PeterRS

Earlier today I came across an old Huffington Post article from 2014 updated to 2017. Given the changing fortunes of Hong Kong there were those who forecast a bright future - like the last pre-July 1 1997 Governor Christopher Patten - and those whose crystal balls predicted a much murkier future. I have made no attempt to to disguise my dislike of Patten, both as a Hong Kong Governor (from 1992)and subsequently as the Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors - a post from which he was fired. I did meet him just once in a very casual setting. He knew nothing about me and my work and he was clearly much more occupied looking around for someone more interesting to chat with. Fair enough. I could never blame someone for that. No, as I have written before, I resented him for his childishly secret - to all but a BBC TV team which he paid to come to Hong Kong several times to witness his shenanigans - attempts to find faults in the two documents which Britain and China had jointly signed laying out Hong Kong's future. They made perfetly clear that not a word could be altered without both parties having agreed in writing. Patten set out to embarrass China into putting Hong Kong on to a much more democratic path. One of those who felt this decade-long faint-hearted attempt at democracy was belated stupidity was a man named John Walden who had been a senior official in the government for decades. As the territory's Director for Home Affairs, he said this - "If I personally find it difficult to believe in the sincerity of this sudden and unexpected official enthusiasm for democratic politics it is because throughout the 30 years I was an official myself, from 1951 to 1981, 'democracy' was a dirty word. Officials were convinced that the introduction of democratic politics into Hong Kong would be the quickest and surest way to ruin Hong Kong's economy and create social and political instability." In 1975, hardly anyone in Hong Kong cared about democracy. There was not even a democratic party - finally formed in 1995. It was Patten who, often secretly, encouraged the rise of democracy, and to hell with what China thought. Yet Hong Kong was dependent on China continuing Hong Kong's laissez-faire attitude to politics and its way of life after 1997. Hong Kong people, most of whom had emigrated from desperately poor circumstances in China, were more interested in a roof over their heads, money in the bank and education for their children. So when Patten unilaterally announced major changes to the Joint Agreements, the Chinese government was as livid as the UK government would have been had the boot been on the other foot. China then cancelled what had been termed the "through train" in terms of how the territory was going to be run and instead installed its own administration. But the democratic forces deliberately unleashed by Patten ewere a Pandora's Box. They took root 15 years later in the student body. And as the world knows, even after demonstration and more demonstrations China did nothing. But eventually it could tolerate it no more, as it became obvious that Hong Kong political views were being aired in the mainland. Thus the clampdown of three years ago and the end of democracy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong which I shall visit again tomorrow is now devoid of the freedoms it once enjoyed and all because one pig-headed man with zero experience of China who should never have been appointed Governor thought he could outwit the old guard in Beijing. He totally failed and thus condemned Hong Kong to a less bright future. In my view John Walden and his government colleagues with similar views was spot on.

Getting back to the title of the thread, air travel around the Gulf region looks like it will be in chaos for several more days with several major airports still closed. There will then be a period of several days while airllines get planes and flight staff back to where they should be. I feel sorry for those who have booked flights to and from Asia via the Gulf at this time.

The refeence in the vdo to Air America is more than pertinent. It was the cover for the CIA and responsible for its operations during the wars in IndoChina. It established a secret airbase in the northern Laos jungle at Long Tieng. For years it had the most flights of any airport in the world, frequently handling 400 aircraft movements a day. Ironically, though, the airlline and its handlers were responsible for the importation of a mass of opium and heroin into the United States.

For reasons related I think to mosquitos, he turned down my invitation 🤪 . I was so upset

I wonder why this makes me think of the 15-year old student known as Nayirah who allegedly worked as a nurse and spoke before a Congressional Committee under oath about the atrocities committed by Iraq. These included stealing incubators for premature babies and letteing them die on the floor. This comment was made in 1990 immediately after the iraqi invasion of Kuwait and was in part used as one of the excuses to start the first Gulf War. Two years later it turned out Nariyah was lying through her teeth, She had never been a nurse. In fact she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the USA at that time. She and her father were related to the Kuwaiti rulers. Her appearance berfoe Congress was later discovered to be part pf a major PR campaign organised by the PR company Hill & Knowlton. The head of Amnesty International accused President George Bush I of blatant and "opportunistic manilulation of the international human rights movement." Hill & Knwlton were alleged to have coached Nayirah in her testimony. Hill & Knowlton made sure the testimony was filmed and then sent to news organisations around the USA. Its campaign was later described as "corrupt, unethical and deceptive." It is estimated to have earned US$12 million for its efforts in the overall anti-Iraq campaign. In the following weeks, Bush repeated her false claims no less then ten times. It also helped sway several senators and American public opinion in general in favour of the subsequent invasion of Iraq. Following the revelation of Nayirah's real identity (which begs the question, how did it take two entire years before anyone in the US administration found out?), there was outrage in the USA. Hill & Knowlton never apologised nor commented on the matter thereafter.

