Hong Kong

1.

The news on the TV reports
Young people mounting a bulldozer
banners waving: Star Ferry Pie stays
Mixed feelings pull my head down

The protest against the demolition of Star Ferry has been going on for four days. After the violent crack down by the police, protesters are now launching hunger strike.

In December 14, at the eve of the Ferry's 49 years anniversary, the demonstrators organized a peaceful candle night. When they moved to the front gate of the construction site, the police surrounded dozen of them with iron bar and arrested 11 of them under minor charges within the Police force ordinance, such as "obstructing public officers".

This article is originally a speech given at the Hong Kong Social Forum on (organized by Hong Kong In-Media)by Ip Iam Chong, and translated by

In order to construct a highway (P2) along the coast, connecting Wanchai and Central, the Hong Kong government decided to demolish Star Ferry and Queen's Pier - the two most famous tourist spots in Hong Kong. Since Monday (November 27), the pier is being torn down bit by bit.

Architects, conservationists and cultural activists are now launching public campaigns to rescue the pier. This morning (Nov 30, 2006), a group of citizens climbed up the clock tower, rang the bell and put up a banner, calling for a stop in demolition. (See: photos) A mass mobilization will take place at noon time on 3 of December, 2006. The demonstrators will march from Old star ferry pier to government building and have a cultural night outside Star ferry pier.

I have been wishing to organize a team of woman citizen reporters since 2004, when I started to promote "citizen reporter" (民間記者) in inmediahk.net. However, because of lack of resources, the idea hasn't been carried out. Hence, when Chan Shun Hing told me that "Association for the advancement of Feminism" (AAF) wanted to organize citizen reporter workshop, I were very excited.

"Citizen - reporters" torn apart by "women"

AAF called the project "Minjian nu ji-zhe" (citizen woman reporter). I felt strange about the sequence of the words: how come the word "woman" stands between Minjian and reporter? I did not bring it up to discuss with the organizer, however, such slight difference makes my heart restless - as if the words were in a chemistry experiment, when different elements mixed together, bubbles kept popping up before the reaction was finished - and i couldn't wait to see the outcome.

story originated from:inmediahk.net(oiwan)
translated by shareef; proof-read by: ayeah

In the early September, the RTHK began to invite tenders for the distribution of the second batch of programs, the tender invitation phase has already ended on 11th of October. The tenders are now under review. The programs involved in this batch includes >‘a century of dream factory’ (note 1 百年夢工場) and ‘success stories series’(note 2 傑出華人系列).

Less than one year ago, people from mainland China could join tour to Hong Kong at a price as low as HK$80. Sometimes it was totally free of charge. Am I joking? Yes or no.

Incredibly low fees or "zero-charge" tours are strategies to lure people to join tours and the travel agencies make money by forcing tourists to buy souvenirs from shops who offer commissions to tour guides and travel agencies. In order to reduce cost to minimum, accomodation and meal are certainly low quality. In some cases, the tour guides only lead the tourists to designated shops rather than any tourist attractions.

author: oiwan
translated from: inmediahk.net

"Strengthening governance" have been the buzz words of Donald Tsang ever since he became the Chief Executive of HKSAR Government. The problem is, however, which part of the governance does our Government want to strengthen?

From the debate of "large market, small government" to the recent launch of policy address, evidence shows that our Government is leading the path of nanny politics.

Hong Kong government's Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) and police officers had raided Citizen Radio again recently (October 13). As Hong Kong government refuses to grant radio broadcasting license to civic organizations, in order to participate in public broadcasting, the organizers of Citizen Radio have to go underground and take the risk of violating the unreasonable laws. The police has confisticated all their equipment and arrested the organizers. It is a repressive action against freedom of speech. We strongly urge Hong Kong government to open radio bandwidth to the public and return the right of broadcasting to the people.

Public service broadcasting or Public Broadcasting Service is common all over the world. In Hong Kong, the only publicly owned media "Radio and Television Hong Kong (RTHK)" is tightly controlled by Hong Kong government. The management of RTHK is composed of government's administrative officer and civil servants.