從Napa到紐西蘭、Bourgogne 到Santa Rita Hills、Bordeaux right bank 再到意大利....滿足的一晚。
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
無聊打油 - 論盡特首
囉爆瘀皮一特首，口舌招尤衰多口；
六四臨近嘅時候，被問良心有沒有？
無言以對嘅特首，藉口經濟好勢頭，
國家富強衣食夠，加上龐大嘅出口，
實行花園帶你遊。
泛民臭面起身走，毓民臨走爆粗口，
陶官黯然眼淚流，靄儀若薇猛搖頭，
世態炎良的特首，三言兩語經濟論，
並不代表我所有。
Facebook群組盡數臭，民望定必坡下走；
政治智慧似未夠，道歉躬恭洗埋手；
話雖經濟火車頭，難掩歷史痛傷口。
六四烙印深且厚，豈容草率不追究，
擺明走資派走狗，打完背脊打心口，
管冶威信化烏有。
寄語候任嘅特首，為官一定有氣受。
香港七佰萬人口，上下一心睇你頭。
能者居之當特首，冇料切勿充大頭。
港人意願先參透，切忌立亂強出頭，
道行要高心仁厚，頑石終需會點頭，
好戲連塲在後頭。
A.O.齊齊抓抓頭，度計救救阿特首，
補飛認錯做足夠，免得無鞋挽屐走。
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
聖喇沙日、不忘感恩
聖若翰•喇沙（1651年4月30日—1719年4月7日）出身自十六世紀一個富有法國家庭。年僅 16歲已被任命為蘭斯座堂的教士團成員，27歲正式被任命為司鐸；兩年之後，更獲得神學博士學位。但他卻於那時毅然放棄司鐸職務，於一六八零年創立了一個專注於教育事務的基督學校修士會(即喇沙修士會)。這是第一個全由修士組成的天主教組織。
當時，教育都是以私人家庭教師的形式，是貴族子女的專利。聖若翰喇沙與另一位教育家 Adrian Nyel 合作，召集了一群合資格的教師，在自己的家鄉推行班級教育。他創立了免費教育的觀念，為來自工人階級和家境貧窮的兒童提供閱讀、書寫和學習算術的機會，並培養他們對宗教的信仰，引領他們成為天主教徒。他窮畢生精神致力為貧窮的學生提供免費教育機會，並為法國的教育實踐立下了標準。他有教無類的辦學精神，跟萬世師表孔夫子的教學理念有着異曲同工之妙。
聖若翰•喇沙更於1900年5月24日被當時的教宗册封為聖人，而喇沙會則訂每年5月15日為聖喇沙日。1950年，教宗庇護十二世宣告他為所有教師的主保聖人。
時至今日，喇沙會在全球大約有六千名修士和七萬五千名非神職人員，在84個國家、一千間機構從事教育工作，服務九十多萬名學生，把創辦人喇沙的教育事業發揚光大，延續到21世紀。
喇沙會乃最早在香港提供教育的天主教機構之一。早於1875年，喇沙會首次派出六位修士來到當時仍為英屬殖民地的香港，開展教育工作。他們首先在中環創立了聖若瑟書院，主要招收外籍學生為主；至1879年才開始招收華籍學生。1917年，因應九龍快速發展，對學位需求甚殷，喇沙會在漆咸道建立了聖若瑟書院的九龍分校；隨後又在界限街購入土地，以擴充校舍。1932年，九龍喇沙書院正式成立。今天，很多喇沙會的學生在各方面都有卓越成就、而一眾舊生在社會上亦秉承聖喇沙『克己復禮』精神，為社會建樹良多。
藉着聖喇沙日即將來臨，就讓大家一起向無論在職或已退休的老師們表示敬意。
『沒有昨天你們的默默耕耘，何來今天的我？』
Friday, February 27, 2009
肥皂劇中也有人生哲學
『想起以前，營營役役、鬥個你死我活，差点兒失去了自我。
反之現在放慢腳步，用心去做好每一件事，我覺得這一種反而是生活藝術。』
野蠻奶奶大戰戈師奶第十九集汪明荃對舊部屬的一段說話
金融海嘯下，我們要不要也稍稍慢下來，反省一下我們的生活態度？
反之現在放慢腳步，用心去做好每一件事，我覺得這一種反而是生活藝術。』
野蠻奶奶大戰戈師奶第十九集汪明荃對舊部屬的一段說話
金融海嘯下，我們要不要也稍稍慢下來，反省一下我們的生活態度？
Saturday, January 10, 2009
這個冬天不太冷
全球暖化令世界氣候反常，加州出名的陽光與海灘在這個十二月忽然消聲匿跡....
早上泊在户外的汽車擋風玻璃上結滿霜
晚上的大雨過後，車身上的水珠迅間結成冰塊
屋頂上也結滿了霜
草地也不例外
東面山上結滿了雪，海拔一千五百呎以上已積雪遍遍
早上泊在户外的汽車擋風玻璃上結滿霜
晚上的大雨過後，車身上的水珠迅間結成冰塊
屋頂上也結滿了霜
草地也不例外
東面山上結滿了雪，海拔一千五百呎以上已積雪遍遍
現代人的悲哀 (一) ：感情
近日在Facebook看到學弟的一篇文章，其中一段訴說他開始發現跟比他年輕的後輩已有代溝，不明白時下年輕人對處理感情的態度是何等的開放….
