Putting the brand value into car's licence plates

On 16th of September, the first bidding of commercialized car licence plates will take place here. I heard of this proposal during SARS period in an effort to help the government balance its books as it struggled to deal with budget deficit in the past years. (Another was slashing of then-Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's salary by 10%)

With a deposit fee of HK$5,000, car enthusiasts can submit their own personalized combination such as "COOLGUY", "U2FAN" or Hong Kong brands "PCCW" or "CHINA.COM". But since these are up for auction, it does not guarantee the proponents they will end up installing these fancy plates.

Of all the places I have been to, Hong Kong has the ugliest vehicle licence plates. The plain yellow piece, embedded with a black letter-number combination has nothing else to show. No state, country or city emblem.

But it does not matter. Hong Kong is such a small place that being too stiff in implementing licence codes that are sometimes more difficult to memorize than Hong Kong ID is unjustifiable. Being wacky a bit is definitely cool. And it gives the government more money while granting the wishes of car owners to bring out an identity that's truly theirs -- even if they use other brands, SMS shortcuts or hip mnemonics.

The bidding of catchy licence plate names could go to thousands of dollars but I think it's not gonna be as high as bidding for "8", "888" or any multiple combination of that lucky number.

I thought it was like in Davao in 1997 when I remembered NBC's 101.9 became "Danny", with no obvious reference to the assigned radio frequency it's operating. It gave the station a personality rather than just having call signs that sometimes don't relate to the stations at all. (I understand DWRR is for "Radio Romance" but I don't understand why DXMF is "Bombo Radio")

And as a search marketing person, it is easy to relate this with Overture and Google Adwords keyword bidding process, that whoever comes with the biggest bid gets to display the ads in the most prominent way (hence, own the licence plate and flaunt wherever you want).

Though the public is allowed to compose its own licence plate names, all suggestions must pass through certain standards (I believe this is highly subjective).

Read from The Standard:

When the scheme was first announced, the government specified that offensive, indecent or triad-related plates, or ones deemed confusing to law enforcement officers or a threat to road safety, will be rejected.

1. Confusing to enforcement officers - Does this mean plates that are hard to prunounce?

2. Threat to road safety - "HUGEHUMPS", "OILSLICK", "LOOK@ME"

3. Indecent plates - "****ME"

Just kidding, folks.

Living in Hong Kong: Is it safe here?

If you spend the whole day in the streets of Admiralty, Central, Tsim Sha Tsui or Mong Kok, chances are you can see familiar faces. Hong Kong is such a small place that the possibility of meeting somebody from the office, church or classroom is high.

It is not unusual to find TV crew shooting for an episode at a street in Sheung Wan or Chai Wan, a singer doing MTV at Tsim Sha Tsui or Mong Kok or public officials walking around the vicinity of the Legislative Council Building (photo). It is as common as meeting TVB's Jenny Lam at St Vincent's church in Hang Hau, Filipina actress Nanette Medved at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Wan Chai and Albert Lee or Donald Tsang at St Joseph Church.

Politicians, though rich and famous, continue to be seen on their own or with family going for yum cha in such place of the masses without the need of bodyguards. They take advantage of Hong Kong's reputation as a safe place to live and wander around. Or is it?

Albert Ho, one of the lawmaker who appears prominently on television for standing up on his comments on certain issues got beaten with wooden batons and baseball bats in a scene comparable to one of Jackie Chan's movies about gangsterism. When I saw the photo of a battered man in a free newspaper circulated around the MTR, I thought it was the second round of the "bus uncle" mugging incident. Alas, it was another person, this time a prominent politician.

I thought that if the beating can happen to a person of higher authority in the society, how much more would it be easier to everyone else? A small potato like me can easily become a prey to this.

Even if someone would claim that incidents like Albert Ho's can happen elsewhere too, definitely it has tarnished Hong Kong's reputation as a safe place to live. It is not the first time a prominent figure has been harassed: in 1998, talk show host Albert Cheng was hacked with meat cleavers that left deep cuts in his legs, arm and back. The assailants were never caught, and the motives never clearly explained in public.
Cheng is now a lawmaker.

