Amusing anecdotes & random ramblings
Posts tagged BBCNews
7m people in Hong Kong. Not one Chinese person?
Jan 11th
According to Wikipedia, Hong Kong has 7 million citizens, 95% of whom are Chinese.
According to this BBC News report about Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels escalator system – the “longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world” – there’s not a single Chinese person who could talk about the system. The reporter’s Australian, who interviews another non-Chinese person about the escalators and how they’ve revitalised previously run-down parts of Hong Kong.
It’d be like going to San Francisco, doing a report on the trams there, and only being able to find one Chinese person to interview.
I know it’s not so much racism as the reporter, desperate to file a story, just using her personal contacts to find SOMEONE to interview … but when they said it was one country two systems, they should have said one country, two communities…
UPDATE: The evil former flatmate and Asian-ophile Mr. Fenn took it upon himself to lodge a complaint with BBC News on my behalf (while changing a few details. Like my gender) and the official word from the BBC is:
“There was no intention to give the impression that we were ignoring the views of the residents of Hong Kong. You are right that the reporter was
not herself Chinese – but she was used because she is the BBC’s reporter in Hong Kong and therefore best placed to do the piece. As you also saw we only felt there was space in the piece to hear from one other person – and as it happens, the best interview she obtained on the subject was with the chap who ran the restaurant chain.”“However I take your point on board – and accept that we should perhaps have made more of an effort to hear something from Chinese residents about the escalator system.”
I can now say I've written for BBC News :)
Dec 26th
Lookie here! (Thanks, @zsk!)
and she has revealed that on Boxing Day, it got 21,500 hits. Now if only I had 1p for everyone who clicked… 
It'll be lonely this Christmas … but the alternatives are worse
Dec 1st
Just in time for December, the BBC has commissioned some research that shows that even the loneliest community in 1971 wasn’t as lonely as the strongest community in 2001, with Edinburgh and London being the loneliest cities and Stoke-on-Trent being the strongest community.
Purely coincidentally, I’d rate Edinburgh and London as being some of the best places to live in the UK, and Stoke-on-Trent as probably one of the less brilliant places.
I used to live in North Wales, which is undoubtedly one of the most “connected” places in terms of a sense of place, belonging and community. Their parents lived round the corner, their grandparents lived round the next hill, so there was definitely a sense of long-term continuity. And I hated it. The locals did their best and were warm and welcoming – far more than their counterparts would be in London, Edinburgh and Manchester – and yet all that did was exacerbate the feeling I had that I had very little in common with my neighbour.
The researchers are blaming the sense of loneliness and a loss in the community on a transient population, and note that community is less prevalent in university areas. Which means, in other words, that people who try to get “educated” are ruining it for the communities at large. If this is true, how long will it be before Britain’s “tall poppy” syndrome means we no longer value “brains”, but ignorance and staying home instead? Until, in other words, we end up like parts of the United States…
To count the sense of loneliness, the researchers based it on the number of single-people households in a given area. The more single-people households there were, the more lonely the community would be, went that theory. But I’m pretty sure that many areas are full of couples who don’t know their neighbours, their local butcher or even their local pub, whereas single people would probably make more of an effort to know their neighbour, butcher, or publican.
In other words, I’m not sure about this survey
One image to represent America…
Oct 2nd
Imagine you’re quintessential Englishman Stephen Fry – who, naturally, is a geek of Jewish Hungarian stock. He’s spent the last few months travelling the land of the United States, and naturally, has written a book and TV programme about it.
Now you have to publicise said book in a book launch. What’s the one image of America you need to sell the book to a British press? Find out.
This – no doubt hilarious – book joins other ones on the shelves dedicated to explaining America to a European readership. Although given the huge amount of press coverage the American elections get in the UK, I’m not sure anything needs explaining.
Unfortunate BBC News juxtaposition of news stories?
Dec 6th
I give you this screen-grab without comment. Maybe just in case I get libelled. But this story might help.
Incidentally, I was at Cardiff Central station one late Friday night, and literally walked past David Davis, looking very regal with just one aide of some sort, patiently waiting for something or other. No other security detail, as far as I could see. I said good luck to him, and thereby gave him the kiss of death. Cunning, that.