The Correspondent, March/April 2005

OFFICIAL PUBLIC

TIlD ø

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(:tlfda/Jqn&n "r'OF

Kevin Sinclair Sees Red

Letters From the President

- Post-Tsunami Aceh

@

Gover Story

@

Media - Max Kolbe's Stiletto

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Opinion - Kevin Sinclaii Sees Red

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\A/atering Holes -The London Scene

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Glub Speaker - Albert Cheng Prefers Radio

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Books - Arthur

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bank THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

/

APRIL

2OO5

FGG

in Picttrres

To m e

,,,ßoRH BSPoII

) FROM THE PRESIDENT

[DIlT

FAR EASIENN ECONOMIC REVIEW

TOOKING

BACK

ffi Ë

I t's that time of vear a I so"rd of coveinors I is tne Annual Gener

WITH

PRI DE F.,¡t.t.aÌ.t Pi Þ¿.nt|)11: Û b!r! ro rh. m.n;.d 4Pn \:.t ra tie eú.,.,,,,.1 \1,.,r.122 ^.

ffiì t--t*l

should have received nomination forms in the

bîi

Tsunami: deal¡ng w¡th disaster

Collect¡ng countr¡€5

"::;:,i";'Y;:^:if

'I::::'w:;

Kayser also noted that DickWilson was not the flrst Editor, though, "he undeniably launched the Reuieu.r on its distinguished career. Eric Halpern was the Editor from 1946 To,I think, November 1958."

Thanks, Kayser. Philip Bowring's article focused on his days at the magazíne which he joined in 1973.

We look forward to reading about events in the sixties and earlier as

well as those that occurred after Philip's time should any of those directly involved care to record them.

-The Editor

Note: The Correspondent does not accept hard copy contributions. See below.

lication. Anonymous letters

mail in advance of the annual nominations meeting on April 6.

Id like to take this opportunity to stress to the membership how important it is to participate in the process and to participate in the leadership of the Club. I know there are many ofyou who have expressed a desire to play a role in the Club's events, its organisation and help better the offerings to members such as food and beverage items, public speakers, etc.

As much as I have appreciated the opportunity to have my ear bent from time to time at the Main Bar, now is the time for you to step forward and join in the process.

I would also express to you that participation in the Annual General Meeting is appreciated. Last year's turnout was disappointingly low and it is my hope that members will turn out in greater numbers to let the incoming Board of Governors know your wishes and desires.

Moving on. In April the Club will play host (previous) Far

to a commemoration for the Eastern Economic Reuiew and

will

be

all the journalrsts and others who made it the must-read publication it was. Under the able leadership of long-time member and former FEER editor, Philip Bowring, the.event should prove to be a welcome chance for the alumni of the magazine in its previous inèarndtion to gather and

nd not for publication) please include

reminisce.

) and a daytime telephone number. hongkongnow.com. Disks should be

A Special t¡ot" on Co"t"

Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong and marked to the attention of available and is encouraged for large deadline for the next issue is May 10,

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

In the normal course of our annual budget review, the Board of Governors forecasts

the coming year's operating costs. Since we anticipate some inflation cr""ping in during 2005 and 2006, we have provided for staff salary increases, as well as increased utility

THECoRRESPoNDENT MARcH/APRIL2Oo5

costs and some imported inflation due to the effects of currencies on food and wine purchases.

Given such downward pressures on our bottom line margin, some increase in revenue obviously has to be considered and the Board's function in the matter is to agree as a matter of policy whether to hold or revise the monthly membership subscription. If the present monthly fee is held, there is clearþ no option but to adjust food and beverage prices upward as a normal consequence of the higher costs of operation.

It is my personal preference that we as

a

Club employ sound business practices and keep up with inflation by increasing food and beverage costs. I personally would not want to

increase monthly subscription fees and will work to keep a cap on those at the present level. But we must ensure that the bottom line of the Club is sound. There will be more infor-

mation forthcoming on this important matter and again, I urge the membership to contact me via email or any other Board Member and let your feelings be known.

Matthew

C.

Driskill

president@fcchk.org

3

GOVER STORY

The killer tsunami on Boxing Day focused international attention on Aceh where a serious but relatively under-reported separatist conflict has'raged for 30 years.

News of a rebel ceasêfire and a fresh round of peace talks in tñe wake of the disaster sparked initial hopes of conciliation but photographer Kees Metselaar, who has travelled frequently to Aceh, is not optimistic about the prospects for peace.

TWAS DAVID SMITH, photo-editor of the late Asiau¡eek maga-

zine, who brought Aceh to my attention in the summer of 1990.

David had come across a small item about renegade soldiers of the

Indonesian army in Aceh who had, the report said, stolen weapons from an army bunker and had crossed over

L

-2005

Holland, was interested, too. That was a bonus but not really surprising given the former colonial links between the

Movement.

to incorporate the reluctant Acehnese

He thought it a good peg for a story and persuaded me to go there

into the colonial fold.

could return with enough good pictures to fill eight whole pages.

MARCH/APRI

My agency in my home country

to the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (cAM) which translates as the Free Aceh

if I

THE CORRESPONDENT

photojournalisml

Netherlands and Indonesia meant that the Dutch were more knowledgeable about the situation than most. A century earlier, the Netherlands had waged a bitter decades-long struggle

and check it out. He promised me an "Eyewitness" spread in the magazine

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL

Those were the halcyon days of Asian

The trip was a difficult one. The Suharto administration had banned journalists from the region. Asiau¡eek's /akarta correspondent would have been kicked out of the country if he

out of their mander came screaming and that-was that'

n""aq,r"tt"ts "t^¡àt conttnued his work as hr-"n rights lawYer and docu"il"n,"d many cases of atmy violence

Acehnese' He received death

"nãint, ,ñr"",t and had to leave the country' ,h", *"t in 1996' te left for New York studwhere he pursued postgraduate cab driver and ies, made a living as a

went on to found and lead the Internadonal Forum for Aceh' The fall of President Suharto and independence for East Timor sparked a wave of oPtimism among the Acehnese. Under the erratic President

Wahid there was a lot of talk about a Possible

It looked like a certain change was on the horizon and Jafar referendum.

Left: The Lhoknga coast after the tsunami. Top: Dec, 1 999. Police looking for GAM flags searëHcãrs. Inset: Jafar Siddiq Hamza in 1990.

decided that it would not be too dangerous to return to Indonesia

-

ed. I remember having a discussion with a few young Acehnese men

and

Aceh.

Unfortunately dark forces were

still

afoot.

In September 2000, just a few months after his homecoming, he was kidnapped in broad daylight, abducted on a crowd-

ed street. He was tortured and mur-

dered and his mutilated body was found together with four other corps-

had tried to get to Aceh. I went as a "tourist" which, strangely enough, they still allowed. Surprising because one would have had to have been a very deaf and blind tourist indeed not to realise that a serious conflict was going on.There were roadblocks every-

where. Military trucks sped along the main

roads and, according to the few locals who were willing to talk,

people were

disaP-

founded the Indonesian human rights organisation LBH (Legal Aid Institute)

and was all too familiar with the brutality of the war. Friends had disappeared and family members been threatened.

Inside the province we moved

recorded, I found the police banging on my hotel door. TheY were just checking up on me, they said. TheY wanted my film but I fobbed them off

with some unexposed rolls.

It was unwise if not downright dangerous to photograph soldiers or anything connected to the army

It was far too dangerous for mY local fixer and guide, Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, to sit next to me in the bus from Medan in North Sumatra to Lhokseumawe in Aceh.

Jafar, who was born in Aceh in 1965,

about separately, meeting only by pre-

arrangement

in certain coffee shops.

It was all very cloak and dagger and at first I wondered if the risks had been exaggerated and whether this clandestine behaviour was really nec-

es

dumped on

a

piece of waste ground

just outside Medan.

During that first

I

Itwasunwise down'

right dangerous

Colonial

if not to

photogaPh soldiers or anY-

thing

connect-

After sharing coffee with some homesick Javanese soldiers several mornings in a row they allowed me to make. some pictures. "Snaps for the family"'

I explained. I managed to shoot Precisely two frames before their com-

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL

2OO5

and still they refused

to give in.

troops never managed

to truly pacify the

"

really won. Also in those days the Dutch came by ship and many died on the way, it was a hard existence.

Now the Jakarta government in Java is sending thousands of troops over

soldiers of the Dutch Colonial Army as

well as Indonesian troops from other parts of the archipelago, especially the Moluccas, lay buried there.

The tsunami smothered the graveyard in a layer of mud and debris and swept the bodies of people who had died nearby into the quagmire. Many graves were washed away.

I talked to the caretaker who was shocked and horrified about the state of the cemetery. That surprised me.

I thought that there would be more pressing problems than dealing with long-dead colonial soldiers to worry about.

During my first visit to Aceh in 1990, 'I worried that the Achnese would hold 'a grudge against me for being Dutch .

territory. Thousands of Dutch lives were also lost in the conflict and back in the Netherlands, the inhabitants of the province gained a reputation fol toughness and being willing to fight to the last man.

My fears, though, proved unfound-

IHE CORRESPONDENT

from the Netherlands. To stress that a long time had passed since colonial days I said that I was Belanda Bar or New Dutch and that I Iived in Hong Kong!

They laughed and said that they had no problem with the Dutch.

"We fought for years and you never

trip to Aceh in worried that the Acehnese would hold a grudge against me for being Dutch. The painful haif-century-long war had cost more than a 1990,

100,000 Acehnese lives

ed to the army'

pearing every daY'

6

essary. But then, after being stopped at a roadblock where my details were

and when they asked me where I was from I reluctantly admitted that I was

of General Kohler, who commanded the landing of the first detachment of Dutch troops ín 1'873 but was shot dead just eight days later, it was kept in immaculate condition. Some 2,500

MARCH/APRI

L' 2OO5

Ironically the only monument I know in Amsterdam commemorating the Dutch wars

in Aceh is of night by plane, that is not the same," one young man told me.

