BEST OF POLL COMMENTS !

As the Poll will be removed soon, here some of the best comments from the last months on the POLL comment page:
Next Stop Vietnam
Apr 25, 2008 7:12am ET
I live in HK and make high end electronics with fussy requirements. Normally I go to Shenzhen 3 days a week. Sometimes every day. I just set up a new company, hired a Chinese engineering manager and had planned to have a new office up and running by May 1. The visa situation has put me in a tight spot has made me look for a Plan B, so I booked a flight to Vietnam and just spent a week scouting out factories. What I saw impressed me. Vietnam is more expensive that China but the quality of labour force is higher and they pride themselves on attention to detail. It will be 3-5 years before they challenge China on high end electronic manufacture but with the Intel factory being built and Hon Hai setting up there the snowball is just starting to roll down the hill. This visa nonsense will just speed up the process as publically listed companies currently manufacturing everything in China MUST now look for a Plan B to lower their political risk. The impact to China will be limited for years but billions of dollars of investment that would have been spent in China is not now going to happen and Vietnam will emerge as a rival in juicy, high margin business much faster than would otherwise be the case.
Gweilo
May 10, 2008 10:13pm ET
Next time one of these so called business leaders makes an appeal to foreign business people to support China, I'll say sure - PLEASE TAKE A NUMBER and HERE'S A LINK TO OUR WEBSITE which has contradictory information.
Richard
Jun 25, 2008 3:42am ET
If we were to wait for our Hong Kong Government Officials to seriously go to bat for us who are so badly impacted by this ridiculous China Visa Policy, we'd may as well wait till the "cows come home". Have we not noticed that all Senior Government Officials DO NOT hold foreign passports? This dliemma that we now face is obviously not a concern for any of them personally so why risk alienating Central Government and perhaps lose their rich and cushy jobs? This may be a real issue for us to ask for full democaracy in Hong Kong so that these officials will serve the people of Hong Kong and NOT some bureaucrats in motherland.
Greek Guy in Hong Kong
Jul 24, 2008 11:15pm ET
No need for normal things in China, especially Visas, China is ruled by Chinese and as such they wake up in the morning and decide on some ridiculous nonsense and still think they can make money out of us foreigners. I decidd to shift all my business to Vietnam and let the Chiense enjoy themselves
FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS READING THIS - A REALLY NICE ONE HERE:
DAVID BOWIE - 5 YEARS

OLYMPIC ELEMENTS REMOVED

Its enough now with the "OLYMPICS".
Therefore all the elements like medal table etc. are removed. Later you will get the "best of the best" comments on the poll comment site.
Cheers - and enjoy some music to headstart into your weekend !
Mr Buddy Rich is coming up with another "olympic discipline": cooking the drums 1970 - it is to doubt China could get a gold in this dicipline:

And here 17 years later the same Mr. Buddy Rich. Introduced by Frank Sinatra. One of the last performances of Mr. Rich - be assured he was a real master !

VOTING WILL BE HERE FOR THE LAST TIME

say bye bye to the voting now - do it now or never:

ITS OVER ....THE SPECIAL MEDALS HERE

the GAMES are over - here THE VISA MAN special medals:

GOLD: To all chinese athlets winning and cashing in a lot of RMB which was surely not any motivation.

SILVER: To the athlets taking at least some of the GOLD away.

BRONZE: To the closing ceremony - dull and boring far beyond what was the opening ceremony.

The special medal: RUSTY IRON for the visa policies of the "relevant departments - destroying many business.

The super special medal: STINKY TOFU for the HK SAR not having the guts to open the mouth against the very very unreasonable visa policies.

Did Jimmy Page at the closing ceremony really play or was it playback ? At least here you can see him really play (this was already posted once - but it is worth to be posted again): IMMIGRANT SONG by the Zeps in the early days:

The "Games" are almost over.

Don't care who won what ever many medals - it is a success for China - they could show up - Congratulations !

Was there any business man posing a "threat to the environment" ?
Was there any business man wearing some "suspicious" t-shirts ?
Can some of the "relevant authorities" let us know how the "china visa" problem will improve asap ?

THE GARY GLITTER VISA ?

So we all want to be Gary Glitter now - according to the TELEGRAPH - please read this:
quote
He will apply for a tourist visa at Hong Kong airport, which can be issued in under six hours and will allow him to travel across China.
unquote
Thats maybe a little bit very much wishful thinking. The TELEGRAPH should know that this is not that easy.
You arrive in HK and then get a tourist visa to travel across China within six hours .........Please tell me how this is working.
Here the full story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/2591618/Gary-Glitter-flies-to-Hong-Kong-from-Thailand.html
Besides this it was heard already that "Hong Kong dont want to take him". So we will read a lot the next days of some Mr Gadd maybe stuck at HK Airport and his "magical 6 hours china visa application". Maybe he want to watch the closing party in Beijing ?
Maybe his captain talking to him now - will he be closer to home when arriving in HK ?
Please see the people in the audience ! This is GRAND FUNK RAILROAD 1971 at the SHEA STADIUM and this is here: 123-01 Roosevelt AvenueFlushing, New York 11368-1699

DIE MENSCH MASCHINE

as no news on the "china visa problem" here voting first and then enjoy THE MAN MACHINE - somehow a little bit related to all the guys "doing" the OLYMPICS. Listen to the heavy synths - can you see them all jumping like little robots ?

GET SOME RADIOACTIVITY

TO POWER UP THE START OF THE WEEK. KRAFTWERK PLAYING FOR YOU:

"THE CHINA VISA" + BUSINEES IN BEIJING

GOING FOR GOLD - the Beijing business is not that "golden":
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11920899&fsrc=RSS
And here from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China:
Press and Media Service Thu, 14 Aug 2008:
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang's Regular Press Conference on August 13, 2008:
Q: Why did the Chinese Government revoke the visa of Mr. Cheek, member of Team Darfur of the US, who was planning to hold demonstrations in China for the Darfur issue?
A: Granting visa is a sovereign affair of one country. According to relevant Chinese laws and previous practices of the Olympics and other large-scale international events, we have made appropriate arrangements on the issue of entry visas during the Olympics, with an aim to provide a safe environment for athletes and spectators from all over the world.

I not really care who wants to demonstrate against whatever - but the explanation in generally is somewhat very weak.
Even if this Mr. Cheek would have done a "demonstration" - for how long this would have been lasted ?
And how much this "demonstration" would have bothered the safe environment for athletes and spectators from all over the world ?
And what has this all to do with the many "appropriate arrangments" (visa refusals and non-existing F Visa) for thousands of business people coming to China on a regular base and not "planning any demonstrations" ? There was nothing appropriate at all....................................
Here see a night flight over a big city - but it is not Beijing or Shanghai or Hong Kong:
BLADE RUNNER to light up your Sunday..........................................................................