Now I know a little why movies similar to Infernal Affairs are indeed popular to the masses.

Gillian Chung and health secrets revealed part II

This is a continuation of the post I last published.

Even if dieticians recommend the right food and gym trainers recommend the right exercise, it's still the elderly people's words that stand out as the most valuable. Nothing beats experience.

As a summary of the things they recommend:

1. Drink tea
2. Go to bed early
3. Smoke tobacco only from water pipe
4. Prefer Chinese medicine
5. Drink lots of water
6. Optimistic look in life
7. Never overeat
8. Laugh more
9. Not getting angry
10. Do some hiking

It should not be very difficult to follow these steps but sometimes we easily go with the "do nots" simply because we want to and life is too short to miss them. Indeed, we are making life shorter.

And while Hong Kong can take pride of its longevity as attributed to healthy body, some people are having an unhealthy mind. Out of desperation to earn and gain publicity, irrational minds behind the publishing of Gillian Chung's dress change over at Easy Finder can easily be compared with corrupt officials in the Philippines. Hong Kong's not new to this though; it was not long ago when talk show hosts used Hong Kong actresses as subjects to a sex topic.

Health secrets revealed Part I

Sorry for the week-long absence, I have really tried to write some stuff but even before deciding what to write, my worn out body is taken into slumber long before I realize I was sleeping with the lights on at 2 in the morning. Now it's Friday, I should be able to write one down.

Anyway I had quite an eventful weekend with my SFC peers. With barely three hours of practice and conceptualization for our contest presentation, we still won a respectable award. As an assuming household head, I needed to lead the group of guys and girls to have something to present for Couples For Christ community's 20th year of existence in Hong Kong. And I was never disappointed with Dei and her seemingly unending flow of ideas. While I am conscious of one scene, she is already mastering an episode. We ended up emulating Star World's shows though I was stunned when our talk show host Roma announced it's HBO's. I ended up going to the stage dancing "Seiko Wallet" jingle with Gino and Peter. I thought it was atrocious at best.

While waiting for Gino to arrive for our last practice last Saturday, I dropped by Dymocs to view what's the latest on Far Eastern Economic Review and The Economist. Next to National Geographic, these are the ones I loved to read most when I am on transit. While I was inside the shop, also trying to get some fresher air, HK Magazine's cover of an old man carrying a barbell with Chinese characters inscribed on each end. It was aptly entitled "Grandpa's Health Tips" and reading through the article revealed things I did not know yet.

Hong Kong men live the longest in the world. Hard to believe, eh? Hong Kong women live second longest after Japan. Despite worries of pollution, pandemics and stressful life, their lofty rankings have reasons to show:

Food
Hong Kong's buses and free dailies are filled with ads about fitness and food supplements. But the elderly people in the territory agree that you don't have to take these supplements to obtain long life. Hong Kong people have traditional soup, boiled for hours and take balanced meal. Now I see why most of my meals with colleagues or dine-out with Chinese friends often have a serving of local soup.

Despite the lures of Hong Kong's 10,000+ restaurants (by becoming expensive they somehow become deterrent to eat-all-you-can folks), do not overeat. The text did not list a lot of "do not eat" items, but had some "preference" list:

1. Light dishes that are low in fat and salt.
   
2. Soup (I found no ingredients in the article so until I find it, it's still a secret)
   
3. Vegetables belonging to cabbage family: broccoli, bak choi and choi sum.
   
4. Berries, kiwis and papayas.
   

Herbal Medicine
Whenever I get sick here, I go to small clinics. I needed to even if I don't have to because the HR requires so, in lieu of my absence in the office. Western medicine isn't bad; it is often viewed as quick fix for certain ailments. Chinese medicine is more seen as preventive shield than a cure thing. We know prevention is better than cure. Taking locally made linzhi and reishi serve to reduce cancer risks and cholesterol, give better night's sleep and improve immunity, just as vitamins do. I don't take any vitamin so I have to be very careful.