The clearest existing link with the colonial past is the Kerkhof, the Dutch war cemetery in the capital, Banda Aceh. Dominated by the grave

General

van Heutz. His statue was constantly covered in graffiti and in the 1960s it was severely damaged. In Dutch eyes, he had turned from national hero into the Butcher of Aceh within 50 years of

his death.

war, small but real, shows no sign of being resolved. Many tens of thou-

Top: Baiturrahman Mosque, Banda Aceh.

Below: Lhoknga, Dec

2004.

feels surreal. In addition to the hundreds of foreigners running around, the flags of many different nationalities fly over missions and relief agency HQs. I got a jolt when

I

saw what appeared

at first glance to

be

GAM flags openly on

a novelty. The people were so curious

about me that they could not leave me alone.

That's all

changed

now. The tsunami put Meulaboh on the map.

Editors talk blithely and familiarly about the place and foreigners are no longer a curiosity. In February when I landed there in a UN helicopter, the remnants of the devastated town were

awash with foreigners. Helicopters buzzed overhead and small planes came and went.

A Norwegian aid worker,

8

Banda Aceh, the capital. Many foreign aid organisations had moved in and they all needed office and living space for their workers. Houses in Banda

Aceh were easily fetching rentals of US$3,000 a month.

In

post-tsunami Banda Aceh, Iife

Aceh is no East Timor. During Indonesia's struggle to establish an independent republic free of Dutch control, Aceh was firmly republican.

It was an active player in the drive to form an independent Indonesian state, and an integral part of it from the start.

display. The GAM flag

EastTimor, in contrast, remained a Portuguese colony until 1974 and had

on December 4,

who travelled in.the same UN helicopter - her organisation was going to rebuild a school - had just rented a house in Meulaboh "for too much money". The same was happening in

new recruits from Java.

is forbidden and only in the first years after the fall of Suharto did you see it flown. One memorable set of protests and demonstrations arranged by GAM During subsequent trips to Aceh, I managed to travel to the west and south of the region. A foreign face was a rare sight. There were hardly any roads and in some places the jungle stretched right down to the shores of the Indian Ocean. I had planned to stay for a while in the provincial town of Meulaboh but it was just too tiring. I 'ü/as too much of

sands of inhabitants from this city alone have died and so have many soldiers. The wounds are still festering. The people will never return but the soldiers are being replaced with

L999,

to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of a declaration of independence brought thousands of - along with flags and posters on to the streets. The military rushed around desperately trying to tear them down. It was a comical sight. people

On closer inspection, though, the flags turned out to be Tlrrkish. The T[rrks are popular here. They have

"independence" thrust upon it when the socialist revolution in Portugal returned a government committed to renouncing its colonial posessions. Indonesian forces invaded and

annexed the territory but the incorporation of East Tmor into Indonesia was never recognised by the United Nations. Jose Ramos Horta's annual exercises at the UN General

Assembly ensured East Timor's status remained in limbo. This provided the possibility of armed intervention, as occurred in 1999. Aceh's status as part of Indonesia, by contrast, has

never been contested internationally. That is in part why the Aceh-

sent doctors, built field hospitals, repaired mosques and even set up a bakery to provide free bread for refugees. Thrkey's national

nese independence struggle remains a lonely one to this day.

flag consists of a white crescent and star on a

Free Aceh Movement rebels continued in the wake of the disaster, despite a

red background. Add two black stripes with a white border and you have the

guerrilla ceasefire. Peace talks opened in Finland between Jakarta and GAM representatives in Janua¡y but thè two sides seem as far apart as ever

symbol of the Free Aceh Movement.

A number of organisa-

tions are making longterm plans for rehabilitation projects stretching over a number of years. I wonder if they truly comprehend that the Indonesian army is in power in these parts and that the

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

The tsunami didn't halt the war with GAM. Military operations against

over the question of independence.

The fighting, meanwhile, continues.

Hundreds of people, rebels and civilians, have died in shoot-outs since Boxing Day.

Jafar lies buried in Blang Pulo Aceh. His single grave is a reminder of the history of grief in a province now further marred by the

in north

mass graves of tsunami

ACEH TIMELINE 15OOs

-

Aceh was

trading kingdom competing with a

Malacca and Johor and ruled by sultans. This earliest Acehnese state was lslamic, although evidence to prove the

popular line about Aceh being "Mecca's verandah" or the entry point of lslam to the archipelago, is sketchy. l6OOs

-

Aceh's greatest

sultan, lskandar Muda, ruled from 16O7 lo 1636 over what was then the greatest military power around.

define! British interests as including the Malay

peninsula, with the Dutch gaining Sumatra.

1

873 - Acehnese

talks with Americans in Singapore gave the Dutch a pretext to invade, and they were fighting the Acehnese, largely unsuccessfully, for decades to come. ln

the Acehnese guerrilla resistance, Teungku Cik di Tiro (1836-91) was a

key heroic figure, an icon to the ctirrent seperatist struggle. Oil had now been discovered, raising

Late 17OOs - Dutch and British overtures were made to Aceh for a trading base and for access to gold and pepper, with the Dutch making greatest advances up the island of Sumatra after establishing themselves

the stakes.

on Java.

1945-46 - Aceh was one of the few areas the

1

824 - Treaty of London

19O3

- Pacification

ofthe Acehnese by the Dutch produced a relatively stable

government, after another Acehnese hero, Tuanku Daud Syah, surrendered (but did not give up).

Dutch hesitated to try to reclaim from Japanese wartime occupat¡on.

Opposition to the Dutch, and to the local business elite, was led in the name of lslam

by Mohammed Daud Beureuêh (1899-1987),

another hero ofthe separatists today.

1949 - Aceh was declared an autonomous province within the Republic of lndonesia.

195O

-

Aceh was

amalgamated with the province of North Sumatra.

1953 - Daud Beureu'eh and his All-Aceh Union of Ulamas (PUSA) rebelled against corrupt national politics, alongside several

regional rebellions led by Darul lslam.

195ó - Aceh reestablished as a province of its own.

1957 - Daud Beureu'eh agreed to a ceasefìre.

I

victims. K

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

9

T O P TT,* n - Central government agreed to the creation of I 959

D ffi['$ fijtr

ii" Terevision

virtual lslamic state, the Daerah lstimewa or Special District of Aceh, granting Aceh autonomy in religion, customary law and education.

a

Dec 4, 1976

- Aceh Sumatra

National Liberation Front declared the independence of Aceh, led by Hasan di Tiro, a descendant of the former Acehnese aristocracy. A former stockbroker in New York, he had been in exile since the 1950s, making a home in Stockholm, Sweden. Rebellion was easily crushed at first.

after the tsunam¡'

-

Further repression

by President Suharto, and 98Os

1

the growing riches from oil and gas fields in Aceh, spurred the insurgency, now renamed the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) or Free Aceh Movement. lncreasing raids and more daring military operations ensued.

1

989 - Jakarta declared the

province a Dareah Operasi Militer (DOM), or Military Operations Area, giving the lndonesian armed forces a free hand. Violence and terror escalated, as did commercial

exploitation through the army. This has only brought more recruits to GAM over the years, although GAM's own rights record is far from

Centre) to reach a Peace deal

were stymied bY local militarY opposition. Megawati's chief securitY minister, retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, enforced martial

Habibie's successor. He promised a free expression of will by the Acehnese, but not independence. Regional forces' 2OOl

law in Aceh.

- With the accession

to of Megawati SukarnoPutri the

2004 - Yudhoyono,

as

the

as

President, renewed martial law in Aceh. lndonesia's

gua

general failure to Punish

wer

generals for their rights

free rein in Aceh'

abuses, including the rampages in EastTimor,

20 by

negotiated -based Henri

Ë

g¡.,.'-ü.*i

dl}

means that manY of the same men involved in

Jr ¡¡ir ¿/

;t4)

j, , )-9-irj

repressing East Timor are

f:

now overseeing oPerations

+J

--=--.r

in Aceh.

clean.

December 26, 2004 - The tsunami changed the landscape, but bY how much?

1998 - Suharto resigned under pressure and greater calls for freedom from military tyranny were heard across the archiPelago.

2005

-

Under international

eyes, new Peace talks began

in Finland between Jakarta and GAM rePresentatives.

1999 - Suharto's successor, Bacharuddin Habibie, promised a referendum on independence for East Timor, sparking Acehnese hopes for

the same.

TV

Dunant Centre (now called Humanitarian Dialogue

2OOO-Those hopeswere encouraged by President Abdurrachman Wahid,

autonomy laws mean Aceh's wealth theoretically now stays mostly in Aceh, but corrupt local administrations linked to Jakarta keep the Acehnese short-changed.

Greater enforcement of Syahriah Law was granted, on the assumption that more lslamic identity would

orÊ:,Broadcast

Claims

that GAM has droPPed

its demand for indePendence are erroneous. Fighting Y

of lstanbul'

cont¡nues'

K3

Top Trend lnteractive Limited 22nd Floor, Onf em Tower, zs wvnd namrsf,rlejrf entr al, Hons

Ko

ns

Worldwide Distributor: Murchison Holdings Limited 23rd Floori Onfem Toyver, 29 Wyndham Street Central, Hong Kong Tel: 2877 6828, MCH.au (bloomberg) 2OO5 THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL

È

:

I t\

o u rn a I ists

,,#;::JåîHï"'1,::ä:îi;i:i;

in cross'hairs

;fitäT,å:ïlin'ru;rl:t"* has

J

the

ast yeaï was not a good one for the industry. The figures have

been counted and at least 56 journalists were killed while on the job, the highest toll for a decade' Meanwhile, 122 journalists were in prison. China, Cuba, Eritrea and Myanmar were the worst offenders, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' annual survey on press freedom

Iraq remained the most dangerous place on the Planet' At least 23 journalists and L6 "media workers" lost their lives. Banditry kidnappings,

bombings, and insurgent missile attacks took their totl. The second

most common cause of death for jour-

nalists

in Iraq was fire from

U.S. forces,

which snuffed out

ing state secrets. The secret trial ended and the court is expected to hand

ument related to the government's concerns about last year's 15th anniversary of the massacre of democracy protesters around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

In Europe, media lobbyists and EU Iawmakers in Brussels are backing an

down a stiff jail sentence. Relatives saY

the hearing

independent Chineseì.anguage broadcaster which is taking legal action against satel-

Iasted

two hours and a verdict was expected as

lite provider Eutelsat.

