https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/Bob-Kraft-Hunger-Strike-Day-5/51193187_3dgZvw#!i=4263683927&k=MTVQv3c
For 5 days Pastor Bob Kraft and Benny Mok have been on hunger strike in-front of the Wanchai courthouse to raise awareness of the injustice, bias and politicisation that is undermining Hong Kong’s famed ‘independent’ judicial system.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/Bob-Kraft-Hunger-Strike-Day-5/51193187_3dgZvw#!i=4263684379&k=ZsFJ5Q7
The pro Beijing Alliance in Support of our Police Force had a massive area of Chater Garden blocked off by police for their rally – but barely 100 supporters, all of pensionable age, tuned up to support the cause. One man wearing a blue ribbon said he came because the organisation supported him – without expanding on the type of support he received. As with all the ‘rallys’ organised by Letica Lee’s blue ribbons since they first appeared during the umbrella protest to instigate violence and pay people to destroy others property, they don’t believe the law applies to them. A fact that confirmed by my personal observation of police repeatedly ignoring ‘blue ribbons’ breaking the law while inventing reasons to arrest pro-democracy supporters.
Today while shooting photos of a pro police supporter – so proud of her support she didn’t want to be photographed – she kept blocking and knocking my camera with her fingers. Then the woman in the photograph above decided on ‘Assault by Lips’, literally kissing the camera lens smearing lipstick and saliva on the delicate lens coating.
The police refused to address my complaint to arrest the woman for assault and damage to my camera. Instead a plain clothes officer lead the women away through the small crowd (without taking her identity details) trying to lose me in the process. I followed them to the blue tents in the corner where I saw the male officer talking to the woman and pointing to the nearby exit, indicating the woman should leave. It was only because I followed her to film her, that the police took action when a group of pro-police supporters started jostling and abusing me.
These days, it is almost a cliche to describe the Hong Kong Police as turning their backs on crime to fulfil political, guard duties for CY Leung’s government. But that’s what they were doing last night on Sai Yeung Choi Street.
The back story to what now takes place almost every Saturday, Sunday and public holiday evening in Mongkok looks like this. A group of ‘aunties’ supported by a motley crew of late, middle-aged men congregate to sing and dance to Mainland songs. Regular patrons of Sai Yeung Choi Street have various problems with this newly introduced behaviour.
Firstly, these groups take over the whole street with their dancing and extremely loud music, and if anyone dares to challenge them to turn it down, then they are met with hostile reactions. This kind of behaviour is exasperated when you speak to local musicians who have been playing in Sai Yeung Choi for years.
I have been speaking with these musicians, and they all said that they feel marginalised by the introduction of the Mainland dancing aunties onto the Street. They told me, “those aunties complain that our music is too loud, and the authorities make us turn ours down. But when we complain about their loud music or aggressive behaviour nothing happens, the authorities turn a blind eye.” All of the local musicians lamented that it appears the aunties have the protection of some powerful people and so act with aggressive impunity towards anyone who dares to challenge them. Many were in agreement that there seems to be a concerted effort to introduce this reddest of red communist past time to Hong Kong streets, regardless of the consequences for the local culture. So, while the local artists find themselves being pushed back, the revolutionary aunties and their admirers have expanded.
That was until the Localist groups took an interest in the musician’s plight. With an ability to regularly mobilise 2-300 protesters at any time, Localist groups now have a proven track record of being able to capture the media attention on any topic of their choosing. They revealed to the world the long-suffering difficulties of local communities overrun with swarms of smugglers and the stark contradictions in the government’s policies on street hawkers. The dancing aunties have now become another hotly debated topic that most people know almost nothing about.
For the Localists, the dancing aunties are an alien, cultural invasion that degrades local identity and introduces an unwelcome glorification of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) into Hong Kong. On top of this and most importantly, what the aunties are doing is illegal. The agreed format for performers on Sai Yeung Choi Street is that space is allotted upon a first come first serve basis. Anyone can perform, but without a license it is illegal to take money from the public. The dark principle behind the aunty’s shows is that the ladies in attendance sing and dance for money, which they receive via red-packets. It’s a form of ‘soft-prostitution’, as the aunties let the men ‘get close’ and they receive hard cash as a reward. The tone and the vibe of the songs may be politically supportive of the Mainland and CCP. But, in essence, this is a monetary transactional relationship, heavily tainted with sexual undertones, taking place on a street allocated for performers. Making it illegal.
