北韓網絡「與世隔絕」九小時

北韓網絡「與世隔絕」九小時
24/12/2014 港聞
記者/何樂思　編輯/張浚浩

Original report at: http://goo.gl/6CxcYx

【本網訊】北韓網絡系統疑遭駭客入侵，中斷逾九小時，受影響網絡現逐漸回復正常。美國白宮和國務院拒絕透露是否美國政府所為，中國政府則否認參與。有網絡保安專家形容，「北韓猶如在世界的網絡地圖上被除掉」。

索尼早前因一部有關刺殺金正恩的電影，受到駭客攻擊，美國指北韓是始作俑者，北韓否應，反指美國的指控缺乏實質證據。美國總統奧巴馬揚言，華府會為是次攻擊「提出相應的回應」，但未有透露詳情。

瘋傳數據加重負荷

事發在當地周二，北韓網絡懷疑受到駭客入侵，網路中斷長達9小時31分鐘。美國互聯網服務供應公司Arbor Networks表示，其系統在當地時間周六至周一，偵測到針對北韓的網絡攻擊，懷疑駭客不停傳輸大量數據到北韓網絡，令其負荷過重，一度中斷。

北韓網絡小 易被癱瘓
Arbor Networks網絡保安部總監Dan Holden表示，北韓網絡規模較小、連線有限，攻擊其網絡至癱瘓相對簡單，不能一口咬定事件與美國政府有關。他又表示，北韓互聯網並不精密，任何一個因不能看這部電影而失落的人也可發動攻擊。

網絡保安公司CloudFlare主席Matthew Prince亦表示，是次網絡攻擊是在一人能力範圍以內，故未能肯定是否網絡攻擊。

北韓為世界上其中一個最少網絡連線的國家，只有少部份民眾才能使用電腦，雖然擁有寬頻網絡，但只有少部份獲批准的民眾才可使用全球性網頁（World Wide Web），其餘只可連接國內的內聯網。此外，雖然超過一百萬人正使用手提電話，但網絡只供北韓的幾個主要城市使用，不可以打電話出國或接聽國外電話。

（CNN）

Green Café Alliance failed to go green

by Season Ho and Dennis Hung

The Green Cafe Alliance is committed to encouraging the public to reduce waste and to use less disposable cutlery. Its members, however, were recently found to have gone back on the commitments they made. The Environmental Protection Department admitted failing to monitor the Alliance's work,

while most Alliance members declined to comment on its effectiveness.

Our reporter visited 5 shops of each member café chains of the Alliance, and discovered that green measures were not implemented. Disposable cutlery is readily available at coffee bars without any member of staff monitoring the consumption. Most cafes are using paper cups even for dine-in orders, and no reminder to use less disposable cutlery has been given by any of their staff.

At Starbucks cafés, for example, there is no reminder at all to remind customers to think twice before taking disposable cutlery, except ‘green tips’ like “Help us save the environment! Please use less disposable utensils!” posted up somewhere near the coffee bar.

Disposable cutlery is distributed freely in some café with a reminder next to it.

Is the Alliance ‘just a gimmick’?

Some frequent customers expressed that they have never heard of the Alliance. Alice Chan, a loyal customer of Pacific Coffee Company, said that it is usually the customer who asked to replace paper cups with mugs but not the baristas, ‘most of the time, they give us paper cups even for dine-in orders, perhaps they don’t want to do the washing-up or they are just too busy to do so’.

Another customer, Ben Chan, said he never received any green tips or promotion during his visits to the cafés.

Asked if he thought that the cafés are eco-friendly enough, Chan described them as ‘completely not eco-friendly”, and added: “I doubt whether the Alliance is just a gimmick used by the government.”

Former staff admitted difficulties in working out green measures

Viann Chan Wai-yan, a former barista of Starbucks Coffee, said there are some internal green guidelines for frontline staff.  Firstly, staff should ask customers to use coffee mugs rather than paper cups proactively when they are dining in. Secondly, staff should take the initiative to remind customers to use less disposable cutlery, as well as tissue paper even if they are recyclable.

However, she admitted that it is difficult to check frontline staff in all branches for compliance with the guidelines, as they are just some voluntary incentives. ‘Not a must and not something compulsory for the staffs,’ she added.

Disposable paper and plastic cups are used even for dine-in orders.

Lack of communication shown between café groups and the government

The reporter tried to contact all 6 member café groups of the Alliance. Pret A Manger expressed that they have already stopped working with the EPD on this campaign in 2011, one year after the Alliance was formed.

