https://www.scmp.com/rss/1537/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A Stormy Petrel: The Life and Times of John Pope Hennessy, by P. Kevin MacKeown. Published by City University of Hong Kong Press Of the 28 British governors who oversaw Hong Kong from 1842 to 1997, only Hongkongers of a certain age will have a living memory of any of them. There was final governor Chris Patten, fondly recalled for his warmth and wit, and his gifts as a skilled politician able to engage ordinary folk; David Wilson, the flinty career diplomat and noted sinologist; the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3087105/hong-kong-governor-who-gave-locals-voice-and-hennessy-road?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3087105/hong-kong-governor-who-gave-locals-voice-and-hennessy-road?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jun 2020 04:45:14 +0000 If non-sports lovers think the European game of soccer is confusing, spare a thought for the players and fans in Iran. While the game's rules remain the same in Tehran as anywhere else, the Iranian government's regulations about who can play and watch the games are as complex as the pattern of a Persian rug. Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, female soccer fans were banned from attending public sporting events in their homeland. Then unexpectedly in April, the country's controversial... https://www.scmp.com/article/552264/looking-level-playing-field?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/552264/looking-level-playing-field?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:00:00 +0000 The very idea is enough to make a Chinese panda lover's blood boil. The city of Washington, capital of the United States, is eagerly searching for a suitable animal to become its official symbol. And it appears that the giant panda is rapidly making its cuddly way towards the top of the list of candidates. Such a suggestion may sound bizarre to the people of China, which has long used the panda as its national symbol. But the chairman of the city council of the District of Columbia, Linda... https://www.scmp.com/article/546801/us-capital-set-poach-chinese-emblem-bid-statehood?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/546801/us-capital-set-poach-chinese-emblem-bid-statehood?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:00:00 +0000 As President Hu Jintao breakfasts in Washington today, US President George W. Bush will be putting the final touches on a long list of requests for the Chinese leader. Topping the list will be an appeal for China to allow the yuan to float - the Americans claim that the undervalued currency has acerbated America's ballooning US$200 billion trade imbalance with the mainland. The White House will also ask China to take more seriously the practice of US copyright infringements - particularly... https://www.scmp.com/article/545478/leaders-talk-diplomacy-military-build-ups-continue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/545478/leaders-talk-diplomacy-military-build-ups-continue?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:00:00 +0000 It was five years ago this month when the central government charged Nanjing-born scholar Gao Zhan with spying for Taiwan. Word of Gao's arrest quickly reached Washington DC, where the then 38-year-old had been working as a scholar-in-residence at American University's noted School of International Service. An angry groundswell of protest against the detention of the self-proclaimed dissident sprang up in the US capital. It began with her university colleagues, who knew Gao as an earnest... https://www.scmp.com/article/544184/plot-thickens-sino-us-spy-game-takes-lonely-turn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/544184/plot-thickens-sino-us-spy-game-takes-lonely-turn?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Apr 2006 16:00:00 +0000 The construction gang building one of the most elegant embassies in the US capital will spend their free time in decidedly more down-market digs. In January, Beijing booked an entire 195-room motel in Washington's crime-ridden northwest. The Days Inn Washington Gateway motel normally houses working-class families from New Jersey or discount tours from Ohio. But for the next 21/2 years, it will be used to house and feed up as many as 400 Chinese labourers. The motel's website says ... https://www.scmp.com/article/538936/workers-bed-down-gritty-motel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/538936/workers-bed-down-gritty-motel?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Mar 2006 16:00:00 +0000 It's an irony that must make you smile. Just as US President George W. Bush's proposal to allow Mexican workers to take up temporary jobs in the US has been crushed beneath relentless criticism, Beijing plans to import several hundred Chinese construction labourers to work for several years just a few kilometres from the White House. But the Chinese workers are not being whisked to Washington to pick lettuce or plant potatoes. They are being brought in to build China's sparkling new embassy.... https://www.scmp.com/article/538937/beijing-plans-its-new-washington-embassy-colossus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/538937/beijing-plans-its-new-washington-embassy-colossus?