To be clear, offering any form of sexual favours on a one-tone basis is not illegal in Hong Kong, but when there is more than one girl involved in the process, then it is. The loop-hole behind this is that there are many single-girl-brothels all over the territory, or when you go to Wanchai, you don’t pay for girls, you pay for expensive drinks. On Sai Yeung Choi Street what is flirting with illegality is bringing groups of dancing, singing-girls together to exchange money for sexually charged encounters. Let’s be clear, no one is having sex on the street, but the men are paying, and the aunty’s are letting them have a feel while dancing. It is undeniably a sexual transaction.
There are many investigative reports on these encounters where old men openly admit spending all of their money on the ‘pretty girls.’ (side note, these women are not pretty). In one such investigation, a video shows singers receiving numerous red-packets from men in Tuen Mun. This accusation of accepting cash for sexual favours and breaking laws covering prostitution is in reality hard to pin unequivocally upon the aunties. But what is clear is that they are taking the money while performing on the street, this is fact and is unquestionably breaking the law. (See pics of tweets of the girls accepting money).
Citizens have filed complaints about this practice. But rather than mobilize the FEHD to investigate, the Mongkok police have instead mobilised its PTU to ensure whatever the aunties are doing, illegal or not, continues unfettered. Presumably under some mistaken notion of protecting freedom of expression and the right to assembly.
So the question arises, in a city where a man fixing people’s bikes for free and taking $10 to cover the cost of parts can be hauled up in front of the magistrate for illegal hawking. Why are the FEHD not investigating and police turning their backs while aunties receive hundreds of dollars a night for offering old men soft-prostitution services on the street in plain sight?
The obvious retorts to this question are that the police are not aware of what is going on. However, this hear-no-evil, see-no-evil approach to law enforcement simply doesn’t hold up in reality. On Sunday night, HK Frontline Media easily took photographs of the aunties receiving payment while a horde of police stood just one metre away.
In plain sight money was changing hands while the police focused all of their attention on the much-vilified Localists who were, in fact, not breaking any laws by being there. If the police turned just one of their cameras on the aunties, they would quickly capture the illegal behaviour everyone is complaining about and just like the friendly bike-mender they would be up in front of a magistrate.
You may then argue, well it isn’t the responsibility of the police to micro manage street performers, this is the job of the FEHD. Yet, I have also witnessed the police closing down would-be buskers within minutes because they tried to collect money. So the police are not blind to what’s happening on Sai Yeung Choi Street. Instead, the only conclusion one can make is they are selectively enforcing the law depending upon who is in favour. Someone up on high has dictated that the aunties are patriotic and therefore they will stay! Regardless of how many police need to be mobilised to protect them and how much evidence there is to show them repeatedly breaking the laws covering street performance.
With the police only motivated to throw more PTU at the street performer’s impasse and the FEHD nowhere to be seen, what may you ask are the Localists plans for the aunties? Their strategy is very succinct. For them, the anti-aunty campaign is a low-cost, economic attack upon the aunties, with the broader goal of keeping the topic of Mailandisation of Hong Kong in the media. Between the groups, the cost of the protests is low. They expend little effort either in manpower or risking arrests, yet eventually they believe they can financially cripple the aunties money channels. The aunties will stop singing on Sai Yeung Choi Street if they don’t get paid, and the old men will stop paying if they don’t get to dance and sexually embrace the aunties. Every day the aunties don’t dance is a victory. The protests are a classic guerrilla tactic that closely mirrors such direct action groups like Sea Shepherd. Who know they can’t match the Japanese Whaling operation dollar for dollar, but they can block it at every turn, making it financially unviable to continue in the long term.
So, rather than being irrelevant bickering over music tastes, the aunty protests show us that Localist protests are not being driven by an irrational hatred of Mainlanders. Instead, they bring into sharp focus the favouring of a policy of Mainlandisation by CY Leung’s Government. The policy is chipping away at Hong Kong’s sophisticated, local culture and works only to the detriment of Hong Kong’s once proud police force and its impartial rule of law.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Indigenous-Protest-March/50872094_Qx2X6k#!i=4230428635&k=SCfvXMb
Hong Kong Indigenous march from Causeway Bay to the High Court in support of the protesters who were arrested in Yuen Long during the anti-smuggling protests earlier this year. Among those protestors is Ng Lai-ying who has been convicted of assaulting a police officer with her breasts. Even though there’s no video evidence to support the ‘alleged’ assault and plenty to show that Ng was thrown to the floor and assaulted by police giving her a bloody nose.
