The Correspondent, March 1993

I

CONTENTS

THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS'

CLUB

I

North Block, 2 Lower Albert Road, Hong Kong.

Telephone: 521 l5l I Fax:868 4O92

COVER 15-18 Photo essay by Leong Ka-tai NEWS AND VIEWS 2 Representing a profession, not a mob.

Ashley Ford interviews Albert Ravenholt, the last surviving founding member of the FCC.

Pres¡dent - Steve Vines

Firet Vice President - Hubert Vm Es Second Vice Prsident - David Thurston

A bad year for journalists A special report from the Freedom Review looking back on

Corrspondent Member Governors Bob Davis, Daniela Deane,

Cul

Goldstein, Humphrey

1992.

Hawksley, V.G. Kulkmi, Catherine Ong, Claudia Rosett, Brim Jeffries

Journalist Member Governom rililliam Buker, Stuart rilolfendale Associate Membe¡ Governors D. Gucia, L. Grebsrad, S. Loikh¿f, R Thomas

11

Professional Committee: Convenor: H. Hawksley Members: V.G. Kulkmi, C. Rosett, S. Wolfendale, C. Goldstein, D. Deane, C. Ong, R. Thomas

Membership Committee: Convenor: V.G. Kulkmi Members: B. Davis, D. Grcia, C. Goldstein, L. Grebstad Ente¡tainment Committee: Convenor: rü. Buker; Member: S. Wolfendale Publications Committee:

Hacker.

12

Another hole-in-one The FCC's Golf Society hands out the silverware.

2l

So...what do you get...what do you pay?

Francine Brevetti on the background to a freelance rate survey soon to be carried out in Hong Kong.

Convenor: D. Thurston, Members: S. Lockha¡t, B. Davis,

K. Wilson (Editor), Paul Bayfield (Co-opted) F & B Committee; Convenor: L Grebstad Members: D. Grcia, H. Van Es, R. Thomas, S. Lockhart

23

BOOK REVIEW Steve Proctor reviews Bernard Fong's latest contribution to the literary world Postscrþt.

25

In the

Wall Committee: H. Vm Es, Bob Davis, D. Grucia

Club Manager: H. Crabner

THE CORRESPONDENT

Hack: a prostitute An ABC of Dr Johnson's dictionary as selected by Arthur

eye

ofa hurricane

The background to Myles Ludwig's latest book on hurricane

Iniki.

Advertising Manage¡: Tom Deacon Page Make-up: Jane Recio and Eva Lai A¡tist: Amando D. Recio, J¡.

EDITORIAL OFFICE;

28

AsiaPacific Directories Ltd,

Steve Fallon writes on how he took Asia to Hungary and became a celebrated malaria patient.

Rm. 1301, 13Æ, Puk Comme¡cia.l Centre, 6-10 Shelter Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Telephone: 577 9331: Fu: 890 7287 @ The Conespondent

Opinions expressed by writers ile not necessrily those of the Foreign Conespondents' Club

Letter from Budapest

30

Comparison of food and beverage prices among Hong

Kong's 'city'clubs.

The Corespondent is published montNy for md on behalf of The Foreign Conespondents' Club by: AsiaPacilÌc D¡rectorig Ltd. Rm 1301, l3lF, Park Commercial Centre, 6-10 Sbelter Slræt, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Tel: 5?'l 9331: Fax: 890 7287

Publisher: Vonnie Bishop Manag¡ng Director¡ Mike Bishua Colour separation by: Colou¡ Art Graphic Company Printed by Print House Ltd, Blk A, l6/F, Aik San Fry. Bldg, 14 Westlands Rd, Quarry Bay, H.K. Tel: 562 6157 (3 l¡nes)

ZUNG FU

A Jard¡ne Pacific Business (Disrributor for Hong Kong and Macau), Bonavenrure House, Leighton Road, Hong Kong Tel, 895 2288 I 22 Canton Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon Tel, 735 1 199 Zung Fu Carpark Buiìdi ng, 50 Po Loi Street, Hunghom Tel, 764 69 19

SOUTHERN STAR MOTOR CO. (D¡stributor [o¡ Southern Ch¡na), 40th Floor, Central Plaza, 18 Harbour Road, Vanchai Te l, 594 MERCEDES-BENZ AG. BEIJING, LIAISON OFFICE (Distributor for Northern Chtna), 20/F, CITIC Building, t9Jian Cuo

N4en \X/ai

Dajie, Beijing Tel, 500 3051

8888

Mercedes-Benz Engineered 10 move the human spirit, j

LETTERS

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT PEDDLER'S JOURNAL ...........

.....

29 31

32

Cover photograph by Leong Ka-tai

Inside photographs supplied by David Thurston, Hubert Van Es and Ray Cranbourne.

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993 I

NEV/S AND VIEV/S The still sprightly 74-year-old Ravenholt learned his journalism the old fash-

ioned way by writing.for everyone he

Much of his war experience was spent

could. "l did what a lot of us did at that time.

I wrote for the Norlh China Daily News, Ihe China Daily News plus some radio

behind enemy lines. He went through eight campaigns with Chinese armies;

work."

While Ravenholt craved the life of the

Last assembly of correspondents at the first FCC site in Chungking in 1945.

Representing a profession, not a mob

take parl in the shooting. Rather, he had long seen himself as a "foreign correspondent".

The last-surviving founding member of the Foreign Correspondents' Club was determined to fulfil his dream and shipped out to China where he had a

2

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

operation in Burma in 1944, reported on

realise his move was the beginning of a five -- decade odyssey that would take him through some of the pivotal battles in the Pacific campaign and China's civil war.

His interest still remains in Asia and he continues to split his time between

the Kachin tribesmen who fought a

Seattle and the Philippines where he maintains a residence.

Thirty of those years were spent working lor lhe Chicago Daily News. A job Ravenholt says, that was a dream for a journalist. "fhe Chicago Daily Nenn was very

enholt managed to come out of the war unscathed. But that is not to say there

good to me and they gave me the space to write not just about war but also other

"Shanghai was

a

successful guerilla campaign against the Japanese in nofth-east Burma armed

with 18th century flintlocks; and covered General 'Vinegar Joe' Sitwell's campaign in northern Burma.

Despite a number of close calls Rav-

were not times when he thought

his

number was up.

"Once I crashed on take-off in a B-24 loaded with four-tons of bombs. I was standing behind the pilot and figured this was curtains. Every other bomber that crashed on take-off had blown up

Chungking, in Sichuan province with a small army of other foreign correspondents which formed the nucleus of what is today the FCC. "lt all started in Chungking in the spring of 1945," he said.

"Up until that time we (the foreign correspondents) had no organisation except for the correspondents from Tass but they stayed away from us. The rest of us lived in a pretty meagre building known as the press hostel. "lt was built of woven bamboo plastered with mud and was pretty sparse.

We had our own garden of sorts. The hostel was built around a courtyard with

very interesting place

Seattle home.

the war was coming and another fellow and I decided the time had come to really cover what the Japanese were doing in China," he said.

"We got ourselves some fake documents as missionary school teachers and took a Japanese ship south and smuggled ourselves thrrugh the lines at Swatow."

Eventually he managed to become a transport inspector for the lnternational Red Cross which gave him access to China's interior.

Strangely enorJgh China was not yet a "hot story" in the US or anywhere else in the West for that matter.

Short on journalistic experience, young Ravenholtwas notdeterred. Upon arrival in Shanghai he threw himself into learning Mandarin, French and Russian and earned a meagre living filing for United Press lnternational and a host of other news outfits.

media were just not interested in China.

That was until Pearl Harbour. "That changed everything," he said.

"Overnight they got acutely interested in China. Luckily it was a very cheap place to live."

premonition history would soon be in the making. "l decided I'd better not go back to college and had better take off. There was a whole generation of us like that,"

he recalled in an interview from

foreign correspondent even he didn't

in those days. lt was an international city and was the one place in the world you could go without a passport and a visa," he said.

It was a prescient choice. "We knew

Alhert Ravenholt, the last surviving member of that group, recounts the Club's early years in an interview with Ashley Ford.

York World's Fair fretted that the hostilities might pass him by.

Not that Alberl Ravenholt wanted to

covered both the Arakan and lmphal campaigns in northern Burma; went behind Japanese lines with Brigadier Orde Wingate on the second Chindit

but for some reason this one didn't," he said.

Another time he played hide and seek with a Japanese sniper while descending a mountain in southern China on the Burmese border. Ravenholt said: "The Japanese 25-calibre sniper's rifle had a sound that you could never forget."

With the war in Europe coming to an end, Ravenholt found himself in

Why Shanghai?

The Foreign Correspondents' Club was first founded by a small group of correspondents in Chungking in the spring of 1945.

ith the Second World War just getting into full swing a fresh-faced young Wisconsin "dairy farm boy" working at the New

developments in Asia such as land and agricultural reform," he said.

his

He recalls that UPI and other

US

Foreign Correspondent corps in the first convoy over the Burma Road.

