TR EMERITUS

South China Morning Post, 25 March 2010 Most Hong Kong residents are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Yet we manage to make newcomers, especially those from the mainland, feel less than welcome. Our future lies in attracting talented people. Unless attitudes change, the city we call home risks becoming a parochial backwater. Statistics worryingly point in this direction. Government schemes to attract highly-skilled people and ensure that mainland students live and work here after graduating are having limited success. This seems baffling given that we see Hong Kong as being so much more attractive as a place to live than mainland cities. If surveys and anecdotal evidence are any guide, though, they have good reason not to take up our residency offers. Those who leave cite a lack of generosity of spirit. Living and working here is, for them, stressful. Employers treat them badly, office colleagues ignore them and companies push them to work long hours. Increasingly, management positions and jobs for highly-skilled workers pay better across the border. Hong Kong has obvious advantages. It is vibrant and cosmopolitan, safe and relatively clean; laws are adhered to and there is freedom of speech. But these are of only limited consequence to migrants if they are treated unequally. Those that are skilled and well educated have the ability to go elsewhere - as seems to be the case. As long as this happens, our city will be the poorer. Hong Kong's evolution beyond being a regional financial centre depends on an openness to alternative views and ideas. Our population is fast ageing. People with the means and abilities to forge new directions have to be welcomed. We too easily forget that many of us were once in their shoes. Millions of migrants, mostly from the mainland, have made Hong Kong what it is. In the pre-war years, they came here for work. During the 1950s and 1960s, they came as refugees. Hong Kong has no difficulty accepting the money of mainland tourists. Yet behind their backs, we call them backward and rude. The same attitude is extended by many of us towards those from across the border thinking of making Hong Kong their home. Being discriminatory, narrow-minded and exclusive is no way to move our city forward. Mainlanders, whether migrants or visitors, have to have the same sense of belonging as the rest of us. - SCMP  Read More →

[email protected] This week, TR takes a slightly more sombre turn and revisits some of the worst football disasters in the modern era. Football is ultimately a recreational activity and despite what Bill Shankly had to say, it is still extremely unfortunate for fans all over the world to lose lives while enjoying the game. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 100% Statistics – Based on death toll of the particular disaster ____________________________________________________________________________________ 8 ) Heysel Stadium, Belgium (1985, 39 casualties) An hour before the 1985 European Cup (now UEFA Champions League) Final between Liverpool and Juventus, a concrete wall in the stadium collapsed. Crowd trouble was largely blamed for the collapse and 39 Juventus fans lost their lives that day. Liverpool FC by and large accepted the blame and all English clubs were banned from European competition between 1985 and 1990. Heysel Stadium was also torn down and rebuilt.   Ellis Park, 2009 7) Ellis Park, South Africa (2001, 43) Ellis Park will be hosting seven matches during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and had also hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final. However, in 2001, 43 fans lost their lives in a stampede during a match between Johannesburg club sides Orland Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs. Reports suggested that almost 120,000 fans were crammed into the stadium with an official capacity of 60,000 and tout tickets and poor crowd control were blamed. This remains South Africa’s worst sporting accident. 6) Kayseri Ataturk Stadium, Turkey (1967, 44) Kayseri Erciyesspor and Sivasspor were two clubs with massive rivalry back in the 1960s. This particular disaster occurred during the first ever official meeting of these two sides. Violence erupted immediately after Kayseri scored an early goal, with fans pelting missiles. A stampede ensued as other fans tried to escape the ground and 44 lives were lost. This incident sparked rioting in the cities of both clubs and took several days before law enforcement officers can calm the situation down. 5) Bradford City Stadium Fire, England (1985, 56) Just 18 days before the Heysel disaster (#8), a fire broke up at the Valley Parade (home of Bradford City FC) and took the lives of 56 spectators in the ensuing mayhem. The ground that day was packed as the club had won the Third Division title and it was the day the trophy was to be presented. The fire was likely to be caused by a lit cigarette falling through the holes in the stands to the rubbish accumulated below. It escalated and before fire extinguishers can be employed, casuing an inferno that consumed part of the ground. Valley Parade was renovated and works were completed in 2001. 4) Ibrox Disaster, Scotland (1971, 66) Ibrox was home of Glasgow football side Rangers FC and the 1971 disaster occurred on the day after New Year’s. The visitors were traditional rivals Celtic and hysteria broke out in the 89th minute of the game, when Celtic scored. Throngs of Rangers fans stood up to leave the ground and barriers on one of the stairway gave way, causing a massive pile-up of spectators. The stadium underwent a huge development because of this disaster and is now classified as a UEFA five-star stadium. 3) Luzhniki Disaster, Soviet Union (1982, 67) Spartak Moscow was playing Dutch side HFC Haarlem in the UEFA Cup when this disaster occurred. The game was nearing the end and fans were slowly beginning to leave the stadium. However, in the dying minutes of the game, Spartak scored and the crowd that was trying to leave the ground stopped and tried to turn back, colliding with the incoming flow of traffic. A stampede occurred and as security failed to take any effective actions to control the crowd, 67 lost their lives. Hillsborough Tribute at Anfield 2) Hillsborough Disaster, England (1989, 96) In England, the Hillsborough disaster is one of the most discussed incidents in the modern era. Many believed that what happened at Hillsborough in April 1989 had a very direct impact on what English football had become today. It was the FA Cup semi-final game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough (a neutral ground). English football grounds were all terraced seats during that time and stadiums sometimes could accommodate more for bigger games. Due to various factors that day, crowds built up at the gates outside Hillsborough minutes before the game. The problem started when police opened a gate to ease the crowding in the terrace, only for crowds outside to push into the ground. 96 fans perished that day, all of them fans of Liverpool FC. The aftermath of the disaster was the Taylor report, which resulted in the conversion of many football stadiums in the United Kingdom to all-seater and the removal of barriers in front of stands. Essentially, that made watching of football matches in the UK much safer and more family-oriented. It is also arguable that this had overhaul of safety in football grounds reduced the influence of hooliganism in the English game and helped raise a platform for which it was launched internationally.  1) Accra Sports disaster, Ghana (2001, 127) The worst football disaster in recorded modern history occurred in the African city of Accra in 2001. Rivals Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko were playing a league match. Heart of Oak scored twice late on to win the match 2-1. The away fans reacted by pelting plastic seats and bottles on the pitch. The security forces at the ground reacted duly by firing tear gases in to the crowd, causing a stampede which took the lives of 127. In the aftermath, six police offices were charged with manslaughter.  Read More →

