Turtles in Mui-Wo

Hong Kong (HKSAR) - The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) released a juvenile green turtle, which was rescued by a local fisherman in Mui Wo in April, in the southern waters of Hong Kong today (August 6). On April 13, the AFCD received a report from a fisherman that a green turtle was accidentally caught in a fishnet in Mui Wo, Lantau.He removed it from the net and temporarily kept it until AFCD staff collected the turtle the next day. The turtle was delivered to Hong Kong Ocean Park for veterinary assessment and was ascertained to be in good condition.Since then, it has been kept at the Hong Kong Wetland Park with constant monitoring and veterinary care.The caretaker fed the turtle with squid, shrimp and vegetables.

After more than three months of rehabilitation, the turtle has grown remarkably.Its weight has increased from 7.8kg to 10.4kg and its carapace length from 40cm to 45cm.Its good shape suggested that it was ready to be returned to sea. Before the turtle embarked on its journey, the AFCD microchipped it for future identification and attached a satellite transmitter to its back.Green turtles are remarkable for their migratory behaviour.By tracing the migratory routes and feeding grounds of green turtles, the AFCD can draw up protection measures and seek co-operation with relevant authorities to better conserve the species. The AFCD is very thankful to the fisherman who rescued the turtle, and urges members of the public to report any sighting or stranding of sea turtles to the department via the 1823 Call Centre to help protect them.

The AFCD will continue to promote public engagement in sea turtle conservation through educational activities and seminars with fishermen. In Hong Kong, all sea turtle species are protected under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance (Cap 170) and the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap 586). The green turtle is one of the five species of sea turtles found in Hong Kong waters and so far has been the only species known to breed locally.

It can be found in warm seas all over the world and occasionally is seen in the waters off Sai Kung and the southeastern region of Hong Kong.

Source: HKSAR Government

Aussie Rob

With sadness we have tragically lost a mate this week. Rob will be missed in Mui-Wo by so many people. He was a familiar figure around the island, of course most of the time with QQ, cycling around , taking his early morning swim, or having a few drinks at any one of the many watering holes. Rob would never fail to stop and have a few words as he cycled around, asking about your plans, your weekend, sharing a story , or his latest plans. Rob loved Lantau, and was never that happy travelling over to the big smoke, preferring to do as much work as he could from the peaceful tranquillity of Mui-Wo. Rob had a big heart, which he showed through his patience when listening to the myriad problems of others, and he also opened his home to those in need, when nobody else would dream of doing so. His attempts to help one particular 'stray' was medal worthy.

Everyone who knew Rob knew that his closest friend and constant companion was QQ, I have never known a dog that was loved to such a high degree. We would wind him up that he loved that dog 'too much', but it was water off a ducks back. Rob would just smile and carry on as ever. To see Rob give QQ a wash was to see the embodiment of 'one man and his dog'.

Rob was an honest man willing to share life's ups and downs, and through his experience he was able to give advice to people trying to find their way in this sometimes difficult city. Rob was an intelligent, educated, man who was able to discuss anything from economics, politics, history, and being an Aussie- sport. I was often corrected by his thorough knowledge of football. A recent heated debate over a few beers centred around the complexities of the football transfer market and the comparison with Aussie rules, I had to bow to Rob's use of facts, rather than my own guesswork. Those are the conversations that make a good night, good.
Although we knew about Rob's life here in Hong Kong, we didn't really know much about his family in Oz, and we can only imagine the pain they feel at such a loss at this time, especially for his mother. Rob was taken too early, and that is a huge tragedy. The only consolation we can give them is that we share their pain and we will continue to think of him and who he was, and how he affected us all during the now too short time that we knew him. RIP and God Bless Rob.

Scmp article about Mui-Wo

Here is a link to the article that was published about Mui-wo in the SCMP, but also with an interview from Mark.

http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2010/07/04/growing-pains-in-hong-kongs-backwater/

Move along sir!

