Sunday 3 April 2011

My reply to HKIA

Please judge yourself....

I do not want to add in too much of my comment here.... ^^


Dear Ms Irene Chan,



I appreciate you guys taking the initiative on investigating this case. But, sadly to say, as stated in my first complaint letter, the lady who pushed the old lady’s wheelchair and the man who drove the ‘cart’ had received tips from the old buddies. I am very sure about this. The lady who pushed the wheelchair even raised her voice and talks to the man and hand in his tips to him. She wanted to RETURN the money ONLY when she receives another call from the centre to handle another case. You guys can retrieve this from the CCTV I suppose. I assume that what WFS had told you is another person in charge on helping the old folks on board since the lady had left.


Please have another look on it. I do really hope WFS is not in the hand of covering her staff. WFS should have a list on who is the one who pushed the wheelchair and same goes to the one who drove the cart since this is your last sentence in your text: "In addition, all pre-ordered wheelchair passengers at departure gate 47 you mentioned had already been assisted by WFS for boarding around 1900 hrs on 6 Mar 2011."


Thank you.

Saturday 2 April 2011

Reply from HKIA's Passenger Services Dept dated 31st March 2011

After waiting for more than 2 weeks.... (How efficient and detailed they are going in... ;p)

Here is their reply...


Dear Ms. Chu,



Thank you for sharing your feedback with us on wheelchair services you noticed during your stay at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). Upon receiving your comment, we have immediately followed it up and it is subsequently confirmed that the service is provided by our licensee, Worldwide Flight Services (WFS).

According to your information and the investigation report from WFS we gathered, WFS responded that the passenger had offered tips to the wheelchair staff but was politely refused by the staff involved. As stipulated in the Licence Agreement with WFS, solicitation of tips for the services provided to passengers is strictly prohibited. To ensure such service performance standard is well maintained during the service delivery, WFS have been requested to step up their trainings/ briefings on customer services as well as the ethical awareness on solicitation of tips and the Authority shall continue conducting audit checks regularly.


In addition, all pre-ordered wheelchair passengers at departure gate 47 you mentioned had already been assisted by WFS for boarding around 1900 hrs on 6 Mar 2011.


Once again, we thank you again for bringing the matter to our attention.



Yours sincerely,

Irene Chan
Assistant General Manager
Terminal 1 Department
Airport Authority

Friday 1 April 2011

My reply to HKIA and HKTB

This is my reply from them after I received their email dated 11th March...

I replied them on the same day itself....

Sorry for not providing the full detail on this.



I just know that they are departing at gate 47 at 1900 at 06th March 2011.

Reply from HKIA and HKTB dated 11th March 2011

HKIA = Hong Kong International Airport
HKTB = Hong Kong Tourism Board

Below is the replied from them..

Dear Ms Chu,


Thank you for your email. Please rest assured we are most concerned about your comment on wheelchair staff accepted tips from passenger. As there are different wheelchair service providers in the airport, to let us understand more about the matter, we would be grateful if you could advise us the airline that the old lady travelled with, a brief description of the staff concerned and her uniform colour. Your additional information may facilitate our follow up with relevant service provider. Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact us.

Once again, thank you for writing to us.


Yours sincerely,


Customer Service


Hong Kong International Airport


c.c. Hong Kong Tourism Board (Case Ref No. FEED-VRSUP3-20110310-0226575)

Thursday 31 March 2011

Ethics - To tips o not to?

It has been a long time I din update this blog....

I din think up putting this issue up here BUT the reply from Hong Kong International Airport's personnel had changed my mind....

Here is what I sent to the Hong Kong International Airport board and to the Hong Kong tourism board...

The issue below was happening around 1815 at 6th March 2011 near gate 47 at Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1.

I came across this incident when I was in the queue to get free internet access…. There were one old lady on wheel chair and few (I think there is a total of four of them) old buddies who is not strong physically and need assistant who need to depart at gate 47 which is so far far far far far away from the main gate. When I saw them, they were assisted by the airport crew. One lady helped push the old lady who is on wheel chair and the others were on the cart, heading to gate 47.

Well…. After dropping off them on ground, the old buddies offer some tips to the crew. The crews accepted it and treat it as "coffee money"… After that, the crew who should help them on board accept a call from the counter and need to rush back and she wants to give back the tips she had receive to the old buddies. What is this la…. Of course the old buddies say no to her and say never mind la…. She apologized and went off and says there will be another crew to come over to handle them…. @@

I was not sure whether there is another crew member coming over to take over her place or not. What my concern were…..

(1) Is there anyone coming over to assist them?
(2) If there is someone coming over to assist them, should they pay him/her tips?
(3) Are the old buddies suppose to give tips to the crew?
(4) Should the crew members accept the tips?
(5) If the crew is accepting the tips, what is the main purpose of setting up this service?
(6) If the crew is accepting the tips, do they still get their monthly pay?
(7) If the crew is accepting the tips, should they get their monthly pay?

