Was 2018 a mongrel 12 months or a year of pure pedigree for Hong Kong?

As with any good dog year, the last 12 months started off skittish enough, before maturing into a more steady companionable phase, then gradually declining to a point where we knew the last wave of its paw was not long off. Overall, for Hong Kong, it has been the usual year of ups and downs, so let’s take a moment and reflect on the trials and tribulations of the canine calendar year just gone.

Things started on a good enough note, with the government declaring, as early as March, that, thanks to the city’s whopping budget surplus of HK$138 billion, more than 2.8 million Hongkongers would receive cash handouts of up to HK$4,000 apiece. As a development, it was one of the more visible manifestations of the government’s avowed mission to help the poorer sections of society as part of its ‘share and care’ policy.

If a clearer sign of the city’s robust economy was needed, it came courtesy of the extravagant 21st anniversary celebration of the SAR handover on 1 July. The flag-hoisting ceremony, attended by Chief Executive Carrie Lam and held within the city’s iconic Golden Bauhinia Square, just outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), kicked off a full day of celebrations. This saw thousands of people hit the roads to watch the parades, sporting events, acrobatics, traditional lion dances and dragon dances, all organised by the Hong Kong Celebrations Association.

The highlight of the three-day event, though, was Lam’s speech, where she said: “Hong Kong has remained one of the safest cities in the world, with the overall crime rate down by 8.2 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2018, the lowest figure since 1971. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has dropped to a 20-year low of 2.8 percent and average earnings are up.”

Perhaps buoyed by the Chief Exec’s bulletin, Hong Kong remained resolutely cheerful as the year rolled on, a sentiment that segued into the FIFA World Cup fever that that gripped all-comers just weeks after the handover high jinks. Though Hong Kong, and even China, did not qualify for the tournament, the city was far from immune to the prevailing football frenzy, all nudged along, of course, by an F&B sector that had goals of its own that it was keen on delivering.

While football stars battled for ball possession on the soccer fields of the former Soviet Union, in Hong Kong it was already clear just who the winners would be – any hospitality business that got away with record trade and the sale of pints at highly marked-up price points.

Barely had the city got over its collective, however, when dark clouds started to gather. Indeed, the 2018 typhoon season proved one for the record books when super typhoon Mangkhut blew into town. Apparently an even more extreme weather event than 1937’s Great Hong Kong Typhoon – a tropical cyclone that took the lives of 11,000 people – it made landfall in Hong Kong in the wee hours of 16 September, bringing with it maximum wind speeds in excess of 230km per hour.

Hong Kong, however, took the 24-hour battering quite stoically, even though Hong Kong Observatory kept the storm signals raised at T10 for an unprecedented ten long hours. As to the SAR’s hardy residents, well, once the worst was over, they picked up right where they had left off – climbing over fallen trees, stepping around shards of glass and battling long queues at the MTR with nearly all of them back at work the very next day.

A number of concerned citizens, however, did raise concerns as to the possible impact the typhoon might have had on the soon-to-be-opened Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Belying all such worries, the 55km flyover stood firm and was finally opened on 23 October. For many, it was a much-delayed inauguration, given that all the major construction work on the bridge had been completed by 2017.

Such tardiness notwithstanding, the bridge, which cost a staggering US$8 billion, has since been hailed as an engineering accomplishment of breathtaking proportions and is deemed to be one of the largest man-made structures on the earth.

The bridge’s historic opening came hot on the heels of another milestone in the annals of Hong Kong’s public transport development – the US$10.7bn Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, a part of China’s expanding 25,000km high-speed rail grid, opened just in time for Golden Week in late September, promptly triggering an upsurge in the number of visitors popping over from mainland China.

While new arrivals to Hong Kong are on the up, sadly enough, there are some existing residents that are facing eviction from their homes of record. Late in August, the Discovery Bay Marina Club – the city’s largest housing boat community and home to about 200 families – slapped its members with an eviction notice, giving them until 31 December to move out, maintaining the club would be closed for extensive repair, renovation and maintenance work throughout most part of 2019.

Though this most recent crisis will hopefully be resolved soon, it does paint an off-putting picture of some very real and persistent issues that affect Hong Kong – lack of space, sky-high rents and housing crisis – issues that, unless resolved quickly, will cast a long shadow over the incoming zodiac year. While hopes remain high, the “Pig’s Year” headlines are probably already being polished in certain quarters.

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay
Photos: AFP, Imagine China

Summer Camp Curriculum: The leading elite summer schools for children

While kids in China and Hong Kong have long topped global educational rankings thanks to their ability to parrot amazingly long lists of facts – none of which it has ever been established that they actually understand – there are now signs that new criteria are emerging. New only in the sense of being alien to the existing Asian academic culture, these freshly arrived concepts put a greater emphasis on understanding rather than on rotelearning, and prize creativity above capitulation to group-think.

Put simply, ceaseless chanting is out while interaction is in. Basically – teacher speaks, students listen = bad; students speak, students listen, teacher prompts and guides = good. Interestingly, though, these new teaching styles are not just being embraced or imported as the latest nod to the vagaries of a new generation of Mums and Dads. They are actually being tacitly nodded through at the very highest level, as awareness grows that the workforce of tomorrow needs very different skills to those of its current counterpart.

