BK Magazine – Gretchen Worth writes a disappointing reply

Dear Readers,

Today I received an email from the CEO of Asia City Media Group (not sure for Thailand or the whole group)  Here it is:

— On Wed, 9/30/09, Gretchen Worth <gretchen@asia-city.co.th> wrote:

From: Gretchen Worth <gretchen@asia-city.co.th>
Subject: RE: Mooncake Lab – distasteful article owes an apology.
To: “Stacy Ho” <skmkh2002@yahoo.com>
Cc: “Gregoire Glachant” <Greg@asia-city.co.th>
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 6:56 AM

Dear Ms. Ho:

Thank you for your emails.

Our editor has answered your email personally, and BK Magazine has published Lawrence C.K. Ho’s email in the Letters section of the issue dated September 25, 2009.

We consider this matter closed.

Sincerely,
Gretchen Worth

***********

To which I replied:

Dear Gretchen,
Thank you for your email.   I have never received a personal response from Mr. Gregoire Glachant. I know that he responded to ONE complaint of many. His email did not contain any apology. Please find it below.  

 Publishing Lawrence C.K Ho’s letter is not adequate. This action does not absolve your offensive article.   Your editor clearly offended people. Since he spoke on behalf of BK Magazine “We at BK Magazine do not like Mooncakes” an apology should be printed. This would be a great gesture from BK Magazine.

I am very disappointed about how all of you have handled this matter. Even in your email, there is no sense of remorse, and your “We consider this matter closed” is very cold and unapologetic.  

As a part of Asia City Media Group, how could an article like this be published? HK Magazine, IS Magazine, S-H Magazine would never publish an article like this because they know it would backfire. I am including them in this email so they can see how their Asia City affiliate so poorly deals with readers and so poorly handles public relations.   

Please print a public apology.  

 Best wishes,
Stacy
*                          *                             *                        *                      *                          *                                    *                           *                    *

I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!  Gretchen Worth’s email is so cold and unapologetic. I am not asking for them to be the friendliest people on the block,  but still. Why are they not apologising? Do they think just by publishing ONE opinion letter in their “Letter” section this can absolve their misjudgement? 
 
I am shocked and appalled about how unprofessional they are. I hope that they will change their minds and print an apology. My friend told me that if this happened in the US, or Canada, these people would be in big trouble!  Come on people!! I don’t believe and I won’t beleive that just because this happened in Thailand we can also shrug our shoulders and let them say whatever they want??

BK MAGAZINE PLEASE PRINT AN APOLOGY!

Shocked appalled and frustrated with BK MAGAZINE,
Stacy

BK Magazine – Rally to get a printed apology from Gregoire Glachant

Dear Readers,

Mid Autumn Festival falls on October 3rd this year. I am hoping that we can get them to print an apology/retract the article by October 3rd, if not, at least within the month of October!

We have to flood their email inboxes!

I have drafted up a quick template for you to copy and paste, but please feel free to write your own!

***
Write your complaints to:
Greg@asia-city.co.th, gglachant@asia-city.co.th,asiacity@asia-city.com.hk,
gworth@asia-city.co.th, bkmagazine@asia-city.co.th , asiacity@asia-city.com.hk , shonline@asia-city.com.cn , ismag@asia-city.com.sg, letters@asia-city.co.th

Gretchen Worth is the CEO of Asia City Media Group.

Email Message:

Dear Gretchen Worth,

I read the article Mooncake Lab – the Attack of the Baked Goods from Outer Space – that was featured in BK Magazine on September 4th 2009.

I find this article distasteful and disrespectful to Chinese culture.

Mooncakes are not only Chinese culinary delicacies, but they are also a part of Chinese history. Every mid-autumn festival, Mooncakes are enjoyed and shared by family and friends, to say that Mooncakes are the cockroaches of food is unacceptable.

Please print a public apology.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

***
The facebook event url is: Write to Asia City Media Group

Thanks for your support!

 

Gotta get packing!
Stacy

BK Magazine is distasteful. Reply from Gregoire Glachant is unapologetic.

