The Correspondent. March - May 2008 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB, HONG KONG

THE

Mia Farrow: Agony in Dafur

THE

CORRESPONDENT

contents AFP

Mia Farrow arrives in Hong Kong

Cover Story

Travel

Kathmandu by Candlelight

Eyes Wide Open – a review of Norman de Brackinghe’s abstract photography

Mia Farrow and John Kamm on China, the Olympics and Human Rights One Hour in Myanmar

Photography

Media Max Kolbe’s Stiletto

Comment

Harry Harrison’s Poisonous Pen

Hung Hom Bay Obituary

Jim Biddulph Region

Books

Then & Now

US plans to nuke Indochina revealed

Twisting Darwin’s theory of evolutionism

The Shabby Philanthropist

Banking on a sense of humour

People

FCC members at home and abroad Out of Context

Annelise Riem Vis-Gruben Professional Contacts

Cover photo: AFP

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Cover Story

HUMAN RIGHTS

Two Activists, One Theme As the Olympic torch wended its mostly uneventful way through Hong Kong, a fullto-bursting FCC Main Dining Room heard a riveting presentation from actress and activist Mia Farrow, including her views on what Beijing could and should do to end the almost unimaginable horrors occurring in Darfur. Jonathan Sharp reports.

fter at least seven pro-Tibet and human rights activists were turned away from Hong Kong ahead of the Olympic flameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arrival in May, the 63-year-old Hollywood star had to promise immigration officials to be a good girl before she was allowed in for her first visit to the territory. If she had disclosed what one of her actions was going to be while in Hong Kong, those same officials might have had second thoughts.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

”Even my lampshade could do better.” - Mia Farrow on the Bush administration

John Kamm urges an Olympics amnesty for political prisoners

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THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Cover Story

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In her address, illustrated by some of the harrowing scenes of the sufferings in Darfur she has photographed during eight visits there, Farrow said that in the past 24 hours alone three more villages had been attacked and at least 12,000 people were fleeing for their very lives. Also in the past 24 hours, a senior staffer with the Save the Children aid agency had been shot multiple times and killed. “After the Nazi holocaust the world vowed never again. How obscenely disingenuous those fine words sound today.” No one knows how many nonArab civilians in Darfur have died at the hands of the Janjaweed militiamen who, Farrow and many others contend, act in tandem with the Sudanese government. But one Sudan expert cited by Farrow says the toll is more than 500,000, either slaughtered or the victims of disease and acute malnutrition. “These are the victims of our indifference. What message after five long years have we sent to Darfur’s people? Only that they are completely dispensable.”

‘How can China host the Olympic Games at home while underwriting genocide in Darfur?’

arrow is the most prominent face of the campaign to pressure China into using its close links with Sudan to persuade the Khartoum government to prevent the orgy of killing, rape, mutilations and abductions so heart-rendingly chronicled by her. The campaign is calling for world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, although not the Games themselves. “Beijing is singularly positioned to persuade Khartoum to cease the regime’s assaults upon Darfur’s population,” she said. Revenues from sales of Sudan’s oil to China now topped US$2 billion annually, and Sudan used this money to buy helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, whose attacks routinely precede those of the Janjaweed, plus other weaponry, “all used against the civilians of Darfur.” In her most powerful comment on what she sees as the inextricable links

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between Darfur and the Olympics, she said: “We ask, how can China host the Olympic Games at home while underwriting genocide in Darfur?” Farrow acknowledged that Beijing had taken some positive steps to address the atrocities, including sending an envoy to the region. “Darfur, for China, is relatively low-hanging fruit compared to some other issues.” Farrow, who is no friend of the Bush Administration (she said she was “counting the minutes” until the end of its term), was dismissive of its inaction over Darfur. “The U.S. government, we all know, after having Somalia-itis, now has Iraq-itis. We have no stomach to actually put boots on the ground anywhere else.” She could have mentioned Afghanistan-itis as well. And asked if the next US President would improve on the policies of the current administration, she scoffed: “Even my lampshade would do better.” She was particularly scathing about 16 global corporations sponsoring the Olympics, companies which she said had signally failed to press China to help end the slaughter in Darfur. Farrow’s campaign “Dream for Darfur” has said the companies, including General Electric, Coca-Cola, Visa, Volkswagen and Samsung, have exhibited “moral cowardice.” Only three sponsors, Adidas, McDonald’s and Kodak, had passed muster. She took to task Coca-Cola in particular, saying the company had sponsored the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and had even signed up for the 1940 winter Olympics in Germany, cancelled because of the war. In the past year, Farrow’s campaign has conducted symbolic torch-lighting ceremonies in communities that have suffered genocide, including Germany, Armenia and Rwanda. Following her FCC speech, Farrow invited her audience to witness the final torch-lighting, which was held outside Hong Kong’s central government offices – an event that the Hong Kong government

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‘These are the victims of our indifference. What message after ﬁve long years have we sent to Darfur’s people? Only that they are completely dispensable.’

Cover Story

Mia Farrow with (left) Matt Driskill and (right) Keith Bradsher would doubtless have preferred not to have taken place. Farrow left Hong Kong for New York later that day, flying economy class, according to The New York Times’ Keith Bradsher. Her only luggage was a red knapsack, most of which was occupied by a pillow. But Beijing has not heard the last from Farrow and Dream for Darfur. The campaign plans live television broadcasts from eastern Chad, neighbouring Sudan, during the Games and is asking recording artists to donate videoed performances of their songs. Farrow wants viewers watching the Games to switch over to the broadcasts during commercial breaks and the opening ceremonies. Farrow declined to say much about Tibet, saying she was not an expert, but another welcome visitor to the FCC who had no such restraints was American John Kamm, the indefatigable campaigner on behalf of political prisoners in China. Speaking at the FCC on the occasion of the 12th Annual Human Rights Press Awards, he said the lethal rioting in Tibet that ruined Beijing’s hopes of a peaceful run-up to the Olympics had eerie parallels with the events in and around Tiananmen Square in

1989. He also said Chinese officials had told him bluntly that they were prepared to sacrifice the Olympics to counter threats to national security. Elaborating to reporters later, he stressed that there was an important difference between the events in 1989 and the Tibet rioting in March this year. This was that China was a lot weaker 19 years ago than it is now. “Even so, after Tiananmen in 1989, the Chinese government went for quite some time without making concessions (to international pressure). Even when China was far less strong, they adopted an extremely hard position for quite some time before beginning to yield in the face of real threats of sanctions.” However he did see one incentive for China to make concessions over Tibet, namely that China needs to improve its international image if the Games are to be a success. “It’s not a question of a boycott. It’s really a question of whether people will watch the Games, will attend the Games, will pay the Games any attention at all. In other words, they will throw a big party but nobody comes.” He said surveys showed that world public opinion of China had sharply deteriorated since 2005. “The numbers are truly astonishing. China’s image

has actually dropped at a sharper rate than the United States has. I kid you not.” Kamm said China’s image was now at its lowest point since the days after Tiananmen, and lower for any country hosting the Olympics in the post-World War II era, with the possible exception of the Soviet Union when it hosted the Games in 1980. Kamm is calling for Beijing to burnish its image by declaring an Olympics amnesty for prisoners serving sentences for counter-revolution and “hooliganism”. There have been precedents for Olympic hosts to declare such amnesties, and a newspaper in Guangzhou had actually raised the possibility of such a move.Is he hopeful of such a gesture by Beijing? “Hope springs eternal.” Kamm’s impressive speech, “China’s June Fourth Prisoners: The Long March To Justice”, is posted on the website of his San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation at www.duihua. org. Dui hua means “dialogue”. See the facing page for the full list of winners of this year’s Human Rights Press Awards which is co-sponsored by the FCC, the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Hong Kong branch of Amnesty International.

