An eventful Typhoon Signal Number 8 Day!

T1 weather yesterday

 

Smooth sailing before the storm

I woke up this morning to find that the Hong Kong Observatory had raised Typhoon Warning Signal Number 8 after Typhoon Nangka was deemed to have come close enough to Hong Kong to necessitate such as the suspension of classes at all day schools and trading at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The strange thing though is that I didn't notice any rain falling until the afternoon and the winds in my neck of the woods were so mild that my window curtains hardly moved for much of the day (despite my having left various windows in my apartment open)!

Unlike when Severe Typhoon Mangkhut visited Hong Kong back in September 2018, it really didn't seem like Typhoon Nangka posed much danger to humans or even trees. And there was much derision when reports came in that as of 11am, only six trees had been felled by it and that number had risen to just eight by 2pm, and people took to posting videos and photos on social media at various points in the day showing the (minimal) physical impact of this T8-rated typhoon.

Something else that people found hard to take entirely seriously was the news that about 100 members of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPO) have had to be quarantined after a clarinet player tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus; and this particularly since there now has come a possibility -- however slight -- that the super unpopular Carrie Lam may need to go into quarantine, if not be infected! I think the schadenfreude with regards to the HKPO stems from the misgivings many have had of concerts featuring wind instruments being allowed to take place in the midst of a pandemic. Also, there's something rather ridiculous about a quarantine camp now being mainly filled with orchestra musicians and hotel staff (the latter as a result of the Royal Garden Hotel cluster).

As for the laughter at Carrie Lam's expense: this is the extremely highly paid Hong Kong Chief Executive who delayed her already previously postponed policy address because Xi Jinping has scheduled a visit to, and major speech in, Shenzhen for that same day. Adding insult to injury is that she -- who has been labelled a puppet as a result of this latest action-- will of course go to Shenzhen to be in Xi Jinping's presence but absolutely does not intend to raise the matter of the 12 Hong Kongers currently being held in that Mainland Chinese city with him. Also, ahead of her Shenzhen visit, she's stated that she wouldn't mind if Shenzhen's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) were to exceed Hong Kong's!

At the same time though, I still sometimes wonder whether Leung Chun Ying still might be hated more than Carrie Lam. Even though he's stepped down from being Chief Executive, he still can't stop getting into mischief and stirring things up. Witness his latest effort from earlier today: what amounts to the doxxing of 18 teachers prosecuted for pro-democracy protest-related "offences".

Still, it often is hard to see beyond the terrible things being done and proposed by the current Hong Kong administration. Take, as an example, its recently revealed move to amend the laws to allow Hong Kongers living in Mainland China to vote in Hong Kong elections. Expectedly, pro-Beijingers back the idea while pro-democrats are against it. Less expected has been the Electoral Affairs Commission having voiced its concern about this proposal; a sure sign that there's something really untoward about it. (Of course, regular Hong Kongers don't need to be told this. We just absolutely know.) 

 

An update: I've belatedly noticed that all the links I sought to make to Tweets aren't successful (when using the new Blogger format).  I am not removing the links I've put in to date but will stop linking to Twitter in the future.