Dear 6A and 4E
Please download the policy address (English version) from the following link. Print a copy and bring it to class on Monday (Oct 27 08). You’ll be instructed how to use it then.
http://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/08-09/index.html
Ms Fong
Archive for October, 2008
4E, this is the article for this week. React to it in 80 words.
| Wednesday October 15 2008
South China Morning Post
Concept for Star Street helps to boost community spirit
Chris Heywood, senior portfolio manager at Swire Properties, tells how the ‘Starstreet’ concept serves the needs of tenants, the nearby community and businesses
How important is the Starstreet Precinct to Swire tenants and what has been the reaction to such developments? The Starstreet Precinct and Three Pacific Place are a natural extension of Pacific Place. Instead of just creating a superstructure of office space, we believe Pacific Place office tenants should be entitled to an enhanced environment which defines their working style. The creation of a holistic Starstreet Precinct would create values to office, retail and residents in the area.
With this corporate vision of ‘Building Communities’, Swire Properties has contributed to enhancement work for the neighbourhood. These include re-landscaping work to improve the streetscape and traffic flow, shop-front enhancement, provision of plazas and greenery to inject a stylish outlook; and above all, the construction of the Three Pacific Place Link to enable safe, efficient and weather-proof direct access to Admiralty MTR station.
For the community, Swire has contributed to fostering collaboration among retail tenants – from defining the brand and designing collaterals, to organising suitable community-wide joint-promotion which aims to provide F&B, cultural and festive experience to the community. We have also been in regular dialogue with the Hong Kong Tourism Board to promote the area as a destination for visitors.
Thanks to a group of creative designers and free-thinking restaurateurs who have filled the area with character cafes, restaurants, galleries and home design labels, Starstreet Precinct has been able to retain some of its original cosy and quaint ambience with an injection of refreshing off-beat lifestyle overtones to differentiate from other dining precincts around town.
Has the range of enhanced services at Pacific Place been well received by tenants? Are there any additional services such as privileges for tenants at local F&B outlets, concierge-type services and orientation? As part of our reputable management service we support our tenants in various ways. Promotion support is offered to new arrivals at Pacific Place via in-mall and electronic announcements to VIP members. Efficient updates of shopping guides and F&B guides are part of the daily service. Our customer service team has constant two-way communication with tenants to foster mutual trust and harmonious relationships. And impressive large-scale fashion and festive promotions are conducted regularly with strong publicity support. Our customer service counter staff are conversant in English, Cantonese and Putonghua, and possess all the necessary knowledge to show visitors the brands they want. They also act as friendly ambassadors to those who want to explore shopping in Pacific Place, enjoy promotional privileges on offer, and explore tourist destinations given Pacific Place’s central location and reputation overseas.
With the global markets crisis dominating the news, how is Swire’s residential leasing sector geared for any fallout? The sustained global financial turmoil has dampened sentiment of Hong Kong’s economy recently. However, we have not seen any immediate and significant effect yet. A steady arrival of expatriates to Hong Kong is always a long-term stimulus to the residential market. Due to limited supply of luxury serviced apartments, we expect demand for Pacific Place Apartments will remain strong. There will still be strong demand for five-star, centrally located serviced apartments through the highs and lows of economic cycles. There may be more demand towards smaller, one-bedroom apartments during the economic downturn. Pacific Place Apartments are well-tuned to cater for a relatively challenging time. |
6A, this is the article for this week. Please write your reaction in 100 words.
Oct 13 2008
South China Morning Post
Hospitals accused of breast milk code breach
Maternity wards ‘give mums free formula’
Hazel Parry
Hong Kong’s hospitals have been accused of violating a World Health Organisation code aimed at promoting breastfeeding, by accepting free supplies of formula milk that they hand out to mothers in maternity wards.
All of the city’s hospitals with maternity units – both public and private – accept free supplies of baby milk formula, according to sources, which are given to them by major brands including Nestle, Abbott and Wyeth.
This goes against the international code on marketing of breast milk substitutes that was written by Unicef and adopted in 1981 by the World Health Assembly – the decision-making body of the WHO.
Now, local groups promoting breastfeeding are calling on the hospitals to stop the practice, which they say represents a conflict of interest and helps foster an atmosphere where formula milk is seen as acceptable or even better than breast milk for a baby’s health and development.
Patricia Ip Lai-sheung, vice-chairwoman of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Hong Kong Association, said the practice took place in both public and private hospitals.
“There is a conflict of interest when you are an organisation promoting breastfeeding but you receive free formula. You are telling the public that you approve of the use of the formula and especially certain types,” Dr Ip said.
Maggie Holmes, of La Leche League Hong Kong, a group helping women breastfeed, said donating supplies to hospitals was “not done out of altruism, because chances are the mother will stick with the same brand when they leave hospital”.
