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SCMP Reporter

On the day Asia's 'old man' finally packed it in, it seemed highly appropriate a European was named the region's most powerful figure.

 Michel Camdessus, the French head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has topped a rankings list of Asia's 50 most influential people compiled by Asiaweek magazine - with some justification.

 After all, this is the man who presided over the pouring of tens of billions of US dollars into troubled economies throughout the region.

 Mr Camdessus pipped President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji to the top spot.

 He wasn't the only non-Asian to make the ranks of the top 20 during Asia's year of turmoil.

 News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch came in at number six on the list, while that bane of Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's life, George Soros, was ranked as Asia's 12th most powerful man - just two places below Dr Mahathir.

 We wonder how the Malaysian Prime Minister would feel about the growing foreign presence on the list of powerful Asians - particularly given his antipathy towards the IMF and Mr Soros.

One notable absentee from the list was the now ex-Indonesian president, Mr Suharto - who held its number three ranking last year.

 Apparently, until a few weeks ago, he was in the list's top 10, and last week he remained in the top 50.

 By this week, however, Mr Suharto was off the list altogether.

 Talk about yesterday's hero! It may be getting close to a year since the handover, but colonialism is far from dead in Hong Kong.

 A portly American about to have lunch at the China Club on Wednesday had a rather special request, as the usual elite crowd wielded the club's trademark silver chopsticks with aplomb.

 'Can you shine my shoes while I'm eating?,' he loudly asked a waiter.

 We're not sure of what the answer was: but suffice to say the waiter acquitted himself with considerably more dignity than his guest.

Outlandish prices are becoming par for the course for anything associated with next month's World Cup in France - but even your correspondent was shocked by one quote given to hire a car during the festivities.

 A Post colleague sent an e-mail to Avis in France, requesting the rate for eight days' use of a car with unlimited kilometres in the World Cup period.

 The response from the company was a shock. The rate for a car 'similar to a manual Opel Omega' for the period would be 533,600 French francs, the return e-mail said.

 That's more than $696,000 - or $87,000 a day! Not even ticket touts could go close to matching that sort of mark-up, he thought.

 Thankfully, it all proved to be a mistake.

 When asked by Lai See's bewildered colleague to confirm the figure, Avis sent an apologetic e-mail, revealing that the correct amount was 5,336 francs.

 At $870 a day, still no bargain - but compared with the previous quote, peanuts! As the Frank Sinatra tributes continue to pour in from around the world, reader Andrew Penfold spotted a letter in The Sydney Morning Herald that seemed particularly appropriate.

 The words of two other immortals whose names also began with 'S' were compared with those of Sinatra as proof of the crooner's enduring legacy:  'To be, or not to be' - Shakespeare.

 'To do is to be' - Sartre.

 'To be, do be, do' - Sinatra.

Cheung Kong boss Li Ka-shing had an unusual request after the Hutchison Whampoa annual general meeting yesterday. He repeatedly asked reporters at the post-AGM press conference not to run 'bad' photos of him in today's papers.

 Apparently, it's all down to some shots Mr Li (below) did not like in some Chinese language papers.

 In the true spirit of your request, Mr Li, we've picked out the photo of you in what we'd regard as a customary pose.

 Trust it meets with your approval.

Fashion victim-It would be remiss of Lai See to mark today without a parting tribute to Mr Suharto, following his departure from the role of Indonesian top dog yesterday. For one, we'll miss his contribution to the field of family values. After all, what was Indonesia but an opportunity for setting up his kids in business? Naturally, we'll miss his unique methods of crowd control used for more than 30 years - which seem to have faltered in the past few weeks. But most of all, we'll miss his dress sense, as shown in the above picture. It brings back memories of the time he talked to all of those world leaders, Bill Clinton included, into wearing very loud batik shirts at the end of the Apec meeting in Indonesia a couple of years back. Yes, folks, above all, May 21, 1998, will go down in the annals of history as a sad day for the fashion industry.



Sacre bleu! A Frenchman is in our list!