Strip searches and the boys in blue

What are these accusations of improper and demeaning strip searches all about?

It seems the police and officers from the Correctional Services and the Immi-gration Department are spending a lot of time strip searching (including removal of underwear) those in their custody: so much time, in fact, people are beginning to complain.

Yu Mun-wah, the Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, is probably puzzled by it all. He says strip searches are usually performed only in suspicious cases involving possession of drugs, and a metal detector is used to search for con-cealed weapons.

So, why are these officers strip searching asylum seekers, domestic workers, social activists, and sex workers? A Sri Lankan asylum seeker claims he was strip searched sixty times in two months! Perhaps the officers involved thought he was a Colombian drug lord?

I think, however, there’s nothing sinister behind it; I think it’s something quite innocent.

In my view, the officers were probably just bored and wanted to inject a bit of gaiety into their dull routine. You know, just having a bit of fun, a bit of a laugh; nothing more. I certainly wouldn’t suggest they were strip searching people for sexual gratification – that would be an extremely serious allegation to make.

No, I think it’s just a case of “boys will be boys”. Sometimes, you give a man a blue uniform and it goes straight to his head.

Anyhow, seven asylum seekers have complained to the Ombudsman about the treatment they received, so the boys in blue will have to find some other way to get their jollies, won’t they?

Fighting against a minimum wage

JUST A THOUGHT:

… Why is it the most vociferous opponents of a minimum wage are those on mega-buck salaries?

The Beijing Games awakens the Chinese soul

Tomorrow, thank god, will see the back of the Olympics for another four years.

In Hong Kong – as in the rest of the world, no doubt – it’s been almost bloody impossible to escape from “The Games”.

The Games’ ubiquity has nearly driven me crazy: the TV channels and the local newspapers have been virtually taken over by it; images of the athletes, and The Games’ commercial sponsors and their products are plastered over all the bill-boards and posters; and The Games is the main (often, the only) topic of conver-sation.

Yet, of all the effects The Games has had on Hong Kong life, the most significant (in my view) is the way it has aided the rise of Chinese nationalism within Hong Kong’s Chinese population – something I first noticed with the arrival of the Olympic torch.

Let me be clear on this point: I don’t think it’s wrong or strange the Hong Kong Chinese are supporting and cheering the mainland Chinese athletes - in fact, I would think it strange if they didn’t; I just think the sudden apparent increase in intensity of support for any athlete wearing the Chinese flag is a development worthy of comment.

You see, when I first arrived in Hong Kong in 1995, most of the Chinese I worked with had a BNO passport. Some of them even applied for, and received, Australian or Canadian passports: I didn’t do a survey, but I gained the impres-sion the Hong Kong Chinese thought (at that time) they were different and separate from the mainland Chinese.

This impression was reinforced (perhaps, with hindsight, erroneously) after the 1997 handover when so much effort went into controlling and restricting the influx of mainlanders into Hong Kong.

However, I now realise the process of “reassimilation” of the Hong Kong Chinese is one of the logical and inevitable results of the British withdrawal from Hong Kong. I’m not suggesting the Beijing Games was the first step in this process – nor do I expect it to be the last – but I’m confident, when historians look back at these Games, they will credit it with awakening the Chinese soul within the Hong Kong Chinese heart.

Silk-stocking milk tea

Wherever I live (and I’ve lived in many places) I always support local heritage and traditions. Not blindly, only if it adds value or something special to local life.

On Hong-Kong-side, where Gage Street meets Lyndhurst Terrace, you’ll find the Lan Fong Yuen restaurant, which, since the 1950s, has served a drink called “silk-stocking milk tea” from a little green booth just outside its front door.

Lan Fong Yuen

The booth, a registered dai pai dong (an outside eatery), is owned by Lum Muk-ho, a man well into his eighties; but government policy does not allow a dai pai dong owner to pass the licence to another person, so someday it will have to close.

From the booth, they sell the “milk tea” to go, but I wanted to check out the restaurant inside. It was smaller than I expected – but very busy – and is frequented mainly by workers from the local shops and offices. Snack-type dishes seemed popular, so I ordered some French toast and, of course, a glass of the legendary milk tea.

However, when the tea arrived, I was reminded of the old saying: ‘If it looks like a duck … then it probably is a duck’. To my eyes, it looked like tea with con-densed milk. It even tasted like tea with condensed milk. So, it probably is.

To say I felt disappointed would be an understatement.

The day Mr. Lum goes to the great restaurant in the sky will be a sad day. But, after he’s gone, I shall not support any effort to save the little green booth.

I’m guessing this booth became a fixture simply because nobody could be bothered to remove it. In my view, it has no real heritage value, and adds nothing special to local life. At the appropriate time, someone should remove it.

I won’t tell you how to get there as I don’t want to waste your time.