DearReaders,

Well, it took them 2 issues, and they printed my Dad’s complaint letter – a bit edited  though.

And, Cynthia just forwarded me the Managing Editor’s reply! One chinese person from Australia wrote a complaint letter (I’ll post it here if he gives me permission later) and he got back a reply: ( I don’t know why no one else got replies though..)

****

Thanks for your comments. We’ll try to run your letter if space allows.
>
> You said it yourself: it’s a “silly” story. It was a humorous piece, not
> a scientific experiment. You’re free to find the humor distasteful, but
> please don’t take us seriously.
>
> I adore China, Chinese food (well, except mooncakes) and Chinese people.
> And so does my magazine.
>
> Lighten up and happy Mid-Autumn Festival.
>
> Regards,
>
> Gregoire Glachant

****

I think this is really not acceptable, the writer’s attitude is unapologetic and he basically is communicating a *shrug*

And let’s talk about general customer service and corporate branding/image.  even if the editor did not feel apologetic, his email should read, ” I am sorry that I have offended you, please know  that this was unintentional. Thank you for letting me know your sentiment. I sincerely hope that you will continue to be a BK Magazine Reader.”

something like that!  Is that too much to ask? Who is this guy? How is he so incredibly unprofessional?

I just can’t believe it.

Hence, I am launching my PHASE 2. Please check out our facebook group: BK Magazine is Distasteful

We want a printed apology!
Thanks for all your support!
Stacy

BK Magazine Ridicules Chinese Culture. Still no news from Gregoire Glachant.

Dear Readers,

My dad was so upset when I told him about the article, he read it himself and was so shocked! This afternoon he wrote an email to Gretchen Worth – the CEO of Asia City Media Group in Bangkok, here is his letter.  I think we all have to start doing this, emailing their offices to get attention and to get that apology!

Here are the addresses: gworth@asia-city.co.th (Gretchen Worth), bkmagazine@asia-city.co.th , asiacity@asia-city.com.hk , shonline@asia-city.com.cn , ismag@asia-city.com.sg

Here is my dad’s email:

Dear Gretchen:

I find the article “Mooncake Lab” by Gregoire Glachant appeared in your BK September ‘09 edition very distasteful and racist in nature. Moon cake is the symbol of a much revered and celebrated festival commonly known as the Mid-Autumn festival in the Chinese calendar. This festival falls on August 15th of the lunar calendar in which the moon is believed to be the roundest. This, in turn, symbolizes perfection. Thus, every Chinese family strives to get all its members together to celebrate this occasion as one perfect family.

Mr. Galchant didn’t give any reason why all the staff in BK himself included didn’t like the moon cake. He further mentioned various ways of abusing the moon cakes like used them as doorstops.His abusive attitude towards the moon cakes reminds me of the recent racist incident in Malaysia in which a group of fanatic Muslims cut the head of a cow and trashed the head by beating and stomping on it so as to air their anger on the minority Hindi population.

By abusing the moon cakes and calling them the “cockroaches of food”, he knowingly or unknowingly was attacking and hurting the sentiment of the Chinese people. This is certainly not the conduct of a gentleman and definitely far from being the conduct of a managing editor of your prestigious magazine.

I write to you in the hope that your editorial staff will exercise more prudence in the writing and selection of articles with due consideration to other people’s feelings with regard to their religious, cultural and political beliefs. We all want to live in a harmonious world. Mr.Galchant article certainly wouldn’t help and works the other way.

Best wishes,
Lawrence C.K. Ho

****

So proud of my dad!
Stacy

BK Magazine Review

Dear Readers,

This was my review for BK magazine on their facebook page, and it wouldn’t be posted unless I removed my previous blog post! Because said blogpost was reported as ABUSIVE!

So they can make a mockery of my culture, and have the audacity to call ME abusive!

Shocked and appalled,
Stacy

 

You know, I don’t mind some humour and wit from time to time, but recently BK Magazine has just gone down a spiral of distasteful articles, from their Songkran (women go to songkran to have their breast fondled) article, to the expose on sleazy sex motels, and finally the last straw…making a MOCKERY of Chinese culture, by conducting a distasteful experiment on Mooncakes!

