hey' heard about you are famous by your personality and speech of 寸. though i quite appreciate your personality and the words on your blogs. for your real personality and the courage to reveal so unfair cases in the entertainment industry, i admire you
just copy and paste my link http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1638125,00.html
aiya.....
here go
--- Hong Kong: The Next 10 Years Thursday, Jun. 28, 2007 By JIMMY LAI Article Tools Print Email Reprints
I was very afraid when China took back Hong Kong in 1997. People told me that as soon as the People's Liberation Army entered the city, they would arrest all counter-revolutionaries. Someone predicted 3,000 arrests. Someone else said 400. I was thinking: even if only 20 or 30 people are arrested, I would be among them. So I tried to prepare myself psychologically. I pondered what books I would take to read in prison. I thought that I could accept the reality of the situation. But when I woke up in the middle of the night, I was covered in cold sweat. Then I realized how scared I was.
My fears turned out to be unfounded, of course. Since the handover 10 years ago, I've been able to pursue my reading list free from incarceration. People who know how aggressively my newspaper, Apple Daily, has criticized Hong Kong and mainland authorities might be surprised to hear me say this, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how the past decade has unfolded. Overall, China has tried to abide by the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, and despite a turbulent seven years under the inept leadership of former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, the territory is prospering. That is not to say there aren't concerns. Hong Kong suffers greatly from a lack of full democracy. The press censors itself to avoid angering the powers that be. (For refusing to pull its punches, Apple Daily publishes under a boycott by pro-Beijing businesses that costs us $25 million a year in advertising revenue.) Hong Kong's air quality is deteriorating, as is the standard of English. And landmarks that form a key part of Hong Kong's identity are being demolished to make way for development.
But the most important piece of our identity that is being destroyed is, unlike the Star Ferry terminal or Queen's Pier, something you can't see. That's Hong Kong's independent, entrepreneurial spirit. For years we have succeeded because of a low-tax, small-government system that fostered a dynamic economy. The free market provided opportunities for Hong Kong people to use their creativity to get ahead. Since 2003, when China allowed growing numbers of mainland tourists to visit here and goose us out of our post-SARS stagnation, we have grown increasingly dependent on handouts from the mainland. We are becoming more like China, and less like the cosmopolitan, international city we once were. The risk is that we lose our entrepreneurial zeal and become wholly dependent on the mainland's economy.
That would be dangerous. While China's growth over the past 20 years has been impressive, the country has not escaped the laws of economics. There is no such thing as a perpetual-motion machine. Eventually China, like every other country in the world, will hit an economic rough patch—and for China it will be exceptionally rough. Chinese society today is a moral and spiritual vacuum. People care only about making money, not for one another. If the economic pie grows smaller, people will fight one another ferociously for a piece of it. Things could get brutal, and we will feel the fallout in Hong Kong, too. Elsewhere, NGOs and religious organizations help out during hard times. But, in China, the Communist Party has gutted those civil institutions—the churches, temples, unions and cultural associations—that people depend on when times are tough.
Hong Kong can help with that. We were the mustard seed for the mainland economy, providing not just the investment but also the management concepts that allowed it to grow to where it is today. So too can Hong Kong provide the foundation for the civic institutions that the country will need to truly thrive. China should look to Hong Kong for help developing those institutions.
And, as difficult as it may seem, China should look for help from Taiwan. The island has institutions that protect and nurture ideas. It is a place where people don't have to be afraid of holding unpopular opinions. Most importantly, Taiwan has a fully functioning democracy.
China would do well to allow Hong Kong that kind of freedom. It would be to Beijing's benefit. By allowing Hong Kong people to choose their own leaders, China would be praised by the global community of democracies. And that would give the mainland time to work out its own political reforms with less pressure from outside. Hong Kong could provide a model to show what sort of democracy can work best on Chinese soil. And the freedom to pick its own leaders would undoubtedly aid Hong Kong. Under the present system, loyalty to the central government is a more important criterion than loyalty to Hong Kong. That's how an incompetent leader like Tung managed to stay in office so long. Given the right to choose, Hong Kong people wouldn't make that mistake.
