The Correspondent June - July 2004 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

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THE OFFICIAL PUBLI C.AIION

TGN CO RRESPONDENTS' CLUB, HONG KONG

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Change at the Top

June 4: A Date to Remember

- Zen to Media: Truth Gives You Freedom - Human Rights Press Awards 2004 - India's Broadcast Media Come of Age - Stiletto - God Speaks, Dog Sneeze, John McBeth Turns 60 - Letter from Cambodia -

The Longest Day General Giap: A Living Legend

Kohut V/ins the Lupton Prize

Books

Biography

FCC

Club Speakers

Around the

Professional Contacts

Out of Context

Marvin Farkas - An Eastern Saga

Charity Ball

FC.C

Fun with English

in Pictures

Kathy Kingston

Florrg

Main Cover Photograph by Luc Carson THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE4ULY 2004

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The Foreign Gorrespondentst

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3rd Annual Ghar

From Lynne O'Donnell #5633

up of

It is heatening to see that more than a year ajter I raised the issue in an article published in the FCC magazine,

discussion about what is essentially a life and death issue for reporters who

of war correspondents becoming

I referred to a crew employed by a big American network, CNN, who had

combatants through the employment of THE FOR.EIGN CORRESPONDENTS' CLUB, HONGKONG 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong Tet; (852) 2527 7577 Fu: (852) 2868 4092 E-mail: <fcc@fcchk. org> Website: <w.fcchk.org>

President Mathew Driskill tr'retVice Prçident Ilaria Maria Sala Second Vice President Kevin Egan

Conespondent Member Governore Paul Bayfreld, Keith Bradshe¡ Mike Gonzales, Ernst Herb, Barry Kâlb, Jim Laurie,John Rym, Hubert van Es

Jounalist Member Governore Raymond Heath, Francis Moriarty Associate Member Governon Nicholas Fulche¡ David Garcia, Anthony Neddermm, Steve Ushiyama

Hong Kong Gonvention Gentre

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The Correspondent The Correspondent is published six times a year. Opinions expressed by writers in the magzine ile not nece ssarily those of the Club.

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will be taken seriously and debate can proceed within the context of the profound changes that own protection,

Saudi Arabia in June to bring the issue to the fore.

have occurred in the very nature ofwar,

The aim of writing about this in the first place, for a Club membership made

9-11 attacks.

and how it needs to be covered since the

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Jeremy Richardson

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In the obituary of Jeremy Richardson in the April-M ay 2004 issue of this magazíne, his date of birth was incorrectly given as 1923.It was 1943. His widow, Wendy, called Jake van der Kamp and not Gilbert Cheng as reported to say the regular FCC quiz night would go ahead as Jerry would have wanted. He served as an official at the Macau Grand Prix in the 1990s as well as the 1970s and I9B0s. The Richardsons have lived in Hoi Ha since 2000 and not for two years as stated. The Correspondent rcgrehs the errors. Eye on the Prize

Production probÌems cut shofi the introduction to the cover story in the previous issue of Zfu Corresponden¿ and eliminated Alkman Grantitsas's deserved by-line. The full text should have read: FCC Member and los Angeles Times Hong Kong bureau chief Tyler Marshall won a Pulitzer PÁze for a series on U.S. retail giant, Wal-mart, Alkman Grønitsøs reports.

erry Duckham

Editorial

Production

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The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

Publicatiore Comittee Conumø: PatlBaStreld EcLitu: Diane Stormont

GoldParhers

Morga Stanley

whether or not to arm reporters, for their

killed, and reporter Frank Gardner, who remains critically injured, in

General Mmager Gilbert Cheng

SOII'T DET.I

cameraman Simon Cumbers, who was

consideration and debate.

Houe,/Futue Prenises/Food md

Comtitution Comittee

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Tragically, it has taken the attack by militants on the BBC crew of

drawn and retumed fire in Tikrit, and elicited only a defensive and offensive reaction from an executive of the firm whose responsibility was the safety of reporters in the field. Now perhaps, the decision about

situations,

Finmce Comittee Nedderman

The FCC proudly announces its 3rd Annual Charity BalI in aid oî the Po Leung Kuk *holarchip Fund and the hnguage Tlaining Prqnm

LLP

are simply doing their jobs.

Conv nn: Anthony

September 25ir 2OO4

BRoTHERS Couoenr GLoBAL LEGAL ADVTSERS

armed guards while covering combat it has finally entered the professional consciousness as worthy of

veterans of many wars and conflicts, was to inspire thought and

THE CORRESPONDENT.IUNE/IULY 2004

Sandra Burton Honoured President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines honoured the late Sandra Burton with the Order of the Golden Heart in a ceremony at Malacanang Palace on April 29. Sandy's partner, Robert DeHs, has presented the medal to the FCC. It is mounted and will go on display

3:ing

The Board of Governors 2004-2005 llu

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7th November 2003

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T.]N,I

JOURI\rALISI' ì\'IENIBER GO\'TRNORS

Iì I,]R GOVERNORS

Paul Bal4ield Keith Bradsher

Raymond Heath Francis Moriarty

Mike Conzalez Ernst Herb Barry Kalb

ASSOCIATE

IIMBER GO\tsRNOIìS

David Garcia Anthony Nedderman Steve Ushiyama

Jim Laurie John Ryan Hubert van Es

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Finance Committee

Convener Anthony Nedderman (Treasurer)

Membership Committee Convener - Steve Ushiyama

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Professional Committee Convener - Keith Bradsher'

Press Freedom Committee

Publications Committee Convener - Paul Bayfield

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House/Future Premiscs/Food and Beverage Committee Convener - Dave Garcia

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To apply: Please e-mail your resume and a cover note

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THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2004

Gover story

Matthew Driskill

Kong-based

is a Hong

editor for

the

I'I e ra ld newspaper. He has

Intetn ational

Tihune wolked as a

journalist,

photographer, university lecturer and information consu]tant since l9B4 and has lived and worked throughout Asia since 1989 with

a brief stint in Central Amer-ica

Outgoing President Kate Pound Dau'son handed over the gavel to N{att

and one in Europe.

Driskill in May when the 2004-05 FCC Board of Covernors took office.

He earned a master's degree

from Columbia University and was named the l9B9 John J.

Matt, who served as First Vice President for part of l(ate's term, says

McCloy Fellow by the Graduate School of Journalism there and

rnany people have asked him about his "agenda" for the forthcoming

by the American Council

Germany.

year. The short answer, as he explains here, is that he has no agenda.

addition to

the

Inlernation al I-le r alrl his work has Tribu ne ¡ appeared in the Àhrio¡r al Las, JoLtntalin the United States, Asiaweek, Associated

Little did I think in 1997 when I first joined the FCC that I'd return from a two-year sojourn in the wilds of Paris and have the honour to serve

as President. The first thing

did

when I found out I'd be serving was to contact a former FCC President and friend of mine, Keith Richburg, who gave me some excellent advice. Keith told me first and foremost surround yourself with good Board

members and delegate, delegate, delegate. I'm pleased to say that the Club has chosen to afford me that privilege by electing what I consider to be an excellent Board, many of

whom are continuing as boa¡d

The second thing Keith mentioned was to remember that Gilbert and his excellent staff do a great job and let them run the Club. I'm sure all of you will agree that Gilbert and the staff do a greal job of keeping everyone happy and the Club operating in the smooth manner in which it does. Believe me, after two years of dealing with French café waiters and staff, it's a real pleasure to be back "home". Finally, Keith's last bit of advice was to remember that as President, I represent all members of the Club and not just the correspondent side of the house. The makeup of the Club has changed somewhat, even in the

keeping an eye on, such as the possible need to renovate the r-oof, which would be a major undertaking. We've got professionals looking it

over and we'll keep one and all posted should that be necessary. Although the final numbers have not made it in yet, Ihe Jazz festival looks comments I've heard from those in attendance. Dave Garcia reports that the Charity Ball is on track to surpass last year's fundraising numbers and is almost sold out already. Be sure to reserve your seats soon.

Francis Moriarty did a fine job

with this year's Human

Rights

few years in which I've been a member, but I know that we all

Awards as well.

benefit from the wealth of people and

incident that occurred inside the Club forces me to remind everyone that the FCC is there for the enjoyment of one

on the Board last year along with Kevin Egan as Second Vice

Moving on, I'm pleased to note that our financial condition is good,

President. Tony Nedderman returns to the Board as Treasurer and Steve

thanks to the hard work of Tony and

Ushiyama as Secretary.

membership.

Steve among others. W'e do have infrastructure concerns that we're

Journalists Association. As president of Global Information Resources, he was the executive producer and creator of 'l'hef-it¡al lTepoñ, the CDROM-based official record of the city government of Oklahoma City on the 1995 bombing of the AHred Murrah federal building. He and his wife Emmanuelle have a son, Louis, who was born this year in Hong Kong.

to have been a success judging by the

members as well as some fresh blood (no pun intended) that are serving for the first time. Among those reLurning is Ilaria Maria Sala, serving as First Vice President this year after serving

professions that make up the

Press, UPI, the Dallas T'intes-l lerak)¡ American City Business Journals and many other publications including scientific journals and books associated with a member institute of the UN-funded CGIAR. He was also associated with an NGO in Cambodia and seconded to the Khmer

On a more distressing note,

and all.

you have a problem with

it outside. On the journalism side of the house, I'm pleased to report that we continue to make progress with the someone, take

THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2004

foreign ministry on securing multiple

entry visas for reporters. It's certainly not a done deal at this

short answer is that I have no agenda. I find that the Club is in good shape financially, all of the

point, but Keith Bradsher of the ly'ew Yot'k Times and I have had sevelal meetings with the pertinent officials and progress is being made. The

major renovations and construction

Club also worked with the Hong

helm and the Board setting policy. I do hope we can refine some areas in what I might call "soft" functions,

Kong Journalists Association to issue a statement reminding the government of its commitment to free speech and a free press and

projects, save for the roof, have been compÌeted, and the Club is under good management with Cilbert at the

but these deal mainly with things like wine selection, foods, etc., and

encouraging it to take action to prevent these freedoms from being

work on them.

eroded. See page 22. Many people have asked me what

One final note: At the most recent Board meeting, it was decided to

my "agenda" as President is.

honoul long-time membel

THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2004

The

Gilbert and his staff are already at

and

correspondent Sandra Burton by changing the name of the Albert Room to the Sandra Burton loom. Sandra was recently honoured posthumously by

the President of the Philippines with the Order of the Golden Heart, which will be on permanent dispÌay along with photos of Sandra in the room (see page 3). We believe it is an honour

richly deserved, although are

saddened by the posthumous nature of it.

