Stanley to be enhanced by multi-storey car park
Hard on the heels of the outrageous decision by the town planning board to allow the brother of Edward Yau Tang-wah, the director of the chief executive's office, to build a boutique hotel on Lugard Road, we hear of another crass planning decision in Stanley.
Hard on the heels of the outrageous decision by the town planning board to allow the brother of Edward Yau Tang-wah, the director of the chief executive's office, to build a boutique hotel on Lugard Road, we hear of another crass planning decision in Stanley.
Stanley, as we know, is one of Hong Kong's more attractive locations, where people can stroll around the market and the waterfront in a low-rise environment. During the week Stanley is relatively quiet with plenty of empty car parking spaces. However, during the summer hundreds descend on Stanley, some in vast tour buses. So now the Southern District Council is planning to build a multi-storey car park next to the bus station so that, according to one resident, "even more non-residents can prosper at the expense of residents". There are also plans to reroute the traffic system to accommodate the new park.
A reader writes to say: "No doubt the proposed car park will be full a few times a year but will be virtually empty at most other times." The residents are trying to argue against the proposal, since they believe it will irretrievably change the area, but are not overly hopeful. The big winners from this will be the Stanley merchants who have no little political support on the council.
You might think that changing your password for online banking would be fairly straightforward these days, since the process has been with us for a long time. That is unless you try this with Hang Seng Bank. A reader reports of his recent experience which had him almost pulling his hair out in frustration.
He is the founder and director of a small business and has been with the bank for seven years. He had to change the password he used for his corporate account for online banking. For Hang Seng this is a procedure which requires going online and entering the new password and security details, and at the end of the process there is a confirmation together with a document that has to be downloaded, filled in and taken to the bank. When these offline and online procedures are completed, Hang Seng approves the new password, a process that takes four days.
Before going to the bank he prepared all copies of his company's certificate of incorporation, business registration, proof of address, ID card, and finally, stamped the document with the company chop and had it countersigned by a fellow director. When he presented it to the bank, the teller looked up his details on her computer and then declared she couldn't accept the document.
Surprised, he inquired why, and was told because he had chopped the document, which made it different from the document she had on her screen. He explained that the chop made the document more, not less, valid. But she was insistent, and so after a few minutes of fruitless discussion about his history with the bank and so on, he shifted into "angry gweilo mode", raising his voice and demanding to see the manager. The teller disappeared and after a lengthy delay came back and said "sign it". Off he went having spent 20 minutes on this operation.
We see that Tiger Woods made an eye-watering US$78.1 million last year. This was made up of US$13 million in winnings and US$65 million from endorsements. Roger Federer was second with US$71.5 million, though earned the same amount as Woods from endorsements. David Beckham was ranked eighth with US$47.2 million, of which US$42 million was from endorsements, which put him one place above footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with US$44 million, who earned more than four times Beckham in salary but half what he earned from endorsements.
The top-earning Asian sportsperson was the boxer Manny Pacquiao in 14th position with earnings of US$34 million, of which US$26 million was from his winnings. Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni was ranked 16th with US$31.5 million, of which US$28 million was from endorsements.
Maria Sharapova was the highest ranked woman in 22nd position with US$29 million, of which US$23 million was from endorsements. Wayne Rooney was the highest paid British-based footballer, and was ranked 61st with earnings of US$21 million, which was mostly from his US$18 million salary.
