MayBe HK

Breathing easy

2006-05-11T11:39:00.000+08:00

The EPD website tells us that we spent the majority of the last three months breathing 'high levels' of pollution:

General Stations
Distribution of Hourly API for General Stations for the period January 2006 - March 2006

Roadside Stations
Distribution of Hourly API for Roadside Stations for the period January 2006 - March 2006

The EPD also tells us that "Long-term effects may...be observed if exposed at [high] this level persistently for months or years."

We've had some clear air over the last few days. The SCMP reports a EPD spokeswoman as sayinng that "The 'golden week' (when most mainland factories close during the holiday) is not part of the explanation - the air stream is the primary cause." Unfortunatly, the HK Observatory website's past weather information doesn't give wind directions so I can't call bullshit.

My lungs hurt. Worried yet?

Falun Gong

2006-03-19T20:21:00.000+08:00

...seen in Causeway Bay on Saturday, besides these two:

The text:

-----
SuJiaTun - The Auschwitz in China

Sujiatun Death Camp and Organ Harvest Farm

Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners at ANY given time since 2000
Organs taken from LIVING practitioners on demand of foreign buyers
Dead bodies Eliminated in the On-Site Crematorium
No Falun Gong practitioner can get out, dead or alive

-----

Really? Religious oppression, detainment, beatings, deaths in custody: yes, yes, yes and yes. But killing Falun Gong prisoners just to get their organs? That's another whole step. It's a pity when the message is ruined by questionable information.

Falun Gong has a reputation beyond what it deserves. We shouldn't confuse (deserved) sympathy for the belief-system's repression with sympathy for what the system actually is. Via religioustolerance.org:

According to the New York Times, Li Hongzhi said that: "...interracial children are the spawn of the 'Dharma Ending Period,' a Buddhist phrase that refers to an era of moral degeneration. In an interview last year, he said each race has its own paradise, and he later told followers in Australia that, 'The yellow people, the white people, and the black people have corresponding races in heaven.' As a result, he said, interracial children have no place in heaven without his intervention."

Not to mention its views on homosexuality, and its reinforcement of some practitioners reluctance to go to hospitals when they're in need.

And then it gets downrigiht ridiculous... (also copied straight from religioustolerance.org)

A person with qigong training can walk through solid objects, like a wall.
Individuals with some qigong training can exhibit super-human abilities: clairaudience, telepathy, precognition, etc. But it takes a qigong master to achieve certain functionality, like alchemy -- the ability to transform one type of substance to another. The latter could tear down a large building using mental power only. They would never do this in practice, because it is forbidden for them to demonstrate their powers. Also, such destruction would cause harm.

And my favourite:

There are many living entities on earth that appear to be humans, but in fact are aliens.

Of course, other religions must look this ridiculous to the unaccustomed.

Disney's Rules

2006-03-13T22:40:00.000+08:00

Today’s SCMP reported police complaints that Disneyland is obstructing their duties (unlinkable, but snippets at the bottom). Some officers are saying that they are being delayed waiting for Disneyland escorts and by being required to enter through remote side-entrances.

This follows a claim last month that an ambulance was delayed in collecting a woman who later died, after Disney staff allegedly demanded that the ambulance staff enter through the backdoor of the hotel. Disneyland denies responsibility. Further back, hygiene officers were refused entry to a restaurant until they removed their caps and badges.

None of this should come as too much of a surprise.

Richard Foglesong, an expert on the politics of Florida’s Walt Disney World, called Disney an “insular, defensive and somewhat arrogant” company during a talk at HKU late last year. He said they were “arrogant, aloof and secretive.”

Walt Disney started this company culture began in 1927 after a bad experience with the ownership of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - he was surprised by a clause in a contract that gave ownership to Universal. He stopped creating Oswald cartoons after refusing to take a pay cut. Foglesong said that this was a formative experience for Walt Disney and the company. (It seems that the paranoia stopped after Disney re-acquired Oswald in February this year.)