The International

Max went to Press.

Federation of Journal"It was a secret trial.

'We ists (IFJ) claims that were not allowed Eutelsat bowed to to attend, but I got a pressure from Beijing STItETTO glimpse of him after and refused to renew

BY MAX KOLBE it was over," said one a contract with U.S.of Shi's sibiings. "The Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) New sentence will be at least 10 Years based according to legal explanations."

Shi, who worked for the ContemPorary Tfade News in the provincial cap-

of broadcasting and has denounced the channel as a mouthpiece for the Falun Gong. Eutelsat denies the a democracyWeb site an official docaccusations of pressure and RAi\4ZI HAIDAR/AFP insists the decision was a

ital of Changsha in Hunan Province, was detained in November for giving

purely commercial one.

at least five lives. Max dislikes

Meanwhile spare

the term "friendlY fire" but to say theY died because of

in Malawi who were arrested and charged with publishing false information for reporting that President Bingu wa

Mutharika had moved out of his beautiful new palace because the poor thing is afraid of ghosts. BBC correspondent Raphael Tenthani and Mabvuto Banda, a journalist on the Nation newspaper, were arrested in Blantyre and driven under police escort to Lilongwe to

of the 23 journalists killed were Iraqis. In 2003, two of the 15 reporters killed were from Iraq.

TWentY-two journalists were kidnaPPed in Iraq in 2004. AII but Italian freelancer

Enzo Baldoni were released.

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face charges at police head-

Baldoni was murdered.

quarters for upsetting the

The PhiliPPines was the

African leader.

But they are a brave Pair and were unrepentant. "We

second most dangerous Place

12

Pil rlrùgtrrltïty

thought for two journalists

"poor shooting" somehow just doesn't feei right.

Such violence makes lraq a no-go zone for manY foreign correspondents, and locais are filling the void. Seventeen

to be a journalist last Year' Eight journalists were murdered in 2004, manY of them radio broadcasters who were "gunned down in retaliation for their work".

a

j ;\eliill Fihrlirlg _-r,

to beam its programmes to China and Asia. Apparently Beijing wasn't particularly pleased with New Tang's brand

have been charged with pubAn Algerian and a Polish television journalist were shot dead in this car by lraqi insurgents last May

Iishing false information but I will stand by my story"Tenthani reportedly said. re

Website : www.hongkongexpress.com Email : sales.heli@hongkongexpress.com THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

E (PRESS

*

postRopry

tike their cowardly contributors, the management and owners of lcered seem to be able to dish it out, but aren't too keen on facing the music when victims of libellous attacks seek explanations.

Fldf¡u h tho þDby drho Fcc llessege Posted

:

Fri. 18 Feb 2005. 11:42:54 PM

An unimpeachable source told me last night lhat PR guru Ted Thomas and freebie king Kevin Sinclair had a violent drunken altercat¡on in lhe lobby of lhe FCC lhis week.

Whilst former merthant sa¡lor Ted Thomas had Kevin pinned to the floor Sintla¡r kept trying to head-hutl the silver'haired one Somelhing t0 do with PR work apparenlly. The p0lice were called and lhey were escorted

When FCC member Kevin Sinclair was repeatedly

libelled on an lnternet message board, he set out to track down the perpetrators. So far he's hit a brick wall. like-

cover. And facts Tt was like that song'A Boy Named underdothenotIcered the management concern wise Cash.There I Sue"by the late Johnny fact, theY boast in company; this of blood in the II was, rolling around

and the beer, trying to head-butt a tough, gnarled old man. Ted Thomas was holding me down as we struggled in the foyer of the FCC. Then the police arrived and took us both away.

Good story what?

Pity it wasn't true, just another piece of malicious and fictitious libel served up by the faceless cowards who pour their invective on to the

that the site is not monitored' They mn any nonsense, no matter how evil, vicious and untrue, and then denY

Icered.com message board.

As Ted and I were supposedly battering each other, I happened to be several thousand miles away trying to catch a fish in a tranquil Mauritian lagoon.

But facts don't matter to the haP-

tion.

less morons who hide anonymouslY

14

they have any responsibility for what they carry.

The management and major shareholders of Icered.com Ltd refuse to be interviewed. TheY evade answering questions about the operation. They ignore repeated requests for informa-

Many prominent FCC members have been victims of these clammYpalmed posters who often use the most brutal racist and sexual terms' People who contribute use fake names.

Under false identities they launch

vicious attacks. I have been accused in recent months of theft, corruption, drunken brawling and dishonestY. The identities of those making these allegations are kept secret.

Whenvictims of underhand attacks try to establish the identities of those who have accused them of crimes, the management of lcered.com slinks off into a rat hole in the same manner as the faceless cowards who write to

their website.

So, who runs Icered and what do they have to say for the "service" they provide for gutless rumour-mongers?

Not much. For people in the communications industry they are awfully shy talking about their own business.

But after the attack on me and Ted Thomas (whom I have known for 37 years and whom I have not yet headbutted once) I decided to do a little

digging.

What I found was very interesting.

There is a spider's web of interlocking companies and individuals that owns slices of lcered.com Ltd. None

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

of those approached was prepared to talk about the company or its actions.

Nor would they provide answers to e-mailed and faxed questions. Staff at their legally-registered office say Icered has vacated the premises and nobody knows where it is.

The Icered forum provides platforms for unchecked gossip on a wide number of occupations and interests. There are message boards for medicine, civil

service, property, engineering, insurance and advertising, among others.

Skimming through recent messages on these, I found some of the underhand anonymous messages on the legal forum pretty ripe and the human resources message board unsurprisingly bitchy. But for sheer hatred and spite none of them could match the scurrilous venom in the media section.

Much of this seems to be written by failures consumed by jealousy. The nameless scribblers have three major targets; they share a near-universal abhorrence of the South China Morning Post and anyone happily connected with that newspaper, detestation and jealousy of the FCC and its mem-

bership and a loathing for anyone who makes a successful living. The constant diatribe gets nauseatingly

nalism. They do not check their facts,

have no idea who is filing what, do not check what is carried on their website and feel they are freed of any responsibility simply by saying they are not responsible.

This extraordinary state of affairs in effect provides an electronic loudspeaker on which the sneaky, the

You seem to profess through your interests in the company an interest in open debate in the most robust form. I would like to speak to you about lcered and discuss some of the content. Can you please tell me when you will be available. I can see you at .your convenlence.

There was no response.

2. I'refer to content on Icered published in the "media" message board which refers to me. I am falsely anytime, with no restraint, hindrance ,accused of various crimes. The persons writing these messages say they or control.

The sexist and/or racist diatribes witnessed me attacking an elderagainst numerous FCC members wouldi .'ly man aged more than 75 years bring instant legal reprisals if pub- old. This is not true. Can you please lished in a newspaper or magazine or give me the real identities and email ifbroadcast on radio or television. But addresses of "Slicker", "Fccer", "Lord in the mire of the Internet, conspira- Bowring" and "Hislop" who wrote tors and madmen are free to bark lies about me in February 2OO4.l enclose with this an attachment showing the and calumnies against their victims.

Under the Code of Conduct con- content of this thread as it appeared tributors are instructed they must on lcered.

Tim Lam, one of the founders of not post "any content or information that is unlawful, fraudulent, threat- Icered.com Ltd, replied saying they ening, abusive, libellous, defamatory declined to be interviewed.

Like their cowardly contributors, obscene or otherwise objectionable."

Call me old-fashioned, but when I the management and ovúners of lceam accused of theft, corruption and red seem to be able to dish it out, but drunken assault, I feel this is covered aren't too keen on facing the music when victims of libellous attacks seek by the lcered ban on abuse. dishonest, the cowardly, the malicious and the downright insane can broadcast the most vile lies about anyone,

explanations.

monotonous.

Under the terms of agreement posted on its site, Icered claims

not to be

bacK0thelopic

In March, Icered iden-

Posled : Sâ1, I 2 Har 2005. 12:35:21 PrA

So.was lhere reallya S¡ncla¡Flhomas punchup?

r vkvlol*s

¡ boo¡r¡/r

Gl

d

lo

responsible

anything. ¡ "It is impossible for

for

ICERED to review all messages or c,onfirm the validity of information posted," the

Let's make no mistake, this is not freedom of the press. This is a smokescreen for cowards and liars.

company message states.

It almost seems to boast of its irresponsibility. "Please remember that

What do the founders Carl Gouw Kar-yiu and Tim Lam think about some of the things printed on lcered?

ICERED does

not monitor the

contents of posted messages AT ALL and is not responsible for any messages posted."

This is the very antithesis of jour-

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

Who knows.They are elusive, refuse to answer requests for interviews and do not answer e-mailed queries.

I sent them the following questions: 1. You are shareholders in lcered.

k

¡rd

tified by name an advertising sales assistant at

a local newspaper. The

person who posted the message on lcered said the woman "gave bj to get business".

I

e-mailed Mr Lam and Mr Gouw

if they had read this item and if the approved of it being posted. No

answer. I asked them how they would feel if some person placed an item on Icered stating that their wife, girlfriend, mother or sister "gave blowjobs to get business?"

No

answer.

