Was Lockdown Worth 13 Positive Cases?

Lockdown area near Jordan was crawling with health workers

 

Residents in the locked down area in Jordan are free to come and go now after over 7,000 people were tested. Of them 13 were found to have positive tests. That's a rate of 0.17 which is on the low side.

Over 7,000 were tested, 13 came up positive

Is that good or bad?

While it was good to catch those 13 cases, it seems like an extensive 48-hour ordeal that caused a lot of grief and stress.

A bit worrying is that several hundred people were not found in the door-to-door testing and one wonders if the government statistics are correct, or that many people fled before the lockdown.

Nevertheless, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee defended the move and wouldn't rule out doing something similar again.

Chan does not rule out lockdown testing again

"I think the compulsory testing and also the testing within an area with the restriction of movement is effective to identify and isolate these cases. Also the close contacts will be quarantined. So I think it's an effective method," she said.

Some critics wonder if this first lockdown was a test run to see how the public would react and using these residents -- mostly ethnic minorities -- as guinea pigs.

This compares to the beginning of the fourth wave started by the dancing cluster of mostly members of the wealthier echelon of society where they even refused to divulge where they were and with whom -- and were able to get away with not disclosing any information. 

With Covid-19 still hardly under control, Dr David Hui Shu-cheong, a government advisor on the pandemic, suggests the government quickly move to test the area around the Yau Ma Tei wholesale fruit market which is near the Jordan area. 

Hui says less notice should be given ahead of time

In a TV program Hui said he was concerned about those people who disappeared before the lockdown may be elsewhere spreading the virus, and said in future there should be less notice given to contain as many people as possible.

However, when hearing the word "lockdown", the immediate images come to mind are of the mainland Chinese ones, welding people's doors shut, or even dragging them out to the hospital which is probably what worried residents; perhaps some are refugees or illegal immigrants with language and cultural barriers.

The government also received a lot of criticism for supplying canned food when many didn't have can openers, and don't eat pork or meat. While some were forgiving, saying the authorities tried their best, others felt the authorities should know by now what Muslims and Indians eat, while elderly people had no kitchen whatsoever and were used to receiving hot meals delivered by social workers.

So it seems even social workers were left in the dark as to what was going on and couldn't reassure their clients, let alone ferry hot meals to them.

Each family got lots of instant noodles and cans

Was this whole exercise worth it in the end? Seems like a mixed bag.

In the meantime, residents who were released are celebrating by eating some decent food... they deserve it!

 

In a First, Carrie Lam Apologizes

Carrie Lam inside Kowloon Mosque with members of the Muslim community

In a first, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and the police force apologized to the Muslim community today about spraying blue dye on the steps of Kowloon Mosque.

Before noon she and an entourage of people walked along Nathan Road then up the steps to the mosque. She wore a suit with a long scarf around her neck, but she did not use it to cover her head as is customary for Muslim women.

Lam and Stephen Lo apologized for the water at the mosque

In any event, Lam and police chief Stephen Lo Wai-chung met with members of the Islamic Trust, a local community group, where both insisted the coloured water hitting the mosque was an accident. They were inside the mosque for 25 minutes and then Lam and Lo left without taking questions from reporters.

Later the government said the chief executive and police commissioner had "explained [the incident] again to the Muslim representatives", and Lam had apologized "for the inadvertent spraying of the mosque's main entrance and gate with coloured water".

Then in the afternoon the police force issued a statement, saying it apologized for the incident, saying the aim of the dispersal operation was to protect the mosque.

"Police respect religious freedom... and will spare no effort in protecting all religious premises," it said.

During the daily press conference today, the police trotted out Swalikh Mohammed, superintendent at the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau, himself a Muslim, to explain the dispersal operation to the media.

Moments after the water cannon sprayed the mosque yesterday

Mohammed has nothing to do with what happened yesterday, but the police wants to show it is diverse in its ethnicities.

He said the police were in touch with the community and tried to recruit volunteers to help clean up the mosque soon after the incident. The police also apologized to bystanders who were caught up in the incident.

Does that mean they apologized to the witnesses and reporters who were just standing there at the time?

Representatives from the Muslim community at the meeting with Lam and Lo accepted their apologies, but Mohan Chugani, former president of the Indian Association of Hong Kong does not; he said the water cannon clearly took aim at bystanders including himself, even though there were no protesters around.

He said Lam personally called him to apologize, and while he accepts it in principle, he still plans to make a formal complaint to the police.

St Andrew's Church also got blue dye

"I told her [Lam] that police should not do that to innocent bystanders, no one should be subjected to that," Chugani said. "The police should exercise their common sense."

What's interesting is that previously Chugani was seen on stage at pro-police rallies, but now he has changed his mind about the force.

"I feel there is no more law and order in Hong Kong," he said.

