The V-Boys!

You may have heard that the Pro-Democracy Rally was "marred by violence".  It's in all the papers, but I was there and I know that's not what I saw.

The newspaper photos of the violence are all the 'V for Vendetta' boys, the Red Shirts and the police, with one cute little camera-boy deep in the fray getting an elbow in the face, his pink-framed glasses flying through the air.

I met the V for Vendetta Boys:

This was early in the March and they were total honeys.  

They told me they were protesting Donald Tsang's Democracy Reform Package (wherein we get to ALSO vote for a one of Beijing's choices of geographic representatives.)

But then I stopped for a while to take photos from the overpass, and bumped into them again about 20 minutes later:

No idea what happened but since I'd last seen them, but now they were "ready to go the strop" as they say in Australia.  Really irked, anyway!

And you know how you sometimes look through your photos and think "Damn, if only I'd shot that one several inches to the side"?  Well, just as I was leaving, my last shot of them is this one:

See that there on the right?  That's a man in a red T-shirt!  I have no recollection if there were more of them, and I left just then ... but after seeing it all in the papers I'm now thinking I left only minutes before the fighting started.

Let me go through my photos again and see if I have image of the boy in the pink-framed glasses?

Nope, not a single shot.  He definitely isn't part of this group.  The poor honey was obviously just in the wrong place at the wrong time, filming!

Anyway, all this much-vaunted violence at this march, and I didn't see a second of it.  Although I did hear a great many vuvuzelas and that was enough of an assault for my taste.

Whoever brought these sodding things back from South Africa's World Cup should be taken out and spanked soundly.  And that would be violence I totally approve of!

Go Go July 1!

I love 1st July in Hong Kong. As you know, July 1st is always HUGE in our political life.

It's Suck-Ups Vs The People Day!

OK, let's not be partisan here. Being political neutral, it's the day of the always-enormous "We want Democracy" rally and march - when tens of thousands turn out to protest - and China's Communist Party countering "We Love Beijing" parade which is always winsy but takes place right outside our window, which is very nice of them.

In fact, the whole thing is very nice of them.  I saw something on the streets of Wan Chai 1st July about four years ago that made me ... ummm, strongly convinced that Beijing was viewing HK's Democracy Protests with a very jaundiced eye. I won't say what I saw, although I may bandy about the words "hidden red-shirted army" and "large numbers of cudgels" for no apparent reason. Needless to say, I made phone calls to everyone I knew was in Victoria Park telling them to skip the Wan Chai leg ... but then a bus went around and a lady speaking Mandarin called out through a mega-phone and everyone came out of hiding and got on the bus and ... well, let's just say I assumed from that I was actually witnessing Beijing's change of heart.

So now we have this wonderful colourful "We love you Beijing" parade (last year's, here) instead of red-shirted street violence and you must admit it's so much nicer.

And somewhere in between we have an impromptu little Pro-Beijing march, then the "we don't want to belong to any political affiliation but are as mad as hell" march ... followed by The March of the Hooligans, or so Maria calls the Pro-Democracy Patriots!

So that's what we'll be doing on our 2010 "Birth of Hong Kong" Memorial Public Holiday.  Always great fun.

STEP ONE

So, it's 11am 2010 and I'm hanging out my window anticipating ... and, yayy, here's the first beat in the drum:

The music is very pretty, and the jostling crowds are ... not jostling crowds at all.

OK, it's been about ten minutes since I took that photo.  Let's have another one:

Mmm, even less jostling there now.

But let's not see it that way.  Let's look at this lovely "I Love My Communist Overlords" rally with all the pretty music and lovely colours as a very nice thing for Beijing to do.

STEP TWO

Ah, it's 11.20 and here come the marching bands:

And here come the people:

And please tell me there'll be dragons.  I'll be most unimpressed if "here there be no dragons"!

Yayyy, dragons:

And look, how cute, la, this year they also have a Phoenix:

 And here come the umbrellas:

OK, something seems to have happened to my photo program and it's not uploading these dribs-and-drabs properly ... so why don't I just go hang out my window for a while and take a whole lot and get back to you later.