People sometimes say that a man whose publications are filled with swimsuit models and car crashes isn't the right messenger for the noble values of democracy and freedom. I reply that I'm not here to be a hero. I'm not here to be a saint. I'm here to fight for what I believe in. Yes, I am still afraid. But Hong Kong is my home. I am stuck in this fight.
I wonder if the Times article is the English version of the pieces appearing in both Apple Daily and Next magazine.
I have said it before and I would like to repeat: Jimmy Lai is the last tycoon i respect in Hong Kong. 不枉我支持蘋果多年. 仍然珍藏創刋號.
Gee ... he hasnt finsihed primary school studies. 但老實說, 文章寫得比大部份大學生好. So you are right in apologizing for the IVE thing :-P, you're not apologzing to Stephy but on your wrong view on 才華 against measuring something on which school one attend or what type of education one received.
lai's best writing is the series on how he started his business.
but i think he later admitted that yueng wai hong did the final editing/polishing for him. you can see the yueng trail, when there are a lot of question marks in the article.
You are probably right, most articles will be edited. Just like touch ups made by Photoshop. However we never know how much of the work is contributed by the editor and I believe Lai remains the chief contributor.
At the same time, I recall one of the articles Jimmy Lai wrote said that many people question his articles are someone 代筆 but he answer that he did write all the articles.
Of course the ones about how he started the business is good. However there are also some that impress me that has nothing to do with business, like the ones about his family members, gourmet etc ...
To begin with, content is the soul of an article, and I seldom (or never) see 肥黎無病呻吟.
What I repect him most that he can stand the emprical test of time. Many many others have already Kowtow , 自我審查等. However 這些年來, 不屈撓. 面對龐大壓力, cut ad budget etc, 硬淨依然, 報格不失, 十分難得.
Too bad you did not show the whole article to share.
回覆刪除http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1638125,00.html
回覆刪除here.
無剪指甲!?
回覆刪除Sun Bin:
回覆刪除I must be stupid or something, or maybe perhaps dumb even, because I have gone through the site and still cannot find the article Erica refers to.
hey' heard about you are famous by your personality and speech of 寸.
回覆刪除though i quite appreciate your personality and the words on your blogs. for your real personality and the courage to reveal so unfair cases in the entertainment industry, i admire you
just copy and paste my link
回覆刪除http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1638125,00.html
aiya.....
here go
---
Hong Kong: The Next 10 Years
Thursday, Jun. 28, 2007 By JIMMY LAI
Article Tools
Print
Email
Reprints
I was very afraid when China took back Hong Kong in 1997. People told me that as soon as the People's Liberation Army entered the city, they would arrest all counter-revolutionaries. Someone predicted 3,000 arrests. Someone else said 400. I was thinking: even if only 20 or 30 people are arrested, I would be among them. So I tried to prepare myself psychologically. I pondered what books I would take to read in prison. I thought that I could accept the reality of the situation. But when I woke up in the middle of the night, I was covered in cold sweat. Then I realized how scared I was.
My fears turned out to be unfounded, of course. Since the handover 10 years ago, I've been able to pursue my reading list free from incarceration. People who know how aggressively my newspaper, Apple Daily, has criticized Hong Kong and mainland authorities might be surprised to hear me say this, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how the past decade has unfolded. Overall, China has tried to abide by the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, and despite a turbulent seven years under the inept leadership of former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, the territory is prospering. That is not to say there aren't concerns. Hong Kong suffers greatly from a lack of full democracy. The press censors itself to avoid angering the powers that be. (For refusing to pull its punches, Apple Daily publishes under a boycott by pro-Beijing businesses that costs us $25 million a year in advertising revenue.) Hong Kong's air quality is deteriorating, as is the standard of English. And landmarks that form a key part of Hong Kong's identity are being demolished to make way for development.
