fashion beach

Following the recent Dolce & Gabbana case, where the Italian fashion chain kicked up a storm by telling local people that only mainland visitors were allowed to photograph its flagship store in Canton Road, another international fashion chain appears to share the view that insulting Hong Kong people is a smart business move.  French chain Agnes b opened a new cafe in Tseung Kwan O with menus in English and simplified Chinese (as used on the mainland) only, triggering another wave of outrage on the local blogscape.  This kind of decision can only exacerbate the growing feeling among Hongkongers that mainland money is making them second class citizens in their own home.

Dolce & Gabbana took weeks to eventually apologise.  Agnes b has been quicker off the mark and already promised to change its menus to include traditional Chinese.

What I find ironic is that these luxury chains spend millions of dollars each year to build and promote their brand names around the world, only to discredit them through such thoughtless and discriminatory actions.  Are they totally brainless, or are these decisions taken thousands of miles away by executives with no sensitivity to the local cultures of the places where they operate?

Sexy Hot Arab Women - Myriam Fares

Myriam Fares is an extremely . She also acts, produces, and dabbles in fashion design. It’s her singing, though, where she really made her mark. In the Arab world, if you want to make it in entertainment, you have to go to the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Specifically, you want to go to the hustle and bustle city of Dubai. This is exactly what Fares did. She signed with Virgin at the Virgin Mega Store in Dubai. There, she was received by a swarm of reporters and fans plhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifedging their admiration for her and her music. Her big breakout hit “Ana Wil Shoq” was met with critical acclaim.

Like most Arab women, showing skin is just not a part of the culture. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be sexy. Just the opposite is true. Here, we see Myriam in a very sexy leopard-print dress looking very sexy and very naughty. First her eyes are quite seductive and they truly pull you in. Then, she has a smile (no, let’s call it a smirk) which just shows her friendly and playful side. This dress also is fairly low cut so you get a great outline of her . You don’t get to see much more of her body, but what you do see is spectacular.

Sexy Hot Swedish Women - Magdalenda and Hannah Graaf Naked

What’s better than a hot Swedish model, you might ask? Try TWO hot Swedish models that happen to be sisters and love to pose together naked. But we’ll get to that in a bit. Magdalena’s story is one that’s rooted in tragedy, but turns quite positive. When she was younger, she got tangled with a gangster boyfriend, had his baby, married him, and then suffered physical and emotional abuse. After getting shot in the leg, she left him and got him thrown in jail. She got some help from select members of the Swedish police force, but not much. After that ordeal, her sister, Hannah, introduced her to some friends of hers that helped land her a modeling career. And, the rest is history.

This picture really shows how lucky we all are that she did start her modeling career. I’ll be honest, I don’t know which one is which, but it doesn’t matter. They’re both drop dead gorgeous and epitomize the Swedish blonde bombshell. They both have gorgeous eyes although the one on the right seems to be having sex with the camera. They both have beautiful big breasts (I know that Magdalena’s aren’t real, but we don’t judge. They look spectacular!). Then you see their flatboard stomachs and slender legs. Oh yeah, and they’re both butt naked!

Memo to Hong Kong's TV stations: Yes, I know you will want to pay tribute to the late Whitney Houston, and that's fine, but could you please not do so by subjecting us to the 4,378th rerun of The Bodyguard?  She did make other movies, you know - why not give Hong Kong people a chance to see them?

Sitting waiting to be served in the bank a couple of days ago, I was idling through Fortune Magazine's Special Issue Investment Guide 2012 when I came across this choice quote from Rajiv Jain:

High quality equities are the place to be - the Coca-Colas, the McDonald's, the BATs of the world.

(For those who don't know, BAT is British-American Tobacco.)

It's a sad commentary on the world that the companies making healthy profits in a sick economy are those dedicated to filling their customers with unhealthy crap.

No matter how many pictures of trees Chinachem may erect on their construction sites, the reality is they are covering another bit of Hong Kong with concrete. I know we need more housing, but let's not pretend that Hong Kong's future will be green unless we make some big changes.

First of all "Kung Hei Fat Choi" and a happy year of the dragon to all my readers. Or perhaps I should say "Kung Si Fat Choi" in case a disgruntled mainland professor scolds me for not using Mandarin.

A heading on the South China Morning Post website today says "Old habits threaten giant mantra ray". Presumably the creature swims along the seabed chanting "Om mani padme hum" to itself.

But it's not only in Hong Kong that one finds such errors. The once-impeccable BBC News website has the heading "Murray though as opponent retires" today. I guess they are though with sub-editing.

Finally someone has reviewed this blog and "damned me with faint praise". While calling it "a very stereotypical HK blog by a male expat from the British Isle" (there's only one?), he does at least concede that my writing "is at least borderline literary". For these small mercies, thanks. Happy new year!