Red
hot as the red skirt of a young mistress in tango dancing, shinning
bright even no sun, flaming lips of a beauty in no match. - It was
nowhere but an exhibition booth in Hong Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre situated in Wanchai, Hong Kong Island. Decorating
as red as saffron, the sole products exhibited, the booth was one of
the eye-catching and graceful booths in the Food Expo 2009,
especially with the aid of high-intensity discharge lamps.
There,
everything red, the color of the broad, the display stands, the
saffron, and so as the face of the old man dressed in his own
traditional costume, sitting inside - the only people I could see
when I was passing by. I stood aside, and looked around the
surroundings for a while. The old man seemed to be in fury, sat down
by himself in the corner. There was no greeting, no introduction when
I was stepping inside the booth and looked around.
It's
bad.
The
movie character, the Bad in “The Good, the Bad and Ugly” refers
to the man with nickname Angel Eyes who was
a Union sergeant at the time of the
American Civil War, accidentally learnt the name of the
cemetery where the gold was buried
when torturing the Ugly,
another main character in the movie. He left the Ugly alive and was
team up with the Ugly and Bondie (the Good), the main character in
the movie. Angel Eyes lost his life and never saw the gold in his
life. Although the Italian movie director Sergio Leone did not tell
us who's who in the movie but I am sure
he is the Bad because he was neither making fortune, nor
survived in the end.
In
analogy, the boss of the saffron booth is considered as the Bad for
the same reason. The old man could be the boss or the person in
charge with. It seemed that he should be bearing the costs or the
consequences. He did not tell but I knew everything. Everything was
already well written on HIS FACE. I certainly have sympathy for his
situation. The money he paid for the organizer was not cheap, the
decorations, the transport costs to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong back
to his home if he insists to keep his unsold saffron, the air-fare,
the hotel expenses are also no bargain because of the location
somewhere near the Exhibition Centre.
It's
time to talk about the Good. The Good is anyone who successfully
closed the deals with the buyers in particular long term business
relations and/or sold out the goods which brought to Hong Kong making
enough money to cover all of the expenses or even in surplus after
the exhibition. I think the Good don't need further elaboration as we
are already overwhelmed by the Good's stories. The old man must be
one of those listeners. Agree?
In
the movie, we can always hear the Ugly calls Blondie. He made a
living by conspiring with
the Ugly to cheat the local authorities. - Every time he pretends to
be the one who caught the Ugly for awarded money. When in execution,
he will show off his gun shooting to scare off the local authorities
and free the Ugly from hanging.
Well,
Blondie is the Good because he is good at shooting? So he was
responsible to act as the bounty hunter for the wanted but not the
risky position as what the Ugly did and most importantly, he killed
the Bad while he survives.
Or,
Blondie is the Good because he had good luck? So he learnt the name
of the grave triggering the Ugly to save him from
dehydration and heatstroke even the Ugly was supposed to kill him to
retaliate their unfair partnership for the awarded money. Whatever
storytelling, he was just a treasure hunter by all means. Anyway, he
got the gold and left the cemetery with a horse, leaving the Ugly
alone. He was the ultimate survivor.
Speaking
backward to the saffron, it is something on the Chinese books. It is
considered as a kind of exotic herb to be used in Traditional Chinese
Medicine (TCM). In other words, it is not something for the mass
public, the major visitors of the Food Fair. Although saffron can
also be used for making soup or alcoholic beverage for supplementary
purposes but these are not common in Canton, so as in Hong Kong. Note
that top-grade saffron is an expensive item for its rarity. There is
indeed a niche market in Hong Kong and China. The only problem is how
you get there.
Lastly,
the Ugly we had always mentioned before is a bandit.
The Ugly is Ugly but he is still better than the Bad. At least, he
was freed by the Good's last shooting afar from where he was hanging
at the end of the movie. He was still alive. And, he also got some
gold. What he lacked were drinking water and a horse to give him a
ride together with his burden, the gold!
In
reality, those doing business but with no wit are ugly - Companies
already got enough funds to go exhibition but the money was not
spending wisely or the management teams did not take up
opportunities. They are alike the Ugly. Let's look back to the Food
Expo again. The tent somewhere opposite to the saffron booth
mentioned before was also no visitors except several staff sat down
and chatted by themselves, a few empty long tables as well as the
family of three standing around a table - the father was struggling
to take the dates as many as he could into his bag. The daughter, at
around 18 to early 20 was speaking in Cantonese,“Enough! Enough!”
while her father kept grasping the dates. The mother was just
looking. I stopped walking and looked to the staff but nobody came
out. The family was still there after I looked around and then walked
away.
To
make a comparison, I would like to show you what I saw in the Tea
Fair held in the same Exhibition Centre the same day. It was the last
day of the fair in the afternoon. Most of the booths from South East
Asia were already empty except some were still opening. One of the
keen strugglers was an Asian lady sat down with the table, keep using
sheet of papers to wrap trace of red tea, and hand in to everyone who
stopped by. At another booth, an Asian man wearing smiling face
answered my questions in patient after working 3 days exhibition and
at least 1 day setup even I did not purchase anything. He told me he
was selected to stay at the booth while the boss and other staff
left.
It
is not uncommon to see staff sat down by themselves without greeting
the visitors when their boss or supervisor left. It's ugly.
I
talked to some of the staff left behind. Some of them told me those
who left the exhibition half day before the closing nothing but hurry
up in doing shopping! Ugly!
Every
year, I spend some time to go to the exhibitions in Hong Kong. Food
Expo, Tea Fair, Wine Festival, Book Fair, Jewelry Show...... I am so
glad to see many different faces all around the world coming to Hong
Kong and bringing us something new. Thinking back how they were
running their businesses, the music and scenario of “The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly”, the western movie classic sometimes come up on
my mind.