THB CORRESPONDBNT MARCH

1993

3

our own banana trees."

Sparse it certainly was and he recalls that privacy was not exactly readily available. "lt was the kind of place where if a couple got together, which was not unknown, you could feel the walls shake," he said.

Ravenholt said that with the war coming to an end in Europe the focus of attention would switch to Asia and the correspondents realised that they had to "get their collective act to-

would have a better chance of fighting it if we were seen and taken seriously as a journalist organisation."

The overriding reason for bringing some organisation to the "jurno ranks", Ravenholt recall, "was our concern with getting some facilities where we could send our stories. A story isn't worth anything if you can't get read of it."

'-: :.,:=:,,,;.r;-j.|ijt:,..'.,, .

back to the coast we would like to have space for our activities, both living and working," Ravenholt said.

The Chinese were amazingly cooperative and Ravenholt's local Shanghai knowledge paid off handsomely.

"The Chinese came up with an astonishing reply to the Club's request," he said.

"They said how would you like the Broadway Mansion? I kicked the guy next to me before anything

gether".

"Up untilthen, for us at least, the war had been pretty much a holding action except for Burma," he said.

"The Correspondents' Association was formed to represent us in dealing with not just the Chinese government but with both the

south near the Chinese-Vietnamese

nese radio station when the flash came

border and the other south of Shanghai at a place called Hangchow Bay. "lt was a question of having somebody represent us in terms of our profession so that we would not be seen as a mob where everyone was fighting with everyone else to get on planes orto

from New York saying the Japanese

important battlefront areas. We also knew we could be at the mercy of the army information people if we didn't have an outfit to represent us.

"Then of course there was the matter of censorship and again we realised we

4

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

had surrendered," he said.

"That night I watched the city go wild.

My god it was a night. I had never seen

Chinese behave the way they did that night ... they really celebrated."

It was obvious that following the surrender the press corps would be moving back to Shanghai and the club made

its first substantial decision.

"A committee of us from the club went to see the Chinese government (nationalists), and told them that when we got

Club became

a social centre. That

changed it dramatically."

their last major southward offensive

Mansion and it was a real coup for us. lt was the largest apartment

the lub moved down to Canton before finally moving across the border into

the Wangpo River. I could hardly believe it when the Chinese amiably told us this would be set aside for the foreign correspondents."

It seemed to be too good to be true and it almost was.

"When we got to Shanghai the US Air Force had started moving into the building and we had a f ight

with them," Ravenholt recalled.

"We finally compromised. We

took the top half of the building from the 13th floor and made the 17th and 18th floors the Club. I

can still remember watching the communist advance on the city from the top floor."

This might have had the best joint in town but the departing Japanese had stripped the place of radiators making it pretty cold and uncomfortable. "The US Air types weren't about to give a bunch of journalists any help either," he said.

"When winter came we had to try and scrounge some electric heaters."

Ravenholt said the move back to Shanghai saw the Tass correspondents move"into the Club. "ln Chungking they didn't live with us and we had very little contact. But all that changed in Shanghai because every month a plane from Moscow would arrive loaded with vodka and other goodies."

The Club quickly saw its ranks grow as correspondents who had covered the Pacific War began moving to Shanghai.

ended up with aboùt 4b correspondents in Broadway Mansion. "lt was about this time the social aspects of the club started to surface.

We had started the thing to fight our battles and make life easier. Now we had the facilities we needed such as transportation, access, passes etc the

stupid was said and replied that would be just perfect. "l knew all about Broadway

house in China, 18 storeys high and right on Suichow Creek and

American and British military commands.

"Up until then it had been every man for himself with all of us scurrying around trying to cover China.

It was not very practical."

Ravenholtdoesn't remember how many actual founding members there were but he does recall that it cost a hefty US$100 to join. "l think, from memory, it was either nine or 10 of us," he said."lt Conduit Road: could have been a wasn't a social club like it is now. lt good buy. was a professional club. There were representatives from Reuters, fhe Daily Ravenholt says he can't recall who Telegraph, UPl, Associated Press, CBS the Club's first President was, but he and a couple of others whose names or did a brief stint as the second President papers I can't remember. before he had to go off to Kunming.

"At that time we expected there would He returned to Chungking shortly be a landing of American troops at two before the Japanese surrendered. places on the coast of China, one in the "l remember sitting in the local Chi-

"Shanghai was something they had only dreamed about," he said. "So we

When the Chinese communists starled

across the Yangtze River in April 1949

Hong Kong.

Ravenholt and other colleagues barely

escaped intact. "lt was an amazing thing to witness," he said. "The communists had 84 armies on the north side of the Yangtze River. Few people realised the extent of the fighting that went on in the Chinese Civil War, or the casualties."

Ravenholt and the Club had a parting of the ways in Hong Kong. "ln 1951 there was some support for me to become President but a fight de-

veloped over whether the place we were occupying on Conduit Road should be purchased or leased."

As he tells it the lease side won and to this day he believes it was the single biggest mistake the Club ever made. "l wanted to buy the place," Ravenholt said. "l even went as far as discussing the matter with the Chinese sugar merchant who owned the place. He had made a lot of money on sugar and was willing to sell it for a modest downpayment and the payments would have been a little more than we would have been paying in rent.

"So when they wouldn't go along with

the proposition of buying the place

I

turned down becoming president. lt was a fabulous property and I know I was

right." lronically, Ravenholt remembers that

Hong Kong and its future was being discussed just after the war had ended in the Pacific and firmly believes the British could have secured another lease if they had bothered to try. "l can remember having a discussion with The Daily Telegraph man about it at the time. I can't remember his name but I know he was a great admirer of

THE ZOO

Clement Attlee, the British Labour leader.

"l can still remember how delighted he was when Attlee won the election. As

soon as Attlee came to power the British decided to give up extra-territoriality," he said. "l was writing a story about it and was

having a discussion with friends at the British embassy in China.

"We talked on the subject at great length. I could not believe Britain was serious in giving up all its territories. So

I asked why not renew your lease on Hong Kong. After all the Chinese were euphoric that Britain was giving up all its territorial rights and Britain stood a good chance of renewing its lease on the New Territories. Besides Hong Kong was tiddlywinks to the Chinese at the time anyway.

"The answer I got, and I still remember it to this day, is that 1997 was a long way away and besides, it would be too much trouble."

Ashley Ford is an absent member of the FCC and is Pacific Bim correspondent for fhe Vancouver Provident.

BYARTHUR HACKËR

IT,S A VIOI-ATION OF MY HU/\AAN tì lc H-l-S

Saz

{ { \ \

.u U

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

5

A bad year for journalists ineteen Ninety-two was a transitional yearfor journalists strugglingto burythe legacy of press

By Leonard Sussman

struggle.

controls under communist or nationalist

dictatorships. ln many places, blatant political censorship was replaced by economic crises

and sophisticated pressures from communist bureaucrats still in place, ordebts to new ruling parties.

The seeds of press freedom were de-

and subsequently was ignored in order

to end the divisive information-order Twelve years later, however, Armando

At the biennial conference of the lnternational Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR) in Sao Paulo, they heard scholars from many countries analyse the decade-long failure to create a new world information and communication order (NWICO).

posited in some unlikely places. ln Kazakhstan, for example, journalists joined

with colleagues from four other former Soviet Central Asian states to plan training and other support for independent news media.

Af rican journalists, armed with pledges of greater f reedom embodied in the 1991

Rollemberg, the new president of the lnternational Organisation of Journalists (lOJ), supported the creation this year or next of a MacBride Movement to press for the expansion of communication facilities in poor countries, improve international reporting and reduce the commercialisation of communication.

Rollemberg said: "The old movement was marginalised because it accepted the leadership of the former USSR".

The IOJ had been the

foremost spokesman for Soviet communication poli-

BBC journalist caught in the line of fire last year ÂĄn Yugoslavia.

Windhoek Declaration,

cies. Consequently, said Rollemberg, "the noble

heard government leaders

ideas in the MacBride re-

He concluded: "We must, therefore,

speak of multiparty govern-

port were weakened; prisoners of the basic ideologicaldilemma of the Cold War, as they were linked to regimes that advocated the establishment of a new order based on state con-

combat the (media) monopolies, not

ance and diverse news media, yet crack down on dissenting speech and writing, or fail to license opposition newspapers.

Eastern and Central Eu-

26 journalists were killed covering the war in Yugoslavia

rope, several years into the transition, suffered inflation which raised

the cost of newspapers prohibitively and, in the absence of a real market economy, precluded advertising income. ln this worldwide transition, 38% of the countries have a free press, 34"/" are parlly free, and 28'/. not free. This reflects a significant movement from the not-free to the partlyJree category.

The harshest statistic of all was the fact that 79 journalists were killed in the jourline of duty - 53 in retaliation for nalistic activities and 26 died covering the war in Yugoslavia.

Brazilian journalists broke off briefly

from covering the impeachment of President Fernando Collor last September to examine press freedom worldwide.