Wincy So, the PR officer of Starbucks Coffee, highlighted their other green initiatives without giving any concrete response the effectiveness of the Alliance. They claimed that they only use disposable cutlery for takeaway orders, and it is their ‘usual practice’ to use mugs for dine-in orders. Also, she highlighted that Starbucks was ‘invited’ by the EPDas one of the members of the Alliance instead of initiating it

Meanwhile, the staff of Causeway Bay’s McCafé emphasised that they have been encouraging customers to use less paper cups by giving $3 back to those who brought their own cup or own tumbler, and that they also help frequent customers to store their tumblers and cups in the café.

Nevertheless, other 3 café groups, including agnès b. CAFÉ L.P.G., Caffé HABITU, and Pacific Coffee Company, declined to comment on the issue.

The Environmental Protection Department, which initiated the formation of the Alliance, admitted its failure to monitor the Alliance’s progress in fulfilling its objective. "Our role is to merely motivate waste reduction and to encourage green practices in the industry," said Emily Ip, the spokesperson of EPD in a phone interview. She also explained that there are no updates as to the Alliance’s progress because it was formed "long time ago".

Legislator suggests complete ban on disposable cutlery in café

Responding to the ineffectiveness of the Alliance, vice chairman of the Panel on Environmental Affairs, Kenneth Chan Ka-lok, doubted whether the Alliance is really promoting green living. “If the Alliance really wants to promote waste reduction, the cafes should not provide any disposable cutlery to their customers. This is the most direct and effective way to reduce waste.”

He also suggested restaurants to charge for the disposable cutlery taken by customers, and urged the government to do better in monitoring the progress of these campaigns.

According to the report on USA today, in the US, Starbucks alone sells over 4 million coffee drinks daily, and approximately 3 billion Starbucks coffee cups are sent to the landfill each year. In Hong Kong, where there is an annual amount of 5 million tonnes of municipal solid waste generated according to the Environment Bureau, reducing solid waste from the source is necessary. The massive amount of waste generated by the catering industry has become an increasing concern in the city which is famous for her variety of foods and beverages.

The Green Café Alliance was formed in 2010, under the "Minimising Waste, Maximising the Future" campaign organised by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD). Six café groups, including agnès b. CAFÉ L.P.G., Caffé HABITU, McCafé, Pacific Coffee Company, Pret A Manger and Starbucks Coffee Hong Kong, are members of the Alliance, with a total of more than 400 stores. As reported in an official press release dated 11 July, 2010 when the GCA is formed, it seeks to "encourage members of the public to use less disposable cutlery, reduce waste and to share green tips with them."

	agnès b. CAFÉ L.P.G.	Caffé HABITU	McCafé	Pacific Coffee Company	Pret A Manger	Starbucks Coffee
No. of Stores	10+	17+	98+	190+	15+	130+
From the visits of our reporters
Using mugs for dine-in orders	✔	✔	✔	X	X	X
Providing green tips in the cafés	X	X	X	X	✔	✔
Reminding customers to think twice before using disposable cutlery	X	X	X	X	X	X
Other voluntary green measures (not included in the GCA commitment)
Discount for customers who brought their own cups	X	X	X	✔	X	✔
Using biodegradable materials for disposable cutlery	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

The Colourful White – Reflection on Taipei Mayoral Election

by Season Ho

Original post: http://www.symedialab.org.hk/talk/colourful-white-reflection-taipei-mayoral-election/

Elections in Taiwan are a lot different from the Hong Kong ones. Having participated in the 2008 and 2012 Legislative Council Election as volunteer for two different political parties, this Taipei mayoral election trip gave me some really interesting food for thought. It is impossible to name all of them in this article but here are some major surprises that this mayoral election has given me.

The souvenirs competition

The first thing that popped out in my mind about the election is the pack of napkins I received from the Ko’s team. Taiwan elections have been famous for giving out souvenirs and pricy offers to gain voters’ support. Some other journalists cited examples of souvenirs like mince pork buns, wooden back scratchers and cosmetic kits. All these are good reflection of the Taiwanese election culture. Had any of these souvenirs distributed in Hong Kong, that candidate or his/her political party would have been attacked mercilessly for vote-buying, or the Hong Kong saying, ‘snake soup, vegetarian food, cake and rice dumpling’ – offers that some political party gave to attract votes. News report even cited banquets, discounted air tickets and cash handouts – seems like Hong Kong is a little behind in the vote-buying offers. For this biggest-ever ‘9-in-1 election’, it is not surprising for candidates to use different method to attract voters’ attention. This situation of gift handouts is especially obvious in the less developed rural cities. In fact, there is a legal limit for souvenirs of NT$30 (approximately HKD$7.5) per voter per election cycle, but with 19,762 candidates running for different level of posts in Taiwan, it is understandable that monitoring work can be difficult. Taiwanese are taking this responsibility by using smartphones to take photo of the gifts that might have exceeded the limit.I guess it is a good example showing the progress and development of the Taiwan civil society, which has been notorious for accepting vote-buying and election-related corruption.

Excessive publication – the more, the better?

