Stuffed cities’ stirrings

The South China Morning Post publishes a rather pained letter from someone in Singapore who feels an earlier correspondent failed to take the Lion City seriously. Singapore is a tax-haven too, the writer essentially insists, even though it has higher taxes than Hong Kong and no Apple store. As it happens, Asia’s other city-state has no need to be whiny and defensive and insecure today. Mayhem in the Big Lychee over the weekend: the Financial Secretary stops a flying egg probably intended for boss CY Leung, and unhinged pro-Beijing protestor Chan Ching-sum tears a colonial flag in the street. Mayhem in Singapore: one dead, cops wounded and vehicles destroyed after hundreds of South Asians riot in Little India.

The reasons for Hong Kong’s relatively mild civil strife are all too well-known. Radicals resort to high-profile direct action like egg-hurling against the city’s Beijing-appointed administration out of frustration with what seems to be never-ending official incompetence and deafness. Much of the dissatisfaction has its roots in an inequitable division of resources and opportunities; specifically, a small minority profit immensely from an major influx of Mainland tourists at the expense of everyone else’s quality of life. Self-styled patriots with recent Mainland roots, incensed at the flawed Chinese-ness and treachery of many Hongkongers, counter anti-establishment demonstrations with contrived and emotional gestures of their own. The basic ‘contradictions’ are obvious and discussed incessantly, even if no-one wants to suggest serious solutions.

In Singapore, the government issues a stern request that citizens refrain from ‘speculating’ about the riot – the first in many citizens’ living memory. It appears the participants were migrant workers and the trouble started when a bus ran over a Bangladeshi. Tourist buses clogging up streets and stroppy Mainland Chinese bus drivers are big issues in the city. But even if those factors were not involved in this incident, the ‘speculation’ is bound to be about ‘influx of outsiders to profit the few’. It will also be about the apparent incompetence of the police – who had to resort to their Gurkha heavies – and by extension the highly face-conscious, supposedly infallible, one-party government.

The parallels between Hong Kong and Singapore are not exact; an equivalent riot in the Big Lychee would involve a mob of Filipino maids overturning police cars in Central. But there is a basic common thread: if you stuff cities full of newcomers and damage ordinary residents’ well-being enough, expect trouble.

On a lighter note, Satanists are demanding the right to erect a monument alongside the Ten Commandments outside the Oklahoma state capitol. I would be indifferent were it not for the grotesque bad taste of the design of the Christians’ sculpture. The lameness of the two-tablets-in-one concept; the pointless leafy bits to fill empty space; the silly scroll effect at the bottom; and, whatever Moses might think of the Stars of David down there, he would surely balk at the stars and stripes draped at the top – as, no doubt, would flag-appropriateness expert Chan Ching-sum. (At least they fixed the typos.) Whatever statue of a goat-headed monster the devil-worshippers want to install, it can only look nicer.

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12 Responses to Stuffed cities’ stirrings

  1. Joe Blow says:

    What a train wreck this CY administration is.

  2. Headache says:

    The job is the ultimate poisoned chalice.

  3. gweiloeye says:

    and some quality proof reading of the Mary Ma piece on the egging of Mr Moustache:
    “….hit right in the nogging”. Think they meant “noggin”.

    FYI a nogging is :
    “1. a block of wood, as one inserted into brickwork to provide a hold for nails.
    2. any wooden peg, pin, or block.
    3. Also, nogging. one of a number of wooden pieces fitted between the principal timbers of a half-timbered wall. ”

    Hmmm maybe they were right – Hong Kong – the half-timbered wall.

  4. maugrim says:

    Gweiloeye, maybe their terms were mixed. ‘Egg nogging’, a HK Christmas tradition where an egg is thrown at the head of a less than able civil servant? As to Chan Ching-sum, she can thank those evil colonists for being able to rip a flag in public and smirk at the same time. If China is such a great place to live, I suggest she avail herself of the rights and freedoms available, unsullied by colonial paws.

  5. colonelkurtz says:

    HK itself could do with a few more vocal satanists to combat the mad overly powerful fundamentalist bible thumpers in HK. Their influence in a predominantly buddhist, animist, daoist city is surprisingly strong. Maybe they could be persuaded to relocate to a more welcoming part of bible belt America or to proselytise in Yemen or Afghanistan. Perhaps the communist loving new Mainland immigrants could be likewise persuaded to colonise the Spratlys to show their patriotic devotion in a more rigorous way. HK is not a testing enough place to show loyalty.

  6. PCC says:

    “The Big Lychee – Love It or Leave It!”

    “My Lychee – Right or Wrong!”

    (That’s enough Lychee jingoism – Ed.)

  7. Sir Crispin IV says:

    I must defer to George Carlin again. Ramen, brother George, we miss you.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk81tUUhRig

  8. Regislea says:

    I’m sure the implication was unintentional, but I found this juxtaposition less than sensitive:

    “. . . an equivalent riot in the Big Lychee would involve a mob of Filipino maids overturning police cars in Central. But there is a basic common thread: if you stuff cities full of newcomers and damage ordinary residents’ well-being enough, expect trouble.”

    Filipino maids are hardly newcomers and they most certainly don’t damage ordinary residents’ well-being!

  9. Ed W. Leer says:

    John Tsang’s an FS whose noss*
    Means his demise won’t be any loss.
    When with voters snogging
    He was hit on the noggin
    By an egg that was meant for his boss.

    _______

    *NOSS ( from the Urban dictionary):

    Verb:
    To act weird in public just for grins. To play a practical joke. To try to freak people out by calculatedly bizarre behavior. To mess with peoples’ minds**
    Noun: The act itself.

    **Editor’s note : This is a remarkably accurate description of JT’s budget announcements.

  10. Dr Doo-me-a-little says:

    You all missed it, didn’t you ? ALL of you.

    Today, in a paid page wide ad from the Open University, it was announced (at the bottom) that BUNNY CHAN has been awarded a honorary doctorate degree (honoris causa). This a degree awarded without examination, as a mark of esteem.
    Yes, esteem.

    Mr. Webb, please update your records.

  11. Oneleggoalie says:

    The only way a butt-ugly dog can get someone to snap her picture is to…well…tear up HK’s flag…

    And much as Oneleg thinks The Moron with The Moustache deserves to get raped by Satan…throwing eggs is just classless sissy tantrums…

    Proboscis Man was predicting 15% more Mainlanders to visit Ocean Dungeon with the new MTR Southern Line…sad for the inmates.

  12. Ex Tax Payer says:

    @ DDmal

    Dear ole’ Bunny. He’s become a HK institution in his own right.
    Without him half the committees would be empty.

    I suppose that a degree without examination from the Open University is THE ultimate non-degree in the world. It’s certainly the most useless and meaningless degree..
    That’s another first for the rabbit !

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