Uncle Charles, why did you leave us behind?

Uncle Charles must have joined the LSD hate group by mistake. We checked again after our post on his hypocrisy came out and found that he has left the group. There is no more Charles there!


We don't want to think that he left the hate group because he had been so embarrassed after reading our post. That must have been a mistake for him and a coincidence for us only. Case closed.

But hypocrites are interesting creatures. We want to know what do you think about hypocrites. Cast your vote at our latest poll "Hypocrites are..." at the side bar, or at our brand new poll page here.

Have a nice drunken weekend, peeps! Including you, Uncle Charles! As a local internet guru, Facebooking is a piece of cake and you should not have made such a retarded mistake!

It's dangerous here.

This Village is so dangerous. As a responsible blogger and for the fact that the Libertines Pub is getting serious now, I want to share with you a few Village survival tips.

Theft is very common in the Village, every male is horny and there're so many uncivilised people and acts on streets that make you feel uneasy.

You should protect your purse or bag well no matter how desperate you want to show off the little thingy that costed you tens of thousand bucks. Protect your back and front well even if you are the only one rushing in and out of the train and squeezing into a queue. Why the MTR isn't doing anything to make things better? Their counterpart in the ancient civilised country is improving now. Oops, I forget that MTR is just another misnomer in this Village. Its real business is here.

When you come to a doorway, the one in front of you have an obligation to hold it for you. You may just walk through without a thanks, smile, nob or even an eye contact, Only uncivilised people are worthy of your blaming because they don't know the rules. If one day, a door bangs at your nose, don't be surprised, you are the only civilised people here.

It's definitely okay to walk alongside with your friends chit chat on a narrow street even you may notice other pedestrians (with less right) are trying to bypass. This is what Carrie and her friends are doing there!

Dear civilised villagers, do you feel the same?

Failbook at Libertines Pub: Hypocrite WINS!

Failbook.com and Lamebook.com are my recent favourite websites. You can tell by their names that they have something to do with the retarded shits in Facebook.

Liking these sites so much, I started checking on FB every five minutes, in hope of finding some FAILs/LOLs/WINs. Finally, I found this real PWNED WIN yesterday:


For those of you who don't read Chinese, here a crappy translation of the key points:

...the shameless acts (of the pro-establishment, retarded Legco members) will only make the pan-democrats more united!

Charles joined the group "I believe I can find 100,000 people who hate the League of Social Democrats"

Charles updated his FB status after the pro-establishment Legco members forced an adjournment of the Legco meeting by walking-out yesterday, to prevent the five resigning pan-democrats legislators from speaking. Three among the five resigning Legco members are from the League. Ouch...

As the Internet Is Serious Business, we investigated into the matter and came up with these possible causes of this WIN event:

1. Charles joined the group by mistake;
2. Charles' FB account was hacked;
3. LSD is not among the pan-democrats;
4. Charles joined the group to monitor the activities of the pan-democrats rivals;
5. The Libertines Pub made all these shits up by Photoshopping the above screenshot;
6. Charles is a hypocrite, and he WINS!
   

A poll will be put up tomorrow here. Give this WIN a bit of thought tonight, come back and vote tomorrow! Free Beer!

The Internet Is Serious Business; so our kids need help!

WARNING: Our buddie Anon told us that some of the links down there are NSFW. So, you're forewarned. Actually, I'd say the whole Libertines Pub is NSFW anyway. Read at your own risk, pal!

The newspapers are usually filled with boring stuff on Mondays, but this report: "Young feel better after internet rants, poll finds" on this Monday's SCMP caught my eyes. It is well known that most of us at the Libertines Pub are Angry Young Men and we certainly feel better after ranting here. So, I was not going to miss this news...

It turns out that it's about people who're much younger (and possibly angrier) than most of us here. The loving Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups "interviewed 693 students from Form One through Seven about their behaviour online and how that made them feel". The results were what the SCMP headline suggested: our kids love to rant online and ranting makes them feel better. What's the problem with that, then? Maybe we can just let the kids rant and rave as much as they like online and expect them to come back IRL good and healthy? No, they feel that these raving kids need help; because according to the Federation:

Information is disseminated far and wide quickly on the Internet. Negative writings can accumulate and disperse like germs online. Being constantly exposed to such negative information, young users might develop negative emotions.

OMFG!!! As a responsible blogger, I'm contemplating rating this site 18+. We've been writing about negative shits for more than six months; an average of 1,000+ idiots visited us every month and they must all have got infected! I hope they didn't try to kill themselves or what. Kids, if you're under 18, stop reading and click here.

The Federation is now deploying a team of online counsellors to take care of our kids' feeling. It was reported a kid called "Dante", who used to spread negative germs on the Internet, now writes positively online, like "jokes, compliments or other encouraging remarks".

