One Virus, Two Different Leaders

Ho Iat Seng announced today all casinos will be shut for two weeks

This morning Hong Kong recorded its first death from the coronavirus, a 39-year-old man who had suffered from sudden heart failure. Now there are two deaths outside of China, over 20,000 confirmed cases, 427 dead and interestingly 664 have recovered.

However over 20,000 cases is a lot, and health experts are expecting even more cases in the coming days, as people return from their extended Chinese New Year holidays. It's going to be a long, tough slog for all of us.

Carrie Lam still refuses to close all borders and wear a mask!

Yesterday Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced that no one would be able to cross the border check point at the Hong Kong-Macau ferry terminal, and then today her Macanese counterpart Ho Iat Seng declared at a press conference this afternoon that all 41 casinos would be shut down for two weeks.

He didn't say when this drastic action would start, but it was prompted by the case of a casino worker who fell ill with the coronavirus during the Chinese New Year holiday. Ho also shut the border between Macau and China.

Us Hongkongers have been impressed by his decisive leadership,  while Lam is still being pressured by striking healthcare workers to close the remaining borders with the motherland to prevent the fast spread of the virus.

And what is with her not wearing a mask at the press conference yesterday and today, claiming she ordered her ministers and staff not to wear them and give them to frontline healthcare staff instead?

Red and white ferries are docked in Shun Tak ferry terminal

The Hong Kong government surely has a steady supply now that prisoners are working around the clock to make these masks? Or does Lam want to show she is sacrificing her health for the cause? Either way it got no sympathy -- only confusion as infectious disease experts like Ho Pak-leung have strongly advised Hongkongers to wear a mask in public.

Her actions continue to confound...

This evening I walked to Shun Tak ferry terminal in Sheung Wan, where the ferries that would have carried people to Macau and back were all docked. In the last few days the ferries have been pretty empty anyway; from a distance I could see only a handful of people on each boat passing by the waterfront.

Upstairs the mall it was pretty dead, like Pacific Place and IFC, and it was only before 8pm. The McDonald's outlet only had one person eating there, though Maxim's next door had a few more customers.

The McDonald's outlet is practically empty at dinnertime

It's hard to see how businesses can be sustained here with the border shut down indefinitely.

All shops and restaurants are now basically depending on locals, but after eight months of protests and now this coronavirus have completely turned us off from wanting to dine out let alone shop.

Hong Kong has to seriously re-think how its economy is run and what kind of city it wants to be, what kind of talent it wants to attract, and who it wants to live here.

Sounds existential, but now is the time to really think hard about pressing the reset button on the city and consider what it wants its future to be. The current model we have been running on for over a century is not working.

In the meantime, though there is one good thing about this mess -- with significantly fewer boats passing through Victoria Harbour in the next few weeks and months, surely it will be a fantastic opportunity for the water quality to improve and the quality of life for the sea creatures that live below?

Hong Kong on Fire

Carrie Lam speak to the media about the anti-mask law in effect at midnight

At lunchtime today there was a message on social media that the Hong Kong government would make an announcement at 3pm and that all government workers would be allowed to leave work early.

It was definitely happening -- Chief Executive Carrie Lam was going to announce the government will invoke the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to implement an anti-mask law in a bid to curb the protests that have escalated in violence.

People streamed out of offices in Central to protest

But just has she held her press conference, people streamed out of their offices in Central and began occupying Pedder, Des Voeux and Connaught Road Central streets. They were furious she was going to do this.

At midnight tonight, the law will be in force, which means anyone who wears a mask at legal rallies and marches as well as illegal gatherings could be sentenced to a year in jail and be fined HK$25,000. Exemptions for those to wear masks at protests would be for professional or paid work (supposedly the media), or for religious or medical reasons.

In addition, the law states that anyone who disobeys a police order to remove a mask could be sentenced to six months in jail and subjected to a HK$10,000 fine.  A "facial covering" not only includes masks, but also items like paint.

