, which was a huge success, was the first of many events where the FCC will host international artists.

Peter Berry in London Peter caught up with some former FCC stalwarts in London, From left, Absent member Alisdair Gibson, ex club manager Alexi Wedderburn, Peter, and ex club manager Liz Eckersley,

hls wife Rosemary celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Photos by Hu van Es

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