A temporary hiking respite from political gloom during the fifth coronavirus wave (Photo-essay)

Yesterday was one of those days in Hong Kong where there was plenty to be upset about.  Among the lowlights: six people getting arrested on "sedition" charges for having clapped in court (yes, you really did read that right); and John Lee's appointment to the post of Chief Executive being effectively confirmed.  

 

Adding to the gloom: Tom Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law and the co-author (along with Eric Yan-ho Lai) of a report entitled Arrest Data Show National Security Law Has Dealt a Hard Blow to Free Expression in Hong Kong, producing a Twitter thread about it that included the following lines: "The NSL is a wrecking ball that is swinging wildly through HK civil society, doing immense damage"; and "No end in sight, I'm afraid: 2022 will continue to be a grim year for human rights in [Hong Kong]."

 

And the flow of disturbing news continued into today.  A case in point: Keith Fong, a former president of Hong Kong Baptist University’s student union, was jailed for nine months for "resisting police and perverting the course of justice, in a case linked to his purchase of 10 laser pointers during the 2019 protests" today.  

 

But I managed to keep the gloom away for a few hours this afternoon when I took a friend (who'll be leaving Hong Kong soon) for a hike in my favorite country park in the Big Lychee.  On my first excursion into the countryside since mask wearing while exercising became required again in Hong Kong (thanks to the fifth coronavirus wave), the sun was out but it was fortunately not super hot and humid.  So our hike today along the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path from Wong Nai Chung Gap to Stanley turned out to be pretty pleasant (and thus provided a welcome temporary respite to help recharge the batteries)!

The trail head for the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path is well marked

but it's still a hiking trail that is not super well known

(and thus not very busy, at least on a weekday)

 

Yes, this is a hike with views of super expensive residences

along with the usual greenery and highrises!

 

Repulse Bay on a sunny afternoon -- from a distance,

things look pretty idyllic, don't they?

 

A sail boat and container ship in Repulse Bay

 

Violet flower spotted on the edge of Violet Hill

 

View of Tai Tam Intermediate Reservoir from Tsin Shui Wan Au

 

 

Clear day view past Middle Island over to Ocean Park 

and beyond to Lamma Island in the distance!

 

Looking downhill near hike's end at the Stanley Peninsula and 

beyond to Hong Kong's southernmost islands, including Po Toi

Carrie Lam will be gone soon but I don't think it'll actually impact Hong Kong's slide that much :(

  

A placard on July 1st, 2019, that listed 

six demands, not five

 

"No China extradition; Carrie Lam, step down!"  Those were among the demands that could be heard being chanted at the first few extradition bill protests I attended back in the summer of 2019.  On September 5th of that year, Carrie Lam did indeed finally withdraw the extradition bill that had brought millions of Hong Kongers out onto the streets on many occasions that summer.  And yesterday came the announcement from Hong Kong's most popular Chief Executive ever that she will be stepping down/leaving office when her term ends come June 30th as she will not be seeking a second term. 

 

Unlike when Leung Chun-ying announced that he'd be stepping down (back in December 2016), there were no joyous celebrations of the kind that took place at Chater Garden the evening after Hong Kong's third Chief Executive's announcement.  One reason is that many of the people who led the celebrations the last time around are behind bars or have been silenced (by way their being currently out on bail while awaiting national security law trials or having been handed out suspended sentences).    

 

For another, even before obituaries for Carrie Lam's political career had gone to press (see one example here) -- heck, even before Carrie Lam's actual announcement that she would not be seeking a second term -- the identity of the person widely perceived as her successor's come to light.  And, if anything, John Lee's rule looks like it'll be even more repressive than hers.  

 

In addition, especially after China imposed its security law on Hong Kong (on June 30th, 2020), the fact of the matter is that Hong Kong is no longer being ruled "with a high degree of autonomy" by local  leaders.  And even though it's continuing the charade of holding an "election" for Chief Executive on May 8th, make no mistake that the 1,462 voters chosen by Beijing will have their "choices" dictated to by China's rulers.     

