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

A day at the DMV – Bangkok Style

Dear Readers,

Thailand has a very weird strange tradition? not a tradition, more like a regulation. I received my first driver’s liscence (temporary) on December 24 2004,  December 24th 2005 received my 5 year liscence. And it expires February 20th 2009!

A 5 year liscence expiring in less than 5 years? (10 months earlier?)  Everyone’s driver’s liscence expires on their birthday!

Happy Birthday! Expose yourself to thousands of people and germs, waste a morning at the DMV! So sweet of them!

Mr. Celebrity advised me -> Stacy, don’t speak a WORD OF THAI. not a WORD.

The process for renewal for foreigners? We go there, show our passport, work permit, and queue for vision/reaction test. (and avoid the 1 hour training lesson – in Thai – for thai people)

I have to say, when you are renewing your 5 year old liscence, the ladies at the counter are not too happy about you not speaking a word of Thai. They spoke to me in Thai, (because I also look Thai) and I did the whole,

*blink twice* I’m sorry can you say that again? My what? my work permit? Ooh, here you go..
*blink twice again*No, I don’t speak any Thai, um..mao cow jai? (deliberately horrendous thai)

Anyhoo,  I was directed to room 16 for my vision/reaction test. I knocked on the door before I entered. Opened the door, and to my amazement, it is this um..6m x 7m room, with roughly 25 people? (So stupid of me to have knocked!)

There were small lanes for testing, first was the colour blind test, followed by a reaction test, then some dimension gauging test? and finally a peripheral vision test.

Colour Blind Test
This test was the standard colour chart test, a mixture of yellow, red and green dots, big and small – all combined in one huge circle. Then the testing lady, she is a real character, with her pointer stick – pointing at different circles and we are suppose to call out the colours. She moves at the speed of lighting, I think 10 colours in 30 seconds. For the Thai people she was much meaner, I had 4 motorcycle taxi drivers in front of me, and she was speaking loudly to them, “WHAT COLOUR! SAY IT AGAIN! CLEARER!! WHAT RED YELLOW RED YELLOW SAY THE COLOUR I POINT TO!” geeeeeeeeeeeeesh! We stood 5 road cones away, and when we passed that test she put out her palm and said, PAPER! and we would all scurry over for her signature.

Reaction Test
Surprise surprise, Mean Tester lady moved 2 steps to the left and she became our Reaction Test judge. I quickly read through the instructions when waiting, but during the test, she gives you no idea what to do. So if you weren’t paying attention earlier in the waiting halls, you basically are screwed.

Try to figure out from the situation what I had to do:

1. Box 4-5 meters distance from me- looks like a domino with 2 dots. One dot is red, and on the bottom is green.
2. To the side of the dots, is a LED light grading, green and red (bottom to top)
3. A plastic stool to sit on.
4. A simulation brake and accelerator pedal.
5. One mean lady sitting beside the box.

So I had no idea what to do, was stepping on the accelerator saw the red dot flash. Saw the LED lights zoom up from green to red. Looked at the lady, she wasn’t happy at all and told me to step on the brake when I see the red dot flash. Ahhh…I tried the 2nd time but I guess my reaction was slow, and plus I SLAMMED on the brake which she wasn’t very happy about that either…. But  3rd time is the charm! And I survived! yay!

Weird dimension visual test
This is also probably a very standard test, but looked quite ghetto. I basically have to alight one moving stick to a stationary stick. – Obstacles ==> Sticks are like Straws, Sticks are positioned 5 meters away, in a small box, and there is a old control –> Press green for forward, press red for backwards. I’m thinking…the stick is originally 20 cm away from eachother, and you have to match them.

But I passed it fairly easily! yay!! better than those motorcycle drivers! woohoo!

Peripheral Vision Test
This has got to be a germaphob’s worst nightmare. You have to put your nose in this mould thingy, and there are light boxes surrounding your head, and you are suppose to call out the colours you see.

