More political and pandemic woes for Hong Kong on the 10th anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake

 

Hong Kong's outlook is not as bright as we'd like --

and that's putting it mildly

 

We may have been silenced for now but we still remember

 

I woke up this morning mindful of today being the 10th anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake (and the terrible tsunami and disastrous nuclear disaster that followed in its wake).  And being the lover of Japan that I am, I had intended to write a post commemorating ten years having passed since that fateful day.  But I hadn't reckoned with this being another not good and, actually, pretty sad day for Hong Kong. 

 

To be sure, it began promisingly enough, with one of the 47 pro-democracy politicians and activists charged with under China's security law for Hong Kong two Sundays ago, former Democratic Party legistlative councillor, Helena Wong, being granted bail by high court judge Esther Toh against the objection of the Department of Justice.  But the same judge went on to deny bail to another member of the 47, Yuen Long district councillor Ng Kin-wai, a couple of hours later -- and based on this ruling, my sense is that few of the 11 others whose bail the Department of Justice has appealed against, never mind the 32 of the 47 that chief magistrate Victor So denied bail to are going to be allowed out of jail any time soon.  (This despite there being more bail hearing in the offing this Saturday and next Monday.)

 

Then, this afternoon, China's rubberstamp congress officially endorsed a proposal to drastically overhaul Hong Kong's electoral system and turn the legislative council into something akin to it.  And even though this was entirely expected (and the system has always been rigged against the democratic camp), it still leaves a bad taste in one's throat; this not least when one knows that Hong Kong-born and -bred representatives were among the members of the National People’s Congress (NPC) who gave their vote to this decision.

 

As one pro-Beijinger has admitted, this overhaul will drag Hong Kong back over two decades.  And as Apple Daily journalist Alex Lam succinctly spelled out in a Tweet: "The % of directly elected seats in #HK legislature started at 30% in 1991. The latest political axe by Beijing would erase all the efforts in democratization of the past 30 years, and in the worst scenario, directly elected seats will be left with a record low of 22%."    

 

Additional bad news comes over on the Wuhan coronavirus front.  More specifically, it's not just that the fourth wave hasn't completely died down in Hong Kong but also that the beginning of a fifth wave looks to have come into being -- in the form of a gym cluster whose tentacles reach into the expat community (as evidenced by a number of infected cases being linked with/breaking out in international schools and residing in the likes of Mid-Levels and Pok Fu Lam) and banking world  (with two banker friends of mine having confirmed that positive cases have emerged among their colleagues today).  

Adding to the alarm is a report that a fourth person has died in Hong Kong after receiving the Mainland Chinese produced Sinovac vaccine that is one of just two coronavirus vaccines approved for use in Hong Kong and one of just three types secured by the Hong Kong government thus far.  This news is going to add to the widespread vaccines scepticism among Hong Kongers, and so will reports that the Hong Kong government is set to release guidelines on various groups of people who should not take coronavirus vaccines (including smokers)!  (So even if they are merely guidelines rather than rulings, goodbye to herd immunity in Hong Kong anytime soon!) 

Trying to find the silver lining in the gray clouds over Hong Kong: at least there's no mask shortage in Hong Kong these days-- or, for that matter, shortage of toilet paper.  Speaking of which: remember the trio of robbers who decided to steal hundreds of toilet rolls back in February of last year?  They were sentenced today to 40 months in prison after pleading guilty to robbing a supermarket of 600 rolls of toilet paper (worth a total of HK$1,695).  And in this case, I'm going to say that they deserve every day, minute and second of jail time that they were awarded!