After developing the first Disneyland in California on a relatively small site and having the surrounding areas built up with bad motels, the Florida Disney World was built on 104 square kilometres of land in order to put space between the park and the surrounding areas. The park has taken advantage of local governments for infrastructure, but controls other services through its quasi-government, the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The RCID was set up to control the planned Epcot experimental community, though Epcot was never fully developed. (Foglesong said that records show that they never intended to develop Epcot as promised, calling it “the biggest lie in the 20^th century in the state of Florida.”) The powers of the RCID go so far as to allow the issuing of tax-free bonds. It also controls Disneyworld’s private fire and emergency medical services. Also, police officers entering Disney World are required to remove their guns.

It should be no surprise that Disneyland is trying to set the terms for how the government and its services operated inside the park.

Foglesong’s book about the history of Disney World is titled Married to the Mouse. He describes Disney World and Orlando as mutually dependent, a marriage. The city benefits hugely from the jobs it provides, the tax it pays and the money that guests spend outside of Disney World. The park relies on the state for infrastructure and the education of the workforce.

“Divorce is costly,” Foglesong said, so conflicts don’t go too far. But parks and governments are not your normal marriage; the park can’t up and run. The government needs to realise this. Disney might not be used to playing by the same rules as everyone else, but there’s not much they can do if Hong Kong makes them.

__________________________

Bits from today’s SCMP:

Disneyland dictating police work, say officers

Frontline police have accused Disneyland management of trying to dictate their operations at the theme park and obstructing them when handling incidents.

They said senior police management had been pressured by Disneyland. Subsequently, middle management and frontline officers were asked to “do better next time.”

…

The accusations come six months after Disney caused public outrage by demanding hygiene officers inspecting a restaurant remove their badges and caps before entering the park.

…

The officers felt theme park staff were more interested in ensuring police did not “disturb” guests than in cooperating and offering assistance to police.

The officers had to be “escorted” in the park, even though they could lose valuable time waiting for designated Disney staff to show up.

They were asked to take detours – such as entering the park through remote staff entrances while the incident was just inside the main gate – so guests did not see them.

Disney was also accused of asking police to arrest protesters outside the theme park’s gates. And in cases of traffic complaints that could easily be resolved, the park operator insisted officers press charges.

Danish cartoon protests in Hong Kong

2006-02-17T19:09:00.000+08:00

News wires are fast. I came straight home from the protest against the blasphemous Danish cartoons in Kowloon, put some photos up on Flickr and already there’s an AP story up.

According to the AP report, there were between 2000 (police) and 3000 (organisers) people, which would seem right to me.

Most of the protesters were very cautious to avoid being confrontational. Most of the signs were targeted against the abuse of free speech and blasphemy rather than the people who they saw as guilty of these offences. Only a few signs mentioned Denmark, the USA or Jews. Some expressly distanced themselves from terrorism: "We are against 9/11 and 7/7. We are against slandering our Prophet, too." There were no truly radical signs.

After being temporarily held up near the start of the protest, some protesters at the front appeared to push past where they had been asked to wait. A man with a loudhailer, behind the first few rows of people, stopped the rest from following. “If you love the Prophet you will obey the laws!” They sat and waited until the police told them they could move forward.

Almost all of the protesters were men. Most of the women marched together behind the men. The protesters appeared to be largely Pakistani or south Asian. I recall seeing just one Chinese protester (though in retrospect they could have been Malaysian).

I talked to a journalist who interviewed an Egyptian Muslim leader. Apparently the Muslim community is quite split about whether they should protest. Peter Gordon at The Standard asked “at whom, exactly, would their protest be aimed? … Any march runs the risk of being an empty gesture and counterproductive.” I imagine some Muslims will be asking this themselves.

Some are predicting that up to 50,000 will gather on Sunday. I can’t find a firm figure for Hong Kong’s Muslim population, but it seems to be around 70,000. I think you can add a lot of the Indonesian domestic helpers to that number.

Disney Danger

2005-12-20T23:21:00.000+08:00

A visitor arrives in Hong Kong, intending to take in most of its sites plus make a quick side trip to the mainland. In Hong Kong, they visit the Buddha of the Po Lin monastery, enjoy the nightlife at Lan Kwai Fong, absorb the local culture of the Man Mo temple, and even find time for a few rides at Disneyland. On their side trip, they manage to visit the mainland’s Great Wall and Forbidden City.

But something is strange. The floors in the Lan Kwai Fong bars aren’t sticky, and no broken glass litters the street. The incense in the temple isn’t that pervasive. And where are the 268 steps between the buses and the Buddha?