In Kennedy Town tonight roads were blocked

Even before this announcement critics and law experts said this not only infringes on people's right to assembly, but also this law is very difficult to enforce.

The ERO was introduced back in 1922 and hasn't been used since the 1967 riots. While the government admitted protesters may not obey this anti-mask law, the authorities believe it may deter others from participating in the protests.

However the immediate result was tens of thousands of people occupying streets. By 5pm they were in Central and Kowloon Tong, and already there were plans to visit all 18 districts in the evening.

Everyone left work early and rushed home, but before that, they made a stop at the neighbourhood supermarket, grocery store, and wet market, and snapped up whatever food supplies they might need and then went home. I also went to the wet market and was very surprised that my usual vegetable stall was out of several items and they had to fetch them elsewhere.

Protesters made their way up Smithfield in Kennedy Town

A number of shops shut down much earlier than usual. Then around 9pm I heard a large group of people shouting slogans down below and went down to see where they were. I couldn't find them at first but then managed to locate them by hearing their chants.

On Belcher's Street, the group in black had thrown minibus stop signs onto the roads, as well as temporary barricades onto the street, preventing buses and cars from going through. Then this group was shouting at each other to decide what to do next.

Nearby they saw a shop called Modern Denki, a home electronics shop that's from China and they tried to lift up one of the shop shutters and managed to do so, setting off the alarm. They cheered briefly and then turned left and went up Smithfield.

It was only later did I see they had trashed a Maxim's Cakes shop with graffiti, and also managed to pry open the shop shutter and throw some of the plastic bakery boxes onto the street.

A China Construction Bank in Causeway Bay was on fire

All these actions were completely unnecessary. In Causeway Bay a China Construction Bank was set ablaze. These violent actions are too much, and yet everyone is still onside against the government because they are frustrated that Lam and her administration continue to add fuel to the fire of anger.

Violence has spread all over the city and tonight a 14-year-old boy was shot in the thigh in Yuen Long with a live round. He is now in hospital undergoing surgery. A 14-year-old!

Lam repeatedly said this afternoon that teachers and parents should stop young people from going onto the streets. How can they stop them? And what if the protesters are also the parents and teachers?

Either Lam is naive or still doesn't understand the broad support these anti-government protests have. She is using this law as a way to impose further restrictions on people. Are curfews next? Again how can this be enforced when the city runs 24 hours a day? Or is the government willing to shut down Hong Kong economically?

A Maxim's Cakes shop was vandalized in Kennedy Town

She says Hong Kong is sliding into dangerous times and yet wants to reassure investors that the city is still open for business. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Politically something needs to be done, not invoking draconian laws that will be very difficult to enforce and the exemptions not clearly spelled out.

Regardless, this is the beginning of the end of Hong Kong. With this law now in force, the government can invoke further restrictions which will greatly impact the economy. Already a number of major events have been cancelled and the longer this continues, there may not even be Christmas and Chinese New Year to celebrate.

In the meantime more radical protesters will continue to wreck havoc on the city while an utterly pathetic government hardly even addresses the issues at hand. The result: more destruction, more violence and more bloodshed.

Hong Kong does not need this. Hong Kong needs a resolution to this crisis now and it begins with Carrie Lam. But she continues to hide behind the police without any brilliant ideas to extend an olive branch because of her elitist attitudes towards the city's residents, in particular its next generation.

So this stalemate will continue and we will all continue to burn together.
  

Chaos Continues on Sunday

Protesters carrying American flags as they march to the US Consulate

 

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's announcement on Wednesday didn't quite temper protesters' frustrations today. Tens of thousands marched from Chater Garden in Central to the United States Consulate on Garden Road.

Thousands of people descended on Central this afternoon

They completely blocked traffic and the surrounding areas. It is quite obvious people are not satisfied with just a formal withdrawal of the bill, as expected.

