Nobel Peace Prize and media musings on yet another night of "ambush-style" lockdowns

 

Hong Kong bird brains say "no" to lots of things

(including, in this case, frequenting barbecue areas)

 

Honestly though, if people really want to get to a particular

place, they won't let government-erected obstacles get in their way!

 

As I write this, another couple more "ambush-style" lockdowns are taking place.  And yes, this really has gotten old really fast.  This especially since all these "ambush-style" lockdowns have yielded a total of two positive cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (the second of them from one of three lockdowns effected yesterday) and Hong Kong's daily new case numbers showing a distinct downward trend (for even with there being 22 today, three higher than yesterday, it's still lower than the day before's 25 and last Thursday's 39).    

 

With their being obviously so disproportionate to the current pandemic situation in Hong Kong, suspicions have arisen -- as well as criticisms made -- about what are the real reasons for these operations: with the most benign being that it's just performance theater for Beijing to more malign ones going back to fears that people have of Hong Kong becoming another Xinjiang (specifically, a place where DNA samples are collected for surveillance use).  Somewhere closer to the latter on the suspicion spectrum is the sense that these pandemic lockdowns are dress rehearsals for non-pandemic lockdowns and also getting Hong Kongers to become used to, and consequently accept, such incursions on people's liberties.         

 

Here's the thing: if people felt that the government were on their side, they wouldn't be so suspicious of something like this.  But they most certainly don't feel that, do they?  (Check out the PORI poll showing how low Carrie Lam rates compared to the previous Chief Executives -- yes, even 689! -- and the last Governor of Hong Kong.)

 

More than incidentally, belated recognition that Hong Kong really is having its freedoms suppressed can be seen in such as its being downgraded from "flawed democracy" to "hybrid regime" in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) annual democracy index for 2020 released yesterday.  Granted that it's still not classified as possessing "an authoritarian regime" (like mother China).  But, truly, how many people living in Hong Kong want Hong Kong to become more like Mainland China in any regard, particularly with regards to political oppression (with a BBC piece on the abuse of Ughyur women placed in "re-education camps" containing descriptions that is the stuff of nightmares)?  

On a more positive note: there also has been belated recognition of the righteousness of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement; with it being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a bi-partisan group of American lawmakers who wrote in their submission that: “This prize would honour their bravery and determination that have inspired the world... We hope that the Nobel committee will continue to shine a light on those struggling for peace and human rights in China and we believe the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong is deserving of recognition this year.”

 

This development follows two Norwegian lawmakers nominating Martin Lee for the same prize earlier this week; an action which prompted a truly laughable reaction from Chinese state media.  And a few days before that, three other Norwegian lawmakers had nominated the Hong Kong Free Press for the prize -- resulting in the amusing sight of the Hong Kong Free Press reporting about its own Nobel prize nomination!

 

Less amusing, of course, is Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) having to report time and time again criticisms of it by the likes of Carrie Lam, who actually had the temerity today to castigate the public broadcaster for having had seven "seven substantiated complaints" made against it.  A reminder: this is the woman whose China extradition bill got millions of people (including two million on one single day) out protesting in the streets against not only the proposed bill but also the "leader" who brought it into being!  And the same individual who had said she would resign if public opinion was against her when she was a Chief Executive candidate but has not done so despite being the least popular Hong Kong Chief Executive by far!      

Sadly, RTHK's life as a public broadcaster a la Britain's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) or  the USA's National Public Radio (NPR) appears to be numbered.  But Hong Kong's most trusted broadcaster is not going down without a fight -- and continues in the meantime to put quite a bit of sass into its Tweets along with truth and quality in its reporting.  

 

Also, remember Nabela Qoser?  At the end of last month, she decided to accept the short-term contract she was offered and stay with RTHK; secure in the knowledge that she has the support of many of her colleagues, more than 60 of whom staged a protest against her ill-treatment by the authorities that saw them wearing black and masks bearing Qoser’s face, and chanting slogans such as "We are also Nabela Qoser" and "Today it's Nabela Qoser, tomorrow it could be you or me".