From Nick the Bookman:Occupy Central - some thoughts +"May you live in interesting times..." That's an old Chinese motto/quote that goes back centuries and is still right-bang-up-to-date absolutely
fucking on the nose. The late Dr. Gonzo was inordinately fond of it. Because it works. And it's still essential today. Especially with this
leetle problemo, senor that we find ourselves in today, (1/10/2014) China National Day - the 65th since the founding of Modern China...
Seven point two BILLION! (give or take) That's the number of humans being born/living/dying on our planet. And about another 80,000 or so tomorrow (of which half will probably die within a year). And the same tomorrow. And the day after...and after...and after...
Ad fucking nauseum! We couldn't look after our poor, our helpless, our millions striving to live free or die since WW2 ended. When the figure was a couple of billions lower. (This is pretty much off the top of my head. This is not well thought out. This is written now in white heat despair.) And we can't do it now. About 1.3 billion are in China. Another 1.1 billion in India. Pretty close to that in Indonesia. All in our part of the world. All wanting their chance of Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness. Global Overpopulation Is The Biggest Problem
Homo Sapiens Sapiens Faces...
Occupy Central has been going for five days now. It is an
Exemplar of social protest. Nearly 5% of Hong Kong's population has taken to the streets -
peacefully - to protest Beijing's hamfisted and unwarranted interference in our One Country, Two Systems rule of law. As laid down in the UN approved piece of paper governing our rights until 2047, Basic Law incorporating Bill of Rights. China is fiddling with our right to Universal Suffrage and is tweaking the law to make sure that our One Man One Vote is only spent on the useless scumbags and wankalots that Beijing sees fit to foist on us. They give us no credit or trust that we will do the right thing when called upon. Which is to vote for someone who has Hong Kong's best interests at heart and will keep on good terms with Beijing...
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Beijing is trying to shut down - CENSOR - the rest of the country. Don't want them to find out what's going on. Very 19th century. It ain't working, folks. Lots of intelligent Mainlanders are here in Hong Kong. Spending money to come to Lamma and have their photo taken with me
[see above]. They're learning about Tian An Man Square on 4/6/1989. Most of the people who supported and carried that out are
still in power. Including new Chairman Xi's wife. She sang for the troops. Under orders, they say. Didn't work for the Nazis at Nuremberg as a defence. Won't work today. I consider most of these old and outdated despots the equivalent of the Nazis. The karmic shift will come when the last one dies. Of course, there are a whole army of neo-Nazi equivalents coming down the trail. Thanks to China's brutal occupation of Tibet and the Uighurs...
Here it is in a nutshell. China has "chosen" three Chief Executives to rule Hong Kong. Tung Chee Hwa was anointed on 11/12/1996 (my 42nd birthday). I met him on Lamma that day. By the Shell gas shop where I have my bookstall. I congratulated him on his appointment and hoped he would do a good job. He was a gentle granddad. He did a reasonable job, but couldn't rein in the fucking oligarchs. The perceived wisdom was that China blew it slightly because they admired his patriotic father and wanted more of the same. They got the son, not the father, but hey, live and let live. Things were OK until "Broomhead" fucked everything up in 2003 by trying to foister unwanted and unnecessary security legislation on the good burghers of Hong Kong. Result. He was replaced. Strike One!...
Then came "The Donald". Should have been a walk in the park for him. Trained by the Brits in Government and Administration. Then he developed a fatal attraction for the Fucking Oligarchs. Moved in their highly placed jaundiced circles. Took the free rides for vague promises. Got a bad taste of "Wealthiness" and was caught and humbled. Meanwhile, Raphael the Chief Secretary really Screwed The Pooch. Big Time. Took bribes from the Fucking Oligarchs. Kept a mistress in Shanghai for $11+ million or so. Was arrested by the ICAC and his trial has been a perfect example of the mighty being humbled. Strike Two!
Meanwhile our current and worst Chief Executive, C.Y., dished the dirt of Henry Tang who lost the "unlosable job". C.Y. squeaked in, but he was just as guilty. I'll say that again. C.Y. was
"Dirty From The Get-Go". The latest Chief Secretary, Carrie Lam, is currently being compared - unfavourably - to Cory Aquino because of her habit of wearing yellow dresses. She smells a little less, but don't hang about with skunks would be my advice. Meanwhile, we have a riven and useless Legislative Council who seem to want to be the Asian equivalent of the American Senate and House of Representatives. Less fisticuffs and throwing of objects, guys. We are not Taipei! Show some frigging respect. And Pass The Fucking Budget! Don't deprive the poorer parts of HK of their Social Security and necessary handouts. Especially when your $HK 80,000 pay cheques and "appearance fees" are exempt. Strike Three!...
So, back to Occupy Central. People will write books on how well this has played out. For the time being. There seems to be no game plan in place. Aside from blocking streets in Causeway Bay, Admiralty, Canton Road and Mongkok. The only heavy shit came from our thuggish Police Commissioner who sent in the Riot Troops and tear gas on Night One. And then didn't have the guts to address the press conference later. He sent a minion instead. The result was that more people joined the fun. Parents brought their children along for a Civics Lesson. The police retreated - humbled, I believe - and have been very low key. The protestors have not indulged in wanton looting. No one has been robbed while they're sleeping. They're cleaning up their messes day by day. They've agreed to open "humanitarian" channels in the blocked roads for emergency vehicles. Fire trucks, ambulances etc. They have NOT disrupted today's China National Day Ceremonies. But, leaders are needed to make sure things don't get worse...
Things did get a little worse. Regrettably, a police officer shot himself in Causeway Bay yesterday. Two bullets to the head, according to one report. It was
Andy Philips, a Lamma police inspector of about 20 years ago, well liked by many longtime Lammaites:
SCMP story and
Lamma ex-Residents on Facebook.
Some useless 59 year old motherfucker drove his car through the people camped out in Kowloon. Luckily, no one was hurt. His license number was jotted down and the police arrested him within four hours. His defence appears to be that he has a right to drive his car on the road. But not when the road is acting as a pavement! Go directly to jail, asshole.
The big worry is whether Beijing will send in the tanks. I think it's unlikely. You can't cover up something like that in Hong Kong. And forget all that rubbish on the BBC recently about Hong Kong being marginalised. Shanghai is the new financial centre according to uninformed pundits waffling on half a world away. No one is going to want to do anything long-term in China. Not while there's a mega pollution problem caused by antiquated energy resources. And a less than free internet service. And an arrogant, bigoted leadership of old fogies in Beijing too afraid to fail and too stupid to die and make space for a more informed 21st century leadership...
Either Premier Xi is going to have to bite the bullet and man up. Oops, we did it again. We fucked up. Time to downsize C.Y. for bringing such shame and embarrassment on The Motherland. Or C.Y. is going to have to grow a set of new testicles and eyeballs and quit. Immediately. Or China could just start observing international laws as written and stop being so bloody arrogant. Especially when it's uninformed. Well, that's me done. ntb