JPMorgan's Dimon Regrets Joking about CPC

Last week Dimon boasted JPMorgan would outlast the CPC 

There are jokes going around on social media about how the JPMorgan corporate communications department is now facing its biggest crisis management yet -- their CEO Jamie Dimon boasting that the investment bank will outlast the Chinese Communist Party.

He made the remarks on Tuesday this week at a Boston college series of CEO interviews.

"I made a joke the other day that the Communist Party is celebrating its 100th year -- so it JPMorgan. I'd make a bet that we last longer. 

Dimon visited Hong Kong quarantine free

"I can't say that in China. They are probably listening anyway," he added.

Can someone say oops to the infinitesimal degree?

Dimon said this while the Wall Street bank won regulatory approval in August to become the first full foreign owner of a securities brokerage in the country. 

The next day he quickly apologised in a statement: "I regret and should not have made that comment. I was trying to emphasise the strength and longevity of our company."

Uh huh.

And to further drive the message home, in another statement added: "It's never right to joke about or denigrate any group of people, whether it's a country, its leadership, or any part of a society and culture. Speaking in that way can take away from constructive and thoughtful dialogue in society, which is needed now more than ever."

On social media, the Twitterverse wondered how much Dimon would grovel for forgiveness from the Chinese, or that JPMorgan bankers could finally quit their jobs and set up that boutique hotel they'd always been dreaming about.

Hu says CPC far more successful than JPMorgan

As expected the Chinese were not impressed.

When asked about Dimon's comments in a news conference, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian replied: "Why the publicity stunt with some grandstanding remarks?"

Hu Xijin, chief editor of the Global Times tweeted: "You don't have to regret actually. The CPC has succeeded in its sphere far more than JPMorgan's. As a member of the CPC, I don't mind your company riding the wave of CPC's popularity."

Meanwhile Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor must have regretted approving Dimon's quarantine exemption last week when he visited the city for 32 hours via private jet. 

We wait with baited breath on what the fall out will be... 

Carrie Lam's Son Flees US

Chief Executive Carrie Lam with her son Joshua

 

Just a quick follow up to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and the sanctions imposed on her and 10 other local and Chinese officials by the US Treasury Department.

I had mentioned Lam's son, Joshua Lam Yuek-hay, 26, was studying at Harvard -- a PhD in mathematics -- but now it turns out he suddenly left the US to go back to Hong Kong due to a "family emergency".

A picture of Lam with his classmates

Reporters from FactWire News Agency tried to contact Lam in Boston, but was told by his landlord that he had been missing since July 25, and two days later left a Facebook message to his flatmate that he had to return to Hong Kong because of a "family emergency".

The landlord also received an email from Lam on July 27, agreeing to renew his lease for another year. However, he did not reply to subsequent emails to sign the lease attached to them, though he did pay rent for the month of August.

His roommate said Lam did not pack up all his belongings.

The landlord also tried to phone Lam, but the call was restricted by US carrier Verizon. One of the reasons listed on the website could be because of an outstanding phone bill.

While FactWire asked the CE's office to confirm if Joshua Lam is in Hong Kong, Apple Daily was able to track him down in the city, but there were no further details... yet. Maybe that's because he's in quarantine?

FactWire's timeline of Joshua Lam's disappearance

Very strange, but also perhaps the impending economic sanctions on his mother forced the younger Lam to leave the US.

Earlier Carrie Lam had told the media she would laugh off any penalties from the US, adding the sanctions would have no effect on her as she has no assets in the country.

Well, technically not anymore...

Remembering Liu Xiaobo Seven Days Later

A memorial for Liu Xiaobo was held at Tamar in Admiralty

I'm sorry I missed another memorial for Liu Xiaobo in Hong Kong last night.

It was the seventh day of his death, where the Chinese believe the spirit of the newly deceased will return home to bid a final farewell to their loved ones.

In Hong Kong, about 1,500 people gathered at Tamar in Admiralty, where they paid their last respects to the political dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner who died of liver cancer on July 13.

Liu is remembered with pictures of a chair by the water

People signed condolence books and placed flowers in front of a large portrait of Liu with the words "Remembering Liu Xiaobo -- Free Liu Xia" at the park. Local musicians also performed several songs, including John Lennon's Imagine. At the end of the one-hour memorial, people raised three fingers in the air to represent resistance, freedom and hope.

Finally, a chair with a candle on it was lowered into Victoria Harbour. There are reports police were present but didn't intervene.

There were similar memorials in Vancouver, Boston, Melbourne and London.

It is believed the family was pressured by the Chinese government to cremate the Chinese dissident's body so soon after his death -- usually it is done at least a week after in observance of the Chinese custom.

