Political Animal
Tucking into buffets is a winner for athletes
Do athletes prefer opening ceremonies for international sporting events where they march into stadiums or tuck into buffets on ferries? Top officials say buffets are a clear winner. Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs Carrie Yau Tsang Ka-lai responded yesterday to a letter written by the father of a Hong Kong athlete competing in the East Asian Games that was published in Tuesday's South China Morning Post. The father, who gave his name as K. Chan, said he was annoyed about arrangements for the Games' opening ceremony on Saturday, with most athletes from the nine participating countries nowhere to be seen, because they were sitting on ferries. Only about a dozen athletes from each participating country appeared in the opening ceremony. Chan said organisers should never be allowed to strip athletes of the right to appear in such ceremonies. Yau said the athletes, on four 'guest ships', enjoyed buffets and did not have to stand for more than two hours in stadiums as athletes did at other major games.
Democratic Party 'too poor for newspaper ads'
The Democratic Party has cited poverty as a defence after being accused of drumming up opposition to the plan by the Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats to stage a mass resignation and trigger a de facto referendum on universal suffrage. Conspiracy theorists in political circles pointed fingers at the Democrats yesterday after a full-page advertisement appeared in several Chinese-language newspapers. The advert, posted by 'a group of Democratic Party voters', warned against the resignation plan on the day Legco debated a motion calling for public support. 'We have no idea who these people were,' said one party leader. 'But one thing is certain: we can't afford to spend HK$200,000 for newspaper ads.'
Noodle shop fire for Social Democrat kingpin
League of Social Democrats chairman Wong Yuk-man saw his noodle shop in Kowloon City burst into flames yesterday. 'Somebody trying to burn down my place? They better try killing me,' joked Wong, who said the fire was not an act of arson but an accident caused by a short circuit in a drinks machine. Firefighters were called to put out the blaze when a security guard found smoke billowing from the Kowloon City Plaza shop at 5.35am. No one was injured.
Brouhaha over unfair dismissal case
The Legco debate on whether to probe Democrat Kam Nai-wai's alleged unfair dismissal case turned into a shouting match between Beijing-loyalists and pan-democrats yesterday, with independent Chim Pui-chung forced to unwillingly 'withdraw' remarks, apparently directed at the Civic Party's Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, after he accused 'some legislators from the legal sector' of pursuing personal interests in the name of justice. Ng was accused of supporting the probe previously and opposing it yesterday.
Checking out where the penguins really reside
After placing newspaper adverts backing the government's constitutional reform proposal, the leadership of the Professionals and Senior Executives Association - headed by Beijing-loyalist Samuel Yung Wing-ki, is turning its attention to frostier topics. A 19-strong association delegation is on a trip to the South Pole to study the problem of global warming. Political Animal wonders why Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, who was ridiculed earlier this year for saying the North Pole was heavily populated by penguins, was not invited along to see where the flightless birds actually live.