The explanation for these mysteries is simple. Instead of spending many hours on the Hong Kong transit system and on a trip to the mainland, the visitor has sampled much of Hong Kong and the mainland, without leaving the Disneyland resort on Lantau Island.

It’s just an hour from Central on a convenient subway line – and the final few minutes are spent on a cushy train with windows in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears..

Professor Richard Foglesong , the author of a book about the way the Disney company works its magic, warned recently that Disney might grab more of the money tourists bring to Hong Kong by recreating the territory’s – and even some of the mainland’s – main attractions.

They could offer Lan Kwai Fong, but cleaner, safer, and better, he said. And the incense of the Man Mo temple is “something they might want to fix.”

The Hong Kong government invested $25 billion to obtain a 57% stake in the Disneyland resort, hoping that the park would attract tourists, especially mainland tourists, to Hong Kong. In return, Hong Kong hopes to see benefits to the local economy of $148 billion over the next 40 years and the creation of 38,500 jobs over the next 20 years.

However, some have doubts about the revenue distribution of Disneyland’s profits, and it is not clear how much the Hong Kong government will see. If further expansion of the park is aimed at keeping visitors there, local businesses that rely on tourism may suffer.

Foglesong, a political scientist who spoke recently at Hong Kong University, drew on his research of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, to give an idea of how Hong Kong’s Disneyland might develop.

Walt Disney, founder of the Disney company, was annoyed by the “ticky-tacky” development of cheap motels and fast-food restaurants that arose around the original California Disneyland in the 1950s. He also knew few people from the East coast of the United States were making the trip to the West coast to visit the park.

So when he decided to expand in Florida, he sought to develop a larger park that would be largely self-contained. The company bought 104 square kilometres of land, an area greater than Hong Kong Island, that would be used to insulate the park from outside development and allow huge expansion.

Walt Disney World’s development has aimed to keep people within the premises, “to spend their money with them,” Foglesong said. In 1984, Walt Disney World targeted local business that benefited from the park. Within ten years, Disney had moved from owning two hotels to providing for one-third of the hotel market of Orlando. Disney also directly targeted its competition, building two night-time entertainment complexes and extending their attractions, such as building three water parks.

Foglesong described the Disney attitude as believing that the customers were theirs alone, and that other companies should not benefit from Walt Disney World tourists. The park has effectively killed three proposals to build a train-line between the Orlando airport and Walt Disney World by refusing to allow a station at the park after non-Disney hotels demanded intermediary stops that would allow fast access to the park for visitors staying at these hotels.

“That’s the game they play,” he said.

But so far, the culture at Disneyland in Hong Kong is almost entirely that of Disney. The rides and attractions do not reflect Chinese culture, and the entrance to the park opens into Main Street, U.S.A. Only the food and some gift-shop figurines have made a concession to local culture.

Below the surface, they have made smaller allowances to Chinese culture. Feng Shui experts were consulted in the planning process, and incense was burned after the completion of each building. The main ballroom is 888 square metres, and the hotels do not have a fourth floor, in acknowledgement of the number eight signifying fortune and four being unlucky.

But such small allowances are only to make the park compatible with local culture, which is entirely different from a replication of what Hong Kong has to offer.

The plans for the second phase of development are not clear to the public. However, complaints about the lack of attractions has led to widespread rumour that park will concentrate on extending with attractions similar to those seen at other Disney parks.

With the Hong Kong Disneyland extending to just 2.8 square kilometres with phase two of the development, it will remain just a fraction of the size of Disney World in Florida. Such a small area means that the Hong Kong Disneyland will not have much room to go beyond these attractions in phase two.

But it is difficult to predict what Disney plans with their development. Hong Kong has already had a taste of their secrecy with their reluctance to release visitor numbers, and such secrecy is typical of the Disney company throughout the world.

Fogleson calls the Disney company “insular, defensive and somewhat arrogant.” With such attributes, it’s difficult to predict how the Hong Kong Disneyland will develop.

Riot in Wan Chai

2005-12-18T04:58:00.000+08:00

Today I’ve been pepper sprayed, water cannoned and tear gassed. I’ve been surrounded, with over 900 Koreans, journalists and on-lookers by riot police, and not allowed to leave. Now, at 3:25am, I’m sinking into the couch, with a heater on my feet, watching the television show the police arresting some of the Koreans who have sat on Gloucester Road after rioting through the streets of Wan Chai. Here is easier than there.

