Author: simon

Elaine Chow: 14 March, 1986 – 27 October, 2005

Elaine ChowIn loving memory of Elaine Chow who committed suicide in the early hours of the 27 October 2005. Gone but never forgotten!

Elaine was a wonderful, vibrant and happy woman, who brought joy to everyone she met. Her smile could and would brighten the sunniest and dreariest of days.

Her response to my full-time job offer during her internship was “You mean, you want to pay me to go out and eat”. Writing that here and remembering her radiant smile when she said it, has managed to bring a smile to my face – even through the massive cloak of despair that I still feel at her death.

And while tears run down my cheeks, and my heart breaks as my mind replays the images of Elaine falling to her death – so fast yet in slow motion as my brain cannot process the truth of what it sees and my legs will never be moving fast enough to reach her…

The pain of those memories never seems to fade, but nor I hope will the memories of her smile and the joy she infused to all around her. RIP Elaine.

3 people a day, on average, commit suicide in Hong Kong, it’s the unseen killer, if you know someone who’s talking (even jokingly) of it get them help/talk to them. If you’re thinking of suicide, please please talk to someone first.
Samaritans Hong Kong: 2896-0000 www.samaritans.org.hk

Manny Pacquiao in Hong Kong – 26 October, 2014

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Manny-Pacquiao/45237783_WQzP3v#!i=3642879184&k=C7qpb7F

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Manny-Pacquiao/45237783_WQzP3v#!i=3642885518&k=jB22NQT

In Hong Kong to promote his upcoming fight Clash in Cotai II on 23 November 2014 against Chris Algieri, Manny Pacquiao delighted his fans with an impromptu walk-about in Chater Square Sunday afternoon.

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Manny-Pacquiao/45237783_WQzP3v#!i=3642947583&k=jpk6dWK

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Click on the photos to see more

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Manny-Pacquiao/45237783_WQzP3v#!i=3642888894&k=n7T5j2P

Umbrella Movement Poll – Vote Adjourned

The Hong Kong Federation of Students, Scholarism, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, Pan-democracy Legislators and other representatives of the Umbrella Movement announced the decision to adjourn the poll in the Umbrella Square late afternoon on the 26 October, 2014. The reasons for the adjournment were outlined in a brief joint statement. Beyond doubts behind the questions and aims of the poll, amid voter confusion that the poll was about ending the current protests. There were also worries that the wifi vote system would be unable to handle the numbers of intending voters.

Joint Statement: Adjournment of First Poll in Umbrella Square

In view of the different opinions regarding the format, motions and effectiveness of the first poll that was scheduled on 26th and 27th October in Umbrella Square, we have decided to adjourn the poll after thorough discussions and careful consideration. We believe a mass movement should act according to the will of the people and we apologize to the public for the lack of discussion among the participants before making the previous decision. Still, we call for citizens to go to the three occupied areas today to exchange ideas on the future directions of the movement and how we can gather and consolidate the opinions of the supporters in order to strive for genuine universal suffrage together.

Details of the original vote http://www.bcmagazine.net/2014/10/26/umbrella-movement-poll-details-26-27-october-2014/

Umbrella Movement Poll Details – 26-27 October, 2014

Here are the details of the poll, how to vote, the questions, background and a Q&A – my apologies that they are jpgs, have yet to find a text source.
You need to download the app, be in a protest zone between 7-10pm on the 26-27 October 2014 to connect to the special wi-fi voting system.
This vote is not about ending the protest! See the motions below for the poll questions

UM poll-1

umpoll2

umpoll8

umpoll3

Umbrella Movement Images – 24 October, 2014

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http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Umbrella-Movement-24-October/45203844_c2gKDJ#!i=3639020047&k=nF7xKMb

Click on the photos to see more

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Umbrella-Movement-24-October/45203844_c2gKDJ#!i=3639007154&k=vmxKR68

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http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Umbrella-Movement-24-October/45203844_c2gKDJ#!i=3639051970&k=tkVbH3N

HKRFU announce training squad for November tests versus Russia

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) today announced its 33-man training squad to prepare for the upcoming tests against Russia, ranked 20th in the world, in November. Hong Kong will play Russia in a two-test series on November 8th at King’s Park and November 15th at Hong Kong Football Club. Both matches will kick off at 18.00.

The November 15th match will be the showpiece of a festival of rugby at Football Club. The Hong Kong versus Russia tie will be preceded by the NATIXIS Cup between French Top 14 club Racing Metro and the Hong Kong Football Club’s President’s Select at 15.00 with an HKFC-Shanghai interport game at 12.30. Leading French financial institution Natixis sponsors both Racing Metro and Hong Kong Football Club’s Rugby section. Attendance to all matches on both dates is free. HKG-flyhalf-Chris-McAdam

The Hong Kong management team, headed by senior coach Andy Hall and manager Dai Rees, have selected a squad of 31 players to train for the Russia tests while seven other players have also been invited to train or placed on standby to add strength in depth for the campaign.

