Good questions to ask about many things happening
in Hong Kong in recent days/months/years
With June 4th having come and gone (at least for this year) on Sunday, I was hoping that this week would be less fraught with disturbances. But yesterday and today have brought word of further shocking events in Hong Kong (never mind other parts of the world, notably Ukraine).
Yesterday saw the arrest of a mother for the murder of her three daughters (aged five, four and two years of age). These killings by themselves are horrifying. But the fact that they came just two days after the murder of two women has really shocked a city that -- fear-mongering anti-terrorism campaigns notwithstanding -- really does not see itself as crime capital.
Something that both killers have in common is that they both had mental issues. The 39-year-old man who fatally stabbed the two women in Diamond Hill on Saturday had a history of mental illness while the woman who suffocated her three children at their subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po "seemed to be suffering from a mental illness. She was said to have been babbling and talking about ghosts."
This has led many folks here in Hong Kong to reach the following conclusion: "We don't have a sedition problem. We have a mental health crisis." And as another Hong Konger was moved to Tweet: "Hong Kong is a massive simmering bowl of unresolved tension and trauma, built up over the past 4 years. Continuing to push it under the surface won't make it go away..."
But instead of trying to solve or even ease Hong Kong's mental health crisis, the government looks to pile on the stress and distress. Exhibit A today: the continued gaslighting of the public by officials, including Chief Executive John Lee -- to the point that The Economist's Don Weinland was moved to Tweet that: "It seems insane that ppl are constantly asking very direct questions about what is legal and what is not, only to be told in the vaguest possible terms that the law is clear and they must act in accordance with it".
As for Exhibit B: how about the announcement by the Hong Kong government today that "it is seeking a court order to
prohibit people from broadcasting or distributing the protest song
“Glory to Hong Kong” after it was mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at several international sporting events in the past year"? Lawyer Kevin Yam has explained in legal terms why the Department of Justice would seek to do this. As a layperson, all I can think of is this all seems to be pretty over the top and only adds to people's fears that Hong Kong is getting further and further away -- rather than closer -- to being a "normal", sane city.
For one thing, as Ming Pao's Alvin Lum pointed out: "Not only is [the Hong Kong government] seeking to ban the distribution of the song/lyrics/melody in any way..., it’s also seeking to impose duty on those knowingly allow others to distribute/reproduce the song with alleged illegal intent, which may affect internet platforms." And, oh, "the proposed injunction by [the Department of Justice] also seek[s] to ban 32 various renditions of Glory to Hong Kong on YouTube (in Eng[lish], Japanese, Dutch, Xiqu, orchestra, etc) and “any adaptation of the song, melody, and/or lyrics”"!
As Channel News Asia's Chonqing-born reporter Wei Du was moved to state upon reading what Alvin Lum had Tweeted, "This is terrifyingly reminiscent of the episode that led Google to leave mainland China. Pushed enough, tech platforms might start to ask if it’s still worth it, and [Hong Kong] is a puny market, China was big." And this is indeed my fear -- more so than the authorities being successful in getting Hongkongers to stop remembering and singing "Glory to Hong Kong", never mind whistling, humming, etc. its tune. That is, that this move by the Department of Justice will result in the Great Firewall of China coming to enclose Hong Kong. :(
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