More bad news for those who value truth as well as freedom for and in Hong Kong

There are times when it can feel like the sun is 

(permanently) setting over Hong Kong

At the very least, I find myself wondering how much

hotter things are going to get around here... :S

So much happened yesterday that I actually emotionally blocked out much of it until today.  Or it's probably more accurate to say that I did feel it last night because I had yet another one of my nightmares involving the Hong Kong police office being horrible to pro-democracy protestors; an experience that too many of us have had for close to a year now. 

Such were the body blows dealt to the Hong Kong that many of us know and love that you have the likes of the University of Hong Kong's director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, Keith Richburg, opining that yesterday, May 15th, 2020, was the day that Hong Kong lost all illusion about "One Country, Two Systems".  In addition, you've got Democratic Party vice chairman Lo Kin-hei feeling a need to record a video to share his emotional reactions to what transpired over the course of that single, dark day.  Still, maybe nothing can capture the horror like the Tweet by Professor Clifford Stott of Keele University.  

Appointed to be a member of the International Expert Panel (IEP) that was supposed to advice the Hong Kong government's Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) -- before the international experts resigned enmasse in December, one month after suggesting (like Hong Kong protestors) that an Independent Commission of Inquiry would be better suited to the task of investigating the Hong Kong police -- he elected to post the following quote from George Orwell (of 1984 and Animal Farm fame): 'The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.  

His (re)action tells you so much about what he thinks -- not only of the travesty that was the IPCC report released yesterday but what Hong Kong has a whole has turned into, on yet another sad day for those who value freedom and truth in society, government, and for ourselves.  But lest it not be clear, he followed up with a statement that began includes the following assessment: "This report provides a good level of detail on the nature of events.  Nonetheless there are key pieces of data that are missing and it is unlikely that the report will placate genuine public concerns about the nature of police conduct during key moments in the evolution of the protest movement" (including June 12th, July 21st, August 31st, and the sieges of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University).

If only the release of the IPCC report yesterday was the only dampener on Hong Kongers' spirits.  (Actually, as I told a friend at dinner (at a "yellow" restaurant) yesterday, I knew it would be pretty useless after the international experts felt compelled to resign from the commission.)  Instead, other blows came by way of: an Education Bureau fiasco concerning a history exam question; the first person to plead guilty to rioting (why did he -- plead guilty, I mean -- since one of the five demands is to recognize that the protests are not riots?!) having been sentenced to four years imprisonment; the path being further cleared in the Legislative Council for the National Anthem Bill to be passed; and Carrie Lam holding yet another ridiculous press conference, this time in front of a backdrop trumpeting "The Truth About Hong Kong".  

Oh, and yesterday being the 11 month anniversary of the death of Leung Ling-kit, there were further protests in malls again.  Surprisingly, the police did not interrupt last night's protest at Pacific Place.  But they were back to their disruptive ways this afternoon at various locales in Hong Kong, including Tseung Kwan O, where they effected several arrests.

On a day that also saw a victim of police brutality being sentenced to prison (for assaulting a policeman and bystander) -- even while it remains unknown if the officers who hurt him have even been charged for their crimes -- and two senior education officials resign in the wake of the exam question fiasco, it really can be hard to not despair at it all.  Yet reading a Chinese medical practitioner's sad but nonetheless helpfully contextualizing advice to Hong Kong (translated into English by Yuen Chan) has helped, even while there is no doubting the severity of the situation being faced:-

Do what you can, in chaotic times, don't lose out to them. Live well, be good to yourself. Then work hard to be a good person. Help others do the same.

Don't have kids. Tell others not to have kids.

And while it can seem like a bit of an afterthought, here's nonetheless thinking it worth pointing out that Hong Kong returned to having zero new Wuhan coronavirus cases today for the first time since Wednesday; thanks in no small part to the sterling efforts of the Hong Kong people (probably the most responsible and intelligent society in the world tragicially denied the right to vote for its own leader and government).