Eßt

15

I I

SPCA

..' l¡glFoel

Wanted: Lifelong Friend K¡ K¡, this adorable mixed-breed

.i'4ì

does not meke any claims as to the truth of lhe statements made in any of the message boerds. The names of the ar¡thors and any sther names are fictitious and may or may not be the person that the name suggests.

Prior

lo using this Web site, please note that

ICERED

dog, is in urgent need of a loving home. lf you are considering taking a dog into your life, you'll not only save a life but will find a loyal, lifelong friend at the SPCA(HK)'s animal rehoming centre.

Considering lhe real-tine nalure of this message board, it is impossible lor ICERED to review all lnessages or confirm lhe validity ol inforrnation posted. Please renemþer that ICERED does not monitor lhe conlents of posted messages AT ALL and is noû responsible for any messages posted, By using this Web site, you âre inq to our User Terms.|CERED does nol vouch lor or warrant the

Why not . come over and visit

Hide and seek ho owns and Icered.com,

operates

approximately nine per cent of Ice

a message

Red and had no management role in the company.

"We are also aware that Ice Red (sic) has relocated outside Hong Kong," Mr Gouw's email added.

Requests for a face-to-face interview were ignored.

board which over recent

years has provided a forum for numerous vicious attacks on the FCC as an institution and on many of the Club's members?

Don't bother going to the company's legally registered office because you run into a blank wall. Staff there

say lcered moved out months ago and nobody knows where they've now set up shop.

So I set out to do a little old-fashioned reporting, nosing through official records and published material. \Mhat came up was interesting.

According to the 2004 annual return of lcered.com

ì

Limited lodged with the Hong Kong Companies Registry the registered office is just around the cor-

ner from the at 16th floor,

The secretary and director of the

companyis listed asTim Lam, Hong Kong ID cardP937!13 (7). In earlier

retums Mr Lam was identifìed as an American citizen with USA passport 035L62539. Earlier this year, Mr

FCC

Wyndham Place, 40

A visit there shows this is also the headquarters of the publicly listed Gorient Holdings. The name of lcered is listed on a notice board at that address but staffers insist the company moved several months ago to an unknown address.

The chairman of Gorient, Carl Gouw Kar-yiu, contacted by email said their listed company held

Lam held 3,324 shares.

The other director listed was Mr Sean Chi, whose address was likewise given as the \Myndham Street office. In the identification section of the official return where he was obliged to report his overseas passport, the entry bore only a "California ID No.4833L442". He was listed as holding 748 shares.

The address of all 15 shareholders \Ã/as given as the Wyndham

mates?

To

en-quire about animal adoption procedures, please call 2232 5529 or

with 5,000 shares each are Kevin Chang Kuo-wei and Kenny Lam Kwok-fung. Once again, all addresses given are that of Wyndham Place. holders

visit www.spca.org. hk/homi ng/an imals.

Or help them simply by

The secretary of Dynamic Electronics is Carl Gouw Kar-yiu of 3 Moorsom Drive, /ardine's Lookout.

Under new regulations his email is also listed on the Companies Registry documents; it is carl.

Gouw holds

asa

SPCA (HK) member.

Make your first move

PN= 72777

Age: 2 Years Old Gender: Female Breed: Mixed Breed Golour: Tan Duration at SPGA (HK):9 months

gouw@gouw.com.hk.

a single share in

Dynamic Electronics. The other 9,999 shares are held by Hip Kin Enterpris-

to help these

abandoned animals! Your generosity can bring a bright future to these helpless animals.

es Ltd. Hip Kin has an interesting

corporate history. Digging deep into registry files, one traces its ori-

Staff say lcered moved out months ago and nobody knows where theytve now set uP shop

Wyndham Street.

16

The company return said that at March 3, 2OO+, 15,555 $1 shares had been issued. These had a total nominal share value of $50,000.

and her

Street office. Major shareholders were Grand Link Development Ltd (6,701 shares) and Dynamic Electronic System with 1,550 shares.

Tim Lam is secretary of Grand Link and the two co-equal share-

Kiki charming four-legged kennel-

gins back to 1979 when it was formed as Goldlog Film Ltd. Hip Kin shares that crowded \Ã/yndham Place office suite. It has two classes

of shares. The 10 Class A shares have a total paid up value of HK$1,000 and are held by two companies whose registered addresses are post office boxes in the British Virgin Islands.

All 1,500 Class B shares are held by members of the Gouw family or by

of the Jardine's Lookout Carl Gouw is the director/ address. secretary who signed the Hip Kin registry papers. - KS lK residents

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

ID No:

Name:

Address: Email:

Fax:

Tel:

* Please send crossed cheque þalable to "SPCA (HK)" to Membership Department, SPCA (HK), 5 Wan Shing Street, Wanchai, Hong Kong. To enquire, ça\l2232 $550.

[--ì

,!

Rnnuat Member $zoo

t'¡te Member $2,000

Payment Methods

C

tu

C

tU Credit Card

!

Crossed Cheque

vrsn

-

Please debit the following Credit Card Account HK$

!

Master

Credit Card No. Expiry Date Cardholder's Name Cardholder's Signature

Onr

!

olners

(Should be effective for the next two months)

here get especially high marks. There's no Zoo Night at the FPA, but media

bacchanalia are not hard to find in this boozy metropolis. Notably on Fleet Street itself, to where Canary Wharf

hacks often take the tube for a few drinks at El Vino or Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, for old times' sake.

Almost next door is Le Caprice,

London restaurant reviews often say more about the patrons than the food. So if you can't beat them, join them. Former Hong Kong

a refined eatery famous for its Souf_ fléed Scallops and, again, a stratospheric media clientele. The Sunday Times editor is the most senior press

resident NickWalker surveys the mediacelebrity food circuit in the British capital. t may have slipped a notch in the restaurant charts - it was bested in a recent survey by The \Ã/olseley - but The Ivy still gets the nod from many of the leading players

Dylan Jones, are fond of The \Molseley's hearty English and Mittel Europa fare. But one rather susPects that many diners visit on the off-chance

for its amazingly diverse menu and

from Kate Moss or Naomi CamPbell' And in this oPulent, ImPerial Viennese-style salon, converted from a car

celebrity status.

Located in the heart of London's

theatreland, The lvy's stained-glass windows prevent the riff-raff from peering inside. But if you are able to get through its hallowed doors - a big if because some tables are reserved for weeks - you are guaranteed a place

amid the media aristocracy as well as the lords and ladies of the worlds of business, sports and entertainment.

Madonna, Posh

'n'

Becks and Sir

of finding themselves a table

awaY

salesroom in Piccadilly, that chance is reasonably high. The vast interior

means the restaurant is not a Place for shrinking violets. And so there's always space for Sunday Times restaurant critic Michael Winner who has made a career out of being obnoxious, but with just enough self-deprecation for the nation to still tolerate the large man's hilarious reviews.

name in this corner of the West End, and shares his dining-out tastes with the higher-ups of Condé. Nast Tlaueller, often bronzed from the latest safari or Caribbean "reccie". The joker in this pack is regular Jeffrey Archer, pulp-fiction novelist, ex-politician and ex-jailbird beloved of the nationals for his habit of generating fresh copy during slow news weeks.

J. Sheekey rounds off this famous foursome of top tables for the opinion-makers. (All are part of the same

group of super-restaurants, excePt for the Wolseley, whose proprietors previously owned The lvy-sheekeyCaprice stable.) This historic seafood institution is regularly visited by the Financial Times editor as well as by the serious-looking chiefs at The Economist few yards down the road. Dishes such as its legendary fish Pie, jel-

just

a

Richard Branson, among others, are habitués. The editors of The Sun, The Observer and The Independent are familiar faces here, drawn by the A-list action

s Estuary-

sustained

and other as

well

as

minor and middling royals and footballers'wives.

Canary Wharf maY

be the new

"Fleet Street" but one eatery that remains firmÌy in the heart of the old newspaper district is The Savoy Grill, where The Daily Mail's editor is a wellknown power-lunch visitor. He regularþ arrives here from the Associated Newspapers fortress in Kensington.

The Savoy Grill is an enduring relic of the old order, and much loved by nostalgia trippers dressed in the baggy greys and beiges of senior journalism.

The "new Savoy Grill" meanwhile

in the company of his broadsheet lieutenants. The former editor"of

the Daily Minor was a frequent visitor herã too, before his goose *". .oôked onet faked Iraq War scandal photos.

In the other media heartland, Soho, there are a number of small establish-

ments that remain firm favourites with journalists and the names who

Newcomer The Wolseley, next to The Ritz hotel, also draws some big names, but noticeably not yet the biggest. The acerbic Sunday Times writer

in the editorial pages. The most famous, The Gay Hussar (Hun$arian cuisine, English intrigue), has a conspiratorial feel about it. Indeed aPPear

and reviewer AA (Adrian) Gill and

18

exterior

groph editor can be often found

European" food. Old favourites such as Shepherd's Pie and "newish" favourites like Chicken Tikka Masaia get five-star makeovers. But the desserts get the highest marks, notably the Sticky Toffee Pudding (Madonna's favourite) and the lced Scandinavian Berries with Hot White Chocolate Sauce.

editor and man-about-town,

The WolseleY's imPosing

and traditional-style pub grub. "The Cheshire", as it is known in media circles, has quite a journalistic pedigree.

