Legal Validation

A maid in Hong Kong won the right for permanent residency today in the high court -- a decision that polarized public opinion over the rights of domestic workers.

Evangeline Banao Vallejos has lived in Hong Kong since 1986 and she applied for permanent residency because she had lived in the city for over seven years. But she was rejected on the grounds that she was a domestic worker.

So she took the government to court. Her argument was then how come foreign expatriates like bankers and cooks can get permanent residency then?

Meanwhile the government countered domestic helpers do not pay any tax now so why should they be entitled to the benefits of permanent residents? There was also the fear that the sudden influx of people would strain the city's health care, public housing and education resources. Domestic helpers make up about 4 percent of the population.

However Judge Johnson Lam ruled in her favour, saying that preventing anyone who has lived continuously in Hong Kong for seven years to right of abode was unconstitutional under the Basic Law.

It could mean foreign helpers would be entitled to the minimum wage of HK$28 per hour, and so their monthly salaries would significantly increase from the HK$3,740 ($480.35) they are currently lawfully entitled to.

Of course the government was upset by the decision and has already decided to appeal.

The battle isn't over yet, but it is a significant victory for foreign helpers.

When I told one colleague about the verdict, she immediately called her helper to tell her the news. But she didn't seem to understand the implications and declared that she only wanted to stay with my colleague because they were "family".

I spoke to another friend's maid about the issue over a month ago and she didn't seem to care about the case. "I don't want to stay here," she said. "I want to go back to the Philippines."

While some domestic workers may not understand or realize the implications of the verdict, it's a ruling that indicates everyone is equal under the law.

If the government's appeal fails, foreign maids who have lived here for seven years now have a choice to continue living here or not, and hopefully society will finally begin to appreciate the work they do in contributing to Hong Kong's economy.

Crash Course to Development

Rescuers evacuating passengers from the subway carriage

People's confidence in public transport has been shaken again after the collision of two subway trains in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Luckily no one died, but 280 were injured, some in serious condition. Newspapers were splashed with pictures of people with blood-soaked shirts or distraught passengers escorted to safety.

It happened near Yu Yuan station at 2:51pm when one train rear ended another on Line 10, 40 minutes before Shanghai Metro reported equipment failures on a train. At the time of the crash, drivers were operating the trains manually. 

An initial investigation is now saying a power cut was the cause of the signaling fault and that the collision was caused by staff failing to follow correct procedures, Shanghai Metro said in a statement last night.

There were attempts to put the blame of the latest crash on Casco, a company that also supplied equipment that was implicated in the Wenzhou train crash in July. 

However Alstom, the French firm that owns part of Casco, denied its products were connected to the Wenzhou crash. "Casco only provided the apparatus that is inside the station, which consisted of panels to inform passengers of the train departures and arrivals," an Alstom spokeswoman aid of the July 23 disaster that killed 40 people.

Casco is a Shanghai-based joint venture between China Railway Signal and Communication Corporation and Alstom.

Shanghai's subway line has been plagued with problems for years and they were previously shrugged off because no one was hurt.

Professor Xie Xiaofei, a Peking University psychologist said the public had good reason to feel angry and fearful even if they didn't take the subway often, their friends and loved ones probably did.

"In most people's mindset, the metro is run on mature technology. Such kinds of public transportation have been running in other countries for many years without much problem," she said.

So why can't China get its act together and manage its subway systems properly? Obviously something wrong. Safety cannot be compromised when moving millions of people everyday. But there seems to be no incentive to fix problems.

Nevertheless, there will probably be no thorough or transparent investigation so we will never know exactly what happened and who really is to blame.

Which is why it's understandable the Chinese cannot trust the government to deliver safe, efficient infrastructure in a time of so-called rapid development.

Fact of the Day: Beijing Top 10 Polluted Capitals

We knew Beijing was pretty polluted, and a recent survey by the World Health Organization confirms that the Chinese capital is near the bottom of the list of nearly 1,100 world cities.

 

Beijing is the 10th dirtiest capital in the world, only cleaner than Ulan Bator, Gaborone, New Delhi, Islamabad, Riyadh, Dakar, Cairo, Dhaka and Kuwait City.

 

In addition, the Chinese city ranks 26th of 30 mainland cities in the survey, according to its 2009 reading of PM10s (tiny vehicle and dust particles of 10 micrometres or less) of 121 micrograms per cubic metre (mcg).

 

"We've achieved great progress, but there is much room for us to catch up," remarked Ma Yongliang of Tsinghua University.