Also his ashes were scattered into the sea in a controversial burial in an attempt by Beijing to deny supporters a place of pilgrimage. It is also known as a cruel form of posthumous punishment in traditional Chinese culture, where having a tomb is a place for one's descendants to pay tribute to the dead.

Projecting Liu Xiaobo's face on the facade of the PLA!

In the meantime there is serious concern over the whereabouts of his wife, Liu Xia. It is believed she may have been forced to "take a vacation" in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

Not only was she apparently detained, but also Liu Xiaobo's friends, who were reportedly under house arrest, unable to attend memorials. Others were detained after holding ceremonies by the sea.

On social media, people have been posting pictures of chairs by or in the sea, sometimes with flowers and the hashtag #liuxiaobo.

It's telling how far the Chinese government has gone to try to censor anything related to Liu Xiaobo, and yet people just keep remembering him through creative ways.

I think Liu would have been pleased to know so many around the world came out courageously to remember him in various ways.

Perhaps projecting his image on the barracks of the People's Liberation Army in Hong Kong is probably the most daring.

Only in Hong Kong...

Movie Review: Spotlight

Spotlight follows the team that uncovered sex abuse in the Catholic Chuch

I just came back from seeing Spotlight, which is nominated for six Academy Awards, though pundits are saying its chances of winning golden statues are slim because it's all dialogue and no dramatic chase or sex scenes.

It has won a host of other awards from Bafta, Critics Choice Movie Award, National Society of Film Critics Award and others, though we hope the film will get an Oscar nod -- or two.

Like All The Presidents Men that inspired a generation or two of people to become journalists, Spotlight will hopefully do the same, though the economic conditions of running the paper takes more precedence than the stories it runs these days.

Nevertheless, Spotlight is based on true events about an investigative team at The Boston Globe called Spotlight. A new editor in chief comes in, Marty Baron, who is Jewish and new to Boston.

The actors in Spotlight with the real reporters of The Globe

He finds it curious that there was no follow up on a case about a priest molesting children and gets the Spotlight team to work on it. And what they uncover is not just one, but many more priests in Boston who committed the same horrific crime.

The church's pervasive influence over Boston is evident, with a code of silence the reporters must break, in some cases ruining friendships and connections to get the truth.

At first the dialogue flies fast with lots of names to follow, but soon we grasp what's going on and especially the magnitude of the case, as we discover the facts as the reporters do.

They talk to lots of victims, hearing their stories which corroborates with what a former priest, now academic who has studied pedophile priests for three decades, they badger the lawyers who represented the church, and finally get the trust of a lawyer who has been trying to prosecute the church for years.

In their investigation, the reporters uncover that The Globe was also complicit -- hardly questioning what was going on, and dismissing victims as weak sources.

Cardinal Law is now an archpriest in The Vatican

In the end Spotlight wrote 600 stories about priests abusing people in 2002 and Cardinal Bernard Francis Law who did nothing about it, except shift the priests around, finally resigned in the same year.

The Vatican didn't punish him, but instead transferred him to be archpriest of one of Rome's four papal basilicas, Santa Maria Maggiore.

Law is in his mid-80s and hasn't spoken publicly about the expose, or his part in it; instead he remains cloistered in The Vatican. Law gets the last laugh.

But the reverberations of the original breaking story are not over -- Pope Francis is trying to tackle the issue now, though as delicately as possible, but at least has acknowledged the pain of the victims, many who turned to drugs and alcohol or even suicide.

Being in the same occupation, I was riveted watching the movie from beginning to end. We don't see much of the team's dynamics except that they are completely focused on their goal, and they like being able to keep their work confidential even to their colleagues.

Nevertheless, Spotlight reminded me of my job -- to inform the public of what's really going on. Hong Kong is an interesting city because it too is like Boston in how the wealthy and powerful determine how much a story can be reported.

And with the growing cold climate that President Xi Jinping is casting over the media sector these days, more restrictions will be an added challenge. We must have courage.

Boston's Eclectic Gem

General Joseph Hooker sits astride his horse at the Massachusetts State House

The following blog post was written on October 9, but being published now. Thanks for your patience!

Today we landed in Boston and we came here two years ago, walking part of the Freedom Trail before heading to other spots like Harvard and Boston Common.

This time around the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was on my list, but it didn't open until 11am so we first visited the Massachusetts State House, not too far from Quincy Market – where a new Uniqlo outlet opened today to the beat of taiko drums.

Part of the stained glass window on independence

The Massachusetts State House is quite grand, with a statue of Hooker on a horse. After a security check we were allowed to wander around certain areas on our own, or follow a guided tour.