While this may assuage the mounting concern of certain parents, the cannier custodians of their kids’ futures are also well aware that change is in the air. How, then, to future-proof your offspring without wholly abandoning the high-fact diet of the past? The answer may well be an age-old phenomenon in a new 21st century easy guise – the summer school. High on hands-on experience and student-led learning, the best of these ideally complement the core curriculum of term-time tuition, while instilling just the sort of sensibility sure to be sought out in the future. Below are five summer camps that are seen as best fitting the bill…

Les Elfes International (Verbier, Switzerland)

Back in 1987, Les Elfes International began welcoming children as young as 12 to residential summer camps during summer and winter holidays. Its Swiss watchmaking course, which taught children how to assemble top-end timepieces. This, though, is just one small example of what the school actually offers, with its students having the chance to learn almost any skill, from skiing to Swiss cookery. They also offer intensive English, French, German or Spanish language courses. The academy also prides itself on promoting a can-do attitude among attendees, giving them the confidence to problem-solve unaided and unprompted.

Bermotech (London, UK)

This is one summer camp that could not be more up to- the-minute, with its avowed mission being to transform coming-of-age coders into tomorrow’s tech savants. Bermotech has evolved into one of the most in-demand enablers of digital development for nine- to 17-year-olds. In keeping with the current concentration on career cultivation, it also offers education in all the entrepreneurial essentials across the same age groups.

The Boston Leadership Institute (Massachusetts, USA)

Open to 13- to 18-year-olds, the institute’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) based summer courses were referred to by one graduate as an “out-of-this-world experience”. Among the options on offer are biotechnology, marine biology, robotics and even veterinary science. One reason that its courses are seen as quite so revolutionary is that they use research and experiments as core teaching strategies, meaning that the next big breakthrough in biotech could come from a far-from-home 14-year-old.

The American Institute for Foreign Study (London, UK)

The American Institute‘s most notable manifestation is its much-admired Shakespeare Summer Camp, which takes place within the hallowed halls of London’s Globe Theatre, a note-perfect re-creation of the venue that premiered many of the Bard’s most-admired masterworks. A pretty much best-practice example of how to fuse classroom learning with real-time experiential education, it’s no wonder that the institute is regularly cited as offering some of the very finest international residential courses parental payments can secure.

Camp Asia (Singapore)

Singapore is seen as taking something of a lead when it comes to summer break educational sessions. While many of the options on offer from Camp Asia are hugely popular, it’s the wide range of sporting study within its repertoire that are seen as the jewels in its undoubted crown. According to its own publicity materials – as well as to many parental testimonials – much of its success is down to the notoriously high calibre of its staff.

Indeed, as Exhibit A, its Director of Football – Igor Ferreira – has played football professionally in Brazil, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia, while its Head of Swimming – Darren Gum – has coached no less than 30 Australian athletes to gold medal greatness. With such grounded and well-rounded professionals on its books, it’s actually a little hard to dispute Camp Asia’s claims of true greatness.

Text: Alice Duncan

Thor Play: What’s next for Chris Hemsworth after Avengers: Endgame?

The clock is ticking. In just three months, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will finally get to see the ultimate conclusion of the (current) saga in Avengers: Endgame. While anticipation is high to see just how the world’s greatest superheroes bounce back from having half the universe destroyed by mega space villain Thanos, in real life, many are wondering just which of the actors are bidding farewell to the franchise in this valedictory epic.

For a while now, rumours have abounded that it may be the last big screen outing for Chris Evans (Captain America) and Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man). What, though, of that other pillar of the Marvel Universe, the Mighty Thor, as played by Chris Hemsworth in three solo outings and three titanic Avengers team-ups? It’s a fair question. While we know that the character survived the apocalyptic events of last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, we don’t know if the upcoming blockbuster will see the exiled God hang up his legendary hammer for good.

Since Thor burst into cinemas in 2011, Chris Hemsworth has become wholly synonymous with the mighty Norse God. Given his statuesque physique and blonde locks, it’s a role he seemed born to play. It’s also a part that propelled him from being a little-known soap star in Australia to becoming the world’s fourth highest-earning actor, taking home some US$64.5 million last year, according to Forbes magazine.

In order to find success in Hollywood, however, he had to travel a good deal further than most – some 12,800 kilometres to be exact. Born on 11 August 1983 in Melbourne to Craig, a counsellor, and Leonie, a teacher, Chris was the second of three sons. Growing up between stints in Melbourne and extended stays in the wilds of the country’s Outback, one thing was clearly seared into his memory – the relative poverty of the semi-nomadic Hemsworth family.

It was this grim reality that fuelled his resolve to become an actor. It was an ambition he shared with his two brothers – Luke and Liam – both successful actors in their own right. Indeed, it was elder brother Luke who got Chris his first break – a guest spot on Neighbours. It was, however, a rival soap –Home and Away – that brought him lasting local fame. However, he quit the soap after three years back in 2007, announcing he was heading off to Hollywood on a mission to make or break his career.

His first break came when he was cast as George Kirk, father of the far-better-known James T, in the 2009 reboot of Star Trek. As Kirk Senior dies in the movie’s opening minutes, it was, however, never destined to be a recurring role. It was another two years, though, before he got the career-defining opportunity to bring the God of Thunder to life.

