Starved for Attention

The pan-democrats who pledged to participate in a hunger strike -- five remain

At the HSBC headquarters in Central, the gates have come down and heavy equipment parked in the public walkway apparently for some repairs there, or is it to deter the pan-democrats from occupying the area?

The politicians are conducting a hunger strike here on the north side of the building with tents set up just outside the indoor public path. They are into the eighth day but as one headline wittily says, they are "starved of support".

Seventeen of them started the "universal suffrage hunger strike" on March 28, but only five of them are remaining because their biological indicators fell to critical levels.

Some critics -- even fellow democrats -- criticize them for being "old school" in trying to garner attention for their cause, while the participants are disappointed that Hong Kong people are so jaded that they aren't paying much attention to what they are doing.

"There is too much negative sentiment in society about everything," said Lee Cheuk-yan, Labour Party chairman and organizer of the hunger strike. "Even if I don't agree with certain approaches [in fighting for democracy] I won't discourage them...

"The hunger strike does not have the total endorsement of the pan-democratic camp... We have invited other pan-democratic parties, including the Civic Party. But this is how it has turned out," he said.

Lee said there were misunderstandings of the fast. It was earlier reported that it would be a hunger-strike relay, but he said this was not the case.

"The action will end when the last of this batch of 17 people gives up. Then we will organize the second and third waves of hunger strikes around July, depending on the reform developments of the government and Beijing-loyalist camp."

He added heavyweights like Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and Democrats' founding chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming have volunteered to join, hinting their participation would arouse public attention.

However the 82-year-old Zen may not be allowed to fast for health reasons. In 2011 he only drank water for three days to protest the government's school management reforms. "We were advised to deter the cardinal from joining the strike... We will seek further advice," Lee said.

Next Media chairman Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is considering taking part and that would definitely get media attention. One wonders how Apple Daily and Next magazine would cover their boss's hunger strike.

We can imagine the coverage now: not only would there be stories about the cause, but also an animated clip of them hanging out at HSBC headquarters cracking jokes about Beijing, or better yet produce a theme song that goes viral.

That would definitely irk Zhongnanhai and rope more people into being more supportive of the democratic cause.

How about it, Jimmy?

Bao-licious

The tempura fish bao

Little Bao started out with a stall at East Island Markets on the weekends and received a lot of positive response. Chef/owner May Chow finally managed to find a space on Staunton Street just off Aberdeen Street and opened in October last year and it's been non-stop busy ever since.

There's a no-reservation policy so diners either have to get there very early -- before 6pm -- or come late -- after 8pm.

The favourite pork belly bun

It's been horrible weather all week and many people must have been tired of dealing with the rain so tonight was relatively quiet and my friend and I managed to get a seat after a short wait.

The restaurant is no frills -- there are seats around the open kitchen or along the wall, with everyone sitting on basic stools, which is not conducive to diners wanting to linger too much.

Nevertheless diners aren't here to hang out but to dig into the food.

Everyone comes for the baos -- mini Chinese hamburgers with steamed white buns with various stuffings with an Asian twist. There's the pork belly one (HK$78), featuring slow-braised pork with leek and shiso red onion salad, sesame dressing and a hoisin ketchup sauce that's a hearty bite.

We also had the fish tempura bun (HK$78) with a tamarind palm sugar glaze with a pickled lemongrass fennel salad that came piping hot and a good meaty chunk of fish.

It's a bit of a challenge eating these -- half my filling fell out of my bun while I was eating it! But that's part of the fun of this casual place where the music's a bit loud and kitchen staff preparing dishes in front of you.

A side dish of orange chicken

Worried the mac and cheese (HK$108), which is actually steamed rice rolls with three different kinds of cheese melted on top would be too heavy, we opted for the orange chicken (HK$98) instead.

The chicken dish was delicious, fried with a salty egg yolk honey glaze that made it savoury with a bit of tangy flavour from the orange flavour.

Another dish we tried were the LB Fries (HK$68), that were deep-fried then seasoned with roasted tomato sambal and kewpie mayo sauce. The fries tasted more on the sweet side which surprised us, but the portion size was just right for two.

The main event was the dessert and we both ordered the ice cream with salted caramel (HK$48). When we were presented with our deep-fried baos with the ice cream puck in between them, the server showed us how to eat it, but my friend mocked mortification he was manhandling her bao!

Nevertheless these were the highlight of the evening -- crunchy warm buns with a cold centre and gooey sweetness from the caramel. Yum!

Ice cream with salted caramel bao

There were a few people still standing around outside waiting to get in so we vacated our seats. We'd love to come again, but probably like today with a minimal wait time or really early...

Little Bao

66 Staunton Street

Central
2194 0202

facebook.com/littlebaohk

Calling for Rationality Over Anger

Over three weeks after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, Malaysians are losing patience in dealing with mainland Chinese anger.