6

THE CORRBSPONDENT MARCH

1993

That had been perceived by northern critics as threatening to impose government control overcommunication. Even scholars at the IAMCR meeting who still

favoured that moribund new order regretted having supporled the former Soviet Union and its communication politics which prolonged the bitter NWICO

struggle.

They vowed to reorganise their movement by stressing hereafter the free flow of information, originally an American doctrine.

The move to rehabilitate NWICO followed a panel discussion on the 1980 MacBride Commission's report describing imbalances and disparities in the worldwideflowof information. The report had been debated briefly at UNESCO

trol of

communication

means.

"The crucial mistake was not realising that a more just and balanced new

order should have been constructed stafting with political systems that permit the free flow of communication as set forth in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"Now there arp historic opportunities for the MacBride Movement to reinsert itself in the United Nations, if not UNESCO. This time, political pluralism will be the only viable formula," he said. lnformation, besides being an individual right, he said, "constitutes public propeny of a collective nature". "lt is not a mere commodity negotiable by those who control the market or the politics."

should observe and address these dis-

because they are diabolical creations of

As a further mark of changed times,

capitalism but because they compromise the plurality of information systems."

The old new information order which

UNESCO-which had sponsored much of the new information order debates

it would seem, will take the form of a new'new order'- one based on the very symbols and rhetoric of American journalism and governance. lf these debates resume, they are likely to examine the full range of issues stemming from the new communication technologies.

Telephones and computers, linked by satellite and fibre-optic cables, can bring news and information to even the most isolated villages everywhere.

Likely to dominate the next round of communication debates are such questions as: How interactive are the new connections? How free is the access of poorsocietiestosuch intelligence? How peruasively do American and European communicators dominate the global ideaflow, and to what effect? Americans

challenged Western news media,

including the MacBride Commission

-

by 1989 assigned that controversial campaign to history, and sponsored instead programs to support government-free, diversified journalism

in

Eastern Europe, Africaand Central Asia.

For this purpose, 400 specialists from 53 countries converged on Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, last October - an unlikely site for non-governmental, diverse journalism.

Yet the governmĂŞnt formally invited the creation of independent news media. The country f reed itself from Soviet rule in December 1991. lt is the ninth largest nation in the world with considerable oil, gas and coal resources, and a nuclear stockpile. But its information structure is primitive.

There are no media links among the five newly independent Central Asian (Muslim) states, and none has access to a global news service.

Of the 100 papers recently started in Kazakhstan, most are small weeklies.

The state still controls the means of production and can kill a dissenting newspaper. The government paper dominates. The skyrocketing cost of newsprint, as everywhere in the former Soviet Union, inhibits new ventures. So does the 2Oo/" value-added tax on inde-

pendent newspapers, which is not applicable to the government's daily paper.

The Alma-Ata Declaration agreed that independent print and broadcast media operating in a free market economy are essential for the democratisation of Central Asia.

It called for reform of the press laws, abolition of monopolies in the printing and newspaper industries, and the establishment of journalist training and information centres.

The marble walls of the Supreme Soviet of Kazakhstan, site of the meeting, were not constructed to hear such anti-Soviet heresy.

While such developments are grounds for hope, the Freedom House study of

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

7

--- -

N()THING ESCAPES AGFA. press freedom reveals a slight slight reduc-

were wounded in outright attacks on

De Dios had received numerous death

tion in the percentage of countries having afree press: 38.o/. in 1992,39% in 1991. ln the proliferation of new states, 177

them. Fifty-seven were beaten, some-

threats for publishing secrets of Latin

times while in police custody, and 138 in 23 nations were otherwise assaulted.

There was a marked decrease in the

American drug traffickers and their

countries were examined in 1992; 157 the previous year. There were 67 freepress countries in 1992, 61 in 1991.

The greater improvement came in the partly{ree category: 60 states (34%) in 1992, 31 (20%) in 1991. This left 50 countries (28%) with no press freedom in 1992, 65 (41%) the year before.

The partly{ree group expanded with many of the new states from the former Soviet Union dropping their tight authoritarian controls. ln Africa, two entered the free-press group (Cape Verde and Zambia), and 12 rose to partly free (Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, and Tanzania).

Algeria and Sierra Leone dropped into the not-free category. ln the Middle East, a partially free press was newly visible in Jordan.

The study examines whether a country's newspapers or broadcast services are owned by government; if so, whether officials permit diverse, even critical

number of journalists arrested or imprisoned last year: 160 recorded cases in 49 countries, markedly down from 318 in 1991.

The two most murderous non-belligerent countrÂĄes were Peru and Turkey.

The Shining Path, far-left Peruvian guerillas, killed 10 journalists among a larger number of policemen and offi-

cials.

Twelve journalisls were mur-

dered in Turkey.

The government attributed this mainly

to ethnic clashes involving the Kurdish minority.

Human rights groups charged that security forces were involved in some of these murders, nearly all of which are not resolved.

Five journalists were killed in lndia and four in the Philippines.

One was killed in the United States.

Manuel de Dios Unanue, a freelancing former editor of New York's EI Diario-La Prensa, was assassinated by a professional gunman in March.

nofthern links. Police reported no leads to his killer.

Murder and physical attacks are the ultimate forms of censorship. lt should not be surprising, therefore, if in some cases self-censorship results. Yet many courageous journalists defy physical attacks, and persist.

The pendulum has begun slowly to swing toward greater press freedom in many places. Yet new countries of the ex-Soviet empire and others evolving from authoritarian rule could profitably heed the words of Sardar Patel, who, with Mahatma Gandhi, shared strong reservations after lndia achieved independencefrom Britain. Patel said: "What we have is not swaraj but only freedom from foreign rule." He added: "The

people have to win internal swaraj

...

create a new way of life and bring about a change of heart and a change of

outlook."

Reprinted byfrom fhe Freedom

reports of government policies and personnel, including the top leaders. lf there are independent media, the researchers ask whether the outlets and journalists are f ree of economic or political influence in the preparation and distribution of their repods.

Violence is a factor in determining the level of press freedom.

The 1992 summary is particularly

Too quick for the eye, but not for Agfa. A golf ball is deformed on

photocopiers, X-ray film and cine-film, computer-controlled ph0t0

impact in a fraction of a second. A superfast Agfa film captures the

composition systems, digital art printers and mini-labs ("1 hour

moment. Diamond sharp, for all time.

labs")

Film is Agfas visiting card. Everbody knows it. Everybody loves it.

The Agfa rhombus is a shining light in more than 140 coun-

Professionals and amateuĂ&#x; alike. But Agfa is more than justfilm. For

tries on all five continents.

over a hundred years Agfa has been setting milestones along the road

of light. Pointing the way

to today's hi-tech world of text and images. Photographic paper and

to the future.

-

Agfa provides vital stimulus in all areas of progress.

NOTHING ESCAPES AGFA.

A

symbol of quality in a world

AGFA@

appalling for the record number of journalists murdered or accidentally killed on dangerous assignments.

Of 79 deaths in 22 countries, 53 died in retaliation for journalistic activities.

Twenty-six journalists were killed covering the war in what was once Yugoslavia;22 died in Bosnia, four in Croatia.

Another 22 journalists were kidnapped or disappeared in 20 countries. The prevalence of danger is revealed by the 68 reported cases in which journalists in

23 countries received death threats.

It is likely that many more

threats

were not recorded.

Another 56 journalists in 20 countries

Note to members The following serues as a guideline to new members and as a reminder to long-time members.

O The use of portable telephones is not permitted on the Club premises.

O Members bringing guests into the

are allowed on the Club premises except Sunday and public holidays.

O No children under the age of 12 are allowed on the Club premises after 7pm unless given permission by the Board of Governors. Ihey

Club shall be responsible for their

mu st always be accompanied by thei r

guests and ensure that they observe the rules of the Club. Guests are not

parents who are expected to exer-

entitled to make use of any credit

tr No person

facilities which the Club may provide to its members and the member will be liable for all charges incurred by the guest.

Q No babies are permitted under any circumstances.

cise control over them at all times. under the age of 18 is permitted atthe Main Baror Pool Bar at any time underany circumstances.

D The Club does not accept any private parties involving children.

O No baby carriages are permitted on the Club premises.

O No children under the age of six

TTIE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

9

-l

The name of the world's la

MasterCard issuer,

AN ABC OF JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY

Hack: aprostitute hat great British institution Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary was published in 1755. The meaning of many of the words have changed since Dr Johnson's day.

The doctor was a prejudiced, grumpy and boorish old bear of a man. This is reflected in hisdefinition of certain words.

It is a very personal book. Scotsman and wives are given a rough time.

I have selected one word for each

The name welcomed at more than 9 million outlets worldwide.

is eaten with safety.

*

urina'tor: a diver; one who searches

under water.

