The spirit of the ‘two sessions’: bored Hong Kong delegates, desperate Hong Kong reporters, inane quotes.
Newly appointed NPC deputy Frank Chan says the Hong Kong government’s priority is to ‘win back people’s hearts by telling good stories about the nation’…
“The challenge now we are facing would be the return of people’s hearts,” he said. “By saying so, we need to tell more about the truth about our country, the status that we are in…”
OK, here’s a good story. After Chan was promoted from government engineering jobs to policymaking head of housing and transport, he said on various occasions: bringing the cost of housing down would be unfair on the middle class who already owned property; reducing car use was undesirable as people have small apartments and enjoy having private space in their vehicle: and the HK-Shenzhen high-speed rail link would be profitable from the start. The story’s happy ending: as an NPC deputy, he now has zero input into policy.
Back to the Stand News trial. I think I’ve got this right: the prosecution is accusing the outlet of committing criminal sedition by publishing pieces (written by other people) that might incite hatred of the authorities by claiming that the authorities restrict freedom of expression. There’s a serious irony-deficit here.
I knew this was going to happen, and didn’t even have enough time to predict it. Sanitation workers gather art (loosely defined) from garbage and hang it on their facility’s walls, even attracting visitors; government tells them to remove it…
The workers said that it did not bother them that they had to throw the paintings away, as “they were rubbish anyway…”
Look at all those clocks they retrieved from the trash. At least they’ll never be late for their coffee break. This brings me to the question: why do people still hang big (usually ugly) clocks on their living room walls in this era of digital devices?
The individual ‘works of art’ were dubious, but the whole thing was very much a work of art. No surprise that some government oxygen thief jumped on this tiny bit of self-expression. HK 2023 in a nutshell.
2 Sessions excitement from Henry Tang:
“It shows to the world that with our dedication and devotion, we will be able to make Hong Kong a world-class art and cultural destination, similar to London, New York and Paris.”
Good luck with that, Henry
“Hong Kong government’s priority is to ‘win back people’s hearts by telling good stories about the nation.”
And then have E V E R Y S I N G L E “story” or “truth” shot down, contradicted, mashed by some CCP talking automaton who reinforces the ingrained evilness of the regime from shrilly emphasizing the necessity of forcibly reuniting Taiwan to supporting Putin’s war to continuing the Xinjiang genocide, ad infinitum. Do as I say, not as I do.
Watch the episode of “IT Crowd” where Jen falls for a local pub band keyboardist. Now look at Frank Chan. Separated at birth?
I wish someone would ask the FEHD workers to throw away the “odds and ends” in our government. What would be left? But what a positive energy story.
I have always admired HK’s refuse collection points. They’re so neat and tidy, and so free of smell. Beyond that, the Kwai Chung Estate ‘gallery’ was, as Coops says above, a work of art in itself.
@Knownot: “…so free of smell”. It seems you have never been to Lan Kwai Fong then, home of hookers and foockers. Every outlet adjacent to the garbage dump had to close down because of the smell. Oh wait!! : half of all -if not more- outlets in LKF are boarded up so maybe it isn’t the smell after all.
How about the 90 year-old roast sweet potato hawker who was prosecuted by the FEHD the other day for having a relative look after her stall while she went to the loo?
It’s obvious that the only “good stories” sought by the joyless gits in charge are about the high end, sanitized projects that they themselves endorse. Things that someone down the United Front patronage chain can take credit for. Anything interesting or spontaneous generated by the people is only worthy of responses ranging from indifference to suppression.
What happened at the lap sap zam of Fifth Wave Estate makes it clear that “Watching the sun set, little by little, on Asia’s greatest city…” is in need of revision.
“The department added that no one was penalised.” FFS.
Q.E.D.
“Anything interesting or spontaneous generated by the people is only worthy of responses ranging from indifference to suppression.”
It’s why our government officials are hate-able cunts all on their own without need for external incitement on top of being smug pricks that are dumber than a sack of bricks.
@Joe Blow: many people still embrace tradition and aesthetics even as they embrace new technologies.
Imagine if the TST clock tower and Big Ben were replaced with digital readouts. They likely wouldn’t have the same appeal.
I have both analog and digital clocks. The analog’s batteries tend to last longer.
My friends who have children have found analog clocks useful for teaching them about simple fractions (“a quarter to this” or “half past this”). That’s harder to do on a digital clock.
The Women’s Day foto op of CE with his ‘birds’ is a joke as the role of women here is gradually being eroded in line with the all male line up favoured up north.
Another recently appointed advisory board, like the Northern Metropolis, with just token lass listed, Attracting Strategic Enterprises:
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202302/15/P2023021500834.htm
Why is the Housing Department determinative of refuse collection points? What has refuse collection got to do with (public) housing?
What has the Housing Department got to do with refuse collection centres?
Alternatively what has refuse collection adminsitratively got to do with (public) housing?
Cassowary
To add to your valid observation about the 90 (!) year old sweet potato hawker, I note it apparently/reportedly took dozens (!!) of FEHD staff and police to apprehend/arrest her. None of them can have aged grandparents, or anybody who is not in a position to have to go on the street, at 90. Then they seek to defend their actions!
Surely our Chief Executive can have a quick word, the lady be released forthwith, her equipment returned, and a large number of sweet potatoies be bought from her by the staff. Would send a very positive message.
@cautious cynic
Your worthy suggestion of releasing the old woman, returning her equipment and buying a larger number of sweet potatoes from her is metaphysically impossible, as it would be an admission that a misjudgment by the regime had occurred.
@ dimuendo – I think I’m correct in saying that refuse collection within a building or estate is the responsibility of the building management. In the case of public housing estates, the Housing Department is the building manager.
I have quite a few acquaintances from around the neighbourhood of South Asian ancestry & for some time now they have been getting parking tickets on their motorcycles (one getting as many as three in one day) & have also mentioned that friends on pushbikes (not the electric ones) have been getting done for having no bell and/or lights (even during the day). When one eats at an actual restaurants one pays more indirect land tax than one does when served by the food delivery industry, so apparently that’s how one must feed oneself if one doesn’t feel like cooking now that the dynamic zero CCP Plague 4.0 nightmare is supposedly over.
I have seen – multiple times – the police leaving their panda car in the middle of a road (on a painted central median – presumably as it kept their walking distance to a minimum) & then go & ticket all the motorcycles parked nearby in what had been, for the past 15-odd years from my observation, a tolerated place to park adjacent to a public rental housing estate with limited provision for motorcycle parking.
Now with the sweet potato hawker, it seems nobody is safe from OTT rule-by-law.
One of my new pastimes is to count the number of empty flats in a nearby so-called Disciplined Services Quarters. Long before I ran out of fingers & toes, there have been no more cars parked on nearby pavements sporting the tell-tale gov’t logbooks or other signals that presumably are why none of them ever got ticketed.
WJ regos no doubt coming soon. Welcome to Animal Farm, Hong Wrong-style.
Low Profile
Thanks for response
but means different refuse collection points are the responsibility of different departments? Thus for example who is in charge of the one adjacent to Southern Playground in Wanchai? Who in charge of the one in/by Lan Kwai Fong, or should I ask Joe Blow given his obsession with LKF.
Strangely neither FEHD or the police take any action re the illegally parked vehicles parked all day and covered in telcom promotion materials – including the windscreen, an offence in its own right – in front of Pei Ho Street Municipal Services Building every daily for years.
This despite on the spot complaints from tax payer who believe that our streets are valuable public real estate and not intended for free of charge mobile offices operated by affiliates of our largest property developers that charge an arm and leg per square foot for any business that operates within their own fiefdoms.