Meanwhile, there was another religious building that was inadvertently sprayed yesterday -- St Andrew's Church, which is near the mosque.

At first the police didn't apologize to the church, but have since said sorry to vicar Alex McRoy.

"We understand that the use of the cannon... can be indiscriminate," he said.

When asked his thoughts about the ongoing unrest in the city, McRoy said there had been a lot of grief in society and there would not be an easy solution for this "complex issue", and urged Hongkongers to listen to each other with empathy.

Hongkongers expect more empathy from Lam to resolve crisis

Wonder if he has given the same advice to Lam, who might want to apologize to those Hongkongers who were inadvertently attacked with tear gas and pepper spray, for arresting innocent bystanders, for mistreating those they have arrested, in particular children, for creating unnecessary anxiety when the anti-mask ban was instituted, for the police mistreating reporters, and perhaps most importantly, for not withdrawing the extradition bill earlier.

If she had we would not be still in the 20th week of protests with no end in sight...

Eradicating a "Mental Illness"

Uighurs coming out of Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang

 The Chinese government is spinning the incarceration of Uighurs in detention centres in Xinjiang,  saying their belief in Islam needs to be treated as a mental illness. As a result they need to be treated multiple times, not just once, and for months at a time.

That's the latest report from The Atlantic, that also says some one million people are being sent to these "reeducation camps" where they are forced to sing propaganda songs and learn Mandarin, and some media reports have even talked about forcing these ethnic minority Muslims to eat pork and drink alcohol.

While the authorities describe the camps are "schools", they are also being described as "hospitals".

Women waking down the street in Kashgar

In a WeChat message to Uighurs, an excerpt of an official Communist Party audio recording says:

Members of the public who have been chosen for reeducation have been infected by an ideological illness. They have been infected with religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology, and therefore they must seek treatment from a hospital as an inpatient... The religious extremist ideology is a type of poisonous medicine, which confuses the mind of the people... If we do not eradicate religious extremism at its roots, the violent terrorist incidents will grow and spread all over like an incurable malignant tumour.

Sounds serious doesn't it? Except the message is making assumptions about people's devotion to their religion.

By calling religious extremism an "ideological illness", it gives the government (in its mind) the moral authority to lock people up for months at a time, and as many as it warrants is necessary.

Police officers have confirmed to Radio Free Asia that they have been ordered to meet specific population quotas in rounding up people for these camps. In one township, 40 percent of the local population was locked up.

"It's being treated as a mental illness that's never guaranteed to be completely cured, like addiction or depression," says Timothy Grose, a China expert at the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. "There's something mentally wrong that needs to be diagnosed, treated -- and followed up with."

The above mentioned recording from the Communist Party justifies the need for continual treatment:

There is always a risk that the illness will manifest itself at any moment, which would cause serious harm to the public. that is why they must be admitted to a reeducation hospital in time to treat and cleanse the virus from their brain and restore their normal mind... Being infected by religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology and not seeking treatment is like being infected by a disease that has not been treated in time, or like taking toxic drugs... There is no guarantee that it will not trigger and affect you in the future.

There are intimidating police patrols around Xinjiang

Having gone through reeducation and recovered form the ideological disease doesn't mean that one is permanently cured... So, after completing the reeducation process in the hospital and returning home... they must remain vigilant, empower themselves with the correct knowledge, strengthen their ideological studies, and actively attend various public activities to bolster their immune system.

Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the European School of Culture and Theology in Germany equates what is going on in Xinjiang with how the government dealt with Falun Gong practitioners in the early 2000s by reeducating them in labour camps.

"Falun Gong was also treated like a dangerous addiction... But in Xinjiang this [rhetoric] is certainly being pushed to the next level," he says. "The explicit link with the addictive effect of religion is being emphasized possibly in an unprecedented way."

US-based Uighur academic from Xinjiang Tahir Imin isn't surprised by the government equating Islam with mental illness. He believes this is the authorities' way of eradicating ethnic Muslim minorities and forcing them to assimilate with the Han Chinese.

In the end this is the government's way of dealing with extremists -- by eradicating what it thinks is religious extremism through extreme power.

Silk Road: Uyghur Culture

Two musicians playing amazing instruments, a woman on tambourine

After we arrived in Kashgar, we quickly noticed things were much different here in the westernmost city in China and Xinjiang that borders Kazakhstan. All the Uyghurs look very different, some fair skinned, almost European, and others very dark and could be mistaken for being Mexican, much like how the Spanish can have various shades of skin colour.

Our first meal was at a Uyghur restaurant that looked traditional and probably for the benefit of tourists. In the middle was a bar (with no alcohol) and a dancing floor with a platform where three musicians sat playing instruments. Two dancers, a man and a woman performed folk dances for guests.

