One Location, Two Divergent Activities

Protesters ramming a makeshift trolley into the Legislative Council on July 1

So much has happened since the July 1 rampage through the Legislative Council, and today the police have begun arresting people who trashed the government building, identifying them through their fingerprints.

It's a tedious process, but it seems the government is determined to punish anyone who was involved in some way.

On the same day was a pro-China festival in Victoria Park

Reporters asked people on the street how they felt about the protesters who stormed Legco and they sympathize with them. These are people of various ages and ethnicities. Some middle-aged people said 1 million and then 2 million people came out on the streets to protest the extradition bill, and yet Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said nothing -- at first.

And then she did apologize, but she seemed to do so unwillingly said one man, which didn't look sincere at all. He pointed out that when former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen apologized, at least he bowed -- she did not.

As a result, the man said, the young protesters' patience had run out and they felt they had to resort to violence to make their grievances heard.

Others also pointed out how Lam didn't even reach out to the protesters and only talked to people in her inner circle, thus handling the crisis all wrong.

I talked to another communications professional today who said Lam did everything 110 percent wrong, adding she should fire the communications people who advised her.

However, not a soul was to be seen at this event

This person also thought the 4am press conference was unheard of and not how one would handle the situation at all, adding Lam was digging herself into a bigger grave.

We are all waiting to see what will happen next.

In the meantime I'd like to point out that at the July 1 march that started in Victoria Park, we were unable to convene at the six football pitches because they were completely taken up by an event called the "Greater Bay Festival".

It was organized by the pro-Beijing group, the Hong Kong Celebrations Association. Its mission?

"By planning and organizing celebrations programmes for festivals in Hong Kong, HKCA aims at enhancing social participation, promoting and increasing national consciousness of the home country, propelling the building up of a harmonious society," it says on its website. Many of the co-organizers have China links.

Lots of booths were set up, but it hardly looked festive because NO ONE was there. Xinhua reported that organizers were expecting 100,000 people to attend the festival that focused on innovative technology.

What would Queen Victoria (centre) think of her subjects now?

But who would be caught dead walking into this festival even though admission was free? On top of that were groups of police officers standing at each possible entrance to the festival, making it daunting to check out the event.

And anyway, what was the point of this event, other than to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Greater Bay Festival seemed like an opportunity for brown nosing, held on the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China. Whoohoo.

When we finally got to march out of Victoria Park, we looked over at the stalls all set up, but it was literally a ghost town in the cordoned off area. What a complete waste of money and time, or perhaps the HKCA has lots of money to burn?