Again, it is an honour and a pleasure to be able to serve as President for this year and I look for-ward to hearing from you. You can email me at president@fcchk.org. tr

Outgo¡ng Treasurer's Report 2003 /O4

Outgoing

President's Report 2003 /O4

Income was slightly up for the year (by $380,000), which reflected a strong

recovery from

the SARS

epidemic

slowdown during the first quarter.

The low opening membership figure good shape. We've just finished painting

high despite humble beginnings' The

The FCC started the year on a serious

and cleaning the outside. Our other

Ball Committee, led by Dave Garcia and

note: the Board debated at great length on joining the march to Protest the

maintenance and improvement projects

Tom Crampton, made sure everyone had a great time. We're gearing up for this year's party, and have started planning

Article 23 legislation. It was a close vote - although everyone was concerned about lhe danger to the free Press, several Govemors had concems about taking such a public, political stance' But in the end, Francis MoriartY, who heads the Press Freedom Committee, and others heþed organise dozens of

were more modest- Many - such as a new cooking surface and upgrades to the fire aren't noticeable to alarm system

the 2005 bash.

Also in SePtember, we kicked off an aggressive new campaign to rebuild our

which had Plunged bY more than 200 over the Previous two years of economic hanl times' Since

-emb"rship -

ih".r, St"r," Ushiyama and marketing executive Marilyn Hood have worked

FCC members, and manY of the staff, as they took part in history on July lst. That was the closest vote the Board had this year. I can truly say that despite

our disparate interests and points of view, the Governors pulled together consistently. As a result, the Club had an extremely successful year. Our successes for the year began with the FCC's first Jazz Festival in July - an idea that came to fruition under the

care ofAllen Youngþlood, Paul Bayfield and Terry Duckham. The second festival kicks off in late June 2(X)4, with more

terrific music lined up.

hard to draw in new members and we are now nearing 1,700. In the coming weeks, we'll begin a new effort to reach out to the dozens of journalists and correspondents in Hong Kong who are not yet members, but should be' December and January brought some bad news - mad cow disease in the

Ilnited States, bird flu in Asia and

educate disadvantaged children who are under the aid of the Po l,eung Kuk. Many members had a chance to meet our first

findways to containwine costs' Members never noticed the difference, and we kept costs under control.

which raised more t]ran $2 million to

six scholarship wìnners. They are

stellar bunch of kids who are aiming

of Press Clubs' This organisation links dozens of clubs from London to New Delhi. It grves us a chance to work with journalists and club managers from all over the world on cornmon problems - such as how to balance costs and the budgets of our on

members. Jim L¿urie took the lead this event, which gave us a chance to show offthe FCC's facilities and effìcient

alwaYs,

made sure our beloved building stayed in

improved return reasons during the year enabled a small capital gain also to be

locked

in at the year end, bringing

subscription income during much of the year. However, the 60th anniversary

bottom line results to a $34,000 surplus

membelship promotion implemented

beverage prices throughout the period.

fi'om the second quarter led to a lecovery in numbers to over the 1,600

for the year, whilst holding food

With

the

now

and

increased

level by year end, enabling us to build up again to a satisfactory level of

membership level achieved (J,,647 by mid-May) satisfactory results can be projected for the coming year. The

income from that source.

subject of menu prices

Outgohtg Presi.dent's Report cotttínued.

denominated in the euro, arranged by Tony Nedderman and the Finance

The Wall Committee, Ied by Ilaria Maria Sala, continued to bring the Club exciting nerv presentations. An exhibit

will be kept

people in desperate need. And a group

concentrate on other projects, and his

of iurpoverished students from Vietnam c-harnrerl us with the images they saw through the viewfincler. Despite a grim outlook 12 months

skill at

arranging speakers will be greatly missed. Stuart Wolfendale also has decided to focus on other projects, but remains involved with the Ball. And

a8o. the Club

Anthony Lawrence regrettably leaves us after several years of hard work. I want to thank everyone in the Club for their support, their suggestions, their

Itnancial

and an amusing' as well as inspiring'

session

with Simon and

Jennifer

THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY

2oo4

to tell the story

fully

recoverecl lrom the effecrs of SARS. A

combination of careful cost controls, rising. sales and membership eraserl ahnost

lntty,

Murray.

Committee, boosted us into the black for the year. We're losing a few Board members

this year. Tyler Marshall, our Pulitzer winner, returns to the U.S. C.P. Ho is standing down after several years to

by photographer Steve Cray showed the

camera's power

cheaper supplies. Barry Kalb helped

The House Committee, as

depressed,

realisation of a euro position taken for

All in aÌI, our results for the year were far superior to those achieved by the club and reslauranl sector in general, thanks to staunch efforts throughout the year shown by all members of management, staff and our operating committees.

Tony Nedderrnan

Association

weakened U.S. dollar. To keep our food costs from hitting the roof, Gilbert Cheng and the rest of the staf{, helped by Dave Garcia and the House, Food and

Beverage Committee' quickly found

reduced

rates continued to be

in food and costs unfold. beverage Solid progress was made during the year in cooperation with management on improvement of internal systems. under review as trends

annual gathering of the Intemational

Then in September came the Ball

members, but were essential to improve efficiency and safetY. In February, the FCC held the

(1,527) resulted in

While income from deposit interest

gains

all our deficit. Then a jokes and the many drinks they plied but very safe, iinvestment I me wiith. You made for a very fun year.

THE coRR¡tsPONDENT

JUNE4ULY 2004

Thanks to everyone on the Board of Govemors for making the past yea-r so easy for me. Matt Driskill filled in for me many times. Kevin Egan made sure we met our obligations under the

Memorandum and Articles of Association. Stuart WoHendale ser.¡ed on so many committees that I can't name them all. Nick Fulcher worked hard to make sure we heard the complaints and concems of all members. Mike Gonzalez rejoined the Board after a sojourn in Europe, and immediately started to make his presence felt in several areas. The new Board, led by Matt Driskill, will be busy. I hope they have as much fun in the coming year as I have had.

Kate Pound Dawson

Before and After. Top: Chinese students marching nea¡ Tiananmen Square on May 25, 1989, little more than a week before t.he tanks moved in. Below:Tlhe aftermath. This photograph was taken on June ó, 1989. Photographs cou-rtesy of AFP.

Former FCC

President Stezte Vlnes explains

As far as I carr remernber my parents took me to rn¡' first dernonstration when I was about six year-s olcl. I mention tl.ris because I ha'r,e hacl a lifetime of attending political rallies but none has been as in-rportant and moving as the anuual comrnemoration of the June 4 lnassacre. I har,e been to all but one of these rallies since 1990 and every time I leave it makes rne feel good about living in Hong l(ong and optirnistic about its people. The

politics of this evenl should not be ignoled but

poinf of attendtng the ]une 4 rallies

in Victoria Park. 10

rvl.rat

leall¡' peu"t me is

the

extlaoldinary breadtl-r of attendance. The people rvho fill Victoria Palk lange fr-om babes in alms to vely elderly citizens r'vho have difficulty walking but insist on makir.rg their way to the park. Thele are people of c¡uite clearl¡, modest means standing shouldel to shoulclel rvith lich-looking Central tr.pes. Tl.ris year I rvas sitting behind a group of teer'ìagers with baggy tlousers, hair in interesting shapes and attitude rvritten all

over their faces but on that evening they I'ere attentive to the proceedings, enthusiastic in joir-ring in the chants and singing and clearly serious al¡out what they ivere doing. This is no rent-a-crowd. It is a cross-section of the best people )¡ou are e\¡er likely to meet in Hong I(ong. It is extlaordinary to be toÌd b)' .o-" of Beijing's more unctuous sycophants that the peopìe who turn up on 4 June ale anti-China because or.re of the absolute r rtE coRRr_sPoNDL\ f Jr NE JILY2004

I THE CORRESPONDÌiNT.JUNE/JULY

2OO4

If they bother to staY to the end of the rallY they

will

see most of

the particiPants carefully pickĂŹng uP

litter and making

sure

[hat no one can accuse democracY activists of

being litter louts

that attention to detail or what?

This is no rent-a-crowd. It is

cross-section of the best people

you are ever likely to meet in

corneĂŻstones ofthis event is its intense patriotism, explessed in the moving patriotic songs and the very fact that Hong Kong people have gathered to malk an event on tl-re mainland. Those who accuse the demonstrators of being anti-China suffer under the illusion that there is no difference between the Communist Party and

Hong I(ong. people have a higher degree of active participation in political activity than practically anywhere else in the world.

the nation it r-ules.