With Thor as his calling card, his days of uncertain employment were over. Aside from his MCU commitments, he was soon taking the lead in other big budget productions, including Snow White and the Huntsman, Red Dawn and Rush.

Such success, though, was not without its costs. In particular, he was dogged by industry gossip that his wife, Spanish actress Elsa Patsky was struggling to come to terms with her husband’s new superstar status and his prolonged absences from his Byron Bay, Australia home and family, especially his three young children – India, Sasha and Tristan – due to his busy filming schedule.

But this period of constant commuting may soon come to an end for Chris Hemsworth, largely on account of the Heir of Asgard not necessarily featuring in plans for the next phase of the MCU. While Thor’s ultimate fate won’t be known until 24 April – when Endgame hits a megaplex near you – the fact that his multi-picture Marvel contract expires this year is well known. So far, the actor’s comments on his post-Endgame career have been tantalizingly non-committal, with the 35-year-old saying: “I may even take a whole year off. Maybe, it’s time I cashed in and checked out.”

Many, though, see the actor as being a little disingenuous. There is, indeed, no real reason for him to hang up his hammer, with every possibility that Thor could return as the elder statesman of the MCU in many instalments yet to come. Even if he doesn’t, Chris Hemsworth has already signed up to take the lead in the reboot of Men in Black, the high-tech alien-hunting comedy franchise. When you have the stature of Hemsworth – both literally and figuratively – there’s always going to be some franchise that wants you on its books.

Text: Tenzing Thondup
Photos: AFP

The Meaning of Christmas

Trapped in London for Christmas, only a miracle could bring good cheer to a desperate Shanghai banker

He hadn’t guessed it would be the little girl who would bring a tear to his eye. Especially not when he sent that first email… “Don, I guess output’s going to fall off a cliff with this Christmas thing coming up. Can’t see why you guys have to put down tools for two weeks just to stuff yourselves with your bland British cooking…”

Don’s reply had been brief, almost to the point of discourtesy: “That’s really not what Christmas is all about.”

He took this as a sign that yes, indeed, the London office would go into hibernation as of Christmas Eve, before returning to the fray early in the New Year, fatter, floridder and full of commitments to a ‘dry’ January. For Zhou Li Jie, a Shanghai-born banker seconded to his firm’s UK subsidiary, it would be the first time he had seen the run-up to this seasonal shutdown for himself.

Thankfully, he would only be marooned in the UK for the preamble. Tacitly acknowledging his presence would be a little superfluous come 24 December, he was booked on a direct flight to Shanghai that day. With a bit of luck, he would be back in his Jing’an apartment by 10.30am the next day, with the place guaranteed to be free of artificial trees and glowering Santas.

What he hadn’t gathered from 9,000km away was that, in the UK, the run-up to Christmas begins around October. By early November, tinkly Winter Wonderland lift music and the sight of sprigs of holly on every unguarded flat surface had already driven him to distraction.

With just three days to go, he’d sent his second email – “Don, I’m just confirming that I am off on the 24 Dec and then back here 5 Jan. I trust that will be enough time for you to remember the Baby Jesus and sing some old songs about shepherds…”

Don’s reply was as brief as it was familiar: “That’s really not what Christmas is all about…”

Deeming it all but impossible to satisfyingly email a ‘harrumph’ in response, Zhou let it pass. His mood, after all, was improving with every day he got closer to that 11-hour non-stop flight, which would ferry him away to a land where comedy reindeers didn’t fill every shop window and where he wasn’t obliged to kiss a drunk girl from Customer Services just because she’d brought some mistletoe to the office Christmas party.

With less than 48 hours till take-off, he’d emailed Don again: “Could you let me have the list of holiday cover personnel – assuming you’ve managed to find five or six members of staff willing to forsake listening to the jolly old Queen’s Christmas message in order to keep the wheels of international finance turning…”

As ever with Don, the reply was prompt, with a list attached of those for whom brownie points and the time-and-a-half tariff were way more appealing than an inevitably-fraught day with intoxicated in-laws. His postscript, though, was the now-familiar: “That’s really not what Christmas is all about.”

As the countdown became hours rather than days, Zhou passed the time with a final email: “Don, I’m just attaching my home contact details should anything urgent come up, though I doubt anything short of the collapse of the world banking system would drag you away from overindulging your kids with upgraded iPads and copies of Grand Theft Auto High-Speed Motorway Death Pile-Up VI…”

He hardly even registered the now seemingly-obligatory response: “That’s really not what Christmas is all about….”

