December Misery Covid-Style

Now you can pick up Covid-19 tests at a nearby MTR station

It looks like the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays are going to be really low-key this year after infectious disease experts warned the current fourth wave has yet to peak -- if people gather for festivities later this month then cases could surge.

Today 78 cases were reported.

Dr Ho Pak-leung, head of the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Infection, said it was "very worrying" to see an increasing number of untraceable cases, numerous local infections, and various clusters involving different venues.

Dr Ho says it's hard to control virus by Dec 31

He warned as temperatures drop, the situation could get worse and problems could rise if people flout social-distancing measures by gathering for Christmas.

"It's basically impossible to put the fourth wave under control by the end of the year," Ho said.

How depressing, not just for the city, which has cancelled the fireworks display, but also for hotels and restaurants, who can probably expect the current measures of two to a table to continues until at least the end of the year.

Meanwhile, getting tested for the coronavirus got easier, well sort of, with testing kits distributed in vending machines in 10 MTR stations.  They are: North Point, Wong Chuk Hang, Kowloon, Kwai Fong, Tsing Yi, Ngau Tau Kok, Tiu Keng Leng, Tai Wai, Tai Po Market, and Siu Hong.

People can use their Octopus card to get free test

The kits are free and people can get them by using their Octopus card, and then scan the QR code to find out where they can send the specimen bottles back to get test results. 

While each station distributes about 1,000 kits per day, the first day, by 11.30am over 6,500 kits were distributed and the machines ran out of kits very quickly, except for the machine at Wong Chuk Hang.

Are these people stocking up on free kits to use whenever they feel somewhat ill? Or are people trying to collect as many test kits as possible for hoarding? It's really bizarre. 

Let's see how many of these tests are actually returned with specimens in them...

Carrie's Not Budging Again

Carrie Lam reiterated she would not meet protesters' five demands

This morning Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor made an appearance following the violent clashes in Kowloon over the weekend.

She admitted there was a stalemate in that the government would not accede to the protesters' five demands.

"It's not a question of not responding, it is a question of not accepting those demands," she said.

Police officers in one-on-one combat with protesters

People all over Hong Kong could be heard collectively banging their heads against the wall or table. My colleague did.

But Carrie, this is what people want! Lots of people from all walks of life, from students to medical staff to lawyers to accountants to civil servants and even top city leaders and politicians.

While she claimed the extradition bill was "abandoned", it has not technically been withdrawn which is what the people want, and in the Legislative Council, the bill has to be withdrawn. It cannot be "abandoned" or "dead".

When trust in her has plummeted so fast, the least she can do to recover some dignity and integrity is to withdraw the bill.

But no, she refuses to do so and refuses to explain why. It's as if she lives in a parallel universe where the people see things that she can't register at all.

The police have arrested 883 people since June

In her appearance before the media, Lam said she was disappointed to see peace was disrupted by violent protests this weekend and said the government would use the law to bring order into Hong Kong.

"All laws in Hong Kong -- if they can provide a legal means to stop violence and chaos -- the SAR government is responsible for looking into them," she said.

Meanwhile, former chief executive Leung Chun-ying seems to be taking the law into his own hands and wants to do something about these protests disrupting the city.

He has bought the domain name www.803.hk, where he advertises his tip line for people to call in to rat on protesters. And to motivate them he has also put "prices" in terms of what he would pay if someone comes forward with enough information to convict a protester.

"We come from different sectors of society, and we hope Hong Kong can return to calmness as soon as possible," the website says. "The rewards come from the public entirely and we will crowdfund in the future."

A website with a snitch hotline offers bounties for protesters

For throwing the Chinese flag into Victoria Harbour, he will pay between HK$200,000 to HK$1 million, covering the Chinese emblem at the liaison office for HK$1 million, the Bauhinia emblem in the Legislative Council on July 1 is worth HK$500,000 (why half the amount of the Chinese emblem?), and breaking into Legco HK$500,000.

Others include setting a fire at the Tsim Sha Tsui police station, causing chaos at Hong Kong International Airport, and the various incidents in Yuen Long, Wong Tai Sin, Sha Tin, Kwai Fong and North Point.

One reporter called the number to only hear an automated message asking the caller to leave contact details.

How successful will this snitch line be in settling the escalating crisis? Will people be tempted? Or there won't be enough information for a successful prosecution.

The Hong Kong police have already arrested 883 people since June, including a 12-year-old. Do we need more people in jail?

Hong Kong Protests Ratcheted Up

At least three police officers drew their guns tonight in Tsuen Wan

The violence between protesters and police escalated yet again tonight, with the latter drawing their guns and firing a shot in the air in Tsuen Wan.