SInce WWII, like it or not, the USA has been the world's policeman. No other country has had anything like its military - although today China is getting closer. So the world has had to put up with the USA's actions, like them or not. I remember when Tony Blair appointed an Ambassador to Washington at the start pf the 2000s, his instructions were, "I want you to get up George Bush's ass and stay there!" In other words, we need to know what the USA is planning. Not that that worked out at all well for Blair. There were massive protests in the UK and he ended up having zero influence on Bush and his neocon's decision to go to war with iraq. That war was one based on false pretences and one that Blair eventually went on television to apologise for going along with that decision. Has Bush apologised? Silly joke! The fact is that the USA can basically do what it wishes until such time as another Empire rises and Washington finally realises that the consequences for the USA will be greater than the action it thought of taking. Yet the post WWII period has not always seen the USA having its own way. There was another time at the start of the 1970s when OPEC decided to flex its oil muscles and raised the price of oil four fold, eventually to rise even further. This created panic in financial markets and led to massive inflation in the west for more than a decade. Inflation in the UK rose to 25% in 1975 with an average of 13% over the decade. With many countries involved in that OPEC decision - including, it should be said, Iran the USA's proxy in the Middle East - there was absolutely nothing the USA could do other than attempt to ramp up its own internal production. As long as the USA has Israel as its excuse, whatever it does in the Middle East will go unchallenged. There are too many competing factions within the Islamic countries for them to form a coalition to temper the USA's ambitions (i.e. Trump's ambitions). But getting rid of leaders, sometimes with a coalition it formed and sometimes siding with opposition movements more pro to USA policies - Egypt, Guatemala, Iran, Indonesia (failed), Syria (failed), Iraq, South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, The Congo, Chile, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Australia, Angola, East Timor, Argentina, Afghanistan, Chad, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Zaire - the list goes on, I submit it is unlikely to stop until US policy changes or another Empire becomes the world's policeman.

Just for info, last week my partner and I dined at this Thai restaurant in Em Quartier. It's a chain and they are found in many shopping malls. There was a queue when we arrived which I find is always a good sign. The meal was excellent. It's on the medium expensive side with our bill coming to Bt. 1,400 for four dishes and two drinks. We'd happily return.

I have flown business class "backwards" dozens of times and have never had any issue apart from the first. It was an overnight 747 from JFK to London Heathrow just after BA had introduced the first backward facing seats. When I woke and looked out of the window, for a second I had a strange sensation that we were flying backwards. Of course, it was I was was flying backwards. Even take off and landing never bothered me. I suspect the problem you experienced must have been the seat. I have raved about Qatar's business class, especially the Q Suites. But sometimes I find when the seat is in the fully reclined position, my back can feel the metal joint linking the upper and lower part of the seat. I find this quite irritating and so make the seat not quite flat to get rid of it. The best business class seat I have ever flown was my most recent - in Cathay Pacific's new Aria Suite on a 777-300 from London. Hugely comfortable in any position.

I think we should remember that Iran has a population of around 93 million. The Revolutionary Guard only has around 125,000 regular members with 90,000 reservists. But during the Presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad its role expanded very considerably to the point where it is involved in most aspects of the country's economy, such that in 2019 Reuter's described it as "an industrial empire with political clout." Some western experts suggest it exercises a greater role in the running of the country than the ruling mullahs. It is certainly feared. On one trip to see the tomb of Cyrus The Great, my driver/guide saw ahead a car that had been stopped by a unit of the Revolutionary Guard with the driver being questioned outside the car. "We don't want to go near there" said my driver whereupon he executed a quick U-turn and off we sped.