Rees, also the HKRFU head of technical development and performance, commented on the opposition saying, “We have been working with the IRB on bringing a team ranked near us in world rugby to push us out of our comfort zone. We had some negotiations, and Russia on the back of fighting to qualify for the world cup, was the ideal opponent.”

Russia is currently ranked 20th in the International Rugby Board world rankings while Hong Kong is ranked 24th.

“From a performance perspective, the main reason behind these tests is to vary our opposition and to play other teams rather than the usual suspects in Asia. We need this to push ourselves to the next level with qualifying for Rugby World Cup 2019 in mind,” said Rees. “We played Belgium here last December in two tests and were lucky enough to push our world rankings up by beating them twice. Hopefully we can repeat the feat against Russia,” Rees added.

The training squad includes many veterans of Hong Kong’s recent international campaigns, including the sweep of Belgium last December and the ARFU Asian 5 Nations and RWC 2015 qualification campaigns earlier this year.

But the selectors will need to plug a few key gaps after the retirements of front row forwards Stephen Nolan and Tom Bolland and No. 8 Pale Tauti. This will become even more important as Russia is expected to bring a physical, forward-orientated side to Hong Kong.

“We expect Russia to provide a stern test up front,” said HKRFU senior coach Andy Hall, “But from the footage we have seen they also have a balanced attack and skill sets that allow them to play a physical but quick tempo game.”

“The retirements of Tom, Steve and Pale leave considerable holes in our pack as will the unavailability of James Cooper for the test series, but it has been great to see [Societe Generale Valley props] Leon Wei and Alex Ng wreaking havoc for opposition front rowers in the league and we are excited to have [USRC Tigers’ hooker] Alvin Chik return to the training squad to give us more strength up front,” said senior coach Andy Hall.

Hall will also be able to evaluate the Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish duo of Jack Parfitt and John Aikman as additional front row support. Both are in contention to make their senior debuts for Hong Kong after being included in the training squad.

Elsewhere, Hall will be comforted by the fact that the remainder of the training squad is highly experienced with 23 players in the training squad having been capped at full representative level over the past two seasons. That experience is reinforced by the inclusion of eight members of Hong Kong’s sevens team that clinched the Asian sevens title last weekend in Beijing, sweeping all three events on the series in 2014.

The sevens squad members are all professional athletes at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, while four additional HKSI rugby sevens athletes have also been called upon in Charles Cheung, Andrew Bridle, Adam Rolston and Calvin Hunter.

Outside of the front row, the remainder of the forward pack in the training squad has a settled feel to it, with Nick Hewson, Matt Lamming, Paul Dwyer, Jack Delaforce, Bill Brant, Alex Harris, Lachlan Chubb and Ng and Wei all having proved their mettle on previous encounters.

Five players in the training squad are in contention to make their Hong Kong senior debut after having satisfied eligibility requirements. Those players are Hong Kong Football Club fullback Jimmy Richards, Kowloon back Duncan Pollock, the Hong Kong Scottish duo of Parfitt and Aikman and Tigers’ lock Calvin Hunter.

Hong Kong and Russia share something in common as both their Rugby World Cup 2015 qualification derailed by Uruguay. Hong Kong lost to Uruguay in the first stage of qualification in Montevideo, 28-3, while Russia lost a home and away series to Los Teros by an aggregate points difference of eight.

“We left Montevideo thinking it would have been a different story if we had had a home and away Series and Russia gives us an opportunity to test that theory,” said Hall. “They competed well against Uruguay and we know first-hand how challenging the South Americans are as opponents. Russia will be another step up from Belgium last year and hopefully our experience against Uruguay will stand us in good stead,” said Hall.

“The tests against Russia represent the next exciting phase for our international programme. While the rest of the world awaits Rugby World Cup 2015 in England, in Hong Kong we are already looking ahead and planning for 2019,” Hall added.

HKRFU Training Squad: Calvin HUNTER (USRC Tigers); Josh LI (HKFC); Michael COVERDALE (HKFC); Nick HEWSON (Valley); Andrew BRIDLE (Valley); Matt LAMMING (HKCC); Dave WHITEFORD (HKS); Jake PHELPS (HKFC); Lloyd JONES (HKFC); Max WOODWARD (Valley); Chris McADAM (Kowloon); Jamie HOOD (HKFC); Niall ROWARK (HKFC); Alex McQUEEN (HKCC); Jimmy RICHARDS (HKFC); Alex HARRIS (Kowloon); Alvin CHIK (USRC Tigers); Lachlan CHUBB (HKS); Bill BRANT (HKCC); Jack DELAFORCE (HKCC); Paul DWYER (HKCC); NG Wai Shing, Alex (Valley); Jack PARFITT (HKS); John AIKMAN (HKS); WEI Hon Sum, Leon (Valley); Adam ROLSTON (Valley); Charles CHEUNG (HKS); Duncan POLLOCK (Kowloon); Rowan VARTY (HKCC); YIU Kam Shing, Salom (Valley); Tom McQUEEN (HKCC).