I’ve avoided using the word ‘riot’ over the last few days, as the violence has really been limited and, from what I have seen, subject to negotiation between police and the protesters. But today, I think the term is deserved.

It started after a 2pm march from Victoria Park to the Wan Chai cargo handling basin. The area of the usual confrontation had been fortified. Overnight, large concrete blocks had been placed across most of the road and the area had been surrounded by unclimbable fences about 3.5 metres tall. Concrete blocks had also been placed at various points about ten metres away from the fortified line, and by the time I arrived there were photographers on top of them, and two walls of cameramen on step-ladders (later to be used as weapons) between the blocks and the line of non-riot-police. It was a joke, especially as I just ducked behind the ladders, knowing that when the line of non-riot-police was broken all of the photographers would have to reposition themselves. When the line was finally broken (partly by the Koreans, largely by photographers not wanting the police to stop them getting a good shooting position), I managed to get one of the better spots.

The attack on this line was more sustained than in previous days, and involved more hitting and pushing with sticks. The police were also far worse at aiming their pepper spray. I was pleased to have bought protective goggles a few days earlier, as the spray went over my face and arms. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt until 10 or 15 minutes later, and then it wasn’t worse than a bit of Tabasco on the lips. Of course, the Koreans got a lot more of it. One even took a full spraying shirtless.

Since the pepper spray didn’t work too well, they started with fire hoses. The Koreans used a plastic chain to throw into the police, trying to pull them over. They threw the step-ladders at the police and used them to try to pull a fire hose from them. I was surprised at how effective the fire hoses were at dispersing the crowd, seeing as they really didn’t hurt. The photographers wanted to protect their cameras, perhaps (I talked to one documentary maker whose video camera was destroyed), but it also kept the Koreans away. One Hong Kong man yelled at the police, saying their use of the first hoses gave people around the world a bad impression of Hong Kong.

After apparently being warned that after two more charges, the police wouldn’t tolerate it anymore (I’m not sure what they were going to do!), at around 5:30pm the Koreans jogged in formation back to Victoria Park. By the time I got to the park, I found out that other groups, from Korea and other countries, were rioting in Wan Chai. The streets of Causeway Bay were closed off, so I ran through the main roads to get to Wan Chai. I first saw a fight between a group of police with small, circular shields and batons and the Koreans. The police managed to keep their line. There must have been more of these small confrontations as I soon saw an Indian-looking man carrying one of the shields as a trophy.

The Koreans ran toward the side of Central Plaza, the tallest buildings in Wan Chai and opposite the road from an entrance to the Convention and Exhibition Centre. The police formed a line around three men thick, blocking the progress of the protesters. The Koreans charged several times, and huge amounts of pepper spray was fired. They were not able to get through the police line, though, so they made a battery ram out of metal railings, that they used to make a V that several of them pushed into the line. This bent the line, but did not break through.

As they were doing this, a group of protesters managed to break through somewhere else, but they were somehow pushed back by police. Soon, tear gas was fired from where they came from, and then on those using the battery ram. The protesters retreated, and the police rushed forward, yelling at us to “Get back! Get out of here!”

I should have listened, because that’s when they fired the tear gas at us. At first it wasn’t too bad. Quite pretty, in fact, like some impressive fireworks set off dangerously close. Then it started burning in my throat, in my eyes. It was absolutely debilitating. I wanted to drop the ground and just stop everything, but knew I had to get out of it. I stumbled through a garden, with a lot of other journalists, holding my eyes shut and occasionally opening them to see where I was going. I walked up a bridge (over the road where the protesters eventually settled, behind the Central Plaza) and a woman gave me some water to pour in my eyes. After about 10 or 15 minutes, the pain faded to nothing.

The protesters (mainly Koreans) sat underneath the bridge all evening as the police tightened their cordon around them. Every so often the police line would contract. There was one more attack by a group of Koreans, but tear gas quickly stopped that.