I now appreciate that your knowledge of the Iranian people is far greater than mine. That said, I can understand Iranians studying in the USA not wishing to spread even dislike of their regime. Who knows who might be listening or to whom adverse comments might be conveyed? All I stated was true - as I am certain all you have stated is true. But I am far from a being a colonial or thinking like a cololnial, as I think my previous posts on colonialism have made very clear, especially in Asia where I have spent more than half my llife. I have to add, though, that in the limited sampling of people I spoke to I never heard anyone suggest that change would have to come from within the country. They realised the grip of the ruling mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard was all pervasive. They had seen attempted revolutions put down with the utmost severity. They were well aware of the endemic corruption within the ruling elite. To be fair, none provided an answer as to how the ruling elite could be taken down. They just agreed that on the course it was taking when I was there, the country was just going to get worse for ordinary people. They had witnessed how at the turn of the century the moderate President Mohammad Khatami had attempted to create a more moderate Iran, only to be foiled when the Supreme Leader started to interfere with who could run for the Presidency to ensure he was more in line with his own hard line rule.

That is highly unlikely. My guide for two weeks had a hooker in every city we visited. He said that anything is possible in Iran as long as you are discrete about it. The way it was perfectly obvious that sanctions were being broken seemed to bear that out. To be fair, he personally did not know any gay men but he said there were quite a number known to his friends. In addition to being a nation of people intensely proud of their history and culture, I think we should also remember that people in Iran have no love for America. They cannot forgive the USA for the way it joined forces with the British to get rid of the duly elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and replace him with the undemocratic Shah. They then hated the USA for the way it assisted the Shah in his reign of terror with massive aounts of arms and cash, one reason for their welcoming Khomeini back in his place. And they then hated the USA for explicitly siding with Saddam Hussein in the vicious 8-year Iraq/Iran war when iraq used chemical weapons. One subject I did not bring up when I spoke to ordinary Iranians was Israel and therefore have no contribution on that matter.

I do not know who is in those photos - and I do not rule out that they are photoshopped or dredged up from previous national outpourings of joy. Have you actually spokne to any Iranians. Having spent two weeks in Iran only a few years ago, everyone I spoke to hated - absolutely hated - the leadership. Everyone knew they were massively corrupt - as you could tell from the up-market expensive housing in part of Teheran reserved for senior leaders, their acolytes and the Iranian Guard. You can certainly start with the evils perpetrated by Trump and Netanyahu if you wish, but do not confuse Iran with the USA and Israel. There will be rejoicing in many milions of households even though they may not be able yet to show it. I agree entirely about iran being a long-established and massively proud nation. But once the loathed Iranian Revolutionary Guard is out of the way - assuming that actually happens - then you will see real rejoicing.

Trump's forces' assassination of the Supreme Leader of Iran will, I believe, be welcomed by many millions in Iran. They knew he was a tyrant and very corrupt to boot. But Iran or its proxies have started to retaliate. Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman have been the target of drone and other attacks at airports and elsewhere. One man has been killed at Dubai Airport which has since been closed to air traffic. Emirates has cancelled all flights until 3:00 pm UK time. As of 50 minuutes ago, there was still no notification as to when the airport will reopen. Emirates will then determine if any can flights can continue depending on the status of the airport. British Airways has cancelled several flights to the region. With many visitors to Thailand and Asia changing aircraft at Middle East airports, the advice is check with your airline if your flight is likely to take off or has been cancelled. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cn5ge95q6y7t

I have worked with two television companies. Most of my post related to the way interviews were conducted prior to 20 years ago. But many interviews are still conducted with a maximum of two cameras, especially if they are out of the studio. It is too costly for stations to pay for more than two crews to cover inrterviews. Shifty eyes remain just that - shifty eyes! We saw that in the interview with the former Prince Andrew held in Buckinham Palace when he dug his own grave. I do not know how many camera crews they used - I suspect about four. But the viewer still caught him out.

Almost similar experience. In December I got a message on one of the apps asking how I was. No photo. Generally I do not respond without a photo, but he then asked if I remembered when we met in Singapore. Well, I have been in Singapore many dozens of times, the last in the summer of 2018 for a couple of days before taking the bus to Kuala Lumpur where I was meeting up with friends. There I only recall one last minute hook up when i had gone back to my hotel around lunchtime and got hit on by a student. It turned out he was just 100 meters or so from the hotel, and so we met up and had a lovely time. However, after I remembered that, he told me he had once been to my flat in Bangkok. Of that I had zero memory, even though by then he had sent a very nice couple of photos. He was to be coming to Bangkok a few weks later and hoped we could meet up. Not quite sure what i was letting myself in for, I agreed to meet up, but only for a casual coffee or drink to start with. He then suggested meeting at the Yunimori Hot Spring. When i saw him, I realised that a fool I had been not to remember him. He is gorgeous! We had a great day and as a result I will go back to Singapore to meet up again for four days in April.

