<IMG src="http://www.compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/Blog/2005-07/Tree-felling-library-flip-r.gif" align=left width=240 height=202 hspace=10>Some comments on Yu Lai Fan's justifications for cutting the tree by the library, as mentioned in <a href="http://www.compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/includes_news.html#July16">LG's interview</a>

Yes, I heard that Yao Ming bumped his head the last time he came to check his Hotmail at the library.

Well, since they've removed the evidence we can't dispute that. Funny how healthy it seemed to everyone else. The stump is solid and may even regenerate in 10 or 15 years.

Yes, let's cut down all the dirty trees. Don't worry about draining the sewage pools that breed mosquitoes.

I spoke to the library staff this morning. They didn't know anything about the tree cutting and certainly hadn't requested it. As for burglaries, they had one ten years ago. The windows are now securely barred.

Well, on the bright side, the house above now has an unobstructed view from their garden. Funny YLF didn't mention that.

Mrs Meldrew and my good self were disgisted to see that tree cut down, if it was a case of people getting scratched by he sagging branches, trim the bloody thing, don't chop it all down, and, I have seen the stump that was left after this mutilation and it looked very healthy to me. I heard from one of the local fishermen that a local got scratched in the eye, it was during the rainy season and with the weight of the rain bearing down on the branches it did sag down alot, but to cut the whole thing down was ridiculous.

On another matter, L-G next time you have a tete a tete with our councilor could you ask her to try and get the businesses with the rear of their building facing the ferry terminal to get them to spruce the outside up a bit, all it would take is a few tins of whitewash to smarten up these premises, the Waterfront reallky stands out now and is making the rest of the premises look like a shanty town. This will make the first impression that visitors see a lot more pleasant than looking at really shabby and dirty paintwork, as we all know first impressions really do count, maybe she could get a subsidy from the govt and aid these businesses for the good of themselves, the better and cleaner a place looks the more business it would do.

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I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!

Well, she's got an office on Main Street now, which is open to everybody during office hours, for complaints & suggestions. Her Chin. New Year letter to all residents (published in my blog) explicitly invites everybody to stop by. I'd recommend to take a Chinese-speaking friend along for issues that take a bit of explanations. I might mention your suggestion to her next time, but it'll probably take a number of weeks, as our tete-a-tetes are quite rare.

Re: your tete-a-tete comment, I'd hardly call a tough, controversial interview about local political issues a tete-a-tete. Especially as she made it clear to me that I pissed her off with my tree story. Her staff seems to read my blog every day and brings it to her attention when there's something of interest to her, even though that tree story didn't even mention her. Well, them watching my blog won't stop me from writing more critical but fair stories.

It took me more than a year of work to get her to talk to me and even longer to answer my questions in interviews. She's still ignoring my emails, but she's one of my best verbal sources for news, plans and opinions of the local authorities, knowing about almost anything going on in the village, as part of her job.

Well, I also have to admit to like her purely as a pretty nice & friendly person, It's nice to have a chat with her over a meal occasionally, even though we don't agree on most political or environmental issues. But her views are shared by a wide majority of Lammaites - especially the native Chinese, I think - so I'm glad to have this communication channel finally open and get their side of the various topics affecting our community.

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I doubt a majority of the village would agree to the removal of this tree. And even if they did, she appears to have circumvented the laws and lied about the reasons (the bogus claim of burglaries at least).

I really expect nothing from her, she's already stated that the only people who have a say here are local-born. The rest of us have no rights.

Honestly, Alan. In case you haven't noticed, Jihad has begun and that tree provided sniper cover. Don't you love this country? The local boys are doing their bit in the war against terror, and all you leftie hippie surrender monkeys can go live in France if you don't like it.

Ah, finally the voice of reason is stepping in! Glad you're finally revealing your true opinions, Granola!

Are you running for office in the next local elections, by any chance? You surely sound like it. Granola Eater for Village Representative or even District Councilor?
You've already won Fight Club moderator in an (almost) fair election and all that new power has made you hungry for more?

What would be your campaign goals? More fights in Main Street till we'll all have a smile as charming as yours?