個案一：甲已經有女朋友A，但仍然會追求另一個女的B，而這個女的又有另一位男朋友乙，而B又接受這個甲，弄致自己終於跟自己的男朋友乙分手……
甲 和A，乙和B (兩對共四人開始相安無事)
甲 追B
B和 乙 (分手收場)
A 和 甲繼續抖纏
沒錯一日未結婚那管你是甲、乙，還是A、B都有權選擇，但時下的年輕人總相信自己有能力同時處理四個人的三段關係。在他們眼中，一段關係不外乎電腦上的一個新視窗，只好嘆一句:這全拜Microsoft Window 的 multi-tasking function所賜。
個案二：失婚數年的男方自美返港工幹時在朋友介紹之下邂逅了年近三十的女方，事隔一月女的不惜告長假越洋七千多浬赴美住進男家陪男的過聖誕新年以解相思之苦。二人親密程度儼如一對熱戀多年的愛侶。男未婚女未嫁兩情相悅本應天下太平，但由素未謀面到同床共枕前後不用兩個月。香港人出名效率高生活節奏快全屬醒字派我可理解。但當大家常投訴生我養我供書教學的父母不明白我所要所想所以要搬開，那邊廂卻十二分包容的可以跟一個認識前後不足一千五百小時的人共處一室用上同一枝牙膏沐浴露抽同一包純萬寶路。是愛情的魔力能排除一切？還是春宵一刻值千金我話之理？慾望戰勝理智大家成年人又唔喺第一次所以無需太認真？
人與人之間的關係已進化到極點？還是退化到原始時代？
(待續..)
個案一：甲已經有女朋友A，但仍然會追求另一個女的B，而這個女的又有另一位男朋友乙，而B又接受這個甲，弄致自己終於跟自己的男朋友乙分手……
甲 和A，乙和B (兩對共四人開始相安無事)
甲 追B
B和 乙 (分手收場)
A 和 甲繼續抖纏
沒錯一日未結婚那管你是甲、乙，還是A、B都有權選擇，但時下的年輕人總相信自己有能力同時處理四個人的三段關係。在他們眼中，一段關係不外乎電腦上的一個新視窗，只好嘆一句:這全拜Microsoft Window 的 multi-tasking function所賜。
個案二：失婚數年的男方自美返港工幹時在朋友介紹之下邂逅了年近三十的女方，事隔一月女的不惜告長假越洋七千多浬赴美住進男家陪男的過聖誕新年以解相思之苦。二人親密程度儼如一對熱戀多年的愛侶。男未婚女未嫁兩情相悅本應天下太平，但由素未謀面到同床共枕前後不用兩個月。香港人出名效率高生活節奏快全屬醒字派我可理解。但當大家常投訴生我養我供書教學的父母不明白我所要所想所以要搬開，那邊廂卻十二分包容的可以跟一個認識前後不足一千五百小時的人共處一室用上同一枝牙膏沐浴露抽同一包純萬寶路。是愛情的魔力能排除一切？還是春宵一刻值千金我話之理？慾望戰勝理智大家成年人又唔喺第一次所以無需太認真？
人與人之間的關係已進化到極點？還是退化到原始時代？
(待續..)
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
貳零零捌程霜眼中大事回顧
事業 – 年初高人贈言程某於零捌年事業必有改變，驛馬不斷云云，高人果真料事如神，八月未過，已在新地點上班，新地方工作量較以往少，但涉及的層面較廣，屬問責形式。老闆奉行積極不干預政策。可能年紀關係，以往拼搏的日子已不復還，亦不响往，只寄望工程能依預定時間表動土施工，促進南加經濟，疏導交通之餘並且創造就業，造福華人社區。
學業 – 重拾課本的心願終於在年終前達成，念的卻是跟以往所學的風馬牛不相及，紅酒跟工程學南轅北轍，下班後疲累不堪仍要温習應付考試感覺並不好受，堅持的動力只憑一顆永不言敗的頑固信念和對課程內容的熱衷加興趣，雖稱不上學有所成，卻勉強把兩個課程念完，寄望成績單早日公佈，好可以更進一步，向文憑班挑戰。
家庭 – 六月叔父中風辭逝，更加意識到生命的脆弱，真正認知何謂萬般帶不走。現在仍有年邁家人在療養院出院無期，可以做的….只有等待，等待那一刻不要來。
感恩節前夕收到外甥女婿來電，小倆口正式為人父母，叫我一聲舅公….
我『…..』！養兒方知父母恩，小倆口，做個盡責的奴隸獸吧！
離別的愁緒，令人更覺新生命來臨的可貴。
朋友 – 多謝Facebook令我把散落全球的各方朋友重新連結，零玖年將會多兩位波友定居天使之城，結伴打球必定無難度。那邊廂共偕連理的弟兄一個接一個，祝願他們能有美滿將來。。
謹此祝願各方博客心想事成，繼續努力寫作！飲杯！
學業 – 重拾課本的心願終於在年終前達成，念的卻是跟以往所學的風馬牛不相及，紅酒跟工程學南轅北轍，下班後疲累不堪仍要温習應付考試感覺並不好受，堅持的動力只憑一顆永不言敗的頑固信念和對課程內容的熱衷加興趣，雖稱不上學有所成，卻勉強把兩個課程念完，寄望成績單早日公佈，好可以更進一步，向文憑班挑戰。
家庭 – 六月叔父中風辭逝，更加意識到生命的脆弱，真正認知何謂萬般帶不走。現在仍有年邁家人在療養院出院無期，可以做的….只有等待，等待那一刻不要來。
感恩節前夕收到外甥女婿來電，小倆口正式為人父母，叫我一聲舅公….