As ever the people who attend political demonstrations in Hong Kong are highly seH-

Since 1997 political activity has increased and the significance of this commemoration has become more profound because the Hong Kong SAR is the only piece of Chinese sovereign territory where there can be open mourning for those who gave their lives and it is the only place where people are allowed to affirm their continued

disciplined and require no policing. Again and again they expose the lie that the people of the SAR are somehow politically immature and not interested in politics. This lie is perpetuatecl even though it is now crystal clear that on a per capita basis Hong Kong

THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2004

commitment to the struggle for democracy. Every time anyone repeats the old canard about Hong Kong people being interested only in money and themselves, I say come along to Victoria Park on June 4 and you will learn something. If they bother to stay to the end of the r-ally they will see most of the palticipants carefully picking up litter' and making sure that no one can accuse democracy activists of being litter louts - is that attention to detail or-rvhat? tr

Photographer of the Year

2004

NOTES ON ENTRY CATEGORIES

all

Entries Must Have Been Taken

within Three Years 0f Entry Date Hong Kong and China or who are FCC members. d Asian news media. ng, China and Asian magazine media. al reports, public relations, corporate portraiture, etc. worldwide. mpaigns which should be entered as they appeared in print,

Zen to Media: Truth Gives You Freedom

feels stronglY committed to' . Single Entq, - two individual images of any same or separate theme that the photographer feels represents the best of their current Personal work' open to members from participating Hong Kong camera clubs and all FCC members and their families. port¡aits and interpretative images thal explore the role and character of Asian Ìvomen in today's society and Women of Asia and economic issues that confront them' the often paradoxical social, sexual, cultural

strong graphic and interpretative images that capture modern urban landscapes in is metaphorical and not necessarily literal. relationship to the people who live in them. The word 'reflections'

R"fl."riorr. of an Urban Landscape

perspective 3. Hong Kong

open to photographers from all categories - Professional, Non-professional and Student. it...Love it...See it (co-sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board) - images should re{lect the theme

crackdown had been derided in certain quarters - he politely did not name them - as stupid and offensive. "I

HOñG KONG - Live social integration, cultural heritage, enetgy, arts and character of Hong of the HKTB's tou¡ism slogan that capture the unique

don't expect to receive another award for that remark," the Bishop said drily. Howevet, he added that maybe former Chief Secretary Anson Chan deserved an award for the "CulturaÌ Revolution-style attacks" that have fallen on her

Kong.

open to Hong

Kon

?imzs newspaper for es should consist of photograph is hot or is each photograph explaining why the subject of each merely to assist the judges.

secondary schools sponsored by English not) with a less than 20-word caption for be judged on the text, which is

perspective

photographers should indicate on the entry form, in the box provided, if their images were shot using film or digital .ãdiu. ¡. special award in each category will be made for images demonstrating excellence in use of digital media. a series ofup to six images, in each category Series and Single Entries - Photographers can choose to enter two single entries, or Entry that the images are judged on their a Series submitting that when remember to imponant is It (unless oth".*ir" stated). missed out on awards by entering more images than have Photographers images. individual as not merit and impact as a series, necessary.

voice for the voiceless. Expose the facts without

There are rwo principal awards: the Photographer of the Year and the Photograph of the Year awa¡ds. Category will be eligible for these awards. winners, both series and single entry images in Professional, Non-Professional and Student divisions, Digital Awards

He reminded the Hong Kong press that it had not only a - but also big power. "So use it for the cause of justice and love. Defend the weak in the society. Be the great role

merely to assist the judges' principal Awards

head recently.

not. Entries will not

open to Hong Kong tertiary students in full or part-time education in a college or university. less than 20-word caption for What's hot? What,s not? - entries should consist of two photographs (one hot, one not) with a judged on the text, the text is not is not. Entries will be is hot or photograph of each subject the each photograph explaining why

S. Students

Edit carefully. More does not necessarily mean better' Entries close:

Professional & Non-Professional: 8th October 2004

Students:

----|Ã ir

The Bishop, who has had to face plenty of tests, challenges and maybe even terrible choices himself, played down the pressures he has had to cope with. He said he was luckier than the press because for him freedom came from the Gospel. "The Gospel says the truth gives you freedom, so I don't feel any pressure. I can eat, I can sleep, very well." He added: "Maybe all of you deserve an award because through your objective reporting and honest comments you are defending the most fundamental value. That is the right to information and truth." Zennoreð, that one ofhis own remarks at a June 4 prayer meeting marking the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen

Prcsfarcls

Francis Morialty, convener ofthe FCC Press Freedom Committee, thanks Bishop Zen (Ieftl for his speech.

electronic or digital media' . Personal / Non-Commissioned Work . Series a series ofup to six images that capture and express a single theme on any subject that the photographer

2. Non-professional

unìan Fìiç¡hts

2nd November20}4

For more information please email POYA@fcchk.org or ring 852

252lI5Il

Speaking to a record turnout for such awards, which are

co-sponsored

by the FCC, the Hong Kong

Journalists

manipulation, arouse compassion and provoke anger when necessany."

Association and Amnesty International (Hong Kong), the Bishop told his audience that as defenders ofthe invaluable right to information and truth, they were nothing less than

He said that "many quarters" had urged him and likeminded advocates of human rights and democracy to be

prophets.

admonitions come from those who perpetrate injustices, or their accomplices. Then they are only adding insult to

BtÍZen drew laughter when he reminded his listeners some of whom, at least, may not have seen their role in quite

- that their prophet

status had a potential downside: "Maybe you are also ready to become

such exalted terms

martyrs?"

A principle theme of Zen's address was encouragement to the press: "Hong Kong is fortunate to have such lively

and high-quality media people. But these times are particularly interesting, exciting and also testing, challenging. I suppose sometimes you face a face terrible choice between pleasing somebody - maybe even your boss - or following your conscience." THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY

2OO4

tolerant and to treasure peace. "Sometimes

these

injury.

"But sometimes they may come from friends. And our answer must be, we surely treasure peace, but again the Holy Father tells us, without justice there is no truth and Iasting peace, and it is up to those who committed injustices to correct the facts. Then peace will be more possible." Concluding, Bishop Zen said: "It is wonder{ul that those who work in the media, and those who are concerned with human rights, should collaborate together so closely. So together you are going to change the world. "And God is on your side." tr

med¡a

HT]MAN RICHTS PRESS AU/ARDS 2004

BROADCAST

PRIZE - Reflections from Asia: Aceh

Reflections from Asia: Burma

Harvey Stockwin

Television Hong Kong

GENERAT NEWS

Sarah Carmichael, former chairperson, Amnesty Intemational Hong Kong Section Cheung Ping-ling, chairperson,

Hong Kong Journalists

Association

The EOC scandal

China Morning Post

Ravina Shamdasani

South

president, Foreign Correspondents' Club Law Yuk-kai, director, Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor Angela Lee, former boa¡d member, Amnest5r International

Hong Kong Section

FEATURDS

PRIZE - Body ofwork on rights ofthe disabled The Standard

Paris Lord

Dr Jiang

Matt Pottinger

The Asían Wall Street loutrtal

Editorial team

a day -

China

Body of work on July - Ming Pao Daily

special character: Cho

PRIZE - Lost Lives

Hannah Beech

MERIT - Welcome to the Jungle

MAGAZINES

Time Asia

Andrew Pernn

Tine

Asia

BROADCAST

Claudia Mo, columnist and commentator

PRIZE - Toxic trail

of Journalism,

Hong Kong Baptist University Ronny K.Y. Tong SC, forrner chairperson, Hong Kong Bar

Association

Hubert van f,s, photographer, Board member, Foreign Correspondents' Club

PRIZE - Special report from Dharamsala Open Magazine

- TELEVISION

Anjali Rao

Xiaobo

Star TV

Innocent

MERIT

God or government? Vietnam's underground

churches

Susan Yu

Joe Kainz

Media credibility decays

Star TV

Focus Asia

Gavin Coates

Ng Yi-wai, Sezto

[]-B eat Magazìne

Xizhe

- "Patriots" bury

one-country, two-systems

Apple Daily

Martin Lee, you are a communist!

in the darkness - Liu

a gay activist - Lau Nga-yan,

- TETEYISION

Feature of the Week: when will justice come to China? Wing-kuen - Cable TV

Hong Kong Connection: people's power series

Radio Television Hong Kong

Feature of the Week: Before SARS spread - Guangdong and Hong Kong - So Kai-chi and Lo King-wah - Cable TV

The Standatd

THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2004

Daily THE CORRESPONDENT.JUNE/JULY

Shaw Sin-ming

PRIZE - Laos: the Hmong - Time Asia

Phillip Blenkinsop / I'Agence Vu

MERIT - July 1 protesters

Tsang Kin-wah

July

I march: clear enough? -

Abuse of the power of the police

Chu

The best comment on Article 23

Kwok Hing-fai

Apple Daily

Human rigþts vs power of the police

- Sing Tao Ilaily - Sing Tao Daily

Ng Ming-fai

l¡k-kei

The new emperor of Kowloon recycling garbage

Wang

Ming Pao Daily

Apple

Chun Kok-wai

Min6Pao Daily

Give justice back

[æe Shiu-cheong

Ming Paa Daily

Support For and Against Tung Chee Hwa

Iæe Shiu-cheong

Ming Pao Daily Vy'ishes

Dustin Shum

Mental health 2004

Lau Yiu-fai

A speeclrless Bishop Zen - Choi Man-hong- Ming Pao Daily

MERIT - Cast your ballot to decide who is the genuine patriot - Gladys Li - Apple Daily

CÄRTOONS

PRIZE - Selected work

Wang Youqing

COMMENTÄRY ÄND ANÄIYSIS

PRIZE

SPECIAL PRIZE - For Sustained Excellence

Open Magazine

Kin-cheung, Ip Yi-leong

Star TV

Association

How gay Christians live under the Crucifix

- Star TV victim - Joe Kainz - Star TV

Stove burnings

Tsoi Wing-mui

Open Magazine

MERIT

Bobby Yip, chairman, Hong Kong Press Photographers

Mass genocide committed by Chairman Mao

chief, former Board member, Foreign Correspondents'Club

Joyce Nip, assista¡rt professor, Department

Yip Koon-lam

PHOTOJOURNATISM

MAGAZINES

Tyler Marshall, Los Angeles Times Hong Kong bureau

Radio Free Asia

Feature of the Week: the possible threat from national security legislation IV - Tong Chiu-man - Cable TV

