Will There be Justice?

DSC boss Hui Ming-shun returned to Hong Kong was arrested yesterday

We are glad to hear the boss of defunct furniture and home electronics retailer DSC and his wife were arrested yesterday from arriving from Macau, a week after they disappeared. They conveniently covered themselves up with face masks, baseball caps and hoods.

One wonders what they were doing in Macau -- perhaps trying to double down to win back more money?

Hui Ming-shun, 61, and his wife and co-founder Lin Wai-yin, 55, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and still remain in police custody.

Meanwhile the staff are still waiting for their unpaid salaries and marched to Hong Kong government headquarters at Tamar to demand the authorities speed up the process of getting their money.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung came out to speak to the 70 or so DSC employees, but he didn't give them much good news.

"This morning we contacted the lawyer of Mr Hui to demand him to sign a declaration of insolvency and to determine as soon as possible the amount of money he owed to his employees," Cheung said.

"Once we receive Mr Hui's declaration, the Labour Department will help the employees to apply for legal aid to petition to wind up the company."

What happens if Hui doesn't care to declare bankruptcy? Does that mean he doesn't have to pay the staff what they are entitled to?

In the meantime the government says it will start determining how much money each employee is entitled to receive from the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund, with a maximum of HK$289,000 per person.

It seems Hui and Lin owe some HK$10 million in wages, and another HK$10 million to landlords and suppliers. They recently sold their Kowloon Tong flat, but who knows what other debts they have, or if they have squirreled their money away elsewhere.

The Labour Tribunal hearing on this case will be on August 21. It will be interesting to hear what Hui has to say in his defense...

Hong Kong's Tree Conundrum

Stumps of the banyan trees are left behind on Bonham Road

On Saturday morning people living around Bonham Road in Sai Ying Pun woke up shocked to find four Chinese banyan trees growing along a stone wall were suddenly chopped down in the middle of the night.

A tree expert on a government advisory panel said the decision was "scientific", as another Chinese banyan tree collapsed on July 22 during a serious rainstorm, injuring two people.

Some residents left balloons and notes on the roots

There was no prior announcement the trees would be cut down, and so "mourners" came to the site hanging colourful balloons or leaving notes that read: "The trees are crying".

For many, the trees were a nostalgic memory of their childhood and questioned why they had to be chopped down -- could there not have been severe pruning done instead?

However it seems the Hong Kong government did not want to take any chances, and erred on the side of safety and face the wrath of residents than risk another possible accident.

It turns out the authorities may have been right.

Last night, after days of blistering heat, there was an amber rainstorm warning with lots of thunder, lightning and heavy rain.

The banyan trees before they were cut down Friday night

In the morning, four trees had collapsed, one in Repulse Bay and another in Stanley, and then one near St John's Church in Central, and the last tree in Sheung Shui.

It seems the city's aborists don't have enough experience in assessing Hong Kong's tree situation, because in many cases a year or two after they have been assessed, some trees collapse and it turns out they were completed rotted and should have been removed much earlier.

And now with residents gradually becoming more environmentally conscious, they want to save the existing trees without understanding some cannot be saved and need to be chopped down for public safety reasons.

The government really needs to do a thorough evaluation of trees in the city and monitor them more closely. They provide a natural shade and add character to our concrete jungle.

Not only do we need to protect what we have, but also plant more trees to create a greener future for our city.

Retailers Change Their Tune

Did hot men result in hotter sales for Abercrombie & Fitch in Hong Kong?

A few years ago luxury brands muscled their way into prime retail locations in Hong Kong, which had the domino effect of unsympathetically pushing out mom-and-pop stores that had been there for decades.

This kind of gentrification was not welcomed by Hong Kong people -- these boutiques selling expensive fashion, jewellery and watches were catered towards mainland tourists, not the local population.

It got to the point where there were regular reports in the paper about this noodle shop closing, or that bakery shuttering because of exorbitant rents, and residents rushed to these places for their last bite because it reminded them of their childhood.

