Category: Historical

CNN picks up the typhoon story. Looks like it’s expected to be a direct hit!

Today, I had been originally planning to head down to Macua. This, however, went on the backburner as I pondered whether I might also want to combine it with a trip to Zuhai, as it seemed like a more pleasant location to head to, of the two SEZs that I’m able to visit without a full Chinese visa. Then, Typhoon Dujuan came and that permanently put all such plans on hold.

This morning I woke to a flat gray sky, menancing rain, and pondered whether to head out to Stanley after breakfast. Figuring that the rain would likely come sooner than later, I headed off to the Flower and Bird Street Market near the Prince Edward MTR station. After wandering through a long, long street of more flower varieties than I’d seen before, and seeing some beautiful birds, I went off to the Jade Bazaar near Kanusu Street. Guiltily, without really haggling at all, as I’m simply terrible at it, I picked up a green jade statue of Buddha for about US$13.

By this time the early rains had begun. Still, undeterred, I headed down to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, wandered around by the ferry terminal for awhile, and picked up a ticket to an Chinese Opera tomorrow night.

I also ended up speaking to a nice woman Emmie, who very much wants to meet up at Kowloon Park so I can meet her brother. Of course, with the Typhoon rating about to be raised from a 3 to an 8 (high numeric jump, yes, but it’s only the next step up the ladder) I’m not convinced this is the best idea. Since, after all, I’m told many things begin to close up once the rating jumps.

Well, we’ll see how this all turns out. And I wanted some excitement, so a Typhoon will just have to do.

Today marked my first full day spent in Hong Kong. This morning, after bumming around my hotel for about two hours shaking off jetlag and putting together an itinerary, I headed out in to the sweltering city of Hong Kong. Starting to sweat before I had even reached the street, I wandered down Nathan Road to locate a) the MTR station, b) Kowloon Park, and c) a Currency Exchanger offering fair rates (HK$7.73 vs. HK$7.2). Successfully locating all three, and taking a bath in my shirt, I spirited off to Hong Kong (forever abbreviated HK after this, because Hong Kong is taking too much time to write) Island. Two spots in, I alighted from the train and wandered uphill, thankfully via escalators for most of the way, to a decent eatery for lunch.

Heading onward, I wandered through the zoological gardens, enjoying some splendid views of animals (although the San Diego Zoo remains the creme de la creme). The monkeys were chattering quite a bit though, with screams echoing throughout the park. And the enclosed greenhouse felt refreshing, compared to the sweltering temperatures outside.

Nearby was the Peak Tram, and the skyline looking not-too-overcast, I headed up to Victoria’s Peak. This provided a fairly decent view of the surrounding areas, and a decent walk around the plateau area that took about an hour and a half or so to complete. Along the way I had a discussion with someone named Jeffrey, originally born in Canton province (I believe) and now living in Auckland, regarding travel, foreigners, and HK (see, I promised!). Splitting up back at the Peak Tram station, I wandered back to the viewing platforms and rested until sunset, which by then wasn’t very far off. While I waited, a cute young “couple” (probably, if I was forced to guess, in their early, early teens, but I’m terrible with age so they could have been older than me for all I know) asked to have their photo taken and then, to my amusement, have their photo taken with me! The guy sitting on the bench next to me was really amused by this, but of course I did. I’m starting to wonder how many strangers in foreign countries are going to have photos of me floating around.

Dinner followed the evening photo shoot, with a meal at the nearby restaurant. This was when I was first informed that there could well be a strong storm (i.e. minor typhoon) heading through tomorrow evening. Surprise, looks like tomorrow evening in to Wednesday will be a wash-out if the forecast is accurate. We’ll just have to see.

The NY Times has an article today of excerpts from Port Authority workers in the WTC during the two hour period between the planes hitting the towers and their collapse.

You can see the game of cat and mouse going on between the U.S. and the U.N. over Iraq. This quote sums it up well:

Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, waved off calls by American lawmakers to increase American troops in Iraq beyond the current 140,000, suggesting instead that Muslim allies send in more peacekeepers.

The U.S. won’t budge because it wants the U.N. to feel obligated to send in troops to save the Iraqis from the mess created by… the U.S. What a brilliant strategy! It certainly follows the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). Hopefully the U.S. won’t be the ones left looking stupid…

A very amusing passage taken from a Christopher Hitchens article regarding the Ten Commandments “scandal”:

One is presuming (is one not?) that this is the same god who actually created the audience he was addressing. This leaves us with the insoluble mystery of why he would have molded (“in his own image,” yet) a covetous, murderous, disrespectful, lying, and adulterous species. Create them sick, and then command them to be well? What a mad despot this is, and how fortunate we are that he exists only in the minds of his worshippers.

In other Godless news, The Smoking Gun has excerpts from an interview of Arnold S. from 1977. I tried to pick a particularly good passage to post here, but I simply couldn’t choose. Check it out and you’ll understand why.

Oh great, Hong Kong is back inthe news over a new respiratory outbreak in a hospitol. That’s just what I don’t feeling like hearing about, given that I’ll be there next week.

Paul Bremer, current proconsul of Iraq, gave an interview with the Washington Post, in which he makes the following snide(editorializing at work) remark:
“What exactly is it that happens on the ground that makes things better if the U.N. is in charge of reconstruction?” Bremer said. “How does the situation on the ground get better?”

What happens? I’ll let this quote from the New Republic sum it up:
A new, robust Security Council resolution would provide political cover for potential troop donors, especially India, Turkey, and possibly Pakistan. But this would necessarily involve a bigger role for the U.N. in the political process. The last thing the Secretariat wants is for the U.N. to be used as an overgrown NGO, or worse, as a scapegoat–and a target for bombings like last week’s–should things go wrong.

In a nutshell, other reluctant countries would be willing to send troops and funding in to Iraq. Political cover would suddenly exist to de-Americanize the conflict, a potential positive, sweetening the pot with plenty of blame to be spread around should things continue to deteriorate. And, in fact, given the increased participation of many organizations that have had experience in similar matters in the past, the situation would be far more likely to improve, and sooner rather than later. The holiding back of an international effort for reconstruction is silly, especially given that, as Bremer himself said, Iraq will need “several tens of billions” of dollars from abroad in the next year to rebuild its rickety infrastructure and revive its moribund economy.

Good news for BBC fans. The BBC has decided to put as much of its content online, for free, as possible. This includes as much of its content from its archives as is feasible as well as all its new content generated. This may be the best attempt yet to make high quality content available online. And of all things, free. I would have considered paying for access to some of the BBC’s content, unlike much of the “programming” done here in the States.

There is something moronic about this situation. Apparently, death threats have been made on the lives of those who ordered the Ten Commandments display, containing the famous line “Thou Shall Not Kill”, to be removed.

The Christian Science Monitor sums it up as follows:
Federal District Judge Myron Thompson imposed daily fines of $5,000 on the state for contempt of his ruling – a decision upheld this month by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. For that, Judge Thompson has received death threats. Morris Dees, founder and director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who conducted a tough cross-examination of Moore, is also staying out of public view due to threats on his life. And security around Montgomery is high, in anticipation of violence from Moore’s followers upon the monument’s removal.

Granted, it doesn’t say “Thou shall not threaten to kill”, but please! Some people are beyond merely crazy…