The precious things that grow there, as pearl, may be much more easily fetched up by help of this, than by any other

By Arthur Hacker

* ne'ws-monger: onethatdeals in news; one whose employment it is to hear and to tell news. oats: a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports people. pi'ddle: to pick at to feed

*

*'

urinators. Wilkin's Mathematicall Magick * va'udevil: a song common among

the vulgar, and sung in the streets. A ballad. A trivial strain. * wife: lt is used for a woman of low employment. * X is a letter, which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language.

letter of the alphabet from his dictionary. Some are remotely connected with the noble pro-

( t \ \ \

fession of journalism. Some are not. The rest are either interesting, silly or perhaps might

even be considered a little vulgar. *' aphrodisi'cal, aphrodisi'ack: relating to venereal disease. bici'pital, bici'pitious: having two heads. * customer: a common woman.

This sense is now obsolete. dire'ctory: the book which factious preachers published in rebellion for the direction of their sect in acts of worship. * e'thnick: Heathen;pagan; not Jewish; not Christian. flas'her: a man of more appearance of wit than reality.

most important name of all.

* *

* *

gru'bstreet: originally the name of a

inhabited by writers of small histories,

squeamishly, and without appetite.

From a stomach sharp, and hearty feeding, To piddle like a lady breeding.

dictionaries and temporary poems;

Swift

whence any mean production is called a

quo'ndam: having been formerly. A ludicrous word. re'cipe: a medical prescription.

Th'apothecary train is wholly blind From files a random recipe they take.

And many deaths of one prescription

street in Moorfields in London, much

WÂĄ'vE

PUT THREE BIG I'IAMES ON ONE SMALL CARD.

CITIBANK MASTERCARD. Pick up an application form today 0r call our 24-hour hotline: 8661123,

grubstreet. * hack: a prostitute. * i'nnocent: a natural; an idiot. * to ju'nket: to feast secretly; to make entertainments by stealth.

*

Not Just MasterCard.

Citibank MasterCard.

ki'cksy-wicksy: a word in ridicule and disdain of a wife. * lunch, lu'ncheon: as much food as one's hand can hold. * mecha'nical,mecha'nick: mean; servile; of mean occupation.

* *

make. Dryden.

*

* yux: the hiccough. * zed: n.s. The name of the letter z.

"Thou whoresome zed, thou unnecessary letter." Shakespeare.

Th ree ye ars ag o,

Arth u r Hacker stepped

out from under the umbrella of the Hong Kong Government into the. turbulence of the private sector. Arthur likes to

describe himself as a "Renaissance Man". He is now a struggling artist,

to sophi'sticate: To adulterate; to corrupt with something spurious. torpe'do: a fish which while alive, if

caĂąoonist, designer, writer, historian and T-shirt hawker. ln common with other

touched even with a long stick benumbs the hand that touches it, but when dead

fascination for words.

*

hopeless dyslexics

he has a

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

morbid

E 1993

11

Another

LY

hole-in-one

POND

t was another great day's golf at Disco Bay. We had a second holein-one by Noel Quinlan on the 7th Jade course. The first was by Mike Tinworth at Deepwater Bay last autumn and as recognition of these great feats we have provided a special silver trophy

to honour these stalwarts. lt will

be

displayed in the bottom bar after we have had it engraved.

We also played for the FCC Seniors Trophy for the first time. The rules are simple - over 40, handicap 28 or less, gross score minus handicap and then your age. The winner was Eddy Khoe with a net 11 score followed by Keith Statham with 12 (who had donated the trophy), followed by Ross Way with 17.

The presentation took the roof off the

A FCC Seniors Trophy presented by Keith Statham

to winner

Eddy Khoe

bottom bar - champagne from Noel and the seniors trophy full to the brim with ice cold Kummel care of Eddy.

On the regular Stableford points game

the winner was Keith Statham with 37 points, second Robin Moyer on 36 and third was taken by Bill Creighton on 32,

beating Ross Way on a count back.

Nearest the pin Ray Cranbourne and of course Noel Quinlan, with Alan Railton and Bill Creighton taking the longest drives.

g

John Price

BY

ร Hole-in-one cup presented to Noel Quinlan

A Senior Trophy winner Eddy Khoe with wife.

ITAURENCE

E.

ITIPSHER ACCOTNUTEUT

6/F, Fook Shing Court 50 Wyndham Street, Central Tel: 868-3961 Fax: 525-9679

Our primary specialty ls the preparatยกon of US income tax returns for a fee that you wยกll not bitch about!

"1IJ8,

CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

This lovely silk screen print of Bali was beautifully printed by the famous Coriander Studio in London.

Copies are on view at the Main Dining Room of the Foreign Correspondent's Club,2 Lower Albert Road and Fabric Fair,4lF Ho Lee Commercial Building, 38-42 D'Aguilar Street, Central

CERTIFIED PUBLIC

12

ARTHUR HACKER

Silk Screen Print in Six colours Edition 500 Printed by Coriander Studio Published by Arthur Hacker 1984 Size: 43 x 22.5 inches Price HK$1,250 unframed Send this form and your cheque to Arthur Hacker Ltd., Suite F, 8th Floor, Crystal Court, Discovery Bay, Lantau, Hong Kong.

Beautifully printed in a limited edition of 500 numbered copies signed by the artist, it is available HK$1,250 post free from: Arthur Hacker Ltd., Suite F, 8th Floor, Crystal Court, Discovery Bay, Hong Kong.

Tel:987 9043 Fax: 987 9072 Pager: 1139933 call 1945 Cheques payable to Arthur Hacker Ltd.

ORDER FORM Name

Date

Delivery address

Telephone Please send

Signature

No. of copies HK$1,250 each

þur-O You QerHgQ,oPHOTO ESSAY

\

C)g,. Llvg ,N A

Pe^F-u?

Leong Ka-tai's Asian images (co)lLrBlRrUDXGlÐC(O)lLlÐ(&lRì(O)lBìlÐlRì]f SS(O)N Coleridge Cole & Robertson toï.Ti ce¡trar' Hons Kons ?t;'Zrli?"i;"?Båi

20e sherr

Please provide me with more information on your services.

I am (please tick the appropriate boxes):

T Without school fee arrangements T Without pension arrangements T Without suitable life cover T Concerned my existing arrangements may be inadequate

T tr

u

Looking for residential finance ln need of university fee advice ln a muddle and need help

Tel (Home)

Address

Tel (Office)

he photographs on the wall of the Main Bar this month are a selection of personal favourites chosen by freelance photographer Leong Ka-tai. Here he explains a little about them.

A Drama on the Great Wall I was doing a story for Stern magazine on the reforms in China when I met some artists. We were talking about an exhibition they were putting on and this woman was going to make an impromptu dance. I said: "Let's do it on the Great Wall."

That was March 1989 and the story came out in May. By June no one wanted anything to do with this photograph.

Acrobat, Canton ) This was for German Geo magazine, an assignment on how young sports people train every day. This acrobat was about 7 years old.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

15

l l

A Mao statue As far as I know he is still there. This is an out-take from an assignmentfor Business Week in 1987.

V

ร Scarves, Kashgar This is abazaar in Kashgar, Xinjiang. I was really on holiday at the time, in 1991. I had hired a jeep in Lanzhou and we drove to the south side of the Taklamakan desert, which is closed to foreigners, even to compatriots from Hong Kong. Stopping along the way, it took five-and-ahalf weeks to Kashgar.

Watchmaker, Sichuan

A grab shot. I was in China in a nowhere town in Sichuan doing work for a book on the Long March. V/aiting for the dยกiver to fill up with gas for the day, this man came past on his way to work.

V Lhasa This is the eastern side of the Potala Palace. These people are making their offerings of yak butter. It was 1983 and I had gone by bus from Chengdu to Lhasa. It normally takes two weeks but we spent a month on the way. Tibet wasn't officially open and by the time they'd finished talking about what to do with us, we had seen everything anyway.

r ยก

16

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993 I7

Ă€ Doctor, Jakarta This is in Jakarta and these are penis enlargers and what you would call a holistic doctor. Once FCC members see this I will have created a new tourist industry for Indonesia.

18 THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

V Clockmaker watches TV, Seoul I was on assignment for Stern.It was 1990 at the time of the World Cup soccer tournament. The magazine was doing a feature on people watching soccer on television around the world I got Korea. When Korea was playing - nobody on the street or in the (they lost) there was restaurants. I had a monk watching TV, a riot squad ... it was a great assignment.

t1___s-t_-zz

L--rS

trutr THERE'S ALWAYS

FREELANCERS' RATE SURVEY

A STORYAT

THE

HONG I(ONG TRADE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

So.o.ivhat do

you get...what do you pay? he journalist and correspondent members of the Foreign Correspondents' Club will soon a questionnaire on the rates that they charge or accept for freelance work. lt is an anonymous survey covering all the crafts in publishing - writing, editing, illustrating, photography, production, etc.

Since even full-time employees do some freelance assignments, we hope both groups will fill it out.

The freelancers' group of the Hong

Kong Women in Publishing Society

Ihe Hong Kong Trode Development Council con help you moke

business heodlines every doy of the yeor As

o mojor force in world trode you'll find we've olwoys got o good $0ry to tell: no podding, no puff ond bocked by occurote, up{o{he-moment figures ond stoti$ics, Next time you receive one of our press releoses, give it o good once-over, You'll soon see whot we meon, Or contoct us if you need detoils on ony ospect of Ho¡g Kong trode,

(WIPS) compiled the survey for its own members. But in the interests of acquiring more data from which to make generalisations and comparisons, we invited the FCC and PEN to participate.