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The 12th Annual Human Rights Press Awards 2007 Organized by Amnesty International Hong Kong The Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong Hong Kong Journalists Association

WINNERS

The following are the winners in the 12th Annual Human Rights Press Awards, co-organized by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Journalists Association and Amnesty International Hong Kong. There were 193 entrants in the various categories. The prize winners in each category received engraved plaques, and the merit winners were given personalized certificates. Awards are given at the discretion of the judging panels and there may not be recipients in all categories.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE CATEGORIES GENERAL NEWS PRIZE Xiamen Series - Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Joey Liu – South China Morning Post MERIT Congress Crackdown - Didi Kirsten Tatlow – South China Morning Post Myanmar Crackdown – Seth Mydans, Thomas Fuller - International Herald Tribune NEWSPAPER – FEATURE PRIZE Inside Myanmar – Choe SangHun - International Herald Tribune MERIT Ragpickers Want Pay Not Gloves – Amelia Gentleman – International Herald Tribune China’s Three Gorges – Shai Oster – The Wall Street Journal Asia Caste Down – Yaroslav Troﬁmov - The Wall Street Journal Asia MAGAZINES PRIZE A Rangoon Diary – Burmese Days – Andrew Marshall – Time Asia Out of Order – Simon Elegant - Time Asia MERIT Lost Boys / The Vanishing – Richard Jones – Post Magazine

workers’ protest – OliverPress Aw The 12th Annual Metal Human Rights

MERIT North Korea / Forgotten Seven – Sohn Jie-Ae - CNN Philippines Traﬃcking – Andrew Harding - BBC Burma Uprising – Andrew Harding - BBC

Tsang – South China Morning Post Moved out – Ricky Chung – South China Morning Post Life at Zhen Sheng –Ricky Chung ORGANIZED BYPost – South China Morning From Ladles of Molten Metal - J KONG AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HONG Adam Huggins International CHINESE-LANGUAGE THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB, HONG Herald Tribune CATEGORIES Citizens of Nowhere - Greg HONG KONG JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION Constantine – International MAGAZINES Herald Tribune MERIT Ethnic Hmong in Jungles - Tomas We are the “petty right-wings” Van Houtryve – International – Open Magazine Herald Tribune

2007

Philippines Fights Leftists, Fair or Foul – Simon Montlake – Far Eastern Economic Review Loathe Thy Neighbour – Jo The following are the winners in the 12th Annual Human Rig Johnson – Financial Times BROADCAST – RADIO co-organized PRIZEby the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS FOR 2007 AWARDS: of pregnant JournalistsA number Association andwomen AmnestyJUDGES International Hong Kong. There PRIZE Fan Ho Tsai, chairperson, Hong are forced to undergo abortion Pulling the Strings of China’s Kong Journalists Association in Guangxi – Fung Pui Shan in -the in each category received Internet –David Bandurski Far various categories. The prize winners Christopher Slaughter, president, - Radio Free Asia Eastern Economic Review Foreign Correspondents’ Club, and the merit winners were given The personalized certificates. Award

WINNERS

Hong Kong MERIT BROADCAST – TELEVISION discretion of the judging panels and there may not be recipients in all c Tan Kong-sau, chairperson, China Mocks the Olympic PRIZE Amnesty International Hong Kong Spirit – Wu’er Kaixi - Far Eastern Defending Justice in China Fred Armentrout, president, Hong Economic Review - Poon Tat Pui - RTHK Kong English-speaking branch of A dismal side of India – Amelia PEN International MERIT Gentleman – International Paul Yeung, chairman, Hong Kong �� New Vision: The headscarf Herald Tribune Press Photographers Association Weighing Tons - Yeung Yuet Fun Vietnamese government’s �� Law Yuk-kai, director, Hong Kong - RTHK crackdown on block “8406” Human Rights Monitor New Vision: Thirst - Lui Lok – Joseph Sternberg - The�� Wall Dominique Muller, former vice – RTHK Street Journal Asia chairperson, Amnesty International �� Hong Kong Media Watch: Silent Spiral and Red through Half The Sky - Tsui ONLINE PUBLICATION Joyce Nip, assistant professor, Lai Yung - RTHK Department of Journalism, Hong PRIZE Kong BaptistCATEGORIES University ENGLISH-LANGUAGE �� Hong Kong Connection: Doctor Citizens of Nowhere – Seth Anne Cheung, associate professor, of Love/AIDS - Hui Siu Fun, Wong Mydans – International Herald Faculty of Law, University of Hong Yuen Man - TVB Tribune Kong

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GENERAL NEWS ��

Jacqueline Leong SC, former chairman, Hong Kong Bar Association Jim Laurie, Director of Broadcasting Program, Journalism and Media StudiesLiu Centre, Tatlow, Joey – South MERIT University of Hong Kong PRIZE - FEATURE �� - Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Joey Liu –former �� Informal School Fees - Guy De Angela Lee, board member, Lost Boys / The Vanishing Amnesty International Hong Kong Launey - BBC – Richard Jones – Post Magazine Kees Metselaar, photographer, former board member, The Foreign BROADCAST – TELEVISION MERIT MERIT �� Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong

PHOTOJOURNALISM PRIZE - SPOT Democracy in Bangladesh �� – Jewel Samad - Agence FrancePresse Xiamen Series - Didi Kirsten

BROADCAST – RADIO PRIZE Japanese Justice – Christopher PRIZE Hogg - BBC

Street performers - Goh Chai Hin PRIZE Congress Crackdown - Agence France-Presse- Didi Kirsten Tatlow – South The Pearl Report: Unpunished, Unresolved – Chris Lincoln – TVB �� - Didi Kirsten Tatlow – ��

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

China

China M

Travel

One hour in THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

BY TODD CROWELL

could see by the light of Hua Hinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clock tower the silhouettes of two men in the darkness of the pre-dawn hour. I figured they must be part of our party, as who else would be standing around this early? Soon we were joined by a heavy-set German, accompanied by his female Thai companion, who gave us a hearty guten morgen before climbing into the back seat of our grey Toyota van. The rest of us climbed inside too. Besides me, there were two Brits, Justin and Kevin, an Australian, Kurt, and a Frenchman. What we had in common was a need to leave Thailand briefly so that we could re-enter the country with a new visa. We settled down for the journey to the border with Myanmar.

Myanmar THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

GINA SANFILIPPO

Travel

GINA SANFILIPPO

Most expatriates living in Hua Hin have to make periodic Ranong Visa Runs – Ranong being a Thai town 300 kilometre to the south just across the water from Myanmar – sometime during their stay. Most expats here hate doing it. The trip, four hours down and four hours back, down National Highway 4 and across the Malay Isthmus, is boring, even if one of the rest stops does boast to having what is billed as “Thailand’s Best Public Toilet, 2006.” It doesn’t say who accorded that particular accolade. The German retreated into a silent game of Sudoku; most everyone else went back to sleep or stared impassively at the passing palm trees. Some people have to make the

trip every month, others every three months, but almost everyone makes it sometime. A few people living in Hua Hin fly all the way to Vientiane in Laos to get their passport stamped. Some go to the border with Cambodia. But as Ranong is the Thai town closest to a foreign border, in this case that of Myanmar, almost every foreigner living in Thailand south of Bangkok goes to Ranong to get the precious stamp. But the Ranong visa run has always held out a certain fascination for me. I had heard tales of what sounded like an adventurous ferry crossing into mysterious Myanmar. So with my work permit set to expire in two days, and wanting to extend it 30 days in order to do some sight-

seeing before leaving Thailand permanently, I paid my 2,000 baht fee with one of the numerous agencies in Hua Hin and joined the cavalcade to Ranong.

f Ranong there is nothing much to tell. It is a modest Thai fishing port and minor provincial capital. Our van took us directly to the immigration building so that we could get our exit visa. A Thai man wearing a white shirt and yellow shorts collected our passports. I reluctantly – who is this guy, anyway? – surrendered my document and climbed back on board the van for the short trip to the ferry quay. I made my way carefully down a rickety wooden ladder and took my place