I decided to leave at around 12:30am, as I had found that they were only letting people out who had a HK ID card or press credentials. I thought this might mean that everyone left when they decided to close down the protest might be at risk of being arrested, and decided that paperwork until dawn wasn’t worth it. This seems a little silly now.

But I wasn’t allowed to leave. For the next two hours I sat in a thin jersey (I’d taken my t-shirt off after the water cannon) in 12 degree wind, calling up the police public relations branch to demand an explanation for why we were not allowed to leave. There was absolutely no visible reason for keeping us in.

Eventually, a friend called the police and made them realise that an injury to a person that was held against their will wouldn’t be something that the police would want to have to deal with.

The protest is still going, but the police have managed to detain several of the protesters, peacefully. While I was down there, I could see no way for it to end. The Koreans, it seemed, would be happy to sit there all night and day, and fight if the police advanced. And the police wouldn’t advance as such an unprovoked attack would be a public relations nightmare.

It continues.

Exaggerated Coverage?

2005-12-17T00:55:00.001+08:00

It’s been frustrating watching the news over the last few days. It’s a new experience for me to be present at events that are reported on the news that evening. This week, it’s been clear to me that the extent of the violence has been greatly exaggerated.

I briefly mentioned how a TVB reporter wore a helmet on the police frontline when there were very few protesters around in my Chicken on the Frontline piece. Yesterday, ATV were even worse when a reporter wore a helmet at a march where there was no sign of confrontation at all and she was around a hundred metres from the nearest pepper-spray equipped riot police.

And today on ATV it was implied that the protests had escalated hugely, as Korean protesters had stormed the Korean Embassy and vandalised the US Consulate. This is perhaps entirely a matter of personal interpretation, as today’s events an entirely different type of action to the previous confrontation, involving different targets (actual storming and vandalism with limited actual violence, compared to ritualistic confrontation involving pepper-spray).

I didn’t see the protest at the Korean Embassy, but there was only a minor scuffle at the end of the protest at the US Consulate as protesters tried to remove the metal letters writing out “United States.” This happened after some trade union leaders had their heads shaved (video - large file), writing in red and black paint “Down WTO” and “No Bush” and throwing eggs at the building.

Despite the lack of any riot police around the consulate, many photographers still wore helmets. Some even wore their goggles.

The lack of coverage of the other (peaceful) events that have been happening around the WTO also creates the impression of violence being the norm. But I understand that – I’ve definitely been chasing the exciting scenes all week.

Update (19 Dec): Last night at the riot, I watched a TVB reporter in front of the camera with a gas mask on. Fair enough, perhaps, since there had been tear gas.

But none of the policemen were wearing one (a good indication of what's coming), and as soon as he finished recording he took it off and threw it on the ground.

Peaceful protests

2005-12-16T00:10:00.000+08:00

The protests were far more peaceful today.

This morning, a group of several hundred fishermen and women marched, with supporters, to the Wan Chai cargo handling basin. When they arrived at the entrance to the square on the edge of the water, around nine negotiated passage through a police cordon, making their way toward the Great Eagle Centre where they handed a petition to WTO delegates while the rest waited for their return.

It took a long time to get to the Great Eagle Centre, a few hundred metres away from where the other protesters waited. Photographers crowded around the group, preventing them from taking more than a few steps forward at a time. I was a bit puzzled at this, as while the event was interesting, it wasn’t particularly photo-worthy. There were repeated negotiations with the nine protesters, which also slowed progress.

The police attitude to these protesters was completely different to previous days, probably because of the lack of the more militant members of the Korean farmers groups. A negotiator was overheard saying that “They are peaceful guys.” On the way in a street away from the main protest area, riot police who were stationed in a line across the street moved to the side, some even going behind the metal fences between the pavement and the road.

After handing over the petition, one off the Indonesian protesters jumped into Victoria Harbour.

The afternoon march with the Korean marchers was powerful. Walking in groups of around 30 with rows four people wide, the protesters would take three steps forward as they chanted anti-WTO slogans, then prostrate themselves. Then another three steps, and prostration. They did this all the way to the Wan Chai cargo handling basin, taking them three hours according to ATV news.

Once there, a lot of photographers (myself included) waited around the areas where they expected confrontation. Instead, they sat down in the large open area overlooking the sea, changed, and watched performers dance. Some swam.

And then they promised that they would show us a “new face” tomorrow.