The 100m long march is a visual and vocal reminder of the double standards that now seem to apply in Hong Kong where the police and blue ribbon pro-Beijing supporters can break the law with impunity. While HongKongers face dubious charges backed with fabricated evidence – exposed by the courts.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Indigenous-Protest-March/50872094_Qx2X6k#!i=4230427187&k=sXVhwsZ
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Indigenous-Protest-March/50872094_Qx2X6k#!i=4230428633&k=ZDsj6pw
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Indigenous-Protest-March/50872094_Qx2X6k#!i=4230429780&k=DnfQs9J
So as well as umbrellas, cling-wrap and water pistols, boobs are now an offensive weapon in Hong Kong that our burly police force, armed with, guns, carbon-graphite batons and pepper spray should fear.
“Stand-back lady, those boobs have the potential to assault me!”
It really is a sad state of affairs and shows just how desperate the Hong Kong Government is to gain convictions of protesters at any costs. Never mind that the rest of the World will scratch its head and wonder, what on Earth is going on in Hong Kong? None of this matters, for there’s only one direction the Hong Kong Government is looking for approval and that is to the north.
In reality, no one will look into the real detail of the case and find out how or why a grown man, with years of police training and carrying weapons, could be assaulted by a young woman’s boobs. Or how possibly the softest part of a woman’s body could become so dangerous as to warrant her being sent to prison? The sensational headline is enough to make Hong Kong look ridiculous. No need to delve any further. The damage is done and the biggest boob is Hong Kong’s credibility. The Onion couldn’t have made up a better headline.
But away from the absurd headlines and endless innuendoes, there’s a very real message being sent out to Hong Kong protesters and that is, there is no limit to how far the Hong Kong Government will go to try and secure prosecutions of those it feels are politically opposed to it. The agenda is to scare people off the street at any cost, even if that means making breasts dangerous weapons.
As a regular observer of protests in Hong Kong, I’ve become accustomed to seeing the police gently tap away Blue Ribbon supporters who are drinking on the street, openly provoking conflicts, jostling with protesters and wait for it, shoving and sometimes even hitting policeman. All of which are absorbed by the police force and explained away as natural, spontaneous acts of frustration towards the unreasonable protesters. However, flip over to the other side of the street and if you touch a police man it would constitute serious assault worthy of a violent arrest. On top of this, if you happen to find yourself near a violent police arrest, then everyone in the area becomes guilty by association and could be subject to violent arrest, beatings with batons or pepper sprayed without warning.
The police really act out a Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde cabaret show on every protest now or; these people here, arrest them at any cost, those people over there, do not arrest them at any cost.
So every protest, the absurd pantomime begins, scores of police escort rowdy blue ribbons, sometimes kilometres to get cabs home erstwhile, on the same street, PTU officers run down protesters and hog tie them, kneel on their heads, like they were knife wielding manics.
Sometimes I imagine that surely some of the police officers must be embarrassed by their openly biased behaviours towards one group over another, but then reality kicks in and I can see in most of their eyes that they so hate the democracy protesters on the street that if they were given a free choice of what to do, they wouldn’t address the bias, but instead would up the level of violence threefold.
Protests are increasingly becoming war zones by design, with the the lion-share of people arrested being Localists. But don’t be fooled that this is because Localists are less law abiding or more wanted. The target of the war is on protests!
The HK Government believes the best way to solve the protest problem in Hong Kong is to hit it hard and make all protests look like unreasonable radicals and increase the cost of attending. The HK Police Force is a more than willing accomplice in this dark plot.
The only way to stop this wicked plan succeeding is to get out on the streets and reclaim the city back street by street, person by person. Just like on September 28th, show the Police and Government, the more they introduce violence into society, the more people will come out to resist and say no!
Man Ho Chuen, the man who stuck his fist in the throat of a pro-Democracy supporter while verbally abusing him was sentenced to 7 days imprisonment for assault. The magistrates comments that “Man initiated attack, showed no remorse, made false accusation against the victim, and could very likely commit the same offence again” make the sentence seems nothing more than a slap on the wrist of the pro-Beijing agitator.
During sentencing a supporter of Man caused a disturbance in Court by screaming and turning on a radio in full volume. The un-identified person was evicted from Court without charge.
Photo courtesy of Apple Daily
Great News – Mainland Chinese journalist Zhang Miao will be freed without charge following nine months in detention after she helped cover the Hong Kong democracy protests for German publication Die Zeit.