Later a policeman said his colleague drew his gun as self-defense when he was surrounded by protesters, but when at least three guns were drawn, why kick an old man on his knees begging the officers not to shoot?

Also people are indiscriminately being arrested tonight, such as innocent bystanders and even a 12-year-old. When lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung confronted the police about this, asking what charges they were being arrested for, the officer admitted he didn't know.

Two water cannon vehicles made their debut today

While numerous rounds of tear gas were fired today, two water cannon vehicles were brought into use, though thankfully they were sparingly used and the protesters fled.

When is this going to end?

Perhaps what riled up protesters today was when there was news Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor met with 19 politicians and city leaders to brainstorm how to end the crisis that has plagued Hong Kong for almost 12 weeks now.

Over half of them advised her to withdraw the extradition bill that started the whole mess, and set up an independent inquiry into police brutality at protesters -- two of the demands protesters have been asking for since early June.

"The general mood was that the attendees felt the government needs to give a proper response to the key demands of protesters in order to bring closure to the situation," a source said. "But [Lam] said it is not the time for an inquiry, saying the government has to wait until the situation becomes more peaceful."

A peaceful demonstration in Kwai Fong today in the rain

Another source said Lam admitted there was strong resistance from the police force in having an inquiry, but some attendees gave suggestions of other ways of having public inquiries.

Perhaps more crucially, Lam rejected suggestions of withdrawing the extradition bill.

"She said she cannot spell out that the bill is 'withdrawn'. She cannot use that word," the first source said. "I have the feeling that the matter is out of her hands -- when she said this in front of her ministers."

Even city leaders and politicians have advised Lam to withdraw the bill and she can't do that. What hope do we have of resolving this crisis?

Why does she even bother hosting a brainstorm meeting then?

We all want this to end, but the fact that she cannot or will not meet these two demands by the protesters means more demonstrations, both peaceful and violent.

Carrie Lam's Facebook post this afternoon drew 34,000 comments

This afternoon on her Facebook page, Lam left a vague message, saying how she and her team must engage in direct and in-depth dialogue with the public. She added the platform for dialogue is still being planned out and hoped it would be launched as soon as possible. At the end of her post, Lam invited people to leave suggestions.

They left over 34,000 comments, most of them saying if the five demands are met, then Hong Kong will be peaceful again. Others suggested she look at the Lennon walls all over the city and read the messages people have left there, or complained about the indiscriminate use of tear gas.

What more do people have to do to tell Lam how they feel about the situation?!

It's become exasperating to hear Lam say she wants to talk to the public, and yet for 12 weeks that is what they have been doing in various ways...

And also time's a ticking... she is wasting precious time to get this crisis resolved, or does China want to sacrifice Hong Kong in its bid to bring it closer to the Motherland...

CARRIE YOU CAN SAVE HONG KONG! JUST SAY THE W-WORD! NOW!

The People are Angry

About 5,000 people showed up at the airport to protest this weekend's violence

CARRIE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CITY!

In the past weekend we have seen even more shocking images of violence and repression from your police force -- they are not ours. Our police force would not shoot people in the eye to make them blind, shoot rubber bullets at point blank range, beat people descending on a moving escalator, and crush them on the ground to break their jaw.

Your police force has fired many more rounds of tear gas in the past weekend than the past few months. Is it because you need to use up the expired canisters before buying new ones? Or you just want to cause Hongkongers to have long-term health problems from the effects tear gas because there has been indiscriminate use of it all over the city, particularly in Kwai Fong MTR station, in the shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui and the bar area in Wan Chai this weekend.

WHAT KIND OF MOTHER ARE YOU?

Children are Hong Kong's future, but Carrie doesn't think so

Back on June 12 in an interview with TVB you said: "... if the young people have walked, and acted, and you still don't give them what they want. Then what? The metaphor that I use is that I'm a mother who has two sons. If every time my son tells me he wants something and I acquiesce to his wishes, for a short time our relationship between mother and son will be very good, but once this child is grown, he will have regrets. He will ask, 'Mother, why didn't you remind me then?'"

Is beating up people, shooting tear gas at them, and worst of all, telling them they have no stake in society what a mother does to her children? Or are you disowning your children who you have a responsibility to look after? They are the future of Hong Kong and you have completely disregarded them.

As a friend told me the other day, there's saying: "The hated child fears nothing". You have unleashed tens of thousands of these "hated children" in Hong Kong.