It gives me a feeling of ‘the more the better’ when it comes to the extensive use of different publications like stickers, flags and leaflets. At the night rally just before the election day, a massive amounts of flags and flyers were distributed to the supporters of Ko, and all these makes the beautiful and passionate scenes you saw on TV. People were shouting and waving the colourful flags together, many middle-aged women standing next to me in the rally were holding more than 10 flags with different colours and slogans. It is, however, amusing to me as Ko actually emphasise a lot on environmental protection and sustainable development in his campaign. I can’t say it is a waste of resources printing all these publications, but are there better ways to do the campaign promotion? Are these spendings really inevitable? To me, it is money down the drain. Having participated in the election rallies in Hong Kong, I fully understand the cost and effectiveness for publications in LegCo election. Distributing stickers and flyers will be a complete waste of resources and elderly people would prefer napkins or paper fan. This undoubtedly created the united and ‘as-one’ atmosphere, but I believe the Ko’s team can do better than this in environmental protection.

‘Wei Xingfu Jiayou’ – emotion-provoking slogans

You can see the word ‘xingfu’ or ‘kuaile’ on nearly every banner of the candidates, which is fortune and happiness in English. Lines like ‘let’s work together for our happiness’ and ‘Taiwan will have good fortune’ are popular choices of propaganda. In Ko’s campaign theme song, the last two lines are ‘Turnover darkness, break the ties, open your heart, create new dreams for the future of our beautiful capital city’. Sentimental, isn’t it? When I recall the slogans and taglines in Hong Kong elections, most of them are really pragmatic. You can rarely see lines that involve vague words like ‘happiness’ and ‘fortune’, but ‘economy’, ‘stability’, ‘prosperity’ etc. Probably because the education level and economic development level of the two places are quite different, it is quite obvious that Taiwan emphasise more on preserving local culture and work hard for the betterment of this small island, but Hong Kong cares more about economic prosperity and the position as world no.1 international cosmopolitan city. Taiwanese seems to be contented on their own, but Hongkongers are thirsting to breakaway from this small city and position themselves in the global market. Another reason might be the cruel truth that Hong Kong does not have one person one vote in electing for either Legislative Council and Chief Executive, which makes the candidates target only one specific group of voters, and come up with slogans that only take care of their interest. Taiwan election candidates have to meet the expectation of as many voters as they can, sentimental and emotion-provoking lines then work well to attract their support.

Reference made to Hong Kong political situation

On the Facebook page of Tsai Ing-wen, the chairperson of Democratic Progressive Party(DPP), she posted a video showing her support towards the Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong, with the caption “democracy won’t just fall from the sky. Oil up Hong Kong, oil up Taiwan!” Be it the Sunflower Student Movement versus Umbrella Movement or the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement versus Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, numerous linkages and comparisons were made between the political situation of Hong Kong and Taiwan. When we were interviewing young people on the streets, nearly all of them are curious about the conflicts happening in Hong Kong. “That’s why we need a change, we cannot elect the pro-communist Kuomintang(KMT) anymore,’ they said. The extensive coverage of Apple Daily Taiwan on Hong Kong situation keeps many Taiwanese updated with the progress of the Umbrella Movement, most of them eloquently described the conflicts between the police and the protesters as if they are a part of it. Although linking Hong Kong and Taiwan together might be a little too sensitive(to China) as the political regime is entirely different, it is unavoidable for young people to exchange views and information on social platforms like Facebook. No matter it is the Sunflower Student Movement or the mayoral election, Hong Kong young people are fixing their eyes on the progress and results of democracy in Taiwan. After the DPP won it big and KMT lose it hard, many Hongkongers expressed their envy towards the Taiwanese one-person-one-vote. The distance between the two places is much closer than 812 km, and the connection is becoming tighter between the youth, the netizens.

A colourful white – the power of youth engagement

Years before, Taiwan and Hong Kong youth are similarly apathetic towards socio-political affairs. However, many recent events exemplifying the disappointing performance of the government seems to be alarm clocks waking the young people up. In this mayoral election, young people are especially attracted by the Ko’s team. As he does not belong to any political party, many see him as a good candidate to lead the change of Taipei. Like the US president Barack Obama in 2008, Ko emphasise ‘change ‘ and ‘choice’. The truth is, young people are not fascinated by the blue and green; not attracted by the political stars; but annoyed by the conventional and monotonours rivals between KMT and DPP. The Ko’s team never stick to any colour, and they claim themselves ‘the power of the white’. Even in the crowded night rally that involves tens of thousands of people, all of them are holding flags of different colours. In the past elections, you can’t attend the events of the blue camp when you are wearing green or you will be in serious trouble. Yet, Ko created a new kind of colour – a colourless white background with most colourful supporters. Ko’s team used ptt, a social platform exclusive for Taiwan university students, to recruit volunteers assisting the election. Surprisingly, they received enormous response – more than a thousand university students signed up and joined the Ko’s team as volunteers, braved the pre-dawn morning and work as ambassadors monitoring every voting station. Although Hong Kong university students are more proactive these days, I reckon if they are willing to spend so much time and support a candidate wholeheartedly. In fact, hardly any candidate can please the critical Hong Kong youngsters. According to the Ko’s team, they have 100,000 new eligible voters every 4 years, and I guess they can well attract votes from this group of people.