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Mar 2006 16:00:00 +0000 When the notorious American bank robber Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he famously said: 'Because that's where the money is.' Likewise, criminal psychologists agree that paedophiles - sexual deviants who prey on children - will purposely find employment where children are: at schools, playgrounds, day-care centres and amusement parks. Although police psychologists say that paedophiles can never be cured, after convicted sex offenders have served their sentences they are... https://www.scmp.com/article/516610/hunting-grounds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/516610/hunting-grounds?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The Bedouin's face was burned brown by a lifetime beneath Jordan's searing desert sun. As he carefully roasted fresh coffee beans over a campfire, his features in profile appeared as proud and regal as the face on an ancient coin. Then, suddenly, he smiled to himself. Leaning conspiratorially close to a young Jordanian woman who was watching him, he whispered something mysterious in Arabic. She thrust her head back and burst into laugher. Later, I asked her what the leathery nomad had said.... https://www.scmp.com/article/513811/rose-among-thorns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/513811/rose-among-thorns?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Aug 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The very idea is so shocking that it's hard to believe it will actually happen soon. Heart transplants have been performed for more than 30 years. Kidneys, bone marrow, livers, lungs, and pancreas transplants are now almost routine. So far, nearly two dozen hands have been successfully transplanted. And now, what has previously existed only in the minds of science fiction writers will take place in a real-life operating room: the face of a deceased person will be surgically removed and... https://www.scmp.com/article/512814/facing-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/512814/facing-future?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Aug 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The Dead Sea, a place of immense historic, environmental and spiritual significance to the world, is dying. Simply put, the 80km-long, 18km-wide inland sea is dying of thirst. Within the last century this magnificent, strangely silent silver sea set in the middle of desert has shrunk in size by a third. And each succeeding year, it loses another metre. In some places, the Dead Sea is now so shallow, it's possible to walk from the Jordanian side to the Israeli shore. Known in the bible as... https://www.scmp.com/article/506965/ambitious-plan-quench-dead-seas-terminal-thirst?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/506965/ambitious-plan-quench-dead-seas-terminal-thirst?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jul 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Just eight years after losing a nuclear bomb off Georgia, the US Air Force lost four more nuclear weapons. This time the loss took place over Palomares in Spain. On January 17, 1966, a B-52 collided with a KC-135 tanker plane during a midair refuelling. Seven of the 11 crewmen aboard the two aircraft were killed. It would take the air force about 80 days before the elusive weapons were finally found, three on land, the fourth in the Mediterranean Sea. According to the Washington DC-based... https://www.scmp.com/article/506072/four-more-go-missing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/506072/four-more-go-missing?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jun 2005 16:00:00 +0000 US President George W. Bush's stated motive for the invasion of Iraq was to locate and destroy that country's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the existence of which was an absolute certainty according to now retired CIA boss George Tenent. Despite intensive searches by the UN and the US military, however, no weapons were found. And no one in the Bush administration likes to talk about missing armaments anymore. But this is not the first time that the US has been unable to find missing... https://www.scmp.com/article/506073/us-drama-over-wmds-50-year-old-homegrown-saga?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/506073/us-drama-over-wmds-50-year-old-homegrown-saga?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jun 2005 16:00:00 +0000 As Americans everywhere celebrated the recent Memorial Day weekend with parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues, members of the US Army's Third Infantry Regiment in Washington, DC, were busy placing tens of thousands of small American flags at the graves at Arlington National Cemetery, as a way to remember those who served the US. As America's great imperial graveyard, Arlington National Cemetery sees more visitors on that weekend than at any other time of year. But one military grave which... https://www.scmp.com/article/503451/mystery-chinese-major-buried-us-war-hero-cemetery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/503451/mystery-chinese-major-buried-us-war-hero-cemetery?