A prescient pre-protest look at Carrie Lam as collaborator – with a mention of the ever-intriguing question of how the CCP managed to exert such mind-control over her. And a move to get Cambridge University to strip her of an honorary fellowship. (As a civil servant with a genuine degree, she probably won’t be too fussed. But it’s hard to overstate how seriously Hong Kong’s tycoon caste and other establishment half-wits take these quasi-credentials. To them, depriving someone of their pretentious titles is as abhorrent and inhumane as it can get.)
Confessions of a radicalized PR guy who now supports the Hong Kong front-liners.
Without wishing to put ideas into anyone’s head – for price-comparison purposes only – a video showing what happens when the HK Police’s expensive water-cannon trucks encounter cheap bricks placed on the road.
Kevin Carrico on Why the Basic Law is Garbage, on the off-chance you hadn’t realized (link may be odd – poke around).
Alibaba is about to get its (yes but why?) Hong Kong listing – or perhaps I should say the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is about to get its Alibaba listing. The local bourse collapsed into paroxysms of panty-wetting the first time round when visionary Jack Ma took his IPO to New York. Now we’ve rejigged the rules to allow weighted voting to reduce minority shareholders’ rights, and everyone’s happy again, yippee. In case you’re tempted, or you’re reading Jack’s SCMP’s coverage of the story, here’s deepthroatipo’s latest on what he refers to as a mega-ponzi-scheme…
…the “analysts” sat by in the investor call with their thumbs up their collective asses, asking ridiculous, absurd, irrelevant questions which were presumably spoon fed to them by Alibaba management, as they dutifully failed, per their orders, to even mention this gigantic accounting shenanigan/transaction at all.
By the way, don’t say nasty things about Alibaba’s Singles’ Day.
Why China will never win over Taiwan. Not that we don’t already know, but it’s always good to refresh our memories.
For nostalgia fans, vintage photos of the Beijing Automotive Factory in those halcyon days between Mao’s Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution, with guest appearance by Deng Xiaoping.
I declare the weekend open with a cheery assurance that whatever happens, things could always be worse.
In the absence of rational explanation by the HK Govt for its paralysis, I turned to my memory of a colleague who, in the late 80s, was an mechanical engineer for the MTR. He was rehired after retirement because his juniors were frightened of taking decisions, in case they were wrong and therefore their promotions and pensions were at risk. The preferred option was for decisions to be taken by someone else, e.g a judge or someone with authority, such as a policeman.
@ old git, I have heard similar stories, and often around situations where civil servants have spent all their energies on trying to prove that their department is not responsible for something that they are. They bounce it around various departments until someone gives up, or dies.
Also there are many occasions when something lands on the “wrong desk” and even when the “wrong desk” knows which desk it should be on it gets ignored as “not within their purview” so I’m not doing anything with it.
I stopped watching old “Yes Minister” videos, because I felt so depressed that the HK civil servants were not even up to that level…. Remember the famous “But Prime Minister, you know that my department does not DO things – we are just here to explain why things cannot be done”…
Elsewhere, did anyone else have a frisson at hearing that Teresa Cheng had been roughed up in London… so much for her skills at Dispute Resolution..
@Des Espoir
Teresa was shouted at a bit and she fell over. Not exactly beaten up with truncheons or tear gassed, but according to the Chinese authorities she suffered “serious bodily harm”
And irony really is dead. Promoting HK as a hub for dispute resolution…….
I read this on Twitter re Teresa:
London bitch is falling down……..
I am fed,up of asking this question without reply.
Why is the (none) attack on Theresa, our esteeemed and utterly none corrupt secretary for (in)justice a “barbaric act”?
Rocky for governor!
Excellent. It’s late Saturday afternoon November 16 2019. The PLA are out on the streets assisting with clearing-up the shit the “peaceful protesters” have made up in Kowloon Tong. I am much reminded of Mrs T’s “Rejoice at the News” statement when South Georgia was retaken (Operation Paraquet, which was completed in late April 1982). It is now the beginning of the end of all of this nonsense.
very very unimpressed by the financial quality of deepthroatipo’s comments.
Seems a total amateur, despite his self-congratulatory hype, if he doesn’t understand revenue/cash flow/add-backs of depreciation, nor above/below the line differences.
Very far from the normal added value of your blog, and a sad example of ‘scandalised’ financial markets comment. Confused and unpersuasive.
Doesn’t mean he is not right to criticise the ANT financial upvaluation, but not based on his very confused observations, as linked here.
Have a look at Jasper Tsang’s interview in Hong Kong Free Press. What a sorry den of cowards and incompetents. Much of the DAB understands the need for meaningful concessions but none dare stick their neck out to say it, leaving the ultra-nationalists to lead Carrie around by the nose.
So now Hong Kong has a new pool of domestic helpers to fall back on. Instead of cutting edge weaponry looks like those vehicles trundling over the border in the middle of the night were carrying straw brooms and plastic buckets.
Driving on Rte Twisk on Friday morning I saw a gaggle of PLA rubes puzzling over how to wheel their pre-war wheelbarrow across the road against a constant stream of vehicles. I was also struck by the amount of acreage being occupied by the military.
These public servants are not all bad. HK police are doing it’s best to bring peace. The frontliners are damaging property, closing roads, and closing CUHK during school calendar. Everything has a tail and head. If frontliners do not see their wrongdoing, then they do not see their goal. Chief Executive can be ousted but not by frontliners or violence. Democracy! Vote! But destroying private property is not the right tail if your head is thinking properly. Blocking roads is not democracy. CUHK is a place of learning. Not a place for vandals. Love Hk! No hate. IMHO