It was truly amazing having the chance to witness this biggest democratic election that is nearest to Hong Kong. After all that mentioned on the above, what impressed me most is how Taiwanese are satisfied with what they have on this unidentified island. They treasure the culture and simplicity they have. When it comes to economic prosperity, there is no comparison between Hong Kong and Taiwan; when all of us think that rapid economic development are Hong Kong’s most eminent bargaining chip, Taiwanese care a lot less about these, but to strive for ‘kuaile’ and ‘xingfu’ for each and every member in the society.

New venue did not bring wine-lovers down

Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival

By Season Ho and Dennis Hung


The 4-day opening party of the Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival ended yesterday, with a record number of visitors, despite a late venue change. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Festival attracted an estimated 130,000 visitors on the first three days, compared to 140,000 for the whole of last year’s festival.

Organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and sponsored by CCB(Asia), the opening party is a lead-in to the month-long Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival, offering a huge array of wines and gourmet food.

Due to the Occupy Central protests, the Festival is being moved across the Harbour, from last year’s venue near the Central piers, to the former airport runway adjacent to the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal this year. The entrance fee was hence waived to compensate for potential woes.

Nevertheless, wine-lovers were not deterred from visiting the Festival. Visitors’ response was so overwhelming that the Tourism Board had to issue a warning on Friday night, advising people not to join the Festival that night as it already reached its capacity.

The party has received overwhelming compliments, except for the widespread transport delays.

First-time local visitor Asta said the transportation arrangement was inadequate for such a massive event, and she believed that the MTR-accessible Central is a better choice. “The cruise terminal is much less convenient compared to Central,” she said.

Having considered the potential traffic problems, the Tourism Board had arranged free shuttle bus service. The shuttle bus ran between the Terminal and Lam Tin, Kowloon Tong and Tsim Sha Tsui East. A bus to Ngau Tau Kok and a minibus to Kowloon Bay were also available.

An Australian tourist Raymond paid his first visit to the Festival, “the transportation arrangement is disappointing, I was stuck in the bus for almost an hour,” he said. Yet, he expressed that the event was overall quite ‘impressive’ and he ‘enjoyed the music with a glass of wine in hand’.

The Festival features over 250 stalls, which are divided into 5 themed areas: Discovery Zone, Party Wine Zone, Everyday Wine Zone, Country Pavilions and the premium Riedel Grand Tasting Pavilion.

Local wine-seller Chan was surprised at the sales of his products. “I was worried about the business because of the relocation, but it turned out to be unexpectedly good,” Chan said.

The party livened up as soon as special light effects started, along with live music and band performance. The panoramic view of the Victoria Harbour together with Hong Kong skyline forms a stunning backdrop to the Festival, making wine-tasting at night a delightful sensational experience.

Financial Secretary John Tsang visited the Festival on Saturday upon return from London on a business trip. He expressed his initial concern over visitors’ reaction to the event, and he was grateful to the organisers for their prompt response to the unforeseen influx of visitors.

The Festival continues until the end of this month in other locations. Street carnivals and other wine-tasting and dining events will take place across the city. Featuring over 1,000 exhibitors, the 7th Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair will soon kick off on the 6th of November.

Rash statements ruining government’s image, said Kathy Chan

By Season Ho

The Hong Kong government has been heavily criticized for being not transparent enough, constantly hiding things from the public in recent years. Kathy Chan, Chief Consultant of the Public Communication Strategic Consultancy Limited, expressed her concern towards the handling of different scandals by top government officials, saying that they are always unaware of the consequence they might face after making rash statements publicly.

Kathy Chan, Chief Consultant of the Public Communication Strategic 

Consultancy Limited (Photo from hknews.hksyu.edu)

Chan cited the bad example of CY Leung’s wife, Regina Tong Ching Yi, when responding to the comments made by CUHK scholar Choy Chi Keung towards her relationship with her daughter, Leung Chai Yan. Tong made lengthy criticism on Choy’s comment, saying that he is “cold-blooded” and question his professionalism as a teacher. “You can clearly see whether Tong has cooled things down or fanned the fire by making these rash statements in front of the camera.”


“Do you think this is really a private family matter or it is about public interest?” Chan asked. She said that there is rarely anything can be considered as private affairs when it comes to a top government office like CY Leung, and officials should always be aware of their words and actions.