An Outsider Looking In
by Chris Gelken
Around the newsdesk
So, POTUS relented and allowed a photo-op with Hong Kong's pro-democracy leaders. He made a lot of smart decisions during his nine-day China tour and this was one of the better ones. It is a great pity, however, that he should have allowed the question to arise in the first place. Doubtless some critics will accuse Clinton of giving in to pressure, I'd prefer to believe he just listened to the voice of public opinion and acted accordingly. That's what elected officials are supposed to do, right?
Around our newsdesk the general opinion is that Clinton struck the right balance between taking care of business and expressing his concerns over human rights and democratic development. Even our own Democratic Party leader, Martin Lee, managed to put aside his trade-mark long face for once and smile, saying he was surprised and pleased at degree to which the Chinese authorities allowed open and unfettered dialogue. Okay, its all spin, its all PR -- for both sides. But let's face it, who would have thought it possible just a few years ago?
Something else virtually unthinkable a few years back -- peace in Northern Ireland. It isn't a great deal and I can't say I am totally happy with the way it was achieved. But it is a deal -- a deal that could be seriously close to coming apart by the time this column makes it to the APJ site. Watching the faces and listening to the vox-pops gleaned from the streets of Portadown, one could be forgiven for thinking there was no peace deal. The old hatreds are boiling to the surface. Pathetic.
Despite covering the story for much of their professional careers, some of my colleagues still express disbelief at the level of intollerance exhibited by both sides in Northern Ireland -- and they look at me for an explanation. It is beyond me. There is one subject that even Northern Ireland high-school drop outs do know -- and that's history. Biased, prejudiced and often not based on actual fact history.
And on the subject of history -- Hong Kong will close an exciting chapter this weekend when the new airport at Chek Lap Kok opens for commercial business on Monday. If you've never flown into Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport -- then people, you have missed the chance of one of the most gut-wrenching commercial flight experiences ever.
Kai Tak has been described as the airport waiting for a disaster to happen. The dramatic low level approach over densly populated high-rise Kowloon is without doubt the most exciting, most photographed and filmed, most white-knuckle approach to any airport in the world. Skimming the Himalayan peaks and dropping into Lhasa is probably the closest on the terror scale as far as I am concerned - but even that is a pale comparison to Kai Tak. There was a joke that a Cathay Pacific pilot really could not consider himself a pilot unless he landed with someone's laundry tangled in his undercarriage. I'll miss it.
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