Vancouverites Protest Extradition

Hundreds of people on Granville Street in front of the Chinese consulate

Early this afternoon there was quite a sight along Granville Street in Vancouver between Angus Drive and Marpole Avenue -- several hundred people wearing black T-shirts and carrying yellow umbrellas stood in front (or as close as they could get) of the Chinese consulate.

Although earlier this morning Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor made an announcement saying the controversial extradition bill would be postponed until a later date, Vancouver media say some 1,500 people still came out to voice their protest.

They were also condemned the Hong Kong police's use of excessive force against the protesters on June 12 at Tamar in Admiralty.

As they gathered on the narrow sidewalk along the very busy thoroughfare, the protesters sang, "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from Les Miserables and some cars honked their horns in support as they drove by.

They protested the extradition bill and excessive police force

The protesters in Vancouver say the extradition bill should be withdrawn.

"Even though she came out to announce she will defer on this bill, we can see this evil bill will be sitting there and waiting for (an) opportunity to suppress Hong Kong, to threaten Hong Kong people," said Ken Tung, of the Civic Education Society in Vancouver who gave a speech to the crowd.

"Right now we have some people wounded by the excessive police force. These people were arrested in the hospital, totally against the freedom of speech and assembly in Hong Kong. We are here to protest."

Natalie Woo also expressed her concerns about how the Hong Kong police reacted to the protesters on June 12.

"Our police forces have been eroding for the past couple of years, in the sense that they have been acting very violently against protesters. We're not satisfied with Carrie Lam's answer to suspend the bill, because we don't trust the government enough to act in good faith."

Woo says rallying in Vancouver sends a message to the Chinese government and people of Hong Kong that there is a global solidarity for those who protest the bill and violence.

Pretty impressive turnout this afternoon and people will be out in force later today in Hong Kong for yet another march, this time calling for Lam to step down.

Beware the Robocall

Avoid robocalls in Mandarin that are scams to get your money

Up until recently there was a spate of victims who were scammed by robocalls in Hong Kong. When the phone rang and you picked it up, you would hear a click and then a prerecorded message in Mandarin.

It basically said the person had a package that had to be picked up at the post office and to press a number on the dial pad to speak to a live person. It would end up being someone acting like the authorities, saying the person had broken the law because their package contained illegal items or there were insufficient funds and money needed to be transferred.

Some people were duped into giving thousands, even millions of Hong Kong dollars. For the most part residents here have wised-up and we haven't heard of more scams, except for ones involving lonely hearts. But that's another issue.

The aforementioned robocalls have now invaded the United States, Canada and Australia, targeting new immigrants from China. However, the robocalls have affected anyone with a mobile number, which is virtually anyone.

This time the prerecorded message says the person has a package at the Chinese consulate that has been there for several days and needs to be picked up, and that they should press "1" to talk to a staff member about it.

If they do press "1" they talk to a live person who claims they need their identification information and credit card numbers to verify them, which inevitably leads to money being taken.

If you do receive these calls, hang up immediately, and even better, block them on your phone.

The authorities really need to stop these robocalls. Not only are they a nuisance but they are doing something criminal.

Circling New York by Water

Passing under the Brooklyn Bridge on our harbour cruise around Manhattan

Yesterday the summer heat definitely arrived, the same day we decided to do a harbour cruise around Manhattan. We went down to Pier 83 on West 42nd Street and caught the 12.30pm cruise.

Even before the hour and a half tour started, our guide was already telling us interesting facts and figures about New York. Not only was he a fountain of information, but also funny too. What a change from the guide who took us around Kykuit.

Passing by the Statue of Liberty on a gorgeous hot day

We learned that the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world for 45 years with 102 floors, and has two zip codes. The guide pointed out that you will never have a record of 45 years anymore since everyone is in a race to build a taller building.

Before the Empire State Building it was the Chrysler Building that was the tallest building for only seven months at 77 stories. The building's outer layer is made of nickel alloy -- the same metal used to make five-cent coins, which is why the building is so shiny.

Our guide then told us to look to the right to look at New Jersey for a few seconds before continuing on about Manhattan, as a joke. But one interesting fact was that Hoboken, New Jersey has more churches and bars in one square mile. Go figure.

Another trivial bit of information about Hoboken is that it was where the game of baseball started, and where they began manufacturing baseball caps.

Not many people know who Audrey Marie Munson was

He also talked about a woman's likeness being on more than a dozen statues on top of several buildings and places in New York. Audrey Marie Munson was considered America's first supermodel, or "American Venus" and acted in a few films.

In 1909 she was discovered by a photographer in New York and he introduced her to his artist friends, including sculptors who used her as their muse. From there she acted in some silent films.

But then things went awry -- Her parents divorced when she was young and so she and her mother lived together in a boarding house owned by Dr Walter Wilkins. According to the story, he fell in love with Munson and even arranged to have his own wife murdered so he could marry Munson.

The Enterprise was named after the Star Trek spacecraft

She and her mother fled New York and Munson denied having any romantic relationship with Wilkins. He was eventually tried and convicted of murder with the sentence of death by electric chair; however, he managed to hang himself before his execution.

A about two years later Munson tried to commit suicide by swallowing a solution of bicholoride of mercury. When she was 40 years old, her mother had her committed into an insane asylum where she lived out the rest of her days until she died in 1996 at the age of 104.

A half niece found her in 1984 when Munson was 93. But after she died, Munson was buried without a gravestone in the Munson family plot in New Haven, New York.

What a sad story.

Our tour also took us to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and we later passed under the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges before turning around and returning to where we started.

Under the wing of the concorde, that no longer operates

Apparently New York is called the Big Apple because apples have a lot of sugar. And that was a metaphor for rich. So jazz players would say that getting gigs in New York meant getting the "big apple"...

Afterwards we went onto The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum next door. The aircraft carrier was built in 1943 during World War II and served in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The Intrepid was destined for the scrap heap, but property developer Zachary Fisher and his brother Larry saved it and parked it on the water and stocked it with lots of military planes, and even has the British Airways Concorde and the space shuttle Enterprise.

The Chinese consulate is a big compound

It's more for military buffs, but still worth checking out at least once. Visitors can also go into parts of The Intrepid, seeing where the captain worked and slept, and the equipment they used, precursors to GPS and such. The bunks don't look too comfortable, but that's the way things were at the time.

As we left The Intrepid to go back home, we passed by the Chinese consulate, a massive compound seems to house its staff as well. Wonder if they get many protesters, though NYPD officers were standing around the door leading to visa applications...