Enjoying the relative calm even while gearing up for an impending political storm

Way fewer yachts and other vessels than I'm generally used 

to seeing in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter

 

Not many boats about in Victoria Harbour these days too!

 One reason is that, unlike the outer island ferries, the Macau ferries have 

temporarily halted service because of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak!

 

The past few days have seen the gloomy weather seen last weekend replaced by bluer skies and bright sunshine in Hong Kong.  Rather than go hiking up in the hills once more, however, I've been drawn again to walking along the Victoria Harbourfront; with my opting to strolling from Causeway Bay to Tin Hau one afternoon and from Kennedy Town to Central on another occasion.            

 

While traipsing past the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, I felt like something was amiss after seeing way fewer yachts moored in the area than usual.  I'm not sure if it's Wuhan coronavirus outbreak related but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case; what with there being talk of quite a number of people (especially expats) having decided to leave Hong Kong in recent weeks.  And on my second harborfront walk this week, it was impossible to not notice how less filled with boats Victoria Harbour was -- in large part because there aren't any ferries whizzing by to and from Macau every few minutes like is usually the case.    

Unlike in a number of Mainland Chinese cities (and now also some Italian towns -- with 79 people in that European country having been confirmed to have been infected by the Wuhan coronavirus there and two deaths being attributed to it), Hong Kongers who have not been diagnosed as infected by the Wuhan coronavirus are not confined to their homes -- as yet.  Restaurants, bars, all manner of shops and stores, and even cinemas remain open.  And both urban and country parks remain largely accessible to the public -- some of whom are staying at home a lot more these days than they normally do but others of whom feel it better for their mental as well as physical health to venture out and outdoors.

 

For all the fears of the Wuhan coronavirus spreading in Hong Kong (and spread it has, with Hong Kong's number of confirmed cases of infection having risen to 74 today) though, the addition to the number of Hong Kongers felled by this deadly disease today actually came by way of a Hong Konger having fallen victim to the Wuhan coronavirus over in Hubei province.  Understandably, many -- if not all -- of the remaining Hong Kongers stuck in Hubei province because of the lockdowns in effect there are quite desperate to leave.  And it says a lot about Carrie Lam that her administration does not appear to have made any concrete moves to get the more than 2,500 desperate Hong Kongers -- some of whom are known to have contracted the disease -- back to Hong Kong.         

 

Beyond useless is what some people have concluded Carrie Lam's administration to be.  But wait, it actually could be worse.  After Apple Daily broke the news -- or, for the skeptical, claimed -- that it had obtained a confidential document revealing that the most unpopular Chief Executive Hong Kong has ever had is trying to use the current health crisis to effect a political turnaround, people feel they have concrete cause to conclude that she is venomous (this from Legislative Councillor Claudia Mo), cold-hearted and inhumane (this from human rights activist Benedict Rogers).  

Amidst all this, I think the following Tweet by lawyer-political commentator Kevin Yam is worth quoting in its entirety:- 

A wise observer of #HongKong politics once told me: CY Leung may be more vile, but Carrie Lam is more dangerous - her decades in civil service means that she knows the machinations of government very well, which enables her to do more damage in a more efficient and effective way.

We can but hope that the woman who tried, but failed, to push through a dangerous Extradition Bill will be similarly unsuccessful with regards to her efforts to curry favor some more from Beijing by blaming others for Hong Kong's woes and deflecting criticism from her admistration.  Otherwise, the outlook for the Big Lychee is not going to be as sunny as the recent weather for some time to come.