我『…..』！養兒方知父母恩，小倆口，做個盡責的奴隸獸吧！
離別的愁緒，令人更覺新生命來臨的可貴。
朋友 – 多謝Facebook令我把散落全球的各方朋友重新連結，零玖年將會多兩位波友定居天使之城，結伴打球必定無難度。那邊廂共偕連理的弟兄一個接一個，祝願他們能有美滿將來。。
謹此祝願各方博客心想事成，繼續努力寫作！飲杯！
變
世事常變。
讀大學時學長曾告誡，一生中要盡量避免於同一時間於家庭、事業和感情關係上作重大改變。生活上太大的轉變會容易令心理加重了負擔。若EQ不夠，很容易造成焦累。更甚會形成精神崩潰。
言猶在耳，上月家中作小裝修，把居所來個大翻新。
月前曾跟高人請教，高人斷言程某今年一定會轉工，甚而轉行。一把年紀才驚覺自己入錯行…..
三者已改其二，人變得沈默、變得收斂。
跟同事的關係更見疏離。。。。我看該是.......該走的時候
Friday, December 26, 2008
Good Food; Good Old Friends and of course..Good, Old Wine
An evening with good old friends,
some homemade good food and
good wines pulled from a friend's private cellar.....
It's worth to drive that 861 miles in below 40 degree F temperature,
above the 2,000 feet elevation snow line at Grapevine,
for 6 hours one-way, in the rain,
to spend some quality time with a few real good friends during Christmas times.......
Wine Tasting Notes? What wine tasting notes?
It is not what you drink, is who you are drinking with...
Live a simple life, A life that matters!
Friday, November 07, 2008
朋友，再見！一路好走......
"如果對於明天沒有要求 牽牽手就像旅遊
成千上萬個門口 總有一個人要先走
懷抱既然不能逗留 何不在離開的時候
一邊享受 一邊淚流
十年之前 我不認識你 你不屬於我
我們還是一樣 陪在一個陌生人左右
走過漸漸熟悉的街頭...."
(十年-林夕)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Challenges in Life
"Life is always filled with Challenges;
Sometimes these Challenges are scary.
But it is these Challenges that makes our Lives become more meaningful;
and these challenges also help shape our characters;
and add colors to our Lives."
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
纽约開眼界之行
週末應友人邀請前往東岸，從洛杉磯到聖荷西，經丹佛到纽约；回程從紐約經阿特蘭大和聖荷西。三日內坐了六程飛機，逗留纽约卻不足廿一小時，出席了兩個拍賣會。有幸能跟其中一位拍賣官R於會後晚飯，三個男人一邊喝着香檳，一邊天南地北的聊天一個晚上，雖然跟R只是第一次見面，卻一點也沒有陌生的感覺。從红酒生意的市道前景到人對生活的追求無所不談，很爽。跟R談着，才知他為了一對小朋友升學問題，很快便會舉家回流倫敦。真的有點相逢恨晚的感覺.....
R也奇怪為何我們兩個『外人』會老遠從西岸跑到東岸來跟他見面。要在平淡生活中劃出精彩，非得花點心思不可。纽約，我七月會再來；前面的路將會怎樣走，我卻不太清楚。
美中不足的是因航班的延誤，錯過了會前的試酒會。實屬可惜。
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Something I learned Today
TEAM - Together Everyone Accomplishes More
1. Is the "Will" not the "Skill" what brings you the success
2. Be Successful -> Be Happy -> and Be Good
3. You need a Mentor regardless of your age, and you should step up to serve as other's mentee.
4. Catch people when they did something good, encouragement is free to give...allow them to look for their own mistakes.
5. Keep Life Simple, as well as your answer to other's question, don't avoid the answer.... "Loopers" are losers
6. Go to bed early. Nothing is good after midnight.
7. Step up to make things happen, standing behind will not do you any good.
8. Gain Strength after Failure
9. Build up your Self Confidence with positive attitude
10. Never Quit on what you belief
11. Enjoy what you are doing, if not, do something else.
12. Stop to lift someone's life
13. Is the Attitude that get you High Altitude
14. Don't walk away from negative people----run away, and run fast.....
1. Is the "Will" not the "Skill" what brings you the success
2. Be Successful -> Be Happy -> and Be Good
3. You need a Mentor regardless of your age, and you should step up to serve as other's mentee.
4. Catch people when they did something good, encouragement is free to give...allow them to look for their own mistakes.
5. Keep Life Simple, as well as your answer to other's question, don't avoid the answer.... "Loopers" are losers
6. Go to bed early. Nothing is good after midnight.
7. Step up to make things happen, standing behind will not do you any good.
8. Gain Strength after Failure
9. Build up your Self Confidence with positive attitude
10. Never Quit on what you belief
11. Enjoy what you are doing, if not, do something else.
12. Stop to lift someone's life
13. Is the Attitude that get you High Altitude
14. Don't walk away from negative people----run away, and run fast.....
Thursday, February 28, 2008
LET’S THINK TWICE BEFORE WELCOMING THE SO-CALLED TAX FREE WINE – A DIFFERENT OPINION
The following article was contributed by a friend of mine. He expressed a totally different opinion about the impacts of the proposed zero percent wine tax as part of the 08-09 fiscal budget...
"I am writing to reveal a few truth about the global wine trade situation, and to recommend *AGAINST* completely eliminating the import tax on wines, which is against the prevailing opinion publicized by a few special-interest groups.
I'm also in the import/export trade of fine and rare wines. While I could go with the flow, and be a proponent to welcome 0% import tax on wine, and enjoying the higher profit margin as a result of this proposed tax cut/elimination. I feel strongly about the resulting disparity of wealth. I feel obligated to reveal the latest condition of fine wine trade and the real motivation of those who advocate it, and how misleading those numbers are, as detailed below:
This tactic is for the wealthiest to liquidate their collection of the now-expensive wines currently stored in Europe.
