Ordinary Gweilo

Whilst I was sitting here this morning trying to work, someone called me from the Far Eastern Economic Review asking if I could spare a few minutes to answer some questions. What they wanted to know was why I am no longer subscribing to their magazine.

Simple answer – it’s boring, and even the articles on interesting subjects seem to be written by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. I finally gave up after they printed a long article arguing that the Hong Kong government should take action to build more apartments. I’ve forgotten all the gory details, but it involved using up more of the available land and paying compensation to some homeowners who would lose out as a result.

In fact, many of the other articles about Hong Kong seemed to combine contempt with a lack of understanding. The editorial line seemed to be that Hong Kong was in big trouble and that it deserved what was coming to it, and frankly this got rather tiresome week after week.

I found that I was often getting to the end of the week without having even picked up the magazine, so I didn’t renew my subscription. The previous time I did this they carried on sending the magazine regardless, and in a moment of weakness I renewed my subscription when they offered me a very good deal. Only a few weeks later I started getting renewal reminders, and it turned out that they had started the subscription from the date the previous one had ended, so I was paying for the issues they had been sending unsolicited (and which, incidentally, were going to an old address). That did get sorted out, but the magazine didn’t improve, and the next time they called me about re-subscribing I told them not to waste their time. Does Nury still have that column at the back where he prints pictures of amusing street signs?

I would happily subscribe again if there were some interesting and intelligent articles in the FEER – but I don’t think I’ll hold my breath waiting. On a scale of 1-5, where 5 is the world’s dullest publication about Asia, I’ll give it 5. Please don’t call me again.