Disgusting Nightmare Come True

We hope the central government will seriously put left-behind children as one of its priorities after hearing about at least six young girls were molested by their 62-year-old teacher in Jiangxi province.

The girls, eight and nine years of age from Shangyuan Primary School in Ruichang city are being treated for genital and anal warts they got from their teacher.

"He [would] always put his two chalk-tainted fingers inside me. It hurt so much even to walk," said an eight-year old victim.

"Sometimes inside the classroom when we were reciting textbooks, sometimes in his office. It happened many, many times, more than 60 times," said a nine-year-old.

However Hong Kong-based urologist Kwok Ka-ki said: "It is highly unlikely the abuse involved fingers only, as the virus [which causes the warts] lives on the mucus membrane of sexual organs."

Doctors found the girls' vaginal and anal regions covered by masses of red and white bumps that were confirmed to be highly contagious genital warts.

Kwok added the warts had to be treated immediately and properly to try to avert the risk of developing cancer.

"My sister-in-law took my girl and boy on a train from Ruichang to Hangzhou to visit me and my husband during the summer holidays," said Jian Liming, a 29-year-old mother to one of the girls. "When I saw her, she was already walking strangely, deliberately with her legs apart. That evening when I bathed here, my heart was torn to pieces. I couldn't sleep or eat properly for days."

The children were left in the village to be raised by their grandparents while the parents went to cities to find good-paying jobs. And so the children had no idea about sex education, but then again their parents would not have known to teach them either.

Regardless, the teacher preyed on the young girls. After the parents reported the incident on July 4 to the Ruichang Public Security Bureau, he was arrested the following day, confessing to molesting seven girls while marking assignments in his office and during classes. The seventh victim changed schools and lost contact with the other families.

As police are investigating the case, the Ruichang education department sacked the principal of the primary school and another principal who oversaw the school.

If the children's incident wasn't disgusting enough, one of the parents told the media of how they and their children were confined to a local hospital while the government sent people to push them to sign a paper agreeing that they would not pursue the case in exchange for 50,000 yuan ($8,166).

In addition, when parents of three of the girls tried to switch to a bigger hospital in Jiujiang city on Monday, their medical records were withheld by the Ruichang hospital.

"They don't even have the proper equipment to perform vaginal examinations on young girls," said Wu Xueren, a father who works in Wenzhou with his wife. "They also performed four cryoablations [a process that uses extreme cold to destroy tissue] on my girl without anesthesia. She cried her lungs out every time and her legs literally shook before we walked into the surgery."

Hong Kong-based Kwok says cryoablations used without anesthesia is unethical and unacceptable for anyone, let alone young girls.

These girls' lives have been ruined for a dirty old man's pleasure. While we hope they will physically heal, the psychological effects have traumatized them forever. How can they trust anyone in authority again, let alone any adult?

For the parents this is also devastating -- they could not protect their daughters -- and now all their hopes and dreams for their children have evaporated. They don't know if their daughters will be resilient enough to move on with some kind of counselling, if it even exists in this small town.

Shame on the government officials who tried to bribe silence from the parents and we wish the fathers and mothers courage and strength as they fight the system for some kind of justice.

Is HK Becoming More Corrupt?

Are Hong Kong's corrupt-free days numbered?

We are not surprised to find Hong Kong people's perception of the city being corrupt-free has dropped to a 15-year low.

This is according to a University of Hong Kong public opinion program survey that showed the corruption index fell to 6.37 points out of a possible 10, from 6.68 in February, with 1,027 people interviewed from July 30 to August 1.

Pollster Robert Chung Ting-yiu says there have been many conflict-of-interest cases, in particular former ICAC chief Timothy Tong Hin-ming who spent taxpayer money on lavish dinners, booze and gifts.

There is also the recent case of Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po and his political assistant Henry Ho Kin-chung found to have owned land that the government plans to develop in the New Territories.

Sidney Chau Foo-cheong (right) was fired from his airport job

May we also add head of security at Hong Kong International Airport Sidney Chau Foo-cheong, who was alleged to have reaped some HK$760,000 ($97,982) in overtime pay from 2008 to February this year. He was dismissed from his HK$147,000-a-month job today.