I think the Federation has made an important point here. Internet ranting is not just another kind of ranting. The Internet Is Serious Business. According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, it's scientifically proven to be "the end of the world" for any person found to be a loser online. Reference can be made to this chart by a major US research group. Who dares looking down on the Internet now, after the emerging of the "new media" in Hong Kong? We saw the triumph of the Anti Express Rail activism through Twitter. We witnessed Internet Saturday taking over the City Forum. We even have a hashtag (#cityforumhk) at Twitter so that basement dwellers can participate in the Forum in a mind-fucked manner without the trouble of showing up in person. We have Tweeters who promised to show up in every City Forum to facilitate the twisted participation. Just like the Avatar taking over Jake's real life, I feel the great power of Eywa, don't you?!

In view of the seriousness of the Internet, the online counsellors certainly need to help the kids to cope with this new age. In this new age where your assface matters less but how many hours each day you spend online to catch up with the 100+ tweets per day record, our kids certainly could use some counsellor service (online).

On a side note, while I was researching on the subject at the authoritative Encyclopedia Dramatica, I found that the occupation of the assface I'd messed with before is called "e-lawyer". I'm in deep shit...I think.

I'm in your blog, ruining your religious ideologies

Hi guys, for the past few weeks, the blog has seen some pretty darn intelligent and serious posts. And guess what? Yup, I am here to ruin it all by insulting your intelligence with mindless ranting and childish observations. (So it's nothing new if you read Martin Oei's blog regularly, I guess). let us begin.

A quick mini poll here, how many of you here in the pub has heard of Haiti 4 weeks ago?

Well excuse me! But I had! Not because I am a well-informed individual, but because I used to watch Heroes and there's a Haitian guy who plays a Haitian guy who has the power to take away other people's power ( is that some Yo dawg?), in fact for most of the series he was simply refered to as the Haitian, hence I knew Haiti!! (Hi NBC!! We are open for ads! we have 137 fans on FB!!)

And for those of you who is not a hopeless geek don't watch Heroes, either way, you must have heard or seen what happened in The Republic of Haiti on the 12th of Jan 2010. (if not, it's ok, go back to sleep, sorry i bothered your hibernation)

When something of this magnitude happened sometimes we mighty human realized that shit has hit the fan and we have no one to blame or point our fingers at, err.. well, let's blame the natural disaster on the supernatural, right?

While God him/herself didn't actually make any statement regarding the incident, there were no shortage of people who's willing to give him credit for it. Here is American televangelist aka stupid old man Pat Robertson telling us that the Haitian founder made a pact with the Devil and properly deserved it. (Ouch.. Thanks for setting back our religion a 1000 year, Pat! Great work, you douche!)



Because, seriously, God ain't gonna come down here and say:


'' Srsly wtf?!! Damn you mofo, I didn't do that shit!! It's the freaking Earth Crust you guys sitting on! Yes..yes I put it there, but I haven't touch that shit for millions (6000 if you ref the bible) of years! what? Full of glitches? oh yeah?! you try to made that shit in 7 days, then we'll talk about glitches, you guys can't even get Window Vista right! No! you can't get a new planet, you guys just gonna ruin it like how you ruined this one. Yea whatever, I'm so sick of you guys blaming me for stupid shits. stfu man. I'm going back, talk to Jesus if you need anything.''

Yes, I got carried away with that, but it's alright, me and god are buddies, and he/she and me go way back.

I have NO IDEA what's that Morgan Freeman pic is doing up there. No idea.

While it's pretty fucking stupid to put the blame on the Haitian and God for this tragedy. You know what's equally stupid? Showing a picture of dead Haitian children and claim that it proves that God doesn't exist.

God, exist or not, the whole thing is still caused by movement of Earth Crusts, unless...Of coz!!! under God, those children were supposed to live forever and stay harmless even in a 7.0 Earthquake!! And if they died, it must meant God is not there!! Also, if God's here, he/she would never have let such tragedy happened! So he must not be here at all! and if I'm correct! No God---> which also means the earthquakes were caused by movement of earth crusts and totally render the point of dead children=no god moot....hey...wait a minute there...I am confused...(It's getting all very Yo! Dawg again..)

So believers and non-believers, why don't you both drop your stupid reglious ideologies bullcraps and focus on what's really important by actually STFU and help those who were affected?

http://www.redcross.org/en/givehere

http://www.redcross.org.hk/en/home.html

Give bitches! Coz it'll make you happy and you can brag about it in the office to impress that chick/guy with the nice rack/package.