PRIZE

MERIT PRIZE - A disobedient social worker refuses to go back to the grassroots - Lui Tsz-lok - Ilolg Kong Economic Tirnes

Lillian Lai-Ming Cheung

Radio Television Hong Kong

Poon Tat-pui and Echo Wong

- FEATURES

Lillian Lai-Ming Cheung

BROADCAST

Editorial team

demonstration

Chan

Apple Daily

- RADIO

Radio Television Hong Kong

Jacqueline Leong SC, former chairperson, Hong Kong Bar

Kong Section

lounal

The Asian WalI

MERIT - Examine racial discrimination

Apple Daily

Government applies viperous means to suppress protesters - Mok Kim-yuen, Ho Man-man, Chan Pui-man, Choy Yuen-

Tongfu Garden

Association

Liu Pui-shan, chairperson, Amnesty lnternational Hong

Editorial team

PRIZE - Lawyer's wife kidnapped - Radio Free Asia

Adelaide

Mok Kim-yuen,

Kwong-wai, Law Wai-kwong, Choi Toi-lin

NEWSPÄPER

MERIT - Asia's maid culture - Rebecca Buckham and Trish Saywell - The Asían Wall Streetlournal

Selected editorials Street Ioumal

The Asian Wall Street

BROADCAST

Guangxi sugarcane farmers earn B0 cents feature desk - Apple Daily

kwei NEWSPAPER

PRIZE - Hugo Restall

GENDRÄL NEWS

Draconian Article 23 withdrawn

MERIT - Hong Kong haemophiliacs contracted HIV through contaminated drug products - Ella Lee - South China MorningPost

Kate l)awson, conespondent, Voice of America, former

Radio

MERIT - Go to Toronto and challenge the law of Hong Kong, gay couple intended to apply for tax return treatment for married couple - K H Wong and C H Lai - Sing Tao Daily

AU/ARD WINNERS ENGTISH-tANGUAGE CATEGORIES

PRIZE

AWARD WINNERS CHINESE-tANGUAGE CATEGORIES

PRIZE - Long live Hong Kong people Apple Daíly

Fred A¡mentrout, president, Hong Kong English-speaking branch of PEN International

Harvey Stockwin

Radio Television Hong Kong

The winners of the 9th annual event were announced at an awards ceremony at the FCC on June 12. Ten Prizes and five Awards of Merit were handed down in the English categories and 10 Prizes and 13 Awards of Merit to Chinese entries. One Prize and 10 Awards of Merit were announced for the Photography section.

PANET OF JUDGES

COMMENTARY & ANATYSN

- RADIO

Sotth China MorningPrnt

John Stanmeyer /

YII-

Ti¡ne Asia

India,'s

bro adcast media colne

---

households overall, news channels have sprung up like wild flowers. Since January 2001, eight nationwide news channels have of the been launched (two joined the market in 1998)' Most

channels are in Hindi, two in English' They provide largely

non-stop domestic news and employ more than 4,000

joumalists and technicians nationwide' In addition, there are at least a dozen local or regional news channels in various languages' Incredibly, there are

of a,ge

plans for more including two new business news channels by the end of the Year. I conducted a TV News training programme in January harl four 2003 in Mumbai and Delhi and discovered that if you

or five years of experience under your belt, you

While Americans are just beginning to gear up for their

big election season, India has just completed the most surprising political spectacle in many years. Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law, Italian-born Sonia, led her party to an upset victory only to turn around, decline to lead the nation as

Prime Minister and instead turn things over to former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. An extraordinary development. an

extraordinary series of developments this election year. For the last two years, I have been the principal consultant on the STAR Group Ltd's Mumbai-based, Hindi-language news channel. The station, a subsidiary of News Corp, went on the air in April 2003, providing me with a vantage point to watch a news war rage like nothing else I've seen in my 33 years in television. No fewer than 10 round-the-clock news channels competed to cover the recent national elections and vied to keep viewers glued to their televisions.

The world's largest democracy has emerged as the world's largest market for lelevision news. With nearly 50 milÌion homes wired to cable, out of 86 million TV

in India,

when journalistic

reputations are made or broken, these "old pros" went after thà story with unprecedented enthusiasm' They were on the track of politicians everywhere' Using no fewer t.lran 25

satellite remote trucks spread across the vast Indian countryside,

the channels competed to bring as

many

reporters as they could muster into living rooms' Live' Election coverage is big business for the news stations' The ratings leader is the Aaj Tak channel, owned by tbe In'dia Tod,ay magazine group. STAR News based in Mumbai and NDTV India based in Delhi battle for second place' All of

them doubled advertising rates for the May election period

from an average ofUS$250 to $500 for a lO-second spot' While the adsales spend is not big by international standards, news is commanding an increasing slice of the $40 million spent each year on TV advertising in India and the pie is growing by about seven percent per year' The news channels, meanwhile' struggle to make their coverage different.

With a degree of innovation that has never become standard fare elsewhere, all the Indian channels turned to

biting political satire. The two NDTV (New Delhi Television) launched an Indian version of the no-holds-barred

mocked and mimicked.

Indian Economíc Times on April

16.

"Psephologist?" you

academic words when a simple one would do. In case you are not up on your psephology, hundreds of such analysts make their living studying election trends in India. And this time around virtually every psephologist got wrong. No analyst predicted the amazing election upset. As STAR's

Since January 2001, eight nationwide

news channels have been launched (two

News joined the market in 1998). Most of the India Director Uday Shankar put it: iÎ: t*;Ïä:::"il:i: charurels are in Hindi, rwo in English. "The elections ï:t-:"ît"3",":*:Ji:ïï* They provide largely non-srop domestic H;",î'îT|d]il:

Politicians aligned with the

ruling BJP seemed to

the ruling coalition might have rubbed off o,, uot"lr, contributing to the surprise defeat of rhe incumbents. The other remarkable

news and employ rnore than 4,OOO

pollsters and every other

journalists and technicians nationwide.

in India!" But

feature of Indian television news is the exalted role of the psephologist. "Cashing in on the election fever, Star News is introducing a new psephologist show called Tol Mol Ke Poll' reported

"hunn"k

THE CORRESPONDENTJ UNE/JU LY 2004

news

director loudly proclaimed: "We want to expose the hypocrisy of our political candidates through comedy." All the shows ran several times a day and ratings for news immediately shot up across the country.

People loved to see their politicians ridiculed,

the

may ask.

In India, there's a strong preference for multi-syllabic

cartoons called Poll Khol.

Aaj Tak promoted its own satirical series. Its

journalism' considered an old pro in the world of Indian

During election time

In the media industry too, India has witnessed

were

British TV series Spitting Image. STAR countered by introducing a satirical show laced with cutting political

THE CO RRESPONDENT JUNE4ULY 2004

crystal ball-gazer as

the

nâtron remained riveted to their television sets for the astounding results and the sudden announcement that Manmohon Singh would be their Prime Minister, news channels in India came

ofage. tr T9

STILETTO(s,í.,é,ó

Letter From ) n. pl. sti.let.tos or

sti.let.toes A small dagger with a slender, tapering blade. Something shaped

like such as a dagger. A small, sharp-pointed instrument used

for making eyelet holes in needlework. fltalian, diminutive of dagger, from Latin

stilus,

stilo, I

stylus]

U'IJY DONÏ THEY

IR oFF

SO WE CAN

GET BACK TO cELEBRATTNC?

If you had an exclusive yarn that went something like "God speaks to Man/Woman" would you put it on page one? Max, like the public relations fir-m Shireen to

Qudosi Associates, is

trying

find out.

From Fullerton, California, they a special interest

media group with

asa promoting quality

a corruption of Allah's original intentions. The women's identity has been kept a secret, little wonder given the fatwas being issued around the world these days. But the release adds: "She is now ready to reveal this Message. I have heard ofthis Message," says Shireen, "and it is one that Islam". The male version being

rare in Kandal and how I should look in Kompong Thom, which I didn't understand at the time. After hours of driving I find myself on foot, trekking through rice paddies in the middle of nowhere and thinking "this can't be right". Suddenly, we round a bend and are confronted with six

I )l

large, definiteþ unraced and quite belligerent water buffalo,

attached to two tiny children by bits of string. PF asks how much want to pay, and I eventually realise he thinks I had meant "buffalo renting". I am unable to dissuade him ofthis belief. This really is the middle of nowhere, but by standing on one leg on a termite mound in a patch of scrub and facing southwest, I manage to get a cellular phone signal. I call my offsider in Phnom Penh, who is having a day off, and say "the good news is we have found a bunch ofbuffalo. The bad news is they look less than festive and are certainly not celebrating." PF hears me say "celebrating" and goes ballistic. "You did not tell me you want to rent celebrating buffalo. I always do what

joulnalism with global contacts, we are geared toward bridging through working closely with a network of international media outlets."

This group is underselling itself. Its contacts are beyond global, out of this world and go straight to God. According to a pless release by Shireen Qudosi herself: A Muslim woman has received a message from God for the Islamic world and is caÌling for a New Islam. Apparently God said Islam nowadays is not all that it's supposedly cracked up to be and is in fact "Man's Islam" as opposed to "Allah's

we are in dire need of as a world community. As situations are becoming increasingly volatile, her message is perhaps our

continued, on page 23 THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE4ULY 2004

I've just retumed from the classic Cambodian road story. I was aiming to do a piece on the annua-l buffalo racing festival and took my friend, a police officer, as a last minute translator because he insisted he wanted to "see the nature" and because my driver had pulled out sick. Setting off from the capital, my policeman friend, whom we will refer to as PF, kept muttering something about buffalo being THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY

2OO4

continuecl on page 23...