Granted the Malaysian side has botched up the investigation, giving conflicting information or misinformation, including the last words heard from the cockpit, but finding a plane that turned off its transponder makes it difficult to find it in the ocean. As one Australian official said, it's like finding a needle in a haystack, except they don't know where they haystack is.

Nevertheless, the Chinese continue to demand the truth, claiming they are being lied to and have protested outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing calling Kuala Lumpur authorities "murderers".

Some relatives of those missing have even flown to the Malaysian capital and held a press conference decorated with Chinese flags, banners and condemned Malaysians.

"Let me ask you something," said a Malaysian government official. "Which country do you think will allow others from another country to come and let them stay in a great hotel and allow them to throw insults? We've been very nice already. I hope they realize that."

James Chin, a political science professor at the Malaysian campus of Monash University, said initially Malaysians were sympathetic towards the Chinese.

"But marching to the Malaysian embassy was the turning point," he said. "It's hypocrisy. The Chinese won't dare do anything like this against their own government, which is one of the most opaque in the world."

The relatives of the victims were doing their own version of petitioning to higher authorities for redress, which it seems the Chinese government tacitly authorized, as it took the pressure off Beijing.

However it's become embarrassing for China to see its people continue to demand justice while other countries' victims' families have been relatively quiet. It got to the point where a commentary in China Daily has told relatives of the victims to face the reality that their loved ones are gone.

"We should not let anger prevail over facts and rationality," it said. "We need to comply with the fundamental norms of a civilized society and need to show the demeanour of a great power... Although the Malaysian government's handling of the crisis has been quite clumsy, we need to understand this is perhaps the most bizarre incident in Asian civil aviation history. It is understandable that as a developing country, the Malaysia government felt completely at a loss."

The commentary written by Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the commerce ministry institute who is known for his analyses of international disputes, added that irrational words and behaviour would "not help matters" and that relatives should prepare funeral arrangements.

It is not known how the opinion piece was received -- if the relatives decided to direct their anger at Mei. But since it was written in English, it hasn't touched a nerve -- yet. Nevertheless it is a voice of reason, that after over three weeks, and no sign or message from any of the 239 passengers most probably means they are not coming back.

In the meantime the race to find any wreckage from MH370 will take along time, with no definitive information to go on. All they are finding so far is lots of garbage, which is hampering the investigation, but also highlights our terrible habit of throwing so much crap into the ocean and not looking after the environment we live in.

If the Chinese government doesn't direct these victims' relatives to tone down their anger and focus on moving forward, people elsewhere are going to have another reason to resent mainlanders...

Moving Further from the Truth

When the government moved offices, records 1,000 metres tall were destroyed

The Hong Kong government doesn't seem too keen to let us citizens know how we are being governed or perhaps misgoverned.

That's because it has made no effort to keep good records of its administration of the city, nor does it want to pass an archive law to protect existing and future documents.

Archives Action Group chairman William Waung Sik-ying blasted the government yesterday at a press conference, saying it behaves as if it is ashamed.

"We have the most inefficient government because it doesn't place any value on good records management. It doesn't have the people. It doesn't have the resources. It doesn't have the will," he said.

Waung went on to say the government "gives the impression of what it is doing, and therefore wants the whole world and Hong Kong people to forget about what it is doing."

An Ombudman's report into the appalling state of government archives drew attention to the large-scale destruction of documents, and not giving enough time to Government Records Services enough resources to vet and archive documents.

The report confirms what the group observed many years ago and repeats the Director of Audit's reports released over two years ago.

Waung, who chairs the Archives Action Group is a former High Court judge and includes another judge and archive experts. The group tried to help the process along by drafting an archive law four years ago, but nothing has been done.

The Archive Action Group says it best

Despite criticisms, the government continues to repeat its vague statement that it is taking "administrative measures" to address criticism of its dealing with archives. It referred the matter to the Law Reform Commission in June last year, which means it will probably be forgotten in the long list of things to look over and so by that time all the key decision makers will have left the civil service.

It was only last year that a paper was presented to the Legislative Council's panel on administration of justice and legal services, that said how long it took for the government to implement recommendations by the commission -- the average was five years, the longest 14.

Waung said the matter did not need to be referred to the commission, but instead the draft archive bill should be tabled in Legco and debated.

He explained that Hong Kong is going through a period of tremendous turmoil over political reform and this was generating lots of discussion within the government, but no system in place to record this for posterity.

In addition, Waung said, government officials might act differently if they knew what they said and did was being preserved in properly-kept archives.

"This is not just a question of records about a cultural heritage. It's also about our political future, about the well-being of our children, about the shape of the society we want to have. That's why it is so important to create proper records," he said.

May we remind readers of when the government moved offices to the strange black upside-down U-shaped building at Tamar, documents stacked up over 1,000 metres high were destroyed.

We have no idea what were in these documents and why they weren't preserved one way or another. All we know is that the government doesn't seem to care and has just deemed these tons of precious information unnecessary.

Perhaps Waung should have added that the government doesn't want to keep proper records because it doesn't want to be accountable for its actions because an archive law would put its feet to the fire.