Family hit by HIV tragedy
WEDNESDAY is World AIDS Day and STAR Plus is marking the occasion from today with two weeks' worth of programmes aimed at raising awareness of the deadly disease.
The campaign, entitled THINK!, kicks off with MTV News looking at how AIDS is affecting Asia and what's being done about it. The theme is continued with the airing of the movie Go Toward The Light (STAR plus 8.30pm, ORT 120 mins).
Linda Hamilton (Terminator) and Richard Thomas (The Waltons) play the parents of three haemophiliac sons, whom they're trying to raise to live as normally as possible. Everything changes when the eldest falls sick and is diagnosed as being HIV positive.
ON World channel, prime-time viewing is being devoted to another worthy cause, the Community for the Chest Gala 1993. The intent is to encourage viewers to contribute to the Community Chest, Hong Kong's main charitable organisation.
Andy Curtis and Johanna Gardiner will present the show which includes songs, sketches and interviews with local stars like Simon Yam, Candy Lo and Lau Ka Leung. These are interwoven with documentary footage of the Chest's operations.
Throughout the show the Chest's address will be shown on-screen - so get the contributions rolling in.
THE alternative is some animal magic with Masanori Hata's labour of love The Adventures of Chatran (Pearl,9.30pm). Hata is a zoologist and popular author in Japan where he goes under the pen name Mutsugoro, and he spent 20 years working up to making this feature, the story of a small ginger kitten and its encounters with other animals.
There are no humans in sight, just a kitten learning about survival against a backdrop of beautiful Hokkaido countryside and to music written by Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence).
OVER 40 years the Macau Grand Prix has gained a reputation as a respected international sporting event. On Inside Story (World 8.30pm), Vivian McGrath considers how that reputation could have been damaged by the murder in Macau last Sunday of two Sun Yee On triad members, one of whom had driven in one of the amateur races.
Joanne Gilhooly, meanwhile, attended an open-day at Castle Peak psychiatric hospital on Saturday, to find out how the institution cares for and rehabilitates its patients.
THE China Business Report (Pearl 7.20pm) makes its monthly appearance, with a look at the Maan Shan Iron and Steel Company which has just been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Presenter Lorraine Hahn will also visit an iron mine in Anhui province, to look at the conditions under which employees work.
DIAMONDS may be a girl's best friend, but a diamond merchant certainly is not, if a report from New York for 20/20 (Pearl 8.55pm) is anything to go by. Diane Sawyer and her team conducted a three-month undercover investigation in NYC's diamond district which revealed that for many jewellers ripping off Joe Public is routine.
Hidden cameras caught jewellers repeatedly misleading customers over the colour and quality of a stone and its real value. One merchant, asked to enlarge a ring's band, took the opportunity to swap the diamond setting for stones of lesser value.
This is all very interesting, of course, but it won't answer the big question: Does it happen here too?