With four hours to go, things were not going well. Ironically, this was down to a high-speed motorway pile-up just prior to Junction Two of the M4, the motorway linking central London to Heathrow Airport. While it would have been little comfort to Zhou, it’s believed that no deaths or Grand Thefts were directly attributable to the incident. With the road ahead seemingly set to be sealed off for several hours to come and reversing a clear impossibility, it was left to Zhou’s taxi driver to sum up the situation: “Looks like you’re stuffed, mate…”

With the flight missed and no re-booking possible until well after Christmas, Zhou reflected that he was indeed stuffed. With his London hotel room vacated, he was left with little choice but to slink back into the office. Seriously overladen with luggage, his attempts to negotiate his way through the revolving door of the bank’s largely-abandoned London hub were proving somewhat futile until a familiar figure appeared and offered a helping hand. “M4?” asked Don, shaking his head and clearly already knowing the answer. “M4,” Zhou disconsolately confirmed nevertheless. “I hate to say it, but I pretty much reckon you’re stuck with us and, as to getting a decent hotel over the Christmas period…” Don grimaced, confirming a suspicion that had struck Zhou during the long wait for the congestion to clear. “You know,” said Don, “I really think that it’s best that you come with me…”

And that, more or less, was the how and the why that led Zhou to be seated in Don’s living room on Christmas morning, clutching a glass of eggnog and feeling very far from home. Don’s children, however, seemed unfazed by his presence, regarding him, perhaps, as one of the more unusual things Santa had stashed below the family tree on his global gift-giving spree.

Now, though, looking up from the marathon “ooh-ing” and “aah-ing” session that had seen her gaily shred the packaging of at least a dozen carefully wrapped gifts, Don’s daughter – Alana – was gazing at him quizzically. “Daddy says you’re far from home and won’t see your family or get any presents this Christmas,” she said, her eye contact with Zhou remaining unflinching throughout. Zhou nodded in as nonchalant a way as he could muster.

“That’s sad,” said Alana, her tone clearly implying that this was the definitive verdict on Zhou’s predicament. “So, I got you this,” she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small, hastily-wrapped object. Zhou took the parcel and carefully unwrapped it under the little girl’s unerring gaze. “It’s a doll,” said Zhou, as the last layer of the gift-wrap finally gave way.

“I know,” said Alana, “Her name’s Suzy and she used to be my friend, but now I think she should be your friend.” The tear had hardly started to form before he felt an arm come around his shoulder. “Now that,” said Don, “is really what Christmas is all about.” “Don,” said Zhou, with the words proving surprisingly hard to form, “you know if you and your family were to ever get stuck in China over the Spring Festival, I’d be honoured if you would spend that time with me and my family…” Don beamed. “You know,” he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if that didn’t happen real soon. More eggnog, anyone?”

Written by Tony Murray

Games Over: Is actress Jennifer Lawrence set to quit movie-making for politics?

Dial back just 10 years and it’s pretty much safe to say that no one had heard of American actress Jennifer Lawrence. Since then, though, she has appeared in more than 20 movies and won a host of awards – including that most-prized of Hollywood accolades, an Oscar. Away from the screen, she has also become one of the prime movers in the #MeToo movement. That’s not bad going for someone who is still two years from turning 30.

Back in 2010, she was still very much below the radar. She’d appeared way down the cast list in three moderately successful movies and had barely troubled telly fans with a couple of largely-forgettable roles. Then came Winter’s Bone.

*Jennifer Lawrence in her breakthrough movie, Winter’s Bone (2010)*

While it’s a movie that would hardly make it to the list of Hollywood All-Time Greats, this bleak tale of a young woman searching for her meth-dealing father in the Missouri wilderness proved the perfect vehicle for young Lawrence, with audiences and professional pundits alike wowed by her steely on-screen magnetism and clear mastery of her craft.

With Winter’s Bone (2010) very much her calling card, 2012 saw her take the lead in three movies, each of which further burnished her rising star status. One of them – Silver Linings Playbook – even led to her troubling the Oscar jury once again. This time, they voted in her favour and she walked off with the much-coveted Best Actress title at the 2013 ceremony.

Oddly enough, it was Lawrence’s previously anti-acting mother who cajoled her into auditioning for her subsequently career-defining role as Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of the post-apocalyptic The Hunger Games quartet of movies. A huge success from the opening night of the first instalment onwards, the role confirmed her as Hollywood royalty, while also seeing her widely acclaimed as a feminist icon – a status she happily embraced.

*Jennifer Lawrence in her iconic role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games (2012)*

Clearly, such lessons were not lost on Lawrence herself. Finding she was paid way less than her male co-stars for her Oscar-nominated performance in the 2013 crime drama American Hustle, she went very public with her dissatisfaction. In the process, she established herself as one of the key players in a growing movement that was calling for an end to gender discrimination when it came to Hollywood earnings.

After the leaking of some very personal photographs to the public Lawrence, rather than being apologetic over their nature, formally released the images herself and set about owning the situation. She also used the apparent scandal as a platform for denouncing the abusive treatment of women around the world, and, in particular, for calling to an end to Hollywood’s heterosexual male-dominated hierarchy.

*At the UK premiere of her 2017 film Mother*

Her avowed stance as a libertarian feminist, however, has not seen her immune to criticism. Indeed, when she appeared at the premier of Red Sparrow, her 2018 spy thriller, in a glittering Versace gown, complete with plunging neckline and a thigh-high slit, the Twitterati were quick to call out her apparent hypocrisy.

Responding to such charges with her characteristic frankness, she said: “It’s utterly ridiculous the way certain factions overreact to everything I say or do or even something as wholly innocuous as what I choose to wear. Such comments do not move us forward. At best, they are silly distractions from the real issues. Everything you see me wear is my choice. And if I want to be cold, well, that’s my choice too.”

