Digital Nomad
When I was a kid, I once emptied an egg and painted the egg shell for a family friend. She added it to her collection of decorative eggs and over the years it always came up in conversation when I saw the family.
Last week on Thursday, she passed away unexpectedly. I only found out about it today.
Rest in peace.
Malaysia’s in the thick of it again. This time it is under fire for detaining four Chinese women for allegedly not having valid travel documents, forcing them to strip in front of male officers and ordering them to squat (apparently, this will reveal hidden caches of drugs). Apparently, the initial charge proved to be false and the whole sordid incident was captured on a video camera phone. Some even claim that this is increasingly standard practice to discourage the influx of Chinese women coming into the country to work as prostitutes.
Of course, this doesn’t justify violating basic human rights and degrading a human being.
Even more laughable is the culture of “it’s not my fault” that seems to be pervading the Malaysian government. First, the deputy police chief, Musa Hassan, claims that those that actually recorded the incident should be punished with no mention of punishing those that committed the human rights violation. Of course, he does have a point if the person who took the video did it with intentions of adding it to his own personal porn collection.
Second, and even more serious, is that the Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia’s prime minister, stated in an official statement of apology, that “the actions of a handful of government officials do not represent the entire police force or government” or something to that effect.
Bullshit, Mr. Badawi. Each person employed in your civil service should have been instilled with the utmost understanding that they do represent their country, their government and the people that they protect. The assumption that all their actions are accountable should be foremost in their mind. When the system fails, the people at the top shouldn’t issue regrettable apologies, but should take collective responsibility for the failings of their juniors. Their shame, and I’m sure the Malaysian nation’s shame, should be reflected in your apology. Their failings are in fact your failings.
This is your Guantanamo and the world waits to see if you’ll rise to the occassion. Bush and Rumsfeld failed to, let’s hope you don’t. Take responsibility.
These pictures appalled me as they should do you. .
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(Identity blanked by me to offer some privacy to the woman pictured. I am of the mind that however these pictures came into the public domain, they should be distributed for the “appall” factor. I once saw a picture of Jewish woman after she was raped by German soldiers. My disgust at Nazi Germany has never left me since and although it would seem I’m perpetuating the sensationalism, I believe that pictures do sometimes capture the depravity of human nature that academic words cannot.)
Balancing Note: Mainland Chinese women are travelling more to engage in prostitution but this doesn’t justify the actions of the Malaysian police force. Malaysia should perhaps spend more time educating its own population own the issues of prostitution and the social consequences rather than taking it out in the form of ethnically profiled bigotry.
For a Malaysian perspective of this atrocity, read “The Wrongs of the Right” by Lisa.
Went over to Po Toi Island for lunch today. Although it was sunny, the speed boat ride in open seas managed to get most of us drenched in cold sea water. You wouldn’t have thought a bunch of wakeboarders had such an aversion to cold water. Anyway, as soon as we arrived, all hell broke loose as our boat spotted a dog nearly hanging itself on its own leash. Its owners had tied it to an elevated railing and had carelessly ignored it as it had fallen off the edge. Couldn’t see the poor dog struggling to get up or nearly snap its neck with the struggling. I suppose it’s forgiveable. Less forgiveable was the way they carried on as if nothing had happened or the fact that they tied the damned dog to the same railings.
Of course, we got the table next to theirs. Lower class Australians, as it turned out. Considering the only girl at the table looked like a Filipino maid, and the men were fat balding white men, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
Anyway, the food at Po Toi was good. I’m only aware of two times that I’ve been to the island. The first was for dinner during a junk trip and we took about three full tables. The second was today for lunch. Missed some of my favourites over lunch like the garlic abalone (at least, I think it was abalone). But then they had the battered squid and san choi fuyi, which is basically lettuce cooked in fermented beancurd, and all was well with the world again.
Po Toi also happens to be a small place and a popular one. Bumped into one of the head honchos from my old company not five minutes into landing on the island. It seemed that he was busy having lunch with an equally head honcho from the client side.
And they say playing golf is dead client service art form.
My friend is realising her dream and launching her own line of custom designed handbags. She’s having a debut showing of her bags on Thursday 24 November at INDIGO at 32a Staunton Street from 6 to 9pm (two doors down from Jaspas, away from the escalator).
Pop down if you have the chance…
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We were born to move. Or so says Cathay Pacific with their new brand promise.
You’ve got people getting jiggy with it to a tribal beat and you can’t help wonder if the creative director came up with his concept just after a recent visit by Stomp to Hong Kong. You’ve got absolutely every bloody target segment you could possibly think of, in possibly every location that an international company could think of (just in case you missed it). You’re thinking, “Wow, what’s all this about?” (Those jaded on advertising have already narrowed it down to an airline, a courier company or an arty McDonald’s TVC).
And then the raw insight, “We were born to move”.
And the brand promise? It’s a nice insight, but there simply is no brand promise. No brand connection to the insight. People were indeed born to move. Rather than fly around the world shooting arty commercials, a little more thought should have gone into joining the dots. Lord knows I love advertising that successfully does an inspirational ad without ever having to show the actual product (think Apple’s “1984″). But I still have the question in my head, how will Cathay Pacific help me move and place it in a position that could be just any other airline (or delivery company, or McDonald’s)?
We are born to move. And so too are brands maybe. It is afterall, a move in the right direction.