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:00:00 +0000 It was a hot August day in 2002 when the US Navy patrol boat off the Pacific coast of Mexico first spotted the 25-metre Honolulu-based vessel. A helicopter from the USS Fife immediately identified her as a fishing boat. She was riding low in the water, clearly weighed down by heavy cargo. Yet something was suspicious. There were no signs of fishing gear. Also, on its deck was a shipping container like those found on freight ships. When the navy chopper pilot radioed in what he saw, a US... https://www.scmp.com/article/502278/cruel-bounty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/502278/cruel-bounty?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 May 2005 16:00:00 +0000 You've probably never heard of Samih Toukan, or his website Maktoob.com. But don't feel bad. A decade ago you almost certainly would not have heard of Jerry Yang - the Chinese-American engineering student who launched Yahoo.com from his college dorm. Today it's the world's most popular website. The analogy isn't far fetched. Seven years ago Jordan's Samih Toukan launched Maktoob.com out of his grandfather's family house, in the Jordanian capital of Amman. Within weeks, Mr Toukan and his... https://www.scmp.com/article/500488/netting-middle-east?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/500488/netting-middle-east?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 May 2005 16:00:00 +0000 WHILE UNDER BRITISH rule, Hong Kong had the dubious distinction of being one of the few places in the world where not speaking a foreign language fluently was considered a serious social stigma: that language was English. Ironically, even when Chinese migrate to the west, not speaking English perfectly can seriously affect their careers. Washington DC has attracted thousands of such immigrants, drawn by the high-paying hi-tech jobs in government and private industry in the nation's capital.... https://www.scmp.com/article/497462/mind-our-language?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/497462/mind-our-language?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Apr 2005 16:00:00 +0000 If your life were a book, would anyone want to read it? In the case of Anna Chennault, one tome alone would not be nearly enough to contain an extraordinary life spanning more than seven decades and two continents, including friendships with a dozen presidents and prime ministers on both sides of the Pacific. Probably that's why Chennault has written 52 books so far. Her name may not be a familiar one to young people, but Anna Chennault's story is an authentic example of just how much one... https://www.scmp.com/article/497164/anna-and-kings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/497164/anna-and-kings?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:00:00 +0000 At the start of the war in Iraq, when it became clear that France would not support the US invasion of that country, some Americans were upset that a nation which they had twice liberated from the German army now refused to champion America's cause. Television news reports showed restaurants changing 'French fries' to 'freedom fries' and bartenders gleefully pouring bottles of merlot and Moet on to city pavements. Most Americans have long since resumed sipping their chablis. And with the aid of... https://www.scmp.com/article/495834/french-dine-out-horse-loving-nations-dark-secret?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/495834/french-dine-out-horse-loving-nations-dark-secret?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Apr 2005 16:00:00 +0000 THE LIST OF great Chinese comics isn't a long one. And that's something Jami Gong hopes to change. Born and raised in New York's bustling Chinatown, the third of six children of Hong Kong immigrants, the energetic 36-year-old is determined to show the world that Chinese can be funny. With that in mind, Gong launched TakeOut Comedy after the September 11 attacks on New York. Like all New Yorkers, Chinatown's residents were traumatised by the attacks - perhaps even more so, given that the... https://www.scmp.com/article/491151/stand-and-be-counted?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/491151/stand-and-be-counted?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:00:00 +0000 With Valentine's Day here, spring is not far behind, and for married male politicians that means sex scandals. British politicians have long been portrayed as being pre-eminent in sordid, career-ending affairs, while their US counterparts are painted as keener to acquire wealth than adoring or acrobatic mistresses. Yet the litany of licentiousness of Washington's politicians can easily hold its own against any record Westminster can provide. Bill Clinton, of course, has been enshrined... https://www.scmp.com/article/488897/all-presidents-women-not-so-secret-sexual-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/488897/all-presidents-women-not-so-secret-sexual-history?