Latest news with #specialtreatment
South China Morning Post
22-07-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
Food influencers with their LED camera lights at restaurants must be stopped
Let me tell you about something that happened to me. If it sounds familiar, you have my pity. I was at a restaurant in Hong Kong that will remain unnamed. Suffice to say, it is a place I like, but not the kind of place I can visit often unless my landlord starts accepting IOUs. Nestling into the plush, intimate space, I noticed one table was getting quite a lot of attention. A glad-handing session with the chef before any food had been served was enough to confirm that they were Very Important People. Now I am, at best, a Person of Ordinary Importance, and acutely aware of it. Getting special treatment makes me feel like someone's waiting around the corner with a terminal diagnosis or a jury summons. But I do not begrudge the white-glove service for others, as long as it does not affect me or the rest of the hoi polloi. So I thought nothing of it. That is, until their dishes arrived. And out came the cameras. Not the ones we all have in our pockets, mind you. No, these were the kind you have to lug around on a strap, the kind that could inflict head trauma on a Pachycephalosaurus.
South China Morning Post
18-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Indonesia's ‘first cat' Bobby Kertanegara gets presidential security detail
Indonesia 's 'first cat' Bobby Kertanegara is entitled to receive state facilities, a minister has said in response to criticisms after a video of President Prabowo Subianto 's pet being given special treatment went viral. Advertisement Deputy State Secretary Juri Ardiantoro said that, as Bobby was considered part of the president's property, the feline was therefore entitled to his security detail. 'It's not just the president, but the president's property is also the responsibility of the state to be maintained,' Juri said on Thursday, as quoted by Tempo news magazine. Citing examples of other presidential properties, such as Prabowo's house, the former chair of the General Elections Commission then asked a rhetorical question: 'Now I want to ask, who does Bobby belong to? Can the state guard him? Of course, it can. Why should there be a protest?' Juri was responding to a video of Bobby attending the Cat Lovers Social Day 2025 event in Jakarta on Saturday. The video circulating on social media shows Bobby being pushed in a pet stroller and escorted by several police officers onto the stage. A user on the X social media platform uploaded the video on Tuesday with the caption: 'Pathetic. Getting paid with the sweat of the people just to escort a cat? Have we gone so astray as a nation that practices like this can still persist in 2025?'
South China Morning Post
18-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Indonesia ‘first cat' Bobby Kertanegara gets presidential security detail
Indonesia 's 'first cat' Bobby Kertanegara is entitled to receive state facilities, a minister has said in response to criticisms after a video of President Prabowo Subianto 's pet being given special treatment went viral. Deputy State Secretary Juri Ardiantoro said that, as Bobby was considered part of the president's property, the feline was therefore entitled to his security detail. 'It's not just the president, but the president's property is also the responsibility of the state to be maintained,' Juri said on Thursday, as quoted by Tempo news magazine. Citing examples of other presidential properties, such as Prabowo's house, the former chair of the General Elections Commission then asked a rhetorical question: 'Now I want to ask, who does Bobby belong to? Can the state guard him? Of course, it can. Why should there be a protest?' Juri was responding to a video of Bobby attending the Cat Lovers Social Day 2025 event in Jakarta on Saturday. The video circulating on social media shows Bobby being pushed in a pet stroller and escorted by several police officers onto the stage. A user on the X social media platform uploaded the video on Tuesday with the caption: 'Pathetic. Getting paid with the sweat of the people just to escort a cat? Have we gone so astray as a nation that practices like this can still persist in 2025?'