Invited to Train: Tyler SPITZ; Reece HAMON; Ari ROGERS; JW MARKLEY; Michael WOODWARD; LEE, Jun Sing; Phil LEUNG.

Standby: Damian BAILEY; Tom HAYMAN; Tomasi LAWA; Jack NIELSEN; Jonny REES; Seb ALFONSI

Michelle Wong – The Wave of Umbrellas: Occupy Protests in Hong Kong

The protest in Hong Kong is in its third week and clashes between the people themselves are beginning to unfold. Anti-Occupy groups are beginning to self-organise themselves against Occupy protesters, hiring trucks and lorries to dismember makeshift barricades that have been blocking traffic off some of Hong Kong’s major thoroughfares on the Island. The development of events and interaction between government and protesters are totally unpredictable. Negotiation talks that were announced to take place on 10 October were called off suddenly; everyday is rumoured to be a deadline for police clearance of the Occupy sites. And every night protesters stay on the streets till the sun dawns the next day.

The experience of the protests is immediate. The barricades so far have come in no standardised form, and because of them there is so much more space in the city. On 26 September, before we erected the barricades, I saw the crowd overflowing from Admiralty Centre into Harcourt Road. I am in the crowd flooding out from Fenwick Pier Street as the traffic seemed to voluntarily halt. I looked to my left as I walked westward on the eastbound lane of Gloucester Road alongside people whom I had never met and faces I cannot recall. I looked to the right into the Government Headquarters plaza and saw more faces I cannot recall. A ribbon of blue uniforms kept the three crowds apart. Roads that I rarely took, I now roam. I felt the heat swelling up in the asphalt as I sat on the road in midday; I felt the road contracting and cooling as I stretched my legs during sundown.

The experience of the protests is mediated. Social media has been the most powerful tool of communication and diverse news source at the moment. Rumours too fly through the ether, including manipulated images of the People’s Liberation Army advancing into town. And the head of the city speaks only through pre-recorded videos and interviews. At 23:34, on 28 September, the protesters flew out a drone from the bridge in Admiralty. I am on the ground and I look up into a negative landscape of the sky, at cutouts of the night amidst the buildings that surrounded me. And I am also in the skies as I look down upon a sea of black dots, my fellow people occupying the streets, alleyways, and roads that we never thought of standing in shoulder to shoulder. As I look into the screen, onto a back-lit surface on which we swipe our fingers to sift through not only images and text, but also information, knowledge, and emotions. An announcement scrolled across the television screen on that same night read “Fireworks for National Day celebration cancelled.”

On 3 October, some brought chalk with them and wrote on the ground “I am here today because”. What ensued was a whole section of the lane filling up with lines after lines of writing in chalk, of people telling the world why they were there that day and every day. Some of us found an open spot on the bridge amongst the crowd and perched there for fresh air. You asked me if I see myself as an activist. I replied I am not sure if I would call myself one. But I think, I know, and I believe, that the life and practice I have chosen to live and breathe, is a choice to hope that we can live differently and more justly. I do not know if we can live differently and more justly, but I think I would choose to hope so. And if hope is fleeting, like our friends from Tahrir Square cautioned, I am determined to live differently and more justly and demand the impossible. Just 3 nights before, we opened and closed our umbrellas rhythmically and cheered. It had just past midnight, it was 1 October, and though there were no fireworks, with umbrellas we counted down to the National Day.

A few days later I went back to that bridge where I had stood, looking for this one signage that I did not capture then. I was stopped by a young fellow protester who was no older than 16, who denied me access to the footbridge where the sign was because I did not have a staff pass to the building that the bridge led to. Protesters were restricting access to the bridge in fear of police clearance. But I got through to photograph the sign in the end. It read:
“During the 1989 student movement, there was a time when it was like a carnival in Tiananmen Square. The students and citizens were dancing and singing together, thinking that their resistance would win because of the huge masses. No one could imagine what happened afterwards. Do not forget why you are here, stay strong and determined.”

In another historical moment and in another place some 73 years ago, a poet had written to his people some verses in Urdu that feel like ours. I think they beckon us too, today.

Speak, your lips are free.
Speak, it is your own tongue.
Speak, it is your own body.
Speak, your life is still yours.

See how in the blacksmith’s shop
The flame burns wild, the iron glows red;
The locks open their jaws,
And every chain begins to break.

Speak, this brief hour is long enough
Before the death of body and tongue:
Speak, ’cause the truth is not dead yet,
Speak, speak, whatever you must speak.

“Bol” (Speak) by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, published in ‘Naqsh-e-Feryadi’, 1941.

Originally published here http://www.inmediahk.net/node/1027625