Charles'Dickens - a reporter for the Morning Chronicle before he became a nqyelist - and Dr Samuel Johnson yere both regulars in this Fleet Street .. ,/ watering hole and gossip den. ' As far as beery hostelries go, GuardBlait it was here on Table 10 that Tony ..ian hacks (who include in their number was persuaded to run for Parliament¡ a sizeable ex-Hong Kong contingent) way back in 1982. get a good deal with London's first and and NearUY is the iroucho Club' gastro-pub almost on their doorbest its although not especially noted for The Eagle sees few journos from step. food, d"oes proviàe a feast of peoplethe other national dailies. The Middle *"r.fti"g - of both those that make Englanders of the Associated Newspathe headlines and Pen them' pers Group (Daily Møi|Evening Standard) FCC no longer [Ëd: IJnfortunately, the

har'rrriproíol rights io the Groucho thanks

to tnr ont¡r, o1áp* selfish inàividuals'.1 to South of iaffish Soho and close

V/hitehaU is the FCC's London counterThe part, the Foreign Press Association' food and wines in iPe off"r, the "*.ãll"rrt its modest-s ízed' café (in what was hallway of the residence of 19th CentuwilI ntii.tinister and statesmandìshes Iíam Gladstone). The Moroccan

appear

to hold the gritty

Farringdon

Road in disdain. And for CanaryWharfers it may as well be in Outer Mongolia

rather than the People's Republic of Islington. But the food at The Eagle, inventive and mainly Mediterranean-

K

inspired, is good.

Nick V/alker was Supplements Editor oJ

the Hong Kong iMail øndlater Managing Editor of Asian Hotel & CateringTimes.

is the futuristic Plateau in Canary Wharf, and is where The Daily Tele-

and outstanding "Modern English/

GQ's

The former is a wine war with a superlative Old World wine-list and excellent tapas-style snacks. The latter is a labyrinthine pub that pre-dates the Great Fire of London (1666) and offers drafts of foaming Yorkshire ale

The Plateau, CanarY Wharf

rHE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL

2OO5

THE

coRREspoNDENT MARcH/ApRtL 200s

[e (aprice

The Foreign Press

Arlington House

Association

Arlington Street

11 C¿rlton HouseTenace

London 5W1A 1RT

London SWlY 5AJ

Iel: (0\2076292239

Tel: (0)20 7925 0469

Gay Hussar

Eagle 159 Faningdon Road

2 Greek 5treet

London ECl R 3AL

London, W] D 4NB

Tel: (0)20

Iel: (0D07437 0973

7837 1353

ElVino 47 Fleet Street London Et4Y 1BJ Tel:

(0)20 7353 6786

The lvY 1

West Street

London W(2H 9NQ Tel: (0)20 7836 4751

,1.

Sheekey

Ihe Wolseley

28-32 5t i\4¿rtìns (ourt

160 Piccadilly

LondonW(2N 4AL

London WlJ 9EB

Tel: (0)20 7240 2565

Iel: (0)20 7499 6996

Plateau

Ye Olde Cheshite

[anada Place,

Cheese

(anary Wharf

Wine Offlce (ourt

London El4

145 Fleet 5treet

Tel: (0)20 7715 7100

5avoy Grill

London E(4A 2BU

Iel: (0)20 7353

61

70

The Strand LondonWC2 Tel: (0)20 7592 1600

19

Press Under Pressure Kong's "Chief Executive before 10

to be known as Albert Cheng us ed nf hiÇ --',.o

otlock"

the air after being C^- l^i- .,:^.^,-

n(+nr.^rinnlna

nln¡finn ,|

tl

to the

being "the voice of the

i

orts.

vüho stiil entertains rting notions that Hong same enjoYs much the and !997 'oress freedo*-á' ¡"fot" tord Kong -the åäi'r;;;; i" uong errect' we had in that, ;;ä;.;;t ffi";î.io to'ry that our liberties

;";";"il

quasheá

-

should listen to

well-organised camPaign had been launched against him as the num-

ber one enemy of the Hong

Kong

"because I undermine the administration". To illustrate his claim, he noted that local press coverage of his activities and public uttergovernment

-

ances had conformed to a Pattern: for a certain period his name appears constantly in articles, columns and

editorials. "They call me all kinds of

names," he said, adding later: "Every-

thing

I

do 'wrong' becomes a front

own agendas."

page news story."

At other times, particularly

.ro,'rrutt"

willing to do it for nothing." But, at the time of

DTESS.

' H" b"r"d this conclu-

"I am dying to go back on radio, if I had the choice. I should be on air rather than in Legco wasting my time." noid, worried that too large a membership might result in the party being infiltrated. "They operate almost like the Communist Party. They vet their members. That's why the Democratic Party has no more than around 500 members."

Cheng has, of course, drawn the fury of the Hong Kong government - and received plenty of media coverage - for his support for the elderly welfare recipient Lo Siu-lang in opposing the government's US$3 billion privatisation of public housing assets in the Link Reit. In a question and answer session, RTHK reporter Francis Moriarty noted that critics of Cheng have charged that he may not be acting alone in this case.

Cheng denied this, saying he was simply acting on concerns of thousands of small shopkeepers who might be driven out of their livelihoods gs a result of the privatisation. The government's biggest mistake, he said, \Mas to try to launch the privatisation,withouttiving Legco the oppor-

Kong.

ment, stated unequrvo-

does callv: no, Hong Kong freedom of the

Party, he said the problem was that

ed campaign. "somebody is pushing the button." (Interestingly, the FCC lunch at which Cheng spoke was wellattended but lacked the usual scrum of local reporters. Somebody pushing the button again?)

He reiterated his offer to resume IAFP a talk-show, without any payment, for any media "lnstead of charging thousands and thousands (of dollars) per minute, I am

Beiiing-anointed

Referring to the waning of support for the Democratic it had become para-

since

he joined Legco, the media have simply ignored him. He charged that the abrupt ebb and flow of media coverage were evidence of an orchestrat-

outlet in Hong

govern-

his speaking, no organisation had taken him up on his offer, even though he estimated that his wildly

,ion on his own exPeriences and observattons'

popular show on Commercial Radio had earned

the station HK$100 million a year in advertising revenue. "You tell me if

stvle, and his acrimontComous dePart'.tre from mercial Radio last Year

this is press freedom."

He dismissed Legco as a rvaste not only of his

time but also of tax payers'dollars.

Legco, he said, was an impotent, dysfunctional "losers' club" controlled "the evil force"'

Cheng charged that

a

Cheng:"dYing to back on radioí

by the

pro-business camp. "lt's an open secret. They are all sitting in the House representing big business, representing the developers." He cited the example of one unnamed member - clearly not a "loser" financially - who was being paid HK$2 million a year as a consultant by an outfit that wasn't even making money.

Meanwhile, he said, pro-democracy legislators could not receive one penny from anybody. "We don't have the resources, we don't have the money. \À/e don't even have the media coverage and we have to watch every step we make to be careful we don't fall into a trap. We are fighting an uphill battle, but we are still fighting."

But not fighting effectively, Cheng said. He chided his own pro-democracy allies for their lack of unity, sharing no common aims other than to promote democracy in Hong Kong. "Unfortunately, as usual politicians always have their

pro-government,

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

il

tunity to discuss the issue. r , He warned the government not to try the same ploy with its proposals for partial privatisation of the Hong Kong International Airport. "l am against the Airport Authority going public and I will try again and again my best to stop it going public without thorough discussion and debate in Legco."

But Cheng made plain what his' preferred platform would be for leading this latest assault on the government.

"I am dying to go back on radio, if I had the choice. I should re be on air rather than in Legco wasting my time."

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

21

There are sketches of lissom sing-

song girls, and rare Panoramas of little-known treaty ports such as Wei Hai Wei. Delicious graphic design on some of the earliest advertisements seen in China have caught the artist Hacker's eye, as have cartoons of the Battle of MuddY Flat' Yet the sing-song girl drawings are signed and dated and Hacker tells us of the artist as well.

There is the insertion of obscure but fascinating facts (who else can discourse on the activities of the Swed-

ish East India ComPanY?) alongside Hacker's wittY exPosure of human

foible. Dry delivery of pungent detaiÌ makes one Hacker sentence tell a wealth of history' But it's the pictures that stand out' Others might trace history through words first and search for the Pictures afterwards. Hacker starts with the pictures, then has immense fun finding the stories behind the image' That exPlains whY this book would not be sufficient in itself to give a fully rounded, in-dePth history of China's relationship with foreigners' But that's no loss. Concise introductions to each chapter take the reader briskly from

up to 1860, into the missionary invasion and the first Treaty Ports, through the End of EmPire and the rise of the New Republic (L894-191-8), into the turbulence and decadence of the 1920s.

Hacker's narrative ends with Nationalist China at Peace and War, with a few images of Mao Tse-tung to hint at future events. Even a cursory reading will give a reader nevü to the topic much to ponder.

A primary theme throughout the imagery is the thrill, ,or curse,'of expatriate-ness. We ali shor*Id know what Hacker means wherr he leads us through the bizarre and eccentric characters, the traders and missionaries, the cheats and opPortunists, 1557

A

V

'äff#{+:;Tt":ir:iål;

e

Arthur Hacker's china ltustrated: Western Views of the Middte

22

Kingdom

hissual, a flair for tight writing and a

;:ï::'#ïli1ï:,ä:";ff:,T;;î:i: and the result is this

gorgeous

into a book,

il:[iÏî:;ïÏ:i::î",îÏ:JiÏî'ffiii:: gram bundle, reports vaudine England'

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH

/

APRIL 2OO5

Previous page: A lantern slide shows the variety of hairstyles of a group of girls. Top right: The Wan Hsien bridge. Bottom: A portra¡t by Milton lúl

Miller.

THE coRRESpoNDENT MARcH/ApRrL'200s

23

Top right: A talented Gartoonist portrays the clash of cultures. Bottom:

Opium smokers relax over a pipe in a

fashionable divan.

the true believers in China to the passing observers -- we see them all round the bar at night even if we don't look in the mirror.

Ăş'L( REPORTING THE CHINESE

There's no pretence that the foreigners' views are somehow defini-

By

tive or objectively right. Some of these images we might see as romanticised or downright wrong, but they do comprise a record of

n

a

reporter-photogra-

pher team from Life magazine, covered the fall of Mukden in Manchuria to the People's Liberation Army (PLA). No other correspondents were present. It was an extraordinary scoop: news of Manchuria's surren-

Indeed, Hacker's touch gives us a visual historiography, a record of how history was recorded. He gives us sections on famous cartoonists including one, Sapajou, who survived for an astounding24 years in a country constantly at war either with itself or the Japanese or both. Perhaps only Hacker could make the connection between a Shanghai can of Royal Baking Powder and a six-

der, the death or capture of 400,000 of Nationalist China's finest troops, the

beginning of the end of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's mainland rule.