There are traditional medicine practitioners in Hong Kong simply because it is difficult to pinpoint which herb to use for a particular case like difficulty to excrete. So it's not like western medicine that you can pick on any dispensary (read: drugstore / pharmacy).

HK universities among the global top 100

In a list dominated by schools in the Western Hemisphere, Asian universities found little room reserved for them as the list of top 100 universities in the world was released.

The ranking is based on, among other factors, diversity, the number of highly-cited researchers across different fields, percentage of international faculty and percentage of international students.

Harvard University got the top spot while Asia's topnotcher did not appear until the 16th with Tokyo University. Hong Kong Hong Kong University of Science and Technology appears to be the top HK institution at 60th place. Highly touted University of Hong Kong is ranked further at 69th position. Chinese University of Hong Kong becomes the third Hong Kong school in the list (97th).

Browsing over the list of schools in a survey conducted by Newsweek, two schools whom I have no affiliation but got their shirts for whatever reasons were in the list: Pennsylvania State University at #40 and University of Vienna at #72. Well, just for your information.

Other Asian schools that made the list are Kyoto University (29th), National University of Singapore (36th), Osaka University (57th), Tohoku University (68th), and Nanyang Technological University (71st).

Though I saw the criteria used to evaluate these universities I still feel bizarre that Indian Institute of Technology was not in the list despite its contribution to the world especially in the field of innovation and technology. Probably the lack of foreign students and professors was the reason. But with India's vast pool of talented professors and a lot of Indian students who toil day and night to study and pass its entrance exams in this State subsidized institution, there's no question about the percentage of foreign students.

HK wins the numbers game

Despite issues on pollution, proposed GST and other negative publicities, Hong Kong Tourism Board released the first half tourism visitor figures for the year. There was an increase of 11.1% meant there were 12.19 million visited Hong Kong from January to June this year. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of foreigners (like me) walking around parks, streets and temples with their indispensable maps on hand.

Easing restrictions in mainland China meant there were even more people from there who came in to visit, with an increase of 14%, the highest increase since Individual Visit Scheme started in mid-2003 as Beijing's answer to Hong Kong's woes during SARS period.

I think what also helped were 1) Hong Kong Disneyland, which gave people from Southeast Asia an option nearer than to home as Tokyo Disneyland is a longer trip and with visa restrictions, it's a little bit more hassle; 2) Cebu Pacific flights to Hong Kong are even cheaper than before, encouraging Filipinos to take the 100-minute flight for less than US$150; and 3) the proliferation of low-cost airlines, such as Hong Kong Oasis that defied high aviation fuel costs and brought in more visitors. That airline is currently promoting HK$1000 flights to London (one-way).

Visits from South and Southeast Asia (11.0%), Europe, Africa and the Middle East (9.7%), Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific (9.5%), and North Asia (8.6%) increased. There were also drops from visitors from double- to single-digit increases from Australia (+9.7%), France (+6.0%), Germany (+5.9%) and even decrease in Singapore visitors.

This trend will definitely bring smiling faces to many people such as flight attendants, restaurant cooks, hotel managers, travel operators, bus drivers, shop owners and many more direct and indirect beneficiaries. I think this shows Hong Kong's resiliency in being a top destination despite setbacks on SARS and Avian Flu in the past. Hopefully it will continue the trend as it battles another invisible foe: worsening air quality. Or should I say a visible foe instead (see the color of the sky in the attached photo)?

Getting married in Hong Kong

href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/874/700/1600/olmc.jpg">Three of my friends are getting married in a span of five or six months. Although only one of them will have a Hong Kong wedding (others are in the Philippines) it is interesting to find out how a typical wedding takes place here. I have never been to a whole wedding ceremony (church to reception thing) even if I was invited a couple of times.