Happily for all of us, both boards accepted.

WIPS is eager to see the results of the study. Some of us are even passionate about the subject. Why are we undedaking this exercise?

Some of our self-employed members feel they struggle to make ends meet.

They want to know how the rates they charge or accept compare with the rest of the industry.

Some suspect that publishers exercise considerable latitude in the rates they pay different individuals.

There are many variables which may affect rates. Many of us wonder about them and wish to investigate the impact

of age, gender and membership . l{ogoyo Olozumi Esoki Tel: 974-3626 , New Yok Louis Epslein Tel: 838-8ó88 . Osoko Yohiniso Ueno Ïel: 3¿14-52,14 Ponomo Cfy Anel E, Beliz Tel: ó95-894/ó'14 Porls Dominique Duchiron Tel: 474-24150. S€oul Chrislopher S. Moeng Iel: 782-611517 . Shonghol Phoebe Leung Iel:326-4196 . Slngopore Andy LimIel:293-7977 . Slockholm Morio Peteßson-SondowTel: '100ó77, l'15ó90 . Sydn€y Douglos Chon Tel: 29983¿lÍI . lolpei TommyTienTel: 54ó-ó085 . Iokyo Kozo

Brogo Tel: 577-M44

.

,

Mllon Giovonno Coni Telr 8ó5405i7'15

.

Hong Kong Trade Development Council

While the younger, less experienced respondents earned less than the seasoned, it was not clear that the experienced earned in proporlion to the years spent at their crafts.

With these questions, we decided to refine our approach and to reach out to other associations for their participation. With the EFA's permission, we adapted its survey to our needs. We

in

professional organisations on compensation.

Deceptively, the survey looks quite lengthy. ln fact, respondents need only complete those pages which pertain to their own crafts, probably about four to five pages in all.

By Francine Brevetti

WIPS is not alone in its efforts to pin

down the dollars and cents of selfemployment in publishing. The American Society of Journalists and Authors sends its members a postcard monthly asking what fees they earned for original articles, reprints, excerpts, books and other types of work. They produce a monthly "Anonymous Rate Suruey" listing the raw data.

Chicago Women ìn Publishing recently sent a salary review to its

members. The Editorial Freelancers Association in NewYorkCity

completes a salary survey yearly.

The questionnaire FCC members will receive represents

added queries which zeroed in on respondents' lifestyles: Were freelancers totally dependent on their own resources?

Were they employed full{ime so that freelancing was only a supplement to income?

Were spouses the main bread-winners?

Were they new to the business or to Hong Kong?

We believe we have developed an instrument which will be instructive to

freelancers thoughout the ter-

We believe we have

developed an instrument which will be instructive to freelancers thoughout the territory - and to publishers and editors.

WIPS'second attempt.

The first queried only WIPS freelancers and responses were too few to draw valid inferences from. Also, while tabulating the responses, we thought of new areas to investigate which had not been included on the first go-round.

Although we could not make any profound conclusions from this preliminary exercise, we noticed responses

which disturbed us: Most respondents reported relatively low monthly earnings. Were these levels of compensation representative of

all Hong Kong's

English-language freelancers? Were respondents less than punctilious about recording their earnings? Or were they dilettantes who had more compelling interests?

ritory-and to publishers and editors.

Saul Lockhart, managing editor of

the Hong Kong Trade Develop-

ment Council who uses a considerable number of freelancers to produce five monthly magazines, was enthusiastic. "Editors and publishers will like this. We could use a realistic idea of what others are paying." Saul is also on the boards of PEN and the FCC.

Frankly, this was

a

point that the

drafters of the survey and the WIPS

committee debated more than once.

Some of us feared that releasing the results would be detrimental. lf average compensation turned out to be low, publishers and editors could use the

findings to keep rates depressed.

However, we finally decided that issuing the results was in everyone's interest. First, for the purely pragmatic end of eliciting supporT from other groups.

But more, only full disclosure can help

We Creole Opportunities

Heod Otlice: 38lh Floor, Office Tower, Convention Plozo, 1 Horbour Rood, Wonchoì, Hong Kong, Tel: (852) 584 4333 Fox: (852) 824 0249

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993 2I

BOOK REVIEW bolster the resolve of the poorly paid to demand higher rates. We had to give freelancers a bSsis from which to bargarn.

WIPS

-

Society began as an informal gathering of women in 1988 and was registered in 1990 and today has 150 members. lt forms paft of an interna-

tional network which was founded Lonon in 1979. lts aims include:

in

* Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, sharing of opponunites and expedise; * Encouraging networking and mutual support among women in the publishing industry; * Offering practical career training; * bolstering the status of women within publishing.

At the monthly general meetings, members are encouraged to getto know each other. Programmes sometimes feature a speaker from an area of interest; in the recent past, a Deacons solicitor spoke on copyright protection; and an historian described her experiences dealing with book editors and publishers in the territory. A series of panel sessions is planned for 1993.

The monthly newsletter contains an updated directory of members and their bios.

A f reelancers' group meets as well on another night to share information on markets and the local publishing indus-

try.

Any queries about WIPS may be directed to Francine Brevetti through

the FCC. Francine Brevetti is a freelancer, and

a member of the FCC and the WIPS committee.

New catering service The Club has introduced a new catering menu including breakfast, lunch,

cocktail and dinner. Whether it is a business lunch, a private party, a press conference or a wedding reception we can meet all your special needs.

let lhe resl

conforn

Confirmation has to be made two full working days prior to the f unction.

Fascinating, but for all the wrong reasons ï ïJ":: i;;' ""iiz \M::ii Y v Morning Posf in the spring

of 1986, he declared that Day One of Year Zero had begun.

This minatory statement, a reference to the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, was a public warning that the House of Hutcheon (Robin Hutcheon had been editor since 1967) had reached the end of its bloodline.

The herbivores were out, the carnivores in. Farrelly certainly looked capable of crimes against humanity, strutting round the newsroom in a full-length leather coat and black boots, occasionally contriving a taut and unsettling smile.

As one wag put it, the new editor looked as if he had been thrown out of the Gestapo for cruelty.

But barely was Farrelly into Year One by his own calendarwhen hewaswhisked back to Sydney, for reasons never fully elucidated.

It had been a bloody tenure. Staff turnover was so high it was almost a full{ime job logging people in and, more usually, out of the computer.

John Dux, once a Farrelly colleague from the Murdoch stable in Sydney, moved across from the Sunday Morning Post.

At the Sunday, Dux had produced in 18 months a worthy newspaper by harnessing the talents of an able editorial team and by synthesising the bèst ideas from a selection of the world's newspapers. Dux's own contribution was more perspiration than inspiration.

Like Fanelly, Dux could make every buck in the editorial budget scream for mercy. But whereas Farrelly was capable of almost casual cruelties, and seemed cheerfully disengaged from

By Bernard Fong

Postscript

By Bernard Fong Grapevine Press, British Columbia C$l2 Reviewed by Steve Proctor them, Dux preferred to nurse vendettas of an almost Sicilian intensity.

Farrelly was proud of the fact that he had written half a dozen books; Dux seemed anxious to give the impression that he hadn't read half a dozen.

Farrelly could play Ocker and sophisticate. Dux with his shirt flapping outside his ill{itting trousers, was strictly a one-role man, often happiesttelling jokes that in their crudity often made even the most coarsened hacks recoil.

Dux was not too long in the hot seat either, moving up to editor-in-chief be-

fore decamping to Murdoch's gulag in Wapping.

By accident or design, the appointment of Phillip Crawley as his succes-

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

23

sor returned the Post to a more bivorous regime.

Crawley is a cautious creature, given to wild caprice and definitely

an alumnus of the "publish

her-

not not and be

damned" school.

He keeps a steady grip on the company's purse seemingly a pre-requi-

-

site for the job - and is not known to be reckless when called on to dip into his own pocket for a good cause.

the most of his detail on a memory

con-

This, then, is a kind of sensual FCC synopsis of

the five-yearpost-Hutcheon period.

It is an era chronicled in a rather different way by Ber-

that

out of ultimately ungrateful colleagues. lt is on the subject of Morning Post Many of the incidents recounted did leaders that this reader detected a disnot happen in the way described, some tant humming noise, possibly that of an did not happen at all. (Fong, or his axe being ground. informant, must have been hallucinat- "The leader write/', we are informed, ing if he thought he saw and heard Dux was daily crafting incisive commentarandJonMarshexchangingbuddy-buddy iesonlytoseethemmutilatedbyCrawley banter.) or his current deputy, Ann Quon. is epically

fallible.

of play-maker.

ln soccer terms, he is a safe pair hands ratherthan a dazzling

Whilethesp¡ritof thetimesandbroad duce something far less polished. outlines are fairly successfully recre- lf "the leader writer" has a fault it is a ated, the author seems to be relying for naive selflessness in coaxing the best

l-ffi

sùu,rch¡,.¡,ú,,inrpur ClaSsified

POSf

More astute readers, we are informed,

were quick to spot the difference between an

John, suggesting a matiness between editor and staff that will come as a surprise to many. Euxs crudities, racist jokes and otherwise, are cited as evidence of an eafthy egalitarianism.