YOUR MESS IS OUT OF CONTROL

Protesters are creative in dealing with each situation

We are all angry at what you did to Hong Kong this weekend. Some 5,000 of us swarmed Hong Kong International Airport this afternoon. The airport authority shut down the airport without warning -- or was it your intention to blame the protesters? Then the police claimed they were coming with tear gas to clear the protesters and then nothing happened. So more protests are expected at the airport tomorrow.

Also today the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office is making more threats.

"In recent days, Hong Kong's radical protesters have repeatedly attacked police with highly dangerous tools, which constitute serious violent crimes and have started to show signs of terrorism," HKMAO spokesman Yang Guang said today.  "This type of violent criminal activity must be resolutely combated according to the law with no hesitation or mercy."

He ominously said the city had come to a "critical moment" and vowed to clamp down on violent crime with an "iron fist".

THERE IS NOT "BLACK HAND" BEHIND THE PROTESTERS

Shooting at point blank range in the MTR is shocking

These young people on the front lines are very smart, agile and creative. They are highly organized and know what they are doing. They use encrypted smartphone apps to communicate and on the streets they are assigned specific tasks.

Some are experts in uprooting sidewalk railings in seconds, others tying them up into barricades, others tasked with defusing tear gas canisters, or are good at throwing them back at police. No one taught them how to do it -- they learned quickly on their own.

How can you underestimate this talented group of people? Imagine if you were able to channel their energy and creativity towards building Hong Kong's economy?!

But instead your police force is the one that is sinister in its tactics, dressing up like protesters and beating them up and arresting them. That is downright dirty. How would God feel about that?

YOU ARE BEING MAINLANDIZED

Lam tells the young to fight together to build a better HK

Carrie where were you yesterday? Oh at closing ceremony of a People's Liberation Army training camp for university students. And how did you address them? In Mandarin!

"My colleagues and I will be more patient to get in touch with youth from different classes to listen to their voices. We hope that we can fight together to build a better Hong Kong," is what you said.

Fight? Really? How about build, or create, establish, assemble, or forge? Fight seems such a combative choice of words.

And yes words do mean a lot, especially when you said the extradition bill was "dead", but it's not "dead" when the bill appeared in the Gazette Index of Bills on Friday... that means the bill is still very much alive.

STAND UP FOR HONG KONG

Many people could not sleep last night. There are reports of people of all ages who cried watching the news last night, shocked and terrified their city had devolved to this mess. We need a leader to bridge the gap, but you are hardly anywhere to be found except hiding in Government House.

You've effectively handed over control of the city to other people representing Beijing, like liaison office director Wang Zhimin and Maria Tam Wai-chu, deputy director of the Basic Law Committee under the National People's Congress Standing Committee. It's hardly reassuring.

If you can't lead us, go away. We want a leader who fights for Hong Kong.

AGAIN -- WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CITY, CARRIE?

CARRIE?

Police Steps Up Tactics

A peaceful protest rally held at Victoria Park in sweltering temperatures today

I was going to write about the peaceful rally at Victoria Park today, how people of all ages showed up. It wasn't a massive rally, but a decent turnout of about 1,000, all voicing their concerns of the situation in Hong Kong now.

One young man gave a tearful speech about how he was detained by the police for over 60 hours and how they harassed him. He says he may face jail time of up to 10 years but he is prepared to face the consequences and does not regret anything.

Tensions rise in North Point with Fujianese people in the area

The rallying cry was the same, that people will stick together and brave whatever comes our way.

But after I went home, things devolved into a shocking new level of violence.

In North Point, there were Fujianese men wearing red T-shirts claiming to "protect their territory", and threatening to beat up protesters if they came to the district. Journalists came to the area to see what was happening, and since there were no protesters, they decided to beat up the reporters instead.

Police firing tear gas IN Kwai Fong MTR station

Even better, the police didn't care -- they told reporters to file their complaints to the police station...

More tear gas fired in Cheung Sha Wan, Tsim Sha Tsui, and even Wan Chai in the bar area of Lockhart Road. People were enjoying their drinks when tear gas was fired on them...

Or how about firing tear gas IN AN MTR station??? The police have done this in Kwai Fong station, leaving innocent bystanders who don't have gas masks with no where to go.

But perhaps even more sinister now is the new police tactic of dressing up in black like protesters, complete with masks and arresting actual protesters...

Police are now dressed as protesters to arrest people

This all raises the chances of the PLA coming to Hong Kong's aid, or perhaps there are some embedded with the police force already?

Beijing wants this matter resolved before October 1. Will it meet its own deadline?