I noticed that the article “Attack of the Mooncakes” isn’t in this Facebook Profile, perhaps in retrospect BK Mag realised they shouldn’t had printed it.
But here it is for everyone to read:

***
Attack of the baked goods from outer space. Text and Photos by Gregoire Glachant.

 We don’t like mooncakes at BK. In the past, we’ve used them as doorstops, penholders een as weapons of self-defense. But, just like herpes, you can count on mooncakes to come back, no matter what you throw at them or who you throw them at. showers. This year, we conducted a scientific experiment, leaving a mooncake on our office windowsill. It sat there for exactly 10 days. It went through at least two heavy storms and daily the ants wouldn’t touch it until day 7. The birds stopped coming – they might never return. The mooncake’s only visible transformation was a growing ring of oil at its base. On day 10, when we cut it open, we found the insides appeared identical to those of a fresh mooncake. If we could bear eating it, we bet it would pretty much taste the same. Sorry, but that’s just not right. These things are like the cockroaches of food: if there were a nuclear holocaust, the last thing left to eat wouldn’t be canned sardines. it would be mooncakes.
***
Believe it or not, this article was written by the Managing Editor himself. If the Managing Editor illustrates such a lack of tact and general common cultural sensitivity, you can only imagine his leniency with regards to the quality of articles in BK Mag.

BK Magazine ridicules Chinese culture. Distasteful article written by BK’s Managing Editor – Gregoire Glachant

Dear Readers,

I was BOILING MAD and EXTREMELY OFFENDED when I read the following article in BK Magazine. September 4th 2009. And imagine this was written by the Managing Editor! 

****

Attack of the baked goods from outer space. Text and Photos by Gregoire Glachant.

 We don’t like mooncakes at BK. In the past, we’ve used them as doorstops, penholders een as weapons of self-defense. But, just like herpes, you can count on mooncakes to come back, no matter what you throw at them or who you throw them at. showers. This year, we conducted a scientific experiment, leaving a mooncake on our office windowsill. It sat there for exactly 10 days. It went through at least two heavy storms and daily the ants wouldn’t touch it until day 7. The birds stopped coming – they might never return. The mooncake’s only visible transformation was a growing ring of oil at its base. On day 10, when we cut it open, we found the insides appeared identical to those of a fresh mooncake. If we could bear eating it, we bet it would pretty much taste the same. Sorry, but that’s just not right. These things are like the cockroaches of food: if there were a nuclear holocaust, the last thing left to eat wouldn’t be canned sardines. it would be mooncakes.

 ****

Here is the complaint letter I wrote to them, I hope they will take some action on this:

From: Stacy
Subject: Mooncake Lab – culturally offensive article in BK Magazine
To: bkmagazine@asia-city.co.th
Cc: asiacity@asia-city.com.hk, ismag@asia-city.com.sg, shonline@asia-city.com.cn, pchow@asia-city.com.sg, gcrandall@asia-city.com.hk
Date: Thursday, September 10, 2009, 12:33 AM

Dear Editor,   I am a regular reader of BK magazine, at times some articles are rude and offensive but I never complain because, perhaps I’m more on the conservative side. (Like for instance, that horrible Songkran article where your writer wrote, “Women go to Khao san to get their breast fondled” (Not the exact wording but something to that tone)   I’m writing to you about the article written by you wrote, Mr. Gregoire Glachant, on Mooncakes, titled “Moon Cake Lab” http://bkmagazine.com/feature/mooncake-lab   You say, ” We don’t like mooncakes at BK. In the past we’ve used them as foorstops, penholders and even weapons of self-defense” And carries on to day that as an experiment he leaves them out, untouched for 7 days and even cockroaches won’t eat them?   This is really offensive. Being Chinese, we love mooncakes as it is tradition to share mooncakes with friends and family, and it is one of the constant customs and comfort items of the Mid-Autumn festival. The mid-autumn festival just isn’t the mid autumn festival without our mooncakes! You may not like them, but to write an article where you say cockroaches won’t even eat them because they are so ghastly? It is not witty nor is it humourous. It is downright distasteful.   I implore you, dear editor, for you and your writers to have more taste and tact. I am all for freedom of speech, but there is a thin line between voicing your opinion and being distasteful and disrespectful to another culture.   Many chinese people (be them overseas, or Chinese-Thai) people read your magazine, and  you are also have afflilates magazines in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur. I am CC-ing your affliates in this email because I think they should know what type of content is in BK Magazine.   Angered and disgusted by your article, Regards, Stacy