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The village is a filthy beyond belief and what does she do? She chops down a very beautiful tree. Then she lies about why she did it afterwards. Pathetic.

The village has always been run by a very small bunch of self-serving money-grabbing monkeys. And, actually, most in the village hate the fat vile rich fools. Think back to that great TVB interview by the guy from the Man Kee. The dumbo leadership were about to concrete the harbour for no real reason at all except to generate a huge building contract and he said, on TV, quite simply "they have made enough money from us and we have had enough." Sums it up. Why defend them?

I spoke to the Lands Dept about this.
They said they will respond in detail, but apparently the tree (and the original site of the library -- though it's mostly on a reclamation?) belongs to the Rural Committee and they can do whatever they like. But if that's so, then the government shouldn't have been doing the work for them.

Another Lamma story with a happy ending!
See my blog story today, Monday, Aug 8:

"Lammadonna Hugging a New Tree"

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I checked these out last night & they are extremely spindly and were absolutely parched. Last night's rain will have taken care of that, but Lammadonna is aware that they need taking care of, right?

I assume that she knows, but it'll be better to keep an eye on these 2 new saplings ourselves, at least till they're tall enough to survive the usual long draughts without people having to water tjem anymore.

I also wonder about all these trees planted for the Green Lamma Green campaign a few weeks ago. It's supposedly a 3-year project, but the follow-up tree maintenace and watering is not such a nice public relations opportunity like the actual planting, with all the press and TV cameras watching. It's much easier to plant a tree than maintain it.

Has somebody had a look there recently, below the pavilion above Hung Shing Yeh, on the way to Sok Kwu Wan. How are the new trees doing?

Also, how are the 144,000 trees up on the hills between Hung Shing Yeh and Luk Chau doing. They were planted quietly, w/o any publicity, by CEDD several months ago to prevent soil erosion.

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Finally got a response from the DLO, above.

We can see there is nothing to support any of YLF's account.

Nothing about danger, mosquitoes, burglars. Also, the original request, for TRIMMING, was made 18 months ago. There was no emergency. It appears that when they (the Rural Committee?) found they were responsible for maintaining the tree they did nothing for a year, then decided it was simpler just to cut it down. The replacement saplings are fairly obviously damage control after the fuss we made. Who if anyone is going to look after them? Now YLF has had her photo, she can let them wither away.

the burglarly claims were extremely suspect anyway. What's to steal at the library? old books?

Well, if the trees wither away, there'll be another photo, a close-up, of the withered tree on my home page...
I don't just provide photo opportunities for politicians, but I'd like to see these trees healthy & growing...

Same with the "Green Lamma Green" campaign. I'll have a closer look if most of these trees actually survived so far...

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Alan, all I ever hear you do is complain.
Millions of trees are cut down for paper production every year, something you contribute to greatly through your job as an editor.
Please think twice about being a pot calling the kettle black next time.


cheers

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don't talking to me

L-G, the larger one looks dead already. It's brown & withered.

I'm with Chertsey on this. The library needed some new books and the paper has to come from somewhere.

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My real name isn't Harry.
Slurp my bean juice.

You're right, Gargoyle, one is dead already and the second one looks almost beyond hope as well.
New trees of a different, sturdier species have been promised very soon, but without some follow-up care they might not survive long either

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Time to pull a stunt I once saw here in BC, albeit in a different context. Make up a couple of really nice, small, tastefully discreet bilingual signs crediting Lammadonna with the planting of these lovely trees. Spike the signs in the ground next to the dead trees, then watch how fast things are remedied (or not).

I don't know about Lamma, but politician-baiting is fair sport in this part of Canada . I hope my suggestion doesn't render me ineligible for residency on the Island. I'd hate to be run out of town before I even got there.

To be fair, I have heard some pretty nice things about Lammadonna from a current ex-pat resident of Lamma ... we had a very long face-to-face chat the other day while he was visiting Vancouver. I'm even more encouraged to spend time there.

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Lead me not into temptation;
I can find it myself, thank you.

With LG seemingly doing her PR, how can she fail?

So LG is this follow-up story going to make the headline of the blog in the same way the "happy ending" piece did?