*Lawrence attending THR’s Women In Entertainment Power 100 Breakfast*

Perhaps in tacit admission that red carpet glamour wasn’t necessarily enhancing her self-adopted role as a global ambassador for women’s rights, she has since announced her intention to step back from making movies, saying: “I am taking a year off to fix our democracy.” It’s a promise she seems intent on keeping.

As well as continuing to champion women’s rights, she has also emerged as a key player in RepresentUS, a US-based anti-corruption movement dedicated to ensuring future US elections are free of the dirty tricks and chicanery that have characterised the most recent campaigns.

*Jennifer Lawrence striking a pose at the 2011 Academy Awards*

Summing up where she is right now, she says: “Everything I care about falls under the wide net of political corruption. As I get older, I find my passion increasingly turns to politics.” Given that Ronald Reagan proved that an acting background was no bar to becoming president back in the ’80s – and that the current Oval Office incumbent first made his name as a reality TV star – Jennifer Lawrence may yet find a role more career-defining than even Katniss.

Text: Anthony Warren
Photo: AFP

Dark Tourism: Today’s tourists want gore and disorder when they have time to kill

Okay, hand on heart, where would you rather visit – the Great Wall of China or the graveyard where Jim Morrison, the iconic lead singer of The Doors, is buried? Similarly, which one of these tops your travel itinerary – the ornate clocks of the Czech Republic or the glow-in-the-dark ruins of Chernobyl? Still unsure? How about this – Bali’s most beautiful beach or the eerie, abandoned huts of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp?

If your answer, in every instance, was largely the latter, you are not necessarily a sojourning sociopath-to-be. No, it could just be that you’re an early advocate of one the vacation industry’s most visceral trends – dark tourism.

Despite such apparently morbid motivations, dark tourism does not necessarily stem from some wholly unhealthy impulse. Maintaining it is the manifestation of a very natural fascination with mortality, Professor John Lennon, the Director of the Glasgow Caledonian University’s Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development, says; “Dark tourism, like our dark history, occupies an important part of our understanding of what it is to be human. Essentially, it is motivated by a desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death.”

For those dead-set on actual or symbolic encounters, there are – perhaps worryingly – an ever-expanding number of options on offer. And for those who find themselves particularly execution excursion-minded, where better to start than Colombia, the 50 million-strong South American country that, not so long ago, held the dubious accolade of being the world’s most violent nation.

A relatively poor country compared to the massive, hedonistic US market next-door, drugs – particularly cocaine – was its perennial problem. Once the world’s largest producer and distributor of this Class A narcotic, its streets ran red with the blood of rival drug gangs, supposed informers, nosy journalists, incorruptible government officials and law enforcement operatives.

For those looking for a first-hand experience of the country’s corpse-heavy past, Bogotá – the national capital – is the place to start. Here you can hire a drug baron doppelganger with a pitch-perfect take on Pablo Escobar, the most infamous member of the country’s narco nobility, who will drive you around the city’s most notorious landmarks, all the while making – apparently – pretend drug deals on his hefty retro-’80s phone.

Once sated by your exploration of Colombia’s opiate-addled past, you could head to the 3,000km-distant Mexico. Time it right and you could even arrive on the eve of the Day of the Dead, which, despite its name, actually spans a 72-hour period – 31 October-2 November. A decidedly ghoulish affair, it’s a time when locals pay their respects to the recently (and not so recently) departed, celebrate their lives and acknowledge the inevitability of death. This, however, is not an occasion for quiet reflection and sedate remembrance.

Defending the apparent jollity of the festival, Andrea Bentanzos, a Mexico City-based tourist guide, said: “The deceased would be insulted if we merely mourned them. Death is not the end – it’s just the journey to the next stage of life and this is the time we feel the departed’s spirits most keenly.”

For those not wanting to venture beyond Asia in search of a little spooky sightseeing, then one of the destinations that has only relatively recently acquired otherworldly status is Fukushima, the Japanese city that was at the epicentre of the earthquake, tsunamis and subsequent nuclear meltdown that saw the world catch its breath back in 2011.

At the heart of this was the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, a facility that, eight years on, is still highly radioactive and subject to a massive ongoing decontamination operation. Despite this, those curious – or foolhardy – enough can take a tour of the infamous installation.

Well before you set foot within its potentially-lethal perimeter, you have to sign a lengthy waiver, absolving the operator from any responsibility should you go home glowing in the dark. You are then issued your own personal Geiger Counter and bussed into the half-life holiday spot.

From the Fukushimi Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to Pablo Escobar’s plush prison, the dark side of the world has come to the fore, with many – consciously or unconsciously – aiming to leverage their leisure time to get to grips with humanity’s less pure impulses. Hopefully, they’re coming away with a measured repulsion to mankind’s baser urges and not with a newly-perfected roadmap for atrocities of their own

Text: Robert Blain

Mukesh Ambani: The Indian billionaire who has become Asia’s richest man

*Mukesh Ambani, CEO of Reliance Industries, is personally worth US$48.5 billion*

Mukesh Ambani is rich. In fact, he’s very rich. So rich that he is now, arguably, Asia’s most well-off individual, supplanting Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who had long held that title. Unlike the mercurial Ma, chances are you’ve never heard of Ambani. He is, however, part of a new generation of stealth entrepreneurs who craves riches, but shuns recognition.