MEDIA ORGAI\ISATIOI\S T]RGE ACTIOI\ TO PROTECT FREE EXPRESSIOI\ AI\D PRESS FREEDOM

buffalo this year.

say but you don't

tell me this, so I cannot. I did

And so on. He takes my refusal to rent these rather morose creatuïes as a huge loss of face and I am suddenly trying to calm down an irate policeman, who does not roll with the punches on stories that go awry, plus six angry water buffalo and two vocal kids who keep inflaming the situation by insisting that if I just give them a

buck these buffaloes will do anything - race, jump through hoops, per{orm Swan Lake - so what's my problem? I manage to magic up a phone

reception one more time by Recent events have called into question the firmr.ress of resolve on the part of the Hong Kong govelnment in prntecting the freedom ofthe press and the freedom ofexpression guaranteed to Hong Kong under the Basic Law. Four major SAR media organisations - the Hong Kong Journalists Association, Pless Photographers Association, The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong and the Society of Publishers in Asia - have corne togethel to express their deepening concerrl about the future of a free press amid an atmosphere of growing intolerance toward differences of opinion. While defence of the press rests ultimately with the press itself, much responsibility also falls on the government. Accordingly, the four organisations - representing the breadth of the journalistic community - jointly call on the Central and Hong Kong govemments to recognise the seriousness and urgency of the issue, and to take all practicable steps to protect free expression and a fiee press. We beÌieve that statements in defence of basic values, while welcome, are insufficient if unaccompanied by action. Unfortunately, the administration's statements in defence of critical values are all too often tardy, selective and unpersuasive. Unsurprisingly, they find a declining audience in an increasingly sceptical community. What we are witnessing is not only an erosion ofbasic values, but a corresponding erosion oftheir defence. Reversing this downward spiral requires clear, consistent and timely action by officials at all levels. They must demonstrate an ongoing dedication to transparency, tolerance and personal credibility. They must show that they accept these values by acting firmly against intolerance and social marginalisation, irrespective of the quarter from which it comes. There can be no politically acceptable form of discrimination, nor should anyone be immune fir¡m criticism by virtue of his or her position -- particulally when acting on behaH of the government.

Specifically, we urge the SAR govemment to: Refrain from any action that may threaten freedorn ofexpression or freedom ofthe pless Thoroughly investigate allegations of intimidation aimed at suppressing flee speech or fi'eedom of the press Strongly encour.age the Centml People's Government to state unequivocally and publicly that it does not and will not tolerate actions by anyone on the mainland, including officials at whatever level, that impinge on the dghts guaranteed to Hong Kong people by the Basic Law - Ensure that any work on a national security bill is undertaken openly, and with full and comprehensive consultation in older' not to repeat the damaging and divisive mistakes of the past - Defend the principle stipulated in the Basic Law that any legislation passed to implement Article 23 must be enacted by Hong Kong acting on its own, and oppose any efforts aimed at encouraging the Central Govemment to enact national legislation

that would be extended to Hong Kong - Work towards a more harrnonious and inclusive society that tolerates and protects differences of opinion, especially opinions not widely held. We believe that it is critical to Hong Kong's position as a centre of information exchange that all possible steps are taken to safeguard free expression and a free press. Anything short offull suppott would have serious consequences for Hong Kong's role as a gateway between China and the world, with damaging consequences for the economy and the people's livelihood.

Hong Kong Joumalists Association Hong Kong Press Photographers Association Foreign Con'espondents' Club, Hong Kong Society of Publishers in Asia

public seH-criticism at a later date when we can apprehend him. The races, it transpires, are in fact for oxen and horses. No

continued from page 21 ...Ca,mbodio,

I now have a petrified Cambodian photographer (who is also potentially on the run and whom we never meet up with at the races, strangely enough), a pissed-off policeman, two angry wheeler-dealer children and some very dubious water bu{falo to deal with. We back away slowly. Eventually, we find the races, which are pretty much over and consist of two horses running rampant in vaguely parallel

'we

good ne\'YS ls have found a hunch of buffalo. The bad news is they looh less than festive and are certainly not eelebrating."

standing on a rock on one leg and pointing west, and reach our photographer, who is already at the races, so he can explain the misunderstanding in Khmer to PF, who is now convinced there is no such thing as buffalo racing and the whole thing is a scam designed to make fools of us. PF takes the phone and the airways zing for a bit, until

lines across a couple of rice paddies. PF berates a couple of people about illegal gambling and frivolous behaviour to make himseH feel better and we go home. It was one of my best days in Cambodia in hindsight. PF is still angry with me, however, and erupts a week later in a screaming fit about water buffalo-renting as we sil over drinks at Hurley's Bar in Sisowath Quay, to the total bemusement of everyone else.

satisfied PF announces that the poor photographer has "confessed that he lie me, Madam Browning," and will make a

Our mission achieved zero results, he says. But he's been to my house, and I don't know where he thinks I am going to put a water buffalo. I suspect there will be no end to this until I go to Kompong Thom with him and rent one just to shut him up. tr

continued from. pùge 20... Stiletto

Sydney.

Max loathes writing about anyone only hope at this point."

This doesn't really past muster for a page one yarn. There's nothing new in the line about our dangerous world and unfortunately few in "Man's Islam" would listen to a woman anlrway.

Meanwhile, the deck chairs are being reshuffled in Cambodia where Irishman Kevin Doyle has replaced the American Mat Reed as managing editor of the Cambodia Daily, while Canadian Pat Falby has been tasked with the difficult job of closing the DPA bureau in Phnom Penh. Reuters staffer Ed Gopley is also packing his bags, and life is looking a little drab for AFP amid talk of an office ban on alcohol. And word is the doyen of local journalism, Reach Sambath, is about to retire to focus on full-time teaching. But on a brighter note, word is that the finishing touches are being applied to a documentary by Kiwi Stanley Harper. This doco traces the lives of Cambodian families over a lS-year period and has already won rave reviews from the handful of people who have viewed the rushes, including Philip Jones Griffiths. Harper has enlisted the support of Britain's David Puttnam. Further north in Canberra, Reuters correspondent Belinda Goldsmith is packing the family's bags for a posting in New York. In Brisbane, former Reuters hand Jane Breusch has declared she will revert to her maiden name, Jane Nelson. And in Sydney, the wellliked and equally respected former boss of AAP, Tony Yermeer, has moved to Rupert Murdoch's camp and picked up a senior writing gig with the Sunday Telegraph ín TH E CO RRESPO

ENT JUNE4ULY 2004

China. The mere

mention of someone's name is enough to evoke paranoiac fears over what big brother in the Politburo might think. Hence scribes are tightlipped over one paper that covered the death of a Canto-pop star with the headline "Gets Laid". One thinks, perhaps, that the confusion began with "Laid to Rest." In Hong Kong, they're still wondering what happened at CNN. One can only assume that after the sackings Atlanta ordered a few interns to be taken on in the territory to fill the rather empty and sad looking work rooms that air as a backdrop for CNN's live from studio repods. Meanwhile, on a more positive

note, ex-CNN staffer Rose Tang has been hired by The Sta.ndard. In Beijing, watch out for a couple of new, if very small, news agencies which are being established. Max would

like to name names but the paperwork is still being sorted out with our friends in authority. John McBethÕs 60th birthday bash was a hoot according to those who made it to the event in Bangkok for the Jakartabased stalwart of the Far Eastern Economù: Reuiew. Michael Hayes, owner and publisher of the Phnom

Penh Post

was

among them, so was the retired AFP and UPI legend Kate Webb. According to one source: "at least 150 people arrived from all over the planet." If you feel like age is catching up then check in with a somewhat younger Luke Hunt. As a guest speaker at the Shanghai University of International Studies he asked about 40 students aged in their early twenties whether anyone had ever heard of the typewriter. It was joke that backfired. Not one student knew what a typewriter was. tr

The tongest - I had always felt a bit uneasy

about Britain's per{ormance in World War Two. Perhaps, as an Asia hand, I was influenced by the unedi{ying surrender in Singapore by offìcers in ludicrous, colonial, knee-length shorts, striding to the Japanese lines under a white flag, giving in to a lesser force Arromanches, France

in Vietnam in May, 1954. Soon I was among Normandy's narrow lanes, apple orchards, poppies and thick hedges, the ill-famed bocage, so murderous to fight in. The doughty Normans never seem to complain about the deaths and misery D-Day

initially brought them. There's no

sense

of what they had been pleased to call

of anti-American or anti-Allied feeling

"short-sighted dwar{s". Yet, despite Singapore, I had to admit there had been the RAF's Battle of Britain, which made Hitler think again

here.

In a sense, I had a vague personal stake in the Longest Day. Wasn't I an unwitting war veteran at age two? My parents lived in a small cottage at Craigiehall, an estate in tranquil rolling fields three miles from the Forth Bridge. On 16 October, 1939, the month after Chamberlain finally declared war, my

about invading. Then, there was General William Slim in Burma, and his 14th Army. And the battle of El Alamein. And

hadn't our own late FCC President, Donald Wise, survived the Death Railway, after being wounded and

mother unbelievingly heard air-raid

wail. My

father was at work in

mentioned in dispatches in Singapore?

sirens

One also had to admit the cast of characters in Normandy in htne, I9M, was, at least, stimulating: Eisenhower,

Edinburgh. Everyone expected southem England would catch it first, as it did later in the Blitz.

Churchill, de Gaulle, Montgomery, Omar Bradley - even Erwin Rommel. Now it is Bush, Blair, Chirac, Putin and Schroeder.