In Praise of Laziness

Hong Kong is a city that preaches haste. Haste is believed by the majority a necessary virtue for progress and prosperity. As a commercially driven society, money is of immense importance and considered the ultimate goal of all people in Hong Kong. It is widely believed that haste could produce wealth. Therefore, it is not uncommon in Hong Kong to see people who have prided in themselves of getting numerous things done in a day. Haste, after all, can be measured proportionally with how much we earn. Being brought up in this city, I have been constantly told of this ideal. I, for a time, believed what I was told and acquired a conscience that kept me being a hard working man. And it became an ideal which was deemed too implausible to be the target of scrutiny. Unfortunately, after witnessing certain instances, I was compelled to revise the ideal that has been upheld by this city and I figured that it has done more harm than good.

Numerous times I engaged in conversations with people of Hong Kong about where and how they travel. They always take pride in themselves how they cover the entire Tokyo in Japan in a week. In order to spend their time wisely, they often decide to wake up at 8a.m. sharp and devise a plan how to stalk from shop to shop in eight hours. Time after time, I am surprised how dense their schedule is, especially the fact that they wake up earlier on holidays than working days.

Modern young men pursue romantic love in the same spirit. They have no patience to engage in a relationship in a considerable amount of time to please a lady with intelligence and humours. They only wish to charm a lady with a dinner and a film while at the same time indulge in inappropriate thoughts whether they will end up in bed together on the same day.

There is so much readiness in Hong Kong which renders people the inability to use their leisure intelligently. Because leisure demands serenity and patience. A piece of literature should be read with a contemplative habit of mind to admire the author's style of writing and the message he wishes to deliver. The beauty of any one place upon travelling can only be appreciated by paying attention to details. A great work of painting can only be finished by a great deal of time and patience. We are unable to derive the appropriate pleasure from our leisure if we attend ourselves to haste. In the absence of serenity, the roses will lose their hue, the fruit its flavour, the star its splendour, and the perfume its aroma. Fifteen minutes of concentration at least are needed to appreciate a sculpture, but even the the most beautiful sculpture rarely detains anyone for even thirty seconds.

Moreover, much of what we consider progress or prosperity is accomplished in leisure. If the French aristocrats had not the time to wander in gardens, there would not have been Rococo art. If Newton had not the time of twenty years to work out the laws of gravitation, we would have remained ignorant of the universe. If Darwin had not spent his time taking a trip to Bagel, we would have thought ourselves the image of God. In a society where the parents encourage their children to spend as less time as possible in university and enter the cruel world of business as soon as possible, nothing great could be achieved.

Therefore, my dear readers, can you still lay your hands on your heart that laziness is a vice and not a virtue? I hope, after reading my plea for laziness, that my dear readers will revolutionise the current trend to induce our good young men in Hong Kong to do nothing. If so, I shall not have lived in vain.

W

Know your Hong Kong Misnomers

We're now compiling a Libertines Pub List of Hong Kong Misnomers, or in plain words, misleading names. Let us have your contribution by commenting this post!

What's that? For example, we all know there's a certain political party in Hong Kong uses the word "democratic" in its name, but how democratic they are is the question to ask. Basically shits like that. Suggestions do not have to be political, just be creative and have fun!

We know that our readers are mostly idiots who can't read and you need pictures!

Our classic example of misnomer:


And of course, "Blackboard":

Ever wonder if they can really "recycle" a thing?


Send us more! Enjoy the weekend, peeps!

Villagers, XRL is just the beginning......

I am glad to see what's happened in the last few weeks in this Village. Some Villagers had been enlightened that they could DO something rather than say something when their voice wasn't being heard in this weird well structured political system and didn't get shot or smashed by tanks. Next time nothing is guaranteed.

Someone worried the XRL is just a fuse to a bigger fire to come when a more controversial issue of constitutional development will be put up to the LegCo. In a glance, this is obvious, however, the way things work in another way round this time.

In the XRL issue, there are "real" victims, who either lose their home or will have their building in danger during the construction. The voice is from outside of the LegCo. In the constitutional development issue, direct victims are those pan-democrats, the effect to the society is abstract and long term. This is not at our absent-minded, straight-forward smart Villagers advantage. They are empathic to fellow Villagers but their empathy is restricted to those they can touch and see at the moment. Next generation of Villagers, who cares?

Back to the XRL, why our emir is so insist to have the terminal at West Kowloon and it's all tunnel? Think about why our emir's new office has to be at that site. Both are at the heart or to the heart of the city.

Christina made it!

There're stiffness in my pants tears in my eyes when I saw this at the 7-11 last weekend. Christina finally made it! After all the sweat and tears, she finally made it to a magazine cover! I consider that a much better publicity than the headlines of those useless tabloids. It's a big fat WIN this time, Christina!

Some people in the High-Tech Village don't see it as a WIN though. About 500 hypocrites righteous people joined this Facebook group condemning Oriental Sunday for peeping at Christina's private life. Our daft Society for Truth and Light is never late in this kind of outcry. They sent out this statement yesterday, with links to different complaint channels.