 

Don't take my word for it.  Instead, see pro-Beijing think tanker Lau Siu-kai's!  Specifically, he was reported in an RTHK article yesterday as declaring that: "Hong Kong will need a strong leader in the next five years, and... the central government has already decided who that should be."  In his own words: ""Beijing has already prepared for the new person to run Hong Kong within a very short period of time"; and, actually "Beijing might even have made some arrangements for the new team to come into place afterwards"!

 

With regards to the new team: again, I wouldn't be surprised -- even if not happy -- to see another former police chief (and current security secretary), Chris PK Tang, continue his rapid rise to become chief secretary (and the number two official) in John Lee's cabinet.  If so, Hong Kong's status as a police state really should be clear for all to see.  And yes, such as the passing of Article 23, the building of an extension of the great firewall of China to cover Hong Kong and such horrors would be even more guaranteed to happen, and sooner rather than later.     

And while what awaits is truly chilling, the fact of the matter is that the situation in Hong Kong already is not all that great.  Forget, if you can, the raging pandemic (which has killed over 8,000 Hong Kongers as of today) and anti-pandemic measures which has killed a good number of small businesses, and consider the injustices that have been perpetuated by the authorities, including in the courts.

 

A case in point: Five people -- the youngest of whom's aged just 19 years; the oldest of whom is 30 years of age -- were sentenced to up to four and a half years over rioting charges relating to a protest in Wong Tai Sin on October 1st, 2019, by Judge Ernest Lin yesterday.  One of them, 24-year-old Mak Ho-wai, was found with bandage tapes and other emergency first aid equipment on him, and offered emergency care to those in need on the day. Judge Lin sentenced him to four and a half years in prison; in part because "Mak had showed no remorse".  

 

Seriously: why should someone rendering first aid show remorse?  But if you think that's bad enough, consider that another defendant in this case, Kwok Siu-kit, "was said to have stepped on a police officer when he was being chased while climbing across a barrier. There was no evidence to suggest that he had acted violently, and the 30-year-old maintained that he had done nothing wrong."  And yet he was slapped with a starting sentence of four years and six months, that was reduced by three months only after Judge Lin "taking into account [Kwok's] health problems and the fact that he cared for his sick parents"!

Over on Twitter, Elson Tong writes of another problematic case: the "founder of "Free HK Media" Pastor Keung pleaded guilty to assaulting a policeman inside police station. He was released Monday [i.e., yesterday] after being denied bail for longer than his eventual sentence: 2 months..."  "[W]e'll never know how strong the allegations are, as Keung would've stayed in jail far longer if he decided to go to trial. Thus rational defendants plead guilty even if they have a strong defence. Yet bail is increasingly denied even in non-NSL cases. Why? Read the above again"!  

Victoria Harbour-front views on a day that a cold front came in (Photo-essay)

The weather's been lovely this past weekend -- sunny, cool and fine.  Normally, I'd take the opportunity to venture outdoors, including for a bout of hiking.  But I've actually spent the whole of yesterday and today holed up in my apartment -- in no small part because I figured lots of people would be out over the weekend and I still am loath to be out among crowds since Hong Kong's fifth Covid wave has not yet ended (though it does look to have subsided considerably in recent days -- 3,709 new cases reported today; way fewer than what's been reported for Shanghai, which surpassed Hong Kong in the number of daily Covid cases from yesterday.)    

 

Before the pandemic, I'd never have stayed home all day for two days in a row unless I was feeling poorly or a major typhoon was visiting.  These days though, it feels more normal to do so, and easier too.  Also, on Thursday, when it was still shorts weather but the cold front was visibly coming in, I went for a leisurely walk along the Victoria Harbour-front.  So I feel like I did get in some exercise and fresh air before I hunkered down in my apartment for the weekend.  In addition, Hong Kong was looking really beautiful at the time.  So I got in some cool sights and photography (with my new camera that I got last week) too!

 

Cold front coming in from the east on Thursday

 

The view to the west was warmer, thanks to the rays 

of the sun that had not yet set

 

Sun and star... ferries that is! ;b

 

The cold front got things looking darker than they

normally do so at this time of a spring day in Hong Kong!
 

 

Egret in the city (specifically, walking along the surface of 

the government helicopter pad at Wan Chai!)

