Civil servant

[Voice of Hope April 6, 2023](comprehensive report by our reporter Zheng Xin)

Misbroadcasting of the “National Anthem” turmoil again, the Ice Association and the Hong Kong Association frequently exchanged fire across the air

The aftermath of the Ice Hockey Association’s misbroadcasting of the “National Anthem” has not yet come to light. After the Hong Kong Association and the Olympic Committee recently launched the relevant procedures to suspend the membership of the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association, the Ice Hockey Association counterattacked on the 6th, criticizing the Hong Kong Association for its lack of respect for the Ice Hockey Association, and only wanted to prove that the Ice Hockey Association was wrong. Hong Kong striker Bob Ngan also expressed that it was difficult to understand why the Ice Ice Association was punished, and worried that once the Ice Ice Association was cut off its resources, it would affect the development of ice hockey in Hong Kong.

The Ice Ice Association issued a statement on the 6th, stating that it will fully cooperate with the request, submit a comprehensive written explanation within one month, and propose an improvement plan for corporate governance, but believes that the Hong Kong Association has not felt the respect of this incident, ” I only feel that the Hong Kong Association staff who dealt with this incident have always hoped to prove that only the ice hockey association is at fault, but did not take seriously the Hong Kong Association’s own role and responsibility in the incident.”

The Ice Association also questioned that the Hong Kong Association stated that “there are only 4 to 6 teams in each ice hockey competition, and the results of the runner-up and third place are not outstanding”, and “the most disrespectful of the efforts and achievements of Hong Kong athletes.”

The Ice Association also stated that it has been responding to all the documents of the Hong Kong Association “uninterruptedly”. It has submitted incident reports to the Hong Kong Association three times, and each report was completed within two days and submitted on time. What is the rationale for communicating and adopting an evasive attitude.

Hong Kong forward Yan Zhuolang said in an interview with Commercial TV on the 6th that this time the Hong Kong team won the third place in history, but the incident of the wrong broadcast of the national anthem made the focus one-sided, and no one cared about the results and experience of the Hong Kong team. He also finds it difficult to understand why the Ice Association was punished. Punishment of the Ice Association is like “beating one’s own people to get angry (exit gas)”.

The Hong Kong men’s ice hockey team played against Iran in Bosnia in February this year. After the game, the organizers played the anti-extradition movement song “Glory to Hong Kong” as Hong Kong’s “national anthem”. After about 10 seconds, the Hong Kong team members showed “T “Word Gesture” to request a pause, and rebroadcast “March of the Volunteers”.

Afterwards, the organizers, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Ice Hockey Federation, respectively admitted their mistakes and apologized, and confirmed that the Hong Kong team had no misconduct.

However, the Hong Kong government expressed strong dissatisfaction with the incident and asked the Hong Kong Association and Olympic Committee to conduct an in-depth investigation. The Hong Kong Association and the Olympic Committee stated that they have contacted the management of the Ice Association many times to request a meeting, but they have not received a positive reply, and the situation is not ideal.

On the 4th, the Hong Kong Association and Olympic Committee initiated the relevant procedures for suspending the membership of the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association, requiring the Ice Association to submit a comprehensive written explanation and corporate governance improvement plan for the wrong broadcast of the national anthem within one month. The Hong Kong government issued a statement on the same day stating that once the membership of the Ice Ice Association is suspended, it will consider reducing the funding for the Ice Ice Association as punishment without affecting the athletes.

Jian Yangjie, chairman of the Ice Association, responded to the incident late at night, pointing out that the Hong Kong Association sent a letter to each general association on December 7 last year, requesting all affiliated associations to send the letter listing the download channel of “March of the Volunteers” to each sports organization within two weeks. The World Headquarters was “the first trigger for the wrong song to be broadcast”, because the other party believed that “March of the Volunteers” already existed and did not arrange a meeting to check the song version and hand over the USB.

In addition, the International Ice Hockey Federation stated earlier that according to the guidelines issued by the Hong Kong Federation and Olympic Committee to the National Sports Federation last year, the link to download the “National Anthem” was originally the website of the Central Government of the Communist Party of China. The language is Simplified Chinese. After changing the language, it will jump back to the homepage , It is impossible to download “March of the Volunteers” at all. Some Hong Kong media questioned, “Where is the responsibility of the Hong Kong Association?”

89 Civil Servants Arrested for Anti-Extradition

The wave of civil servants “jumping ship” has intensified in recent years. The latest Hong Kong government document revealed that 3,734 civil servants will resign in 2021-22, a new high since the handover of sovereignty in 1997.

The Special Finance Committee of the Legislative Council will discuss the “Budget” next Tuesday (11th). The government will disclose the number of resignations from various departments when it replies to members’ questions in writing. In 2021/22, a total of 3,734 civil servants will resign, the number has nearly tripled in five years, and the resignation rate has reached 2.1%.

