Of course, there were 1) Our Floods ... and I'll show what's happening right now outside:
Yup, another storm. The third since Our Flood so this may not be over yet.I noticed Pearl Television has rescheduled so we all get to see Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" so I'm thinking someone in the studio there is making a connection. Again!!! In 2003-04 we had the coldest winter ever on record and everyone went "Ooooh, Global Warming!" and then 2007-08 we barely had a winter at all and again "Ooooh, Global Warming". And now this!
You know, Al Gore is so good at this Threatdown Business, he should be made an Honorary Hong Konger!
2) We're also in the midst of another outbreak of Bird Flu down at the local bird markets, so we're seeing mass culling going on amid all the usual drama and hand-wringing, although no one has yet topped that wonderful footage of the culling of civet cats up in Guangzhou during the 2003 SARS crisis: the distraught little old lady handing over her pet civet cat to the white-biohazard-suit clad authorities and saying "You come back to me in your next life, OK, only next time don't be a civet cat." Gosh, talk about heart-wringing!
3) Also, the people killed during O.F. was because a wall fell on them ... and these were just the stupidest and most unnecessary deaths ever. Those walls were rock solid until someone incredibly stupid in the Local Council decided to cut down the wall trees.
If you've ever been to HK you know all about our wall trees. They are strangler figs grown behind walls so their roots grow around the wall to make it stronger. And they are beautiful. AND they are especially meaningful for me because Fiji also has wall trees, in Suva around and above Gorie Street. Most people don't know this but during the days of the Raj, the British Colonial Office used to send the best of Fiji's Colonial Officers - and Governors too - to Hong Kong for their very next posting which means you frequently see Fiji stuff in HK and that's always such a buzz because you think "The same person made those decisions, first in Fiji and then, several years later, because they worked the first time, used the same solution right here in HK!" and you can't beat that for creating wafting waves of redolence and nostalgia!
Anyway, some HK Council Idiot has ordered the wall trees cut down and workers are currently sneaking around at night "just following orders" because there's a real fuss about it ... as there should be because those trees are precious ... and now these deaths. I hope whoever ordered this vicious act of civic vandalism is "Mia Culpa-ing!" bigtime, because, although no one else is really culpable for O.F., that person definitely is GUILTY!!!
Trying to think of other disasters making the news and causing untold angst ... and there are heaps as usual but it's all kinda-ordinary in comparison with the ones above:
1) Toxic food from Mainland China; sun-dried tomatoes this time.
2) A dot.com spanking from the relevant authorities.
3) US mislabelling of food (watch out for this one, the lying sods, and I will definitely be writing more on this subject!)
4) Villagers cut off by the floods up in arms because they have yet to have visits by the authorities.
5) Complaints that Our Donald, HK's Head Honcho, flew around in helicopters to see the damage ... although why this is a problem is ridiculous: because, they say, he's trying to emulate China's Premier Wen at the Sichuan Earthquake! Excuse me? When has there ever been a civic disaster where the H.O.S. didn't fly around to check out the damage? I think a H.O.S. who didn't should be the one being berated! Honestly!!!
That's just reminded me of something incredibly embarrassing. Dare I tell you? Oh, OK!
Back in 1984-85, Fiji had a series of vicious hurricanes, one after another ("Ooooh, Global Warming!") (Yeah, how come Al Gore never mentions these?) which were called, from memory: Enid, Nina, Odette, Ursula, Gina and Hetty ... and yes, some smarty-pants did notice the initials and, yes, it did make front page news. Anyway, after one of them, I'm coming out of the outdoor shower at our beach house in Deuba, when a helicopter flies over, descends, and then hovers immediately overhead. Since I knew most of Fiji's pilots I thought it was just a friend being annoying and so ... lordy, how can I admit this! ... I flashed! Just for a second, mind! And, yup, worst case scenerio! Turned out it was our very own H.O.S., the late great Ratu Mara himself, flying around to inspect the damage!
And, according to Jeff the pilot, Ratu Mara saw and, being the complete gentleman he always was, pursed his lips distastefully and then pretended he hadn't seen a thing. Let me tell you, there aren't many ways you can live that one down!
Anyway, after sharing that incredibly embarrassing moment, let me create another one by picking which Threatdown is HK Magazine's choice for this week: Mmmm? Fully expecting to get this wrong:
Falling Walls!
OK, let me go out and get a copy and I'll get back to you!
Nope, wrong again. This week HK Magazine has chosen for Threatdown:
hk.com
These guys obviously think more subtly than I do.
Here's what it says. "Last week it was revealed that Hong Kong-based websites are the most dangerous. McAfee found that around 19% of websites with the domain name ".hk" inundated web users with pop-ups, spam and viruses." It then goes on to talk about all our hk.com "leaking of people's personal information" which has been rife for some time now.
Lucky I don't use ".hk" in my e-mails, la?!
Here's what it says. "Last week it was revealed that Hong Kong-based websites are the most dangerous. McAfee found that around 19% of websites with the domain name ".hk" inundated web users with pop-ups, spam and viruses." It then goes on to talk about all our hk.com "leaking of people's personal information" which has been rife for some time now.
Lucky I don't use ".hk" in my e-mails, la?!
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