The truth is, with 0% import tax of wine to Hong Kong, it creates a convenient venue for the wealthiest, those who have collected expensive and rare wines, to liquidate their asset in Hong Kong to attain the maximum profit. Everyday drinkers usually do not cellar/collect/store more than the volume that they could consume, let alone storing them in Europe's bonded warehouse. The much advertised “500,000 cases of wines owned by Hong Kong people”, should be more accurately described as “owned by the wealthiest Hong Kong people, not the general public.” Having a free-ride into Hong Kong region, would mean more direct and faster exit for the expensive ones, either for sale, or for their own consumptions, on a tax-free basis.
The lie about reduction in wine prices as a result from 0% tax.
The retail prices of the highly valued French wines are determined largely by second hand market -- via auctions, or consignment sales through retail merchants close to the source of collections, i.e. in USA, or in Europe where the original collectors are. Please note that wholesalers from Europe don't hold onto old vintages, they must push out and churn the current releases, which are of lesser valued. However, the rise of old vintages’ values has evidently created speculative pricing, or "price fixing", in the current, and future releases!! This is a vicious cycle, and is in contrary to the hyped benefit of cheaper retail wine prices.
Last year, when HK government reduced the tax from 80% to 40%, it immediately caused an up-rise in auction prices of those high-end Bordeaux wine from Europe. That's because the less tax means more ammunition or fire power (capital) to bid in the second hand market. Merchants with ties to HK, bid aggressively, knowing that the same $1,000 cost now can afford a higher hammer price. They then flip the wines to the wealthiest buyers in Asia. Remember, to access older vintages, they mostly *must* be obtained from second hand market. The price hasn't come down since then. This time, if the tax is completely being eliminated, the same thing will happen again. To the wealthiest, the difference of USD$2,500/bottle and $2,200/bottle is *NOTHING*. To the merchants, however, it means more buying/bidding power and they'll bid more eagerly in the second-hand supply market, while maintaining their $2,500/bottle price, because the wealthy buyers won't care that small fraction of difference, thus creating another wave of price escalation due to speculative buying. The price of the wine in second hand market trade will not decrease even though the import tax is being eliminated.
On the cheaper end of the spectrum, the supply is abundant world-wide. I have seen second grand cru classes from Bordeaux, prices barely moved by 10% - 15% in the past year, way behind the hot ones. They are of less demand, and there is really very little speculative upside for them. Consequently, there is very little incentive to import those to Hong Kong anyway, due to lower margin and high logistic cost per bottle. With abundant supply on the cheaper wines outside of HK, and little incentive to bring those into HK's hypothetical "wine trade center", price of the affordable wines will not see significant reduction, if any at all!
The resulting polarization of wealth.
As I pointed out, the value of those 500,000 cases currently stored in Europe are mostly high-end wines, some easily valued at HKD$15,000 per BOTTLE, not per case. How will the general humble HK citizens go buy those on daily basis? This is a classic case where a fiscal policy would help the richest to become richer, and very little to the poor. The buyers of expensive wines via retail merchants in USA, are mostly speculators and they then shipped the wines to Asia, many via illegal means (improperly import into Hong Kong or China via US postal mail without sufficient custom declaration). Under normal circumstances, typical wine drinkers rarely buy wines more than USD$150/bottle, it is deemed a luxury. Once the consumption pattern is understood, it is easy to see how being a "wine trade center" of expensive wines, only benefit the richest collectors!
"Wine Trade Center will create more job opportunity!" --- ha, ha, ha! Yeah right!
The lie about creating new job opportunity in logistics and storage. This is the biggest lie being covered by the media. Let’s look at the world’s second biggest wine production region – Napa Valley’s wine storage business. It is capital intensive to build during the start up stage, but it takes very, very little to maintain. One of the biggest wine storage in northern California is run by 3 people with only 2 of them full time. This storage is running at full capacity, storing about 25,000 cases, and that only takes 3 people to maintain.
Another storage facility in one of wealthiest neighborhood in northern California could not survive and went out of business last year, because there wasn’t enough demand for it. This is in the homeland where wines are cheap, but only the few wealthier folks collect and store the wines. The general public does not collect any significant quantity, and renting a commercial storage would not make any economic sense to them, they buy as they need to consume.
A major wine logistics operator in California, the "*** Wine Transport" (name withhold), handles the distribution of hundreds of wineries throughout USA, has a 20,000+ sq. ft warehouse, but hires no more than 50 people to run their high-volume business, and has been like that for the past 25 years! They distribute hundreds of thousands of cases annually.
Another major importers of French wines in California, only hires 2 warehouse staff, one of them is the delivery truck driver, the other is half of a sales. This 2-men crew manages all their distribution needs. Trucking logistics will not see significant growth either, unless the cheaper wines consumption increases many-folds. Note that the true intention of those who openly advocate 0% import tax, is after the high-end wines. In that segment, the actual volume/quantity is relatively small, that it'd hardly translate into more needs for trucking logistics. So how many job opportunities we could create even though we are bring those 500,000 cases of fine wine back?
For example, 10 pallets of high-end French wines (500 cases) can easily carry a value of USD$1M to USD$1.5M. That is enough supply for several weeks of sales in Hong Kong/Macau, if not longer! I wish every Hong Kong family has become so rich and refined in their taste that they open a bottle of Mr. Tong's beloved 1982 Mouton Rothschild every week, but first average Hong Kong family rarely spend so lavishly, and second, there aren't that many 82 Mouton available in the market as of now.