Broken down by age, among the civil servants who will resign in 2021-22, the single age group with the largest number is 25 to 30 years old, reaching 800 people. It is worth noting that the resignation of civil servants close to retirement age is more than twice that of the previous year.

In terms of the number of establishments, 15 people will resign from the Intellectual Property Department in 2021-22, 11 more than in the previous year, accounting for 7.94% of its establishment, the highest ratio among all government departments. Followed by Hong Kong and Taiwan, 42 people resigned, an increase of 2.5 times compared with the previous year, accounting for more than 5.5% of the establishment.

Disciplined services, whose staff turnover rate has always been serious, will resign 697 people in 2021/22, accounting for about 32.8% of the total. Among them, the police force had the most resignations, with a total of 313 resignations. The number of persons lost by Customs, Fire Services Department and Immigration Department was 238, 492 and 332 respectively.

The permanent secretary of the Civil Service Bureau, Leung Cheuk-man, responded to the reasons, saying that “health or family reasons, further education, job transfer, etc.” were all reasons for resignation, but did not specifically mention the immigration wave. In July last year, when the Director of the Civil Service Bureau, Yang He Beiyin, accepted an exclusive interview with the pro-establishment media “Headline Daily”, she did not deny that immigration was a factor for the increase in the turnover rate of civil servants.

In addition, the Hong Kong government began to require civil servants to take an oath at the end of 2020, requiring newly recruited civil servants and current civil servants to sign a statement to support the “Basic Law” and to pledge allegiance to Beijing and the SAR government. A total of 129 civil servants ignored or refused to sign and return the statement without reasonable explanation, and they will all leave the government by the end of 2021 or before.

The Civil Service Bureau also revealed that 89 civil servants were arrested for participating in the anti-extradition movement, of which 58 have left the government, 5 were convicted by the court in recent months and will be disciplined, and the remaining 26 were not prosecuted or were arrested. They were found not guilty, but the nine were subject to disciplinary action following an internal investigation.

Scholar: The post-“Apple” era of alternative online media shows the concept of persistence

After the “Anti-Extradition to China” movement in 2019 and the implementation of the “Hong Kong National Security Law” in 2020, independent media outlets such as “Apple”, “Standard” and “News” were forced to close down, and former journalists started small online media one after another, becoming Alternatives to mainstream news media (aka alternative media). These small online media do not have huge capital support, and it is not even easy to maintain their operations. What is the significance of their emergence?

Li Lifeng, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, wrote an article in Ming Pao on the 6th that in the past few years, the media that uphold liberal news concepts have been under pressure. Hong Kong journalists established Overseas Hong Kong People Media, which kept Hong Kong’s online alternative media world alive.

The article cites a survey conducted by the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University in March. It pointed out that in the changing political and social environment, the establishment of alternative media on the Internet has a short history and limited contacts. Even half of the respondents said that they have not heard of Pass. However, its users tend to agree with their beliefs, and their readers are more often people who have “thought” or “planned” immigration, but have not really started to do it.

The article believes that the coexistence of alternative online media and old and new online media complements the deficiency of mainstream media to a certain extent. At the same time, their existence also represents a kind of persistence in journalism or certain values, and also illustrates the possibility and significance of adhering to beliefs.

The Hong Kong Consumer Council (Consumer Council) recently announced the latest test results of edible oils, and found that 60% of the 50 types of edible oil samples contained carcinogens, 2 types exceeded the EU standard, and one of them even exceeded the standard by 2 times.

This time, the Hong Kong Consumer Council selected 50 common edible oils from supermarkets and department stores for testing, including extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, etc.

The test is mainly divided into 3 parts, including safety test, nutrient test, and smoke point test.

After testing, 29 samples were found to be a genetic carcinogen – glycidol, accounting for 58% of all samples, and the content ranged from 100 micrograms to 2,000 micrograms per kilogram, with a huge gap. Among them, “SuperFoodLab” pure coconut oil (odorless formula) was detected to be 1100 micrograms per kilogram, “Yupinhuang” pure peanut oil was detected to be 2000 micrograms per kilogram, exceeding the EU standard, and “Yupinhuang” exceeded the standard by 2 times .

In addition, the 100% pure corn oil and 100% pure peanut oil produced by “Yuwanjia” were found to contain the gene carcinogen benzo[a]Pyrene.

The Council also found 30 samples containing 3-MCPD fatty acid ester. The lowest content is 130 micrograms, and the highest content is a blend oil, reaching 1900 micrograms. Another 35 samples were detected with plasticizers, and only one sample exceeded the standard.

The Consumer Council believes that the test results are not satisfactory, because manufacturers can monitor the production process of cooking oil during the production of cooking oil, so that it can be free of pollutants, and this is the responsibility of the manufacturer.

Editor in charge: Lin Li