I dunno what Christina thinks about this yet. There's nothing related said in her blog. Her only updated complaint there was the sold-out of her teenage idol Nicholas Tse. But for those of you who got offended by the magazine cover and the peep, our advice is rather simple: don't talk about that anymore. Refrain from saying even a word about Christina and Oriental Sunday. Don't even look at the covers of the magazines when you walk past the news stands or 7-11. Just pretend that it never happened. "No, I don't know what kind of panties Christina wears", you have to speak to yourself. After all these years of complaints and they're still publishing these hot gross pictures, there's only one explanation I can think of: it works. Showing that you don't give a damn about these pictures will make the editors of these magazines start to think that the peep stopped working. It at least helps making Christina looks less like an ASW.

No, Christina is definitely not an ASW, we've got a clip to prove it. She's just so cute and innocent!

Sorry, my money's still on having more of these peeps, our Villagers are just so helpless.

The Libertines Pub Weekly Truth and Light Watch

Last week I received this eDM from the Society for Truth and Light. They claimed that they're still short of 1,500 bloody volunteers for their long-waited flag day on 13 Feb 2010. They even suggested a few things we can do after helping them rip people off.

These days, the internet tough guys are just getting tougher. You all saw the triumph they had outside of Legco over the weekend. So until we see the real Truth and Light, it's so Post 80' wise to resort to the great internet for reasons to do (or not to do) anything. I did a bit of research here and here; together with my hopeless imagination, I came up with this:

50 lame reasons why you should not volunteer in the coming Truth and Light Flag Day:

1. The Libertines Pub told you not to go before and reminded you about that again the day before the flag day.
2. Bowtie said he might drop in.
3. Christina Chan didn't sign up, so you think it's probably not worthy.
   
4. You have your Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in the morning.
5. The man on television told you to stay tuned.
6. You're celebrating the birthdays of Marc Emery and Robbie Williams.
7. I almost signed up, until I saw this d-bag clip that put me off entirely.
   
8. You're staying home to work on your soap sculpture.
9. You did your own thing and now you've got to undo it.
10. You have watermelons to harvest that morning at FarmVille.
    
11. You have to check the expiry dates on your dairy products.
12. You need to check the live tweets of the Good Vibrations Fest all day.
    
13. You want to see how long you can go without saying yes.
14. You're going down to the bakery to watch the buns rise that morning.
15. Your plot to take over the world is thickening.
16. You are suffering from PCNYS (Pre Chinese New Year Syndrome).
    
17. You don't want to leave your comfort zone.
18. Your palm reader told you not to carry anything orange on 13 Feb 2010.
    
19. You have some real hard words to look up in the dictionary.
20. Your subconscious says no.
21. You have faith in the Society; you're pretty damn sure that they can find 1,500 idiots to help.
    
22. You left your body in other clothes.
23. You're Post 80' and you say "fucking no" to virtually everything.
    
24. The last time you went, you never came back.
25. You rather sell flags for HKAYP on the Kowloon side.
    
26. None of your socks match.
27. You're too busy practicing witchcraft.
28. You know how to steal money from donation bags and probably can't resist doing that.
29. You changed the lock on your door and now you can't get out.
30. Your chocolate-appreciation class meets that morning.
31. If God can ever make the phrases in "年三十．賣旗日．明光社．靠哂你" rhyme, you'd go.
    
32. You never go out on days that end in "Y."
33. You're gay.
    
34. You're too old/young for that stuff.
35. You have to wash/condition/perm/curl/tease/torment your hair.
36. You have too much guilt.
37. You just can't find anything to wear that goes well with the orange donation bag.
    
38. Flag Day gives you gas.
    
39. There are important world issues that need worrying about.
40. You're uncomfortable when you're alone or with others.
41. Fag day? Oh, Flag day...not interested.
    
42. Your favorite commercial is on TV.
43. You're on the Dark Side and the power is so great that you couldn't get your ass moved to HK Island.
44. You have to study for a blood test.
45. Cussing and flag selling don't go together.
    
46. You wank.
    
47. You thought it was still yesterday... you must have crossed the International Date Line in the wrong direction...
48. Your principle for participating in anything is to have it ends up in bed.
    
49. You work for the government. Separation of church and state, you know.
50. You need time to think up more reasons.

May the Truth and Light be with you!

On Election

So much has been said about the 'mass resignation' in Hong Kong. But why the controversy? What makes it an inevitable option to bring about democracy in Hong Kong? Because our government and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong are filled with congenital liars who try to convince us they are working towards a better future for Hong Kong. Our government, of course, is no Communist. But given the fact that our Big Brother in Peking is the master and our shoe-shining ruler Sir Donald Tsang his slave, he has no choice but to submit to his master's suggestions. How uncommon a gentleman labelled as 'Sir' is seen equal to a Communist. But we are all no stranger to Chinese history. The Chinese has been under dictatorship for over 3000 years and it is no surprise that the slavery instinct is imprinted on their minds. That is why our only respected political parties in Hong Kong decided to mass resign from the Legislative Council but at the same time worry at length whether they will get 50% of votes. This worry is of no tiny matter and it deserves the utmost attention.

