Mostly
the magazine was kind of a proto-blog, however, we did do at least one bit of
serious journalism that I was really proud of. Just before our little internet
escapade, I had broken my foot (in a karate class if you must know, the latest
in a series of breaks and injuries thanks to my martial arts classes) and a
couple of weeks hobbling around Hong Kong made me realize what an unfriendly
place it was for the disabled, and I thought it would make an interesting
article - but we decided to take it a step further. We borrowed a wheelchair from a facility for
the disabled, and had an interview with the manager their, who warned us that
we were going to find our little adventure difficult, but wished us luck with
it nonetheless. So off we went for a jaunt around Hong Kong to find out what
life was like for a handicapped person in this bustling city. In one word:
crap. Most buildings did not have disabled access, and usually had steps at the
entrance. We only found one doorman who would help us get the wheelchair
inside. People often ‘tsk’ed or swore at us for holding them up. Pedestrian
lights changed so fast that you couldn’t get across roads in time, especially
seeing as there was no inclined kerb on either side of the pedestrian
crossings, so we had to do several wheelies to get up onto the sidewalk. We also
tried to navigate the underground system, which we found was more difficult
than we expected. You had to find an underground employee to let you into the
elevator (admittedly I remember them being very helpful), but there were only
two stations with elevators, everywhere else had stairs/escalators, so you were
pretty restricted as to where you went !
The cherry on the cake, however, was our visit to a high end
hotel. We’d planned to have a couple of drinks to celebrate our journalistic
endeavors. But we found that not only were the staff unhelpful in
circumnavigating the revolving door into the hotel, but they didn’t want us to
enter in case the rubber of the wheelchair tires marked their marble floor. The
manager was surprise later to see my miraculous recovery after we’d had our
drinks, and as we walked out we threw a snide comment about how helpful and
generous they were to the disabled. I
won’t mention the name of the hotel, but it’s a big chain in the US (and in
fact around the world). To this day I avoid that hotel if I can.
I was quite proud of our little piece. And taking imitation
to be the sincerest form of flattery, I was very gratified to see a similar
piece (although not as witty or sarcastic as ours was) appear in a national
newspaper shortly after. I felt that we’d got the message out, even if in a
small way.
Incidentally, Steven went on to become a successful
journalist (he’s been published in GQ, Esquire and the Financial Times amongst
others), podcast producer and author, and an expert on blog and e-book publishing. When I first met him, he
was clueless about computers and used to call me up for advice, but went on to
become a technology columnist and editor. Anyway, I like to smugly think that
our little proto blog/e-magazine was the first step in launching his very successful
career, and that if I get to bump into him again, he’ll owe me a drink or two…
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