The volume required to significantly create new job opportunity is simply not there. Put simply, unless cheaper tax will bring in a LARGE AMOUNT of cheaper wines for general consumption, 0% import tax will not translate into significant number of new job opportunities. Motivation of selling older vintage when the market is high. Judging from the age-groups of the most affluent collectors in Hong Kong, many started collecting in the 80s. Many of those 500,000 cases are old vintages in the 80s or older. Bordeaux wines from the best vintages in the 80s, 1982, is drinkable now, whereas the weaker vintages in the 80s, are effectively expiring now. Instead of seeing their weaker vintage wines become undrinkable or decline in value, Hong Kong collectors of the 80’s and before want a fast and cheap exit for these soon-expired items. “How do I get rid of my soon-will-expire wines in Europe, without paying a hefty premium?” is a lingering question among the wealthy collector crowd of Hong Kong.
Recent winter snow storm in China, and the correction in China's equity market, has already slowed down the purchase of the high-end wines. By advocating 0% tax to create a cheaper exit for their collections, the wealthiest intention could be to catch the top of the market before any uncertainty set in. Having 0% import tax would implicitly encourage speculative buying and trading, which is a risky practice and lead to unstable pricing.
Put Our Public Safety and Import Security at Risk
0% Import Tax will definitely promote aggressive importation of fine and rare wine. At the same time, this is a perfect opportunity for criminals to smuggle illegal items into HK by carrying such illegal items as explosives, firearms in Original Wood Cases (also known as “OWC”), disguised on the outside with proper origin labels and hidden deep in piles of OWC with the high volume of import wines.
It also creates a more difficult job for Customs officers to spot any illegal items at the import clearing, because the lack of necessity to evaluate and impose tax based on wine values, importers are must less likely to unravel every pallet for examination. One pallet of wines can have 50 cases, each is 19kg in weight. With 0% tax, Customs officers are under pressure to expedite the screening/examination of these "non-taxable items", thus allowing illegal items to slip through easily.
In our neighboring city Macau, system is in place to reveal the content of every case, OWC or not, at the import customs clearing. Such tight measure has successfully discouraged and deterred the smuggling of illegal items via wine transport.
Conclusions
Fine and rare wines are an acquired taste. The market is heavily second-hand driven, the commodity is hardly standardized, so there's a lot of arbitrage opportunity for pricing. All these are as such, because the general public is not well-educated in terms of the supply, demand, and pricing of hundreds of vintages from wineries around the world. The media accept and readily publish whatever the lobbyists feed them as "data".
While I'm not a super wine expert, I have been in the business long enough to shake my head when I read the media coverage, the "rumors of 0% tax", only from mouth of the special-interest. The media have been flooded repetitively with such brain-washing data figures, which are biased, and conceal the true beneficiary. The same article quoting the hypothetical set of trade figures, new job opportunity, and the famous “500,000 cases of wines in Europe owned by Hong Kong citizens”, was published at least 3 times in a month. Note, these are not official statistics data endorsed by any organization outside of the local advocates. The media can and will learn the truth eventually. If they do, you can bet on that they will write negatively about any government endorsement to business idea which profits few and do little good to the rest, without due consideration and analysis.
By revealing some of the market condition and mechanism, I only hope the HK government would do the right thing for its people. I see very little media coverage on the opposite side of 0% wine import tax, which is worrisome. I hope the HK government is not in the dark about these, and will take a balanced approach which rewards those who truly create new job opportunity, and help Hong Kong become a competitive and stable environment for wine trade.
Hong Kong has already its shares of speculative buying/trading in equity and real estate market, please don't help create yet another one in the fine wine market AND SEGRAGATE OUR SOCIETY EVEN FURTHER BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR.
In my opinion, eliminating the import tax completely, is a poor fiscal and political move. I urge our Financial Secretary and his staff put some effort into analyzing the pros and cons of doing so, before the fiscal budget proposal becomes publicly available for review and approval. When and if the media learns about the above mechanism and landscape of the fine wine trade, a 0% tax proposal on imported wine will definitely draw heavy criticism from them.
It will look even worse, when the media can associate such policy with the fact that many prominent, high-ranking government officials have substantial, sizable collections of fine wines in Europe that will directly benefit from a “tax-free” import environment, for their own consumption, or for liquidation with higher tax-free profit."
"I am writing to reveal a few truth about the global wine trade situation, and to recommend *AGAINST* completely eliminating the import tax on wines, which is against the prevailing opinion publicized by a few special-interest groups.
I'm also in the import/export trade of fine and rare wines. While I could go with the flow, and be a proponent to welcome 0% import tax on wine, and enjoying the higher profit margin as a result of this proposed tax cut/elimination. I feel strongly about the resulting disparity of wealth. I feel obligated to reveal the latest condition of fine wine trade and the real motivation of those who advocate it, and how misleading those numbers are, as detailed below:
This tactic is for the wealthiest to liquidate their collection of the now-expensive wines currently stored in Europe.
The truth is, with 0% import tax of wine to Hong Kong, it creates a convenient venue for the wealthiest, those who have collected expensive and rare wines, to liquidate their asset in Hong Kong to attain the maximum profit. Everyday drinkers usually do not cellar/collect/store more than the volume that they could consume, let alone storing them in Europe's bonded warehouse. The much advertised “500,000 cases of wines owned by Hong Kong people”, should be more accurately described as “owned by the wealthiest Hong Kong people, not the general public.” Having a free-ride into Hong Kong region, would mean more direct and faster exit for the expensive ones, either for sale, or for their own consumptions, on a tax-free basis.