Many waved American flags as they asked Washington to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in support of the protesters.

However, the rally later became violent again, with protesters trashing Central MTR station exits, setting a fire along Pedder Street, in front of The Landmark shopping mall, and digging up bricks along the sidewalk.

Is that really necessary? We understand the frustration of the MTR having to kowtow to Beijing, but trashing MTR stations doesn't achieve much, except create more damage that us taxpayers will have to shell out.

Several exits in the Central MTR station were destroyed

This is totally playing into China's narrative that protesters are rioters... this is not a smart thing to do.

Another propaganda initiative is having two daughters of tycoons speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday. Macau casino heiress Pansy Ho Chiu-king and daughter of Maxim's founder Annie Wu Suk-ching are giving a speech on behalf of the Hong Kong Federation of Women, a pro-government organization that will present its political views on the protests that have impacted the city.

In their speech which was already released on the UN Human Rights Council website says: "The views of a small group of radical protesters do not represent the views of all 7.5 million Hongkongers. The systematic and calculated violent acts of this group have never been condoned by all Hongkongers."

Pansy Ho will speak at the UN Human Rights Council

Ho is chairwoman and executive director of MGM China Holdings in Macau, and a standing committee member of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference. Wu is the founder of the first mainland-Hong Kong joint venture, Beijing Air Catering, and is also a standing committee member at the national level.

Since when do these two women, who are the top 1 percent of the 1 percent, represent the views of 7.5 million Hongkongers? They have no idea what it's like for a fresh graduate to earn HK$12,000 a month and have no prospects of ever being able to own a 300 square foot flat that's now at HK$5 million.

They only see the protests as impacting their businesses and not seeing how the political system needs a complete overall so that everyone can have one vote for the leader of Hong Kong.

An amusing respite tonight was when Cantopop star Aaron Kwok Fu-shing was caught up in the protests in Causeway Bay in his customized black matte Ferrari.



"I'm on my way to buy diapers for my daughter!" he reportedly told reporters and then inched his way out of the street.

Caught Red-Handed

Consumption of shark fin soup has plunged 70 percent in Hong Kong

While a number of restaurants and hotels claim they are not serving shark fin in Hong Kong, a few of them still do discreetly.

It's not printed on the menu, but if you order in advance, the dish prized for its price could be arranged.

But now Maxim's, one of the city's largest restaurant chains has been caught selling shark fin in its under-the-counter menus called "The Premium" when it had removed it from its menus last year.

The trade in shark fin is still going strong in the city

Wildlife groups exposed what Maxim's was doing, which the media reported, and now the restaurant group has announced that it will stop serving shark fin from January 1, 2020.

In a statement it said: "Until that point, shark fin dishes will only be provided upon request and to fulfill advance booking commitments," the statement said.

They have bookings for shark fin up until December 31, 2019?

Will there even be enough shark fin until then?

The company's statement said Maxim's had taken steps to reduce the availability of shark fin since 2010 and that there had been a 70 percent fall in consumption of shark fin in its outlets over the past seven years.

It added: "We are committed to balancing our ever-evolving customers' needs and reducing the impact of our business on the environment."

Wildlife groups want to end shark fin consumption

If there has been a 70 percent drop in consumption then why not just drop shark fin altogether then? And why wait until 2020? why not now, which is what the wildlife groups are asking.

They are also hoping other  restaurant groups like Paramount Catering Group, Lei Garden Restaurant Group, and Fulum Group Limited will follow Maxim's lead and stop serving shark fin too.

Tracy Tsang, manager of WWF-Hong Kong's Footprint program says Hong Kong accounts for 40 percent of the global shark fin trade, though there have been no prosecutions for illegally sourced or traded shark fin products between 2014 and 2017 despite 23 seizures of fins. 

If consumption has completely plunged in Hong Kong, how come the city makes up 40 percent of the world shark fin trade? Sounds like it's still a booming trade to send shark fin up north...