Reminds me of the time I stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn at Helsinki airport. I had about three hours work before dinner and increasingly found the room becoming generally pretty cold but I could not find the air conditioner control. Since no one answered the phone after half a dozen phone calls to reception, I made the long walk. Oh, there is no control, I was informed. Our management took surveys before we opened and 21 degrees was found to be the most suitable temperature. Not for me, I replied. I live in the tropics and I have my overnight air con on at 25 degrees. How can you possibly have a temperature that fits every guest, I asked, somewhat grumpily? No answer. But two heaters arrived soon after. WIth no carpeting, noises from above are always an issue. In my case, having set my alarm for 07:00, I was wakened by a very loud bang from above when a guest clearly let his large case slide on to the floor without any consideration for other guests. One reason why I do not like uncarpeted rooms. This hotel was one of the worst I have stayed at. In the shower room, there was only an open shower with no small floor barrier between the shower and the rest of the room. I have had this sort of room many times and never had a problem. But this one, either by accident (?) or or design, happened to result in water flowing out of the shower area. My slippers and the bath mat were therefore totally sodden when I turned the shower off. I then had to use the brush to get rid of as much water as i could. In those days I was writing Tripadvisor reports. This was my worst airport hotel experience. Great song! I once had the joy of working with Ms. Gaynor. She hardly moved around on stage but many in the audience were dancing at their seats. She had brought her 21-year old nephew with her to act as stage manager. I then found it quite funny when after being told the show should be starting he went up to her and asked, "Aunt Gloria, can we start?"

WIth the US Supreme Court stacked with Trump supporters (including two sex offenders and one supreme liar) long after he is six feet underground, I can see even a Democratic Congress majority getting beaten down continuously. Were I half my age and living in the USA, I would already have started emigration procedures. At least there are jobs in my line of work in other countries and I'd make sure I had enough cash to see out any interregnum fallow period.

Over the last few months I have discovered that some airlines are offering limited time deals ex Asia. Even Cathay Pacific which has been very resistant to deals in the past has now joined the practice. Emirates and Qatar are the two which have offered at least 3 deals in the last 3 months - some routes covering economy, premium economy and business; others omit premium economy which is obviously now becoming more popular on certain routes. The discounts are not great - but sometimes you will find a 20% off.

Apologies, in my earlier post on 2/27 the last word in line two should read East as it referred to the war which created Bangladesh in the East and not the West. Pakistan of course was a US ally and in no way was it going to allow the West Pakistan government to be affected by a war over 1,000 miles away. Besides, by this time, rapprochement with China must have been germinating in Kissinger's mind and Pakistan would be the ideal intermediary in setting up a meeting beween Nixon and Mao. In a memo from the National Security Staff dated March 28, 1971, Kissinger was informed of the atrocities taking place in East Pakistan. On the same day, Consul General Blood reported from Dacca as follows: “Here in Dacca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak military. Evidence continues to mount that the MLA authorities have a list of Awami League supporters whom they are systematically eliminating by seeking them out in their homes and shooting them down.” He recommended that the United States express shock to the Pakistani authorities “at this wave of terror directed against their own countrymen by Pak military.” (Telegram 959 from Dacca) On March 29 the Consulate General reported that the army was setting houses on fire and shooting people as they emerged from the burning houses. (Telegram 978 from Dacca) On March 30 the Consulate General reported that the army had killed a large number of apparently unarmed students at Dacca University. (Telegram 986 from Dacca) In a telephone conversation with Kissinger on the same date, Nixon agreed with the assessments of his diplomats in Dacca, but agreed to do nothing. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v11/d13

I remember Sphinx well and both had drinks at the bar there and also dined many times over quite a few years. One particular memory. A month earlier I had been in Chiang Mai and visited the House of Male sauna. Had a great time with a handsome student but supidly left my varifocal spectacles in their case somewhere. No one could find them. As they are expensive, I did not replace them. My Chiang Mai student friend then arrived in Bangkok for New Year and I took him to Sphinx for dinner. Before our meal arrived, he played a trick on me. He asked me to look out of the window for a reason I cannot now recall. When I turned back to the table, there on my plate were my spectacles! He had found them near my locker as he left the sauna! I made sure he had a good time in Bangkok!!