 

The sun setting behind the highrises 

of Central, Sheung Wan and beyond

 

When you cast your eyes on views like this, 

how can you not really f**king love Hong Kong?

 

 

A metaphor for Hong Kong?  Even when things are gloomy,

there still is some light and warmth, and beauty, amidst it all

Still remembering, and missing, Leslie Cheung 19 years on

Fans and flowers galore outside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel

on Leslie Cheung's death anniversary pre-pandemic

 

Nineteen years ago today, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing jumped to his death from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong.  Pretty much every year since, fans of the late mega star singer-actor remember him on April 1st by doing such as playing or listening to his songs, watching movies in which he stars or going over to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and adding to the considerable amount of floral tributes to him there and/or to view and admire them.

 

I've had the good fortune of viewing a number of Leslie Cheung cinematic classics in the company of fellow fans of this Hong Kong legend on April 1st over the years here in the Big Lychee.  It's pretty much expected that at least one Leslie Cheung film will be screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (which usually runs from late March through early April -- though last year, it began on April 5th).  And, over the years, I've caught fest screenings of He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994), The Bride with White Hair (1993) and Rouge (1987) -- all of them great films as well as great Leslie Cheung movies.

 

With the Hong Kong International Film Festival being postponed (maybe even outright cancelled?) this year because of the fifth coronavirus wave, there was no opportunity to view a Leslie Cheung film on a big screen today.  And instead of viewing a Leslie Cheung movie on home video, I opted instead to listen to one of my Leslie Cheung CDs: specifically, that known in English as Most Beloved or plain Beloved (and whose title is 寵愛 in Chinese); which features Leslie singing hit songs from a number of his movies (including He's a Woman, She's a Man, The Bride with White Hair and also Days of Being Wild).  

 

Unlike some of his fans here in Hong Kong, I did not go over to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel today.  And in view of what's been reported on Twitter (by the likes of Bernice Chan and K Tse), it's a good thing I didn't.  This is because members of the police force that is far from Asia's finest decided that the fans and mourners who gone over to the side of the Mandarin Oriental where tributes to Leslie Cheung are laid on April 1st needed to be dispersed, and their floral tributes disposed. 

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised since the Hong Kong police have shown a marked tendency to use anti-pandemic regulations against people and a definite dislike of mourning by Hong Kongers.  Think about such as the refusal to allow Tiananmen Square Massacre commemorations to take place in Victoria Park on June 4th, 2020 and again on the same date last year as well as the small show of support for the Ukraine which took place in Central a couple of weeks ago and mourning to take place outside Prince Edward MTR station on the last day of the month.   

Rather than let the cops ruin the mood though, here's ending today's blog post by pointing out that one other way to remember Leslie Cheung that the cops have not (yet) interfered with involves social media posts.  Very touchingly, along with various fan tributes, are ones by Leslie's significant other, Daffy Tong, and erstwhile co-star (including in Happy Together) -- and friend -- Tony Leung Chiu-wai.  Seeing these, there's little dispute that Leslie Cheung continues to be fondly remembered and dearly missed. 

Hong Kong law courts in the news along with two high-profile resignations from Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal

Brand Hong Kong's not as bright and cheery 

these days as advertised on this tram!

 

As lunch yesterday, a friend asked me how it was going.  I told her that I guess things weren't too bad as I hadn't been angry since last Wednesday, when I heard about Samuel Bickett getting deported from Hong Kong against his will.  Alas, before the day was out, I found myself messaging her to tell her that I was incandescent with rage once again upon hearing about two court rulings made yesterday.

 

The first of these involved a group of street sleepers winning a case against the government, who they sued for damages after riot police and cleaners tossed away their personal belongings (including cash, family photos, bedding, clothing and a wheelchair) in the winter of 2019, only to find that the Small Claims Tribunal judge awarded each of the street sleepers just HK$100 (~US$12.78) in damages.  To put it mildly: this pittance is an insult that doesn't cover the legal costs involved for them and is far from the HK$2,000 to HK$13,290 that the individuals concerned were claiming.  

 

All in all, one gets the sense that the judge for the case does not value the people concerned and ruled accordingly with regarding to how much their personal property was worth.  As one of the street sleepers, Siu-Bik Yuen, stated: "There is no human rights for us, we are treated as the lowest of the low, they (the government) don't regard us as human."