From the perspective of our newsdrenched era, however, just how that eyewitness account reached the world is also remarkable.

The episode is one of many in a Iively memoir titled ChasingThe Dragon

by Roy Rowan (The Lyons Press, 2004).

Subtitled A Veter an J ournalist's F irsthand Account of the L949 Chinese Reuolution, the book is a timely reminder of the past half-century's revolution in newsreporting Iogistics.

Life, then a relatively new photo-

year old Andy Warhol.

We learn how a photographer, John Thomson, needed 18 coolies to carry his gear as he trudged 5,000 miles through China from 1868 to 1,872.Te11ingly, one of the best photographers, Donald Mennie, was also profoundly rich. He was taipan of A.S. Watson

& Co, now best known as the retail group that owns the Watsons chain

magazine, offered news pictures of global significance, an approximate

of chemists.

Just as fascinating is the way "Newsreel" Wong admitted to faking the famous photograph he took of a

forerunner of today's cable news. Time Warner still publishes Lrfe, but its current incarnation (as a free weekly insert in 70 U.S. newspapers) car\not compare with the dynamic.periodical in Rowan's heyday when weekly sales

crying child in the ruins of Shanghai Railway Station, just bombed by the Japanese. He grabbed a beggar child,

smudged charcoal on its face and slapped it to stop it smiling and make

exceeded 8 million. ' By today's standards, though, news reporting was laborious. In L948, there

cry.

Luckily Hacker doesn't need to fake any of his images. This book offers a taste of the goodies he has collected over the years, and is a fitting testament to Hacker's own colourful life in re the East.

24

November 1,948, two young

Americans,

perception.

it

Anthony Paul

Top: Refugees receiving aid from the UN

Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

Right: Roy Rowan (left) and Jack Birns in a Macau chop shop where gold was melted down for smuggling to the mainland.

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5

THECORRESPONDENT

MARCH/AP,RIL2OO5

25

battles. He was Present at the

v/ere no live satellite feeds of moving images from remote places. Instead, the dozen or

climactic Battle of Huai-Hai, fought around the keY railwaY

junction of Suzhou bY two armies totalling more than a million men. From a hillside hut overlooking the rail line,

so rolls of undeveloped film had to reach the U.S. by plane from Mukden.

Llfe's editors "refused to let the almost-impossible logistics deny us a scoop", Roy fondly recalls. They held the presses for 24 hours and ordered a portable photo lab set up at San

he and his PhotograPher, Jack

Birns, stood beside General Li Mi as Chiang's L3th ArmY Group commander directed an attemPt to rescue a vast Nationalist force that the PLA

Francisco airport. Processed

was about to surround' The communists eventu-

between planes, the undried negatives were then couriered in jars of water towards the

ally won' The

in Chicago.

But fog had closed Chicago airport, so the plane landed in Cleveland. There, a charter pilot was persuaded to fly into Chicago. tlfe's managing editor, who had been able to (right)' Chiang (centre) with KMT General Fu Zuoyi reach Chicago from NewYork, met the plane himself. Holdmagazine reflected this bias' But the ing the negatives against his taxi window as he raced toward the boss permitted Life correspondents to printing plant, he selected five pages wield a freer typewriter. He once told his staff: "It is the business of Time to of photos for the week's issue.

Roy Rowan, now a sprightly 84 make enemies, and of Life to make going on 48, is one of Asia's reporting friends."

tost

Llfe presses

legends.

It

Not that the

seems some-

times that he has been on top of most of the region's big stories since Peking Man was in diapers. I first watched him in action at the fall of Saigon in 1975, which he reported for Life's stablemate, Time. But he was in Asia long before that - first, as a U.S. army lieutenant in the western Pacific, then as a post-World War II relief worker in China. Finally,

Rowan's coPY was alwaYs that friendlY. His rePorts

included coverage of the Nationalists' self-destroY-

ing corruPtion:

generals

selling weaPons to their communist enemies; Chiang's brother-in-law T'V' Soong's wholesale Pillaging of U.S. aid to China's

poor; the Macau-based gold-smuggling sYndicates run bY the colonY's real ruler - "not the Portu-

Roy Rowan.

by selling news photos and reports of the Chinese civil war, he landed a job

littte

guese governor, but a wiry Malay-¿hinese called Pedro José

Lobo".

But his specialty was China's great

with tfe's Shanghai bureau.

Time Inc's founder and the TimeLife editor-in-chief Henry Luce, son of Christian missionaries in China, was a determined supporter of Nationalist

nuprlnt"a with permission of

Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek. Time

aheød.

26

Young

escaped

to a base in

Burma's

Shan States. Generalissimo Chi-

ang led his defeated remnants to Taiwan. The so-called Bamboo Curtain forced most Chinabased Western corresPondents

to withdraw to Hong Kong for nearþ three decades'

But Rowan, as a coffesPonbusident for Time andlater Time Inc's

ness magazi ne, F ortune, kept returntng to China on sPecial assignments' one of them, he found his waY

On

hillback to Suzhou. Standing on the

side recalling the Battle of Huai-Hai' explosions interrupted his reverie' rui theY lvere not the sounds of a million-man battle' Instead' quarry Li workers were dynamiting General to soon gravel' into hill Mi's historic be used to build Suzhou's ever-rising skyscraPers.

Cl""r"rt and most Poignant of all the writer's memories are those of China in the 1940s - "men and women

substituting for beasts of burden' pulling ploughs, pushing irrigation He crystalliz es in Chasing The p"*pt". 'orogàn an emotion that now reaches aI ãf us: "l'm stunned at how most of that primitive, four-thousand-year-old hanô work gave v/ay to modern Production in just mY

lifetime'"

re

SPH -The StrqitsTimes

to Hong Kong 1948' a year beþre it.yove!

President FCC from 1977 -79 ' was the Communist revolution' Anthony Paul

Roy Rouran joined the FCC

of

SSO,OOO

Nationalists

men. General Li

in

Shanghai

in

2OO5 THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL

An Eastern Saga grotesque exhibits at tremendous cost

In a career spanning over a half-century, journalist and cameraman Marvin Farkas encountered some true eccentr¡cs. ln these extracts from his (yet unpublished) memoirs he recalls his brushes w¡th two disparate characters.

Aw Boon Haw (1882-19s4)

The Tiger Balm king, founder of the Sing Tao and Tiger Standard newspapers.

? admire a man who can make sucI ."r, in the face of adversity and I orr boss, Aw Boon Haw, '\Ã/as one of the greats. There are conflicting reports that said he started in his native Rangoon as a rickshaw puller and others say that he was a coolie when he stumbled on to the formula for Tiger Balm and prepared a patent medicine that was said to be a panacea for most of man's ills. With it he made an indelible mark on the world, achieved fame and made a lot of money.

I remember seeing him only once

at work when I was sub-editor for t}re 'tiger Standard. Aw came to our office [in Wanchai] on a hot summer day and I recall him being in shirtsleeves with wide suspenders, or as the British call them, braces, holding up his trousers. He. had a disgruntled look on þis face ând proceeded to switch off the lights.

He berated Leslie Sung, our editor, asking him why he wasted electricity when there was bright sunlight coming in the window.

His daughter [Sally], our general manager, was by his side all during that visit and she also was subjected to his unpleasant behaviour. She made no reply but just listened and shook her head in ans\¡/er to his ques-

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRI L'2005

tions

in the obedient

fashion of

to himself.

He also had one of the most extraor-

a

respectful Chinese daughter.

He toured both of his newspapers

dinary jade collections in the world that was on exhibit at his home in the Haw Par Mansion, which was located right in the middle of the Tiger Balm Garden. A guide would lead tourists through the house while the family was having dinner and would point out the members of the family to his group. The family didn't pay atten-

and his baby, the Tiger Balm factory tion tó the crowds that swept through on the fourth floor. He asked how tJreir diqing room but kept right on many employees were needed to nrtt' eating. his empire and was very interested ' "Íhat's his daughter who runs the in what was paid for the amenitie$. / .figer Stand,ard newspaper," said the He wanted to know if anything was tour guide, "and on the end of the being done to prevent the workers table is his wife, and the lady dipfrom stealing toilet paper and tow- ping her chopsticks into the vegels. The toilets could certainly have etable dish is his niece who lives used a good cleaning but he never here in the mansion and the other mentioned that. He gave the gen- lady on the opposite end of the table eral manager a list of ways to save is another niece who is visiting from money.

Singapore." Aw Boon Haw was almost

With his penurious ways one wonders why he would endure the huge financial losses made by the Tiger Standard ne\Ã/spaper year after year.

Or why he would continue to expand that [now demolished] eyesore, the

never there.

Tiger Balm Garden, to which he added

The next time I caught up with him was just a few months later, at his funeral. The staff of his three companies stood outside as his hearse stopped in front of the building. He was a Buddhist and a group of monks chanted the funeral service while musicians with tom-toms, eerie-sounding horns, a trumpet and a clarinet played a mournful dirge that sounded something like "Oh, Susanna". We had to bow three times toward the coffin and then the cortege of his family and paid mourners

clad in white moved on.

The close of an interesting life and the end of a colourful ald fascinating character. A simple, illiterate patent

medicine man who proved that, as the saying goes, "ifyou build a better a mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door".

Aw chose the Burmese Tiger as the symbol of his business empire.

Extracted from Chapter 31,- Bye Bye to a Most UnusuaT Character.