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Feb 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Did Richard Nixon have an illicit love affair with a beautiful Hong Kong woman? No one knows for certain, but the circumstantial evidence is enticing. During an official visit to Hong Kong in 1958, then US vice-president Nixon was rumoured to have had an affair with a beautiful Chinese cocktail waitress named Marianna Liu, who reportedly worked in the Hilton Hotel. Nixon's term as vice-president ended in 1960, but he reportedly returned again to Hong Kong in 1964, 1965 and 1966, to see Ms... https://www.scmp.com/article/488896/hong-kong-love-affair?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/488896/hong-kong-love-affair?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Feb 2005 16:00:00 +0000 It was a job that no one in their right mind would ever ask for - to supervise the largest investigation of the United States government in history - in direct opposition to White House wishes. For 18 months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, US President George W. Bush fought against the formation of an independent commission to investigate how the government had failed to protect its people. Finally, driven by rising public pressure spearheaded by... https://www.scmp.com/article/485806/without-fear-or-favour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/485806/without-fear-or-favour?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Jan 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Few people are aware of it, but there is a small piece of Hong Kong that will likely remain American for many years to come. On a hill above Stanley, just a few minutes' walk from the market, there's a carefully preserved cemetery that holds scores of graves from the second world war. Most markers are dated December 1941 and belong to the British and Canadian soldiers who defended Hong Kong against the Japanese invasion. But there are also graves belonging to civilian prisoners of war... https://www.scmp.com/article/482774/piece-america-hong-kong-too?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/482774/piece-america-hong-kong-too?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Dec 2004 16:00:00 +0000 With nearly 1,300 US soldiers killed in Iraq so far, and that number likely to top 2,000 in the years ahead, America's great imperial graveyard, Arlington National Cemetery, is coming under pressure not seen since the Vietnam war to accommodate the nation's honoured war dead. Every month some 500 burials take place at the cemetery. The most picturesque landscape associated with the US capital, Arlington is not actually in the District of Columbia, but lies across the Potomac River in... https://www.scmp.com/article/482775/grave-concern?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/482775/grave-concern?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Dec 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Even in a capital renowned for its commanding estates, Twin Oaks stands out for its understated beauty and historic pedigree. Yet, while the gala events held at other such grand homes are routine fodder for the social pages of Washington's newspapers, the owners of this particular manor tend to keep their own council. Reason: it is, in fact, a figurative embassy - a virtually invisible embassy, but an embassy nonetheless. More than a quarter of a century ago, when China was granted membership ... https://www.scmp.com/article/477832/taiwans-invisible-envoys-us-suffer-splendour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/477832/taiwans-invisible-envoys-us-suffer-splendour?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Nov 2004 16:00:00 +0000 A few kilometres from Twin Oaks, in Washington's International Centre, a special area set aside for embassies more than 30 years ago, the People's Republic of China is building a massive new embassy of its own. Designed by legendary Guangzhou-born, Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei and his son, Chien Chung, the new embassy - which will cover 300,000 sq ft and include two large office wings linked by a low-rise entry pavilion reminiscent of Ming dynasty imperial architecture - was approved... https://www.scmp.com/article/477831/big-better-new-chinese-embassy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/477831/big-better-new-chinese-embassy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Nov 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Will angry American expats deny Mr Bush a second term? It is an irony that for US President George W. Bush - who, at the age of 50, had never travelled outside North America, would be voted out of office by a landslide - if the rest of the world could vote. In survey after survey, international polls reveal that as much as 70 per cent of the world would vote against a second term for Mr Bush. On election eve, he may be the most ostracised American president in history. Luckily for Mr Bush,... https://www.scmp.com/article/476705/angry-expats-could-hold-key-white-house?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/476705/angry-expats-could-hold-key-white-house?