Ambani’s wealth stems from his role as the chairman of Reliance Industries, a Mumbai-headquartered energy, telecom and textiles conglomerate. Reportedly, the personal wealth of this shadowy entrepreneur is around US$48.5 billion, a figure that puts Jack Ma’s US$36.9 billion to shame.

*Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita, who is a successful educator and businesswoman in her own right*

More impressively still, this is not merely the 21st century incarnation of some deeply-rich dynasty. Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani – to give him his full name – was born on 19 April 1957 in Yemen to a family of comparatively modest means. In 1958, the family migrated en masse to Mumbai, where Ambani Senior had plans to break into the spice trade, though he soon switched his focus to the then-emerging textile sector.

The young Mukesh was privately educated at Mumbai’s Hill Grange High School, before going on to study for a Bachelor of Engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology, then part of the University of Mumbai. While he later enrolled in an MBA course at Stanford, it was to remain uncompleted. In 1980, he was called back home to help manage the growth of Reliance, the then-rapidly expanding business his father had founded.

Mukesh Ambani with his wife and three children — *Mukesh Ambani with his wife, Nita, and their three children*

In 1984, a chance encounter at a dance performance saw him introduced to Nita, his future wife, with the two going on to marry the following year. Since then, they have had three children – two boys, Anant and Akash, as a daughter, Isha. As a sign of the couple’s wealth, on Nita’s 44th birthday, Mukesh surprised her with a 180-seater Airbus of her very own. At a conservative estimate, it’s a plane that’s worth some US$70 million – and that’s without taking into account the retro-fitted sky bar, Jacuzzi and satellite TV facilities.

The couple’s home, as you might expect, is no less luxurious. Valued at US$1 billion, the family lives in Antilia, a 27-storey building in southern Mumbai that requires a permanent staff of 600 just to keep everything in order. Tellingly, it is the world’s second most expensive private residence, with only Buckingham Palace – the central London home of the Queen of England – beating it to first place.

Antilia, the 27-storey Ambani residence, is the second most expensive home in the world — *Antilia, the 27-storey Ambani residence, is the world’s second most expensive private residence*

For her part, Nita has not been content to stay in her husband’s shadow. A teacher by profession, she is the founder of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School, one of Mumbai’s leading private education institutions. She has also been recognised by Forbes as one of Asia’s most influential businesswomen and was the first Indian woman to become a member of the International Olympic Committee.

Anil, Mukesh’s younger brother, has also proved no slouch. As chairman of the Reliance Group, a spin-off of the original family business, he oversees a diverse range of business activities, including telecommunications, entertainment, financial services, energy generation and infrastructure development. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he is married to Bollywood actress Tina Munim, with the couple having two sons. Anil is estimated to be worth some US$2.3 billion.

*Mukesh’s brother Anil Ambani is worth US$2.3 billion*

Of the next generation, Mukesh’s 26-year-old daughter Isha is probably currently in pole position. After graduating with a degree in psychology from Yale, in 2014 she joined the board of two Reliance subsidiaries – mobile network operator Jio and Reliance Retail – and is now considered to be one of the most promising young businesswomen in Asia. Her personal wealth is currently estimated to be around US$660 million.

Over the last 16 years, Reliance Industries has established itself as one of India’s largest and most profitable companies. In 2010, its position was further consolidated when Mukesh Ambani oversaw the creation of the world’s largest petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, a city on India’s west coast. Having started out in the spice and textile sectors, the business has now extended its tendrils into energy, petrochemicals, telecom and mining.

*Mukesh Ambani heads Reliance Industries, a company worth US$110 billion*

Despite his success, Mukesh maintains that he still remains very much grounded, continuing to be a regular at Mysore Café, the restaurant where he ate as a student back in the 1970s. A strict vegetarian and a teetotaler, he maintains that Bollywood movies are his only indulgence, saying: “You need some escapism in life.”

To be fair, when you live in a 27-storey palace, have more in the bank than most third world nations and rejoice in the title of Forbes’ 18th Richest Person in the World Overall, you can probably get by on less escapism than most.

Text: Robert Blain
Photos: AFP

Jobsolescence: How Artificial Intelligence will impact the future of work

When the first sabot – a form of heavy wooden work shoe favoured by European peasantry back in the early 19th century – was first chucked into the inner workings of a new-fangled bit of mill machinery, it marked two major developments in humankind’s march onwards. The first was the arrival of a whole new meaning of the word “saboteur” – while previously it had merely been the plural of sabot. Perhaps more significantly, it was also, arguably, the first instance of the workers of the world apparently fearing jobsolescence at the hands of machinery. Since then, it has been a concern that has echoed and re-echoed down the ages.

First, it was the looms that were supposedly set to end humanity’s apparent right to work from dawn to dusk in appalling conditions for even more appalling pay. Then it was electricity. Then it was greater automation. Then it was the silicon chip and robotic production lines. Through it all, though, the workforce’s dogged determination to spend all of its healthiest years at the beck and call of the production cycle has always prevailed.