27

Painting with light and film I

Sukarno (1 901

-t 970)

President of lndonesia

hen Sukarno announced the expulsion of Dutch nationals

from Indonesia in December 1957, Man¡in was part of the CBC team

one: fashion' new "Have you seen the

covering the story with Ganadian cor-

respondent Bill Stevenson. Hoping to get an exclusive interview, CBC tracked the President to Surabaya.

The Hanuman Hotel was an old two-storey villa which had been taken over by the Indonesian government.

The rooms were large and comfort-

show too much of the legs' I think women look like little girls in party dresses in them. TheY should absolutely be banned. I am sure that they will never catch on in Indonesia'" "Why is that, Mr President?"

"Because Indonesian girls are very

able and were beautifully laid out with quaint Dutch-style furniture. V/e discovered that there were just three couples staying at the hotel and so we booked the remaining three rooms on the ground floor. Sukarno and his party had taken the whole upper floor.

After drinks and some strategic talk of how to snare our interview we went into the dining room hoping Sukarno would show up there. The manager told us that was not likeiy as he had very large quarters with room to feed his entire entourage. He had a kitchen in his suite and a personal

cook travelling with him. Well that was that for the time being.

After a dinner of rijstaffel we sat in the bar enjoying small talk when who should come in but the great man himself. It really took us by surprise. He had some military men with him and they took a table near ours.

Sukarno seemed to recognise us.

"You're uh....from some TV network?" he said looking at Bill.

"That's right, sir. I'm Bill Stevenson from the CBC. We met you yesterday at the Merdeka Palace."

"Oh, that's right. So what are you doing here? Is it a coincidence...or

are you still looking for an interview?"

"Well we actually covered your speech at the stadium (in Jakarta) this afternoon. Very inspiring...I...uh understand."

"But you are still looking for that interview?" he said insistently.

28

mini-skirt

fashion?" Sukarno asked' in the Unit"Oh yes, it's very popular catch on to ed States and beginning do you "What Bill' in London," replied President?"

Mr think of mini-skirts, "I think theY're outrageous' TheY

Bali, 1960. Covering the Khrushchev-Sukarno rally. Marvin (right) is flanked by late FCC President Guy Searls.

He shouted: "Hey you. Are

"Well, as a matter of fact...yes we

Dutch?"

are."

"Well as a matter of fact the answer is still the same," said the Bung smiling. "Oh excuse my rudeness. Won't you and your friends join us?"

We were overjoyed. It was quite a thrill sitting there having drinks with a noted world figure.

"So you're not going to give up on that interview?"

"I hope I don't have to, sir," replied Bill. "But it's all up to you if you want to do it or not."

"That's not 100 percent correct. As

the President of the country I have many people to answer to. I cannot make a move like that unilaterally.

For instance these men here are part

of my

you

problem. What do you

say,

gentlemen? Are you for or against my granting the CBC an interview?"

one general looked very

serious

and said: "We'll have to take it under advisement."

"You see, it is not me that says no," Sukarno said smiling.

All of a sudden Sukarno stopped what he was saying and a hostile look came into his eyes. He noticed across the room six Europeans talking quietly.

The people looked at each other before replying. "Why, yes," one man said.

"Pay your

bill and get out,"

the

President commanded.

"We were just sitting here and talking. Not doing anyone any harm."

'Are you deaf?"

"No." "Then get out. Now." They called for the bill and the waiter told them it was waiting for them outside at the desk. They got up as fast as they could and left. I wondered how

they felt getting kicked out of the bar by the great Sukarno himself. "l don't want any Dutch near me' The sooner theY are all out of this

women obedient and would strongly object to see them in mini-skirts."

'4h," said Bill, thinking about but not mentioning Sukarno's renowned womanising.

"That's men, but women have their

own minds especially about fashions."

Sukarno shook his head with a shudder. "That is the problem with Western men. They have no control

over their women. They act any way they please and wear anything they like and the men dare not say a word. That's why Western society is on the decline. The men have no backbone."

On that note our evening.begah to. draw to an end. One of his ãidep sai$,

"l think it's late and we mus¡ be up

country."

All of his generals agreed as generals do. It seemed rather strange to me that a man in his position would lower himself to shouting boorishly across a

A moment after he left it , was

early tomorrow

morning.,,

like waking from a dream. Could we have actually spent the evening chatting about mini-skirts of all h a relaxed way s Sukarno, the p esia?

-

in

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL

Extractedfrom Chqpter 47 - The Great

Man Speaks

a less boisterous manner?

2OO5

Nature

IHE coRREspoNDENT

Kong'standard, worked for Emphasis and servei' as heaà of mørketing and vublic relations at theTrade Development He is now the Executive Director

'Council.

'oj

t't'r, Marketing and Communications Division of Charles Sturt IJniversity in

Bathurst, Neu.r South \Â/ales.

-

Saul Lockhart

new digital format "l am able to communicate to film, recording impressions as latent images. I because

know from experience what I am capturing on film."

Despite his strong background in photojournalism, Ken began shooting fine art photography only four years ago. "l work with nature and record my impressions of the colours and movements...MY palette is endless... from tree bark to tiny blooms, from rockpools to coastIines...Sometimes I

limit myself to one square metre outdoors and shoot for hours in that spot.

It is an

MARcH/ApRrL 2005

Ken Ball was Second Vice President of '1992' During his the FCC from 1991- to

time in Hong Kong, he edited the Hong

modest and resPectable and theY would never appear in public in such outrageous clothing. Indonesian men wouldn't stand for it. They like their

it will be for the

country the better

lmpressions of

discipline for learning to 'see' the colour, Patterns and beauty of the world around us."

Impressions of Nature features 83 photograPhs sPread over 100 pages. It is a limited edition print run of 1,000 coPies and each coPy is signed and numbered by the author.

The softcover book is on sale for HK$2sO.Contact Ken on impressions ofnature@hotmai l.tom for details'

excellent

lunch. Dinner' Lote Night

oulhenlic middle eoslern cuisine bellY doncing middle eqsl lhemed Porl¡es corporole funclions

reservot¡o

ní

2544'6198

hk mogozine *s*** 1

www'hobibi'com'hk l2 - I i 4 wellinglon slreel' centrol

Kevin Cooney (1947-2004) escribing his Thai tifestyle several years ago' former Reuters correspondent Kevin Cooney wrote: "l am, surprise, surprise, one of those

ruddy, round-faced, rotund, white-haired gentlemen one sees in pubs shortly after opening time'" Sadly, the bars and the journalistic community lost a great friend and prodigious talent when Kevin died of cancer last December at the age of 57 in Thailand.

In his eulogy, long-time friend and colleague Arthur Spiegelman described Kevin as "a long-

time Reuters journalist who waged a one-man war against bad writing, boredom and pomposity on editing desks in New York, Nairobi and Hong Kong'" A wire service journalist for 30 years, Kevin retired to Phuket several years ago for the sun, sand, beer, beaches and the golf course.

He was cremated at a local wat in a ceremony attended by friends and former colleagues, many

of whom have since sent in their own personal tributes.

"Kevin was a fantastic person to work with and he was adored by his colleagues in Thailand, Cambodia, Burma and Vietnam, who respected him not just for his journalistic talents, but for his kindness and great sense offairness and generosity as a bureau chief," wrote David Brunnstrom, who was hired by Kevin in Bangkok and is now Reuters'

Senior Correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sutin Wannabovorn, formerly with Reuters and now with the Associated Press, remembers Kevin as a bureau chief who cared deeply about his local

staff.

He recalled an incident during the Black May military crackdown of 1992 when the Reuters desks in London and Hong Kong were putting pressure on him to match stories from other wire agencies reporting that disgraced military strongman Suchinda Kraprayoon had fled Thailand for Germany.

"I could not get confirmation of this from my

had to be on deck to teach a course to local business

determined to retire there. Retirement came sooner

journalists just a few hours later. Kevin thought this was a pale excuse, said we lacked stamina and

than expected after a "night of long knives" when Reuters laid off the majority of Hong Kong deskers

called us wimps. I guess he was right."

employed on expatriate terms.

Another former colleague, Sonya Hepinstall, who travelled from Singapore to attend Kevin's funeral, said it was celebrated in true Cooney-like style with "a lunch that turned into a dinner, beers in cooler

He developed a fantastic network of friends and golfing buddies in Phuket where he lived with girlfriend Natthaporn \Ăƒ/etbunpot, with whom he had set up an English-language school, said Sonya. He had a lovely house not far from Nikita's, and a

packs at Nikita's breezy beach-front bar that became red wine and steaks at

a friend's home, lots of laughter

and

sources so I refused to report it," said Sutin.

'At 4 am Kevin told me to get some sleep and he sent a blunt message to the desk telling them not to

toasts, appointments forgotten, errands

dictate what they wanted reporters to write."

being ignored ... pretty much everything you d expect."

Kevin had a complete life in Phuket, said Sonya, who worked with Kevin in Bangkok and in Hong Kong, including the weeks surrounding the Tiananmen massacre of 1989 when Kevin headed the Reuters 24-7tour desking operation set up by then Asia Editor, AIex Frere, to handle

When

it

transpired the following morning that

Suchinda was still in Thailand, a fact duly reported

by Sutin, the desk congratulated him for not running with the erroneous story.

"Kevin taught them a big lesson in respecting the decisions of local staff - I was impressed with his attitude in giving priority to the local staff."

"I last saw Kevin in Bangkok just a few years ago," said London-based former colleague Dave Betts.

"He was annoyed with Colin McKinnon and me because we wouldn't go on to yet another nightclub at 2 arn to carry on partying with him, because we

postponed, one guest who roared off on his motorcycle petulant that he was

the story.

share in a golf ,touring business. And of course, therĂŞ was his beloved beach.

"The beac?r still beckons. The crinkly squint needed'to survey the scene at

noon, the polished feeling of your feet after'a long walk in the sand, the salty tightness of your skin after letting yourself dry off in the air after bathing in the sea, still bring me to the water's edge," Kevin wrote in this magazine in 2003.