Most strangely, Fong dismisses some stadling editorial misjudgments as mi-

nor and venial lapses.

Anybody at the Post in April 1987 can

recall their incredulity when the paper surrendered its front page to a picture spread of male and female streakers at the Rugby Sevens.

original, industrial-strength

Horror and hilarity commingled at this pioneering effect: possibly the f irst mainstream newspaper in the world to carry

Fongleader-whenthey

a semi-frontal male nude on its front

were allowed in the pa-

page.

To Fong, the free spirits on the backbench were principally guilty of failing to understand just how prissy a place Hong

Kong is.

riod.

His is a fascinating ^t

,..^-t-

¡L^..-L

r^^

Even the dopiest

psychologicalwarping inescapable for anybody

piece

L-^..-L¡

^4--

n"*"i"-

F,,ffiHP*PS

INäo

THE-*,,E",D-,$!

..^

i^ ^^

'"nñy, ". fjno

¡^¡,,^

olast

tenden- Given this dubious power of recall, brings to the Crawley era is not always tiousintoterritorywherem'learnedfriends Fong might have been better to resist inevidenceinhisaccountof theFanelly the temptation to reconstruct dialogue, and Dux years. might espy an easy earner.

A good editor would have scythed especially when it seems about as au- Although not blind to the idiosyncratraits strays beyond the merely

his\her way through a style often ridicu- thentic as Clavell at his most limp. sies and shortcomings of the Australian Although an obviously subjective view editors, he sometimes seems much too lously prolix. Few nouns are allowed out and there is nothing wrong indulgent. into the cold unless swaddled in adjec- of events

Farrelly's "sparse greying hair ... gave Literary references serve no purpose about himself. other than to flaunt the author's eclectic "The leader writer" is never formally his head a halo effect." Farrelly's stateintroduced to the reader, but as the tale ment that: "l live very well but that tastes.

Repetitionsabound.ThefactthatJohn unwinds he emerges as a good egg all doesn't mean I don't care about the Dux is the son of a policeman might round and something of a journalistic people in the slums," should have been given a horse-laugh ratherthan be taken explain a lot but it is presented as fresh paragon. information at least three times, twice Crisp,trenchanteditorialsareknocked atfacevalueasafiercelyheldpersonal tives.

within a couple of pages. The reels all over the place.

24

withthat-Fongiscuriouslyimpersonal lt is a tad fdnciful to suggest that

storyline

out to order within an hour, while lesser credo. talents take three times as long to proDux is continually referred to as Big

TIIE, CORRESPONDENT MARCH 1993

I beg to

differ. A dangling

pecker on the front page (anywhere) is some way above a dangling participle in the scale of journalistic crimes.

The bestwayto read Posfscrþf would be through the index. Alas, this is to unreliable as a guide. For instance, Tom Lennon scores a handsome three entr¡es, as "Lennon, Thomas," "Lennon, Tom" and "Tom Lennon, Tom".

And, lust to keep you on your toes, they are all for different pages.

The best alternative is to take the book page by page, skipping the more florid passages, accelerating past the Fourth-Estate guff, veering away from the "barren rocK'longueurs and generally keeping a beady, navigational eye out for the many cul-de-sacs.

lf you have ever worked at the Posl you may be in it. You may even be in it and may not recognise yourself of the event. Or like this reviewer, you may be dismayed to find that you do not merit a mention.

For Post journalists and camp followers - and present, in both categories Postscript is an unmissable skim.

Steve Proctor worked on the South China Morning Post features desk in the early paft of Alan Farrelly's tenure as editor.

In the eye of a hurricane When Club member Myles Ludwig evacuated his Anini Beach home on the Hawaiian island of Kauai on the morning

of September l1 last year, he packed a change of clothes, his camera equipment and I0 rolls of film. He knew he was going to work. What he didn't know was that two months later he would be in Hong Kong grappling with a dilemma that threatened to turn into another disaster. yles Ludwig is the author of Kauai in the Eye of lniki, a 72-page book that recounts in words and images the full force of hurricane lniki which devastated Kauai. lniki, which is Hawaiian for piercing winds, slammed into Kauai on September 1 1 with speeds ol upto227 mph. So strong were the winds that all measuring devices on the island were blown apaft. For six hours that day the island bore the full brunt of the hurricane, the most powerful ever to hit the Hawaiian island.

It was said, at the time, that if lniki's energy could have been convefted into electricity it could have provided the

David Crosby.

Ludwig had flown in from Los Angeles that afternoon to shoot the concert.

Prior to that he had been in Puerto Rico

for his mother's 70th birthday and

in

New York on business.

He got his photos and headed for the airport.

The plane left Honolulu al 2.45 on Monday morning, November 9, and landed in Hong Kong in the afternoon on the following day. By the time he went to bed, he had been on the road, so to speak, for the best part of 36 hours

without sleep.

Exhaustion is one thing but rolls of defective film are another.

Disaster came close on the evening of November 11 when Ludwig arrived to collect his film f rom the processing house.

The developedfilm was black. The printer

was waiting and so was the film processor who said there wag nothing he could do.

I

.t

-.

United States with enough power to last the next three years.

Ludwig's book took 60 days to produce, but there were times when the whole project

looked like turning into another disaster.

Printed in Hong Kong, Ludwig arrived

Ludwig, however, refused to take no for an answer.

with the last of the photographs

on

Ludwig said. "And we could barely make

November 10. They were shot two days

earlier in Honolulu at an lniki benefit

the images out. Then the processor says to me, 'ls that David Crosby?'

concert featuring Bonnie Rait, Jackson Brown, Steven Stills, Graham Nash and

said, 'Yeh.' He said, 'He's my idol."'

With that, the processor agreed to

"We were looking at the pictures,"

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

I

25

spend the night in the lab coaxing im-

during those six hours in hell.

ages from Ludwig's film. The book went to press with a f ull-page picture of Crosby.

That picture might not have mattered if Ludwig had envisioned a book solely about disaster. But Ludwig wanted his book to be more than just another book on a disaster. "l wanted to make very clear that the horror and the terror was only one element of the experience," he said. '"The hope, the spirit and the wonderfulness of people helping each other, working together, all those things had to be said.

"They had to be said for the people themselves and to the outside world."

Ludwig wanted his book to illustrate the difference in Kauai's response to a hurricane and that of the response to Hurricane Andrew in Florida.

He looked for the positive and left the occasional negative scene on the cutting room floor, deciding in the end that such responses didn't typify the bigger picture.

Ludwig said: "l thought that as a catharsis for the island, everybody should know that no matter how much dough you had, no matter how big your house was, no matter what, everybody felt the same thing at that time."

That collective experience, that sense of everyone being in the same boat as lniki raged, was a critical element in the development of Ludwig's book.

Editor's note: This is an edited version of a much longer interview with Ludwig which appeared in the Kauai Times.

Film night

during which time he was: * Winner, Jury Prize Award, Tokyo Film Festival and Silver Screen Award Chicago lndustrial Film Festival for Same

SUCCCSS

cago lndustrial Film Festival tor Weipa

Seasons. (Producer, director, writer and narrator).

*

life."

After the successful presentation of

Founding editor of Sandwich lslands and Kauai Sty/e, Ludwig is an accomplished writer and an award winning art director/graphic designer. Ludwig had just returned from an assignment in Sri Lanka when lniki blew in. lnitially, Ludwig set off for the shelter

Richard Oxenburgh's The War Game another popular documentary is com-

when the worst was over he could venture out, shoot his pictures and get them out to national publications, but lniki made sure that didn't happen - all communications to the outside world had been knocked out.

The day after the hurricane he made it home to Anini Beach to a damaged but.still standing house. "l thought then that my job was not to just rush out isolated pictures to national magazines," he said. "My job was to document for the people of the island not only the devwhat had occurred

ing on Monday, March 22, called Nanook

of the Nofth.

Oxenburgh is currently senior lecturer in film and television at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He lectures in directing, writing, film history and documentary film history.

Oxenburgh began his long and distinguished award-winning career in Australia. For many years he worked as a di rector/reporter forthe Australian Broad-

* Winner, Silver Screen Award at both the New York and Venice film festivals lor The Dark Silence. (Director, writer, narrator and interuiewer). ln Australia he has won many public relations awards in communications in such diverse areas as the law and trade practices, the making of the Sarich orbital engine, and the safety of workers in an oil refinery.

He was the Australian anchorman for the first live Australian televised coastto-coast television programme; the first live satellite interview programme out-

side Australia (Sydney-Washington on

casting Corporations'

Martin Luther King's

(ABC) long running television current affai rs programme Four Corners.