The lie about reduction in wine prices as a result from 0% tax.
The retail prices of the highly valued French wines are determined largely by second hand market -- via auctions, or consignment sales through retail merchants close to the source of collections, i.e. in USA, or in Europe where the original collectors are. Please note that wholesalers from Europe don't hold onto old vintages, they must push out and churn the current releases, which are of lesser valued. However, the rise of old vintages’ values has evidently created speculative pricing, or "price fixing", in the current, and future releases!! This is a vicious cycle, and is in contrary to the hyped benefit of cheaper retail wine prices.
Last year, when HK government reduced the tax from 80% to 40%, it immediately caused an up-rise in auction prices of those high-end Bordeaux wine from Europe. That's because the less tax means more ammunition or fire power (capital) to bid in the second hand market. Merchants with ties to HK, bid aggressively, knowing that the same $1,000 cost now can afford a higher hammer price. They then flip the wines to the wealthiest buyers in Asia. Remember, to access older vintages, they mostly *must* be obtained from second hand market. The price hasn't come down since then. This time, if the tax is completely being eliminated, the same thing will happen again. To the wealthiest, the difference of USD$2,500/bottle and $2,200/bottle is *NOTHING*. To the merchants, however, it means more buying/bidding power and they'll bid more eagerly in the second-hand supply market, while maintaining their $2,500/bottle price, because the wealthy buyers won't care that small fraction of difference, thus creating another wave of price escalation due to speculative buying. The price of the wine in second hand market trade will not decrease even though the import tax is being eliminated.
On the cheaper end of the spectrum, the supply is abundant world-wide. I have seen second grand cru classes from Bordeaux, prices barely moved by 10% - 15% in the past year, way behind the hot ones. They are of less demand, and there is really very little speculative upside for them. Consequently, there is very little incentive to import those to Hong Kong anyway, due to lower margin and high logistic cost per bottle. With abundant supply on the cheaper wines outside of HK, and little incentive to bring those into HK's hypothetical "wine trade center", price of the affordable wines will not see significant reduction, if any at all!
The resulting polarization of wealth.
As I pointed out, the value of those 500,000 cases currently stored in Europe are mostly high-end wines, some easily valued at HKD$15,000 per BOTTLE, not per case. How will the general humble HK citizens go buy those on daily basis? This is a classic case where a fiscal policy would help the richest to become richer, and very little to the poor. The buyers of expensive wines via retail merchants in USA, are mostly speculators and they then shipped the wines to Asia, many via illegal means (improperly import into Hong Kong or China via US postal mail without sufficient custom declaration). Under normal circumstances, typical wine drinkers rarely buy wines more than USD$150/bottle, it is deemed a luxury. Once the consumption pattern is understood, it is easy to see how being a "wine trade center" of expensive wines, only benefit the richest collectors!
"Wine Trade Center will create more job opportunity!" --- ha, ha, ha! Yeah right!
The lie about creating new job opportunity in logistics and storage. This is the biggest lie being covered by the media. Let’s look at the world’s second biggest wine production region – Napa Valley’s wine storage business. It is capital intensive to build during the start up stage, but it takes very, very little to maintain. One of the biggest wine storage in northern California is run by 3 people with only 2 of them full time. This storage is running at full capacity, storing about 25,000 cases, and that only takes 3 people to maintain.
Another storage facility in one of wealthiest neighborhood in northern California could not survive and went out of business last year, because there wasn’t enough demand for it. This is in the homeland where wines are cheap, but only the few wealthier folks collect and store the wines. The general public does not collect any significant quantity, and renting a commercial storage would not make any economic sense to them, they buy as they need to consume.
A major wine logistics operator in California, the "*** Wine Transport" (name withhold), handles the distribution of hundreds of wineries throughout USA, has a 20,000+ sq. ft warehouse, but hires no more than 50 people to run their high-volume business, and has been like that for the past 25 years! They distribute hundreds of thousands of cases annually.
Another major importers of French wines in California, only hires 2 warehouse staff, one of them is the delivery truck driver, the other is half of a sales. This 2-men crew manages all their distribution needs. Trucking logistics will not see significant growth either, unless the cheaper wines consumption increases many-folds. Note that the true intention of those who openly advocate 0% import tax, is after the high-end wines. In that segment, the actual volume/quantity is relatively small, that it'd hardly translate into more needs for trucking logistics. So how many job opportunities we could create even though we are bring those 500,000 cases of fine wine back?
For example, 10 pallets of high-end French wines (500 cases) can easily carry a value of USD$1M to USD$1.5M. That is enough supply for several weeks of sales in Hong Kong/Macau, if not longer! I wish every Hong Kong family has become so rich and refined in their taste that they open a bottle of Mr. Tong's beloved 1982 Mouton Rothschild every week, but first average Hong Kong family rarely spend so lavishly, and second, there aren't that many 82 Mouton available in the market as of now.
The volume required to significantly create new job opportunity is simply not there. Put simply, unless cheaper tax will bring in a LARGE AMOUNT of cheaper wines for general consumption, 0% import tax will not translate into significant number of new job opportunities. Motivation of selling older vintage when the market is high. Judging from the age-groups of the most affluent collectors in Hong Kong, many started collecting in the 80s. Many of those 500,000 cases are old vintages in the 80s or older. Bordeaux wines from the best vintages in the 80s, 1982, is drinkable now, whereas the weaker vintages in the 80s, are effectively expiring now. Instead of seeing their weaker vintage wines become undrinkable or decline in value, Hong Kong collectors of the 80’s and before want a fast and cheap exit for these soon-expired items. “How do I get rid of my soon-will-expire wines in Europe, without paying a hefty premium?” is a lingering question among the wealthy collector crowd of Hong Kong.
