A Fresh Week Takes Shape: Journalism, Interest Rate Hikes, Expo's Millions and More...

I was once again a lucky man on Monday to be engaging our clients at the posh Langham hotel for this month’s media training. My extra good fortune being I was able to sit down and join the group for Mike Chinoy’s afternoon session after conducting the morning session myself. While I’ve enjoyed conducting media training sessions for several years, its amazing to keep quiet for a change and listen to the rich perspective and savvy offered by a true journalism veteran like Mr. Chinoy, a former CNN Senior Correspondent with a legendary career.

While we were deep in tips on how to give the perfect “all in one” sound-bite to a journalist’s questions so that we end up famous or at least avoid losing our jobs for saying the wrong thing, the Chinese government saw fit to announce a surprise interest rate hike, sending the markets on a roller coaster ride ever since. In Shanghai, those less interested in being media savvy or the gyrations of stocks, gold and oil apparently decided to go the World Expo as daily crowds are approaching closer to one MILLION per day, a dizzying number that’s harder to digest than a bowl of duck tongues marinating in a bowl of Sichuan pepper chili oil, which by the way, is insanely delicious. Quack Quack.

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…According to news reports at Shanghai Daily, the Costa Classica cruise ship collided with a cargo ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and just a couple of days earlier while this very same ship was in port at JeJu Island, South Korea, 44 Chinese passengers jumped ship. What they should have been trying to avoid is typhoon Megi, the nastiest typhoon in years to hit the Philippines, now heading for the Hong Kong Guangdong basin. Yesterday Mike Chinoy told me that when he was with CNN, his assignments covering typhoons with stuff flying all around were amongst his favorite. If you’re less brave than he and also a smoker thinking of getting away from the storm by spending a few days in Harbin, you should know that the city has become the first in China to ban smoking in all indoor public places; the “Harbin Second-hand Smoking Control Law” includes fines of up to 2000 yuan…ending on a romantic note, five of Chile’s 33 rescued miners are to have church weddings, in some cases more than 20 years after they first tied the knot, inspired by their survival after two-months trapped underground. Nice.

Mario Cavolo
Shanghai

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