The woman would also dance with her partner for diners

It seemed like the Han Chinese sat on one side of the room, while the other featured Hui ethnic minority people, who are also Muslim, the women wearing simple headdresses and clapping along with the music.

We were given an array of dishes to eat, like a ratatouille with noodles, a large dumpling filled with lamb, and sweet rice seasoned with spices, and of course lamb kebabs. We were also presented with baked buns with minced meat inside.

The music was fantastic, mesmerizing to listen to -- a pity we were not given an introduction to the instruments! And it was interesting to watch how the dancers interpreted the music through their dance steps.

A bowl of noodles with a kind of ratatouille

After dinner, I wanted to share some moon cakes from Hong Kong with the rest of the tour members -- 30-year-old mandarin peels with red bean paste -- but I needed a knife to cut them.

We asked one of the waitresses in Mandarin and she violently shook her head and waved her hand. Then we thought she didn't understand Mandarin and drew a picture... not the best drawing, but when we showed it to her she again shook her head.

Finally we managed to flag down our Uyghur tour guide to ask for a knife and he said we were not allowed to have one in the restaurant. In the end we had to settle for a spoon which I used to cut the moon cakes into quarters. It wasn't the best solution, but it was the only one.

Sweetened and spiced rice with lamb kebabs and a dumpling

We later found out that Uyghurs are not allowed to carry knives anywhere and they are only allowed in the kitchen, not for guests to use. It's just another of the Chinese government's strict measures to try to control this "restive region" following some attacks in the last eight to nine years, some of which involved knives.

The longer we stayed here, the more we realized how oppressive life was like for Uyghurs -- on a daily basis.

Silk Road: Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves

A view of Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves at the foot of Flaming Mountain

Buddhism came to China through the Silk Road, and the first contact point was in what is now Xinjiang. Early on the Uyghurs were Buddhists and Turpan became the centre of the religion.

One of the lasting tributes to Buddhism is the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves that are located at the bottom of the Flaming Mountains, 45 kilometres east of Turpan.

There is a range of painting styles that can be found here

These series of caves are quite amazing, in the middle of nowhere, much like the Mogao Grottoes, and whatever is left is quite impressive. The caves were built during the Southern and Northern dynasties or the 5th century through to the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties or 14th century.

Inside the caves are beautiful murals of Buddha in the past, present and future, along with his disciples and followers painted in various styles depending on the dynasty. Some of the murals still have some vibrant colours with very intricate designs that cover every inch of space.

However around the end of the 13th century Buddhist Uyghurs were converted to Islam during a holy war when the they were conquered by the Muslim Chagatai Khanate ruler Khizr Khoja. Therefore, interest in Buddhism declined, while Islam was introduced.

The skin colour of these figures used to be pink long ago

As a result, these caves became neglected, while in subsequent centuries later robbers cut out and stole entire pieces of murals, or Muslims who were anti-Buddhist came and gouged out the eyes of and mouths of figures on the walls.

It was a pity to only see a few caves -- that are guarded nowadays by Uyghurs to ensure no one took pictures of each -- but you can see why it's so important that these caves be guarded.

Strangely these caves are not considered to be good enough to be national treasures on par with Mogao Grottoes as these ones are some of the earliest known Buddhist art work dating back to the 5th century; the Mogao Grottoes date back to the 4th century.

The intricate paintings are impressive

Some patches of murals can be seen in museums around the world, such as the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Tokyo National Museum, the British Museum in London and national museums in Korea and India.

Apparently some of the best pieces were afixed to the walls of the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, but during World War II, they could not be removed and were thus destroyed in the bombing of of the city by the Allies.

It makes you wonder how many Uyghurs today know their history with regards to Buddhism and would they consider converting back?

Silk Road: Emin Minaret

The Emin Minaret is decorated with bricks and has narrow windows

At 44 metres, this is the tallest minaret in China, standing next to a mosque in Turpan, Xinjiang. The tower was traditionally used to call people to prayer, but nowadays it is hardly ever used -- the Chinese government declared in August this year that loud speakers could not be used to call Muslims to observe their faith.

The tallest minaret in China stands next to a Turpan mosque

Construction on the minaret began in 1777 and was completed within a year. It was built in honour of a local Turpan general, Emin Khoja, which is why the minaret has the name "Emin".

We weren't allowed to go inside the minaret to climb the 72 steps, but it is made of wood and brick, the latter having floral designs carved on them. The tower also has several long windows at different heights to provide light and ventilation.

Next to the minaret is a mosque that is made with rough wooden beams. It's understated except for the elaborate silk carpets on the floors. For such a grand looking structure on the outside, it is quite humble and simple inside.

Inside the mosque it's bare and humble with wooden beams

However, the minaret is really the standout here, with the geometric designs and texture created by the bricks, and the fact that it's still standing is a testament to artisans over 200 years ago.