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on one of the wooden slats on an open longboat. For some reason I had imagined that Myanmar was only a stoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s throw across a narrow waterway. In fact, it takes about 30 minutes to cross the Pagyan River estuary as it discharges into the Andaman Sea. We chugged through Ranongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concave harbour, lined with wooden houses on long stilts, passed by smaller longboats powered by what looked like a small engine on a long pole, sailed past a small island with a large statue of the Chinese goddess Kwan Yim, patroness of seafarers, and out across the broad estuary. The man in the yellow shorts passed out a cheap box lunch, a couple of buns and a soft drink. I gave

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Andaman Sea

me her Laotian passport. Ah, not all farangs (foreigners) working in Thailand are farangs (more specifically, foreigners of European descent). In a parody of airline duty Kawthaung BANGKOK free sales, the man in Ranong the yellow shorts came AREA OF back down the aisle DETAIL THAILAND taking orders for cigarettes, Myanmar gin of unknown provenance and Viagra. Slowly the mainland of Myanmar mine to a young woman sitting next to me who looked hungry. She also emerged on the horizon through the looked Thai, which made me wonder mist and drizzle. In British times this why she was on a boat full of expats was known as Victoria Point, and it getting their visas stamped. Then she was the southernmost point in Burma, answered the question by showing indeed the southernmost point in MYANMAR

Travel

WOLFGANG PFRIEMER

British India, Burma then being a province of the Raj. Today the town is known as Kawthaung and the point has been renamed Cape Bayinnaung, after a 16th century Burmese king with aggressive designs against Siam. At the southern point there is said to be a large statue of the king holding a sword pointing in the general direction of Thailand. As we rapidly approached the coast, the shoreline became more detailed. A couple of golden Buddhist statues and stupas gleamed through the sodden sky. Along the shoreline buildings came into clearer view. There appeared to be some kind of park and greenery to the left near the point with some kind of statue. Near the waterfront loomed a curious red-ochre-coloured pagoda or monastery, which looked like a kind of wedding cake with frosting around the edges. Our ferry pulled up to the quay, where a large sign

greeted us: “Welcome to the Union of Myanmar,” and we heaved ourselves from the benches and shuffled off the boat. I felt a certain fission, to use Jan Morris’s favourite word, on arriving in Myanmar. I’ve been a writer and editor in Asia for 20 years. Many times I’ve written or edited stories about Myanmar, usually political stories about the generals who run the country and the ruthlessness with which they stamp out opposition. Even then as we entered Myanmar to have our visas stamped, protests were building again in Yangon and other cities of central Myanmar that would later be violently suppressed. It occurred to me that Kawthaung might be a good place for a journalist to sneak into the country, except that transportation from there to other parts of Myanmar seems to be very limited. There is supposedly a bus to a town called Myeik about 250 kilo-

metres up the coast, assuming that they let farangs on board. From there, presumably you could get to Dawei and in time work your way north along Myanmar’s long tail to Yangon. But by the time you got there, the demonstrations might be over. Come to think of it nobody inquired as to my profession when I entered. Our party clambered across the metal bridge connecting the quay to the mainland and crowded into a green-coloured, nondescript building with the single word “Immigration” over the door. A tout approached me trying to sell me Viagra and pointing to a pharmacy across the street. A sign outside immigration read: “Let us all cooperate for the eradication of narcotic drugs.” I understand that one of the scams of Kawthaung is for a dealer to sell illegal drugs to a passenger to take back to Thailand, then call a customs officer in Ranong to alert him to the smuggler, thereby

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getting a profit on the sale and a commission from Thai authorities as well. As we huddled together in the small immigration shed to get out of a sudden downpour, I noticed a surprising absence of hawkers trying to sell us snacks or cheap souvenirs of Myanmar. Perhaps they were staying out of the rain. The immigration office was bare of any refinements but seemingly well equipped with modern computers and sensors to take our pictures. The officer called my name, took my picture and handed me back my passport which now contained a Myanmar entry stamp that neither I nor any of my fellow travellers will actually use. And that is a shame. Kawthaung may not be the most interesting town in Myanmar, but I would have liked to have explored it a bit. I’d have liked to have visited the southern-most point and seen the statue of King Bayinnaung or anything else of note there. And what about that curious pagoda or monastery right next to the immigration building? Kawthaung is also the gateway to the Andaman Club on an island in the river named Zadokal. It has a resort hotel, casino and 18hole golf course, although one person visiting there wrote on his blog that it was sort of like being on a penal island. The Lonely Planet guide for Myanmar says that the best, though certainly modest, accommodation available is something called the Kawthaung Motel. Motel? Hotels, guest houses, youth hostels, pousadas, resorts, spas – these I know. But a motel? In Myanmar? In a town with only limited vehicular access anywhere? This is a motel I would have liked to see. Unfortunately, I was on a kind of package tour (fees and transportation inclusive), and the package did not include sightseeing or overnight stays. Still, I didn’t want to leave Myanmar without obtaining at least some memento of my short

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The ferry boat pulled away from the pier, and I looked back one more time at the rapidly receding coastline. Our stay in Myanmar had lasted less than one hour.

stay, perhaps a postcard, possibly a shot of that gaudy monastery on the waterfront or the statue of King Bayinnaung, anything local. Or, maybe I could find a single bottle of Myanmar beer.

crossed the street and ventured nervously down what appeared to be the main street. “You don’t want to go there,” warned Kevin when I asked if he, a veteran Ranong visa runner, ever was tempted to explore the town beyond the customs shed. Apparently he was talking about aggressive street urchins and beggars, but I didn’t see any. Perhaps they were staying out of the rain. Maybe I had read too many stories about the dreaded tatmadaw (Burmese military) so that I half expected a platoon of soldiers to jump out from an alley and nab me. There was, of course, a more practical concern. The ferry was primed to leave for Ranong just as soon as the last passenger has retrieved his passport and climbed on board the boat. At the far end of the street I came across a dingy stationery store and looked around for postcards. But all that the store carried were a few packages of standard views of Myanmar, so I shook my head and hustled back to the ferry pier, ignoring the rest of the stores in my haste to get back. One more tout approached me to try to sell me Viagra. None of the other

people in our party had ventured even a few feet into Myanmar more than was necessary to get the visa. The ferry boat pulled away from the pier, and I looked back one more time at the rapidly receding coastline. Our stay in Myanmar had lasted less than one hour. The boat pulled next to the quay and I carefully climbed back up the slippery wooden stair, made more treacherous by recent rain, back onto Thai soil. We had one more stop, one more chore, to accomplish before we could head back to Hua Hin. The van took us back to the Thai immigration building where we would get our visas extended, which, of course, was the whole purpose of the trip. As we milled around waiting for others to clear customs, I listened to the delusory conversation of my fellow travellers, which, as so often happens when expats living in Thailand get together, turned on visas. “I hear you will have to go back to your own country to get your finger print on your passport.” “They’re planning to raise the fees on . . . ” “The Thais don’t really want us in their country, they just want our money.” But once inside, I was immediately struck by how comfortable, well, how welcoming, the Thai immigration office looked compared with the Spartan customs shed in Kawthaung. Potted plants softened the contours of the office, and numerous pictures decorated the walls, including, of course, several of the King and Queen. As I recalled, there were no portraits on the walls of the Myanmar customs shed, except one small Buddhist image. Even though it was a government office, there were no portraits of the generals who run the country either. And the Thai customs officer who gave me my 30-day chop even had a smile on his face, a smile that seemed to say “welcome home”. This story was written before the cyclone wreaked havoc in Myanmar.

