‘Expected to be released from prison in 2027’

After being imprisoned for participating in the pan-dems’ 2020 primary elections, Joshua Wong now faces a second NatSec conviction for ‘collusion with foreign powers’…

He is accused of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and “other persons unknown” between July 1 and November 23, 2020, to request foreign countries, organisations, or individuals based overseas to impose sanctions, blockades or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

As with Jimmy Lai or Long Hair, the authorities no doubt fear that the high-profile Wong would be a problem outside prison.

A nightmarish experience several decades ago involved waking up around 5.30am. I sensed a malodorous presence in my slum-apartment. I went to take a pee, and found the bathroom was ankle deep in yellowish-brown lumpy water. At this very moment, an early riser on the floor above pulled their flush, and my toilet welled up, spewing more stuff onto the floor. The faster I tried pulverizing and sweeping the putrid slime-liquid down the drain with a broom, the faster the toilet overflowed with yet another upswell of…

You get the picture. A few hours later, a slightly-amused old plumber had turned up. After taking in the scene, he had gone down into the alleyway beside the building to poke hooks and rods up a drainpipe. After 10 minutes he pulled out a foot-long – and obviously dead – rat, followed by the rest of the building’s accumulated sewage.

So I am not a huge fan of our sleeky rodent friends.  HKFP reports that rats caught by a government contractor avoid their prescribed fate (instant drowning in water and bleach), but are restricted to apples and sweet potato. Wait for the twist in the last sentence…

Hong Kong authorities have suspended a rodent control contractor after workers were found to be keeping captured rats overnight instead of sending them to be disposed of. 

…The contractor did not properly store rat cages and failed to “humanely” dispose of the rats on the same day they were captured. 

…The suspension came after local media outlet HK01 reported that a rodent control contractor operating in Kwai Chung had stored rat cages on a slope near Shek Lei Adventure Playground overnight and fed the captured rodents with sliced apples and sweet potato.

A site supervisor told the media outlet that workers sometimes “forgot” to take the captured rodents to designated waste collection points, where the rats were to be drowned in bleach and water. The supervisor said they were not raising the captured animals.

I sold the apartment in 2017. The whole surrounding site will soon be reborn as a Henderson Land ‘visionary residential condominium development redefining sustainable urban living in Upper Central … harmonizing environmental performance with architectural elegance’. Purchasers should be aware: the marble and gold bathrooms will be haunted by a sodden, foul-smelling, four-footed, furry ghost.