Tuesday 30 March 2010
Lots to say
It's been a busy month with the Hong Kong Arts Festival in full swing. It's now over and ended with a rather disappointing performance of "The Tempest" by the Old Vic Company from London. Prior to that in the same theatre I had seen Steven Berkoff in "On The Waterfront" and was delighted by the magnificent performance. The actors in Tempest were very guilty of mumbling their lines and talking to the back of the stage and, unless you had read the play that day, most of the audience couldn't possibly have known what was going on. Other than that, the rest of the festival was memorable for the quality and variety of the performances. So there, that's my bit of theatre critic over!
Now, over the last few months there has been a growing drought over parts of South China caused apparently by a one-in-a-hundred year drought and the damming of the Mekong River in several places by the Chinese Authorities. Obviously they deny all responsibility, but it's strange that when they release some water, the river rises by over one metre. All being blamed also on the El Niño effect, another good scapegoat.
So, as a result of all this, the peasant farmers are losing their livelihoods and all their animal stock. BUT, the authorities are sending in the troops to drill 2,000 wells into the water table, no doubt worsening things when all they need to do is release the water from their hydro-electric dams.
Today we went for a walk along the bay in front of our home and wandered past a lovely market garden which we were unaware existed. Good veggies, all organic and freshly plucked before our eyes. Hong Kong continues to surprise at every turn.
On the way back we went into another garden centre and Barbara got some more beautiful pot plants, all delivered one hour later, free of charge!
It looks like the Rio Tinto court case has followed the norms cor China - no proper defense against the charges and no access to defence lawyers during the six months detention prior to the trial. Sentence of between 7 and 14 years in jail were passed down for charges of accepting bribes amongst other more obviously politically motivated charges. Funnily enough, no one has been charged with providing the bribes - strange how one-sided that argument must seem. Looks like a bit of a plant and some coercion to confess are involved here! Nothing unusual in China, I'm afraid to say.
Now, over the last few months there has been a growing drought over parts of South China caused apparently by a one-in-a-hundred year drought and the damming of the Mekong River in several places by the Chinese Authorities. Obviously they deny all responsibility, but it's strange that when they release some water, the river rises by over one metre. All being blamed also on the El Niño effect, another good scapegoat.
So, as a result of all this, the peasant farmers are losing their livelihoods and all their animal stock. BUT, the authorities are sending in the troops to drill 2,000 wells into the water table, no doubt worsening things when all they need to do is release the water from their hydro-electric dams.
Today we went for a walk along the bay in front of our home and wandered past a lovely market garden which we were unaware existed. Good veggies, all organic and freshly plucked before our eyes. Hong Kong continues to surprise at every turn.
On the way back we went into another garden centre and Barbara got some more beautiful pot plants, all delivered one hour later, free of charge!
It looks like the Rio Tinto court case has followed the norms cor China - no proper defense against the charges and no access to defence lawyers during the six months detention prior to the trial. Sentence of between 7 and 14 years in jail were passed down for charges of accepting bribes amongst other more obviously politically motivated charges. Funnily enough, no one has been charged with providing the bribes - strange how one-sided that argument must seem. Looks like a bit of a plant and some coercion to confess are involved here! Nothing unusual in China, I'm afraid to say.
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