One of Britain's fallouts from the Epstein scandal has been the sacking of a man who has been almost at the centre of much of British and European politics for almost 30 years, the British Ambassador to Washington Lord Peter Mandelson. There is now an enquiry as to whether he might have given away state secrets to Epstein. My own politics aside, I have always found Mandelson a somewhat creepy individual. It has nothing to do with his being gay. It is on the political influence he has exerted when he seemed to have little importance other than having been a key PR figure responsible for the election of Tony Blair to the PM's job in 1997. I found him creepy because I rarely believed what he said. To me, looking closely at his eyes gave his game away. When someone is trying to convince you of something and he knows that he has an ulterior motive, that person frequently cannot stare you straight in the eye. I found that with much of what Mandelson uttered over the years. I started looking more carefully at eye movements when a youngster and Harold Wilson was the Labour government's Prime Minister. Unless reading from a teleprompter, he could never keep his eyes straight ahead, always looking to the side momentarily, so much so that even I as a political neophyte then could tell he was lying. Once when the subject of a 'live' interview on the weekly news Panorama programme about the Vietnam War with the BBC's brilliant, knowledgable - and subsequently reveald as gay - reporter James Mossman, his words twisted and turned and his eyes darted about. Apart from his obvious discomfort, you could tell just from his eyes that he was lying. Spinning the truth - or outright lying - is now part and parcel of political life. Some like Trump have been lying for so many decades it has become second nature and his eyes give little away. But for lesser experienced public figures, even today I find their eyes often show it!

The influence of the USA in Asia, through indirect and direct action, is incalculable. Tens of millions of deaths in wars. We know now too much about the illegal wars in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia and their consequences. We know much less about places like the bloodbaths in East Timor and West Pakistan/Bangladesh, for example, which could never have happened had Kissinger not visited Indonesia and East Pakistan just beforehand, providing the governments in each with a nod and a wink that the USA would not intervene to stop their proposed savagery. Millions died in those conflicts with even the US Ambassador in East Pakistan begging his government to do something to intervene. Several experts agree that Kissinger should have been tried for war crimes.

At the rates that hotel charges? Sadly out of my league just as the Capella is out of yours 🤪 Before I stayed at the Phu Quoc Marriott, the Obamas had stayed there at US$10,000 per night!

The British rightly receive virtually no credit for their colonial advances into Asia. But the Dutch atrocities in indonesia were almost certainly far worse. I suppose at least the Dutch government formally apologised to Indonesia for the "systematic and extreme violence" it indulged in during the Indonesian war of independence after WWII. No apology, though, for all the atrocities before then, including the forced transport of 33,000 Indonesians to work on their plantations in Suriname in South America. Mind you, the British have never issued any formal apology for its major part in the slave trade. Yet surveys conducted over several years show that while the older generation of Britons largely agree that colonialism was a force for pride, the majority of the younger generation now agree it is a matter of shame. Extraordinarily, last year the Shadow Justice Secretary in the British government actually stated that - Britain's former colonies owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/51483-british-attitudes-to-the-british-empire

As I have written some time ago, I did a 9 day self-organised trip to central Vietnam in 2020 just before borders were closed for covid. I absolutely loved it. Stayed three nights in a lovely small hotel in Hoi An. I thoroughly recommend staying at least one night rather than a day trip. Hue was also fascinating but Danang was the surprise. I had gone purely for sightseeing but as soon as my flight landed in Danang I was chatted up by a guy from Grindr. We met when I returned from my three nights in Danang and he was a delighful companion. Showed me some sights, spent quite a time in my hotel room and took me to little restaurants I would never have known about. No, he was not a money boy and would not let me give him anything apart from paying for meals and cocktails, even when he came with me to the airport for my departure. He did visit Bangkok a couple of years later and I was glad i could repay at least a little of his hospitality. A few more pics to add to those from @vinapu As outlined in another thread, I stayed on Phu Quoc the previous year. There I had five free nights courtesy of Marriott points. Loved the beach, the sea, the island and of course the hotel. With I could stay at the hotel again, but the number of points required is now astronomical!