What goes around comes around

"Little Sweet" as she is popularly known for her pigtails

Geomancer, Tony Chan Chun-Chuen, and the Chinachem Charitable Foundation both show no signs of loosening their grips on the estimated US$2.4 billion that Chinachem Group chairlady, Nina Wang Kung Yu-Sum, left after her death in 2007. The charity is accusing Tony, Nina's partner of 14 years, of forging the will that entitles him to the money.

Nina had been charged of will forgery of her own back in 2002, when she went against her father-in-law, Wang Din-Shin, for $128 million left by her husband and owner of pharmaceutical company The ChinaChem Group, Teddy Wang, who was assumed dead after his second abduction in 1990. Although she lost the fight, Nina went on to expand the company to encompass property development, and became the richest woman in Asia.

After trying the "mental incapacity", "under the influence", and "forged signature" angles, Chinachem Charitable Foundation's latest tactic is the claim that the 2006 will signing the estate to Tony was in fact meant to be burned during the Buddhist funeral rites, making it inauthentic under law.

Representatives of the court state that the task at hand will be to determine Nina's belief in such rituals.

Story of Renee and Lisa S

One is an old, unattractive and very obviously unloved pet, and the other, young, beautiful and a darling of HK paparazzi. They are Renee the "Tong Gau" and Lisa Selesner (Lisa S) the international model. "Tong Gau" is the Cantonese term for multi-bred, or mongrel dogs, that would be Renee; incidentally, Lisa S is also a multi-bred in human term, she is part French, Chinese, and Jewish-American.

The two met on one fine day in March at the Hong Kong Dog Rescue (HKDR), when HK celebrity Daniel Wu and his girlfriend Lisa S visited the kennel, looking for a possible companion for their bulldog Buddy. With 200 dogs vying for the humans' love and attention, Lisa S claimed that she felt a connection with old girl Renee, a resident of kennel no. B2 (above pic). She can't stop thinking about Renee, even dreaming about the old girl! With Renee already in her heart, the little "Tong Gau" officially became part of Lisa S' family a week later. Not a bad score Renee!

Renee was abandoned by her previous owner because she was deemed to be 'too old' - 11 years, has been with HKDR for about 10 months. Renee was looking at living out her twilight years at the kennel in a cramped and crowded condition, battling younger, stronger dogs for food and space. Even though she has acquired pretty good intimidating skills over the years, Renee will eventually be weak and slow - she will have no energy to get to the treats, she will be forced out of her favourite resting spot, and she would be lucky to be taken out for a walk more than once a day.

In branding mad HK where multi-bred humans are hot but multi-bred dogs are not, pet lovers usually take the pedigree types home. The chances of a mongrel being homed is always slim, time that by two for older dogs, so Lisa S has my applause for giving an old dog a second chance to life.

Attack!

Despite Chip Tsao's public apologies, Filipinos are being encouraged to boycott HK products and chose other travel destinations in retaliation for the offensive comments made in "The War at Home" piece published in HK Magazine on March 27th. With his usual satire, Tsao wrote that the Philippines was unworthy of claiming the Spratly Islands from China because "as a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter."

The Tourism Board remains unfazed, however, as tourists from the Philippines amount to only a few 100's of thousands. Even if the incensed Filipina domestic helpers were to quit their jobs, it's unlikely Hong Kong would be TOO affected - there is afterall a steady rise of Indonesian and Thai maid services, ready to fill in any gaps.

And who would such a move hurt the most? The then unemployed Filipinas and their dependents back home. Which is precisely the point Tsao was trying to make.

Calling the Philippines a "nation of servants" was certainly not tactful, but as a columnist, he is entitled to his own opinion, even a racist one! Is one person's view worth an attack on the whole of Hong Kong?