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Good Work I am a newcomer visiting Hong Kong for the first time. I have been here for the past 10 months and I happen to become a frequent visitor of the Chinese University, as my husband, Venugopal, is a Ph.D student in the Department of Electronic Engineering. I myself am a postgraduate with an M.A. in communication and journalism from India, and I would take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to all those students who are the backbone behind publishing the award-winning monthly magazine Varsity. I have been a regular reader of Varsity and I have to mention the beauty of this excellent magazine, for only a person in the same field would know the difficulty in bringing out such a magazine. The meaningful articles covered in every issue, the style of writing, the paper quality and the photography speak to the professional touch which is hard to expect from beginners or budding journalists. The students are really fortunate or rather blessed to gain a degree here, for they gain very good exposure. They are sure to reach great heights and become excellent journalists later. I hope this little piece of information will encourage students to make the most while they are here. Indira Vijayalakshmi Policy is main culprit Recently a film by Video Power was shown in the Hong Kong Arts Centre. One of the stories was about the severe fire that broke out in Zhili Toy Factory in Shenzhen, China, in 1993. In the film, a 23-year-old victim’s amputated leg is shown. Her wounds have worsened over the years. She is waiting for compensation to undergo surgery. However, up to now, there has still been no proper compensation. In my opinion, the main culprit should be the government policy that allows factories to operate the way they did. The fact is that there are lots of factories with doors and windows locked. Inside they are packed with female laborers working round the clock. The environment is intolerable, but still workers manage to survive there in order to earn a living. If this situation doesn’t change, the tragedy will definitely repeat itself. The mainland government should not turn a blind eye and let foreign investors deprive citizens of their rights. There should be regular checks on the facilities of those factories and the officials should fill the loopholes of the policy as soon as possible. S.Y. Kwong More frequent trains I’m writing to complain about the frequency of trains of the Mass Transit Railway in the early morning. At about half past 6 one morning, I waited for nearly 15 minutes before a train came. If the frequency of trains is arranged according to the number of passengers, then, please go and watch how crowded it is in the early morning train. I hope that the company will look at this issue to improve its service to early passengers. Phoebe Lam Please take one only I would like to express the sadness I felt when I saw people tearing the tea bags from Varsity last month, leaving the magazines behind. I could not believe my eyes and could not believe that people could be that greedy. Only one tea bag would have been enough to betray their greed. Name withheld by request Tea bags can’t attract readers I would like to express my opinion on the tea bag your magazine gave away in the January issue. I am a regular Varsity reader. Every month, I go to the canteen in New Asia College to check for the latest edition of Varsity. However, I was really shocked when I went there to get the January issue of Varsity. Usually, I find a lot of copies there. However, this time, there were not many copies left. Moreover, the copies left all had their covers torn. I am not saying that Varsity is not a good magazine and that people will not rush to grab a copy. However, it is quite strange for university students nowadays to be so eager to read an English magazine. I finally found the answer when I saw some of my friends holding the January issue of Varsity. My friends, who are not regular readers of your magazine, told me that the reason why they took copies of the January issue was that there were free tea bags given away by the magazine. He said that some people just tore the tea bags from the magazines. I don’t know whether giving away tea bags is a new promotion your magazine is trying to use to attract readers. However, as a regular reader of your magazine, I really want to say that such cheap tricks just don’t work. People won’t read your magazine because there are free gifts given away. I hope your magazine will focus on the content of your magazine rather than thinking about new tricks to attract readers. Name withheld by request The free teabags were a promotion by an advertiser. They were not designed to promote the magazine. This problem arose because our editorial department is completely independent from the advertising department. This separation is actually important to our editorial staff. This policy makes sure that decisions about advertising do not affect editorial decisions. This maintains objectivity in reporting. Giving away tea bags was not a decision of the editorial department. And it was not some trick we thought of to attract readers. However, it would be irresponsible for us to totally shift the responsibility to the advertising department. As editors of the magazine, we should voice our objection. The content and layout of the magazine are our interests. — Eds
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