Indeed, as technology has moved forward, people have always remained a vital part of the equation, acting as supplier, worker and customer in equal measure. Greater technologisation also had another direct implication – education. This has led to a huge surge in literacy. According to the OECD, as of 2015, some 86 percent of the world’s adults were able to read and write. Dial back some 200 years, however, and the situation was almost wholly reversed, with only 12 percent having basic literacy skills.

Aside from basic literacy, the changed nature of the workbase currently requires minions that have mastered science, foreign languages and computer programming, among many, many others, as well as a host of interpersonal skills. Unfortunately, the production process is now on the verge of becoming so complex and so autonomous that human operators will face complete jobsolescence. And it’s all down to AI – Artificial Intelligence.

At its peak – which we are well within sight of – AI technology will see the creation of a range of self-aware, self-maintaining, self-improving machines. These will fully integrate with production lines and troubleshoot any problems, while also being able to diagnose their own shortcomings, devise improvements and create blueprints for the next generation of – even smarter – AI systems.

And so will begin an endless cycle of ever-smarter machines creating even smarter machines, eradicating any failings and weaknesses with each successive generation. With humankind ejected from the process as soon as the first system becomes self-aware enough to do so, we will very quickly be incapable of building such systems on our own. Indeed, we won’t even necessarily understand the precepts and technologies that are being implemented.

And that day isn’t even that far away. In terms of exactly when computers will gain the level of self-awareness that is currently unique in the universe to humanity, 2045 is the year that is being bandied around by many specialists in the field – most notably by Ray Kurzweil, a renowned US scientist, inventor and futurist. That date, though – which is just 27 years hence – does not mean that humanity’s AI-driven obsolescence is currently on hold.

According to the World Economic Forum, the highly-authoritative annual Geneva-held international think tank, by 2020 – just two years away – five million jobs will have been lost globally to AI-led automation. That equates to a nation the size of Norway suddenly facing utter jobsolescence.

By 2030, as self-aware AI creeps incrementally ever closer, the number of jobs lost forever to all things automated will be around 800 million, according to a study recently concluded by the McKinsey Global Institute. In just 12 years’ time, that’s roughly every man, woman and child in Germany – Western Europe’s largest country by population – having zero employment prospects.

The rate of jobsolescence will then increase exponentially. Within a generation or two – three at most – every aspect of the production of the world’s wants (from mining raw materials to home delivery) could proceed, more efficiently than ever, without a single human ever being involved.

With humanity out of work, that begs another rather obvious question – what will become of humankind? Will we loll around as our mechanical minions pander to our every need? Or will the sentient systems, themselves, decide just what the fate of this post-AI world will be?

While the answers to these questions are currently far from clear, one thing, however, is chillingly apparent – many of us will still be around to find out.

Text: William Elliot
Photos: AFP

Stormport: Can Hong Kong withstand typhoons as strong as Mangkhut in future?

With super typhoons like Mangkhut being the ‘new normal’ now, does Hong Kong have what it takes to win the battle against such storms? We examine the odds…

Duct tape? Why are Hongkongers so obsessed with duct tape? That would have been the question uppermost in the mind of any first-time visitor to Hong Kong back in September this year.

Indeed, the sight of Hongkongers wheeling away from their local Wellcome with a trolleyful of this silvery-grey sealant was certainly odd. Odder still is the widespread belief that a few strips of insulation tape would provide salvation from Typhoon Mangkhut, the looming extreme weather event set to bring a level of devastation to the city not seen since the Great Hong Kong Typhoon of 1937, a tropical cyclone that took the lives of 11,000 people.

Lessons, though, clearly have been learnt. Despite wind speeds in excess of 230km per hour being recorded as the typhoon made landfall in Hong Kong, there were no fatalities. Some 400 people, however, were injured, while 46,000 trees were felled. Elsewhere, Mangkhut’s passing left a rather more deadly legacy in its wake, with 64 people reported dead in the Philippines and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes in Southeast China.

So, just how did Hong Kong manage to weather this storm and emerge relatively unscathed? Well, the answer is ‘experience’. Although the official records on Hong Kong weather only date back to 1946, there are less official sources that attest to the city’s long battle with the elements. The first mention of a storm that seems at least the equal of Mangkhut in strength came in 1874, when a super typhoon took the lives of 2,000 people in Hong Kong. Again, in 1906, an undetected super typhoon made landfall, killing 5% of the population in one night. Just over 30 years later, it was the turn of the aforementioned Great Hong Kong Typhoon, which wiped away centuries-old villages and caused unprecedented destruction.

In the 80 years since then, Hong Kong has hardly been free from such buffeting, with the last half-century alone having seen five particularly serious typhoons hit the city – Rose (1971), Ellen (1983), York (1999), Vicente (2012) and Hato (2017). None of those, however, could match the most recent storm in terms of fury. And yet, flattened foliage aside, the city still emerged relatively unscathed.

Part of the reason for this lies in the sturdiness of many Hong Kong buildings. Since 2004, all residential structures in the city have had to comply with the Code of Practice on Wind Effects in Hong Kong, a building regulation that requires that high-rise blocks must withstand far fiercer gales than Mangkhut manifested even at its peak.

On top of that, there was the effectiveness with which Hong Kong’s emergency services prepared the city’s populace for the onslaught to come. But according to many environmental scientists, these may all be just short-term solutions as weather events of the magnitude of Mangkhut are becoming the ‘new normal’.

