Just as you thought Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam couldn’t get any more out of touch, she goes off to Davos. Her arrival at the stale annual self-parody bore-fest coincides with a Moody’s kick in the teeth. It says…
The downgrade principally reflects Moody’s view that Hong Kong’s Institutions and Governance Strength is lower than previously estimated. The absence of tangible plans to address either the political or economic and social concerns of the Hong Kong population that have come to the fore in the past nine months may reflect weaker inherent institutional capacity than Moody’s had previously assessed. It may also point to more significant constraints on the autonomy of the Special Administrative Region’s (SAR) institutions than previously thought.
Put less diplomatically: it’s totally nuts that, after seven months’ civil unrest, the government of the world’s third-biggest international financial centre is sitting and doing nothing, and it seems obvious that these clowns are not really in charge. Even more nuts than previously thought.
In addition to the inevitable way-too-lengthy-and-whiny press release, we get a statement from Carrie’s deputy Matthew Cheung. He complains that Moody’s is focusing on ‘politics’ (you mean ‘stunningly incompetent leadership’, surely), and cites reduced bus fares for the elderly as proof of ‘the will to govern’.
Back in Davos, stock exchange chair Laura Cha maintains that Beijing is leaving it up to Hong Kong to solve the crisis – in other words, the local administration alone has chosen to do nothing throughout the seven months of crisis. As a former National People’s Congress member, she can hardly tell the truth.
Asked about the evil foreign forces supposedly masterminding Hong Kong’s protests, Carrie hits out at ‘disproportionate reporting’ of the city, which she says suggests ‘perhaps there is something at work’. (She is alluding to a leftist media-watchdog survey showing that Hong Kong protests get more coverage than mayhem in third-world backwaters. You are supposed to blame CIA influence rather than the fact that Haiti is not the world’s third largest financial centre.)
To cheer us all up as we prepare to greet Rat Year, Reuters’ disproportionate reporters on Davos quote an analyst at a (Hong Kong-based) consultancy…
“By summer we shall witness deeper political conflict within society, coinciding with crippling economic actions and feeding of growing disenfranchisement of working and middle classes,” said Phill Hynes, head of political risk and analysis at ISS Risk.
“2020 is not going to be the year Hong Kong heals, it will be the year it festers and becomes inflamed.”
Well, that’s just peachy!
Davos is now focused on the new religion of climate change, change which has happened since the Earth’s climate was formed 4.543 billion years ago. Industrialisation and modern warfare and egregious pollution have existed for just over 100 of those 4.543 billion years. So one wonders if the new religion at Davos includes analysis of what were the causes of climate change for 4.543 billion years minus the last 100.
Wow…Moody’s FINALLY figured it out? And it took the protests/beatings/violence/rape/persecutions/collusion with gangsters and gov’t ineptitude of 2019 to come to that conclusion? Because I know it started long before that.
I agree with the last quote (and much else). Summer 2020, with the government in its current leaderless mode, is going to see much more in the way of protest.
The literal meaning of anarchic is “leaderless.”
@ Chinese Netizen — people have said that one of the achievements thus far of the ongoing protests is that they open eyes to what’s really happening in Hong Kong in terms of Beijing’s encroachment, the inept Hong Kong government, etc. It’s not like things were all peachy in Hong Kong prior to June 2019 but now more people can see that than before.
BTW, has anyone else seen this video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3WdLkJS2yg&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1qjwKeThGPvsyDQNBmm6ZJArhVb6FlXLvrdmMy4vU2voeKTKvw47M2_Hg
I’ve sent it to friends who had mistakenly thought that the extradition bill protests had come out of nowhere…
@so but don’t climatologists basically all agree that human influenced climate change is a real thing and part of mainstream science?
@so – the answer to your question is yes. Climatologists do study evidence of past climate changes in the fossil record and take them into account in their models of how climate works. The point is not that climate never changes, but that their studies indicate human activity is speeding up change beyond the ecosystem’s capacity to adjust to it gradually. Science, not religion.
Keep in mind that the CCP is claiming that Davos has been part of China for around 800 years. This is widely believed to be the reason that Vladi Putin isn’t attending (though his ‘plumbers’ are.).
Greta Thunberg, on the other hand, has embraced the kommunist cause, and was seen holding a Huawei device as she cried, “Our house is on fire!”
Hong Kong’s very own Curry Lamb turned to Greta and reminded the young Swede that Ocean Park has been saved, and that the theme park now has a new strategic vision which, amazingly, only needed HK$ 10.64 billion. No dolphins required.
@so
Your post literally says: “Hi! I’m So: my understanding of climate science is worse than that of a fourth form schoolgirl with special needs.”
@Mark Bradley
They would, wouldn’t they.
@ so, your PhD thesis in Climatology is available where?
@So
I too am a climate septic (as in “agnostic”). Welcome to the club. Thankfully Donald T, and for that matter President Xi, isn’t swayed by the nonsense spouted by Sweden’s current Witch-Child-in-Chief.
YTSL
Why do I have to signin to view your video?
Bad enough having to leave details to make this comment
@Reactionary $4 – well yes, you would be. Let’s discuss it when I see you at the next meeting of the Flat Earth Society.
@Private Beach.
Why, for heaven’s sake, would I attend a meeting of the Flat Earth Society? I can easily prove that the Earth is spherical (a metre rule, couple of consecutive sunny days close to a solstice, some chalk, couple of return train tickets to somewhere at a moderately different latitude [Wuhan would work, achoo!]). You, though, cannot demonstrate that the actions of humans are causing the Earth’s atmosphere to warm/cool/jiggle about uncontrollably.
The reason why people are suckered in to this idea is that our interconnected world shares video footage from across the planet – it is “news” when an extreme event takes place. Fifty years ago, though, such things might have merited just a 2-3 sentence paragraph in one of the better quality newspapers – “Last Tuesday, 400-500 people were killed by tsunami that has affected New Britain, a sparsely populated island in the western Pacific. Blah, blah, blah”. “Massive calving of a glacier results in deaths of a party of 15 explorers in southern Greenland. Blah, blah, blah”.
Also, if human-induced global climate change is eventually proven, I am waiting until all of the bleating elites (Prince Charles, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bono, Meghan Markle etc.) voluntarily ground their private jets before I start modifying my life-style habits.
“I too am a climate septic (as in ‘agnostic’).”
Actually, “septic” has to do with sewage. Given the names of the world leaders you look up to, I assume that’s not a typo on your part.
@Guest.
I suffer from dicklicksia. Please forgive.
@Reactor
Plus a 54 year old with a “sleeve tattoo” and total uninformed reactionary. Many might think you are sad. Others might think you are just a dick.
Happy lunar new year to one and all.