Greeting card to Gov. of Hong Kong

Dear Gov. of Hong Kong,

First of all I’d like to compliment you for every ashtray on a top of each trash hold, located on all streets corners of your beautiful city.

I’d also like to compliment you for Hong Kong’s great infrastructure (Alex and I are very impressed) and public transport capabilities. Something that Europe can learn from, truly!

Besides the fact that Hong Kong is extremely clean city (even for European standards), Hong Kong is indeed, also a true shopping paradise - for those who have money though! ;-)

However, we were less impressed by the fact that many young people in Hong Kong are unable to live on their own - but are still living with their parents in stead.. even when they are (in some cases) around 30 years old. We spoke to some of them, so we know.

It’s just ridiculous to pay (in many cases) more then half of their salary, only to rent decent rooms or apartments - they can call home. It’s “Mission impossible!”
So, even though Alex and I fell in love with your city (a couple of days ago we almost lost our eyes by seeing all those beautiful “Face” fashion and make-up shops in your “Harbour City” buildings…), we’re not coming to stay permanently in your city any time soon… unless you drastically change your homes rental policy.

Models website banned

Alex and I were even less impressed by the fact that our photographers and models resource website: “modelmayhem.com” got blacklisted / banned by your “Olympic City 1″ ISP called Pacnet.

The site was censored by provider Pacnet, just two days after it’s been (in those two days) regularly visited and used by us from Hong Kong’s Olympic City 1 terminal.

Modelmayhem.com banned.

So, as Alex got frustrated and angrily left the place, I went to read about Pacnet.

“Against a backdrop of explosive economic growth and increasing bandwidth demand in Asia is Pacnet, the region’s largest independent telecommunications service provider, born out of the recent operational merger of Asia Netcom and Pacific Internet.

The former Asia Netcom has it’s roots in Asia Global Crossing’s US$2 billion investment in building a next generation network, EAC, to connect key markets in Asia. In 2003 the company was bought by a consortium led by China Netcom…”

Modelmayhem.com banned by China Netcom?

Sooooo…. then I went to read something about China Netcom.

“We are a leading broadband communications and fixed-line telecommunications operator in China. Our service region in China consists of Beijing Municipality, Tianjin Municipality, Hebei Province, Henan Province, Shandong Province, Liaoning Province, Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province, Neimenggu Autonomous Region and Shanxi Province. In these regions, we are a dominant provider of fixed-line telephone services, broadband and other Internet-related services, as well as business and data communications services.”

Censored

Thussssss…. does this mean that part of Hong Kong’s web traffic is being controlled AND CENSORED by People’s Republic of China?

I’ve been told by Wikipedia that along with Macau, Hong Kong belongs to “The Special Administrative Regions” and that such a censorship should and would be out of question…. especially for innocent sites as modelmayhem.com, where no political nor other kind of (according to Chinese law) illegal material is to be found, but the site’s main purpose is to bring photographers, models and make-up artists together from all over the world. A website like this, shouldn’t be censored — in any possible way!

Alex also sent them an e-mail, with polite question to give him a decent explanation and reconsider their censoring decision… but now, after more then a week — still no answer on this ban issue. As the matter of fact, no answer at all. The website is still banned.

Anyways, I’ll leave it up to you guys, the ministers of Hong Kong Gov. to figure that out.

No smoking under showers!

Before saying Good Bye (I’m leaving HK within couple of days), I’d also like to mention that smoking UNDER SHOWERS on Hong Kong beaches SHOULD be possible!

And above of all, Alex and I think that penalty of HK$5000,- for smoking under shower, is just ridiculous! People should be able to smoke under shower freely and with no restrictions at all. It’s so much fun, honestly! Take a look bellow…

No smoking under showers, on the picture Alex with his couchsurf friend Yanny.

No smoking under shower, on the picture: Norma and Alex.

Greetings,
Ashtray

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P.S. Of course, Alex is not an idiot. After this ridiculous ModelMayhem website ban, he used Proxita (proxy) server in order to access modelmayhem.com and contact Hong Kong’s photographers after all.

Perhaps Hong Kong people with same or similar experiences should do the same… Just an idea. :-)

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Read and find out whois Lady Ashtray …