 Southorn Park at noon:

And here's my favourite photo of all:

So it's now 1pm ... and here's Southorn Park:

It's like it never happened!  You know, this is what I love about the Cantonese.  Everything is always done so quickly and efficiently! And the trains always run on time. It's like Hitler's wet dream only, you know, NOT!

Now all is quiet on HK's streets ... but only because everyone's gone down to Victoria Park to mass for this afternoon's big Democracy Rally.  And, since the Tienanmen Square Memorial Night was MASSIVE this year, I'm guessing that this afternoon's march will also be huge. Lots and lots to protest about. (Oops, posted a link to the wrong year, but ... can you really tell?)

We're joining friends half way.  I can't go into Victoria Park for the rally anymore, seeing as how ... no, I don't want to even think about it ... although great kudos to the CBC lassies of the Rainbow Alliance Soccer Team (at least that who I assumed they were from their calligraphy) for rescuing the hundred or so of us who were almost crushed by passive-aggressive police incompetence and stupid instructions.  Let's just say that +30,000 people trying to get out of a narrow gateway is NOT a place you want to be either.

STEP THREE

It's just after 3pm and the Pro-Beijing march is underway ...

... the real one! 

the previous one was 

just the parade ... 

Tee hee! It's winsy small too!
 
OK, now that's BIZARRE! Everyone is chanting what sounds exactly like "Na sa mate kai kai!"  which is Fijian for "The food is dead!" which really can't be right, can it?

What are they really chanting?  Can someone tell me?

 What do we want?

Dead food!

When do we want it?

Now!

Nah, doesn't work for me either.

This is really strange stuff, these Cantonese chants. You may recall how creepy I found it at my first Pro-Democracy March - in 2004 I think? - when everyone around me was chanting "Waltzing Matilda" ... and I asked and a lovely fellow said it was Cantonese for "Power to the People!" which is really very interesting, don't you agree, because I never understood why everyone in Australia thinks a song about stealing sheep or whatever, is really a song about creating a republic ...

... however hearing nearly half a million people chanting "Wal-tzing-Ma-til-da" all those years ago I remember thinking to myself that there was once a property out there in Winton in Outback Queensland - where they once had a party that turned into an uproarious night stomping around to the chant of "Wal-tzing-Ma-til-da" - which lead, the next day, to the creation of that Great Australian Theme Song - which must have had a Chinese cook.

Ah, it's 3.20pm and all is quiet again.  

Won't it be interesting to read in tomorrow's newspapers just how many zillions were supposed to be in that particular March.

STEP FOUR

It's 3.40 and here comes the "I don't belong to either camp but I'm mad as hell!" march, although can you call it a march when there's only him and his police escort?

 Whatever he's protesting,

I'm on his side!

The rally will be leaving Victoria Park around now, so no more until then ...

Oh wow, it's only 4pm and here it comes, one hour earlier than usual. Guess it's because the other two marches were so short this year.

STEP FIVE

Well, here goes.  After an entire day of out-the-window and at-the-computer, I'm so up for the 5000 plus steps to Government House, thus I'm off now.

Nice day for it:

I'll show you last year's rally and only post tomorrow if this year's is very, very different.

Sunshine on my Shoulder!

You would not believe the weather we're having.  I mean, this is HK and just look!

It was up there all the time, 

hiding behind the smog!

The sky is blue, the air is clean, the sun is sparkling. Everything feels crisp and new and fresh!

However, it won't last for long. Yesterday I went up to The Peak to get photographs of HK for Beccy, who missed out when she was here because of mist. And when I arrived it looked like this:

 And when I left two hours later, it looked like this:

And, yup, I saw the transition with my own eyes.

Look at the left of this photo and then look at the right.  Can you see it?  Totally different air quality. And it's clear what's causing it. It's the smog pumping on down into our fair city from someplace to the left.  And you know what's there on the left?

It's the Pearl River Delta.

I've been saying all along that it's ridiculous for HK to blame the smog on smoking.  It's all those unregulated mega-factories up in Mainland China along the Pearl River that are funneling their filth down to us.