Year after year, I see few people voting. But it does not spring from the fact that we admire the Communist ideology, but because our previous colonial empire has educated us well enough not to care for politics. Back in the colonial period, the British government had everything handled and assured us living in stability devoid of worries. Though we were not given the freedom to vote for our governors, they promised us with the best degree of freedom out of all Chinese communities. 1997 marked the end of the colonial empire and for the first time, our destiny is in our own hands. Our colonial master left, yet our British Complex remains. Thirteen years from now, we are at loss how to manage a tiny little city in Asia properly.

If a change in the Legislative Council is to be expected, voting should be made compulsory. Whoever refuses to vote should be severely penalised. My dear reader might ask, 'is it not contrary to the very idea of a free society?' No, I should reply, this is no tyranny. It has everything to do with liberty. Think of the Communist China where people are deprived of every bit of possible freedom. Think of Iran where the Taliban regime is in power. Think of North Korea where people are deluded by Kim Jong-il that they are living in an Utopia. Think of the democratic Russia where people have become stringed puppets. There is not a single moment the people of Hong Kong are deprived of freedom anywhere close to this. They have failed to understand how important and valuable freedom is. Had they lived to witness the horrors of The Great Leap Forward, had they lived to experience the persecution of The Cultural Revolution, none of them would have been so reluctant to vote.

Through compulsory voting, we may assure our only respected political parties to have at least 50% of votes. Though some of the people in Hong Kong may have secured an admiration for the Communist regime, but based on the political sentiment of the people in Hong Kong, their heroic act is likely to be rewarded.

W

Police Line Do Not Cross

Some of you will be gathering outside of Legco today and tomorrow to simply party express your opposition to the Express Rail. A few of you have been on hunger strike for days and will probably become easy targets for the coppers. Although I don't give a damn about the Rail, I do care about those Post 80' kids out there. Especially when it could be THAT dangerous if you're taken downtown.

The following poster speaks the truth. Hey, you know you got away with lots of ass-kicking!


We might need to start putting up this warning sign around; we still don't have a clue what has happened with our poor Nepalese man. I only know that the hearing of the case is conducted in Chinese and none of the poor man's family member speaks the language. Just in case!


Ever wonder what's the vision of those rookie officers?


And I heard that if you google "麥嘉安", you will see some pretty gross amazing private shots of a policeman.

I always think that time goes pretty slow working as a police officer. You hang around the same old spot for eight hours a day (forget about what those TVB dramas told you, life of a cop is never that entertaining at all!). I just didn't realise that it could be really, really, really, really slow...

Relax, peeps! We all know there're many good cops in Hong Kong. Still, some of your colleagues are just helpless. Let the kids have a good time outside of Legco today, get off-duty on time and have a good weekend, sirs!

Can We Not Be Moral?

No matter how diverse our opinions are, we, as human beings, could agree on some things. We often ponder upon the very idea of happiness because it is our very reason to live. Laughters, after all, are the universal sign of happiness. To ask how we can be happy is to ask how we should live. If our lifetime quest is to solve this mystery, it is necessary to attend to the questions of ethics. But does the universal pursuit of happiness necessarily follow that we must arrive an objective view on morality? The study of anthropology reveals to us that people from other places in the world persist on the values which most of us are not accustomed to. Most of those customs many modern readers may find absurd. But the case is otherwise in Hong Kong. The Society of Truth and Light wishes to redraw our moral landscape and stand up in defence of the objectivity of moral values. They invite us back to the moral sentiment of The Middle Ages.

This society has a strong urge to re-educate us. They hope, with their supreme moral standard, to instill into our minds what is right and wrong. The society, for instance, opposes prostitution and pornography. It restricts our liberty to gambling. It condemns premarital sex and teen models who wish to make a fortune off of wearing bikinis. If these matters are cordoned off questions, part of the reason is that the society believes it is deemed too implausible for them to be the targets of scrutiny. As it also has strong ties with the Evangelical Church in Hong Kong, it is of utter importance that we should stifle our doubts and follow its standards in order to purify our sins.

But what is wrong with holding diverse views on morality? All prohibitions should not be justified on the ground of preserving the man himself from harm, but of preserving other people from harm. If a bunch of men and women wish to perform promiscuous sex in their own house, let them do so. I do not see by what right we should prevent them from having sex with one another as long as it is done in private. It is not our business to interfere with what they are doing because no outsider can know whether they are good or bad. Moreover, the society lays down rules of conduct rather than ends of life. And morality should promote the latter, not the former. 'Sex is wicked.' This lays down a rule of conduct. It is a dogma. 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' This lays down an ends of life. What the society does is not just the instillation of false knowledge, but it also prevents us from thinking for ourselves.