"Now, however, once there what I require most is a shady place to sit and something cold to drink."

Kevin's ashes were scatted in the sea off Phuket

at sunset on the day after his cremation.

Kevin had mixed feelings about Hong Kong which he found more provincial than his native

By Craig Knowles with contributions from David Brunnstrom, David Thurston, Dave Betts, Apichart

New York, friends recall. But he loved Thailand, the penultimate posting of his long career, and was

Weerawong, Sutin Wannabovorn, Sonya Hepinstall, Jim Anderson, Grant Peck and Diane Stormont.

Larry Allen March 26, 2005 in Connecticut, USA

Malcolm Glass February '14,2OO5 in Malta

30

THE CORRESPONDENT JANUARY

/

FEBRUARY 2OO5

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL.2OO5

31

Gheck out the

Fiction

wide range of

Cleoning House

FGG

Computer bag Blue ball pen

Silver ball pen

FCC Card

Anthology of poetry

with greeting

Card blank

Sl.so

Arthur Hacker

Gold Zippo lighter Luggage tag

51

pin

Reporter's notebook Polo shirt

S140

Stonewashed shirt

Slls

Scs

S 16s

5oa

Captain if Captured

Clare Hollingworth

-

Biography

5299

China lllustrated

f t1

Arthur Hacker

S:gs

Custom Maid for New World Disorder Peter de Krassel

Slss

Hong Kong Murders

Kate Whitehead.

Slzs

Kyoto Journal S60 | o,!,

\.

.ú,rn

q.-aD

L!,,

1,,ún

trrv

Macau Wotercolour

s1 10

Murray Zanoni

T-shirt

S11o

One Hand Teo Fingers

53so

Gavin Coates Seo

s0

51

of Steel Brandon Royal & Paul Strahan

Stonewashed shorts

tie (B&R)

5200

Bars

¡r¡

FCC

Cheung

Anne Knecht-Boyer

5os

$10

Cartoons

Baby Fun

s0

57s

-

Christine Loh & Civic Exchange

5oo

Name card holder

5+s

At the Epicentre

5280

S3o

Cartoons

Kevin Sinclair & Nelson

5s

Plated keyholder

-

Asia's Finest Morchs On

s3s

530

of Dogs

ABC of Hong Kong

S¡S

Keyholder & ring

FCC

ABC

Arthur Hacker

Stlo

Disposable lighter Fleece smock

S8o

Non-fiction

5os

Document case

Slso

$los s1s

Plastic ball pen

FCC

Barry Kalb Outloud

products

$14s

Pocket Guide to Golfing Philippines 2005

Umbrella (folding)

Sloo

Robin Moyer

Umbrella (golf

5200

Polar Power - Bilinguol version Rebecca Lee - Photography

$lzo

Shanghai Through the Ponoramic Eye Fumio Okada

5zqo

)

New Umbrella (regular) New Umbrella (golf) Wallet

- hot stamped

568

5l6s s12s

New windbreaker

519s

Windbreaker

s2s0

Pierre Quioc Stole

S28o

Pierre Quioc Scarf

Video

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FCC

Video

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lithograph

FCC

postcard

I

NTSC

S9s

Love HK postcard

I Love HK poster

531 o

S28o S8oo 5E 5'r 3.s0

52so

Golf Society: magical balls

wenty of us (including a handful of non-golfers) went to Myanmar/Burma in January our first overseas trip for quite a while. Few of us had been there before so we had little idea of what to expect.

We found a iand where credit cards

Tim Noonan & Chris Watts The Emperor's Old Clothes

Jake van der Kamp

51

'

little mound called a "pagoda tee',. Some balls even managed to bounce right out of a lake back on to the fairway. It made for some better scores than might have been achieved if the rules had béen more strictly adhered to - but no one complained (until later).

The next course was a more mod_

are useless and so were our GSM rr¡obile phones. It is a place where the highest denomination banknote is worth about HK$10, where they drive on the right, but use right-hand drive vehicles so passengers disembark into the middle of the road, and where golf

scramble competition

balls have magical properties.

The first course we played was the old Royal Rangoon, established in 1909

Course, which despite the rather dour sounding name \Ã/as also a great course.

and now called yangon Golf Club. It

joy to play on such a mature course. The caddies there had some was a

ern one. Pun Hlaing was absolutely first class and ranks with any we have ever played before. Unfortunately the caddies there were stricter.

On day three, we enjoyed a relaxed

at the yangon City Development Committee Golf V/e also managed some sightseeing and were able to visit some of the city,s sights including the extraordinary Shwe Dagon temple, Scott's market, and even an art galiery (yes, this really was an FCC Golf Society trip).

We ate at some superb local restau_

Stretch Your Life

s8

ìvlovin$: 'Stzg

'F.o.t.,{ to B.

Relocating: Frorn A to Z.

The Little Red Writing Book

Brandon Royal

.5168

The Poles Declaration - Bilinoual Version

Rebecca Lee

FCC

$ga

FCC

- Photograp-hy

The Quest of Noel Croucher Vaudine England - Biography

51

70

$185

GDs Allen Youngblood CD

Allen Youngblood

51 10

Helping you Legin li{e's rr.*t chapter.

Digitat Cutup Lounge vs Allen Youngblood,. .

AllenYoungblood

)rru^

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL2OO'

Contacr Crowlr Iì.elocario ns ar 2636-838 8 o' visi r IHE coRREspoNDENT

MARCH/ApRrL 200s

o

r.r

r websi re: www. crownrelo. com.

33

Roughing ¡t Downunder

WHAT A NIGHT!

fhe idea of taking a trip on I fh" chrn, Australia3 newest transcontinental train, from Adelaide in the south 3,000 km to Darwin in the Top End, was born in a pub in Vancouver during a conversation between two venerable Asia hands and frequent

FCC

visitors. Ashley Ford,

formerly of the Far Eastern Economic Review and now the business and tourist columnist for the Vancouver Province, and Alan Daniels, late of Vancouver Sun (and

the

the old Sundoy

Post-Heroldin Hong Kong and now

running his own communications

group), having decided on another adventure, reached for the phone to call the third member of the trio, FCC life member Saul Lockhart in SydneY. Meeting them in Adelaide with the appropr¡ate amount of bubbly was ex

FCCer (and Sun day Post Herald staffer) Paul

Lloyd, now with the Adelaide Advertiser, and the FCC's own ace photographer, Bob Davis, coincidentally on assignment in

The FCC Annual Staff | ,ur." held at the

Adelaide. (Leftto r¡ght) Lockhart, Lloyd, Daniels, Ford and Davis.

Convent¡on Centre on January 29,was a model of decorum and oldfashioned restra¡nt, and yet a fine time was had

Congratulations! ll /l embers have had lVlurpr" reason to pop

the Year by Advertising Age

the Champagne corks in recent weeks. For race-

award follows a year during

horse trainer David Ferraris,

the golden moment came when Vengeance Of Rain won the S14 Million

Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby in March, The New Zea land-bred four-yea r-old started as the two-to-one favourite and was ridden by South African jockey Anthony Delpech.

Ad-man lan Thubron, CEO ofthe TBWA Group Hong Kong, rounded up a successful year when TBWA Worldwide was named the 2004 Global Agency Network of

by all.

Meanwhile, the staff members of lhe Correspondent are

magazine. This esteemed

which TBWA Worldwide offices were named agency of the year 30 times in i 3 countries. The network also won the most awards at the Cannes Lions lnternational

confident of enjoying a standard of service

over the next few weeks that exceeds even the high levels we have I ¡)

Advertising Festival, at The One Show, AdFest and Art

most awarded in the world'

D¡rector's Club 2004. The

by Creativiry Magazine.

network was named "the

Year. Among the awards taken by the Asia Pacific team were a Grand Clio and five gold Lions at Cannes, five golds and two bronzes atThe One Show and one

TBWA Asia Pacific was singled out bY Media

magazine which named the regional network as its Agency ofthe Year and AdFest as its Network of the

-1

come to revere. E¡ther

that or we'll publish the truly embarrassing photos currently ¡n our possession

...

gold and six silvers at Media magazine's SPikes.

Welcome to Blossom Louise Cook who arrived in this world weighing six pounds and nine ounces on January 31 ' Delighted first-t¡me parents Richard and Tilly whisked her off to one of their favourite destinations, Thailand, over Easter'

THECORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL2OO5

THE CORRESPONDENT MARCH/APRIL 2OO5 ,

)

35

ITALI

SOI.]THE

WINEM KER'S DINI\ER Winemoker Volentino Sciotti

HEARD ATTHE FCC

:

Mr

Wednesdoy,

Moyll, 2005

lst Floor

f,inner feøtures tñe wines of Çeucfi fi San gVlarzano in Qugfiø, tfte fieef of tfie Itafian 6oot, ancf tlie'/eser.,o winerl in Componia, tñe region surroun[ing Nopfes, I'fte two øre suSsiliøries of tñe ñigñ$ røtef (Farnese winerl of tñe flîruzzo region, on Ita$'s Af,riotic coast. Ífie wines ore e4ampfes of tñe ñigñ quafit1 tñat is newf1 emerging from tfte ltafian

Íñis

Clockwise from top: Fung Shui master Raymond Lo spoke of what's in store in the Year of the Cockerel; Lee Wing-tat, newlyinstalled chairman of the Democratic Party addressed the party's future in these uncertain constitut¡onal times; Richard Waldon, CEO and Founder ofthe NGO, Operation USA, talked about the politics of aid in post-tsunam¡ Sri Lanka; act¡v¡st-turned-author ElsieTu (with Professional Committee Convener Keith Bradsher) presented her latest autobiography, and Joel MacCallam, President and Founder of World Emergency Relief, discussed fund-raising for tsunami victìms in lndonesia.

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Both S¡des of the Fence Mervin'The Champ'Nambiar talks to Jonathan Sharp PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB DAVIS

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