 

In addition, the judge seemed to have little sense of what life is like for these people.  I say this becausse he ruled that that they had failed to provide sufficient proof to assert ownership of the items in that they had not produced any "photos or receipts of items, or other documents to show the value of the items they claimed were lost in the government operation".  Well, yes -- because all that was tossed away by the riot police and cleaners, remember?! 

 

Then there's the matter of the legal procedure having gone on for so long that two claimants passed away -- at least one, in mysterious circumstances -- before the court reached a verdict.  As it so happened, one of them was a Vietnamese refugee -- which got me thinking of Drifting, a 2021 Hong Kong film about street sleepers whose characters had included an elderly Vietnamese refugee, and which had been inspired by a similar case involving street sleepers suing the government after getting their belongings trashed.  In other words: this kind of thing is not new and all.  And I'm sure the authorities won't be deterred from doing this again after getting off with such a light penalty yesterday!  

The second court ruling which I was upset by yesterday involved "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, who turned 66 this past Sunday.  Already serving a 23-month jail sentence for separately organising an unlawful protest, and facing the more serious charge of subversion under the national security law, he was slapped with an additional two week prison sentence for a snatching a folder from a government official during a legislature meeting back in 2016 when he was serving as a Legislative Councillor.  

As per a news report: "His case has dragged on for years because of legal ambiguity over whether lawmakers can be charged over disruptions."  But the way was paved to prosecute him for this "offence" after the Court of Final Appeal ruled in September of last year that his actions did not fall in the realm of the "protected speech" that Legislative Councillors were allowed.  

Speaking of the Court of Final Appeals: it was announced today that two British judges who have been sitting on it have resigned.  "The situation has reached a tipping point where it is no longer tenable for British judges to sit on Hong Kong’s leading court, and would risk legitimising oppression,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss stated.

 

In a statement of his own, one of those judges, Lord Robert Reed (who happens to be the President of the British Supreme Court) made clear that his resignation came as a result of the administration in Hong Kong having "departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression" and he and his fellow British judge, Lord Patrick Hodge, not wishing to appear to endorse the administration.  Ironically, Lord Reed was actually involved in the Court of Final Appeal ruling last September that led to "Long Hair" being sentenced to an additional two weeks of jail yesterday.  I wonder whether that decision has preyed on his mind in recent months, weeks or days.   

 

As it so happens, that particular September ruling also led to another former pro-democracy Legislative Councillor, Fernando Cheung, being sent to prison for three weeks last month.  This prompted legal scholar Eric Yan-ho Lai to pen a piece in The Diplomat entitled: "Foreign judges are enabling Hong Kong's legal crackdown".   So, frankly, today's resignations were long overdue in the eyes of many. 

Today, Lai Tweeted the following about the resignations of the two British law lords from Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal: "The resignations of Lord Hodge and Lord Reed from #HK’s Court of Final Appeal are respectable moves in light of the ongoing political suppressions in the city"; and "the @UKSupremeCourt’s statement appears to imply the resignations are votes of no confidence to the city’s administration that does not respect political freedom and free speech anymore, and the Court does not want to collaborate with the HK administration anymore". 

 

In addition: "The language of the statement also appears to imply that the continuation of sending judges to HK would be read as an endorsement to the unjust system overall. It is also a prudent decision as they might realise they can’t do much while being in that system."  In sum: "The resignations of Lord Hodge and Lord Reed inevitably signal [to] the business community in HK [concerns regarding] the integrity of the city’s legal system. It would also alert other rights-respecting jurisdictions of HK’s political and judicial environments [on] the eve of [the] EU-China Summit."

The Hong Kong government's deficiencies laid bare by the fifth Covid wave (and its handing one more opportunity to China to tighten its grip on the city)

China bull in Hong Kong

 

We are by no means safely out of the woods yet but it's good to see continued drops in Hong Kong's coronavirus numbers: with today's reported daily new cases down to 7,685 from the 8,037 recorded yesterday and it being the third day in a row that the numbers are below the 10,000 mark.  Also, while the number of daily fatalities continues to be way higher than we want to see (with another 168 deaths reported today; 143 new, 25 backlogged as the system's still not running smoothly), it's heartening to see that the number of Covid patients judged to be in serious (32) and critical (19) condition as well as are in the Intensive Care Units (108) are also going down too.