What is going on?

Are we becoming more vigilant, or do people in positions of authority think they can get away with stealing a bit here and there, or believe that they are above the law?

Hong Kong probably hit its low point when Tong, the former head of the graft-busting agency was revealed to have spent HK$724,000 on alcohol, more than triple the HK$220,000 he first reported to Legco.

Bizarrely HK$50,000 was also spent on cookies. What was he, Cookie Monster? And an alcoholic? Of the 1,000 bottles he bought, 41 are left.

Former ICAC chief Timothy Tong Hin-ming

In the cases of Tong and Chau, they had damn good salaries most locals could only dream of having, but it looks like that wasn't enough. Was it because they liked the thrill of cheating the system or they thought they would never get caught?

We are just thankful there are whistle blowers out there and the media (in particular Apple Daily) that are keeping politicians and government bodies accountable.

Otherwise what is the point of living in Hong Kong anymore when its rule of law is thrown by the wayside? Then we might as well be like any other Chinese city on the mainland!

Trying to Collect Brownie Points

Lee Shau-kee wants Hong Kong to have warm memories of him

It is interesting to see how persistent tycoon Lee Shau-kee is about donating farm land in Yuen Long so that it can be developed into low-cost flats for young people.

Last month the Hong Kong government rejected his offer after deliberating for five months. Perhaps in the government wanted to avoid bad optics of looking cozy with the developer, or worried there was a catch to the deal that they hadn't yet thought of.

So the government suggested Lee approach non-governmental organizations like the Housing Society about his plan.

He has a 63,500-square-foot site on Shap Pat Heung Road in the New Territories, and Lee had wanted to build 1,058 units at 300 sq ft.

Originally Lee had hoped the government would waive the land premium and pay for the construction costs, but now it looks like he will shell out for both -- but get the money back eventually.

That's because the cost of each flat will be HK$1.2 million, up from HK$1 million; this is because the construction cost of each flat would be about HK$900,000 plus the HK$300,000 land premium.

Why is Lee so anxious to do this?

At the age of 85, it seems like the tycoon is anxious to put himself in the good books with the Hong Kong public after how his peer Li Ka-shing was demonized during the dock workers' strike a few months ago.

Also it seems none of Lee's sons are interested in the property business, while his grandchildren are below the age of eight. Can we mention here that three of them are triplet males that were somehow conceived through a surrogate mother in California?

In any event, Lee has no one in the family to take over the business and so he's starting to off load one of his numerous properties.

While we appreciate his charitable gesture, we'd like to know if he has any concept of how big a 300 sq ft flat is? That's just enough for one person to live in... would something over 400 sq ft be too much to ask so that young couples could live in them?

Just asking...

Planning Ahead or More Stress?

Hong Kong parents are an extremely anxious bunch. From the moment they conceive a fetus in the womb, plans are made, from the hospital they will give birth at, to where the child will start pre-pre-school and from then onwards, kindergarten, elementary school, high school and then university...

Already kids in the city are going to "school" by the age of two or three. What can they learn at such a young age? We were still at home and playing with friends from what I remember when I was a kid.

And now I'm hearing parents are already getting their children into the mindset of university at the age of 11.

Those fathers and mothers send their children to different countries every summer to experience university summer camps there. It's apparently not really focused on academics, but more on activities and giving the students a taste of college life.

Again can I repeat -- these children are 11 years old and it is usually the first time they travel abroad and look after themselves without the help of a domestic helper.

So these parents plan to send their kids one year to Canada, next to Australia, the UK and United States. And they hope by the end of the exercise when the child is about 15 or 16, he or she will have a good idea of where they want to go to school and perhaps even what they want to study.

I heard one parent is carefully watching his son's math scores, and if he continues to do well, he will encourage him to enroll at UC Berkeley. If he doesn't get the high grades in the next few years, then he can choose where he wants to go instead.

But how is a teenager supposed to be able to make this decision, as their experiences from when they were 11 will be very different from when they are 14?

Too much pre-planning or just ahead of the curve?