Explaining the science side of things, Professor Xie Shangping from University of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography says: “Warm sea surface temperatures help intensify tropical cyclones. This year, sea surface temperatures have been abnormally warm in many parts of the world, as part of the general global warming trend.”

The threat is even more acute in Hong Kong, where the surrounding sea levels continue to rise by an average of 2.77mm per year. Exacerbating things still further are the many land reclamation initiatives underway around Hong Kong Island, all of which leave many residents exposed to the natural elements to a greater degree.

Urging immediate action is Leung Wing-mo, the current official spokesperson for the Hong Kong Meteorological Society. Seeing the future as requiring a very different kind of readiness, he says: “On the whole, Hong Kong is not prepared for the kind of natural disasters we are likely to see in the future. The government and all emergency services need to start putting plans in place if we are to survive the far more severe and frequent extreme weather conditions that are likely to be commonplace in the future.”

As the world’s busiest seaport, Hong Kong’s past and present success story is anchored in its unparalleled marine access and its matchless natural harbour. Now, though, these very nautical elements that allowed it to become a global trade hub threaten its future status and continued existence.

Indeed, according to many environmentalists, unless the powers-that-be wake up to the very real dangers that threaten Asia’s World City, there won’t be enough duct tapes in the world to plug the expanding gaps in its oceanic defences.

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay

Hong Kong Brain Drain: Why are so many HK’ers abandoning their home city?

Despite (literally) banking on its reputation as Asia’s World City, home to unparalleled efficiency, reliable transport and a seldom-matched high quality of life, it seems that Hong Kong might not be a must-stay municipality in the eyes of many of its younger residents. Indeed, it’s an issue that the local government has already flagged up as a concern.

According to its latest data, over the last 12 months, Hong Kong recorded its smallest growth in population for nine years, with the official level rising just 0.4 percent to 7.4 million registered residents. What’s more, at least according to the 2017 census figures, there has also been a staggering increase in the number of residents forsaking the SAR – 24,300 over the last 12 months, virtually a four-fold increase over the 6,100 recorded in 2016. This Hong Kong brain drain is only exacerbated by the fact that the city has simultaneously been landed with an increasingly ageing population and a shrinking workforce.

Why, though, has the situation suddenly become quite so chronic? Have better opportunities abroad seduced working professionals away or has Hong Kong, in fact, become a less-than-desirable long-term base for ambitious young executives-to-be?

The answer, as always, is complex and multi-faceted. Perhaps the largest factor driving young Hongkongers away lies in the SAR’s notoriously sky-high real estate prices, figures that are perhaps only matched by its vertiginously-storeyed skyline. According to Ricacorp Properties, a local real estate broker, during the first quarter of 2018, the average price of second-hand homes – which are historically cheaper to purchase – soared to HK$8.08 million (US$1.28 million), the highest figure since 1996, when such data was first recorded.

What’s more, the average cost of brand-new homes grew by an equally unambiguous 18 percent, reaching HK$16.08 million (US$2.05 million) over the same period. Summing up the serious nature of the situation, one of the directors of CIMB Securities, the fifth-largest ASEAN bank, said: “These home prices are clearly beyond the general public’s reach and they only look set to increase, albeit more slowly, over the next two years.”

Such stellar increases in property pricing mean that, for many millennials hoping to set up a home, the prospect of ever being able to afford an apartment in Hong Kong seems both bleak and remote.

Currently, a new 800sq.ft apartment in a neighbourhood such as Tsuen Wan can easily cost more than HK$15 million (US$1.911 million). By comparison, a similar condo in New York’s Midtown Manhattan could be had for little more than US$1 million. Meanwhile, over in Vancouver – a popular choice for many Hong Kong escapees – the price of a similar residence would be somewhere around US$500,000.

With local banks more interested in pandering to the purchasing demands of the city’s many ultra-high-net-worth-individuals (UHNWIs) than catering to the low and mid-income first-time home buyers, there seems little hope of any real change any time soon. Articulating the sentiments of many, former civil servant Joseph Wong said: “Young graduates no longer have the prospect of having truly middle-class lives or owning a flat, at least not without the help of their – hopefully rich – parents.”

It’s not only unaffordable real estate, however, that’s driving the Hong Kong brain drain. Another key factor in this mass migration is one of Hong Kong’s other unpleasant realities – its wealth gap. According to a 2017 Hong Kong Census and Statistics report, the top 10 percent of Hong Kong households earned 44 times more than the bottom 10 percent.

In addition to these two potent forces, the city’s uncertain political climate, the staggeringly long work hours the city’s professionals notoriously put in – far more than in any other country – as well as a lack of faith and optimism regarding the city’s future are all playing their part.

So is the Hong Kong brain drain an unpluggable sinkhole? Or merely the latest cyclical manifestation of Hong Kong’s population push and pull? Well, with many of the old economic, political and social certainties rearing their collective heads, it will very much depend on what kind of Hong Kong – and, let’s face it, the city is in crossroads territory in almost every aspect of its existence – emerges as the mid-21st century looms over the horizon.

Text: Tenzing Thondup
Photos: AFP