She picked me up, and began a dash for a small auxiliary army post in disused

for. Bush had preposterously compared the D-Day invasion with his adventure in lraq, and

shelter.

stables where there was an air-raid

Hardly people to die

She later described how the trees bent as in a hurricane, though it was a calm autumn aftemoon. Then, a black twin-engined aircraft banked low round the stable's clock-tower. Aghast, she took in the Knight's Cross and swastika insignia. The pilot's jaunty white scar{

even U.S. Republican vets here thought that crass.

But there was afso the

D-Day

achievement itseH. Despite his superb army, Hitler had never landed troops on a defended beachhead, the most difficult of

military operations (though the Americans did it frequently in the Pacific). U.S. troops, grinding up bloody Omaha Beach, penetrated inland in the end, while Canadians, thmsting in from Juno,

expunged

the memory of Dieppe. Free French, Poles,

Czechoslovaks, Dutch, Belgians, Ltxemburgers and Norwegians were also involved. The first crucial action by the British at

in the firct minutes of 6 June by gliderbome troops, succeeded in blocking any German flanking Pegasus Bridge, taken

movement of Normandy beaches from the east. I flew to Europe after having been in Dien Bien Phu, for the 50th anniversary of French coloniafism's richly deserved defeat

in the

slipstream from the opened cockpit. He raised his hand in a

billowed

i'i*-¡

chivalrous half-wave, hal-f-salute to us. The military post logged "a double-engine German bomber passing directly overhead at 1605 hours." Next day, The Scotstnæt reported this first air-raid of the war on mainland Britain, with 12 Junkers 88 dive-bombers attacking warships in the River Forth, dropping 4O bombs, and killing 17 crewmen. RAF Spitfìres brought down two bombers, and the

pilots survived. When my father was called up to "do his bit", we moved into Edinburgh, but afterwards the Scottish capital had a quiet war. THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULy 2004

AFP/lmperiaÌ War Museum London

The first American soldiers

saw there gave me

unsolicited chewing gum because, one said, "you're the first kid who didn't ask for gum." They were preparing for

Operation Overlord, which duly began on my seventh birthday.

I first queried received adult wisdom when an uncle, who fought at Alamein, brought me back a German military belt buckle bearing the words Gott Mit Uns (God With Us.) Strange. I had thought He was on our side...... Decades later, arriving near the beaches this summer, I passed British paras, headed by a slim, uniformed, beret-clad Oriental girl displaying parachute wings, who must have been among the 650 I later saw jump near Pegasus Bridge. The girl was a real member of the armed forces, but I was

baffled by all the "soldiers"

surprisingly stylish WV/1l

uniforms, driving around in restored wartime Jeeps, dispatchriders' motor-bikes, even armoured cars. Thousands ofvaguely eccentric civilians nowadays dress up

as Y/WII soldiers as a hobby, and attend

military

commemorations. I watched the nuttier ones digging trenches and setting up mock machine-gun posts and mortar pits. The gendarmes pretended not to notice, even though a fuÌl al-Qaeda alert was on.

At St Mère Eglise I caught up with the US "Screaming "All Americans". On 6 June, I9M att American parachutist fell on the church, and was shot in the foot as he Eag'les" and

swung from the beHry, helplessly watching his airbome comrades

machine-gunned as they descended. hangs

In the town square? Frenchmen in replica Soviet uniforms sat in a Russian military vehicle, flying the hammer and sickle flag. Oddly, I noticed Ame¡ica¡r troops gave them awide berth. Maybe U

LY 2004

The old soldiers came, four abreast, most of them in their eighties, men and women, straight-backed, medals jangling, in maroon berets, some in kilts, upper lips stiff, a few hobbling on sticks, others leaning against one anoùer for support, as French spectators applauded, some tear{uÌly. ff the D-Day landings had failed, the Nazis would have had another yeax to exterrninate Europe's remaining Jews and other targets of their ethnic hatred. Hitler might have been emboldened to invade Britain, giving the British their chance to show - or not - that it would onþ end, as Churchill said, "when each one of us lies choking in his blood upon the ground."

That it didn't come to that can only be attributed to the courage of what, with some truth, has been called the "Greatest Ceneration, that of D-Day." E

A life-like dummy still

in a 'chute from the tower.

THE CORRESPONDENT JUN E/J

they thought they were real Soviets.... I waited for the final march-past of BB0 British veterans on a narrow, flag-bedecked Arromanches street in what was expected to be the last major D-Day commemoration, given the advanced age of the participants.

Jarnes Púngle, who eovered the Víeantn War

three years for Reuters, is an

for

Asía-based

corræpondent

General rap:

Science and Technology portfolio.

Many Vietnamese from both inside and outside the party regret that his many talents were largely ignored by the hardliners in Hanoi from 1975-

1986. However the United Nations Developrnent Programme (UNDP) in Hanoi enlisted his ser-vices

during the 1990s to launch environmental awaleness campaigns.

According to his aides, he still rises at 5 am most mornings, does his daily callisthenics, and then tunes into international radio stations, such as Radio France International and the BBC, to follorv

A livittg

world news. Questions on the subject oflraq he handled with caution, but issued a general warning to the U.S. that "any forces that would impose their will on other nations will ceftainly face defeat." He added that, "Vietnam proves that if a nation is determined to stand up, it is very strong; the weak can win over the strong ifyou have justice and humanity on your

legend

side." tr Ph

otos:'lbnt Fawtln o¡t

I.q

\_,¡,/

offirst the French and later, the U.S. occupation. He was never trained as a military leader. As an historian he remarked on the coincidence that the military campaigns leading up to both his major victories - Dien Bien Phu and the Spring Offensive and the capture of Saigon in 1975 - lasted exactly 56 days. His still alert mind is far from buried in the nostalgic past. He criticised the current per{omance of the communist party and the government, speaking out against "the prevailing bureaucracy, comrption, waste and red tape that reduce the party's reputation and threaten its very existence." Many war veterans wish Giap would say more than he does on the subject ofinjustice and inequalities in Vietnam today. The last survivor of the Ho Chi Minh generation, Ciap was ousted from the Politburo in 1982. Demoted from the top ranks of leadership, he retained his position as only one deputy prime minister among four, and held the less-than-prestigious defeat

At 93 years old, Giap was still defying the odds just as he did a half-century ago at Dien Bien Phu. Age has not blunted his critical edge. Vietnam's rulers were taken to task. He warned the U.S. of the difficulties ahead in lraq. This year marked the 50th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu, the epic battÌe that so decisively defeated and humiliated the French military. The French surrender on May 7, 1954, brought its empire in Indochina to an abrupt end. Vietnam marked the occasion with a series of celebrations in April and May during which Giap delivered numerous speeches at seminars, conferences and an international symposium of historians. He also somehow found the energy and stamina to make a four-day pilgrimage to Dien Bien Phu. His hectic schedule kept three secretaries busy. At a two-hour press conference, Giap lucidly recalled

battlefield details and military strategy behind the 56-day siege of the French garrison. "We are very proud that Vietnam

was the first country that could stand up and gain independence on its own. It was the first time that a colonial power had been (militarily) defeated." The general then expounded on the global impact of Dien Bien Phu and how it inspired peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America to rise up. "It led to the wave of independence wars

that freed the colonies of the European empires after World War II."

A "Dien Bien Phu"

became a military metaphor with a

similar resonance to Waterloo. Giap, a former journalist and history teacher, eventually became Ho Chi Minh's right-hand man as founder of the Viet Minh and the chief military strategist who masterminded the THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY

2OO4

TH E CORRESPON DENT

J U

NE4

LY 2004

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The John T. Lupton US$10,000 prize money

with both her fix herself, but discovers BBW (Big Beautiful Women) and FA (Fat Admirers) - women who are secure in their size and men

plus expenses of $2,500 to

who prefer super-voluptuous femininity.

receive the award at the

about the body, belonging, transgression of social norms

Book Expo Writer's Digest

and finding space for individuality in our bulimic,

Writer's Conference on Jlu:ne 2. It also provides

advertising-crazed consumer culture," he adds. Absent FCC member Marnie Mitchell, who edited the opening chapters and presentation for Kohut, says F'ed is a "quirky, darkly humorous look at today's body-obsessed

"New Voices in Literature"

Award Na FCC

includes

travel to Chicago to

R"I

$r3s.00

eo.oo

7s.00

$Iso.oo 99.00

heal autlror.s and literory agents talk about what publisher.s ale looking for,

$r3s.00

PAt $280.00 CDs

F(f, postcard $3.00

I Love HK postcard $13.50

story al)out au obese outcast.', TJ," enrphasis, Kohut says,

ü)

Allen Yormgblood Digital Cutup Lounge vs Allen Youngblood

$rr0.00

Allen Youngblood

sil0.00

novel

THE CORRr'SPONDENT JUNIi'/Juil

2004

THE coRREspoNDENT

JUNE/JULv 2oo4

extract and a synopsis, to shorv

how it will appeal to

the

industry and the market. They have to know how to send a

query letter to catch

publisher's or agent's eye." They also send in sevelal

on "subversive". "The

is aìrout an American events planner in Paris, ¡narrierl to a Fr.ench body-builder," he explains. "She

Love HK poster $250.00

says.

"Applicants have to submit an

book in today's market.,'The firsttime novelist also met and exchanged name cards with several literary agents. ..Kohut l,on for.his proposal for his first novel F.ed, whrch the foundation called ,'A subversive Cinderella

- NTSC $310.00

Allen Youngblood

industry standard, he

a.nd rvhal Inakes a goocl

Pleme Quioc Scarf

lithograph $800.00

The author points out that the award is for the book proposal, not the book itself (which is not yet completed). "It is not just based on a sample of writing, but also on the potential for the book to succeed in the market." The award encourages new fiction and non-fiction writers to bring their book ideas up to

is a gleat opportunity to

$r85.00

FCC

the mid-1990s.

lunch, Kohut sairl, "The 'Writer,s Conference is excellent. It

$170.00

Video -

Kohut at the same publishing company in Hong Kong in

agents and publisl'rers at the book expo.

after the a.rvard

$r50.00

Fff

heresy

introductions to literary Reporting from Chicag<r

$350.00

Video

it deals with discrimination,

Mitchell, now an editor for lhe Jnternational Herald Trihune Supplements Department in Paris, worked with

$230.00

FCC

"Thematically,

culture. "

$200.00

becomes obese and has confrontations

bosses and her husband. She decides to

finished chapters and

biography, and explain holv the

twork can translate from a book to a movie. Kohut has had an academic/media career. He grew up on a small Ontario farm, but escaped at 17 with a scholarship to Harvard where he studied Chinese language and culture at the School of East Asian Languages and

Civilization.

