The closest I've been to a swimming pool in years --
and yeah, it's not even a real one! :D
There are still some days to go until the Legislative Council "election" -- which was originally scheduled to take place back in September 2020, but ended up being postponed for more than a year; during which pretty much the entire pool of what would have been the pro-democracy opposition got arrested and put behind bars -- but so much has already been written about it that, if truth be told, I've become rather bored by the subject. Still, here's going ahead and bringing to attention three recent Twitter threads of interest with regards to it.
The first, by Galileo Cheng, shows the desperation of the powers that be to encourage people to go and vote -- by resorting to using characters and images that are usually associated with supporters of the "yellow" (pro-democracy) cause who are very likely to have voted for the last time in a poll back in July 2020 or even November 2019. Consequently, Pepe the frog, LIHKG pig and even wild boars on banners urging people to go out and vote this Sunday!
The second sees Galileo's journalist brother, Kris, trying to estimate what the turnout for Sunday's selection will be. Already, as he noted: "We all know it is going to be low. Even Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam once said low turnout means “good governance”.
But just how low can it be?" Further in the thread, he reported that the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute's latest survey shows that just "48% respondents said they definitely/probably will vote". But he's prepared to go even lower and suggest that it's entirely possible that just 27% of Hong Kong's 4.7 million voters will end up turning out to cast their vote on Sunday (while noting earlier in the thread that voter turnout for the November 2019 District Council election was 71.2%)!
The third Twitter thread, this one by @K_krazy_xoxo succinctly explains why many people are reckoning it's not worth their while to take part in this particular poll by pointing out what the Hong Kong government has been doing with regards to it: i.e., "1. Rig the election so that no actual pro-dem members can even join[;]
2. Make telling others not to vote in a rigged election illegal[;]
3. Hijack our protest memes to confuse people into voting[;] 4. If and when turnout rate is still low (because while HKers are dumb they are not *that* dumb) they say "didn't HKers like democracy I'm giving you a chance to vote and you didn't so clearly you don't like it as much as you claim and you are a hypocrite"; [and] 5. Confuse the bystanders outside HK that they are still upholding "democracy" and let them think we are the hypocrites for not voting in their skewed mess."
On a happier note: yesterday saw Hong Kong swimming darling Siobhan Haughey -- who won two silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics -- win her first gold medal at a global event and break a world record in the bargain! After completing the women's 200 meters freestyle race in 1 minute, 50.31 seconds, she reportedly stated the following: "I’m Hong Kong’s 1st-ever world champion [and] world record holder. I hope this is just the start for me [and] other swimmers in my country."
I don't know the reactions of the folks who heard her say this over in Abu Dhabi (where the World Swimming Championships are taking place) but believe you me when I say that it's caused quite a stir among Hong Kongers. Interestingly though, it doesn't seem to have caught the attention of the "little pinks" as yet though -- the way that a remark by celebrity couple Julian Cheung and Anita Yuen's teenage son about his not being in China while clearly being in Hong Kong did just a few days ago though! At least not yet...!
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