According to the International Baby Food Action Network the group that monitors the code, the manufacturer aims to build brand loyalty by hooking new customers in hospital, with each mother expected to spend at least HK$3,500 on their product.
The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, followed by the addition of complementary food and continued breastfeeding for two years and beyond.
The international code was introduced to promote breast milk and prevent harmful marketing, which can sway a mother’s decision away from breastfeeding. As of 2005, more than 70 countries had made all or most of the resolutions law.
Hong Kong is not among these.
The code states that manufacturers should not supply hospitals or medical centres with free or cut-price supplies, and governments should ensure this does not take place in any part of their health care system.
A number of major brands contacted admitted supplying hospitals, but said it was done in compliance with Hong Kong guidelines.
The Department of Health said its policy was to encourage and support breastfeeding as an employer and with major promotion activities at its maternal and child health centres.
However, it said compliance of the code was “entirely voluntary” in Hong Kong and that it relied on the industry to regulate itself.
The Hospital Authority and private hospitals also claimed to be aware of the code and to support it by actively promoting breastfeeding despite accepting free samples.
The authority said it had to care for mothers who wanted to make their own, informed choices, including mothers medically unfit for breastfeeding.
To get yourself prepared for the topic Health and Humans, you may want to equip yourself with knowledge of the folloing issues:
Cosmetic (plastic) surgery
Appearance
Euthanasia/ mercy killing
Hospice Care
Abortion
Birth control
Family planning
Sex education
Premature sex
Premarital pregnancy
Sex change
Organ transplant
Organ donation
Genetic engineering
Genetic alteration
Cloning
AIDS
Dieting
Medical facilities
China’s tainted milk scandal (A hot topic recently!)
Hey 4E!
Sorry! I forgot to start a post to let you note down ideas about the discussion you made on teacher-student relationship during class on Friday! Please post your discussion result here! One for each group please. Don’t forget to write your names.
Sandy, please move your response to here so that we can read your work easily. Thanks!
Ms Fong
Dear 4E
This is the article for this week’s news assignment. You have to do two things:
- Read the article.
- Leave comments to this article/ topic here (no less than 80 words). You may respond to your classmates’ comments as well. Remember to let me know who you are.
Have a nice weekend! 
Ms Fong
South China Morning Post
Sunday August 31 2008
Out and about
To gain an insight into the ‘real’ Hong Kong, take the MTR to the end of the Tsuen Wan line, writes Jason Wordie.
Visitors and recent arrivals often ask: ‘Where is the ‘real’ Hong Kong?’ This mythical spot must, surely, exist somewhere beyond the cliched imagery, far removed from Central’s ersatz international gloss, Tsim Sha Tsui’s glittering temples to high-end consumerism and every other well-worn postcard view.
There must be a place where you won’t see Jackie Chan flinging himself through the bamboo scaffolding like an amphetamine-fuelled marmoset, or sailing junks floating serenely, if improbably, through Victoria Harbour. For the record, these craft vanished from local waters decades ago – a minor, inconvenient detail the Hong Kong Tourism Board hasn’t yet acknowledged.
To encounter the ‘real’ Hong Kong, journey no further than the end of the MTR line and Tsuen Wan. Like other new town conurbations, where the vast majority of Hong Kong people live, authentic, varied Tsuen Wan rewards an afternoon’s exploration.
And believe it or not, Tsuen Wan is one of Hong Kong’s major tourist destinations – for visitors from the mainland. Chung On Street features heavily on many mainland tourist itineraries and, as in downtown Kowloon, the main attraction is shopping. Favoured purchases are gold and jewellery, mid-range cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, dried seafood and traditional Chinese medicinal items – all can be purchased with reasonable consumer confidence in Hong Kong, unlike on the mainland, where adulterations and fakes are common.
Close to Tsuen Wan MTR station and marooned among tower blocks and expressways, white-washed, pitch-roofed Sam Tung Uk is a pleasant reminder of Tsuen Wan’s relatively recent village past. A substantial Hakka complex that dates from 1786, Sam Tung Uk was preserved and gazetted a monument in 1981, when the surrounding squatter settlement was cleared. Now converted into a small, immaculately maintained ethnographic museum, it nevertheless feels strangely dead without the colour and movement, noises and smells typical of village life.
Other rural-era relics survive amid the metropolis; near Tsuen Wan’s original waterfront, now several hundred metres inland, a few surviving buildings from Hoi Pa village form part of a shady park close by Yan Chai Hospital.
Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong’s highest mountain, rises behind Tsuen Wan. Route Twisk, one of the city’s most picturesque country roads, meanders through almost wild countryside over to Kam Tin. The No 51 bus from above Tsuen Wan MTR station provides one of Hong Kong’s most enjoyable – and cheapest – scenic excursions; a complete contrast in every respect to bustling Tsuen Wan, just below.
Seek help from Wordreference and Thesaurus!
Dear 6A
This is the article for this week’s news reaction assignment. You have to do two things:
- Read the article.
- Leave comments to this article/ topic here (no less than 100 words). You may respond to your classmates’ comments as well. Remember to let me know who you are.
Have a nice weekend!
Ms Fong
South China Morning Post
Monday March 31 2008
Mercy killing or murder, euthanasia is still illegal
Some people believe life is sacred, others think they should have the right to call it quits, writes Elaine Yau
The debate about euthanasia flared up again last week with the death of a cancer-stricken French woman. Former schoolteacher Chantal Sebire, 52, suffered from a rare form of cancer which caused her face to become deformed and swollen.
The severely disfigured woman, who lost her sight and senses of smell and taste because of the malignant tumour, died two days after the French court rejected her request for the right to die.
Euthanasia, which means mercy-killing or medically-assisted death, has caused heated debates around the world. It may be conducted with or without the patient’s consent.
Voluntary euthanasia involves a patient asking to be killed. Involuntary euthanasia usually involves an unconscious patient whose death is decided without his consent. As a patient in an incurably vegetative state or irretrievable coma cannot agree to the act of euthanasia, his proxies – usually his doctors or family – make the decision to end his life. This form of euthanasia has long divided societies as it can be equated to murder.
In a medical sense, the practice is divided into two types – active and passive euthanasia. The former involves medical practitioners using lethal substances or fatal medical means to end the lives of patients. As this aggressive form of euthanasia runs contrary to a doctor’s sworn duty to save lives, it has caused the most strident protests.
The most famous proponent of euthanasia is Jack Kevorkian, dubbed Doctor Death. The retired pathologist claims to have euthanised 130 patients. He was finally convicted of murder and sentenced to prison after he sent a tape of himself in the act to a television show.
Passive euthanasia usually entails the unplugging of life support systems or withholding treatments like medication, surgery or even food and water essential to sustaining the patient’s life.Passive euthanasia is commonly practised in hospitals the world over. While most societies deem passive euthanasia morally acceptable, its active form has touched off countless debates.
Religious leaders argue that human life is inviolable. Governments around the world also fear legalising euthanasia would spark a wave of assisted suicides of disabled but otherwise healthy people, hence making a mockery of the supposedly noble value of human life.
The personal crusade of quadriplegic Tang Siu-pun, better known as Ah Bun, to end his life through assisted suicide exposed the rifts over the idea. The wheelchair-bound Mr Tang, who has been dependent on others for most of his basic needs ever since a sports accident more than a decade ago, wrote a letter to former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa in 2003 asking for euthanasia to be legalised.
He released a 300-page book I Want Euthanasia last year in which he argued for his right to die in peace and with dignity. He said the value of a person’s life is subjective and should not be judged by others. His plight struck a chord with people who have witnessed the slow and painful deaths of their loved ones.
The sight of bed-ridden family members wilting away in hospital often makes people yearn for a more humane way to expedite their demise and end their suffering.
Proponents of euthanasia argue the practice can diminish the pressure on the public health system. However, this notion is rejected by moralists who believe this idea would see calls for people to die for the public good.
Sam Lee Yuan-tai, chairman of the Direction Association for the Handicapped, agreed that legalising euthanasia might put pressure on the sick and handicapped to commit suicide as they might worry about becoming a burden to society and their families.
Mr Lee, a quadriplegic, argued that instead of legalising euthanasia, society should step up support for the disabled which would allow them to lead a full life.
Mr Lee’s arguments echo the calls for the provision of better hospice and palliative care for the terminally ill instead of allowing patients suffering from incurable diseases to die prematurely.
Studies show that most people support euthanasia, but the practice is usually blocked by the law.
In Hong Kong, euthanasia remains a strict no-no in the eyes of both the legal and medical communities.
Seek help from Wordreference and Thesaurus!
10
Oct
08
AL UE and CE English Syllabuses
Dear 6A and 4E
The HKEAA’s website contains information about public exams. Do visit it from time to time to get updated information. Below are the links to UE and CE syllabuses.
Ms Fong
10
Oct
08
Come On In My Classroom!
Dear 6A, 4E and 2N
This blog is our central meeting place to plan and discuss English learning throughout the school year. Check back regularly to review the syllabus, read any new announcements, do the assignments, get tips about English learning, and ask your peers or your teacher questions concerning English learning . Don’t forget to join the Game of the Month! Happy learning! 
Ms Fong