作者：中央社  25/03/2010 在密闭室内严格禁烟的新加坡，最近因赌场内设吸烟区，让不吸烟者深感困扰并质疑当局有双重标准。主管当局表示，将与赌场合作检讨，减少二手烟对不吸烟者的影响。 新加坡政府向来以严厉执行禁烟法令和重罚闻名，夜总会，小贩中心，餐厅，停车场等几乎所有的密闭室内场所，都全面禁烟。 1名赌客向新加坡新传媒集团旗下的“今日报”投诉，新加坡大部分室内场所都禁烟，但却容许最近开幕的“圣淘沙名胜世界”赌场设立吸烟区，是否意味着当局持双重标准？ 今日报今天报导，1名在圣淘沙名胜世界赌场担任荷官（发牌员）的人也投诉指出，他和圣淘沙名胜世界签有1年的合约，如果违约必须赔偿8000新元（约新台币 18万1600元），但现在却被迫要在吸烟区工作。由于吸烟区的通风设备不足，烟味让患有喉咙痛，鼻窦炎的他经常流眼泪，呼吸困难，但他却又无法辞职。 新加坡国家环境局（NEA）在答覆媒体询问时坦承，赌场开幕以来已接获21件投诉，指圣淘沙名胜世界赌场的非吸烟区，有自吸烟区飘进来的烟雾，令人不适。 环境局说，当局和两家赌场业者经过漫长的讨论，最后于前年决定，不会在赌场实施禁烟令，而由业者自行订定规则，保护非吸烟者。许多国家的赌场，也都根据自身的规定，设立吸烟和禁烟区。 1项统计显示，85％的赌客都是吸烟者。有人质疑，新加坡政府让赌场设置吸烟区，是为了让赌场赚钱，明显有双重标准。 对于相关的投诉，圣淘沙名胜世界发言人表示，将会检讨是否安装更多的大型通风设备，并增加独立的空调与分区。 环境局也表示，将会与赌场业者合作，扩大民众注意非吸烟区的范围，并防范违反规定。当局也将继续注意赌场吸烟与非吸烟区的规定，重新检视是否在赌场实施禁烟令，以确保二手烟对民众的不良影响降到最低。 来源：http://iservice.libertytimes.com.tw  Read More →