2.00am-Silvermine Bay beach
I am not sure how long I had been there to be honest, but there I was. On a covered bench at 2am smoking a fag, I hadn't seen another human being for at least half an hour, I had my beat box next to me blasting out the loudest music possible. In front of me was the sea and the relentless wind. The 2 police men stopped directly in front of me and the second one said' please turn down the music' 'no' I said, and after a short conversation he said ' I don't want to argue with you anymore, I'm going' and off he went.
I have spent a long time since, thinking about this short exchange, and let me make it clear-I really do have the upmost respect for the Hong Kong police, and I am convinced this would never have happened elsewhere.
I was awakened from my reverie by the policeman's request to switch down the music, and it is really impossible to write down with any accuracy the speed and volume of thoughts that went through my head before I decided upon 'no' as an answer.
I am not a fucking fool and immediately I thought 'this is a man with a gun,a truncheon and possibly other things that could seriously hurt me and if he fails there is always his mate as well'.

On the other hand though, I was sat on a beach at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest house which I did tell said policeman after I said no and he told me I was noisy and I told him I was sat on a beach, and he said someone might complain and I told him there was no one within a quarter of a mile. It was at that point that he told me he didn't want to argue and rode away. Could I have gotten away with that anywhere else? No fucking way! Across most of the world the police have some really big mental shit going on, especially in England and the US. I was there tonight, a lone man on a beach, defying 2 coppers, I knew full well that if I was elsewhere they would have dragged me off to jail before I could utter ' bent copper'. The officer i met tonight though, considered my non compliance and thought' well ,he is actually well within his rights, let him be' and went on his way. He doesn't know it, but I am so thankful that there are still policeman as upstanding and honest as him.

Attempted murder and suicide

Hong Kong (HKSAR) - Police are investigating an attempted murder and suicide case in Lantau this morning (May 31) in which a 32-year-old woman died and a four-year-old girl seriously injured. About 10.16am, Police received a report that a 32-year-old woman and her 4-year-old daughter fell from height from a unit of Kui Yat House, Yat Tung Estate, Tung Chung and were found lying on the top of a covered walkway. They were rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital where the woman was certified dead at 11.19am.¡@¡@ A post-mortem examination will be conducted later to ascertain the cause of the woman's death.

Investigations by the District Crime Squad of Lantau District are underway. Add Police Report No. 1 Issued by PPRB

The Yuppies are taking over the asylum.

I have lived on Lantau-on and off for 17 years, and during that time I have seen many changes. When I first arrived in Lantau it was almost a backpackers/hippy paradise, there were very few foreigners, and those people lived quite happily with the locals, the dark days of the airport soon followed and the huge influx of airport workers clashed terribly with the locals-often violently. The culture clash was deep indeed, taking the bus to Pui-O was a real drag, and the locals began to resent all foreign men under 50. Thankfully those times passed with the completion of the airport and things once again settled down.
For the last 5 years more and more families settled in Lantau, and a lot of us started families of our own. Locals and foreigners now live side by side, and our kids are friends and those cultural differences seem to be much less marked-until now!
Living in an idyllic place such as this word is bound to get out, and more and more affuent foreigners have begun to settle here. This is in itself not a problem, although it has pushed up prices for us riffraff-but that's life.
What is now becoming apparent is another cultural clash, this time not only with the locals, here is an example;
Wang Tong in Mui-Wo, is situated in the swamp behind the beach, and rents there have remained low for many years-and there is a reason for that which I will come to. Recently a few large houses have grown there, which were built by foreigners but the majority of the village has remained the same-cheap housing and holiday flats. A group of people who apparently represent foreigners have recently begun a campaign to change some things in the village.
• Reduce noise in the village by closing holiday flats
• Control the number of dogs loose in the village
• Rehouse a particular person who lives in a house with no roof at the entrance to the village-he is apparently an eyesore.
• Close the toilet bar
Mui-Wo is a seaside town-if you don't want to live next to holiday flats , you should have done your research before moving to Wang Tong! This is important income for Mui-Wo residents and any chance of changing that will seriously piss them off, and that is really not a good idea. I can give you a list of people who can attest to that.
Go to any New Territories village and you will see lots of loose dogs, they are a part of life, and unless they are dangerous are nobody's business.
How someone lives is none of your damn business-if that person wants to change his life he will, who are we to dictate?
Good luck with closing the toilet bar-it never has any noise complaints against it, it is a perfectly legal shop, the same as hundreds dotted around Hong Kong, and once again I certainly wouldn't want to mess with a locally owned shop and then have to walk to Wang Tong every night.
In the end, things are how they are, and that is part of Lantau's charm, and the local people accept us and our differences quite happily, we should do the same-or piss off back to where we came from.