Travel

Kathmandu by Candlelight

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Going to Kathmandu? Pack candles and batteries and don’t forget your watch, suggests Richard S Ehrlich.

f it’s Monday, and you are staying in Kathmandu’s trendy, tourist-packed Thamel neighbourhood, take your hot shower and go online before 9 am, because this prosperous section of town will not get electricity again until 1 pm. Also plan for a blacked-out dinner on Monday evenings, when Thamel’s electric supply stops again from 6 pm to 9.30 pm. The next day, stagger your tasks differently, because on Tuesdays, Thamel’s supply stops from 10 am to 2 pm, and from 8 pm to midnight. Kathmandu’s electric “load shedding” schedule changes daily, while rotating throughout the city, making it impossible to do the same things at the same time each day, even in the same neighbourhood. A glum merchant to illuminates her small shop in Kathmandu with a single candle during a power cut.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Photographs by Richard S. Ehrlich

Travel Cover Story

A lack of electricity means Kathmandu is unable to correct many of the city’s problems, or provide opportunities for people to thrive, resulting in scenes such as this one where a group of street children openly sniﬀ glue on busy New Road while pedestrians walk by.

As a result, people in Kathmandu check their calendar and clock before bathing, eating, using computers, watching TV, recharging batteries, refrigerating food and medicine, powering their homes, offices, shops and factories, and doing anything else which requires an electric socket. The government publishes grid-bygrid calendars warning of the emaciated electricity, which averages six to eight hours off every day, according to which neighbourhood you are in. On one day a week, each zone’s supply is kept on. “Fridays are like a holiday for us because, in this neighbourhood, we get electricity for 24 hours,” said a clothing retailer in Thamel, speaking from his small, low-ceiling shop. Another merchant, when asked about the problem of no electricity, silently replied by gesturing with his hand, as if slitting his throat. Wealthier homes, businesses, hotels, restaurants, embassies, offices, factories and hospitals install gasoline-powered generators to provide

electricity every time the energy is cut. The generators moan like motorcycle engines, and their nauseating, blackish-blue exhaust fumes pollute nearby sidewalks. For many of those buildings, the generators support only emergency lighting while sacrificing most other needs, leaving inhabitants to suffer a slew of deadened services. Those lucky enough to have a generator must also pay the spiralling cost of fuel. Kathmandu may serve as awakeup call other cities facing the punishing effects of climate change. Some critics of Nepal’s energy problems point north to the snowcovered Himalayas. They speculate that this season’s electricity shortage may have been worsened by a recent burst of unusual cold weather which slowed the thaw of mountain glaciers. Melting snows swell Nepal’s rivers and crank up the country’s hydro-electric power plants. During January and February, however, icy weather gripped the Hima-

Nepal’s Maoists emerged as the most succesful party in the April elections. Will they be able to solve the nation’s energy woes?

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A man yanks a rope to start a generator, to provide electricity for his cloth shop in Kathmandu.

Refrigerators frequently go dead in Kathmandu, so some butchers sell meat on tables in the street, hoping people will make their purchases before the carcasses rot.

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layas, thanks to deadly cold fronts which caused havoc across northern Afghanistan, Tibet and much of China. Snow and sleet paralyzed China’s trains, planes and other traffic and freezing winds whipped south across the Himalayas near Mt. Everest, which straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet. Other climate watchers say Kathmandu’s problem is actually due to global warming because, during recent years, the Himalayas’ glaciers have shrunk. Either way, whatever water does flow from Nepal’s mountains, it is now not enough. Kathmandu has suffered electricity shortages for several years, and also has itself to blame for its lack of sufficient energy. During the past few decades, Kathmandu has experienced a real estate boom, aggravated by an exponential population increase, and poor planning. Its ancient Hindu pagodas, temples and shrines are now surrounded by new cement apartments, shops and office – all requiring energy and straining the city’s creaking power supplies. The government is trying to import more electricity from India, while planning to build additional hydro-electric stations in Nepal. But when the power fails, people have little choice except to pay extra for whatever goods and services they can scrounge. Each night, whole neighbourhoods are lit by flickering candles but the tiny glowing flames do little to recall Kathmandu’s medieval ambiance. Richard S. Ehrlich’s website is http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent

Media

STILETTO BY MAX KOLBE

AFP

ive years after the invasion of Iraq, the US death toll has passed 4,000, but fewer and fewer people are noticing as the conflict drops lower down newslists. The top daily stories are now more likely to be oil or dollar reports as America tries to avert a recession. “People see gas going up and the price of their house going down .... It’s more immediate than the Iraq war,” Bob Stover, managing editor of Florida Today in Melbourne, Florida, was recently reported as saying. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), which measures news Egyptian editor Ibrahim Eissa was sentenced to six months in jail for content weekly in a mix of US newspapers, publishing “rumours” about President Hosni Mubarak’s health. websites, television and radio also declared a shift away from reporting the violence in Iraq. Cochrane recalls a number of other scuffles. It says in all of 2007 the Iraq war occupied an “I had a cop raise both his fists in front of my average 15.5 percent of the “newshole” in the media. face and when I took his photo like that he grabbed In the last quarter it fell to nine per cent, and then another copper’s lathi (a 2 cm thick, 1.5m long bamto 3.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2008. boo baton) and raised it above his head as if he was The PEJ’s Paul Hitlin said stories about the US going to clobber me. His colleagues restrained him. economy filled 1.9 percent of the newshole last ”Photographers were repeatedly pushed away year, but rose to 8.2 percent between from scenes of police beating monks January 1 and March 23 this year. and other protesters. During one Not surprisingly the perils of trousuch scuffle, one Nepali freelance bled pop star Britney Spears overphotographer was punched and shadowed Iraq while Ron Nessen, a another (from AFP) hit across the former NBC television correspondent back of the legs with a lathi. and White House press secretary at “This caused heated scenes as the end of the Vietnam War, attribthe two Nepali snappers confronted uted the falloff in interest to US sucthe cops involved and wanted to go cesses in quelling violence in Iraq. at it. ∑ “The commanding officer intervened on several occasions to calm As the Olympic torch wound its troubled his men down, but problem seems way around the planet and Tibetan to be that individual guys get so activists plotted their next move, spare worked up and aggressive they just a thought for journalists in Nepal who Russian TV reporter Ilyas want to fight with everyone.” ∑ were all but hogtied and flogged during Shurpayev: murdered the recent protests. One American photographer on assignment for In Dushanbe, Tajikistan, police investigating the murder The New York Times was punched in the head by a of Russian television reporter Ilyas Shurpayev have policeman while taking photos. Freelancer Liam detained three suspects. Shurpayev was found dead in

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

AFP

Three Filipina Playboy bunnies pose at the launch of the ﬁrst Philippine edition of Playboy magazine.

his Moscow apartment in March. Shurpayev worked for Russia’s stateowned television and reported on unrest in the Caucasus. His body was found to have multiple knife wounds and he had a belt wrapped around his neck. He was the author of numerous reports about the mostly Muslim North Caucasus mountain region in southern Russia, where there are frequent clashes between security forces and local rebels. ∑ In Cairo, outspoken Egyptian editor Ibrahim Eissa was sentenced to six months in jail for publishing “rumours” about President Hosni Mubarak’s health. Human rights groups are demanding the laws be changed. Eissa, editor-in-chief of Al-Dustur, was charged with spreading “false information ... damaging the

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

public interest and national stability,” charges that can carry a maximum penalty of three years. He had been due to be tried before a state security court where he would have had no right of appeal, but eventually the trial took place in an ordinary court following what the journalists’ union called “regime backpedalling”. “This verdict is against all international human rights conventions,” Eissa told the AFP news agency after judge Sherif Kamel Mustapha handed down the sentence. He said the verdict showed the regime’s hostility to the press and “affirms the holiness of President Mubarak and the rejection of any criticism of him or his policies. I don’t know if this is a judicial decision or a political one. “The regime is trying to defend itself because it knows it has plunged the country AFP into successive crises and, if my imprisonment will make bread reach the people who are queuing for it, then I am ready to go to prison,” he said. ∑

On a lighter note, as The Correspondent goes to bed in Hong Kong, so does Playboy in The Philippines where the first local edition of the magazine, minus the nudity, is getting ready to hit the streets. Veteran journalist Beting Laygo Dolor says the Philippine edition launched in April would be a “mature lifestyle magazine” with serious articles and fiction by some of the country’s best-known writers. The Playmate of the Month centrefold will appear. While the magazine will offer pictorials of beautiful women, it will not include nudity. “It will be tamer than the US edition but not as tame as the Indonesian edition,” Lagyo Dolor said in a television interview. He said it would be aimed at an older and more affluent readership than “lad magazines” such as FHM and Maxim which already have Philippine editions.