But the most important piece of our identity that is being destroyed is, unlike the Star Ferry terminal or Queen's Pier, something you can't see. That's Hong Kong's independent, entrepreneurial spirit. For years we have succeeded because of a low-tax, small-government system that fostered a dynamic economy. The free market provided opportunities for Hong Kong people to use their creativity to get ahead. Since 2003, when China allowed growing numbers of mainland tourists to visit here and goose us out of our post-SARS stagnation, we have grown increasingly dependent on handouts from the mainland. We are becoming more like China, and less like the cosmopolitan, international city we once were. The risk is that we lose our entrepreneurial zeal and become wholly dependent on the mainland's economy.
That would be dangerous. While China's growth over the past 20 years has been impressive, the country has not escaped the laws of economics. There is no such thing as a perpetual-motion machine. Eventually China, like every other country in the world, will hit an economic rough patch—and for China it will be exceptionally rough. Chinese society today is a moral and spiritual vacuum. People care only about making money, not for one another. If the economic pie grows smaller, people will fight one another ferociously for a piece of it. Things could get brutal, and we will feel the fallout in Hong Kong, too. Elsewhere, NGOs and religious organizations help out during hard times. But, in China, the Communist Party has gutted those civil institutions—the churches, temples, unions and cultural associations—that people depend on when times are tough.
Hong Kong can help with that. We were the mustard seed for the mainland economy, providing not just the investment but also the management concepts that allowed it to grow to where it is today. So too can Hong Kong provide the foundation for the civic institutions that the country will need to truly thrive. China should look to Hong Kong for help developing those institutions.
And, as difficult as it may seem, China should look for help from Taiwan. The island has institutions that protect and nurture ideas. It is a place where people don't have to be afraid of holding unpopular opinions. Most importantly, Taiwan has a fully functioning democracy.
China would do well to allow Hong Kong that kind of freedom. It would be to Beijing's benefit. By allowing Hong Kong people to choose their own leaders, China would be praised by the global community of democracies. And that would give the mainland time to work out its own political reforms with less pressure from outside. Hong Kong could provide a model to show what sort of democracy can work best on Chinese soil. And the freedom to pick its own leaders would undoubtedly aid Hong Kong. Under the present system, loyalty to the central government is a more important criterion than loyalty to Hong Kong. That's how an incompetent leader like Tung managed to stay in office so long. Given the right to choose, Hong Kong people wouldn't make that mistake.
People sometimes say that a man whose publications are filled with swimsuit models and car crashes isn't the right messenger for the noble values of democracy and freedom. I reply that I'm not here to be a hero. I'm not here to be a saint. I'm here to fight for what I believe in. Yes, I am still afraid. But Hong Kong is my home. I am stuck in this fight.
Sun Bin:
回覆刪除Thanks a bunch!
I wonder if the Times article is the English version of the pieces appearing in both Apple Daily and Next magazine.
回覆刪除I have said it before and I would like to repeat: Jimmy Lai is the last tycoon i respect in Hong Kong. 不枉我支持蘋果多年. 仍然珍藏創刋號.
Gee ... he hasnt finsihed primary school studies. 但老實說, 文章寫得比大部份大學生好. So you are right in apologizing for the IVE thing :-P, you're not apologzing to Stephy but on your wrong view on 才華 against measuring something on which school one attend or what type of education one received.
Jimmy, you Da Man
lai's best writing is the series on how he started his business.
回覆刪除but i think he later admitted that yueng wai hong did the final editing/polishing for him.
you can see the yueng trail, when there are a lot of question marks in the article.
Sun Bin
回覆刪除You are probably right, most articles will be edited. Just like touch ups made by Photoshop. However we never know how much of the work is contributed by the editor and I believe Lai remains the chief contributor.
At the same time, I recall one of the articles Jimmy Lai wrote said that many people question his articles are someone 代筆 but he answer that he did write all the articles.
Of course the ones about how he started the business is good. However there are also some that impress me that has nothing to do with business, like the ones about his family members, gourmet etc ...
To begin with, content is the soul of an article, and I seldom (or never) see 肥黎無病呻吟.
What I repect him most that he can stand the emprical test of time. Many many others have already Kowtow , 自我審查等. However 這些年來, 不屈撓. 面對龐大壓力, cut ad budget etc, 硬淨依然, 報格不失, 十分難得.