 

I’m so angry! Some non-chinese culturally insensitive guy writes this article, saying that Mooncakes are the most horrible thing on earth, I bet he didn’t even bother to learn and to acquaint himself with the historical cultural significance of Mooncakes.

Moon cake history (from website: http://www.hkfastfacts.com/Chinese%20Festivals/mid-autumn-festival-moon-cakes.htm)

During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy to live under foreign rule.  They decided to coordinate a rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Inside each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. Because it’s a Han (the main clan before the Mongolian took over) cake, the Mongolian people are not interested.  On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.

***

Mooncakes celebrate the legacy and the history of China. Wikipedia on Mooncakes. It angers me that someone, the managing editor of BK Magazine could be so culturally insensitive and downright distasteful!

 Very disgusted,
Stacy

Brick walls are meant to be climbed

Dear Readers,

I bit the bullet today.  Did something completely out of character.

I emailed the HQ of the bank – to request for a further look-into my application, and to give feedback about my  experience with their HK recruitment division.

Why out of character?

I’m the type of person who accepts rejection. I dislike persistency.

When it comes to work —> What? We didn’t get it? okay don’t worry move on and let’s focus on another avenue…
When it comes to love —>  hmm…I’m not going to call him if he doesn’t want to speak to me, why beg?

You know, I really never ever want to be the type of girl who says (when it comes to matters of the heart)

What? what do you mean we aren’t compatible? what do you mean I’m not your type? PLLLEAASE think about it.

Ugh. Never done it, but sometimes I sit back and regret that I didn’t. Something to do with having lots of pride (my downfall) but I am definitely not one to grovel.  Persistent men scare me.

That’s why today was so un-me to write an email to the HQ. I was rejected, why can’t I just accept it and move on?
I can’t because I feel that I was unfairly treated and because of ONE 小气 (petty) woman, my whole career gets thrown off track? Freaking bi!*%h!!!

Some of my friends  in the industry, were concerned that I was thinking too much about this job (too positive), they asked me not to put so much heart into it because I didn’t know anyone in the bank. Didn’t have any connections. I told them that that was silly because its a large well-known professional bank, a bank that believes in meritocracy/technocracy, they would consider me like any other candidate. *sigh* I’m a naive greenhorn.

I guess one disadvantage of being raised by 100% fully supportive positive thinking parents, is that when I did get the rejection email, their response was:

WHAT? They must be crazy! Something must be wrong? How can they NOT want you?? Must be the lady!!!
Rather than the typical. ‘That’s life, move on and apply for another job’  response.

I emailed the HK Recruitment team last week to clarify any misunderstanding (she thinks im greedy…what in the hell..) and to ask for her to reconsider and put me through to an interview with the business manager. As usual – no response.I was just going to leave it at that. But last night, I was reading Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture (RIP) and the excerpt that caught me was:

“I called the admissions office until they eventually decided they might as well accept me. They saw how badly I wanted in. Tenacity got me over the brick wall”
p.171, the Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

 

What do I have to lose right? At most I’ll be blacklisted from a company that didn’t want me in the first place.  Never give up. And as Wayne Gretzky once quoted,  “You miss 100% of the shots you never take”

 So took that shot, probably nothing will come out of it, but at least I gave it my all, and I did all I could possibly do to try to get hired by this bank. Yes I grovelled, yes I begged.

