Even after Hong Kong’s somnolent civil servants have plodded back to their desks, it seems there are still some companies (of the delicate- and precious-Westerner orientation) paying employees to sit at home in their pajamas on the sofa all day, and renting high-priced commercial real estate for no purpose. Should we tell them that everyone else in town has long gone back to the office – or just leave them in their apartments quivering in fear at the pestilence raging outside?
To everyone for whom two days at home is a treat, I declare the weekend open with a varied selection of stuff to browse…
Further to the economics-vs-politics debate, William Pesek on why Hong Kong’s latest budget ignores the real (economic) problems.
If you think your HK$10,000 handout is a waste of taxpayer’s money, a link to a Ming Pao piece on that ‘dialogue office’ the Hong Kong government set up. The director got paid HK$1.6mn for a six-month contract, during which the body organized that one (admittedly entertaining) public meeting with Carrie Lam, plus some online events.
HK Free Press on the uselessness of Hong Kong’s police complaints body, and on Amnesty’s report on it. Plus the mysterious apparent absence of contempt laws following the arrest of Jimmy Lai.
Speaking of which, a list of all the Hong Kong pan-dem figures and activists arrested since mid-2019.
Input on open-sourced protest/virus investigative group Osint HK.
Quartz on Chinese netizens archiving coronavirus-related material on GitHub, beyond the CCP’s reach.
A big Reuters report on the last time CCP secrecy and cover-ups led to a major disease outbreak (plus a surge in pork-prices) – African Swine Flu, starting late 2018.
From Axios, a review of a new book on how China’s economic model depends on a migrant-worker underclass.
The academic China Leadership Monitor’s long, dense, heavy, dry but illuminating analysis of the over-concentration of power in China under Emperor-for-Life Xi Jinping.
Lastly – some photos from the Canal Street ‘hitting little people’ villain-whacking curse-fest yesterday. And you’ll never guess whose pictures the aging sorceresses were beating.
40 years ago, Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe published “Diseases From Space”, a copy of which I still have. It is a riveting study of The Spanish Flu and concluded that that disease had come from Space because the infection pandemic could not be explained away by personal contact throughout the world.
Derided and ridiculed for a long time, that theory is gaining ground https://listverse.com/2016/12/15/10-diseases-that-possibly-came-from-outer-space/
“To everyone for whom two days at home is a treat…”
How many people in Hong Kong is that I wonder? This is, after all, a territory with a good number of notoriously small dwellings and people living in dense buildings with a high chance of renovation work being done to at least one abode nearby! (And yes, if you detect a hint of bitterness, it’s because there’s a flat just a few floors above me that’s scheduled to be under renovating for three months and whose busy construction workers work full days on Saturdays as well as weekdays!)
Correction: “under renovation”, not “under renovating”. Apologies. Got too heated up when commenting! ;(
I’m not so sure you’re right that most employees have returned to their offices – the roads and publiuc transport are still remarkably uncrowded. But if you are, don’t tell my employer – I’m enjoying not spending 3 hours commuting every day!
From the “China Leadership Monitor” linked article:
“President Xi emphasized an ‘institutional guarantee’ for actualizing his ‘China Dream’ of the rise of China while maintaining the CCP’s ruling status for ‘one thousand years’ (千秋). A wider perspective was also envisioned: ‘What is the matter with this world? Whither the world? In face of a future teeming with uncertainties, the world is fixing its eyes upon the secret of China’s successes.'”
So President Xi is contemplating a thousand-year reich and ponders the fate of a world transfixed by China’s success?
He’s a regular fucking visionary.
old git
I was about to throw out a copy of “Science and Nonsense” by John Braddock, pub 1988 bought by me in 1990. Would you like it?