Taipei – in all its unpretentious, dowdy, semi-charmless, anti-glamorous humdrum-ness – has never felt more inviting and idyllic than when updates are coming through about police-abetted triad thugs beating up helpless bystanders in Yuen Long MTR.
Being out of town, I unfortunately missed the coverage of Carrie Lam visiting the gangsters’ victims in hospital to make it clear where she stands, or of the Police Commissioner angrily vowing to root out the mafia-connected senior officers in his command structure to restore some shreds of public confidence in the force.
But I did get the impression that whoever it was in the police who coordinated with the mobsters felt he has impunity or serious protection – of the sort available from a higher authority than our own inert, inept and inconsequential local Hong Kong government.
No wonder this sorry rabble look suicidal…
After a few days away, it is hard to catch up with this unfolding nightmare. The cops are abandoning any hope of credibility and offering near-childish excuses for their mysterious non-performance in Yuen Long. They have also banned a demonstration up there on Saturday – a cynical and self-serving (and frankly understandable) decision that increases the chances of mayhem while enabling them to shift the blame on to protesters. Civil servants are anonymously voicing support for the opposition, and yet more former officials we had forgotten about call forlornly, not to say naively, for sanity.
Beijing’s official press are – you could half-believe – puffing up Junius Ho as the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong (imagine CY Leung but without the tolerance, tenderness, warmth and empathy). Mainland social and some official media are full of praise for the patriotic Yuen Long white-shirts defending the motherland, and are warning of an impending Color Revolution, stirred up by the CIA, which uses the biting-off of cops’ fingers in places where civilians do not own firearms. The South China Morning Post chimes in with Will the PLA Come and Kill Us All?
I declare the weekend open with some good news: the West Kowloon Cultural Hub Zone is disappearing into the netherworld.
Richard Harris for CE:
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3019921/spend-money-where-its-needed-get-hong-kong-back-its-feet
Or we could just spend a few more billion (sorry, typo, tens of billions) on the Cultural District.
@reductio… Richard Harris makes a strong case for some common sense measures that would surely help HK get out of its current malaise. For that reason, they will never happen.
Judas Ho…I just can’s fathom the logic process of sycophant beneficiaries of living in a free society advocating repression, less freedom and spirit crushing upon one’s fellow citizens. Am I just totally naive to wonder this? What’s in it for the likes of him…Vagina…the usual gang of idiots (shout out to “Mad Magazine”) that line up like slobbering poodles to be fed treats by some petroleum haired goon from Hebei Province??
Do they have photos of Judas sucking off water buffalos in Lantau? Diddling children in a village on the mainland?? What’s their leverage or is he just an absolutely vile piece of shit that was hated by his parents???
Also, the more I read/hear about Junius Ho, the more I want to vomit.
Re: Richard Harris’ low hanging fruit: free WiFi in all public buildings.
I am sick of asking as to what is Junius Ho’s “not be prosecuted” card.
Why do the Department of Injustice not prosecute (incitement to murder, as a start), or the police formerly interview him under caution (it may cause him to think before opening his big mouth yet again) or the sainted Law Society cause disciplinary proceedings to be brought against him? To start with, bringing the professsion in to disrepute.
If Hemlock is serious (and it is not something as to which he should mischief make) that there are mutterings Ho be made CE then they need to be stmaped on. If he is made CE, it effectively is the end of HK, as the streets will be full and when he implements whichever bit of his policy he seeks there will be serious disturbances
Not beyond the grounds of possibility. Nasty narcisstic dysfunctional unreasonable shits are coming to power all over the place.
@dimuendo – perhaps Hong Kong wishes to compete with Britain and the USA in the contest for “worst leader in a [relatively] free society”. Even against Trump and Boris, Ho would be in with a chance.
A friend has noted a pretty radical shift in Carrie Lam’s sartorial style since she initiated this shitstorm. She’s got a new, shorter, more tightly bobbed hairstyle, and has been wearing distinctly masculinized suits.
I guess what we can take from this is that we’ve entered the Marlene Dietrich phase of her administration. Or maybe it’s Jiang Qing.
@steve: No Hillary Clinton poly blend pantsuits?
We ladies had already noticed that she had abandoned the cheongsam and dug into her wardrobe for the business wear abandoned when she became CE. We take it to represent a sartorial middle finger to not being allowed to step down.
Junius Ho is no ordinary shoe-shiner. He was the Liaison Office’s point man in executing an internal takeover of the Heung Yee Kuk. That makes him both untouchable and especially odious.