The speaker on the evening will be Vanessa Farr, the United Nations Development Program’s Senior Social Development and Gender Advisor in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Farr has been with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for about 6 years where she served in various countries. She is an acclaimed speaker and has co-authored a book titled Sexed Pistols: The Gendered Impacts of Small Arms and Light Weapons

Vanessa Farr will be in Hong Kong from the 13th to the 20th September.  For more information about the event or to register, visit the SAWCC website

RugbyAsia Channel has maintained close links with the Hong Kong Boys while they are honing their skills abroad and put together this ‘exclusive’ video from within (video below):

After doing some “careful research” (aka Google-ing) we found out more about the idea behind it and gradually the WTF-sensation was put to rest.

In fact, clothing manufacturer Diesel actually has a philosophy behind their Be Stupid campaign.

This is what appeared in the weekend’s Post Magazine (Sunday Morning Post):

Dad, what does this mean? Son, go ask your mother!

But wait… there’s more:

(This one’s for you, Dani!)

Here’s Diesel’s philosophy:

I couldn’t put all of their ads on this website but if you don’t have any 10-year olds loitering about, have a look here and here

With Hong Kong again hosting the final Bledisloe Cup match in October this year (the previous such match took place in 2008) there is renewed interest in the Southern Hemisphere’s premier competition, the Tri-Nations.

In fact, with Hong Kong Bledisloe Cup ticket sales reported to be sluggish this year (in part due to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year) the Hong Kong rugby authorities are pinning their hopes on the Wallabies beating their Trans-Tasman opponents in next week’s final Tri-Nations encounter.  This, they hope, would make the third-ever Bledisloe Cup to be played on neutral ground more of a contest with the All Blacks having totally dominated the Tri-Nations this year.

The victory continues a grim losing record for Hong Kong who has lost their last four outings against the Asian powerhouse – twice in the regional sevens competition last year, in the gold medal final at the East Asian Games and on the second day at the Hong Kong Sevens in March.

Hong Kong head coach Dai Rees refused to be downhearted by the loss to Japan and firmly believes the two sides remain potential rivals for the coveted gold medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in November.

“At the end of the day, we are still the top two teams in Asia,” Rees said. “But the curse continues, our losing streak against Japan goes on. We played very well, but against a side like Japan, you have to nail that one per cent and we didn’t do that today.”

Hong Kong scored three early tries to take a 17-0 lead. They could have gone ahead 24-0 but a breakaway try was disallowed and they were called back for a scrum inside their 22. Japan won the scrum and scored a length-of-the field try just on halftime.

“That was a bit unfortunate as we could have put the game beyond them,” Rees said. “Then the momentum swung their way soon after the break when we missed a tackle to concede a soft try.”

Meanwhile, South Korea sounded an early warning to their rivals that they will be a force to reckon with at the Asian Games in Guangzhou (China) when they successfully defended the Shanghai Sevens title on Sunday.

Korea overcame partisan support and a strong challenge from hosts China in the Cup final to emerge worthy 38-17 winners to win the first of two ranking events in the IRB Asian Rugby Sevens Series and also grab the early psychological high ground.

The victory will pour cold water on the theory that Korea are a spent force in Asian rugby circles, and will firmly establish their credentials as serious contenders for a gold medal at the Guangzhou Games in November.

Despite being relegated from the elite division in the HSBC Asian Five Nations 15-a-side championship earlier this year and finishing fifth at last month’s Asian Under-20 Championship, Korea showed plenty of bottle to ward off all challengers in Shanghai.

While the title say “Hong Kong tilt shift” it was not shot using a tilt shift lens.

It was shot using a little Canon D10 Powershot and post-produced later.

Cheers to Fershad Irani for the clip.  Several of the Victoria Harbour views, like the one in the Vimeo viewer below, were shot from just outside my window.

Little Big City – Hong Kong Tilt Shift from Fershad Irani on Vimeo.

The song in the clip is such a wicked tune that I had to add them here.  Here’s the band called Phoenix performing their song “Long distance call”

I remember (Judith Sephuma)

Growing up in Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg) in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, Judith knew that she wanted to be a singer from an early age.

After matriculating at Khagiso High School, she attended Johannesburg’s legendary FUBA Academy music school in 1993, where she received her Grade 5 Music Diploma. One of her fellow students was an ambitious young guitarist who she knew from Polokwane, one Selaelo Selota, a man who would play a major role in her career.

Other achievements included reaching the finals of the Shell Road to Fame contest in 1994, and the finals in SABC’s Jam Alley Search For Talent that year.

In 1994 she made a significant move to Cape Town to study music at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1997 with a Performer’s Diploma in Jazz. Judith then gained her Honours Degree in Jazz Performance, majoring in Jazz Singing, under the supervision of Prof. Mike Campbell, in 1999. While studying Jazz singing, she was also classically trained by Virginia Davids for five years.

(Info from Music.org.za Continue reading here)

As I am typing this, Typhoon signal No.1 is in force here in Hong Kong, so I’m giving you a double-play of Judith Sephuma.  Mme Motswadi is such a soothing tune and really appeals to me because it’s sung in Judith’s (I think) native Sesotho language.

Enjoy.

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Howzit-HongKong.com will feature a YouTube clip of one South African music legend every Friday as part of what we like to call The Victoria Harbour Sundowner Sessions. I am fortunate to be living right next to one of the most stunning working harbours in the world… Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. I often find myself staring across the Harbour at night, with the lights dimmed and one of my favourite musicians from home over the speakers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do…

Chef Yan is a well-know Chinese chef who is best known for his knowledge of and skill in the art of not only Chinese cuisine (in general) but also that of Southern Chinese food (he is a Southerner himself).

Martin Yan is well known on the local TV channels for his program called Yan can Cook. My kids are especially fond of him for his saying:

” If Yan can cook, so can you.” and my little rugrats’ favourite: “If Yan cannot… you still can!”

You can find many of his videos on YouTube, but here is the one and only Martin Yan:

Popular (Southern) Chinese chef Martin Yan (Pic: YanCanCook.com)

When she dons her hat as culinary tour guide, Jenny leads groups of fellow foodies on tours around the world to discover some of the sights, sounds and tastes that others only see on telly.  The busy chef is currently planning one such tour to China and she and her band of merry foodies will make a stop-over right here in Hong Kong.

Jenny Morris will lead a culinary tour to China in early 2011 (Pic: www.jennymorris.co.za)

To give her and her group a glimpse of the culinary scene on this side of the noodle-gordyn, we’ve scoured the web and found this short but informative clip on YouTube.  My apartment is but 5 minutes from the Hong Kong Intercontinental where you can find some of the world’s best restaurants… all in one building nogal.  The world-renowned hotel is home to SPOON by Alain Ducasse, NOBU InterContinental Hong Kong as well as the Michellin starred Yan Toh Heen.

World-renowned Nobu Matsuhisa has a restaurant at the Hong Kong Intercontinental

Click here to have Louis Baleros, Chef Concierge at the Intercontinental show you around Hong Kong (YouTube clip) and stay tuned to Howzit-HongKong.com for more on this topic.