For background read this article by Angela Köckritz
The Chinese economy is now facing its strongest challenges for a generation and Xi JinPing’s best efforts to create a nationalistic, shareholder, last stand for the stock market seem to have largely failed. What the fall out from this will be we can only speculate, but the enormous economic disaster that is the Chinese economy is not of Hong Kong’s making. Back in the colonial days, if the British economy collapsed, Hong Kong would not be expected to fall on its sword in sympathy. Likewise, given the stormy times ahead for China, Hong Kongers should not be looking at going down with the sinking ship, but instead working on preserving what makes the city different, or the Two Systems part of the Basic Law. Given this, the idea of a Hong Kong City State becomes increasingly more viable and appealing.
The impracticalities of a Hong Kong City State are often premised on the geopolitics of Asia remaining similar to what it has been for the last 30 years. But once you accept the premise that the geopolitics of Asia are heading into turbulent seas, then the question of how best Hong Kong can survive the storm becomes much more pertinent and pressing. More independence and autonomy, and not less, suddenly become compelling.
When you live in the shadow, of the overly jealous and malign CCP, even uttering the word independence under your breath is high treason against The Party. Certainly, there are significant amounts of people who believe the independence debate in Hong Kong was created by the CCP to create social division within the democratic movement and brand everyone who opposes the government as splitists. In China, there can be no worse a traitor than a splitist. However, most of the anti-independence arguments are actually ill-thought out if we work back from 2047. For, when we look at the pros and cons of more independence based on 2047 as a starting point, it starts to make a lot of sense and a much smarter path to follow than blithely accepting whatever bones the CCP wishes to throw Hong Kong erstwhile its own economy and political system rips itself apart.
It’s not too early to ask the question, what will happen come 2047? Does Hong Kong law become superseded by Mainland law? Because if that’s going to be the case, the day this is officially announced, whether it be tomorrow or in ten years time, will be like pulling a plug on the city. Money, resources and people will stampede to safer havens. Those that faithfully pledge their full allegiance to The Party, will be left in a hollow shell of a city as anything that creates real, global value will be gone.
If your argument against greater Hong Kong independence is that HK’s unchangeable destiny is to eventually be fully assimilated into CCP’s China and become a carbon copy of any other CCP city then you must first be clear what these other cities will look like in five years time, or even five months time! Simply pointing out that we need to be more like ‘them’, but having no clue what ‘them’ will look like and having zero control of how ‘they’ are created is no plan at all. Hong Kong certainly has all the tools to make a positive contribution to the place known as China for many years to come. The same can’t be said of the multitude of cites we’re supposed to be more like, and that includes Shanghai. The most likely future for these cities are astronomically high, local debts, huge environmental clean-up bills, violent, social unrest and rampant corruption. None of which Hong Kong suffers from yet. Hong Kong has everything it needs to protect itself from such a bleak future, but unfortunately the current government seems intent on throwing away all the city’s global advantages in a lame attempt to show loyalty to a broken political part that pretends its a country.
No one who advocates greater independence is dreaming that Hong Kong isn’t part of China in a physical sense, but being geographically part of a continent and being ruined by the politically oppressive CCP are not one-in-the-same. The CCP is not China, it is not the country, neither is it the people. It is a shadowy, political organisation with a horrific track record for wreaking havoc upon the peoples of China throughout its very short and violent tenure. There will come a time when the CCP no longer holds power, but there will still be a China and also city in its south called Hong Kong. This is what the independence debate is based on, a practical approach to preservation, and there’s a lot to be protected here in this quasi-City State. This is the true pragmatic path for Hong Kongers now, or how does Hong Kong negotiate the impending disaster that is the CCP’s complete loss of trust in China and not be destroyed with it?
Currently the CCP tirelessly tries to bewitch pragmatists in Hong Kong with the narrative that the only future lies with them, a transient and decaying political entity, motivated by self-preservation and quick gain. However this lie becomes increasingly less convincing with every passing week. Hong Kongers are no stranger in handling inept northern governments. They have played this game for almost two centuries and they know when the winds of change howl, and China looks like a shaky pile of eggs (危如累卵 – Wei Ru Lei Luan), their future lies in protecting their own autonomy and not integrating more into turmoil.
The opinions in this article are of those of the writer, if you agree or disagree feel free to leave a comment here or on our facebook page. The wonders of a free press allow for a discussion and debate of ideas – unlike north of the border.
cartoon: www.anntelnaes.com
