bleungberg.com

Hello from Hong Kong – five days into its second recession of this new century. Coincidentally, the last time Bleungberg was here – end of 2003 – the territory was also in a recession so I guess I bring a bit of bad-luck to my birthplace. Since our arrival two weeks ago, I reckon there are even more people and buildings than before – as if that was possible! (They just keep reclaiming land from the ever-shrinking Victoria Harbour). Overall though, it’s broadly the same place as 2003: the food is still wonderful, television is crap, pollution is bad, and people are always in a hurry.

There is one notable exception, however, and that’s been the massive influx of Indonesian housemaids wearing headscarves to this tiny place. This is significant because you don’t often see people wearing religious garments in Hong Kong barring the odd Buddhist monk or Catholic nun on the bus, and this highly visible sea of headscarves is an unfamiliar and bewildering sight in a highly secular place. Sure, there is a huge mosque in the middle of the city whilst 95% of the population claim to be Buddhists (though you wouldn’t know it by the way people live excessively, backstab one another and curse like there’s no tomorrow on a daily basis), this colony of Indonesian maids swamping the parks and public transport on a Sunday afternoon is something I’m not yet used to.

That’s because throughout my childhood and for over twenty years, it was the Filipinos who swamped the parks and trams on their day off. Every Sunday, before you saw them, you could hear them from miles away! They would gather en masse in parks, down alleyways, on flyovers, subways, sidewalks to play cards, have picnics, do each others’ nails, gossip, fight, dance etc etc. They are still here – and they continue to gather in huge numbers - but their population is dwindling. The reasons are simple: Indonesian maids are cheaper (you pay for their live-in costs such as food as well as accommodation and they cook, clean, pick up the kids for you – all of which is included in their salary), whilst Filipino maids are considered to be less diligent and easily corrupted. (Notorious tales of Filipino baby-sitters shutting up Chinese babies with their toes are all true, I’m afraid). Besides, local wives and mothers feel more at ease with a conservative Indonesian woman who’s less likely to have an affair with their husbands than the Filipinos. Strange that, given these were the exact reasons how Filipinos came to replace Mainland Chinese maids in Hong Kong during the mid-1980s! I predict a demand for Burmese maids twenty years hence.

But for how much longer can people afford a maid? The ‘financial tsunami’ – as the locals call it – and rising unemployment are making people jittery though probably nowhere near as bad as the situation in Europe and America. On a personal note, the British Pound has devalued by about 30% in the last quarter against the Hong Kong dollar which was disheartening when I booked a trip to Tokyo the other day. I didn’t exactly endear myself to the travel agent either when I asked him what’d happen if his company went bust before the trip – his colleague overheard me and looked absolutely horrified.

Amidst all these, we visited neighbouring Macau – a former Portuguese colony -  last week for work, and its economy is in even worse shape. Visitors go to Macau for three reasons – casinos, food and hookers. Its economy is suffering because Mainland Chinese officials have been barred by their government from spending and coming in contact with ‘black money’ in the casinos. Since Macau has nothing else going for it (its casinos are disgustingly opulent and the streets are sleazy but also very colonial and quaint in certain respects…a bit like Havana, Cuba, bizarrely), with Hong Kongers also tightening their belts by not visiting Macau at all, the situation for the local tourism industry is dire. The American owner of the 6* star Venetian Casino is hoping for a local government for a bailout – for a gambling premise!

So far, this has been an outstanding week for mixed-race personalities - with Lewis Hamilton clinching the Formula 1 title in dramatic but pathetic circumstances (he had to finish fifth or better….so he promptly finished…fifth…and only after being gifted the spot by a bumbling German on the wrong set of tyres), and also Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (above) taking his maiden tennis Masters title on home turf in Paris, after a year ravaged by injuries. The trend looks set to be completed by the election of Barack Obama into office at the White House tonight.

Of the two sportsmen, Tsonga is undoubtedly the better of the pair - unassuming, gritty, hard-working and charismatic: everything that is missing in Hamilton. We find the Brit arrogant, bland, manipulative and lacks respect for authority. We therefore sincerely hope he doesn’t go on to lift the BBC Sports Personality of the Year accolade as that would be a travesty considering some of the people he’s up again - sportsmen and athletes who have worked much, much harder than him, surviving on a fraction of his salary. We don’t care who wins on December 14th at Television Centre - but we just want ‘Anyone but Lewis’.

Bleungberg is coming out for Obama for US President.

We have been carefully tracking Senator Obama’s rise since 2006 when he was highighted by The Observer as ‘ones to watch’ for the future.

Since then, we have listened to his speeches, thought hard about his policy, troubled by his cliquey and elitist circle of friends and fund-rasiers, and not totally bolwed over by his personality (or lack of). In addition, his voice is beginning to grate. In short, we are not convinced by him or by what he stands for and with such a huge challenge ahead, he’s bound to let us all down.

However, we despise Republican Sarah Palin with a passion. So despite the fact we’d probably have no problem with a President McCain, it leaves us with Obama. Mind you, Bleungberg rates his running-mate Joe Biden very, very highly. So, should someone decide to bump off Obama, we’d have no qualms in declaring our allegiance towards Senator Biden.