I also joked at the time that because all these food shops were closing that we wouldn't have anything left to eat.

Burberry's flagship store in Pacific Place

Abercrombie & Fitch created a stir when it kicked out Shanghai Tang from Pedder Building in Central, and even worse, was willing to pay double the rent at HK$7 million a month.

After the hoopla of having topless men with washboard stomachs (of course) doing publicity stunts around town, did that help sell millions of dollars worth of casual clothes per week?

Then there was Burberry that took over the space previously occupied by Lane Crawford in Pacific Place in Admiralty, that caused a chain reaction -- Lane Crawford then moved across the street to Queensway, uprooting a number of small shops that had occupied that area.

But now some of these brands are having their comeuppance, as mainland shoppers are not keen to buy big ticket items in Hong Kong, and instead are looking further afield to outlet stores -- in Europe and Japan where the euro and yen are weak.

Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer is closing its store on the popular Russell Street in Causeway Bay, while luxury group Kering (formerly PPR) founded by Francois Pinault, will be asking for lower rents for its brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent Paris, Boucheron, Bottega Veneta, Stella McCartney and Qeelin.

Kering not only wants to get rent reductions in Hong Kong, but also Macau, and if these requests aren't met, some shops may have to close in the region, according to the company's chief financial officer Jean-Marc Duplaix.

IFC mall in Central is full of luxury brand stores

Following its big gamble of setting up many shop spaces in Hong Kong, Burberry Group is looking for a cut in rent, saying Hong Kong is "a challenging luxury market", while Coach says its weak sales were due to "lower tourist trends from the mainland".

On the other side, big landlords like Hongkong Land says it has received requests to decrease rent, but has refused to, while Cheung Kong Property Holdings that owns 1811 Heritage mall in Tsim Sha Tsui has frozen the rent for three years when leases were up recently.

However luxury mall owners like Sun Hung Kai at IFC mall and Hysan Development at Hysan Place and Lee Gardens have claimed they didn't receive any requests to have cuts in rent.

Chasing the mainland tourist dollar has been a short-sighted strategy all along. While the sheer numbers of visitors across the border cannot be ignored, Hong Kong entrepreneurs should not completely shut out local clientele.

Either way perhaps landlords will finally realize that their greediness was not sustainable long term...

Super Hot Hong Kong

The hazy days have made Hong Kong's skyline look like this

Today was a sweltering start to autumn in the lunar calendar. It was 37.8 degrees Celsius, beating the previous high of 36.1 degrees Celsius since the Hong Kong Observatory kept records 130 years ago.

And not only was it hot, but very humid and hazy, thanks to typhoon Soudelor, that landed in Taiwan early Saturday morning, where at least five people have died, and over 100 injured. The typhoon is now headed towards Fujian province.

Thankfully Hong Kong didn't suffer any destruction, but it was very hot. The beer festival in Lan Kwai Fong had lots of people turn up for decently-priced beers and food, where I bumped into a friend with her family after a workout in the gym.

Trying to beat the record high temperatures with umbrellas

On Thursday I went to the public swimming pool in Kennedy Town thinking I could beat the heat. I arrived just after 6pm, when the pool reopened, but found it was already crowded thanks to several lesson groups in session.

But what really turned me off was the temperature of the water -- it was the same if not warmer than the air! My cousin had told me of his experience of swimming in the same pool and we concluded it was the water absorbing the sun's rays all day that made it so hot.

We also wondered what the health effects were -- if it was not hygienic to swim in such warm water.

In a quick online search I could only find that swimming in warm water could tire one out easily, that there was a high chance of dehydration, muscle cramps and overheating.

I was definitely feeling overheated and took a cold shower afterwards and drank quite a bit of water afterwards.

It's too bad because one would think swimming in the pool would be a great way to cool off on a hot day -- not.