Yet another Lennon Wall in Hong Kong, this one spotted on
my way to the HKSAR Government Headquarters yesterday
At the currently abandoned-looking Legislative Council Complex
I planned to stay home and take a breather from it all yesterday but after a friend told me that she and her husband would be going to an anti-government rally at Admiralty (which, surprisingly, the police had issued a Letter of No Objection for), I joined her there for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Shortly after the event officially concluded at 6pm, my friends and I took our leave.
Many people milled about the area though, doing such as checking out how the Legislative Council Complex looks like these days and admiring the views of Victoria Harbour to be had from Tamar Park. And some of them ended up being sprinkled by a flourescent powder from a helicopter flying above the area; this despite their not having done anything illegal -- since it's not a crime to be in a public area even after the scheduled event there had ended!
Tamar Park played host to another (legal) anti-government rally again today. Also, the class boycott by university and school students which began yesterday -- the first day of the near academic year -- continued into today; resulting in scenes like this, this, and -- horrifyingly -- this and this. (For the record: Hong Kong is not officially under martial law. Still.)
But the main subject being discussed by many people for much of today -- and since the news broke late yesterday -- has been one of two major leaks that occurred yesterday along with the Hong Kong High Court's overturning of a government decision to ban pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow from the Legislative Council elections. (And, yes, this is indeed the same Agnes Chow who was arrested last Friday but is currently free on bail.)
In a major scoop for the news agency, Reuters released a special report detailing what Hong Kong Chief Executive (in name only) Carrie Lam told a group of businessmen at a "closed-door" meeting. Among its choice quotes: “For a chief executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable”; “If I have a choice, the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology”; " “[Beijing] care[s] about the country’s international profile”; and "“Hong Kong is not dead yet" -- but it would be “naïve to paint you a rosy picture, that things will be fine.”
Then, after Chinese state "news" agencies and pro-Beijing "news" sources sought to refute the report, Reuters proceeded to release: excerpts of the audio transcript it had obtained; and pretty much the full transcript of the more than 20 minute long recording of Carrie Lam's remarks. (A cautionary note: The transcript can make readers apoplectic but is very worth reading to get absolute confirmation of how self-pitying as well as idiotic this woman is).
Also important -- and arguably, more eye-opening (since that first leak confirmed much of what many of us already suspected) -- was yesterday's other news leak. This one coming by way of RTHK jounalist Damon Pang, it involves an email sent by the Chairman of the Court Prosecutors (Department of Justice) Association stating that "the police know they are telling lies". The final line of its postscript -- "What happened to the Cathay Pacific will sooner or later happen to DOJ" (i.e., the Department of Justice) -- is chilling. As is the implication, after hearing or reading of Carrie Lam's latest press conference earlier today, that Hong Kong is led by a serial liar.
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