Wedding takes place once in a lifetime for most people so it must require special preparations. Unfortunately there are underlying beliefs that you need to conform with and these make it more difficult to plan things out: date of wedding, siblings cannot marry in the same year, etc. In the Philippines that is prevalent and I believe it is relatively the same in Hong Kong, if not even guided by more elaborate rules.

Many people tell me some couples want to get married in Hong Kong because of its loosely carried laws on the sacredness of a wedding vow. Having to arrange marriage in Hong Kong enables the husband and wife to file for divorce after two years (of course if the relationship turns sour and irreparable).

Normally a wedding registration at ESDLife portal brings convenience to couples wary of busy schedules. The site provides information on wedding photography, attire, church arrangement, jewelry and budget estimates. It even gives ideas on which wedding dates should be picked.

If you are invited to a wedding, it is important to know what to do so as not to embarrass people. It's always safe to go along with other Chinese guests. And unlike in many conventional wedding ceremonies where truckloads of gifts are normal, gifts here are usually in the form of crisp currency placed in red packets. The amount can vary and the value could mean how much esteem you hold on a person.

Wedding feast is considered very important more than the church ceremony and signing of marriage contracts. Parents of the bride and groom take pride in the banquet to announce that their children are married and ensure everything runs smoothly. The outcome can determine the way others respect the family. It is important to see that they get the respect they deserve in such feasts.

In the past, it used to be the groom who will foot most of the bill but now, practical couples share the expenses. It has been an issue in the past that with the bride's family wanting to invite as many guests as possible. With the limited funds provided by the groom's family, the monetary issue becomes a source of conflict. Most likely the ones neglected are the friends of the bride and groom in favor of the parents’ choices.

Wedding banquets usually take place at a large restaurant though it does not mean every table in the restaurant should be occupied by guests. It is normal to see other banquets taking place at the same restaurants, divided by partitions. Around 12 dishes will be served including an appetizer, roast pig, abalone, shark fin soup and end with fried rice/noodles, dessert and fresh fruit. The food is of utmost importance to Chinese and in most cases only delicacies are served. The best types of wine are usually served so a large number of guests can mean a very expensive wedding especially if restaurants rip off the untraceable amounts of soft drinks and wine consumed. Although guests bring monetary gifts, these could barely cover the actual expense incurred.

After the wedding and honeymoon's sweetness, more challenges lay ahead. And as I write this blog, I feel some degree of nervousness.

When "Dream" means nightmare

The United States senior mens basketball team is in Hong Kong after stints in China in preparation for World Basketball Championships in Saitama, Japan later this month.

Explicitly, the name described above was rather long, but coach Mike Krzyzewski would apparently prefer to have that one than call it "Dream Team".

"We don't call this a 'dream team.' We call this a national team.", Krzyzewski explains as he wants to resurrect the US Teams of old that traditionally cruised by their opponents in margins of tens. But as the world caught up with Team USA, not even basketball stars from NBA could prevent their downfall in the recent tournaments, which climaxed with their bronze medal performance in Athens. That team had Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade who are superstars and multimillionaire Americans.

With big names like Michael Jordan, Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, Larry Bird and Karl Malone donning the stars and stripes in 1992, that team earned the much deserved label as "Dream Team". At the time it was a dream to see these men compete as a team. In Barcelona Olympics, they beat opposing teams by a mile and further catapulted the name of NBA as home of the best in the world. For a while. In Indianapolis 2002, Team USA could not reach the semifinals in their own homecourt. In Athens Olympics, USA lost to Puerto Rico and Lithuania in the preliminaries en route to the unacceptable bronze medal.

This time it should be payback time. I thought Coach K cannot accept a "Dream Team" monicker is also because he does not want that the title will remain out of reach since the United States won the last time in Toronto in 1994.