I just cannot get the whole idea of this. When I first saw them helping the old buddies, I was amazed and was touched with such a high quality service provided by the HK airport. p/s: I had send another copy to the tourism board.

Monday 4 May 2009

Telephone booth withOUT telephone..




I found this telephone booth when I was on a trip to Pulau Ketam....
An island in Selangor, Malaysia...

Monday 27 April 2009

Privacy

Privacy = ?

It is really a term that is hard to be explained….

Well, I think almost everyone knows what does it means…

And…

Everyone needs it….

We need it….!!

But, are we really protecting our privacy??

OR

We are disposing it?

Erm… need some time to digest and think ya…. Haha….

When there are actual border in life when we are living in a village, we will be thinking that we do not have any privacy as your neighbour or I probably should say is the whole village will know that you actually pee on your pants… haha...

You felt embarrassed and wanna kill the one who actually tell the facts to the third party and news spread like lighting….

When time comes to the digital world, we are all closed up in our room and we are protecting our privacy as we assumed…

But, we are uploading photos, thoughts (like what I am doing right now), diaries etc online…

The one around us, for instance our neighbour know nothing about us…

But, the one in the cyber world, mostly stranger know us better than them…

The one in the cyber world actually know us well and much better than the one in the real life….

So, are we protecting our privacy or exposing it in another way??

Do you feel better to tell others about yourself thru net and not in the real life???

Think about it… hehe....

;p

Sunday 26 April 2009

Letter from a Animal Shelter Manager

Subject: Fwd: Letter from a Animal Shelter Manager (the sad truth!)
Get out your tissues before you read this.


Begin forwarded message:

Help spread the education by fowarding this!But be forewarned that this will be upsetting and sensitive to your hearts.Sincerely, Lisa aka Kat Education people, EDUCATION!! Let's pray that 2009spares more lives than the 11 million killed this year...(do not stop reading until you've reached the end)

A Letter from a Shelter Manager: I think our society needs a huge " Wake-up" call.As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all. ..a view from the inside if you will.
First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be madeto work in the "back" of an animal shelter for justone day.

Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost,confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don't even know. That puppy youjust sold will most likely end up in my shelter whenit's not a cute little puppy anymore.

So how would you feel if you knew that there's about a> 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays" that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses I hear are;

"We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving to that doesn't allow pets and why did you choose that place instead of a pet friendly home?
Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would". How big did you think a German Shepherd would get?

"We don't have time for her". Really? I work a 10- 12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs!

"She' s tearing up our yard". How about making her a part of your family?

They always tell me: "We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog."

Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressfuldo you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you,your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the momentyou drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelterisn't full and your dog manages to stay completelyhealthy. If it sniffles, it dies.

Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a roomwith about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will haveto relieve itself where it eats and sleeps.

It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for thefamily that abandoned it.

If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in thatday to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your petwon't get any attention besides having a bowl of foodslid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of itspen with a high-powered hose.

If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully"breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty muchdead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogsjust don't get adopted.

It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are. If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed.

If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough,and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay ofexecution, but not for long.

Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment.

If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances areit will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infectionand will be destroyed because shelters just don't havethe funds to pay for even a $100 treatment. Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you thathave never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animalbeing "put-down"....

First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash.They always look like they think they are going for a walk -happy, wagging their tails.

Until, they get to "The Room", every one of themfreak out and put the brakes on when we get to the door. Itmust smell like death or they can feel the sad souls thatare left in there, it's strange, but it happens withevery one of them.

Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vettechs depending on the size and how freaked out they are.

Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process.They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethaldose of the "pink stuff".

Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrainedand jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg andbeen covered with the resulting blood and been deafened bythe yelps and screams.

They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimesthey spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate onthemselves.

When it all ends, your pet's corpse will be stackedlike firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of theother animals that were killed waiting to be picked up likegarbage.

What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Renderedinto pet food? You'll never know and it probablywon't even cross your mind. It was just an animal andyou can always buy another one, right?

I hope that those of you that have read this are bawlingyour eyes out and can't get the pictures out of yourhead I deal with everyday on the way home from work.

I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that itwill always be there unless you people make some changes andrealize that the lives you are affecting go much furtherthan the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in sheltersand only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life Ican but rescues are always full, and there are more animalscoming in everyday than there are homes.

My point to all of this: DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILESHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is whatit is.

I just hope I maybe changed one person's mind aboutbreeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, orbuying a dog.

I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say"I saw this and it made me want to adopt." THATWOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT!

PLEASE FORWARD, CROSS POST, CIRCULATE TO YOUR FRIENDS.FAMILY, & CONTACTS!!!!