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Nov 2004 16:00:00 +0000 It's literally a billion-dollar gamble. Far more than mere money is at risk, but that's the amount - US$1 billion - that South Korea's Hyundai Corporation has invested in its mammoth tourism development in the Diamond Mountains of North Korea. A real-life hermit kingdom whose residents are the most isolated society on Earth, North Korea is a nation of 23 million people, where few have ever heard of The Beatles, or Elvis, or Jackie Chan. And most have never been told that man has landed on the... https://www.scmp.com/article/475840/moving-mountains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/475840/moving-mountains?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Oct 2004 16:00:00 +0000 A Hyundai executive half jokingly told me that his company's excursions are called 'Don't do it! Tours'. He's not wrong. Cell phones, laptops, telephoto lenses and powerful binoculars are strictly verboten. Everyone must wear large photo ID tags at all times. Once inside the demilitarised zone, and in the North, photos are forbidden. You're not to point to a North Korean and, in the unlikely event you become engaged in conversation, you're to avoid any political statements, or mention the... https://www.scmp.com/article/475839/northern-exposure?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/475839/northern-exposure?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Oct 2004 16:00:00 +0000 It could have been a scene from Cartagena, Colombia, in the 1990s, or even 80s Miami. A sweaty bank staffer secretly lugging battered attache cases stuffed with millions of dollars in undeclared cash for big money clients of dubious honesty. But far from occurring in the steamy streets of Central America or Florida, this particular drama was played out in the leafy, tree-lined lanes of the US capital in the past few years. And the bank involved was not some shady Third World,... https://www.scmp.com/article/472519/notorious-clients-dictate-venerable-banks-fall-grace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/472519/notorious-clients-dictate-venerable-banks-fall-grace?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 For decades, Washington's miniature Chinatown in the very heart of the American capital has wallowed in petty crime and urban squalor. Treated with benign neglect by Washington's disgracefully ill-funded municipal government, the little enclave has long dwelled on the 'critical list' of the city's most ignored neighbourhoods. Times are changing, however. A competent pro-business mayor and a boom in commercial land prices have transformed what is easily one of America's smallest Chinatown into... https://www.scmp.com/article/470138/old-chinese-heartbeat-weakens-americas-capital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/470138/old-chinese-heartbeat-weakens-americas-capital?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Trying to ascertain, with any accuracy, the populations of America's Chinatowns is akin to guessing the number of rice kernels in a large bowl. Most city governments can only guess the size of their ethnic populations, based on a once-a-decade census and unsubstantiated reports from the community itself. But with more than 100,000 residents, New York's Chinatown is believed to be not only the largest in the US, but home to the largest single concentration of Chinese in the western... https://www.scmp.com/article/470137/us-top-six-chinatowns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/470137/us-top-six-chinatowns?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 It wasn't until 1960 that Americans were willing to vote a Catholic into the White House. Republican opponents of John F. Kennedy warned that the 43-year-old would listen to the pope rather than his own cabinet. Forty years later, Senator Joe Lieberman became the first Jewish-American to run as a vice-presidential candidate, backing Al Gore. Many Americans believe Secretary of State Colin Powell could be the first African-American president if he sought the White House, but his wife has... https://www.scmp.com/article/468875/chinese-american-leader-long-way?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/468875/chinese-american-leader-long-way?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 With neither Secretary of State Colin Powell nor National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice putting in an appearance at this week's Republican national convention in New York, the Bush administration is taking pains to present the Republican Party as an inclusively happy home for diverse and assorted Americans of all colours, creeds and gender - and not just the party of affluent, middle-aged white men. Perhaps that's one reason why US President George W. Bush's Labour Secretary, Elaine Chao,... https://www.scmp.com/article/468877/chasing-chinese-influence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/468877/chasing-chinese-influence?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 America's flashy, high-priced political pundits tell anyone who will listen that the US election is too close to call. With just over two months left in the campaign, the TV talking heads insist the George W. Bush-John Kerry battle for the White House will be a virtual replay of the sweaty 2000 election - with the victory margin for either man being exceedingly thin. Yet, if you sift carefully through the sociological sands of the US, it doesn't take brilliance to predict that Mr Bush will... https://www.scmp.com/article/467620/too-many-bridges-burned?