What Kills Us This Week!

In the wake of the US announcement that it is suing Hong Kong to stop the buy-back of the now-useless American shares, Hong Kong appears to have retreated from it's obligatory weekly panic ... so I'm on my own this week.

Again, spoiled for choice!

Sure, yes, we had our first mass-slaughter of chickens at the wet markets down the road yesterday, thanks to a number of birds testing positive for the deadly strain of bird flu, so again we've seen the chaps in their sensational white bio-hazard suits doing their stuff, but this sight has become ho hum for we Hong Kongers ...

And, yes, it's very scary that the Chinese Communist Party has bought one of the two-only English-language TV stations in Hong Kong, and has started mass sackings of staff and replacing "suspicious programs" with insanely stupid Chinese-language shopping programs ... wherein, while you're watching, say, the News when suddenly the screen goes dark and these two horrifically cheerful Mainlanders will pop up and start sprouting off in Mandarin trying to sell you, say, a charcoal bra ... although you don't quite understand why you need to put charcoal in your bra.

The first time I saw this happen was up in Guangzhou, at the hotel, late at night, watching the Letterman Show, when Obama walked on for his interview ... when suddenly there was a blank screen followed by thirty minutes of cheery folks from Beijing urging me, I presume, to drink some brand of slimming tea. At least it was something in a can that would make my stomach shake spectacularly until it morphed into a total "wasp-waist". It was the same ad over and over. For thirty sodding minutes. I kept watching because ... well, I kept thinking it was going to end, but it didn't; not until the final band came on and the credits started to roll. I thought "Only in China!"

But now this is happening in Hong Kong too. Although, you know, it may be kinda fun discovering what the Communists don't want us to know about!

Communist Party Censorship isn't anything new, although it IS new that they're now doing it to English-speakers as well! To be a truly great Threatdown, it has to be something totally off-the-wall.

So, on those grounds, for this week I'm choosing this:

Panda Chows!

According to the papers, the latest big fad in China is to buy a white chow and dye it so it looks like a panda. You love?

So that's it for this week:

THREATDOWN

Truly foolish Mainland trends!