The indoctrination of the Society of Truth and Light breeds intolerance. It embraces the values of tyranny. It destroys our freedom to do what we want. If democracy is to be desired in Hong Kong, a system which cherishes diverse ideas and opinions, we must conquer the world with free intelligence. Yes, it is divine to be moral, yet it is more human to be immoral.

W

I simply don't give a damn about the Rail; does that bother you?

Nobody asked if I support or oppose the Express Rail. The possibility being that nobody really cares if "I" support or oppose the Rail; the Post 80s Anti-Express Railway Group have already taken over the "I".

There's no consensus among us here. Icarus told me that he found the Rail problematic; Eric and Dick said nothing so far; William lives in the states, he probably knows very little about that. I don't oppose having an Express Rail. I'm not annoyed by the cost; there's no real refund for tax anyway. Neither do I worry about where to locate the terminal. To me, Hong Kong is a tiny city and it's easy to go from one point to another. Impact to the neighbourhood upon construction? I live with construction sites. I don't remember living far away from one since I was born.

Does that make me a pro-establishment sucker, or even a "secret communist"? Assfaces like Martin Oei accused me to be one before. He is always retarded good at that and would make a good struggle session leader. I have my writings in the Pub to prove how ass-kissing I am, don't worry. (Hey fucker, I link you here again and again! Feel like accepting our invitation by now and make friend with us?)

Yet, I do not support what the government is doing; I never support a government. It's their job to appeal to me, the people, to not object their exercising of power. This time, I have yet to see a strong reason to oppose the Rail.

I did ask around to check if those "Post 80s" I know support or oppose the Express Rail. Of course, I see many different activities on the internet voicing opposition to the Rail. But many of the people I talk to in person don't necessarily oppose the Rail; some even manage to support it, because they think they will very likely be using it. And they live far away from Kam Sheung Road, so screw the "better" option suggested by the Professional Commons (= Albert Lai Kwong Tak+ a bunch of IT guys= self-proclaimed professionals)!

Yes, great show outside of Legco last Friday. But let's face it, there're people who either don't give a shit about the Rail, or they even support it. They don't have to be ass-kissing supporters of the government. They may simply think it's cool to have another fast rail to ride on when they pay a visit to their mistresses and that they happen to live closer to West Kowloon than Kam Sheung Road. They may also not care about the poor villagers in Choi Yuen. Nobody has the obligation to give a shit, after all. Please, don't make it sounded like we're responsible for social justice; no, we don't. If you feel like helping others, go ahead, kudos to you! But don't fucking tell me that I have to do what you fancy doing.

Make pretty sure that the power of the people is not the power of a group of people forcing opinions upon others who don't give a shit or don't bother to express opposing views. Just leave us alone. The case is not strong enough this time for some of us.

Does Photography Do Any Harm?

Out of all the places we usually go to, few sceneries and objects deserve our attention and overwhelm us. These places possess a quality called beauty. We are often attracted to things which are an aesthetic delight to the eye and after encounters with them, we may seize every chance to capture them and try to hold on to them. That is why we have invented cameras. Taking photographs may satisfy our urge for possession sparked by the beauty of a place or an object. How impressive a design that allows us to hold on to beauty with a click of the shutter. But what harm does photography possibly do? If photography is to be criticised, it is not so much about photography itself, but it has everything to do with how we employ the art of photography.

But this art has been significantly changing. We witness, on the streets in Hong Kong, an uprising of artistic movement. Art no longer restricts those who only have God-given talents. The teenagers have an urge to say, 'Anyone Can Be Photographers'. It reminds me of the Pixar cartoon called 'Ratatouille' which The owner of the restaurant, Gustav, also writes a book named 'Anyone Can Cook'. Encouraged by a similar democratic vision of being artists, it is not uncommon in Hong Kong to see teenagers taking photographs everywhere. We often see in those photographs a bunch of teenagers showing a 'V' gesture to remember their union. We may also see them taking photographs of the food that they eat. Sometimes, even a piece of rubbish on the street may be intriguing to them as an object of beauty. This motive may be understood as their appreciation of the beauty of still life but somehow worthy of some degree of suspicion.

What, then, is wrong with photography? Instead of employing the art of photography as an conscious effort of seeing and of noticing the minutest details of the scenery, they have developed a new style of photography which may be called 'snapshots'. They use the medium as an substitution. They pay less attention to details due to their blind worship of technology. They invest faith in their digital cameras that they automatically assure them the possession of beauty. They have no patience to notice every minute detail in the photograph. What they do is just plugging in the memory stick to their computers so they can upload the photographs to facebook and blogs. They do so not out of promoting beauty, but in order to show themselves off so they can receive more comments from friends.

