Peng Chau's Tung Wan last Friday
View from Victoria Peak the day before that
I'm in a better frame of mind this evening than this time yesterday and Wednesday. It's amazing how two consecutive days without any police brutality can lift the mood. It also helps to learn that the
police did not go yesterday to university residence halls to search
students' rooms as it had been feared that they were going to do. Heartening too has been the news of a
mother's rally against the extradition bill, Chief Executive Carrie Lam
and police brutality having taken place at Chater Garden this evening and Christian
groups continuing to turn out in force to sing hymns at the Government
Headquarters in Admiralty for the fourth consecutive night in a row.
This is all on top of the additional room to breathe that comes courtesy of the announcement that the earliest that the Legislative Council will continue their discussion of the hated extradition bill will be next Wednesday.
And while we continue to await confirmation that there will be no
official objection to another anti-extradition bill protest march this
Sunday, the sense is not only that it will be granted but that the tide
might be turning against the proposed bill itself and also 777, with: the
Chinese ambassador to Britain denying in a BBC interview that Beijing
was behind the efforts to introduce the China extradition proposal; and a senior government official and pro-establishment legislator as well as 27 former government officials and politicians
coming out today to indicate that support for the clearly deeply
unpopular bill is wavering even among Carrie Lam's supposed allies.
Of course, it may well turn out to be wishful thinking -- but I am feeling the likelihood that this extradition bill will be passed actually being lower now than it was just two days ago. More than incidentally, remember the saying that a week is a long time in politics? Well, it sure feels like it when I look back at the week that has just past; with my having spent a good part of last Friday enjoying watching dragon boat races out on Peng Chau, and my having talked to a Danish visitor I met up on the Peak the day before about dragon boat festivals, like the one that was due to take place this weekend in Victoria Harbour but was cancelled as a result of the current political unrest. Those were happier times and goodness knows that I dearly hope we can experience them again in Hong Kong.
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