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Chopsticks

Observations on the semiotics of chopsticks: Roland Barthes

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Ferry pier

Hong Kong: bar benders strike longest industrial action in 30 years

Hong Kong's six to eight hundred bar benders -- those are the guys who along with the welders assemble on site the girders which make possible all those high-rise buildings -- are now in their 23rd day of strike action. This is the longest such action in Hong Kong in thirty years.

The strike has now spread to around 100 construction sites -- up from 60 last week.

According to reports, members of the community, including Cathay Pacific flight attendants, have donated money, fruit and bottles of distilled water. A fund set up to help the strikers has already reached HK$360,000.

The strike pits employees against bosses. Nothing new there.

But a little bit of history might help: in 1997, the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) negotiated pay cuts down from a daily wage of HK$1,200 to the grand sums of between HK$500 and HK$800 a day.

Now, ten years later, the pro-democracy labour group Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) has got behind a workers' campaign for a pay rise: a uniform daily wage of HK$950 (that's the same rate as paid in 1994).

Plus a cut in working hours from nine to eight hours. Plus backing Nepalese construction workers who are calling for equal pay, saying their HK$450 daily pay is discriminatory. Which it is.

The two union groups have been competing to represent the interests of the striking workers. Meanwhile, the Government is desperately trying not to get involved. And the employers' representative group, the Hong Kong Construction Association? It says there isn't the money for a HK$950 daily rate. But they would say that, wouldn't they?

Anyway, to put some flesh on those numbers . . . a poem by Mr. Xin, a metal worker:

My wrath is on government-business collusion,
As we laborers toil through sweltering heat and fierce rainstorms.
Our deeds are done on dusty sites and we often work right into the night.

For the rest of Mr. Xin's poem and its literary antecedents: Alice Poon

Hong Kong: total eclipse of the Moon

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At five am this morning, the now totally uneclipsed full Moon shines silent and bright in the west-northwestern sky. (Mister Bijou currently keeps erratic hours.)

So bright the Moon its brilliance washes out all its own features: no Man in the Moon, no craters nor seas. Instead, a mute white disc shines at the centre of a faint corona. (Sadly, the photo does not do the corona justice.)

Bathed in pure light, some inhabitants of a little island in the South China Sea gear down from the night as others gear up for a new day. Still others, fitfully awake and gloriously alive, try to keep at bay niggling dawn thoughts.

Those thoughts about existence and non-existence, thoughts like the ones in Philip Larkin's poem Aubade.

Hong Kong: total eclipse of the Moon

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The view from Tung Wan beach at seven pm did not look promising. Thin high cloud was slowly sweeping in from the southeast blanketing out the sky above.

But through the thin cloud a faint, rusty red orb came into sight, low in the east.

As the pale disc slowly rose further above the horizon, the thin cloud passed on. To reveal in the distance a succession of twinkling navigational lights.

Airliners, one following after the other, each making their slow descent along the same flight path to Chep Lap Kok airport.

And above and beyond them, that Moon.

In restless silence divested of its pale rust hue, become a sliver of crescent brightness.

While some us watched from Tung Wan beach.

Hong Kong: total eclipse of the Moon

Tomorrow evening, weather permitting, a total eclipse of the moon will be visible from the comfort of a little island in the South China Sea.

According to Hong Kong Observatory, the earth's shadow will start to cross the Moon at 3:52pm and the total eclipse will begin at 5:52pm (Hong Kong time).

Hereabouts, none of this will be visible, however, until moonrise at 6:43pm. Which is six minutes after the middle of the total eclipse.

Still, that leaves a good forty minutes before the total eclipse ends. After which there will be a further two hours as the Moon wordlessly moves out of the shadow and back into the light. Confused? Maybe this will help: diagram

Looking to the east will help, too. Weather, as they say, permitting.

Reading matters

Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-east Asia, by Joe Studwell (excerpt, part 1; excerpt, part 2)

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Saiwan: Hungry Ghost festival

In the traditional Chinese calendar, today is the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month. Which means the Hungry Ghost Festival, and the burning of red candles and paper offerings.

Reading matters

"The Parallels!" Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges, by John Barth: context

You Don't Know Jack [Kerouac], by Matt Weiland: NYT

Mose Allison: I'm Not Downhearted But I'm Gettin' There

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Allison wonderland:



Have a great weekend!

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Out-patients Department

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Building site

Reading matters

Reminiscing (part 2): Alice Poon

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More rain, more umbrellas

Bob Dylan: I'm Not There

Here's the trailer for the upcoming Bob Dylan bio. Directed by Todd Haynes and starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin all as Bob Dylan:



Todd Haynes: senses of cinema

Haynes's first film (1987) used Ken and Barbie dolls to tell the story of the Carpenters, Richard and Karen. Soon after the film was premiered, Richard Carpenter made sure it got buried. However, for the time being, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is viewable. It's 43 minutes long: video google

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Harbour reflexion

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Pak Tai football pitch

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Restaurant

Gotan Project: Queremos Paz

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Tango electronico:



¡Hola!

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Late night cooked food stall