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/467620/too-many-bridges-burned?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Aug 2004 16:00:00 +0000 There are only three events that, should they occur within the next couple of months, could turn things around for George W. Bush. The first, but least likely of these, would be a sudden and powerful surge in the US economy, giving a clear indication that many more jobs were on the way. Thus far, however, there's been no indication that this will happen any time soon. The second event which would catapult Mr Bush back into the White House for a second term would be if Osama bin Laden were... https://www.scmp.com/article/467619/three-events-could-save-bushs-skin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/467619/three-events-could-save-bushs-skin?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Aug 2004 16:00:00 +0000 'I think we might have lost her.' With that heartbreaking statement, spoken by a Dallas-based American Airlines employee three years ago next month, one of the greatest tragedies in US history had begun. It is precisely 7.59am on a radiant September morning when American Airlines Flight 11 lifts off from Boston's Logan Airport. Rising through a brilliant blue sky, they are bound for Los Angeles. On board that day are 92 people: 81 passengers, two pilots and a cabin crew of nine. Sitting in... https://www.scmp.com/article/466501/angels-last-call?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/466501/angels-last-call?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Aug 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Here are a few headlines from recent classifieds which appeared in a single recent edition of the Washington Post: 'Are you depressed?' 'Irritable? Anxious? Sad?' 'Trouble Sleeping?' 'Moodswings?' 'Not enjoying life?' Strikingly similar editorial banners are seen in the paper's weekly health section pages, as they are in scores of other newspapers and magazines. America, it seems, is in a collective sulk. Workplace production losses, due to depressed workers, are said to amount to about US$44... https://www.scmp.com/article/463168/ageing-boomers-have-everything-key-happiness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/463168/ageing-boomers-have-everything-key-happiness?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jul 2004 16:00:00 +0000 These are great times for the Goliath Casket company. Business for the small family business is ... well ... bulging. All thanks to the foresight of the company's founder. Until the 1980s, virtually every American casket-maker manufactured standard-sized coffins for the dearly departed. Back then extra-large caskets were hard to find and, being hand made, costly to buy. But in 1985, Forrest Davis, father of the company's current owner, Keith Davis, decided to become the first coffin maker to ... https://www.scmp.com/article/460488/corpulent-america-where-supersize-now-big-business?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/460488/corpulent-america-where-supersize-now-big-business?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Jun 2004 16:00:00 +0000 US President George W. Bush's address to the nation on Monday kicked off a concerted campaign to regain some status in a war marred by bungled decisions and embarrassing revelations of torture and abuse due to an incompetent military command structure. But why should we be shocked by apparent failings in Iraq? When New York and Washington were attacked by terrorists three years ago, millions of Americans were appalled and enraged. But many were not entirely surprised by what soon came to be... https://www.scmp.com/article/457097/stars-and-strife?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/457097/stars-and-strife?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 May 2004 16:00:00 +0000 All nations are proud of their triumphs. But few countries have both the space and the money to build so many monuments to their leaders, and their accomplishments, as do the Americans. From the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, to Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the American landscape is awash with monuments and memorials, statues and shrines, to the great and the good. But nowhere has this habit become more ingrained than in Washington. On May 29, Memorial Day,... https://www.scmp.com/article/454645/washington-cluttered-monument-memorial?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/454645/washington-cluttered-monument-memorial?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 May 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if it were run by teenage boys? Spend a little time in the Philippines and you'll have your answer. The island-nation's enduring love for double-dosed machismo can partly be blamed on its two colonisers - Spain and the United States. Having lived under these foreign powers, which has been described as '300 years in a convent and 50 years in Hollywood', has put most Filipinos in an uncomfortable cultural quandary from which they have yet to... https://www.scmp.com/article/246652/men-will-be-boys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/246652/men-will-be-boys?