There has been a lot of development in Beijing, but at a severe health cost.

 

Interestingly Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were not included in the rankings, but if they were, Hong Kong would have 47 in PM10s (using 2009 readings) which means it would rank 870th along with Manila and Turin, Italy.

 

Haikou in Hainan province scored the best mainland city at 814th with a reading of 38mcg.

 

The WHO recommends an upper limit of 20mcg for PM10s, which can cause serious respiratory problems, including lung cancer.

 

While visitors to Beijing don't have to worry about the long term effects of being in the city, its residents do. Not only is the problem the constant development of the capital, but also cars clogging up the streets and ring roads creating more carbon emissions in the air.

The government doesn't want to completely stop the purchases of new cars and yet the city can't handle the now over 4 million cars on the roads.

And what about Hong Kong? We live in such a developed city and yet the government's inability to implement effective measures to combat air pollution is pathetic.

If people can't afford expensive flats, can't they at least have a healthy environment to live in? How about it, Chief Executive Donald Tsang? How many studies and figures do we have to show you to finally persuade you that the city's air pollution is making its residents sick? 

 

Testing the Senses

Salmon and scallop tartar, Bloody Mary sorbet, potato tulle

I just came back from a stimulating experience of eating in the dark.

An upscale hotel in Mongkok challenged us to identify what we were tasting and while we were able to get some ingredients right, we were completely thrown off by others.

We do eat with our eyes, and as soon as we know what it is, we already have preconceptions of how it should taste.

But once you can't see it or don't even know what you are eating beforehand, you are forced to really concentrate on the taste, texture and smell to figure it out.

The first of six courses came with a trio of flavours which to us tasted like salmon sashimi, then a spicy gazpacho, and then a very thin potato chip. It was a bit difficult to eat in the dark, but after a while your eyes adjust and you can see your utensils and the wine glasses in front of you -- but that's it.

Beetroot and French goat cheese risotto

After we finished eating, the lights when back on and it was revealed that we actually ate salmon and scallop tartar with kaffir lime leaf oil; tomato essence jelly, basically a Bloody Mary sorbet and a potato tulle. This was matched with Tsarine Rose Champagne.

Then the lights went out again and we were given what we quickly figured out were three different hams to try. They ended up being Serrano, Kintoa (from Basque region) and Iberico, but of course it was difficult to actually discern their origins; all I could think of was different kind of proscuitto.

Our next dish was a small one with a kind of lollipop. Inside of course was foie gras mousse, but it was hard to figure out what the outer shell was. It was actually an apple-port jelly, when I had thought it was raspberry. This went really well with the Selbach-Oster, Zeltinger Himmeireich Reisling from Mosel, Germany which had a strong smoky smell and quite sweet.

The wine also worked beautifully with our next dish which we could taste right away was risotto, but what kind I had no clue. I thought for sure there was no cheese in it and speculated it could be yogurt. A fellow diner thought it had bits of onion in it. When the lights came on we were shocked to see it was actually a pink dish -- beetroot and French goat cheese risotto. I didn't even smell goat cheese in there at all.

Roasted lamb with broad beans and deconstructed Caesar salad

Some people admitted they didn't like beetroot, but thoroughly enjoyed the dish because they didn't know what they were eating; also the flavours were so hard to clearly identify, that it was more about the food tasting good than about what was in it.

The main course was quickly identified as lamb with some kind of beans and a vegetable, and I thought it could be a kind of bak choy. We were correct about it being lamb, which was actually slow-cooked for six hours with broad beans and then with a deconstructed Caesar salad of garlic sauteed Romaine hearts, bacon-potato soubise or little pastry and anchovy beignets. This was paired with a South African red called Meerlust, Rubicon 2006.

Finally for dessert we were able to figure out there were sliced figs and a scoop of bacon ice cream, with what we thought was warm cheesecake. It ended up being goat cheese honey cake with pistachio and brandy snap.

Being a foodie and completely thrown off, it was discomforting to think I couldn't identify ingredients! But it was a very interesting exercise for the senses.

I had heard of a restaurant in Montreal where the place is pitch dark and diners are served by blind waiters.

Dessert: Bacon ice cream, roasted fig, goat cheese honey cake

It sounded so intriguing so when this opportunity came up to experience eating in the dark I had to try it. And in the end it was definitely a memorable experience. I don't know what the lesson is except to keep your mind open when eating and concentrate more on the taste than identifying everything in the dish.