Comment

Poisonous Pen

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

What the local papers didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t print A selection of Harry Harrison cartoons

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Top: published by the (London) Guardian. Bottom: concepts rejected outright.

Photography

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Abstract Photography exists even though it may sound like a contradiction of sorts. Perhaps this may be the reason why I could not find a definition for it in The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms, writes Arthur Hacker.

thorough search from Abstract Expressionism to Zoomorphic Ornament yielded little useful material although the book is bursting with thousands of strange words, most of which end with the letters â&#x20AC;&#x153;-ismâ&#x20AC;?, that art critics use to bewilder their readers. I was looking for an established art term that I could use in this article to describe the beautiful pictures by Norman de Brackinghe chosen for his photographic exhibition entitled Eyes Wide Open (shown in the FCC in November). Thailand 2006

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Hong Kong 2007

Photography

Douelle 2007 Hong Kong 2007

The art term Abstract Expressionism which is sometimes known as Action Painting, is the technique that was used by the American painter Jackson Pollock in his “drip painting” period. The difference between Pollock’s drip painting and Norman de Brackinghe’s photograph entitled Perth W.A. 2007 is that Pollock created his drips by throwing paint at a canvas, whereas Norman’s image had already been created by nature on an obscure wall in Australia. Early in the last century there was a group of artists, which included Graham Sutherland and Paul Nash, who would find a natural object with an interesting shape and use it as an image in a painting. This was called

an objet trouvé which in French means a “found object”. When I was a student in London in the 1950s, instead of using the American term Abstract Expressionism we used the French generic term tachisme. I think that it would therefore be appropriate to christen Norman de Brackinghe’s school of photography as tachisme trouvé. It is an oversimplification to describe Norman’s work as photographs of montages that have been created by nature. Unlike the chaotic violence of the Abstract Expressionists and the surrealist paintings of the Objet Trouvé brigade, whose work was designed to disturb, Norman strives to achieve visual harmony in his photographs.

His sense of balance is superb. He has a natural eye of a born artist and an impressive sense of colour and tone. As a photographer he is a purist who is inspired by the old-fashioned ethics established by the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who insisted on printing all his photographs fullneg without any cropping. Norman does not crop his pictures either. In spite of them being digital, he does not fall into the trap of unnecessary computer manipulation. Neither does he deliberately change any colour. He is also fanatical about using the finest quality archival inks and paper. As a photographer Norman is an idealist who feels impelled to work

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Hong Kong 2007 Hong Kong 2007

within a structure of aesthetic and technical self-imposed rules. Self-discipline of this sort is not unusual among artists, photographers and architects. When I have a graphic design problem which requires a modest amount of harmony, I tend to plan it carefully according to the Golden Section (known as the Divine Proportion by the Renaissance painters). Over half a century ago I was fortunate enough to attend a series of lectures at the Royal College of Art by the great guru of dynamic symmetry, Professor Matila Ghyka. One of Normanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photographs is of a white rectangle on top of a blue squarish shape. It is a beautifully balanced composition that is almost, but

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

is not quite, a classical Golden Section rectangle. Most of us, from time to time, have taken the odd quasi-abstract photograph. Maybe we were inspired by pattern, natural or man-made, or a mixture of both that has delightfully aged and changed over the passage of time. It could be anything from a detail on the Berlin Wall, a moss-encrusted letter on an ancient gravestone or a mutilated poster of Chairman Mao. Norman likes taking detailed closeups of pattern that has received a bashing from Old Mother Nature. His sense of balance is so fine that his pictures give you a feeling of utter peace. When you consider his basic subject

matter, it is not easy to understand how he achievs this. His selection of raw material may seem eccentric, unreal and incomprehensible when compared to the finished picture. How he manages to create a feeling of sublime peace by photographing close-ups of decaying rubbish may be bewildering if you forget that the end result is a beautiful abstract picture. It is easy to forget that patina is the beautiful incrustation of the surface of old bronze which is valued by the positive romantic thinker, whereas the cynical negative thinker may classify it merely as putrefaction. It takes someone like Norman to reveal its hidden beauty through the medium of abstract photography.

Books

The Origins of Evolutionism BY ANGELO PARATICO

his latest book, Evolution: the Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory. The dward Larson is the Talmadge first of his quotations was the comChair of Law and Russell Profes- ment made by Adam Sedgwick who sor of American History at the taught geology to Charles Darwin. University of Georgia. His achieveUpon reading an advance copy of ments are impressive. Darwin’s Origin of the Species, published He won a Pulitzer Prize in His- in 1859, he wrote to his former pupil: tory in 1998 for his book Summer of “‘Tis the crown & glory of organic scithe Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s ence that it does thro’ final cause, link continuing debate over Science and Reli- material to moral ... You have ignored gion. The historian of science, law and this link; &, if I do not mistake your medicine has published six books to meaning, you have done your best in popular acclaim, including Trial and one or two pregnant cases to break it. Error: The American Controversy Over Were it possible (which thank God it is Creation and Evolution, which charted not) to break it, humanity in my mind, the legal battles over teaching evolu- would suffer a damage that might tion in American public schools, and brutalise it.” Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Sedgwick was farsighted given the Deep South, which examines the legis- brutalities wreaked by humankind in lative history of eugenics. the name of “Darwinism”. Larson told a packed to capacEugenics, the Holocaust, the killing ity audience in the Main fields of Cambodia and Filippo de Dining Room that the Viceven totalitarian comtorian ambience of our munism were all justiFilippi, a Club had inspired him to distinguished fied by their perpetrators limit the scope of his talk as in line with what can doctor, to events in and around only be described as the that era. This was the explorer and most vulgar, twisted and time when many of the extreme intepretations of zoolologist, thoughts and theories Darwinian evolutionary that shaped much of what theory. died just a we in the West regard As Larson pointed out, few metres today as modern theoKarl Marx was transfixed away from retic knowlege underpinby the ideas of Darwin. ning our understanding what is now He sent him a copy of his of the world were being seminal work, Das Kapital, the FCC. hammered out in what with a flattering dedicawas often robust debate. tion. My understanding, He reminded us that today in most unlike Larson’s who said Darwin disIslamic countries it is still forbidden carded it unopened, was that Darwin to teach or mention evolutionism. cut open the first pages and then Here in China, no doubt, he should dropped it. have felt safer. After all, Buddha’s Anyone who has tried to tackle teachings are a form of evolutionism. the book can understand why. The Buddha preached that we are con- first chapter of Marx’s magnus opus nected to animals, because all living is very heavy going. But once it’s beings are related through the circle been cracked, it’s smoother sailing. of rebirths. Darwin sent a generic note of thanks Larson quoted extensively from to Marx, who was living in London at

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCHMAY 2008

RAGESOSS

Much of what is today known as “evolutionism” is a creation of his so-called followers and not of Darwin himself

Larson: Marx was transﬁxed by the ideas of Darwin. the time, and it is recorded that Marx went wild with joy upon its receipt. Darwin’s book was a best-seller. Even Queen Victoria read the Origin of the Species, and it was soon translated into many languages including mine, Italian. The naturalist who introduced Darwin to Italy was Filippo de Filippi. As an aside, let me mention here that de Filippi, a distinguished doctor, explorer and zoologist, died just a few meters away from what is now the FCC. He was on a round the world voyage on the Italian ship Magenta at the time. On landing in Hong Kong en route from Beijing, he fell ill and died in a room at the Hotel d’Europe on February 9, 1867, at the age of 53. Not for nothing was Hong Kong known at the time as the white man’s grave. Another Italian mentioned in Larson’s book is Cesare Lombroso. His theories were based on a bastardised

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCHMAY 2008

form of “Social Darwinism” and he enjoyed widespread popularity in Europe and America during his lifetime. Lombroso created a set of rules that, he claimed, could identify “born criminals” from physical attributes such as the shape of their heads and their facial physiognomy. He was not alone in this folly of pseudoscience. Psychologist Henry Goddard created a new word, still popular, to indicate people who should be barred from procreating. He called them morons. As a scientist, Darwin’s genius lay in marrying his observations as a naturalist with theories developed by other researchers, chiefly Frenchman Georges Couvier. Darwin’s book, Origin of the Species, is a masterpiece of clarity and literary merit. His conclusions were modest. As Larson pointed out, much of what is today known as “evolutionism” is a creation of his so-called followers and not of Darwin himself.