It was for his work with Four Corners that Oxenburgh was joint-win-

death) and Australasian host for the first live sat-

Kaye in New York.

Oxenburgh's documentary films will be presented at the beginning of the

Chris Cook to help interview the well-

ner of four Logies, Australia's premiertelevision award, for excellence in television current affairs.

After leaving the ABC he freelanced for many

known and the not so well known people

years and also ran his

of the island about their experiences

own production company

-

astation, but the spirit of the people in words and pictures."

To achieve that end Ludwig hired

26

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

F,C.C. members represent one 0f the highest earning, per-capita, consumer spending groups in Hong Kong.

F.C.C. members are generally decision makers who decide

\ryHAT to buy for their companies.

People. (W riler, narrator and interviewer).

"ln my pictures," he said, "l went for

of the Princeville Hotel thinking that

Winner, Silver Screen Award, Chi-

ITrink about it!

ellite television

THE CORRESPONDENT is a controlled circulation publication, reaching all members plus their families.

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thirdweekof everymonth in the FCC.

Richard Oxenburgh

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Letter from B udapest ï!î:,ïi ïjî,t',,;y'i'{r*

By Steve Fallon e'd been in Hungary for almost six months, enjoying a lot of things we'd scarcely dreamed about during our dozen years

in Hong Kong like organ concerts

in

18th-century Baroque churches and

tioning me to get some rest, take vitamins, drink plenty of fluids, etc., etc.

After one parlicularly severe bout of fever, I found myself flipping through an Asian guidebook and dreaming about a ¡¡swansong" trip we'd made to a remote part of lndonesia last January. I read the "Health Preparations" sub-chapter and the switch tripped. Sure the symp-

raspberries by the kilo. And yet we were

toms were familiar, but aren't they al-

missing just as much from Asia, that

ways when you're sick?

pulsating continent we'd once called home, for so long a back-streets-ofBangkok-Mani la-Bay-South-l ndian

And it had been well

temples-Kowloon-market hybrid with all the vigor, optimism and can - do approach thrown in.

bytelephonefrom staff

with doubt in his eyes and I hesitated.

Did I know about resistant strains, that malaria could lie dormant for up to a year, that a cold shower directly on the kidneys could "coax" it out? (That last one made me wince as I remembered the ice cold plunge pool at my favourite of Budapest's famed Turkish baths.)

The head physician examined me after three days and told me to get dressed. Once l'd paid the modest US$73

for the private room, board, care and

LETTERS

Clearing the air Kevin Sinclair's very reasonable letter in February's Correspondenl raises the issue of accommodation for both smokers and non-smokers in enclosed environments. I support his call for a smokefree area in the Club, as I believe that fairness and consideration are the real issues here.

It would be unfortunate, however, if

the 'facts' cited in Kevin's letter were permitted to cloud the Board of Governors' thinking on the subject of non-

smoking areas. As an employee of a tobacco company, who is familiar with this issue, I thought it might be of interest were I to clarify two points.

over half a year...

Still, I sought advice atthe Hospital forTropical Diseases in London who told me to be

medicine. Three hours

The evidence in the California restaurant study referred to by Kevin does not remotely suppon the claim that tobacco smoke in the air is a health hazard.

The author of the California study, which was funded by an anti-smoking lobbying group, simply assumed -- without any supporting evidence -- that the

We'd quiz one another and then get depressed when we'd draw a blank. lt

after arriving at the Laszlo Hospital in

respiratory problems suffered by restaurant workers were caused by other

central Budapest I had

was

the positive results

people's smoking. ln fact, many studies have shown that the predominant source of the pollutants in restaurants can be traced to cooking and other related activities and that the key to acceptable restaurant air quality is adequate ventilation.

The US Government report, which Kevin presumably has in mind released recently by the US Environmental Pro-

Any tie can slacken in a year and sometimes we'd forget things. Minor things, silly things, but they were indisputably gone: the name of a favourite restaurant in Bangkok; what goes into lhe sambhar sauce that com.plements rdÍb so well; the exact time it got dark on awarm summer'sevening in Hong Kong.

-

or we were

-

letting go.

tested immediately and

theAmerican Embassy directed me to the only

hospital in Budapest

that deals in tropical

in

rusing the city's most popular newspa-

hand: two types of malaria contracted

per, a 28-page free-enterprise tabloid

seven months before

ln early August, after months of pe-

Steve Fallon and Mike Rothschild: Budapest Tribulations.

of classifieds, trading in everything from

in the swamps of southwest lrian Jaya.

drugs (not cheap for Hungarians, used

1O-year-old East German Trabants ("some renewal required") to sex part-

It was a speedy recovery and with a half-dozen tablets of Larium in me and

to universal and free medical care),

neres with exotic tastes, we found a flat perched on the side of Gellert Hill within neck-stretching view of the lovely bronze lady, palm in hand, proclaiming liberty throughout the land. Our worldly goods finally released from storage in Vienna, we began to plot and arrange rooms with the precision of an optical surgeon.

Then I began to feel sick. lt came fast, as these things often do, and in a matter of days I was running fevers of up to 105 Fahrenheit that would then plummet, throwing me into chilling spasms and bathed in sweat. My doctor was phlegmatic as I dripped little puddles on to the

a prescribed follow-up course of Primaquine to zap the plasmodia vivax

laria")

this landlocked, - a rare breed inbecame mostly dry country the resident 'talking dog" and an odd mix of

by the EPA do not support its conclusion, while none of the 11 studies con-

floor of his surgery. "These summer flus are hard to shake," he said, cau-

doctors and other medical people would stop me for a look and some free ad-

ducted in the US to estimate the relative risk associated with environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), on which the EPA based its findings, achieved statistical

28

and falciparum in their deepest lairs, I was up in no time. Together my ward mates - a Cambodian student called Sowan suffering from appendicitis and 9'l -year-old Peter with jaundice

-

and

I

would stroll through the 19th century gardens dressed only in our bathrobes,

I

could return to Gellert Hill and continue rearranging the furniture.

I was all but cured, the doctor pronounced, with a reoccurrence of falciparum impossible and of vivax negligible. lf I continued to take all the pills, the malaria would stay away and never come back.

Now I'm wondbring what to do about Asia. The malaria is gone, that's for

looking like characters in a Thomas

sure, but Asia is still in me. Short of

Mann novel.

A malarias beteg ("lhe one with ma-

going back, I can't think of anything to take to shake that.

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH 1993

Steve Fallon is an absent member of the FCC.

tection Agency, has been'characterised by eminent scientists in the US as

an unsupportable embarrassment and one member of the agency staff responsible for the report has acknowledged that the EPA's conclusions required some rather "fancy statistical footwork".

Twenty-four of the 30 studies reviewed

significance overall.

As extraordinary as it might seem, a

study conducted in November 1992, which was partly funded by the US National Cancer lnstitute and which reported no overall statistically significant association between ETS and lung cancer, was totally ignored by the EPA. Unfortunately, the whole issue of environmental tobacco smoke has become highly emotional and politicised. Kevin's basic position is entirely reasonable; though citing incorrect facts may defeat

the strength of his argument, and

Nairana Rest, Noosa Heads, Queensland 4567, Australia. The phone number is +61-74-749817.

Guests should be wary if he offers to showthem round the local watenruaysdespite his claims to have mastered a junk, he managed to run us aground in the middle of Noosa River when my wife and I spent a couple of days with him.

And he hadn't touched

a drop that

morning.

Ralph Lenton, Secretary,National Press Club,

it

behoves us all, particularly as members of a press club, to ensure that any decision is based on accurate information.

Colin L. Goddard

Life in the slow lane Old FCC hand Timothy Birch, engaged in the hardest work he undertakes these

- cleaning out his swimming pool.

Tim is a past president and life member of the National Press Club in Wellington, New Zealand, and has now retired days

to Noosa in Queensland where he is "writing a book".

He would be more than happy for any

of his old mates to call in if they are passing his way. Tim's address in 48

FCC's

llth year on Ice

It's time again to celebrate another sushi, Scottish smoked salmon, desFCC'anniversary - with the Hong ertbuffetandaninternational cheese Kong Jazz Band in the Main Dining buffet in the Albert and Wyndham

the Rooms.

Bar. Date: Friday, April30. the Time: 8pm to 2am Club and dinner will feature a Thai buf- Price: $4S0 per person Room, a disco in the Main Bar and

popular Larry Allan in the Pool Bars will be placed throughout

fet prepared by our guest chef from

Bookings: Sandra 521-151 l.Cancel-

Bangkok;a jointtable with baked hâm, rack of lamb and roast beef in the Verandah Grill; fresh rock oysters, sashimi,

lations will not be accepted afterApril

26.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

29

I

PRESIDENT'S LETTER

Comparison of city clubs $HK Dollars

American Club

FCC

HK

Overseas

Club

Banker Club

Pacific Club

Kowloon Club

Pandering to the needs of journalists

I am warming to this idea by the minute. The scope is endless, if we could really get the thing off the ground,

we could get corporate sponsors for every inch of the building.