Still, I don't think that Hong Kongers and people looking on outside of Hong Kong are going to forget, and forgive, how badly the Hong Kong government has dealt with this fifth Coronavirus wave -- along with so many other things -- though.  And chief among Carrie Lam's sins for many is her running to Beijing for help and thereby giving it another prime opportunity to tighten its grip on Hong Kong.   

 

In recent days, articles by Hillary Leung has appeared in both the Hong Kong Free Press and The Guardian (containing much the same information but edited differently) about precisely this.  And I can do much worse than to copiously quote from one of them.  So, here's doing precisely that and sharing the following excerpts from The Guardian's piece:   

“Beijing has been trying to mould Hong Kong into another [Chinese] city,” says Lynette Ong, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. “The Covid crisis gives them a legitimate reason to do so.”

 

...Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine, says “there was once a chasm separating what takes place in Hong Kong from what takes place across the mainland border”. That chasm is getting smaller.

 

Under the national security law, spaces like independent newsrooms, universities and civil society groups have felt a chill as Beijing seeks to integrate Hong Kong further into its fold.

And as Hong Kong prepares to welcome a batch of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners to staff treatment facilities and open more isolation camps built by mainland workers, the assimilation is now playing out more publicly than ever.

“The way that Covid has been handled by the Hong Kong authorities has demonstrated that the ‘one country, two systems’ concept is a pale shadow of what it once was,” Wasserstrom says.

As for the other deficiencies that the fifth Covid wave has "exposed", you know things are bad when even the normally pro-government, pro-Beijing South China Morning Post is running pieces discussing Carrie Lam's administration's poor leadership and inability to deliver.  Some excerpts from today's article noting those deficiencies in its headline as well as within its body:

[C]riticism and condemnation [has] rained down from former officials, business moguls and senior counsel, with former government adviser Jack Wong Chack-kie urging [Carrie] Lam to “resign in shame”. Even former commerce minister Frederick Ma Si-hang and Ronnie Chan Chi-chung, chairman of Hang Lung Properties, both usually circumspect about government matters, weighed in.

 

Ma said the governing team’s handling of the fifth wave exposed “all kinds of administrative deficiencies” while Chan bemoaned a leadership that lacked humility and was full of unfounded self-confidence.

 

...Experts told the Post the raging fifth wave of infections exposed not only Lam’s poor leadership, but also the weaknesses of the government as a whole, from its inability to plan ahead, coordinate civil servants and departments and disseminate information, to its failure in offering solutions even with help from Beijing.

 

...[A specialist in public administration, Professor John] Burns, an emeritus professor at the University of Hong Kong, said: “Effective governance requires leadership. Unfortunately, our leaders lack the ability to mobilise their own colleagues and the people to win this war. Rather, they value hierarchy and bureaucratic process above all else.”

The quote of the day must go though to another expert though. Professor Steve Tsang is director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.  Living and working outside of Hong Kong (and China) as he does, I think he is more able to not mince words.  And I think he got to the crux of the matter when he asked the following question: "How could the government of a very wealthy and developed city like Hong Kong be so unprepared, if it was even moderately competent?"!

More on Samuel Bickett and Hong Kong's still very serious and politicized pandemic situation

Hong Kong, troubled but still really beautiful

 

I watched and listened to the Hong Kong Free Press' Tom Grundy interview Samuel Bickett last night (Youtube video available here).  This was actually the first time I had had heard him speak at length and 'live', and I must say that he acquitted himself very well; this not least since he clearly was still fatigued and probably also in shock to some extent from his most recent ordeal(s).  And, almost needless to say, I found the close to 40 minute long interview interesting and informative, and moving too.   

