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In Reply to: 6 sq. miles - we've met for sure posted by a friend on May 30, 2006 at 05:56:25:
Your description of Macau sounds pre-Victor Camp. In those days there were some homes in the city as you describe, but later on the only home left there was Ho's farm out on the outer island.
Ho was a harsh disciplinarian like his dad, and was quick with corporal punishment. During the general time period you are describing our young teen son was going to go to the farm while we worked in an office, but we were first specifically told about Ho's harshness and told that if our son was to go there we and he had to agree that he would submit to Ho's discipline, which we did. We visited often and it was my impression that our son seemed happy there despite the fact that he recieved the same occassional punishment as Ho's boys, which usually took the form of a wooden paddle to the ass. I think one reason he was happy there was because it was the first time in a long time that he had been with other boys his own age. And at that time, before the Victor Camp days, the farm could be a fun place to be for a teen. I know that when we would visit that we had fun bar-b-queing chicken legs and swimming in the ocean, stuff like that.
Years later though it wasn't so much fun there anymore for teens, especially the so-called delinquent ones. I was there for awhile during that period. It was my impression that although Ho was in charge of the practical affairs of the farm, when it came to the "delinquent" teens Michael and Crystal were definitely in charge. I believe that they were reporting directly to Berg & Zerby or at least to someone in their inner circle, which makes sense considering that B & Z would likely want to keep close tabs on Mene.
Ho and his wives and FFers made a lot of connections in Macau over the years (btw, Ruthie's fish was Ashok, a mechanic for Indy race cars, the annual race being a favorite FFing spot). They no doubt had connections with officials in the colonial government, which gave them a measure of protection. What happened after Macau was returned to Chinese control I don't know, but I sure am curious.