After graduating, he went to China for two years on a Canadian exchange fellowship (attending Shanghai's Foudan University for one year and Peking University for another). "This was in the 1970s, when China was just opening up to'Western travellers, so it was a very exciting

time to be there," says Kohut.

travelled around the

country a lot." He then went to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London for two years on a Commonwealth scholarship to study Chinese politics. After graduation, he worked as a trainee for Reuters in London, Bahrain and Beirut. "It was excellent training for journalism, but not for the kind of writing that I am doing now," says Kohut. "It is really different." He returned to Canada to work as a reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail, rhen returned to China where, from 1989 to 1994, he was the South China Morning PosrPeking correspondent. "It was post-Tiananmen, so it wasn't easy. The country became more closed," Kohut

From there he moved to Hong Kong as a senior staff writer for Asialrtc, attended the London Business School, edited the LINESCO Couriet'in Paris, and was a general manager fol Grenada Television, based in Peking and Hong Kong. Since March 2002, he has lived in Paris, freelancing and working on his first novel. Before his first attempt at fiction, Kohut took an online creative writing course from UCLA. "Online courses are great. They revolutionise education," he says'

Kohut regularly frequents the FCC on his regular

visits back to Hong Kong. And he plans to spend some of his award money for a return trip to Asia later this year'. tr

Cococabana Al fresco dining ilr Mo Tat Wan

recalls.

I had started off a few months earlier in New York with approximately US$1,800 and now I was sitting in my room at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong with exactly US$280 left after deducting the month's rent I had paid. I was quite satisfied with my progress thus far but I realised I had to take especial care ofmy tiny treasure trove until I found ajob. I slung my Rolleiflex around my neck, made an effort to look professional and started canvassing the news agencies. UP, AP, Reuters and the Australian Associated Press. They all told me the same thing. If I got any pictures that I considered newswofihy I should bring them in and they would Iook them over. They paid HK$50 for any picture they accepted but that didn't offer much hope for my future. The AAP bureau chief, Graham Jenkins, came up with an idea for

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"Try the English-language papers," he told me. "Forget the photographel pitch and see if they are interested in reporters. News photography in Hong Kong is a non-profession but the repofiers are mainly Chinese and have a very poor standard of English. If you want to work in the news field that would be the way to go."

I took his idea and starled making the rounds of the newspaper offices. The South Chim Xl[orning Ptnt,The China

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2OO4

THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2004

Mailand finally the Hongkong f iger Søndalcland there I hit pay dirt. The Ilongkong 'figer Sandard was housed

in a four-

'Wanchai Road in the middle of a slum area. storey building on The top floor was given over to the manufacture of a cure-all

for headaches, rheumatism, measles, chickenpox, the common cold, cuts and mentholatum called Tiger Balm used

bruises and snake bites. The inventor of Tiger Balm and publisher of the Standard and its sister Chinese paper, the Sing Tao, was the fabulously wealthy Aw Boon Haw who had been a simple rickshaw puller in his native Rangoon. His whole empire was accommodated in this insalubrious little building serral 000004

MR;

He knew but he wasn't going to tell. "All of the business side is handled by the GM," he said. "The general manager. She's Sally Aw Sian. Daughter of the old man. Come on Marvino," he said familiar.þ, "I'll introduce you." Leslie left me at Miss Aw's office door. He peeked in and told her what job I was applying for and then took off, the coward. The CM was sitting behind her desk in a surprisingly small and very cluttered office. She was about 26 years old

years but lhe Sing Tao Evening News had always been a great financial success with thirty to forty pages of advertising every

PARTY

Ìtqrw{rr

Representing......Iibng....Kong...

wonder if it made any difference because they were already looking for a sub-editor when I happened in. The editor was Leslie Sung who wore spectacles and

looked like a college professor. He was good-Iooking, tall and spoke impeccable English and he hired me almost as soon as I entered his office. "We need a sub-editor very badly," he admitted. "Well I'm your man!" I said, thinking a sub-editor was like an assistant editor. "Up till now I have been subbing all the copy myself. Now I can hand it all over to you. What a relief." What did he mean, "subbing copy"? What was that all about? "So...uh...what will my duties be?" "Check stories for mistakes in English and punctuation and occasionally rewrite a part of the story to make it more interesting. I think in America they call it a rewrite man." "Oh. A rewrite man. I didn't know the term 'sub-editor'. They don't use it in the States." I didn't know if they used it

straight in the eye. That might have been a good thing, rvhat with all the lies I had made up about myself. She didn't ask to see my diploma from

Stan{ord so we had

Itilu

looked very impressed but then

had difficulty looking

FqnÞon

The family of Aw Boon Haw lived in a very ornate mansion right in the middle of what they called the Tiger Balm Garden which had on display the most grotesque collection of statuary in existence. Plaster models of brightly painted tigers and rhinoceroses, snakes and rabbits and characters from "Alice in Wonderland". Some scenes portrayed "Buddhist Hell" showing prisoners having their guts ripped out with decapitations and blood everywhere. To get a job at the Standard I told the editor a totally made-up story about my education as journalism major at Stanford University which just happened to have one of the best journalism courses in the United States. He naturally

and wore thick glasses. She wasn't a great beauty and far as I could see with all her apparent wealth she wasn,t a fashion icon either. She wore a frumpy pink dress with a high collar. She seemed to be pleasant but very shy and she

PRESS PASS lssued to...

a good

stalt. we

will

t'Yes

"The position pays $600 a month. We pay every two weeks." "That's...uh...Hong Kong dollars?" "That's right. I know that is not a very handsome salary

if you cannot accept it I will

understand. But that

absolutely all we can pay you." "I'm a photographer too. What if I took pictures on the side for the paper?" "That would be very generous ofyou. But we cannot give you more than the $600." "What if I wrote stories on my own and submitted them to the paper?" "Actually we would expect that but there will be no extra pay for it." Jesus Christ. "What would my hours be?" "Five pm tiÌl nine pm Monday to Saturday." The hours were not long and seemed convenient. Just the pay was dreadful. "I have to tell you I expected a higher salary in that position." "'We have an American reporter working for us and he only makes $350 a month." "Can you tell me why you pay such low salaries?"

"It's a Chinese custom,rr she said. From the look on her face I couÌd see I had to make up my mind immediately. "Okay. I accept." And that's how I began my short but eventful career The

Lvith

IIon7kong Tiger Standard. - (Extracted from Chapter 27 -The Tiger Standard) THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2oo4

a name like that

assure you that's my name'"

"Okay Mar....er..whatever it is...will you take my wife for a dance? I want her out of my hair for a little while."

that's all." "Of course,"

drinkerc Piled uP three deeP at the bar' I decided to join tìre noise-makers at the bar and managed to sneak

His wife got off of her seat and she appeared very

pleased at the prospect of getting away from her husband for a short while.

in at the very edge of the crowd and order a

The band had started to play On A t,itde Street In Singapore. She Put her

glass of red wine' I was observed bY a red-faced

young man sitting at the

arm through mine and we started to walk outside to the dance floor on the lawn. "I'm really fed up with that guy," she told me. "He always starts fights with

bar who was well into his cups.

"Isaw you," he said teasingly, "sneaking in to get served, eh?"

"I just

wanted to

strangers. Sometimes

we get thrown out ofbars. Very embarrassing. Oh it's such

get up close to order a drink. I am going to

now," I

a relief to get away from him for a few minutes." "You seem very patient with him," I complimented

reassured him.

Her

Majesty's army?"

matam.t'

I never heard

before. "

she wants to I'd be delighted." "Well, don't get too deÌighted. Just take her for a dance

"Are you

expect of you?"

"Matwin." "That's a new one on me.

"If

back down

"Mr. Sung explained what

and

busy night at the FCC and this was Saturday was usually a I al1 When certairrlY no excePtion' the main in I discovered the lights

There were cars crowding the

"The GM?"

been

running at huge losses for

duy.

not. "What is the salary?"

infused with the pungent smell of printer's ink and mentholatum. The'l'iger

Standard had

"Oh, god no. I'm American." an "So you're an American. So what? Do you have anything against the British army? What's wrong with us?" "Nothing." "We came in all the way from Sek Kong to enjoy Saturday night and we don't have to put up with any insults from some god-damned American."

"f,ook,

surely didn't mean to insult

you. I think

the

her. "I'm glad he suggested this dance." "Do you mean it?" she said squeezing my arm hard.

"I do." She thought

a second. "Did you particularly want to

dance?"

"Whatever you say." "Why don't we take a walk?" She led me down through the

British are wonder{ul people."

parking area.

