Looking back on a fall evening at another eventful week for Hong Kong

 

A reminder that Hong Kong is really beautiful

 

Last month was the hottest September in Hong Kong history and I think that the heat added to the misery that I often felt as a result of the torrent of negative political developments that befell the city.  One reason for concluding this is that, even while this week has brought its share of bad news, I've generally felt in a better mood -- and I'm going to credit the cooler temperatures that have continued even after Typhoon Kompasu moved away from the city that got me thinking that, close to one month after the Mid-Autumn Festival, fall is finally here in the Big Lychee.     

 

Another reason to feel good these past few days has come by way of the Pillar of Shame continuing to stand tall on the campus of the University of Hong Kong despite the stipulated deadline for its removal having come and gone.  Granted that its days are undoubtedly numbered but, if anything, I think its value and (international) exposure has increased thanks to the HKU authorities' actions.  (Also, the Pillar of Shame saga has helped bring attention to other Tiananmen Square Massacre memorials in Hong Kong, including a relief located on the campus of Lingnan University sculpted by Chen Weiming, who also created the Goddess of Democracy statue which stands on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.)

 

In addition, it has been instructive to see that international pressure still can have an effect: specifically, on the legal firm of Mayer, Brown, which announced it would no longer be representing the University of Hong Kong in demanding the removal of the Pillar of Shame after first seeking to minimize its responsibility and role in this action upon being called out for doing so (despite stating, albeit in a different context, that it “stands in solidarity with all those who lawfully seek justice for those who have been denied their civil liberties and human rights”).    

 

Among the individuals who helped to highlight Mayer, Brown's hypocrisy was Samuel Bickett, the American lawyer jailed for being a Good Samaritan in 2019 and, who since being released from prison pending an appeal, has been active on Twitter and speaking out for justice in Hong Kong.  Today, he's unleashed yet another choice series of Tweets, providing details in English about an interview he did with Citizen News that came out this morning in Chinese.  Here's quoting a couple of them below:-

Since the 2019 demonstrations, no police have been prosecuted. Whether it's my case or the case of a cop driving a motorcycle through a crowd, or attacking a pregnant woman, or pepper spraying someone for no reason, the DOJ should have easily been able to prosecute the officers”

 

...Magistrates have gotten very good at imposing sentences that are not too short and not too long, so as to deter people from wasting time and money to appeal. Doing this is a way to avoid being overturned, and it is corrupt. As a lawyer, I will try my best to challenge them.” 

Speaking of magistrates' (and judges') decisions: yesterday saw seven pro-democracy activists were given prison sentences of up to a year for their roles in protests that took place on July 1st last year; while Friday saw a physicist who had been trying to help a fellow protester shot by police (on October 1st, 2019) sentenced to a year in prison for taking part in an illegal assembly that day.  (And it really says much about Hong Kong these days that I find myself welcoming typhoon and black rain days because this means that courts will not be in session and there thus won't be sad news concerning the jailing of this and that pro-democracy activist or protestor.)

 

In further legal news, a Student Politicism member was granted bail on Friday.  But while it's good to learn that 18-year-old Jessica Chu is no longer in custody, it's sad to realize that the other three Student Politicism activists charged under the national security law remain in custody after having their bail requests denied.  In addition, it's troubling to realize that her bail conditions include her being required to observe a curfew and report to police daily, and refraining from contacting foreign officials, giving interviews and making any social media posts.  In other words: she's been silenced.  

 

As the title of a Tim Hamlett piece in the Hong Kong Free Press earlier this week declared, "Forget the 'small minority,' the national security law has silenced Hong Kong society".  And as its author stated in the piece, "We are told that things have returned to “normal”. Well, returned to what was normal in Stalin’s Russia or Ceausescu’s Romania, perhaps."   

 

And yet, there are people out there determined to do the right thing.  Going back to Samuel Bickett, here's quoting another one of his Tweets today: i.e., “When you see a child being attacked by a stranger and choked to the point that he can’t even breathe, and you have the ability to help, you should do it. If there are people who think this is something a person shouldn’t do, then I don’t know what to say to them.... Another recent Tweet that I find inspiring (this one by the individual who goes by monkmonkii on that social media platform): Resistance is overcoming our fears and being ourselves.