Recent winter snow storm in China, and the correction in China's equity market, has already slowed down the purchase of the high-end wines. By advocating 0% tax to create a cheaper exit for their collections, the wealthiest intention could be to catch the top of the market before any uncertainty set in. Having 0% import tax would implicitly encourage speculative buying and trading, which is a risky practice and lead to unstable pricing.
Put Our Public Safety and Import Security at Risk
0% Import Tax will definitely promote aggressive importation of fine and rare wine. At the same time, this is a perfect opportunity for criminals to smuggle illegal items into HK by carrying such illegal items as explosives, firearms in Original Wood Cases (also known as “OWC”), disguised on the outside with proper origin labels and hidden deep in piles of OWC with the high volume of import wines.
It also creates a more difficult job for Customs officers to spot any illegal items at the import clearing, because the lack of necessity to evaluate and impose tax based on wine values, importers are must less likely to unravel every pallet for examination. One pallet of wines can have 50 cases, each is 19kg in weight. With 0% tax, Customs officers are under pressure to expedite the screening/examination of these "non-taxable items", thus allowing illegal items to slip through easily.
In our neighboring city Macau, system is in place to reveal the content of every case, OWC or not, at the import customs clearing. Such tight measure has successfully discouraged and deterred the smuggling of illegal items via wine transport.
Conclusions
Fine and rare wines are an acquired taste. The market is heavily second-hand driven, the commodity is hardly standardized, so there's a lot of arbitrage opportunity for pricing. All these are as such, because the general public is not well-educated in terms of the supply, demand, and pricing of hundreds of vintages from wineries around the world. The media accept and readily publish whatever the lobbyists feed them as "data".
While I'm not a super wine expert, I have been in the business long enough to shake my head when I read the media coverage, the "rumors of 0% tax", only from mouth of the special-interest. The media have been flooded repetitively with such brain-washing data figures, which are biased, and conceal the true beneficiary. The same article quoting the hypothetical set of trade figures, new job opportunity, and the famous “500,000 cases of wines in Europe owned by Hong Kong citizens”, was published at least 3 times in a month. Note, these are not official statistics data endorsed by any organization outside of the local advocates. The media can and will learn the truth eventually. If they do, you can bet on that they will write negatively about any government endorsement to business idea which profits few and do little good to the rest, without due consideration and analysis.
By revealing some of the market condition and mechanism, I only hope the HK government would do the right thing for its people. I see very little media coverage on the opposite side of 0% wine import tax, which is worrisome. I hope the HK government is not in the dark about these, and will take a balanced approach which rewards those who truly create new job opportunity, and help Hong Kong become a competitive and stable environment for wine trade.
Hong Kong has already its shares of speculative buying/trading in equity and real estate market, please don't help create yet another one in the fine wine market AND SEGRAGATE OUR SOCIETY EVEN FURTHER BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR.
