Weekend Update: Star Trek, Hong Kong vs. Taiwan, and Lance Armstrong

 

It’s the weekend so time to go off topic with a little news you can use!

 

New Star Trek movie screened for dying patient

A rough cut of the new Star Trek movie Into Darkness was screened for terminally ill cancer patient Daniel Craft.  Craft, a die hard “Trekkie”, was not expected to live until the May 13 release of the movie but an internet campaign designed to get him to see some promo material of the film in advance caught the attention of director J.J. Abrams.  Abrams, who is notoriously secretive about his projects, made the magnanimous gesture of arranging a private screening of Into Darkness for Craft just days before he passed away.

Many of the articles detailing the event failed to mention Daniel Craft’s connection to Hong Kong and China.  Craft was involved in distributing Asian cinema in North America including promoting earlier Jet Li and Jackie Chan movies.  He was also a fluent Mandarin speaker.

On the screening Craft’s wife wrote “we enjoyed it IMMENSELY as a film and as a gesture.”  Said Abrams after Craft’s passing on Jan 4, “I’d rather not talk about it.  It feels insensitive.  But…it was unbelievably touching!”

And so shines another good deed in a weary world…

Hurray for Hong Kong

I had a Facebook chat recently with a South African friend who has lived with his family in Taiwan for 20 years.  He mentioned that after 15 years of living in the same house their landlord was moving them on.  Given the time they’ve been there I suggested he might want to consider buying.  His reply was he couldn’t as “foreigners” couldn’t buy property in Taiwan.  I was taken aback a bit and asked why after 20 years he was still considered “foreigner”.

He responded not only could he not buy property but that his daughters, who were born in Taiwan and lived their whole lives there, were only allowed to stay on their parents visa until the age of 20.  Their eldest had turned 20 and they had to enroll her in a local university to get a student visa that would allow her to stay.  To live your whole lives in a place and still be treated like your home is not your home…

Wow!

It made me even more thankful to be in Hong Kong where residency is almost instant and Permanent Residency, allowing indefinite stay, voting and so forth, can be applied for after 7 continuous years of living here.  Oh, and being one of the world’s freest markets… means anyone can buy property (if you can afford it)

Just days later I had a dinner with a man who was on a trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan for his first time.  I asked him what he thought of both places.  He said he loved Hong Kong…it’s energy and it’s ease of getting around and operating in.

And Taiwan?

“Well” he smiled, “Let’s just say I wouldn’t rush back”

Hurray for Hong Kong!

Lance Armstrong

This week Lance…wait….who am I kidding.  I was never a fan before…and can’t even pretend to be interested now!

That’s the news!  See ya soon!