Another British type sitting on the other side of the Brit whose name, I later learned, was Randy, was a bit drunk too and he looked like he was itching to get into the argument. "I'll tell you what's wrong with the Arrny," the stranger said, "They don't do a god-damned thing except march their soldiers up and down a couple of hours a day and spend the rest of their time playing football and drinking beer." "And what makes you so smart, wise guy? I'll bet you're in

"Oh, this is our car," she said as though she was surprised to see it. She opened the back door. W'e got in. In a flash she was in my arms and we were kissing each other passionately. Realizing our time frame was very short we made passionate love without dawdling. The windows began to steam up but due to the limited time we had to spend on the actual deed I couldn't afford to take notice of details. As it happens we were in luck as no one passed by. When our brief encounter was over we adjusted our clothes as quickly as possible; she put on some lipstick, ran a comb hurriedly through her hair and we returned to the bar. I delivered her back to her husband somewhat dishevelled but he didn't seem to notice; just as the band was playing the final notes of On A Lìttle Street In Sìngapore. I excused myself and went up to my room. I never saw them again. I don't think I would have recognised them if I had.

the navy."

"You got

it, mate.

dangerous work looking

We do all the patrolling and the for illegals and searching Chinese

boats for contraband."

"Big deal.,'

"Yeah. Do you want to do anything a-bout it?" Randy's wife was visibly irritated. "Come on, can't you guys talk together like grown men? What do you have to fight about?"

Randy seemed fed

up.

"Look Yank...er.. what's your - (Extracted from Chapter 30 - And the Band Played On)

name?" THE coRRESpoNDENT

JUNE/JULv 2oo4

Marilyn Hood reckons that an hour

with the kids has some real

benefits because it's "so uplifting, it's better than Prozac.'' l\4arilyn also says that a lousins session ol "Head, Shoulders, Kn"". unã

Toes" provides enough ofa workout that aerobic classes can be skipped.

Commissioner of Police,

Dick Lee Ming-kwai (wond.

nþ),

addressed the FCC

for the first time since taking up his position last

aao

December.

Celia says that more visitors would

David Femyhough, Director of Brand Protection, Hill & Associates Ltd, addressed the topic of Ugly Bedfellows - Counter{eiting and Terrorism.

be welcomed and appreciated. She's looking for more FCC members to volunleer for an hour-long session once a fortnight.

You don't need any particular a sense of

qualifications, other than

humour. You don't even need to be an

FCC member - as shown by

'ô l-l at

In the midst of dancing the night

away at last year's FCC Charity Ball, Celia Garcia came up with the idea of teaching English to the Po Leung Kuk's

youngest wards.

With the

Kuk's

who takes part

the

"My favourite moment all the kids were playing with the was when

balloons and they were

jumping up and down with big smiles on their faces. Then, they told you in Cantonese, ''We

a teacher by profession.

Leung Kuk's cheer{ul old centre in

He wondered

Causeway Bay.

sessions at the Kuk were doing the kids

the sometimes chaotic

aged between three and six, wanted at the

any good, but when the youngsters began waiting at the gate for their visitors, he decided the answer was

wanted was to have fun, she says.

clear. "The looks on their faces and the excitement they displayed convinced

end of their day. Whar they realÌy

It turns out that's what

the volunteers wanted, too. Farley Collins,

Hong l(ong businessman Peter Wong, head of M K Corporation Ltd and Norlhwest Development Ltd, spoke about the tourism, business and other pol enl ial opportunities along the Silk Road.

weekly sessions, says,

volunteers and headed offto class at Po

But, Celia says. classroom time was

Executive.

are so happy tonight'." Julien Hawthorne is

the last thing the children,

his "candidacy" for Chief

at 9091 4732 or hkzeltex@ctimail.com. The kids are waiting for you! tr

up a team of

approval, she rounded

Cartoonist Larry Feign announces

You can volunteer by contacting Celia

q-'

It started out with lofty ambitions teaching English to children who might otherwise not get a chance to learn the language. It has evolved into something just as uplifting, and a heck of a lot of fun - playtime at the Po Leung Kuk.

one

volunteer, four-year-old Daniel Zieng, who particularly likes singing the A-BC song with his buddies at the Kuk.

Television entrepreneur Szeto Yuen-Kit, founder of Red Muse Entertainment, one of the largest independent producers and distribulors o[TV drama series on the mainland, analyzed the changing face of lelevision in China.

::-_

(,elia Gan.ia anrl Faller Collins at the Po l-eLrng I(L¡k t'entle in Causeuar Bar.

olunteer'-s

Prnfessor Lui Tailok of the Sociology Department of the Chinese University talked about the globalisation of the game offootball and tells how it affects different nationalities and cultures.

me that my presence was welcomed and

appreciated." THE CORRESPONDENT.JUNE/JULY

2004

THIi coRRESpoNDENT

JUNE4uLy

2004

Dr Alvin Rabushka, the David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, discussed how the choice of tax systems will influence the stability and prosperity of China's economy, and how Hong Kong, which faces choices over the future of its tax system, could avoid large recurrent budget deficits.

Staff Promotions

The FCC is pleased to announced that Carson Yu (left)

has been promoted to Bar Captain, Berts, Dilys Hou (centre) has been promoted to Captain, Restaurant, and Patrick Cheng (right) has been elevated to Assistant

This issue's mandatory photograph of Hugh van Es.

Restaurant Manager, Restaurant.

Former FCC member Tim Birch and his friend Nicole entertaining Peter Brindisi (a member for 35 years) and his wife Cwen at Sails Restaurant, Noosa Heads. Ph oto by R a ¡' C ranbou rn e,

Chi Triumphs Again! FCC Gharity Ball jumped to a commanding lead, only

]

faltering on Rack 4, and winning the Best-of-9 championship match

Feng Chi-shun (above left) prevailed

over a highly competitive field to take home the top prize in the 2004 Merv Haworth Pool Tournament on May 6 for

Anthony Wong (above right), was

The finals match between Chi and

much anticipated confrontation between two ofthe Club's best pool players. Chi, although not on top form, had little trouble dispatching Anthony, who was plagued by uncharacteristic misses

FCC Pool Society (FPS) Convenor,

at critical points of the game. Chi

the fourth consecutive year.

by 5 games to 1. Anthony said little about his per{ormance but another FPS member quoted him as stating "I don't ever want to lose like that again. I'm going back to school." Chi made short work of Chris Marshall 4-0 in the semi-finals and played a nearly flawless match during the qualifying round to dispatch Sarah Henderson 2-0. In the other semi-final match Anthony played confidentþ to run up a 3-0 lead before letting a game slip to

FCC Charity Ball CoChairman Dave Garcia opens the Po Leung Kuk Children's ArL Exhibi[ion, a precursor to the Ball in September.

Right: Students of Chinese musical instruments at the Po Leung Kuk meet the Twelve GirÌs Band, courtesy of EMI.

crowd favourite Mervin Nambiar. However, Anthony won the subsequent game

with ease.

Down to earth ... Phott¡s b.r Aira (bnary'Asiapix

Michael Malik

Exciting stuff but not as easy as it looks, as photographer Terry Duckham discovered for himseH recently during a day shooting the Moscow Circus. Getting up was just fine. Getting down..well.....

Friends and former colleagues of Michael Malik gathered for a wake on May 3, following his untimely death on April 18 in l¡ndon.

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steve

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THE CORRESPONDENT JUNE/JULY 2004

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Jonathan Sharp speaks to Hong Kong's Mother Shucker

Photograph by Bob Dauis

anyone raises eyebr-ows

at the

above headline,

questioning whether it is leally appropriate for someone so clearly ladytike as Kathy Kingston, let it be known that l(athy not only approved the tagline when it was suggested somewhat hesitantly - to her, she positively welcomed it' "I love that, it's grear," she says - which tells you

this Maryland-born businesswoman, who claims the distinction of being Asia's number one something about Kathy:

importer of live oysters, ma¡'well be more used to more regal-sounding titles such as the Oyster Queen, coined

the

China South Morning Post in

1995. But this queen of

all she surveys in a highly competitive business has a healthy,

not to mention

earthy,

sense of fun.

Kathy had to call upon all of her humour resources during last year's SARS outbreak,

like everybody took their masks off

- all of a sudden it 'rvas

over."

But it took until early this yeear before Kathy's business returned to normal. "It was a slow climb." To her everlasting credit, despite the tough times Kathy did not lay off any of her staff at her Kwai Chung warehouse or offices, or cut theil pay. So what lessons has Kathy learned from SARS? "It taught me one thing: I have to diversify." To this end, Kathy opens an office in Seattle

in August

("nry

birthday present to

myself') and

she

rs gorng to rmport

a multitude of products other than shellfish for

the food

service

industry. She is representing the

U.S.

conpany

Food Services of

America which purveys 15,000 products, everything from

pots and pans, hammered condiments, exotic luxury businesses like The Correspondent thanks M at the Fringe for providing the venue for the chocolate, baking hers particulally hard. photoshoot. a "everything "I dropped 90 percent, possibly want." could restaurant hotel or it was a killer," she recalls. Putting that drop in business into So we will see less of Kathy at the FCC, as she rvill be perspective, during the good times Kathy's company, Ocean dividing her time between Hong Kong and Seattle' Horvever Brand Ltd, airfreights to Hong Kong up to 15,000 kilos per despite being - dare one say - shell-shocked by her SARS week of live shellfish, 99 percent of them oysters. They come experience, Kathy's new venture does not mean that she is from North America, France, Australia, Ireland and - soon giving up on her beloved oysters. South Africa and are sold to hotels, clubs, restaurants, banks "It didn't even occur to me. When a lorry comes fronr and caterels as well as retailels. the airport, and it's full of shipments, the sea smell rvafts "Oysters are an item that people do not eat at home. It's an in...it's thrilling to me. And to know that I'm number oneT no event to eat oysters. People like to shorv off a little bit. You matter how many people try to get into the game, I still stay top don't sit down with your five and lO-year-olds and have a dog." dozen oysters at home. It just doesn't happen. So of course Kathy has also found what she deems the per{ect rvine nobody was going to restaurants."

which

Business plummeted for about two months, but then shot up about a week before last year's Mother's Day. "It was just

accompaniment to oysters. It's a chardonnay fi'om South Australia called - believe it or not - Kingston Coast. tr

For ema

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ace.com.

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