We glance over the newspapers published in Hong Kong. It is not surprising that we see more images than words on them. However, it is true, images may stimulate our mind and urge us to remain sober of the horrors of wars. But the flooding of images on newspapers not only prevent us from appreciating the author's style of writing, but also weakens our ability to comprehend and analyse the readings. I was surprised when I first glanced over a German newspaper with only few images on it. Little wonder why it is the hometown of philosophers. Images alone, unlike books, cannot teach us to think independently. Words, after all, are the sole tools that we rely on to think clearly.

Photographers teach us to look at things with an aesthetic eye and a good writer urges to attend to the minutest details that we may neglect. They open up our minds to see things rather than merely look, by making conscious effort to notice elements and understand the constructions of a scenery. Taking snapshots blur the distinction of looking and seeing. It promotes our laziness in noticing details. It condemns our literacy by a few clicks. Whether we should take pleasure in a stroll in an art gallery or spam the internet with snapshots, only the future can decide. For my part, I'd rather die sooner.

W


William joined the Pub as the first and only good guy so far. We feel that we should probably not let our readers hate us too much, and we hope that by dragging William in, his politically correct writings would freshen up the Pub stank out by the other four villains here. William will update us weekly on his philosophical struggles dialogues, the usual trash you encounter in every other pubs. Check out his personal blog here for more sublime meditation. Probably should stop now, the editor here is running out of sophisticated words.

Retarded Government Ads: "Beware of Employment Traps"

I regret for not seeing this ad earlier, I'm now a victim of the employment traps...


My employer "lured me into pursuing further studies" when I applied for this job. They told me that the number of hours of training I have each year affects my score in the performance appraisal, which in turns affects my year-end bonus. I ended up wasting some of my after work hours in some retarded training.

And I'm sure these two civil servants were tricked into some sort of "pornographic traps". Or else how was it possible for them to spend 75% of their working hours on porn sites?

It's Monday, let's all fall into employment traps. May all of you working in private sector have more training, and the civil servants read more porn at work to come up with these retarded ads!

New fucktard Poll!

Earlier this week, I talked about some of those "sucks big time" public information ads. In order to further engage our readers, Eric presents this new Libertines Pub poll: Why are the government making fucktard ads?

You know where to find it (scroll down, right-hand-side).

As a token of our gratitude for your participation, we give you this:



This is a public service announcement this is only a test!

What do we really care in Hong Kong?

Who the fuck is Monique Chau (周凱盈)? I certainly have no clue until Wednesday evening, when TVB Jade evening news reported her press conference after the court had read her 12 months' probation for ketamine possession. Yesterday morning on the MTR, I saw this junk news headlined all of the three Chinese and the only English tabloids (AM730, Headline Daily, MetroHK, and the Standard). It turned out that same thing happened with our favourite Apple Daily. Whoever manages this teen model must have got a very good relationship with the media; PR consultancies out there, get this asset quick! Or it's more likely that the 40 reporters who followed this piece of news, or their bosses who asked them to do so, are all idiots.

Who the fuck is Monique Chau, I have to ask again, who could make it to the headlines of all these newspapers? The idea of holding a press conference is itself peculiar enough. Did they think that this Ms Nobody is Noriko Sakai, a long time international celebrity, who calls for a press conference like this after her conviction of drug possession? Who cares if Ms Nobody repents?

Well, I shouldn't have said those reporters are idiots. The media in Hong Kong don't lead, they simply follow what we prefer. It's probably us who care about Monique Chau, and that's why she made it.

At about the same time, there's another young woman who has been trying very hard to make a fame fight for her ideals and was brave enough to risk her life marching among the first row last Sunday to the Central Liaison Office. She then accused the LSD for taking advantage of the life-risking hard works of the young democracy fighters. The accusation against LSD by this young woman called Christina Chan (陳巧文) stirred up a nasty fight among different Internet Tough Guys here, here, and here. RTHK interviewed her, but still, she didn't make it to the headlines.

Judging from this, this, and that, Christina, I think you could have done so much better than Monique. The Libertines Pub offers you a piece of free advice: stop wasting your time arguing on the internet. Snort some ketamine instead.

The Libertines Pub Weekly Truth and Light Watch

There's finally a piece of bad news from the Access to Information Officer of the Social Welfare Department to my request. The bureaucratic reply without proper salutation came in right before X'mas. As I anticipated, they are not going to make it easy for us. That would mean a trip to the central library's microfilm archive to me, unless any of you happen to have a copy of the 22 October 2007 SingTao Daily or the Standard and will be nice enough to make me a copy of that.