As Yeen Yee so nicely puts it (she says its verbatim from The Last Lecture, but I scanned the book, haven’t seen it, so I’m quoting her ;p)

Brick walls are meant to be climbed

I’ve been facing quite a few brick walls lately. All this time I’ve been banging my head against these brick walls, but today was the start of a new perspective.
Now, the trick is figuring out ways to climb them.

I guess I have to get a grapple? is that what it’s called?
Stacy

Santika’s Inferno – More Insight

Dear Readers,

I found this 2 accounts of what happened at Santika that night: Lights were shut off and everyone was scrambling in pitch darkness with suffocating smoke. No emergency lights.

A post by a Singaporean: detailed account plus actual photos of sparklers given in the club (A Must Read)

Another user Vince gives his account

I appreciate them sharing what really happened,

In shock,
Stacy

Bangkok’s 2009 Early Tragedy – Santika’s Inferno

Dear Readers,

I am pissed.

I am pissed at the whole situation, and pissed because Jamie lost her friend Win in the Santika tragedy.

Imagine this, December 31st 2008, a Goodbye Santika party, with performance from Joey-Boy and a band called Burn.

Party goers were handed sparklers to celebrate the new year. Santika was a chic happening club, a club where tourist went,  and higher-than-normal folk – society people partied. Outside the club, you could see a line of expensive cars – ferraris, minis, bmws, and mercs. I went there once with Neha, and have to say, I liked it. Yes it was the typical Thai style dance club – with tables on the dancefloor, but there was a little dance floor room near the stage (from what I remember) so any club with a dance floor gets a two thumb approval from me.

But what we really overlook when we do go clubbing, are fire exits, the presence of sprinklers, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, emergency lights…I guess we either assume that nothing bad would happen to us – or – a club would obviously have all these safety measures because they have a club liscence. – right?

That law of logic basically goes to shit in Thailand. That whole list? fire exits…sprinklers..fire extinguishers…- not adequate.

Santika decorated their stage with normal curtains – not fire retardant ones. Fire extinguishers? – One.

Sprinklers? – none that I know of. Fire exits? – 3 but 2 back exits were only known to the staff – not even the fire fighters knew about it.

So what really happened that night? Its a piece by piece put together, but the rough idea was that about around 12:20-35ish the band BURN celebrated the new year by using FIREWORKS (not stage fireworks) on stage, and immediately the ceiling (that was made of soundproof material) caught on fire. Some revellers thought it was even part of the show, but when the ceiling started to fall on them (not a whole chunk at first, more like ashes) a panic broke out. Somehow, people on the 2nd floor realised the fire before people on the ground floor, and everyone was rushing to the main exit, so that some deaths were caused by the stampede.

I read here and there, and one man said he jump kicked the glass windows on the ground floor, and only made a small hole and felt so helpless didn’t know how to get out. Worse – on the 2nd floor the windows had grills.

The fire was further amplified because of the bottles of alcohol on the main dance floor (remember, Thai clubs have bar tables on the dance floor, thats how Thais party, head bobbing and minimal booty shaking around their bar table.) so there were mini explosions from the alcohol bottles.

1,000 people, stampeding out of the 3 storey building, mainly using the 2 metre wide exit.

It took the fire fighters 2 hours to bring the blaze under control. Total – 64 people dead, 240+ injured.

Of the 64, there were 17 bodies that were burnt beyond recognition – charred. When they couldn’t locate Jamie’s friend Win, by the 2nd day, I had a strong gut feeling that it was bad news. His mother had to fly in from Myanmar for DNA testing and they found him, his girlfriend Laika and his friend Mark all near the back exits.

After googling alot about the incident, my mother found a post on thaivisa.com, someone who similarly was missing 4 friends. Then on a facebook group, I saw the same post, but the photo that was shown to look for the missing people did not include Win, so I didn’t think it was him.

Turns out, after giving Jamie the link, she pointed out that the people in the photo included Mark and Laika, but Win wasn’t there (maybe he was taking the photo).