My sorry basketball team from the Philippines got home from disappointing results in Taipei's Jones Cup and Qatar's Al-Emadi International Basketball Championship in Doha. The coach still insists it was a learning experience even if some of the players in the team are already aging. I wonder when is he going to run out of alibis losing to teams which could barely qualify in the World Championships: players were injured, we played n number of games in n number of nights (even if their opponents are even more tired, having just arrived and immediately went to the hardcourt). Should I call my team a "Dreaming Team"?

Baby badges for Hong Kong's pregnant women?

One of the reasons why Hong Kong is among the countries with lowest birth rates in the world is probably the difficulty of a career woman to be pregnant. This is compounded with the crowded bus queues, long lines at restaurants (HK people are fond of taking dinners outside) and some inconsiderate passengers in the subway.

In Tokyo, rail companies are now taking action by providing pregnant women badges in hopes of prompting other passengers to offer them seats. Typically, subway trains I have been to (Vienna, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo and Munich) have special seats for pregnant women, the elderly and the disabled. But in many cases, especially during rush hour, the practice of offering seats to the mobility impaired passengers is not the norm.

In Hong Kong, the utter disregard is obvious. Other passengers pretend they do not see. Others fall asleep or pretend to be. With free newspapers distributed in train stations, others cover themselves while reading the full spreads. I do not know what they'd feel if the pregnant woman standing, or the old lady clinging on the handrail are their wives, mothers or grandparents.

Though I thought it's not necessary to put a badge that says: "There is a baby in my belly" or "Can't you see I am in crutches?" or "Hey, you will walk like me when you get past 65" but sometimes people need to be disciplined in the least rude way. The action of Tokyo on this matter is laudable as the government strives to encourage families to have babies and making pregnant mothers feel cared for -- such as in trains -- is an encouraging thing. It's creating a pleasant environment that is friendly to pregnant women.

If left unchecked, Hong Kong could follow Tokyo in terms of the proportion of elderly people. Japan has a shrinking population that was projected to fall later in the century. Having one of the countries with highest life expectancy, it is the world's most number of elderly people as percentage of total population.

Hong Kong does not have a special seat for mobility impaired persons. I think it's even better than assigning one because it makes everyone who is sitting down be aware that someone could need the seats more than they do. Instead of referring them to the special seats. Hong Kong people are lucky train travels are not as long as Munich Hauptbanhoff or the Incheon-Seoul train network. Otherwise the pains of seeing an elderly person standing up is unbearable.

When Chek Lap Kok was under fire

I arrived in Hong Kong late Wednesday night. My flight, 5J 142, from Manila had about twenty minutes of intermittent air packet that only ended as the tires touched down at Chek Lap Kok airport. Though it wasn't so scary (people were calm throughout the flight) it appears as though we were being chased by the big storm Prapiroon. The next few hours saw Hong Kong International Airport unable to handle the capacity crowd and its temper as 567 scheduled flights through Hong Kong were delayed and 78 canceled, Airport Authority Hong Kong said in a statement sent late yesterday.

The airport saw long queues of passengers waiting for flights to resume as Prapiroon continued to wreck havoc in Southern China. On Friday, a record 811 flights and 160,000 passengers arrived or departed from the airport. These included schedules from the previous days which were cancelled, delayed/diverted from nearby airports to avoid the storm. So if I made my schedule to return on a Thursday instead of Wednesday, I would probably be stuck in Manila and cannot come to office until Monday.

Part of the problem was the supposed raising of storm signal from signal number 3 to8 never took place.

T1 - This is a stand-by signal, indicating that a tropical cyclone is centred within 800 km of Hong Kong and may affect the territory.

T3 - Strong winds are expected or blowing in Victoria Harbour, with a sustained speed of 41-62 km/h (kilometres per hour). Gusts may exceed 110 km/h. Winds are normally expected to become generally stronger in the harbour areas within 12 hours after the issuing of this signal.

T8 - Gale or storm force winds are expected or blowing in Victoria Harbour, with a sustained wind speed of 63-117 km/h from the quarter indicated. Gusts may exceed 180 km/h.