Books

Secretive, Shabby Do-Gooder BY JONATHAN SHARP

Throughout his career, Feeney has done his level best to keep his money out of the taxman’s hands, convinced that he can put his wealth to better use than any governments.

fter luxury goods conglomerate LVMH bought retail giant Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) in 1996, long-serving staff at DFS’s Hong Kong outlets were handed envelopes. Some recipients dreaded opening them fearing the missives were redundancy notices. But far from it. The envelopes contained cheques, many in six-figure Hong Kong dollars, thanking staff for their devotion to the DFS cause. I know this because my wife, Betty Fu, was among the DFS managers to benefit from this largesse. The main benefactor was Chuck Feeney, co-founder of DFS and the subject of a gripping, richly detailed biography by Irish writer Conor O’Clery chronicling the career of a most unusual businessman and his even more extraordinary philanthropic mission. That the cheques handed out to DFS staffers bore Feeney’s name might have struck some as atypical behaviour, because Feeney was renowned for his obsessive secrecy. He made, and gave away, the fortune he earned at DFS, channelling the funds through his foundation and going to enormous lengths to stay out of the public eye. His generosity came on condition that his name never appeared on any plaque. Some suspicious recipients worried that the money might have a murky background – although the extent of the munificence seemed to outweigh any reservations that might have been harboured. Another feature of the DFS handouts to its staff, throughout the world as well as in Hong Kong, was much more in Feeney’s style. Letters accompanying the cheques made clear that any tax implications involved in accepting the money had been dealt with. Throughout his career, Feeney has

done his level best to keep his money out of the taxman’s hands, convinced that he can put his wealth to better use than any government. To this end, he and DFS co-founder Bob Miller transferred ownership of their business to their foreign-born wives, from France and Ecuador respectively. Feeney was born in 1931 to a struggling Irish-American family. A hyperactive entrepreneur from his very early days, he set the DFS ball rolling by selling tax-exempt liquor to US sailors in Europe, The US Navy is dry, but servicemen could order booze through Feeney and collect it when they returned home. The first Hong Kong incarnation of DFS was a cramped hotel room on Nathan Road. The first DFS shop at Kai Tak airport had just two 15-foot counters. Over the years there have been near-crippling mistakes, but, by successfully riding the rise of mass tourism, particularly in Hong Kong and Hawaii, DFS paid nearly US$8 billion to its four main shareholders, of

whom Feeney was the joint biggest with 38.75 percent. Of the US$4 billion that his foundation has donated, more than US$2 billion has gone to US institutions, more than US$1 billion went to Ireland, the North as well as the Republic, and well over US$200 million went each to Australia and Vietnam. Other countries to have benefited include the UK, South Africa and Cuba. The other famously unorthodox feature of Feeney’s lifestyle has been his extreme frugality. While no skinflint and generous to a fault, including to his family, he wears cheap watches, flies economy class, and owns neither a house nor car. Determinedly casual in appearance, Feeney turned up for a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern with his glasses held together with a paper clip. In this respect at least he has fully lived up to his description of himself as a “shabby philanthropist”.

The Billionaire Who Wasn’t – How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune By Conor O’Clery. Public Affairs. ISBN-13: 978-1-58648-391-3 ISBN-10: 1-58648-391-9

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCHMAY 2008

Who says bankers have no funny bone? Arthur Hacker comments on a collection of cartoons by Harry Harrison published in an unlikely source: an investment banking

he trend in recent years is for editors to regard funny captions as more important than the cartoon drawings themselves. I feel cheated when a brilliant caption is not accompanied by an equally funny drawing, and instead illustrated by a dull, static, token cartoon that resembles every other token cartoon, and is inevitably without one iota of individuality, style, or humour generally showing a couple of badly drawn expressionless characters who appear to be completely devoid of any character at all. It is therefore a delight to find that International Financing Review Asia has been employing cartoonist and FCC member Harry Harrison since

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCHMAY 2008

the turn of the century and have just published IFR Asia Illustrated: The Harry Harrison Collection which is chock-ablock with his very funny drawings. As I don’t subscribe to this financial magazine I hadn’t seen any of Harry’s drawings from this book before. You will be notice that few of Harry’s cartoons have printed captions beneath them. In the magazine these cartoons were always accompanied by an article on the topic, so they didn’t need captions. It is surprising how many cartoons don’t. In Richard Ingrams’ The Penguin Book of Private Eye Cartoons, over 50 per cent of the funnies are devoid of captions. Harry became the resident political cartoonist for the South China

Morning Post at the end of 2004. A number of his screamingly funny rejected-by-clients cartoons have appeared in The Correspondent. Most cartoonists would agree that there is nothing harder than having to produce a political cartoon every single day for a popular newspaper. The great British cartoonist, Wally Fawkes aka Trog, once explained that “the political cartoon is uniquely dependent on caricature.” Some people are easy to draw – some are impossible. Harry once described Tung Chee-hwa as “a cartoonist’s dream” and his successor Donald Tsang as having “no distinguishing features apart from a bow tie”. Winston Churchill also sported a

Books

bow tie and his cigar was legendary. Fidel Castro also went in for Havanas as well. His other gimmick was a hippie beard. Cartoonists still revel in Hitler and Stalin’s easy-to-draw moustaches. Good looking women politicians like Anson Chan are especially hard to caricature. There is nothing all artists fear more than a gorgeous little darling flashing a devastating smile at them accompanied by the unreasonable demand: “You’re an artist! Draw me!” Most artists lack the skill of capturing a good likeness. Neither the man in the street, nor little darlings, seem to realise that caricaturing is a very rare art and extremely difficult to master. Personally I would rather draw Mrs Thatcher any day. Due to modern technology cartoonists employed by the daily press have to work at a horrendous pace. An experienced caricaturist knows that it takes time to establish a recognisable likeness of most politicians. Initially there were problems with Tony Blair that were eventually solved by enlarging his unsightly teeth and prominent ears. “I’ve done lots of cartoons of Blair, week after week, and I think that’s what drove me blind.” complained Trog. Years before he lost his sight Trog abandoned the dailies and worked mainly for weekly newspapers and magazines. This gave him more time to work on a drawing. It is far easier being a social cartoonist than a political cartoonist and as you can often avoid having to draw caricatures of celebrities. For example: rather than include portrait of George Bush in his Doonesbury cartoon strip, Garry Trudeau uses a picture of the White House with a dialogue bubble coming out of the roof. Giles, the great London Daily Express cartoonist, seldom included caricatures of celebrities in his cartoons unless they were easy to draw or already had an established cartoon image like the Duke of Edinburgh.

