The Goddess Descents
By Chip Tsao | published Sep 18, 2008
For those who have seen the famous documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Leni Riefenstahl, it’s deja vu. Anson Chan’s majestic descent to Tseung Kwan O in a helicopter on polling day is reminiscent of the beginning of Riefenstahl’s “Olympia,” where the Fuhrer is seen descending in his plane from the clouds, in the image of God, to land in the midst of a roaring crowd in the Berlin stadium.
It is baffling to me that the Civic Party has chosen such a grandiose publicity tactic. It is certainly impressive for most “middle-class” people, who must know a helicopter trip to Macau costs about $1,800 as demanded by Stanley Ho, who owns that traffic route. But for residents of Tseung Kwan O, allegedly struggling to survive near the poverty line, Anson—even if she is the renowned Goddess of Democracy—arriving in their community in the midst of the buzzing whirlwind of a helicopter must look more like Queen Marie Antoinette in a golden royal carriage arriving in the Latin Quarter of Paris bearing a basket of brioches circa 1788. Some of the poor new immigrant children in Tseung Kwan O may have never seen a helicopter before. They might have been scared by the sight of the big steel bird in the same way the natives on the remote jungle island of Papua New Guinea might be spooked by their first sight of an aircraft in the sky, shooting arrows at the sinister-looking eagle which carries to them a missionary together with a copy of the Bible in the year of, say, 1936, when Indiana Jones and his peers were said to be quite active in their adventures.
It was certainly a bit over the top for Chan to fly to Tseung Kwan O from the Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. Even Chris Patten never dared do that, although as the last colonial master of Hong Kong, it would have been more justifiable for him to patronize some local tribal chiefs by flying from his Fanling villa to Sha Tin to meet someone such as Lau Wong-fat, the de facto head of the New Territories, to persuade him for some political support.
The Civic Party has certainly wasted about $10,000—the rental of the helicopter—because most of the candidates in the New Territories endorsed by Anson bit the dust eventually. They might have also offended Beijing, I guess, for a single helicopter makes a limousine escorted by a motorcade—the kind that normally delivers Hu, Wen, or Xi on a local visit accompanied by a stiff-grinned Donald Tsang —look rather boring and small. Campaigning in such a dramatically advanced way could be fatal in a modern village like Hong Kong. I wouldn’t give it a whirl.
For those who have seen the famous documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Leni Riefenstahl, it’s deja vu. Anson Chan’s majestic descent to Tseung Kwan O in a helicopter on polling day is reminiscent of the beginning of Riefenstahl’s “Olympia,” where the Fuhrer is seen descending in his plane from the clouds, in the image of God, to land in the midst of a roaring crowd in the Berlin stadium.
It is baffling to me that the Civic Party has chosen such a grandiose publicity tactic. It is certainly impressive for most “middle-class” people, who must know a helicopter trip to Macau costs about $1,800 as demanded by Stanley Ho, who owns that traffic route. But for residents of Tseung Kwan O, allegedly struggling to survive near the poverty line, Anson—even if she is the renowned Goddess of Democracy—arriving in their community in the midst of the buzzing whirlwind of a helicopter must look more like Queen Marie Antoinette in a golden royal carriage arriving in the Latin Quarter of Paris bearing a basket of brioches circa 1788. Some of the poor new immigrant children in Tseung Kwan O may have never seen a helicopter before. They might have been scared by the sight of the big steel bird in the same way the natives on the remote jungle island of Papua New Guinea might be spooked by their first sight of an aircraft in the sky, shooting arrows at the sinister-looking eagle which carries to them a missionary together with a copy of the Bible in the year of, say, 1936, when Indiana Jones and his peers were said to be quite active in their adventures.
It was certainly a bit over the top for Chan to fly to Tseung Kwan O from the Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. Even Chris Patten never dared do that, although as the last colonial master of Hong Kong, it would have been more justifiable for him to patronize some local tribal chiefs by flying from his Fanling villa to Sha Tin to meet someone such as Lau Wong-fat, the de facto head of the New Territories, to persuade him for some political support.
The Civic Party has certainly wasted about $10,000—the rental of the helicopter—because most of the candidates in the New Territories endorsed by Anson bit the dust eventually. They might have also offended Beijing, I guess, for a single helicopter makes a limousine escorted by a motorcade—the kind that normally delivers Hu, Wen, or Xi on a local visit accompanied by a stiff-grinned Donald Tsang —look rather boring and small. Campaigning in such a dramatically advanced way could be fatal in a modern village like Hong Kong. I wouldn’t give it a whirl.
Labels: Politically Incorrect, 陶傑
posted by Gemini Saga at 12:00 AM
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