T9 - Gale or storm force winds are increasing or expected to increase significantly in strength.

T10 - Hurricane force winds are expected or blowing. Sustained wind speeds are reaching upwards from 118 km/h. Gusts may exceed 220 km/h.

I wonder why the basis of measuring the wind speed is at Victoria Harbour and not Hong Kong in general. This is the reason Hong Kong Observatory maintained signal number 3 -- sustained winds of between 41 and 62 kilometers per hour were expected in Victoria Harbour -- since 4pm on Wednesday. How can this be if Prapiroon was powerful enough to uproot 500 trees on Thursday alone? Going to Central by bus yesterday I still see mangled street signs along the way.

Though it qualified at that category, Prapiroon was more destructive and many have thought it's about time to modify the classification of storms with the changing of times. Sadly this could be attributed again to the worsening global warming situation.

Imagine the inconveniences of a weary, homesick passenger trapped in the airport that even handouts of HK$500, food, drinks, blankets and hotel coupons cannot ease his/her mind. So I am grateful I am back in the comforts of my small room when the storm passed.

Flying with Prapiroon

One of the reasons Cebu Pacific is still shunned by my other friends when flying to Manila and vice versa is its reliability on air. Ever since I came to Hong Kong more than five years ago, all but three flights are via Cebu Pacific Air. Primarily because of its no-frills pricing strategy, I have learned to be comfortable flying with this airliner also because of its reputation of having 95% of its flights (used to be 100% in their slogan as they said "on time all the time") are on schedule as opposed to Philippine Airline's tarnished image as "PAL laging late" due to its numerous instances of delayed flights that disrupted its passengers' plans. Its late night flight to Manila and available early morning flight to Davao did me favors too.

With safety concerns, my last known Cebu Pacific disaster was in 1998 -- two years after its launch -- when a DC-9 plane from Manila bound for Cagayan de Oro crashed on the slopes of Mount Sumagaya in Misamis Oriental. It was deemed as pilot error for which an unscheduled stopover in Tacloban was made.

Flying amid the heels of typhoons Glenda, Henry and Prapiroon, it was inevitable that my flight to and from Hong Kong were turbulent ones. It was especially shaky on my way to Hong Kong, when sustained air packets lasted for several minutes until its eventual touch down. For a long while I have never felt uneasy as flight 5J 142. I had fun watching National Geographic at home in Davao and one of the featured stories was that fateful flight of Philippine Airlines from Cebu to Tokyo. It was an unfortunate journey that cost the life of a young Japanese passenger. It never occured to me to remember that episode when the plane underwent air packets within South China Sea.

When I made an exit from the airport, storm signal number 3 was hoisted. The next day (today) I realized the extent of the storm was really felt in Hong Kong as strong winds and intermittent rains prevailed the whole day. Flights of Cathay Pacific were halted and ferry services to outlying islands were suspended. Strong winds toppled a stack of containers at the city port. In the morning wind swept from all directions that the proverbial "mahangin ba sa labas" (is it windy outdoors) advertisement is easily answered with yes amid swaying trees and flying leaves.

Dangerous waters at Disneyland

I am currently in Davao City since last Saturday and will be flying back to Hong Kong tomorrow (Wednesday). Last Sunday I got a phone call from Charlene, a friend who is a kindergarten teacher there inviting me to join her at Hong Kong Disneyland last Monday. I have never been to that attraction since it opened September of last year.

I would probably unable to join anyway even if I am there, let alone if I am in the Philippines.

Disneyland is not a water resort but will be on a scrutiny after a sample taken by a newspaper reporter at Disneyland's UFO Zone attraction on July 21 was 5,000 times the current standard for swimming pools. The test was done on a government accredited laboratory a report from The Hong Kong Standard stated.

Since current laws of Hong Kong regulate only drinking water and swimming pools, this one is not covered.

Even if this statement does not cause too much of an alarm, it's definitely another blow to the reputation of this resort place which has been rocked with complaints in the past.