Thus, for example, we could have an

Ever Ready Sauna room, a Mannings

DINING ROOM

hen contemplating the prob-

FOOD

Cold Appetizer Hot Appetizer Soup Grill ltems Fish & Shell-fish Entrée Curry Dessert Cheese BEVERAGE Gin

Whisky Brandy (V.S.O.P) Vodka Beer Local - Btl Draft House Wine - Glass

38-45 38-43 18-25 42-120 56-95

46-88 46-88

86-95 42-75

22-45

28-34

140-178

92-1 50

39-1 20

38-1 86 80-1 48

110-120 110-180

39 18-30

45 18-34

34-54

1

55-85 60-75

70-1 15 80-1 20

28-48

35-45 150-220

20-1 95 1 35-1 95 1 20-1 95 1

20-1 60 1 20-1 90 1

60

30-42

45

34

14 14.5 23

't4 10.5 11.5

18 18

12 12

28

24

18 12

12 10 10 15

14 22

19

20 20 30 20 17 22 25

58-1 20

50-70

27-35 75-1 35 1 00-1 90 70-1 90

60

60

35-45 60-80

25-80

31 31

18 16

42

26

31

15 15 16 17

26 26 28

35

running for re-election (perish the thought). However, I must admit that I am slightly influenced by my fellow President, the husband of Hilary Rodham

FCC : AllWhisþ,Vodka, Gin etc are l.25oz compared to loz in most other clubs, and are served with standard mixers at no extra charge.

KOWLOON

Superb Thai

Shop 105-8, l/F OceanCentre

cuisine in an

TST,Kowloon Tel:31.702.88

elegant setting, with

HONG KONG Shop 132, The Mall

a spectacular view

PacifrcPlace

ESQueensway,

of Victoria

H.E.R

Harbour. What

fine ltøfian fool

ü

Wíne

HongKong Tel:86-800-E6

more could you

THAI RESTAURANT

wish for?

column, if you're going to make comparisons, make them big), this youngish chap from the sticks seems to be perpetually running for office, even after getting his feet under the table.

After promising, not threatening you note, to raise taxes, he's off round the country selling his programme and get-

ting a pretty good response.

Taking a leaf from his book I hereby pledge to continue raising Club prices.

The gruesome details will follow after we've found a way of dressing them up.

However, enough of candour, let me, once again offer a glimpse into the wonderful literary world of the Presidential post bag.

I recently had a letter from a female

persuasion. I knew instantly that it was going to contain complaints because it \\'c .l('l r\ , r thc I nil u lgcntc

Promenade Level, Tower 1, China Hong Kong City, Canton Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.

Tel: 735 8898.

Clinton (as I've written before in this

club member of the public relations

OpenTdaysaweek. h

r',

came on two densely packed A4 pages of, may I say, beautifully typed prose.

I rather liked this letter because it contained all those marvellous buzz words which I believe they tell you to use in PR manuals (at least they should

30

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

gentleman's toilet, a Park n'Shop ladies powder room and, of course, a Panadol

lems of global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and the health of the honourary chairman of China's national bridge association, it is often useful to focus on the really big issues of the day, such as the price of house wine at the FCC. I mention this for no other reason than to emphasise that your President is working night and day to tackle the very most fundamental concerns of the FCC's membership.

To preempt any misunderstandings here, I wish to stress that I am not

Main Bar. Just before this reorganisation gets underway I wonder if I may be permitted

to trouble you with some earnest

re-

marks about the forthcoming elections to the most powerful body in the land, a.k.a., the FCC's Board.

there is such a thing as a PR manual).

She spoke of 'corporate clients', 'sharp if

downward spiral' and had earnest remarks about'value for money'.

It all seemed rather compelling, until she proffered the following complaint: "all improvements to the facilities (excluding refurbishment) in recent years have been geared towards journalists".

She prefaced this remark by generously acknowledging "that the club was founded for journalists".

Well she has a point, we are indeed guilty of pandering to the needs of jour-

nalists. This is a terrible admission for an organisation which has the cheek to describe itself as the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Think how much better the place would be if it were run and mainly populated by, say, public relations persons. Things would surely be different, we could all bring our'corporate clients' along without fear of embarrassment at the Club's abysmally low standards. lndeed we could offer these corporate giants a guarantee that their well tailored suits and suitetes would never brush up against anything as lowly as a hack.

Contraryto prevailing practices in some other places (l dare not risk mentioning names), we follow the naive practice of allowing anyone to be nominated and then compound the felony by allowing every Tom, Dick and Harriet to vote, using the method of secret ballot.

This outbreak of democracy presents understandable ditficulties (for example

we don't even know in advance who's going to be elected), but given the extreme folly in using this method to select your Board, I can only urge members to seize the opportunity of playing a more active role in the Club's affairs by seruing on this august body.

It goes without saying that election brings untold prestige and privileges, so untold that I'm in no position to tell you about them.

I have a gut feeling that there are a number of members who have not considered putting themselves fonryard for high office. They may suffer from a misguided sense that the elections are all sewn up or that they need some special reason for standing.

The basic fact of the matter is that the only special reason for standing is that candidates are prepared to make a contribution to the running of the Club.

So please give this matter some thought as soon as a copy of the nomination form, printed on some highly

unsuitable coloured paper, comes through a letter box near to you.

Steve Vines

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH

1993

31

The SLR cameras PEDDLER'S JOURNAL

God must be a Protestant rriving flights at Manila lnterna-

ready tried the "less democracy" half of

tional Airpod are greeted nowa-

the equation and it didn't work. More-

days by a string band stationed

over, while they recognisethatthe "more

along the end of a long corridor just

discipline" half has some merit, they admit certain idiosyncrasies in the Fili-

before immigration.

Their cheerful bouncy beat, struck up

as the plane unloads, faint at first but becoming louder as the passengers draw near, lightens the step of the weary

traveller and bringing the trace of a smile to his lips, serves as a most appropriate welcome to the country.

Beset with typhoons, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, not to speak of blackouts, brownouts, snarled

traffic and pollution, or kidnappings, insurgents, and corrupt politicians, the Philippines, with the exception of Somalia, the former Sovie! Union or Yugoslavia, and perhaps a few others, has the problems of any two normal countries.

The natural disasters wreaked upon the country the last couple of years prompted some to go as far as to speculate that God must be a Protestant. And yet, in spite of their trials, and the fact that the country appears to exist in a state of near anarchy, business is booming and the people continue to be the

most buoyant, cheedul and good natured as can be found just about anywhere.

der for animated discussion to pass the

leisure hours and upon which to exercise their native wit.

One friend of mine pointed out that to Lee's credit, he at least belongs to the category of dictators who went out vertically instead of horizontally.

Another, quoting Miriam Santiago, believe, said that all politicians should be chopped up and fed to the sharks.

Chopped up because if the sharks recognised them as politicians they would

I

refuse to eat them courtesy.

-

out of professional

I was in Manila recently, just a week

It was not clear if he was including

afterthat self-appointed, advice-dispensing, roving elder statesman and ambassadorof goodwill, Lee Kuan Yew, shared his views on the ailments of the country

Lee. Miriam, by the way, at the time of my visit was still actively raising money to support her campaign to contest last spring's presidential election results.

The thrust of Lee's message was that the Philippines needs less democracy and more discipline. He even went so

with some of the more prominent members of the business community.

He succeeded in jolting the establish-

ment but the rank and file with whom I came in contact were more inclined to treat his remarks as a huge joke.

It was not that they objected to what he said because in fact they took some pleasure from seeing their politicians squirm. But to them it was just another episode in the continuing comedy of the local political scene, providing new fod-

pino character make it difficult to implement.

Fudhermore, the docile disciplined Singaporean is not an ideal that any Filipino I know aspires to.

A friend summed up the differences in their make up -- by saying, "when the banquet is over the Singaporeans quietly pack up and go home - while the Filipinos head off to find the next party.

No doubt many Filipinos do get disgusted at times watching their politicians strut upon the stage, mouthing meaningless platitudes and indulging in empty verbal virtuosity. But then it does provide a good show and the more extreme ones tend to neutralise each other.

On the other hand, the fact that good,

old-fashioned, free-wheeling politics is the hand maiden of democracy, is well recognised and I think most are hopeful

some good will come out of the whole exercise in the long run. They ceftainly

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business year, smiled and said to me during a discussion I had initiated on Lee's visit: "All you outsiders seem to know more about our problems than we

do".

I

couldn't tell if he was referring to me

or Lee. Probably both.

far as to suggest that they should scrap

their American-style constitution,

Your point of Yiew.

prefer the current situation to what they had before.

One owner of a paint company I know, who had just had an exceptionally good

a

Leighton Willgerodt is an associate

document which in his opinion is better designed to maintain a country's institutions in gridlock than form the basis of effective government.

None of the Filipinos I spoke with thought very much of that idea. As one fellow pointed out to me they have al-

member and sales executive with an American multinational company.

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THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH 1993

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