 

At various points, the now US-based lawyer -- who first moved to Hong Kong in 2013 -- spoke about planning to provide more details himself on his blog about his most recent prison experience and plans to continue pursuing his case up to the Court of Final Appeal, and I look forward to reading more of his writings in the future.  Mr Bickett also elaborated on a number of points he had made in the message he posted on Twitter two days ago and provided some background about his family -- and it's interesting, even while not super surprising, to learn that he has his parents' support in his pursuit of justice for himself and Hong Kong; and that he was raised by people who took part in civil rights protests in the USA.

 

On the subject of protests: More evidence for how difficult it is to stage them in Hong Kong these days came yesterday after three people staging a pro-Ukraine protest were fined by the Hong Kong police yesterday, and two taken away and arrested.  For the record: none of them was actually fined or arrested for protesting.  Rather, the fines came from their contravening the current anti-pandemic measure involving no public gatherings of more than two people being allowed and the arrests came from those two people not carrying any identification documents (like Hong Kong ID cards or their passports) with them. 

 

Nevertheless, there's no disputing that there is a feeling among many Hong Kongers that anti-pandemic measures, along with the actual Wuhan coronavirus itself, have played a key role in dissuading, even preventing, people from staging and taking part in large-scale protests since 2020.  As Quartz's Mary Hui wrote back in April of that year (i.e., some three months before China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong): "Since January, as the novel coronavirus spread rapidly in China, large-scale protests in Hong Kong have taken a pause as people called on each other to avoid crowds"; and a "Hong Kong regulation banning public gatherings of more than four people, enacted [in March] in an effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic, immediately stoked fears that it might be used to crack down on political dissent—and it appears to be happening already."

 

Speaking of the "novel coronavirus" that's now not so novel: Hong Kong's daily new Covid cases dropped down to a one-month low today.  Even so, it's still over the 10,000 mark (specifically, 10,401; with only four of the cases being imported ones) -- a far cry indeed from the 0 or even single digit figures Hong Kong had become used to for much of last year.  Also, the number of fatalities is still way higher than should be the case: with 192 deaths reported today (162 new; 30 backlogged); bringing the number of fifth wave deaths to 6,749 and total Covid deaths in Hong Kong to 6,962.  

And while the number of new daily cases are expected to keep going on a downward trajectory (as per the pattern of Omicron variant waves which sees the coronavirus spread easily and quickly but then appear to naturally burn out faster than that of other variants), the number of Covid fatalities are  expected to be high for a time.  And it most certainly doesn't help that the Hong Kong government appears to be sticking to a pandemic strategy that's far more guided by politics than science -- with today's major pandemic announcement by Carrie Lam involving the planned distribution of Covid kits next month that will include boxes of "traditional Chinese medicine" (TCM) along with N95 masks and rapid test kits (all of which will doubtlessly have been made in China).    

 

While the "traditional Chinese medicine" in question, Lianhua Qingwen, is promoted by the Chinese government as an effective treatment against Covid, it's actually been banned in Australia and back in July 2020, Hong Kong companies were warned by the USA's Food and Drug Administration against stating that any traditional Chinese medicine products, including Lianhua Qingwen, can treat or even mitigate the effects of Covid!  It also is not approved for treatment against Covid in Singapore; with Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) having issued an advisory which specifies that: "there is no scientific evidence from randomised clinical trials to show that any herbal product, including Lianhua Qingwen products, can be used to prevent or treat COVID-19." 

 

Scarily, not only has Lianhua Qingwen been adjudged to be ineffective by various government agencies but it in fact can be harmful.  Earlier this month, there was a reported case in Hong Kong man having  experienced acute liver failure after reportedly consuming painkillers and Lianhua Qingwen capsules! And while one doctor was quoted in local media as saying that overdosing on paracetamol can damage the liver, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Chinese Medicine also went on the record to state that Lianhua Qingwen "contains a level of toxicity that can be harmful to the liver"!

 

Almost needless to say, Carrie Lam and her administration's reluctance to listen to actual medical experts here in Hong Kong greatly frustrates and upsets said medical experts (among them, at least one RNA virologist, professor of public health and medical practitioner).  As for the public: ignore this linked The Standard article's headline and note the line in it that "Respondents rated the SAR government 2.68 out of 10 in terms of their efforts in terms of curbing the fifth wave of pandemic"; and that, for many people, that rating is already way higher than should be the case!