AS SHE'S IN NEED of reassurance, let's hope Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee read yesterday's list of 'Worst-Dressed Women'. It is compiled every year by an American who - in the absence of a proper job - devotes his life to publicising his view of what constitutes dress sense.
Given the predictability of the personalities denounced - pop star Britney Spears made an inevitable appearance this year - the only qualification appears to be a well-known name and one unflattering photo.
No doubt the same criteria applied when Next magazine made its local list. But if that occurred to Mrs Ip, it didn't stop her from rushing to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to file a complaint when she was named in the article. Not even being in such august company as Madonna, Demi Moore, Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth lessened her chagrin.
Everyone else who ever figured in the list has been able to bear this crushing blow with remarkable fortitude. Maybe they know that no reader with an IQ in double figures takes any notice of such trivia. Meantime, back at the EOC, staff deal with real problems. Recent cases involve racial discrimination, bigotry against the mentally handicapped and trying to stop the nasty campaign against an Aids clinic by the rednecks of Richland Gardens.
We will never know what they thought about having to turn their attention from people with no other means of defence to writing letters about a frivolous magazine piece involving a powerful senior government figure. But former United States president Harry Truman's famous quote springs to mind: 'If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.'
Can it be that the scent of victory has reached the nostrils of Carol Chen, wife of Alan Leong Kah-kit, one of two contenders for the post of Bar Association chairman in next week's election? Ms Chen was former Bar chairman Audrey Eu Yuet-mee's election agent and is a practising solicitor, but she is giving it up to stay at home and devote more time to her duties as a mother. She dismissed suggestions that her decision springs from an intention to help her husband with his added workload if he wins the race. 'I think Alan is quite capable of managing on his own,' she said, laughing.