There are dozens of well known social cartoonists who have long and successful careers without drawing a single caricature of any individual. This is not the lot of a political cartoonist, who can easily be stuck with the problem of being required to make a joke about a person whom he has never seen and hasn’t a clue what he looks like and has only has a

couple of hours to do the job. If you want to know how its done take a look at Harry’s View: 2005 Edition published by the South China Morning Post. Fashionable portraits by great artists can be described loosely as caricatures if the image is deliberately distorted to flatter the client. Jacques Louis David’s equestrian portrait of an heroic, perfectly-formed Napoleon crossing the Alps astride a prancing horse is a perfect example. By contrast James Gillray’s cartoon of “Bony” carving up a plumb-pudding representing the world is grotesque. Neither is a very good likeness, but both serve their purpose. The length of time it takes to create a portrait depends on the artist. Van Gogh didn’t take long to produce any of his self-portraits. On the other hand Leonardo da Vinci is reputed to have spent 15 years painting the Mona Lisa which he never actually finished. This only goes to show that it is easier to make a likeness of an ugly man with a familiar face than a really beautiful woman.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCHMAY 2008

Photography

Then

Now

The changing face of Hong Kong Hung Hom Bay The top picture shows the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company’s dry dock in the early 1970s. In 1976, Hutchison International acquired the Dock Company which was renamed Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. Today, HWL’s Hong Kong port operations are clustered around Kwai Chung. The old Hung Hom docks lie beneath the Whampoa Garden housing estate which houses about 50,000 people and is pictured below in this 2008 photograph.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Lives Remembered Books

Jim Biddulph (1930-2008)

ormer FCC President (1986-87) Jim Biddulph died on April 27. Jim, who was best known in Hong Kong for his despatches for the BBC and for his regular commentaries on RTHK, was born in Bilston, Staffordshire. He had an eventful life, being moved to Falkirk at an early age and having to overcome returning to Bilston Junior school with a derided Scottish accent. From the ages of 10 to 14 he was an evacuee to Canada during the war and returned to Tettenhall Grammar in Wolverhampton having to overcome a Canadian accent. He used to say he was terrified to read the lesson at school as they all fell about when he pronounced “Here beginneth” with the prominent Canadian rrr. Nevertheless these experiences left him with a very distinctive and instantly recognisable voice. Jim started his career in journalism at The Walsall Echo and then The Surrey Comet, venturing further to The Rhodesia Herald in about 1957. He married Marie Wilson in March, 1958, in Salisbury, Rhodesia and the following August, 1959, they took their six week old daughter Susan to England where he freelanced for Agence France Press and the BBC. His broadcasting experience led him to work for the Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland later the Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation, where he covered the Katanga separatist uprising in newly-independent Congo. In 1961 he was acting as courier of copy from all the correspondents (no satellite phones in those days) who took it in turn to undertake the hazardous journey to Zambia with written copy to be telexed and broadcast tapes. Unfortunately a late additional passenger in his vehicle turned out to be the Katanga Finance Minister with a suitcase of bearer bonds and he instructed the driver not to stop at a roadblock. The Minister was killed and Jim suffered serious injuries inflicted by the first shots fired in anger by Swedish United Nations troops. Luckily there was a nearby field hospital where,

under very primitive conditions, an Italian neurosurgeon released the pressure on his brain and removed several pieces of shrapnel. Later on he had a piece of his hip removed to replace the missing piece of skull and he ever after claimed to keep his brains in his bum. After a brief period of recovery he started work at the African Daily News and then formed Afrinews, covering for Time, the BBC, AFP, local broadcasting stations and many British newspapers. At the time of Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by Ian Smith he managed to keep the world informed despite severe censorship and, with his colleague Peter Niesewand, develHUGH VAN ES oped a musical code for imprisoned leaders and names of prison camps to evade the censors. This was not found amusing by Smith and Jim was sent packing with seven days’ notice despite having lived in Rhodesia for nearly 10 years and with three children, Susan, Ralph and Simon, born in the country. Jim then joined the BBC working for many famous programmes, Today, The World at One and In Town Tonight. He covered riots in Paris, the inauguration of Pompidou, the Torrey Canyon disaster, the deployment of the first British troops into Northern Ireland and subsequent horrors, the Biafra war in Nigeria, and upheaval in East Pakistan leading to the birth of Bangladesh. Jim also became Commonwealth Correspondent, then Diplomatic Correspondent before being appointed Far East Correspondent. He covered the Queen’s tour of Australia, where he was nicknamed “Biddo the Journo”, and less pleasurably, wars in Vietnam, Cambodia and the bombing of Laos. By this time, with a family of four, Jemima having been born in 1971, he was based in Hong Kong. After his first marriage foundered on the inevitable strains of this life he was fortunate in meeting and marrying Rita Gomez, a court reporter for the South China Morning Post, and they had a daughter, Carrie. After retiring from the BBC Jim remained for a time in Hong Kong producing excoriating talks and columns on the vagaries of politicians and other local dignitaries. He eventually retired to Kew in Richmond upon Thames, to tend his garden and enjoy the occasional glass of wine with his muchloved family. – Marie Griffiths

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Tributes to Jim at the FCC wake on May 6 From Brian Barron in New York: One of my first encounters with Jim was at the Commonwealth Conference in Singapore nearly 40 years ago. As an old Africa hand, Jim was well placed for a huge story that broke ... the overthrow by a little-known army officer called Idi Amin of President Milton Obote of Uganda, who was at the conference. Jim, then BBC diplomatic correspondent, had a succinct off-air judgment on Obote, a dictator he’d crossed swords with in Kampala. “Grade one Vaudine England delivers Brian Barron’s tribute at an FCC wake for Jim bastard, drunk as a skunk most of the time.” Anyway, Jim finally agreed to my pleadings As a veteran foreign correspondent Jim had that the FCC needed a foreign correspondent been to many dusty places and bore the scars, of stature at the helm and he was the obvious literally, to prove it. His reporting instincts, choice. He wasn’t into grandstanding or power or fuelled by fags and ice cold beer, never left him, putting it on his resume but did the job out of a nor did his mordant wit as the age of political sense of duty to the Club and the correspondent correctness dawned. His friends and contempo- trade. raries were individuals like Don Wise and Ed Behr Indeed, this typified him. He was, like Antho...together they were an outstanding phalanx of ny Lawrence, a predecessor with the BBC here, foreign correspondents. an example of BBC radio journalism at its very best. No breathlessness. No histrionics. Just a well-tempered voice describing an event, a From Philip Bowring situation or an argument unhurriedly and with (who was out of town at the time) a minimum of well chosen, well enunciated I am very sorry that I cannot be here tonight words. A touch of gentle humour. A pinch of due to a long-standing engagement out of Hong mild scepticism. A sense of humanity without Kong. need for tear-jerking. As this is the FCC one must start with one It has been a long time since 1993 – I think of the least important aspects of Jim’s rich life: – when we last met just before Jim and fam– his presidency of this Club. He succeeded me as ily were off to the UK. But I can still hear the President in 1986 – very reluctantly I must say. He sound of his voice, and remember the quality was a 100 per cent journalist with scant interest of his coverage. So a toast to Jim and also all in members’ petty peeves or in Club politics. He the best to Rita whom I first met when she was was also at the time the recent father of a young with Reuters in KL circa 1980 and was unfaildaughter, Carrie, born to his second wife, Rita ingly helpful to visiting journalists, and later Gomez, a lively Malaysian journalist who went worked in Hong Kong, among other things covon to achieve success in another career, the law, ering the infamous Carrian trial. Hopefully we in London. Carrie was 21 recently and Jim was in can welcome Rita and Carrie back to the FCC good spirits at the celebrations at The Ritz. before long.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Region

Hanoiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surface-to-air missiles, now rusting decades after the war, would have been no match for a US nuclear strike.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY RICHARD S. EHRLICH

he US Air Force wanted to use nuclear weapons against Vietnam in 1959 and 1968, and against Laos in 1961, to obliterate communist guerrillas, according to newly declassified US Air Force documents. In 1959, US Air Force Chief of Staff General Thomas D. White chose several targets in northern Vietnam, but other military officials blocked his demand to nuke the Southeast Asian nation. “White wanted to cripple the insurgents and their supply lines by attacking selected targets in North Vietnam, either with conventional or nuclear weapons,” one declassified Air Force document said. “Although White’s paper called for giving the North Vietnamese a pre-attack warning, the other chiefs tabled [withdrew] it, possibly due to the inclusion of nuclear weapons. Seven months later, the proposal

