Spoiled Asian Flyers

It was an interesting read on today's SCMP column, of an interview on Tony Tyler, CEO of Cathay Pacific Airlines.

Some passenger was also interviewed and he shared his experience with Cathay:

"...Others say that faltering cabin crew morale is having a divisive impact. 'On a good day, Cathay is still the best in the world', judges another frequent flier, 'but you can't be sure of a good day. I travel ecnomy because business is tooexpensive. On one outbound flight recently, I felt like royalty, the crew were superb. The inflight manager, whom I had never met before, talked to me at length even though the flight was full. All the crew greeted me by name, made sure I got Perrier with lemon, my meal choice, little things that don't cost anything except professional effort, wonder, Cathay is the best."

"On the return sector, it was the exact, dismal opposite. I was carrying some flowers. The inflight manager commented as I got on board, 'Nice; are they for me?' That was the last I saw of her"

"No one offered to put the flowers in the chiller, as good Cathay or a Japanese airline would have done automatically. The service was mediocre, and the crew spent time in the galley chatting about what to do on their layover..."

So as I read the 'bad' service this passenger saw on his return flight, I thought, hey, that is 'good service' on a Air Canada flight.

green bean and red bean

So are you a Ron Artest fan? I am not. But he is definitely entertaining...in a bad way.

The link below is Ron's response when asked about Josh Howard's controversy - Josh Howard was filmed disrespecting the US national anthem. Mr. Artest's response, and you gotta like this, is "I think Josh Howard's comment is a reflection on education...".

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Ron-Artest-weighs-in-on-the-Josh-Howard-controv;_ylt=AkakI74v_mz1FVbGuyvkfhm8vLYF?urn=nba,108744

Reflection of education? And this is from Ron Artest? Are you kidding me? Is it the same reflection of education when Ron went in to the fans and started the biggest fans-versus-athletes brawl in NBA history on the night of 22 Nov 2004?

Management Profile

check out the picture below, this is the management profile page I found from Evergrande Real Estate Group's company website (恒大地產集團) - http://www.gzhengda.com.cn/cn/big5/group/group.aspx.

Ok, if you don't read Chinese, then let me translate (or the picture is just small, then I am sorry, so let me translate anyways). 在讀 means "working on", so 碩士在讀 means "working on a Master Degree". So simple counting has 4 of the 10 executives working on some Master Degree.

So what you say? Well, it is the first time I see a company has 40% of their executives working towards some advance degree all at the same time. Second of all, they actually advertise it. I guess they can't wait to tell us until those degrees were actually granted.

So who said putting "working towards a CFA certification" on your resume is unprofessional, or even unethical?

iphone girl

Guys, check out this link: http://www.iphonegirl.net/.

I would have to give two thumbs up for this new innovative marketing idea by Apple (with that said, I don't think this is a mistake at all, as portrayed by Apple's PR representative. It is very intended!).

What better way to not only show love from your dearest consumers, but also your poor chinese manufacturing workers.

Olympic stuffed-animal

For the record, I can't say those five olympic stuffed-animals are cute, or anything near it. And I wonder where the chinese got the idea of the design.

So I spotted a picture of them (see below) from Doug Smith's blog.















And now it shed some light on the source of the design...

















No offence thought, I thought the opening ceremony was awsome!

Light in the office

And you really have to love your secretary if you are a boss in Hong Kong. They are just so "caring" that you wish you can have one for life.

So much for the who-gets-in-the-office-on-time game. Every morning I walk into the office, I have noticed one thing - the light is turned on in my boss’s office, but the door shut. My boss’s office is located towards the end of the hall way and behind some cubicles, so you can only see the door and light in the office from most angles (you can't see if anyone is in there though).

OK, I supposed my boss has beaten me to the office, since her office light is on every morning before I get in.

But well, I was tricked.

After some office investigation, I’ve found out it is the boss’s secretary who turns on the light in the morning, and she does it for exactly the reason I was tricked for. In fact, the boss actually keeps her door opened in the morning if she is in the office.

So the pattern works like this:

Light off + Door shut --> Boss not in
Light off + Door opened --> Boss not in
Light on + Door shut --> Boss not in
Light on + Door opened --> OK, she is there

So there goes the trap. But we all gotta appreciate the effort put forward by the secretary.

Patriot my butt

So politics in Hong Kong really make me laugh.

A new group of deputy ministers and assistants have been appointed in HK. Since these new group of public servants were also awarded with fat salaries - HK$130,000 per month for the lowest rank, they had stole some public and media attention.

One of which, is that some of these deputy ministers and assistants also hold passports of foreign countries like Canada, Britain, etc. So what? Well, "they are not patriots", some claimed. Therefore, they don't deserve high profile public jobs.

Consequently, these candidates resort to giving up their foreign residency rights and passports in hope of pleasing the general public. So they can keep the jobs.

Let's analyze the logic a bit here. If they were not patriots because of their foreign residency, then they don't qualified, period. Given up their foreign passports at this stage really doesn't change a thing. Patriotism cannot be bought, not publicly anyways. What these candidates really bought by giving up their passports was a fat-paid job, not patriotism!

And how does anyone not see this? Isn't it too obvious?

If I were the general public, I would fire the ones who gave up their passports before those who opt to keep theirs. Given both groups do not qualify as patriots, at least the later one showed some character.