Waiting for the Sign

Carrie Lam has done nothing to alleviate the five-month long protests

Late last night six cars pulled up to Government House for a meeting with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. There was no statement today about what was discussed, though media speculated perhaps there were plans to add more emergency measures or perhaps a curfew.

Then late in the afternoon nationalist state media outlet Global Times tweeted that it had "exclusive breaking news" that the Hong Kong government would make an announcement about a curfew in the city. It claimed that NowTV was the source of this information.

Chinese State-funded media Global Times reported about a curfew in #HongKong, but has subsequently deleted the tweet #HongKongProtests pic.twitter.com/mmpvnkPQQk

— Damon Pang (@damon_pang) November 14, 2019

 

However, not long after, NowTV issued a statement saying it never issued a report about this, and soon after Global Times deleted its tweet.

Its editor-in-chief Hu Xijin tweeted: "A GT reporter reported from HK that the HKSAR govt is expected to announce curfew for weekend: sources. I just checked how the information was obtained. My conclusion is that the information is not sufficient to support this exclusive news. I have demanded to delete the tweet."

At least they admitted it was wrong.

A lot of supplies donated by volunteers to Chinese University

But in a way we are kind of waiting for it... or it is kind of happening already with the MTR being shut earlier this week, and some of its stations not working. And now with many schools and universities closed, and shopping malls shut down, a lot of people are forced to stay at home.

Speaking of universities, many of the mainland students were forced to leave by the Chinese government. With all their passport details already on hand, bus tickets were quickly arranged to get them across the border. However, many of the students were literally dumped in Shenzhen and left to find their own way back home.

We are also waiting for a showdown between the police and students holed up in the various university campuses. The latter are very organized, managing their own canteen, supplies are categorized and put in piles from food to clothing, first aid, battery chargers and so on. They are completely self sufficient.

Meanwhile the protest marches at lunchtime continue despite riot police lashing out periodically and picking victims to arrest in the hopes of scaring the others. It doesn't work and instead makes these office workers even angrier.

First-time cooks are rustling up decent meals in the canteen

What does the Lam administration think it is achieving by doing nothing and allowing the police to be, as one of my friends put it, "drunk with power"?

This is not the Hong Kong we know and love.

However, whenever this is over, Hong Kong will not be the same again. Are we prepared for what changes will come? In the last few days, being here makes me wonder if it is like pre-World War II, trying to live a normal life when really things around you are not normal. When do you push the panic button and leave?

Oh and yes we can all thank Carrie for all this chaos that was really unnecessary if she had just listened to the people back in June... Her stubbornness astounds.