Waste

This is a true story, it is heartbreaking, disturbing and definitely a tragedy. Although I will tell it in the first person, I was not there, and the first person is fictional, as are the thoughts and sentiments of that first person. The reasons I have written in the first person is to try and approximate the sheer horror of that person. If you don't like my language, then fuck you, because as with most people in this world you have blinded yourself to the cold hard fucking facts of life in the real world. And so I will begin;
Hong Kong is a pretty fucking good place to live, and to live in Lantau is the business. I live in Mui-Wo, which is the by far the best place to live on Lantau.All this means shit if you've never been here, but you must at least know that Hong Kong is the most populated place on the planet. Well, us Gweilos (white motherfuckers) who've lived here awhile realised very quickly that we couldn't handle the city and found our way to the beautiful,tropical and quiet outlying islands-Lantau being one . Life is pretty idyllic over here, a little like Cheers but much much bigger. This is not a fuckin tourist blurb though and if you want to know more look on the net. To pay for this life we have to work, and that takes me to the day in question, where I was on the late shift and ready to go home. The office is always high stress, there are over 20 of us there, most of us British. One of the fellas hadn't turned in today, which in itself is not unusual, but nobody had heard fuck all from him for a couple of days now. Only 2 days ago it had been Bill's(made up name) birthday and a few of the lads had had a night over in Wanchai. Nothing unusual had happened, and so far as we knew nothing was amiss. It wasn't the first time that someone's dad/mum/wife had called, shit after a good night we lost people for days, that's Hong kong. Bill's Dad told me hadn't heard from Bill for 3 days, I had worked with Bill for 7 years, so I knew straight away to expect the worst. 7 years Bill was on the desk next to me, we were close. Most of us here have lived the life, but survived and calmed down with wives and kids. Bill had been married, but it didn't last-who knows why? Bill lived in Mui-Wo above the supermarket, close to the ferry, most of my Lantau friends didn't know him though as he kept himself to himself.He was still young , on the right side of 30 and as I've said had worked for our company for years. As I also said earlier, most of us had walked the fuckin walk and done the talk before we settled down, and as afar as we knew so had Bill. Someone always went off the rails at times, but generally nothing a good sleep or a good divorce wouldn't cure-you know what I mean. So back to Bill's dad on the phone; He hadn't heard from him for three days and had been round to his flat a couple of times but had no answer. He could hear the same music being played again and again though. You fuckin know where this is going and so did I at this point, but of course prayed and prayed that he'd left his telly on and was shacked up with some bird somewhere. We had no clue where Bill was, and Bill's dad didn't live on the island so I offered to stop by on my home and call him later. The sense of impending dread built as I took my normal 90 minute journey home, it was 1am by the time I got back.i had never been to Bill's flat but I knew the building and floor, and so I found myself at his door. The music was still playing, and after a while I realised it was on a very short loop, it must be a DVD. Of course there was no answer to my ringing and knocking. Hong kong is a small place and if Bill was still out on the town we would have heard, he wasn't I knew he must be in his flat-nobody leaves their music playing like that. On the way I had called a couple of friends in the police to ask their advice about what I should do and they had been very clear-Don't put in the door, just call the police. I already knew from Bill's father that the music had been playing for a couple of days, and so called the cops.
They arrived very quickly-the island is a small place. They broke down the door. I followed them into the flat.
He was sat there rigid, frozen. On a chair facing the TV. Blood and vomit had congealed on his face. The DVD was some crap Jennifer Lopez film. There were syringes. He was dead.
They moved him and the rigor mortis was obvious, his whole body remained in the same position as they tipped his body.
I don't have the words to describe my feelings, my horror, my shock at that moment. This was my friend, my colleague. How much of our lives had we shared together? I knew he'd had history, but thought that had long gone. He was so straight at work, competent.
This was a young 33 year old, intelligent, good, hardworking man. He still had everything to live for, with so much to come. This man was not a drug addict-he was a fully functioning, highly functioning young healthy man. The anti drug adverts don't do the reality justice. Bill's petrified rigid body would scare the fuck out of anybody.
What a fucking waste!