SKYLINE are back in the press. Well, in a very discrete and half hidden manner at least. See whether you can spot the SKYLINE MD peering out from the back of the crowd in the picture below...

What a fantastic effort by the Operation Santa Claus Team for the 2004/5 collection program. The numbers speak for themselves. Of course no sponsorship drive can amount to anything without the support of those who so generously part with their hard earned cash. Hong Kong has a long standing tradition of having a very generous populous.

SKYLINE are happy to have played a very small part in this process by donating the online pledge system that powered the recent Wing Ding squash tournament up at the Island Squash Racket Club. To see exactly how this works click onto this link below...

http://www.isrc.com.hk/wingding/donation.php

Recipients and donors bask in glow of a job well done
ANNEMARIE EVANS, SCMP 19 January 2005

Darren Chan Sheung-chung beamed on stage with Karen Mok last night, basking in the celebrity's glow as well as that of the record-breaking total raised by Operation Santa Claus this year.

Letters

America's new villains. I enthusiastically applaud Deepak Lal's stunning geopolitical analysis "Long live the American empire" (January 12). He is absolutely right. Not only are Islamic terrorists modern-day pirates, but Osama bin Laden is Johnny Depp's ugly unsuccessful half-brother. Anyone who loves movies will tell you how much better Osama would have been as a pirate of the Caribbean. No wonder he hates American culture. In addition, President George W. Bush is Tinkerbell, inexplicably and cruelly afflicted with a cowboy, crotch-thrusting gait. Dick Cheney is Nemo; lost, cute as hell, but damn determined to swim through any sewer to get home. Donald Rumsfeld is Jafar. You gotta be tough with slippery Aladdin. Arabs on flying carpets and in suspect caves may be a threat to civilisation. Condoleezza Rice is Aretha Franklin (I'm joking, of course, that's plain silly). But Jacques Chirac is definitely the sleazy Pepe Le Pew. Pacifists, anti-globalisation activists and Europeans are short hairy things with big feet from New Zealand. Britney Spears should replace Kofi Annan at the UN. Yasser Arafat is sharing a flat with Elvis in Yuen Long and I am Betty Davis. PASCHALI MALAMIDIS, Mid-Levels, SCMP 19 January 2005

Lai See

After a near-death experience and a facelift ... it's time for a new name. For those bent on turning over a new leaf, there's nothing like a new name. It has worked for everyone from Deng Xiaoping to the rock artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince. Another entity in need of a new name and a new beginning is Hunghom Peninsula, the former Home Ownership Scheme development that was saved from the wrecker's ball and is now being tarted up for sale by Sun Hung Kai Properties and NWS Holdings. Lai See kindly requests readers e-mail us new name suggestions. To get the ball rolling, we offer the following possibilities: -Faulty Towers - People Power Plaza - Suen's Folly. Or, as one wag suggested last night, the East Kowloon Cultural Centre - on the basis that it was spared so that Sun Hung Kai could build a rather bigger monument to grandiosity at the other end of the harbour. BEN KWOK, SCMP 15 January 2005

Government needs a rear-view mirror to right distorted vision. The Hong Kong government's chronic incompetence is not in dispute, what with a chief executive whose every public appearance now degenerates into another exercise in self-flagellation that is getting harder and harder to watch. BEN KWOK, SCMP 19 January 2005

Bulletin Board Postings & Responses

No new messages.

News Headlines

Cheung Kong trumps 10 rivals for Dream City deal
Raymond Wang, The Standard 19 January 2005
Cheung Kong (Holdings) has beaten 10 rivals to win development rights to the HK$5 billion first phase of the Dream City housing project atop Tseung Kwan O Mass Transit Railway station.

Drop single developer plan, says arts chief
GARY CHEUNG, SCMP 19 January 2005
The new chairman of the Arts Development Council has added his voice to calls for the government to drop its single-developer plan for the West Kowloon cultural district project.

Towngas demonstrates competitive edge in playing the system
JAKE VAN DER KAMP, SCMP 19 January 2005
"There is pressure to raise tariffs. We haven't raised them since 1998, while over the past six to seven years we have made an accumulated investment of more than $3 billion to improve our efficiency." Alfred Chan Wing-kin, Managing director, Hong Kong and China Gas

Cheung Kong lands $5b Dreamcity project
PEGGY SITO and ERNEST KONG, SCMP 19 January 2005
After offering an unprecedented incentive to encourage bids from smaller developers, MTR Corp has awarded its $5 billion residential-retail project in what has been dubbed Dreamcity to Cheung Kong (Holdings).

Picture of Day
SCMP, 18 January 2005

Scheme gives new lease of life to old flat owners
AGNES LAM, SCMP 18 January 2005
Owners of old flats believe the Housing Society's new building management and maintenance scheme will help improve their living standards.

Pollution in the PRD
SCMP 17 January 2005

Air quality decline looks likely to continue
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 17 January 2005
The deterioration of air quality is not likely to level off soon, after the highest level of particulates was recorded in some districts last year, according to a leading scientist on air pollution.

Most cite the smog as a reason to leave
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 17 January 2005
Air pollution in Hong Kong is so bad that more than half the residents in a survey want to move to a cleaner place out of concern for their health.

Bad-Air Days
SCMP 17 January 2005

Construction bosses jailed for soliciting $36m
PATSY MOY, SCMP 15 January 2005
A senior manager of publicly listed Wharf (Holdings) and a director of a private company had undermined fair competition, a high court judge said yesterday after the pair were convicted of soliciting more than $36 million from building contractors.

Harbour planning 'needs big shake-up'
ANDY CHENG, SCMP 14 January 2005
A leading business advisory council has floated a concept to develop 1,800 hectares of Victoria Harbour frontage, saying much of it is badly used.

MTRC receives 11 bids for $5b Dream City project
Raymond Wang, The Standard 13 January 2005
Underground train operator MTR Corp said its residential project - Dream City, above the Tseung Kwan O station - will cost HK$5 billion to build and the tender has received 11 bids from developers.

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