The latest oppressive government decision that's been the talk of the town the past few days

 

My phone for more than 11 years now

 

I saw a Tweet on Thursday that sent chills down my spine.  Galileo Cheng broke the news that the Hong Kong government was going to enforce the compulsory use of its LeaveHomeSafe tracking app in government buildings and for a couple of hours or so, there were no other reports about this -- prompting me to dearly hope that he would be wrong for a change.  But, alas, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) confirmed that this would indeed be the case and the more details came out about this decision, the worse it sounds.          

For one thing, individuals exempted from this requirement include those under 12 years of age and over 65 year olds: which is really strange if this move is truly the anti-pandemic measure it is officially touted as being due to it already containing loopholes and members of the exempt age groups being the least likely in Hong Kong to have been vaccinated!  (Yes, Hong Kong is that rare territory where the elderly are less likely to be vaccinated than young and middle-aged adults while being similar to other territories in not requiring children to be vaccinated as yet.)   

For another, the government buildings and offices that people who don't use the tracking app (including those who can't because they don't own smartphones) don't only include the likes of the Legislative Council and courts but also libraries, museums, sports centres, community centres, cultural centres, cooked food centres, wet markets (that are housed in government buildings) and, possibly, post offices and even public toilets!  Reports have come in too of entry to public hospitals requiring the use of this much derided app, prompting a furious reaction from medical personnel and scientists along with raising valid ethical issues (e.g., as per a Tweet by DefianceT, "On how many grounds is HA violating medical ethics by denying treatment for one who already holds a negative test within 72 hours just on the ground of not wanting to scan a dumb code?"). 

 

There is particular concern for what will happen to the homeless, since the majority of them -- as one might expect -- do not possess smartphones, and they -- and other economically impoverished individuals -- are being exempted from the requirement to use this app.  Not only do they face being barred from entering public hospitals and libraries (where they can be in free air-conditioned space for a few hours of each day) but they also look to be denied access to public shelters as a result of not only owning a smartphone but also, if by some miracle they had money to have one (and not losing it, it not getting stolen or "cleared away" over the course of periodic government "cleaning" exercises), not having a data plan for the smartphone!

 

Then there are the likes of me, who has been content to live life without smartphones and reckons one should have the right to do this (or, like at least one friend I know, not have any mobile phones at all!).  For the record: not only have I been happy all this while to use the 2G Nokia phone that a then colleague bought for me to use more than 11 years ago is still working but I think it'd help the environment if more people didn't feel a need to change their (smart)phones every year or so (or seemingly sometimes even less)!  (And, okay, there's also this anxiety that I now face when it comes to buying a new phone since, actually, I've never ever bought a phone in my life -- with the three previous moboile phones I had prior to the present one having been gifted to me by other people!)     

 

On a more weighty note: there is the strong suspicion many people have that the Hong Kong government's LeaveHomeSafe app "has nothing to do with health and everything to do with surveillance. It's a way to get people used to contributing to their own control."  Which is why many smartphone owners I know have refused to download and use that app.  Even Aaron (@tripperhead), the compiler and dispenser extraordinaire of Hong Kong pandemic information, is upset with this turn of events. 

At the very least, many thinking folks are agreed about the following: Deciding who can access a space or place should be based on who has been fully vaccinated or not, rather than who uses a tracking app or not, if one really is intent on enacting effective anti-pandemic/public health measures.  Something else many of us can clearly see is that this latest move by the Hong Kong government most certainly is not going to provide any encouragement to those who still have yet to be vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus to go and do so.   

One last thing: Hong Kong has actually been coronavirus free for some time; with no local transmissions for 15 days now and for a two month spell or so before this!  So there doesn't seem to be a rational reason to suddenly implement this app requirement now if you look at it from a health perspective, only political ones.  Consequently, this turn of events has gotten people thinking that the Hong Kong government has gone beyond incompetent to downright malicious (if it doesn't do a u-turn upon realizing how disastrous this latest plan, which is set to be implemented from November 1st, is -- the way it ended up doing with its stupid dine-in ban last year!).