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Jul 1998 16:00:00 +0000 Stepping into the crowded function room where I was to meet my long-missed high school buddies, I recoiled in horror. The scene was nightmarish: there were old people everywhere. Wherever I turned there were immense beer bellies, sprawling bald spots the size of the Sudan, multi-layered turkey necks, and eyebags too big to cram in a plane's overhead compartment. It was like a scene from The Night of the Living Dead. Amazingly, I seemed to be the only person in my class who had escaped relatively... https://www.scmp.com/article/225934/reunited-face-middle-age-shock?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/225934/reunited-face-middle-age-shock?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jan 1998 16:00:00 +0000 Just in case you needed an excuse to take a holiday, statisticians have been saying for years that most accidents which prove fatal often happen right in our own homes. Ergo, the safest place to be is on holiday, right? Well, not necessarily so. Because even when we go on holiday, death can sometimes tag along too. Indeed, some of the world's most popular tourist attractions - places like the Grand Canyon, Ayers Rock, the Pyramids and the Blarney Stone - have proved fatal to hapless holiday... https://www.scmp.com/article/212825/tourisms-fatal-attractions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/212825/tourisms-fatal-attractions?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Sep 1997 16:00:00 +0000 Even in the land of the politically incorrect, the Hobbit House stands out. No, I didn't say it stands tall, I said it stands out among Manila's vast and growing number of odd eateries. Though most tourists, being timid sorts, seldom stray far from the safety of their hotel outlets, the Philippine capital in fact boasts probably the most arresting array of offbeat eateries anywhere in East Asia. Among these is a stylish bistro where most of the waitresses are nuns and a bell is tolled... https://www.scmp.com/article/169481/great-little-place-manila?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/169481/great-little-place-manila?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Aug 1996 16:00:00 +0000 DOES anyone out there besides me wonder what happened to public phone booths? I mean those solid, well-made glass and steel boxes, with six-foot high glass walls, an overhead light, a little ceiling fan and, best of all, a folding plexi-glass door with rubber bumpers which effectively shut out the roar of the street? One day I woke up and the doors were all missing. Then I noticed something even more ominous. Whoever took the doors off has gone a step further: now the bottom halves of the... https://www.scmp.com/article/59854/operator-i-need-booth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/59854/operator-i-need-booth?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Jan 1994 16:00:00 +0000 FOR decades air travellers have been inundated with televised commercial images of flight attendants as a cross between beauty queens and wine waitresses. However, there is much more to being an air stewardess than having an enchanting smile and giving attentive service when the drinks trolley comes round. Many are called for interview, but few are chosen. The training is tough and intensive, and before that first commercial flight, air stewardesses (and stewards) must prove they are cool... https://www.scmp.com/article/49333/more-just-pretty-face?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/49333/more-just-pretty-face?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Oct 1993 16:00:00 +0000 WHILE Russia's President Boris Yeltsin is busy in Moscow battling a communist corpse that won't lie down, four Moscow chefs are in Hong Kong to host a nine-day ''To Russia with Love'' food festival which opened last night. Few people outside Russia know much about the nation's foods, and that's a shame because when it is good, it's very good indeed, hearty and full of flavour. After all, when was the last time you saw a skinny Russian? Sadly, during its 70-year reign the Soviet regime... https://www.scmp.com/article/46815/russian-fare-and-no-need-queue-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/46815/russian-fare-and-no-need-queue-it?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Oct 1993 16:00:00 +0000 DID you ever wonder what some of the six million tourists who visit our fair city are told by their trusted tour guides? Neither did I. But I decided to see anyway. Going undercover, I decked myself out in a baseball hat, a pair of abominably checked Bermuda shorts and an appalling Hawaiian shirt. Then with my camera ready, lens cap firmly secured by string, I booked a standard half-day Gray Line bus tour of Hong Kong Island. Our group was an assortment of Italians, Australians and... https://www.scmp.com/article/46681/under-cover-rose-tinted-bus-tour-hong-kong-island?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/46681/under-cover-rose-tinted-bus-tour-hong-kong-island?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Oct 1993 16:00:00 +0000