So this was his story:

“We believe the girl was hit by debris from the roof, and her bf tried to help, but either passed out, or he and my bro managed to get her to the rear exit before passing out. Unfortunately, when the rescue teams came, they only went in from the front… As for the last friend, apparently he had already managed to get to safety, but didn’t see any of us, so went back in… He was found in the vicinity of the entrance, only a few meters from the 3…”

He was 26, a MBA student at ABAC, and Jamie’s friend/mentor (in the Debate club) for the past 4 years. He was also Dianna’s close friend, so its devastating for the both of them. I didn’t know him, but I always remember Jamie raving about him, how he is such a nice guy.

And the way he died, trying to save his unconscious girlfriend, most probably being knocked out conscious from the falling ceiling, or succumbing to the clouds of smoke…and the most UPSETTING thing – seeking refuge/hope by circumventing the crowds – going to the back exit and having it overlooked by fire fighters.

I’m PISSED! Pissed at the lack of safety regulations in Thailand. Santika did not hold a club liscence – they only had a liscence to run a food stall. FOOD STALL. Bribery is how they got away with it, probably paying police/inspectors 100,000 baht a month (at least).  In total, Santika made an estimate of 60 million baht per year in revenue.

This is how Thailand works – its called systemic corruption – corruption that is more than just one bar owner and one tainted cop, its a whole SYSTEM of police, government regulators and business owners. I recently spoke to a friend who opened a pub/restaurant near her home. I asked her if she had proper liscencing, and she told me quite frankly that she doesn’t, she knows a high police official in that area, and so pays a bribe of 1,000 baht per month to the police.

1,000 baht, can you believe that?

Days like this I am very disgusted to live here, and there is a facebook group that now shares places to boycott and be aware of when clubbing. Here is a link showing the fire exits for a popular gay club called DJ STATION : Look at this crazy ladder exit.

You know, I was watching Oprah’s Best Life – the Spiritual episode, and one interviewer said he was stuck in an airplane crash -Dante’s Inferno and he saw aura lights leaving the passengers’ bodies. Some were bright some were dim, each aura had a different strength to it. I’d like to think that Jamie’s friend Win’s aura left very bright, just from the photos that I saw of him, all the posts his friends wrote about him, and stories from Jamie and Grego, I know that he was a fun loving individual, always caring and selfless – this was especially illustrated at his heroic attempt to save his girlfriend – it is a damn dirty shame that the back exit wasn’t adequate for them to be rescued.

To see his facebook dedication page, please click here

May all the victims of Santika’s inferno find peace in their afterlife, know that they have touched many lives and are deeply missed,
Stacy

News articles:

Police: Many Victims were Foreigners

Rescuers helpless as flames engulf revellers

Teenagers flock to Santika to take photos of “ghosts” (this link is a bit freaky.)

Mouldy Moon cake

Dear Readers,

Guess what, I don’t remember if I told you that Dad and I bought a box of moon cake (yum) when we were in KL.

Uncle David took us to buy Malaysia’s most famous 月饼, it cost us 46RM for 4 lotus paste with one yolk moon cake. (My family LOVES MOONCAKE!! and Thai moon cake is HORRIBLE) The cake is nothing compared to HK, but better than Thailand, but the most shocking is that for one of the moon cakes, we opened the box and found MOULD on it!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

*****

TT Resources Bhd., Malaysia

Product: Tai Thong Moon Cakes

Re: Quality Complaint – Mouldy Moon cakes.

To whom it may concern:

On July 31st I was visiting KL, and purchased one box of moon cake (lotus paste with one yolk) at your Kiosk outside your restaurant. Yesterday when I presented it to my parents, we were so shocked to find one of the mooncake with MOULD growth on it. The expiration date said October 31st 2008. The other 3 mooncakes had no problem, but I am a bit concerned because they have the same batch number: 1023 0614 0824

I am very disappointed with your company because my friend told me you were the best moon cake makers in Malaysia and I was surprised when this happened, also embarassed because it was a present to my parents.I hope that in KL you, your customers will not need to go through the same problem as me.
Please advise how you will solve this complaint.
Best wishes,

Stacy

***

Let’s see how they reply.

Stacy