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

Region

was withdrawn,” it said. The 400-page document, titled, The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia: The War in Northern Laos 1954-1973, was written in 1993 by the Center for Air Force History in Washington and “classified by multiple sources”. It was made public – along with several other previously secret, warera Air Force documents – on April 9 by the National Security Archive in Washington, after extensive Freedom of Information Act litigation. The Archive is an independent, non-governmental research institute in George Washington University. White “asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the green light to send a squadron of Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-47 jet bombers to Clark Air Base in the Philippines” to prepare for an assault on nearby Vietnam, the declassified report said. The general’s quest to unleash America’s nuclear arsenal may have been inspired by an Air Force study titled Atomic Weapons in Limited Wars in Southeast Asia, it said. That study “focused on the use of atomic weapons for ‘situation control’ in jungles, valley supply routes, karst (soluble bedrock) areas, and mountain defiles to block enemy movement and to clear away cover,” the declassified report said in a footnote elaborating on White’s strategy. That terrain forms much of northern Vietnam and Laos. One year later, during December 1960 and January 1961, a Soviet airlift was supplying “food, fuel and military hardware” to local pro-Moscow forces in Laos, via Hanoi, the declassified Air Force document said. In March 1961, the US Joint Chiefs “countered with a plan calling for up to 60,000 men, complete with air cover and nuclear weapons. “This inclusion of nuclear weapons by the military was a legacy of the Korean War. To the chiefs, it was unthinkable for the United States to embark on another conventional, strength-sapping war,” the document said. In 1968, just before the Tet Offensive, North Vietnamese troops and their southern Viet Cong allies

“It was unthinkable for the United States to embark on another conventional, strength-sapping war,” the document said. After deciding not to nuke Laos and Vietnam, US troops suffered in jungle warfare, reflected in this rendition of an American soldier falling into a bamboo spike-filled pit in Cu Chi, near Saigon. attacked American forces in the centre of the country close to the divide between North and South. In response, General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces in Vietnam, considered reaching for the nuclear button. “In late January, General Westmoreland had warned that if the situation near the DMZ [Demilitarized Zone] and at Khe Sanh worsened drastically, nuclear or chemical weapons might have to be used,” said a separate 106page declassified, “top secret” report titled, The Air Force in Southeast Asia: Toward a Bombing Halt, 1968, written by the Office of Air Force History in 1970. “This prompted [Air Force Chief of Staff] General [John P.] McConnell to press, although unsuccessfully, for JCS [Joint Chiefs of Staff] authority to request Pacific Command to prepare a plan for using low-yield nuclear weapons to prevent a catastrophic loss of the [US] Marine Base,” it said. Throughout much of America’s failed war, the US relied on massive aerial bombardments, plus napalm, in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia but did not drop any nuclear bombs.

After the US withdrew in 1975, the Vietnamese communists achieved power. With hindsight, the authors of the 1993 declassified Air Force document said it would not have been a good idea “to employ nuclear weapons to destroy insurgents and their supply sources” in Vietnam or Laos. “It is doubtful whether any suitable targets for such weapons existed in the jungles of northern Laos or North Vietnam,” it said. “More important, such an attack would have given the communists a tremendous propaganda victory and possibly spread the war to China and the western Pacific,” it added. China supported the guerrillas in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia against US assaults. The document’s mention of the US spreading its would-be nuclear war to “the western Pacific” apparently refers to involving the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and nearby islands, where the US had military facilities. Bangkok-based Richard S. Ehrlich’s website can be found at http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

People

SAUL LOCKHART

THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB, HONG KONG 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2521 1511 Fax: (852) 2868 4092 E-mail: <fcc@fcchk.org> Website: <www.fcchk.org> President: Chris Slaughter First Vice President: Keith Bradsher Second Vice President: Kevin Egan

Old friends of the late Kevin Sinclair gathered at a Chinese restaurant in Crows Nest on March 14 to trade tall tales and to toast an absent friend. Standing (L-R): David Bell, Mike Foote, Geoﬀ and Maggie Hawthorne, Sue Girdwood, Frances Yip and David Lomax, Kit Sinclair, Colin Kerr, Phil Cornfold, James Ring, Saul Lockhart, Artie Campbell. Seated (L-R): Tomoko Bennett, Alison Lockhart, Alan Daniels, Bea and Robin Hutcheon, Siew Bell, Cyb Campbell.

Correspondent Member Governors Paul Bayfield, Bonnie Engal, Matthew Driskill, Ernst Herb, Mark Zavadskiy, Tom Mitchell, Andrew Stevens, Tony Munroe Journalist Member Governors Francis Moriarty, Jake van der Kamp Associate Member Governors Andy Chworowsky, David O’Rear, David Garcia, Steve Ushiyama Hon Treasurer Steve Ushiyama

FCCers in Grand Cayman. L-R: Iris, Tad and Adam Stoner, visitors Karin Malmstrom and Robin Lynam, and the newlyarrived Norma Connolly.

Finance Committee Convener: Steve Ushiyama Professional Committee Convener: Keith Bradsher Food and Beverage Committee Convener: Andy Chworowsky Membership Committee Convener: Steve Ushiyama Charity Committee Conveners: Dave Garcia, Andy Chworowsky Freedom of the Press Committee Convener: Francis Moriarty Constitution Committee Convener: Kevin Egan Wall Committee Convener: Chris Slaughter General Manager Gilbert Cheng

FCCers in Cuba. L-R: Karin Malmstrom, newly-weds, Peter and Frances Randall and Robin Lynam pose with a statue of Ernest Hemingway that props up one of his favourite Havana bars

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH-MAY 2008

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Out of Context

The Milliner’s Art

What members get up to when away from the Club

If Annelies Riem Vis-Gruben had her way, women and men would change their hats as often as they change their clothes, writes Vaudine England.

‘M

y mother and my grandmother always wore hats – every new suit meant a new hat,” said Annelies during an interview at her colourful home on the Peak. Away from the modern art and furniture is a room where this relatively new member of the FCC does her work, designing and making original hats. The milliner’s art does not at first appear a natural development for someone whose working background is in special needs education for children. Her husband, Freek, was posted away from their home country, the Netherlands, for his bank and when the next posting was to Jakarta in 1998, Annelies went along too. Working with a Dutch nun who had lived there for 25 years, Annelies started a toy factory, making artefacts for children with special needs and selling them at fairs and women’s clubs. The next posting was to Milan, Italy, where ideas about style and the quality of hats started to inspire Annelies. “It gives something very special if a man wears a Borsalino,” she said knowingly. For the rest of us, a Borsalino is a hat, particularly a fedora, made by a family firm founded by Giuseppe Borsalino in 1857. Italy is not the place for a beginner to break into hat-making. She returned to Holland where she visited top milliners again and again “to be sure it was for me”, she said. Then she enrolled in the Marga van der Bos design school for a part-time course over four years.

“I learned to make hats the oldfashioned way. First you imagine a hat and set your block,” she said, describing the basic head shape underpinning any hat. Straw must be steamed and stiffened and the designing can continue with flowers or feathers and more. There’s more to it of course – so many different fabrics and kinds of straw or felt, and notions to add, or colours and ideas to use. Each person has a different colouring and style to be discovered and hats can help, she says. “Everybody has a head so everybody should wear a hat,” Annelies believes. Hats give confidence, power, attention and adornment. And they can help keep people at a distance too. Annelies has shown her hats to the consular corps, at Holland Week

promotions, and at workshops she’s held on how to make your own hat. She hasn’t ventured into men’s hats much here because they usually involve more felt – which gets wetter from steam and so needs more intense dehumidifying in the Hong Kong climate. Hong Kong ladies are coming to Annelies for all kinds of hats: Jewish women want something for the synagogue, horse-watchers need hats to watch the Melbourne Cup or local races, mourners need something different to those going to a wedding, and the forthcoming Equestrian Olympics should spur a new rush of customers for hats. Annelies’s prices range from HK$500 to HK$5,000. “I hope for a lot of ladies there’s a possibility for them to wear my hats. I miss hats on the street!”

THE CORRESPONDENT

MARCH-MAY 2008

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