(Devastatingly, I have some real work to do.)
An article in New Statesman examines the declining reputation of the HK Police, and asks why people still join the force. (Yes, it’s the pay.)
This applies throughout Hong Kong’s public sector: the more overpaid civil servants become relative to the rest of the workforce, the worse their actual/perceived performance. The regal lifestyle of Carrie Lam and her colleagues (luxury homes, chauffeur-driven limos, private schools for kids, priority treatment at hospitals) is completely disproportionate to their jobs as mayor and municipal officials of a city of 7 million.
To the top bureaucrats, the ultra-generous packages, tacky status symbols (Jockey Club membership, Gold Bauhinia Medals) and remoteness from real life are confirmation of their own superiority and genius. If you ask one who is at least half-consciously aware that they are absurdly overcompensated, they will say – with a totally straight face – that it is the only way ‘to attract talent’. Seriously.
From HK Free Press: an interesting look at how China’s propaganda machine treats the Hong Kong protests.
Geremie Barme on Hong Kong as ‘the other China’, with reference to RTHK’s satirical Headliner show.
And last but not least, one of the many pitiable pro-Beijing shoe-shiner quasi-politicians attempts to do some patriotic counter-espionage by outing Twitter star Hong Kong Hermit as a ‘foreigner’ in a ‘riot’ (and she doesn’t mean his shirt). Creeped out by the sinister hand-signals, Global Times is moved to run with the ‘green-eyed devils in our midst’ scare. If the Communists defeat Hong Kong, it’ll be because we’ve all died laughing.
Does anyone else wonder if the Hong Kong public is getting value for money from the $83,000 monthly “honorarium” paid to each non-official member of the Executive Council (Joseph Yam, Ronny Tong, Ip Kwok-him, Laura Cha, Arthur Li, CK Chow, Fanny Law & others) to show up at a meeting of 20 or more people once a week?
Nice work if you can get it.
Chiang should change her given name. It sounds too foreign.
There have been calls to get Ann Chiang selected as next CE amongst the crueller netizens: the logic is that if it can’t be the slightest bit democratic, the government should at least be laugh-out-loud funny.
She is currently seeking out Captain America as her latest “foreign forces” suspect , after some legendary netizen contacted her saying his shield was found in Shatin. The netizen went on to say: “I believe that SHIELD is now involved in Hong Kong affairs. There are also reasons to suspect that Batman, Aquaman, mutants, and the Fantastic Four will also intervene in Hong Kong.”
Chiang at first tried to get the netizen to contact SHIELD to get them to cease and desist interfering in Hong Kong affairs, but they replied: “I’m just a member of the public – it would be better coming from a LegCo representative.”
Sensing a good PR opportunity, Chiang replied: “Can you provide the address for SHIELD?”
Imagine how you would laugh if some mayor of a town in Cambodia tried to tell the world’s press that the reason that her citizens are in such an uproar about declining lifestyle conditions and economic inequality was really because some Americans somewhere were dropping leaflets in toilets that encouraged them to think about “the cost of toilet paper.”
This is essentially what the SCMP tells us is Carrie Lam’s viewpoint and the viewpoint of the CCP. There is obviously some attempt to wreck China from afar, and we must take control of the whole system, fight back this ignorance with police, and set elderly people’s hair ablaze with torches.
There are no clearer signs of a party collapsing in on itself than its unwillingness to sit down and reasonably work out some political reform for the good of all. I don’t think I will ever understand the myopia and paranoia of dictatorships and how effective they are in rubbing this off on their middle management. Lam looks like first prize candidate for Stooge of the Year.
Chiang 2020, thanks for the Apple Daily article reference.
Ann Chiang is clearly the stupidest person alive.
With representatives like these, who needs enemies.
@ Bagesty
Apart from Trump