The building was designed by Charles Bulfinch and completed in 1798, measuring only 65 feet wide at the time. The cornerstone was laid July 4, 1795, by Governor Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. Another interesting fact is that the State House is on the land where John Hancock used to have a cow pasture.

The House of Representatives is in there, but my favourite parts of the building are the gorgeous mosaic floors and the stained glass window in the Great Hall, which shows the evolution of the Massachusett's state seal. The state motto in Latin means: "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty".

Uniqlo just opened its latest store in Quincy Market

Then we headed over to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. There is a new addition to the place, including a covered walkway to the actual house.

Isabella Stewart (1840-1924) was born in New York and married Bostonian John Lowell Gardner Jr ("Jack") in 1860. His family was in the shipping business, doing a lot of trade in China in lacquerware and silk. They originally lived on 152 Beacon Street.

They had a son called Jacky, but he died at two years of age. She tried to conceive again, but had a miscarriage. Isabella was very depressed and the doctor advised that she take a six-month holiday.

They traveled around Europe and with the money she had inherited from her father (importing linens and selling off her grandmother's farms on Long Island), she received $1.7 million at the time, which would have been worth $25 million.

A symbol of the Freedom Trail on the ground

She began buying up museum-quality pieces like Rembrandt, Titian and Giotto, and expanded to furniture, textiles, giant wooden Chinese screens, porcelain and even massive palazzo windows from Italy. Isabella preferred Italian art and architecture over French which was in vogue at the time.

Another interesting fact is that being a businessman he recorded all of his wife's acquisitions, so the museum must have a tally of everything she bought.

When she accumulated a massive collection of things, she began planning to house them all. At first they bought the property next door to them on Beacon Street, but it soon became clear it was going to be too small.

Her husband died in 1890 and Isabella continued her project, and bought a piece of land near Fenway Park. Fen means "swamp", and the area was previously swamp land that was filled in.

The Isabella Gardner Museum courtyard

While she hired an architect, it was Isabella who really designed the building to look like a palazzo, particularly from the inside. The courtyard was the original entrance to the home, and she lived on the fourth floor, which is now the residence of the museum director.

The museum, which Isabella called Fenway Court, was opened in 1903.

At first one isn't quite sure what is going on, except that she did collect lots of stuff. However, following a guided tour, we find that things may have been deliberately placed in certain ways and places, that may encourage visitors to make their own associations.

That's because all the items in the museum are placed exactly where she had put them, and it was stipulated in her will that nothing be moved in any way, otherwise all the items had to be auctioned off and the proceeds donated to Harvard.

The museum has the tricky task of having to ask the Attorney General for permission to make changes to the building, such as widening certain areas for wheelchair accessibility and moving certain items to make way for a glass-covered walkway.

A gorgeous sarcophagus from Italy that is in the courtyard

The rooms in the home range from small and narrow to massive and grand, each filled to the brim with paintings, tapestries, all kinds of items, and furniture. An amateur curator, Isabella mixed the religious with pagan.

One painting, probably from a church, was of the Archangel Michael and she bought it from a friend of hers, hinting to him over dinner that it would make a great addition to the room they were dining in.

It does look great above the fireplace that matches the painting with creatures carved into it.

Or there's a painting by Titian of Europa, and a sketch of the original nearby, or a painting of the Annunciation, with a secular picture of a woman, but she is wearing similar coloured robes to Mary in the painting, and on the other side is a painting of Mary holding baby Jesus, and on the table there's a sculpture of a cherub, and another of a foot.

Is Isabella expecting us to make these associations, or is this just her clever or intriguing way to put things together?

The rooms are kept in as original state as possible, which means some rooms are darker than others. There are also no labels next to the paintings and one has to look them up in nearby plastic cards to identify them.

The ironic thing about visiting this museum is that even though the place was originally a home, one hardly feels comfortable here because the security guards are constantly warning us not to get too close to a piece of furniture or painting. One practically feels anxious and hardly relaxed in there!

Next to the courtyard is a Spanish chapel, with a picture of Mary and Jesus. The baby, our guide said, looks very similar to her son Jacky, which is probably why she bought it.

When she died, she wrote in her will that her body be laid in the chapel near the portrait for a few days before it was buried. Nearby is a fantastic painting called El Jaleo or "the ruckus" by John Singer Sargent. It's so dynamic with a woman dancing in what looks like a cave with musicians in the background.

We also love the Roman sarcophagus lining the outside of the courtyard, though inside the mini garden is a child sarcophagus, probably alluding to her son.