In my opinion, eliminating the import tax completely, is a poor fiscal and political move. I urge our Financial Secretary and his staff put some effort into analyzing the pros and cons of doing so, before the fiscal budget proposal becomes publicly available for review and approval. When and if the media learns about the above mechanism and landscape of the fine wine trade, a 0% tax proposal on imported wine will definitely draw heavy criticism from them.
It will look even worse, when the media can associate such policy with the fact that many prominent, high-ranking government officials have substantial, sizable collections of fine wines in Europe that will directly benefit from a “tax-free” import environment, for their own consumption, or for liquidation with higher tax-free profit."
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
事先張揚 - 樂壇早有人洞釋先機
近日人人談論樂壇淫照事件，孰是孰非眾說紛云。事件仍在調查階段程某亦不想多作胡亂猜測。抱病在家多天呆望公仔箱赫見這首零七年林夕作品橫掃多個頒獎禮，細看歌詞內容再看八卦新聞事態發展，莫非林老師早已洞釋先機，賦詞入曲，道出一眾女當事人心聲？
酷愛
作曲：Vincent Chow｜填詞：林夕｜編曲：Gary Tong｜監製：Alvin Leong
無論怎得罪 你說我是負累
陪著我等於死去了無情趣
從前或現在當我是誰
你這一種伴侶
前夜一起睡 你卻沒廉恥
竟講出口你怕受罪
完全忘記往日為何
凌晨迎潮浪戲水
＊還道愛愛愛愛愛對愛情已死心
貪高興好心敷衍一下卻逼真的親吻
我們這結局太不堪
分不出真假的愛恨
無謂愛愛愛愛愛太過動魄驚心
我估錯這個世界得到教訓
怎相信人 命中怎麼愛著你為人＊
立甚麼心腸 我對你極善良
如若你肯想想我這樣受傷
你會知愛情毒於砒霜
你怎安心可不改漂亮
怎想像 共你已同享多少很真確晚上
一轉頭 纏綿後要罰離場
Repeat＊
彷似幻像你給我的愛是玩具磨爛後變絕情
難為這洗劫永沒罪證
道別並無罪也沒權問你內情
Repeat＊(Rap)
(Rap:我都唔知點解你忽然對我無晒感覺
以前嗰種快樂就好似成為一種罪惡
連我失眠 你都唔多覺
或者其實所謂愛情都只係互相搵個寄托
或者係一場即興嘅幻覺
連自己都唔知道 乜嘢係喜 乜嘢係樂
幾時有感覺 又幾時無晒知覺
就算你無突然失去下落
我哋之間都可能已經落幕)
Repeat＊()
(把失敗換教訓 不死總算幸運
看 全沒罪案發生
為著聚散不需責任
一起若像軟禁 無疑離開先更合襯)
酷愛
作曲：Vincent Chow｜填詞：林夕｜編曲：Gary Tong｜監製：Alvin Leong
無論怎得罪 你說我是負累
陪著我等於死去了無情趣
從前或現在當我是誰
你這一種伴侶
前夜一起睡 你卻沒廉恥
竟講出口你怕受罪
完全忘記往日為何
凌晨迎潮浪戲水
＊還道愛愛愛愛愛對愛情已死心
貪高興好心敷衍一下卻逼真的親吻
我們這結局太不堪
分不出真假的愛恨
無謂愛愛愛愛愛太過動魄驚心
我估錯這個世界得到教訓
怎相信人 命中怎麼愛著你為人＊
立甚麼心腸 我對你極善良
如若你肯想想我這樣受傷
你會知愛情毒於砒霜
你怎安心可不改漂亮
怎想像 共你已同享多少很真確晚上
一轉頭 纏綿後要罰離場
Repeat＊
彷似幻像你給我的愛是玩具磨爛後變絕情
難為這洗劫永沒罪證
道別並無罪也沒權問你內情
Repeat＊(Rap)
(Rap:我都唔知點解你忽然對我無晒感覺
以前嗰種快樂就好似成為一種罪惡
連我失眠 你都唔多覺
或者其實所謂愛情都只係互相搵個寄托
或者係一場即興嘅幻覺
連自己都唔知道 乜嘢係喜 乜嘢係樂
幾時有感覺 又幾時無晒知覺
就算你無突然失去下落
我哋之間都可能已經落幕)
Repeat＊()
(把失敗換教訓 不死總算幸運
看 全沒罪案發生
為著聚散不需責任
一起若像軟禁 無疑離開先更合襯)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
友緣相聚
"每個人都希望在自己的人生舞台當中，
贏得擊節的掌聲..."
"舞台的演出是經過無數次的綵排，
有重新再來的機會；
但人生的演譯就只有一次。
能夠在人生之中演活自己，
投入人生中的每一個角色，
這樣才可做到無悔今生...."
-沈澱霞於無綫電視節目『友緣相聚』中訪問話劇界前輩朱瑞棠老師的兩段旁白-
贏得擊節的掌聲..."
"舞台的演出是經過無數次的綵排，
有重新再來的機會；
但人生的演譯就只有一次。
能夠在人生之中演活自己，
投入人生中的每一個角色，
這樣才可做到無悔今生...."
-沈澱霞於無綫電視節目『友緣相聚』中訪問話劇界前輩朱瑞棠老師的兩段旁白-
Thursday, January 03, 2008
仍是情報
刑事情報科第十六集有段對白大意如下：
『兩個人當初無論如何的投契，日子久了，當大家各自有着不同的人生目標，便會一先一後，愈走愈遠，向着各自的目標進發，沒有分誰是誰非..........
人與人之間的關係是何等的脆弱，當初可能只是基於一個眼神、一個承諾、一句說話、一個刻骨銘心的舉動而走在一起；但往後的日子卻要花上無盡的精力和時間，去維繫、去修補、去延續這段關係。人與人之間原來是何等的無奈............』
『兩個人當初無論如何的投契，日子久了，當大家各自有着不同的人生目標，便會一先一後，愈走愈遠，向着各自的目標進發，沒有分誰是誰非..........
人與人之間的關係是何等的脆弱，當初可能只是基於一個眼神、一個承諾、一句說話、一個刻骨銘心的舉動而走在一起；但往後的日子卻要花上無盡的精力和時間，去維繫、去修補、去延續這段關係。人與人之間原來是何等的無奈............』
Monday, December 10, 2007
飲水思源
回來已差不多一個星期，當中有四天是混在母校裡參加舊生聚會和跟昔日老師一同慶祝校慶。當年的老師們大部份現今巳過著退休的生活。重遇他們，有着一份說不出的親切感。上次見面雖然已是N年前的事，但跟舊日飯堂老闆、校務處的職員、修仕打招呼的時侯，卻完全沒有分隔兩地的疏離感覺。
校舍雖然有點陳舊，少了昔日的霸氣，畢境巳是八十年代初的建築設計，卻多了點和靄的感覺，當一眾從南加趕回來参加校慶的師兄弟站在聖喇沙像脚下合照的時候，大家不其然記起校歌的幾句：
"有 幸 做 好 喇 沙 書 院 友
重 遇 我 往 昔 同 窗
不 管 天 陰 天 晴 日
我 地 齊 聲 將 此 曲 唱"
"同 門 友 誼 因 時 俱 進
當 天 歡 笑 不 變 樣
良 朋 滿 堂 欣 然 相 對
母 校 校 歌 來 合 唱"
噢....為甚麼有沙入眼？
校舍雖然有點陳舊，少了昔日的霸氣，畢境巳是八十年代初的建築設計，卻多了點和靄的感覺，當一眾從南加趕回來参加校慶的師兄弟站在聖喇沙像脚下合照的時候，大家不其然記起校歌的幾句：
"有 幸 做 好 喇 沙 書 院 友
重 遇 我 往 昔 同 窗
不 管 天 陰 天 晴 日
我 地 齊 聲 將 此 曲 唱"
"同 門 友 誼 因 時 俱 進
當 天 歡 笑 不 變 樣
良 朋 滿 堂 欣 然 相 對
母 校 校 歌 來 合 唱"
噢....為甚麼有沙入眼？
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
