Which is more than we can say about Hong Kong’s whizz-bang space-age high-tech quarantine wristband app thing. Did this system come from:
1) A local university-Cyberport joint research project led by a pro-government professor using a grant from the Innovation and Technology Bureau’s Super Smart City Info-Hub Venture Fund Scheme
2) An obscure Shenzhen company with links to Huawei that also makes facial-recognition surveillance drones in a huge high-security compound in Xinjiang
3) The same civil servants who designed the Inland Revenue Department’s interactive website
According to my civil-service deep throat, it was civil service designed, information services I think.
The failure of the quite simple wristband programme is merely another affirmation that the billions poured into Cyberport and Science Park are all about property development and cheap rents for back room operations and not the cutting edge technology research that was touted. Note that Nicholas Yang, Secretary for Innovation and Technology has become all but invisible in recent months.
That billions more are earmarked to trash the stretch of natural resources in the previously Closed Area in the guise of additional technology parks should now be revealed for the true intention,.
That wristband system is a joke. It’s not possible for it to work the way they claim. Geofencing is simply not that accurate.
Made in China like the schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake for which noone has been brought to book.
A student of Hong Kong’s history will note that, apart from the Japanese wartime occupation, Hong Kong has been a centre for open market activities for 100 years or more.
However and to use a phrase popularised by the CE recently, Hong Kong “sort of” belonged to the sterling area from 1945 to 1972 and then pegged to the USD for a brief period and then floated (down) and then repegged at 7.8 where it remains, long may that continue, please.
This history is an indicator of what is going to happen as and when the whole of Asia, except Hong Kong, ramps up exchange controls and capital controls amidst a shortage of USD to pay bills and invoices external to the USA. Hong Kong will be last man standing and be the place of choice to do business digitally and freely.
My son, who arrived on Thursady , and complied with all the instructions as to downloading app:
a) is religiously taking and recording his temperature,
b) has had no instructions from phone or app to scan in his QR code,
c) can slide his wrist band off his wrist at will,
d) has yet to be visited as to whether he is at home or not
e) is confined to home but his parents are not; mummy insists on going to work every day, seemingly to avoided being banged up with him, while daddy, sadly unemployed, has taken to walking the DOD even more regularly.
All credit to the HA staff for going on strike and in effect forcing carrie to almost close the borders.
Now that the “Great Motherland’s PR Campaign To Rewrite the Timeline of the COVID-19 (WuFlu) Pandemic” has begun, there will never be another new case of WuFlu found on the mainland… yeah, right.
BTW, the failed Quarantine Wristbands are just another example of the local emphasis on image rather than substance. It doesn’t matter if the wristbands work. What is important is that someone be seen putting the wristbands on. Image versus substance. Fake NET teachers in schools without any background checks versus an authentic teaching scheme. Untrained and confused staff wearing nice uniforms versus informed customer service. A fresh coat of paint versus a genuine remodel. The mask of China.
Which brings me full circle to the communist effort to rewrite WuFlu’s timeline: Mask diplomacy!
oh well…what else can cheena offer?
‘A, B, and C’ is my guess
@ Old Git
“Hong Kong… repegged at 7.8 where it remains… This history is an indicator of what is going to happen as and when the whole of Asia, except Hong Kong, ramps up exchange controls and capital controls amidst a shortage of USD to pay bills and invoices external to the USA.”
Can you explain what you mean here? For example, wouldn’t this imply that USD might be overpriced, and that countries might switch to different currencies?
/Sorry, brain don’t do economics so good.
@Hong Kong Hibernian
On the plus side, the influx of (AKA the difficulty in covering up) new Wuhan Flu cases in Hong Kong has meant that the CCP, the PRC Government and the puppet HKSAR Government have spent close to two weeks officially agreeing with the position held by the protestors and the majority of Hong Kongers: Hong Kong is NOT China.
Interesting times.
The wristbands and app are made by a company operating out of the Science Park, so you were close 😉
https://sagadigits.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Information-Technology-Company/SagaDigits-1557289394305104/
Very worried about the booze ban in bars and restaurants. Flippin’ ‘eck. I might now have to get a life. Urgh!!
With the imminent imposition of Prohibition the Booze shelves have supplanted Bog Rolls as the Must Have at our supermarkets. For anyone who enjoys a tipple a word of advice: get in early before online re-sellers wipe out stocks.
Drivers will be thrilled as checking up on the 8,600 outlets that serve booze will keep The Bill off the streets and traffic enforcement as they diligently sniff glasses to determine if it is really Fanta in there or a double Vodka.
I believe “house arrest” technology has been around globally for quite a while, is widely available, and it is probably manufactured in China. Only HK government morons would think of using new/untested technology now.
Hamantha – If I had any money left I might ask where I can sign up for your expert investing advice. But then again, maybe not. It seems to me that most of the really rich people that I know who are really good at making money usually keep their mouths shut about their skill and just count it as it pours in. However, I did enjoy your takedown the other day.
The risk from pubs comes from the crowds gathering in close proximity therein, not from booze per se. Just close them down temporarily. I recall once discreetly drinking wine from coffee cups with my lunch in a restaurant in Holland that did not have a licence to serve alcohol on the premises. We are going to see a lot of that sort of scenario if the pubs remain open.