In 1990, some paintings were stolen from the museum, including a Vermeer. The thieves posed as policemen and fooled the security guards, of which there were only two at the time.

The investigation is ongoing; they believe they know who stole them, but the whereabouts of the paintings is still unknown. There are two empty frames in the Dutch Room to signify two paintings used to be there, and that the museum is the rightful owner of them.

Isabella is such a fascinating character and we are so grateful she channeled her energy into collecting such a wide range of items. The museum is quite an eclectic gem.

Life as a Cruiser

Delicious grilled halibut with polenta was one of the dinners I ate

This blog post was originally written on October 8 but being published now. Thanks for reading!

Today we spent the day at sea and are on our way to Boston. Last night the ship was rolling over the waves and I got a bit seasick! I felt as if I was carsick and tried to get to bed as early as I could to sleep it off.

We went about our day and my brother and sister-in-law took in a tour of the galley kitchens. An interesting fact is that the Queen Mary 2's kitchen staff prepare 15,000 meals a day.

Marinated Peking duck was a bit of East-Meets-West

For breakfast we usually grab something to eat at the buffet area called King's Court, and there's everything from fried eggs to oatmeal, fresh fruit, pancakes and sausages, muesli, yogurt, and today I even saw congee, though it was plain.

In the evenings we dress up for dinner to eat at Britannia Restaurant, where we are served a more formal meal. While the presentation of the dishes isn't exactly refined, churning out thousands of dishes around the same time isn't an easy feat either.

Already missing the fluffy scrumptious scones at afternoon tea

For the most part the food has been fantastic. The salads have always been fresh and crisp, mains are a good portion and on the whole delicious. I particularly liked the vegetable and cashew korma I had last night with popadums.

However, tonight we were disappointed by the grilled lobster tail. We had assumed the crustaceans were ferried on board yesterday from Sydney, Nova Scotia, but we were wrong. Our waiter told us the lobsters had been put in storage at the beginning of the trip and only now were cooked.

That explains why the lobster tails hardly tasted fresh and were soft in texture. While it is understandable the kitchen wanted to save the lobsters for a particularly formal occasion, freshness is of the essence when it comes to seafood and should have been consumed as quickly as possible.

The Indian vegetarian cashew korma was a winner

A good way to make up for it would be to use the shells to make bisque the next day so we wonder if that will happen tomorrow.

I have mostly avoided dessert, though the soufflé with vanilla sauce was pretty good, fluffy and light – not bad again considering hundreds of these are being served around the same time.

This afternoon the Queens Room held not only the traditional afternoon tea but also the tea dance and so it was packed by the time my mom and I arrived after watching a one-hour condensed version of Romeo and Juliet.

Desserts anyone? In the Queens Room

Many people were on the dance floor, while others sat back to enjoy the proceedings. We had to share a table, and sat with a couple from Toronto but were originally from Hong Kong.

I tried to make conversation with them, asking if they were enjoying the cruise. The wife immediately replied that this one wasn't as good as Celebrity Cruises because the ships were newer and the food tasted better.

This made conversation awkward as we thought it was pretty good (again considering how big the ship is), but she and later her husband chimed in that this cruise was more British, meaning it was more formal at dinner, how the ship was old (2004?!) and how it catered more to elderly people.

Um, yes… the vast majority of cruisers are elderly people, and Cunard is known for its Britishness – to separate itself from other cruise companies. Even more so, the Queen Mary 2 is large enough that it doesn't feel crowded which is no easy feat.

The one bad meal -- not fresh lobster tail (right) with shrimp

My mom later told me that cruises on Celebrity are very expensive, practically double the cost of ones on Cunard. So of course if you pay more you get better service…

The wife sat there, her arms folded, as if nothing was good enough for her. She didn't even eat anything, nor did they want to dance. So why be there?

Even though they immigrated to Toronto, they are still very much like Hong Kong people – ones who think they are too good for anything and deserve even more.

Who do these people think they are?

Feting some of the chefs who cook 15,000 meals every day

One wonders where this superior attitude comes from – is it insecurity from being ruled by the British, and now under the Chinese? What about being a bit more appreciative of the most basic things, starting with good health?

Perhaps then Hong Kong people wouldn't be so miserable? While having high standards as a customer challenges the hospitality industry in a good way, never being satisfied seems too extreme…

Picture of the Day: Lobster Rolls

The best lobster rolls in Boston's Quincy Market

A few days ago we were in Sydney, Nova Scotia and thought we'd gone to heaven after eating delicious lobster rolls.

But we were mistaken.

At Quincy Market in Boston, we had lobster rolls choc full of fresh lobster meat in a slightly crunchy roll that held everything in.

So good!