Omg! I almost fainted when I saw all the 4 people in front of me put their noses in the thingy, and then it was MY TURN? And i kept on thinking, damN!!! i should had brought my facial wipes!
So…I did the test without putting my nose in the thing, just hovered 5cm outside the designated area…*shivers*

***

After the test, I went back to the original counter, and said I didn’t understand Thai. The lady then ushered me inside a small 2 meter wide aisle, with a TV in the centre, and 4 wooden student chairs. THEY NOW UPGRADED AND HAVE ENGLISH VIDEOS TO WATCH!!! When the video stopped playing,  signed a book, and sent to collect my queuing number. The lady at the information counter didn’t believe that I passed all my tests and training (because I guess I took too short of a time?) she walked me back to the training room, and I was smiling as much as possible No!!! sorry! excuse me! I took the test already! watched the video already!!!

My queue number was 96, there were 24 people ahead of me. That translates to 1 hour worth of waiting time. I passed the time chatting to a very nice Scot couple, so time flew by very fast.

The final step of getting my driver’s liscence? My photo taking! Which was quite fun, because I figured, hey its the last phase, I can speak a little Thai…so joked around with the lady a bit. She let me retake my photo because in the first 2, my hair was a mess, and my shirt was slanted. But at the endof the day, both she and I decided to go for the disheveled look because I looked “sweeter” haha.

She also wanted to take my old driver’s liscence away from me, but I knew how much Greg wanted to keep mines (because its really horribly ugly, and he laughs everytime he sees it.) So I made a special request to keep my driver’s liscence, hopped over to the photocopy machine – 2 baht, gave her a copy and I was done!

Quite efficient and I was very impressed! My card was printed in colour, in 2 minutes!

All in all, I was at the Prakanong Transport Bureau ( I guess that’s what it’s called?) for THREE HOURS. Ugh..

That office was packed with people, can you imagine, all of us had roughly the same birthdays? (those renewing) I wonder if how many of those people had the same birthday as me…and how oddly different we all are…

Hmm…30 minutes into being 25, and absolutely loving it!
Stacy

Fabulous Japan – Enroute –

Dear Readers,

Being on the relatively tight budget, I decided to fly to Tokyo using North West Airlines. My seat was 23J – A good sign, Jamie’s birthday. Got on the plane, it was an early morning flight, 7 am? I basically struggled my way to the gate, saw my seat, sat down and slept.

One thing I was quite shocked about was how small the plane was, the layout was 2 3 2, so requesting for the window seat has quite little meaning (because there is no middle seat.)

The seats are quite small, and their reclining function is top class.  Here is a demonstration of the reclining seats (filmed by Andrea, while on our way to Tokyo from Kyoto, please ignore my manly croaking voice)

Anyways, I just couldn’t believe how ghetto the service was. No offense to the airhostess in charge of my area, but she was one hell of a grouchy lady.

Episode 1: Pork, Beef or Nunnery?

So imagine this, its the dinner service, and I hear her snapping at the passengers in front, “PORK or BEEF?” 
Hahahaha – ? Just previous night before, Vick was telling me how she speaks to the passengers, “Excuse me, would you like chicken masala or chicken tikka?”

So I sit up, choose pork (and live to regret it.)  And in front of me, I see alot of orange cloth.

Shit.

For those of you who are unaccustomed to Thai culture. It is a huge social taboo for a woman to sit in a near proximity to a monk. I don’t really understand why it is a social taboo? Maybe we’d seduce them, or maybe they’d be tempted to jump us. (hahahah i’m so horrible.) But anyhoo, the point I was getting to, was that I was assigned a seat BEHIND a monk, and thus this implies another X amount of years of damnation to the nunnery. CURSED TO THE NUNNERY!!! Fabulous!

Episode 2: Football-Pass Croissant

So I went back to sleep, but before doing so, I put on my diva shades (to block the light, and to also act as a Do Not Distrub sign).  And I usually sleep on my side, so I was sleeping towards the window, I hear the stewardess saying, “You want?, You want?”, I turn my body more to centre of my seat, facing now towards the left, I hear another “You want?” and I look up briefly and see a croissant being HURLED towards me!

The most miraculous thing was that I actually CAUGHT the croissant, with like a football pass!!! With my left hand!

Hahahaha!!!!

For people who know me, this was a feat in itself because I am very athletically challenged.

New tag line for North West

I will give the North West Airlines marketing Team new tag lines.

“There is never a boring moment when you fly with  North West Airlines”

or

“There is always a fun story to tell with North West Airlines”

I refuse to claim frequent flyer points with that Airline, it would imply future travels with them.

I’m an Emirates girl now,

Stacy