This reminds me of when I was teaching, many years ago, when we had a particularly cravenly, repulsive and slimy principal who was not-so-secretly terrified of The Bad Boys and so got his "I'm tough!" jollies tormenting The Good Kids.  Violent gangs roamed the High School unhindered, pulling knives on teachers and inculcating a culture of fear, but heaven help you if you were a nice kid sitting six feet away from a rubbish bin that didn't have the lid on straight, or a scholarship boy who accidentally brushed against the principal's ficus!

Blaming smokers for causing HK's smog is exactly along those lines, with Legco playing Cravenly, Repulsive and Slimy Principal, Mainland China playing The Bad Boys, and we poor humble little smokers being The Good Kids!

But this is such lovely weather, let's not grumble.  Here's another photo of HK under blue skies to cheer us up:

Random Photo AGAIN

The sky is blue today.  You have no idea how nice this is.  Over a week of torrential rain and it seems to have washed away even our usual smog.  

Let me show you a shot I took just now, when I went down to get newspapers:

I want to be out in this, so today I'll just Random Up a Photograph.  As you know, this is where I choose a photo from my program with my eyes shut, and if it's interesting I'll talk about it and if it isn't I'll go off and do something to honour our blue sky.  

Maybe I should go up to The Peak and take a photo of the view for Beccy. No doubt you remember what happened the day I took her up there:

If not it's HERE!

Anyway, the photo:  Here goes:

Ah, so cute, la! That's our Canadian friend Jason.  I met him recently on Lockhart Road on his way home from the gym. Innocent enough, sure, but the chance encounter was right outside a stripclub ... so I took a blackmail photo, threatening to show his wife, and as you can see he isn't even the least bit worried! That's undoubtedly because 'Tuna belongs to the same gym and knows the way home!

It's a colourful life we lead, we folk who live in Wan Chai, aka The World of Susie Wong!

So, now I'm off.  The Peak, I think, to finally get a shot of HK under a blue, blue sky.

What Kills Us This Week?

Now that I've pulled my head out of the waterfall and am back on planet earth, I discover I've missed an entirely new panic.

What's happened is that last week a fellow got scratched on the back of his leg by a bamboo basket:

One of these things.

It was such a small scratch he didn't do anything about it ... and five days later he had the leg amputated to save his life.

And the newspaper account of the incident mentioned that eight other folks have already died this year from similarly untreated small cuts, along with a casual mention of something called a necrotizing fasciitis.

I think, in English, that means we have some big flesh eating bacteria doing the rounds of HK.

It's really creepy and we all talked about it last night, but I ended up having a good laugh over national characteristics, because, whereas Chinese take this seriously, the Australians were cheerfully saying things like "Hey, remember the Great Flesh Eating Bacteria Epidemic of 1902." and "Don't forget the necrotising spider bite epidemic in Brisbane back in wheneveritwas!" and seeing the lunacy in panicking about it.

The latter remark, however, gave me a bit of a jolt because I was actually in Brisbane during the Big Necrotising Spider Epidemic of 1984 and, yes, I got bitten by a spider. At least I think it was a spider.  In the midst of an epidemic like that, you only ever think it's a spider.

So let's just assume it was a spider!

What happened was that the story was HUGE in the papers and there I was, working in the garden, pruning dead branches out of a large shrub, when I suddenly got bitten on the cheek.

Naturally, I'm instantly imagining my flesh turning black and raging fever and ambulances dashing to hospitals and doctors cutting out more and more of my face until it's down to the bone; and then I'm seeing myself faceless and alienated from the world, hiding away in some lonely garret with only cats for company, writing intense little novels about loss and loneliness, angst and anguish, which are found years after my lonely death, with my body lying there alone for months and eaten by my cats. But my books are published and instantly beloved of lost and lonely Goth girls everywhere, discussed in tutorials and book clubs the world over ...

... but unfortunately my face was swollen for over an hour and then it subsided.  And, although I monitored myself for days afterwards, nothing turned black and, to my surprise, I realised that I was almost but not quite disappointed.

However, here we are, Hong Kong 2010, with a strong warning doing the rounds of taking every little scratch seriously.  So that would have to be my choice for this week:

THREATDOWN

See how not even the 

street cleaner would touch it!