Stolen but Proud

Recently in May this year, a Facebook friend from Hong Kong messaged me all of all sudden and said that she had seen Ryan and me in one of their newspaper! No way!

There were only two occasions that I was ever on the newspaper and that was work related years ago and I do not recall going for any particular photo shoot or event with Ryan that has any such publicity, all the more that we have been in Beijing since November 2012.

So, I asked her whether she was certain that it was us. She said she was dead certain because she has seen that picture before on my Facebook. She was kind enough to take a picture of that particular page of the newspaper and emailed to me.

 Can you spot us in the article above?

Yes. That picture was definitely us when I was having my first 9 hole golfing experience with Ryan when we were holidaying at Club Med Bali in 2011. I remembered posting that picture in my Facebook and writing a post in my blog then about our trip with that picture.

 Our first 9 holes of par 3 together as father and son at Club Med Bali in 2011

Someone sitting behind a desk in Hong Kong with the assignment to write an article about Club Med must have been surfing for pictures and stumbled upon us because I definitely could not recall anyone giving me a call for approval to use that picture.

My first reaction was of anger because our privacy has been infringed in a way and that the picture was used without getting our prior consent. I wanted to know which newspaper it was and wanted to write in to demand for an explanation. After a moment to calm down, on second thought, since no reference was made to who we were and was just a random picture included as one of the many activities that one could do at Club Med, I felt that minimal harm has been caused.

Putting up such pictures in the first place in my blog or Facebook for example will automatically opens up the risk or opportunities for others to gain access and in this case, used one of such pictures although without prior approval.

Looking back, I am rather proud that our father and son's first golfing experience had impressed someone enough to `use' it to capture the wholesome family experience that one could gain at Club Med. We certainly did enjoyed ourselves.

So, yes..the picture were `stolen' but I am proud that someone saw it worthy to be `stolen'....