The great Big Lychee, Various Sectors had this good post earlier about "the rise of fundamentalist Christianity among middle and senior levels of Hong Kong’s professional, business and bureaucratic classes". The post is so darn good not only because they linked us (LOL!), but it also nicely pointed out that the local Christian Right movement is proselytising people at different levels with their anti-liberalism agenda. They also pointed out that this movement got the "Communist, patriotic blessing from the mainland officials", as summed up in this HK Magazine article.

Last July, I wrote a post here about one of the reasons for me to have started this blog. I see similar problems developing in Hong Kong as discussed in the Big Lychee post. I called that religious discrimination, when

"Members of any religious group may apply the teachings of their bibles to every other decision in daily life. People from other religious groups, or non-religious people, could be deprived of the fair chance in employment, promotion, and enrolment to schools."

It's nice to know that the blogger from Big Lychee shared this vision. Let's all remember not to give a shit on 13th of February; I have scheduled a reminder post on February 12 as promised. Big Lychee found a picture of their collection bags to help us identify them.

As for the weekly bullshit video clip from the Society, I recommend this clip this week. I wanted to ask why university students should not play dirty games for some time. Let me talk about that in another post.

Until then, may the Truth and Light be with you!

Those ads suck big time because...

They're the living proof of Hong Kong becoming (or actually has become) a Nanny State. I searched the YouTube for ads asking you to wash your hands regularly and found this.

Since when Hong Kong government started treating us like kids who'd watch Sesame Street and listen to what Elmo teaches us? If you search for public information ads made by the local government in YouTube, you will find that ads in 80' and early 90' asked you not to do things like littering or setting the country park on fire; they asked you not to do shits that could harm the public good. But nowadays the public information ads, or more precisely these "propaganda", asked you to wash your hands regularly and clean your home. I'm not saying that washing your hands and cleaning your home are bad things to do. I wash my hands regularly and like it when my neighbours keep their homes clean, so that no mouse or cockroach would find their way to my place. But using our money on making ads that meddle with our private lives? And the ad told us that if you don't wash your hands regularly, you become the epidemic-spreading mafia! Big deal, Dr Evil! Another similar shit being that since 2003, we have had one more moral rule to observe in our already over-moralised society, that thou shalt wear a face mask if you think you're going to cough or sneeze, even for once, in public transport. With air quality like that in Hong Kong now, I don't see any of us could possibly leave home without a face mask on and not get the frowns from fellow commuters.

If you find ads or PSA like our Elmo lectures in other places, please let me know. I found a similar one, and I'm not at all surprised, as it comes from the Nanny State nearby that some of us look up to so respectfully for years.

And what's up with allowing horse racing and football gambling but at the same time making gamblers looked so darn ugly? If we decided that gambling on horse racing and football is our right and a matter of personal choice, why make it sounds like the gamblers are doing something wrong? Of course, people having problem gambling are sick and they need help. But we don't need to portray them as creepy zombies, do we? And is it really true that all gamblers fail their families?

You can also compare this local anti-smoking ad with this one from UK. Both ads talk about supports we can give to smokers on quitting, but there is a subtle but important difference. Anybody feels that the local ad looked like a bunch of meddlers urging the smoker to quit? In the UK ad, however, the smoker decided to quit before we can talk about supporting him. You would understand me better if you smoke: how does it feel when strangers come up and appeal for you to quit? Or when others frown at you even if you light up in the middle of nowhere, outdoor, and that you're pretty sure that he/she can't smell shits?

More importantly, do these ads work? I think they're more like jokes and I bet most of us ignore them. After all, how many times we wash our hands a day, rather we clean our home regularly, or when we should quit smoking, are really personal choices. We certainly could give support to smokers who decided to quit but face difficulties, or people who're so retarded that they have no clue on how to wash their hands. But nobody, not even the government, has the right to tell us what to do with our private life.

Anti-smoking ads like this rocks, maybe.

Why these ads suck?

Welcome back, fellas! The Libertines Pub took a X'mas and New Year break, but we've taken sometime thinking about this shitty blog and our readers. We've worked out a few plans together during our year-end drinking session. If things work out the way we wanted, I promise you will see exciting contents here! So, stay tuned!

We've given you a couple of "food for thought" posts before. The marketeers call that "client engaging", we here call that lazy posts. To start the first Monday of 2010 with ease, I decided to let you watch two TV ads. I think these two ads suck, but I will let you watch them first and think about it before telling you why.





Though some of you might not speak Cantonese, you can probably tell what the heck these ads are about. Yes, the first one asked you to wash your hands and the second asked you to clean your home.

I can assure you that I'm neither complaining about the aesthetics nor the creativity of these ads. The Hong Kong government has made far more retarded ads like this one. It's strictly about the messages in them.

Think about it, and I will let you know what I think in the next entry.

By the way, happy new year! Let's kick some asses in 2010!