McDonalds for Socialists?

2005-12-15T23:21:00.000+08:00

I bumped into him later during the march to Wan Chai. He was holding a red flag with “Revolution” written on it, the name of his group, marching with members of the Australian Socialist Party.

Mark Boothroyd, 20, said that he had to eat somewhere, and that it was not the individual companies that were the problem, but the economic system as a whole. And “I had to eat,” he said.

Greg Bradshaw, 21, reinforced his point. “We’re not against hamburgers,” he said. “The problem is capitalist society.”

They said that they could not change society through individual action, and that it was only through mass action that change could be made. Isolating themselves by withdrawing from society would not help this cause.

“We could go and live in the bush, but we don’t want to go backwards, we want to go forward,” said Bradshaw.

Another day of (small) confrontation

2005-12-14T21:45:00.000+08:00

Protesters wearing cling-film masks clashed with riot police at the Wan Chai cargo handling basin for the second day in a row.

A group of around 20 Korean farmers charged the police line about six times, pushing against the police shields. They managed to take several of the shields.

After a march from Harcourt Square in Admiralty, a group of Korean farmers rushed to the front of the group and broke through a line of police in normal uniform that blocked access to the riot-police, who were already lined up. Photographers beat the protesters to the police wall, but space in the centre of the wall was quickly made as some of the protesters formed a human cordon around those who were about to attack.

A leader taunted the police and led the sitting farmers in chants. They then stood up and charged, throwing their body weight against the shields. In some other charges, they shuffled forward and pushed while crouching. The police pushed back, using batons to hit the protesters hands as they tried to grab the shields. Pepper spray flew through the air. Most reporters wore goggles, but all of the spray seemed to hit its target.

After around 45 minutes, the shields were handed back to the police and the protesters dispersed.

The rest of the protesters, who were peacefully held further down the street by police, were then allowed to come forward. Several of them advanced toward the police line and pushed against the shields. This second wave was not as coordinated as the Korean farmers.

All of the protesters soon dispersed and moved toward Victoria Park to continue their rally.

Some of the protests were entirely different.

Formal lectures were given in the concrete football fields. These included “The Case of DPRK” by a North Korean lawyer and an analysis of China’s economic development. (Though I (unfortunately) missed the North Korea speech, the speech on China's economic development was, with respect to my understanding of what's going on in China, fairly sensible. I was also impressed with a later lecture, Wheree Do We Go From Here, until the speaker started talking about Mao and Lenin as great revolutionaries.)

Across the fields, groups of women from across Asia stood in a circle and introduced themselves. They told what had brought them to Hong Kong, and taught each other local anti-WTO chants and songs.

Each group had brought a patchwork quilt, with many of the sections signed by those who could not make it to Hong Kong. On the Cambodian quilt there were some drawings from illiterate women. With all the quilts on the ground, the women got onto their knees and sewed the quilts together.

Showdown in Wan Chai

2005-12-14T00:02:00.000+08:00

There was a standoff between the protesters and the police today down at the Wan Chai cargo handling basin.

By the time I realised what was happening, there were a few hundred policemen in riot-gear standing in rows, blocking the street that leads toward the Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). I climbed up on a fence (camera view about 3.5m off the ground) to see what was happening and to take photos.

The police would cycle around every now and then, with some from the back heading to the front, and vice versa. The front-line of police were replaced like a conveyer-belt. A row of police lined up against the fence on one side of the street would shuffle sideways, and the others, being replaced, shuffled behind other front-line police. Reinforcements would occasionally come and line up at the back. There were plenty more police, not in riot gear, in the surrounding streets, though they would occasionally get ‘dressed up’ and join the lines. From what I could see, the riot gear consisted of plastic shields (full length and small circular ones), helmets with visors and neck-protectors. Some carried batons and pepperspray and some carried some sort of rifle, presumably for teargas, though I’m not sure.

As far as I could see, there wasn’t much confrontation, though watching the TV news it seems that there was some. Later, I saw that a lot of the plastic shields were heavily scratched, perhaps from the bamboo poles that ATV said were used to ram the wall. There were also nails on the ground. Pepperspray was used. Legislator Leung Kwok-hung was among those hit.

Earlier, a lot (around a hundred) of the Korean farmers had jumped into the water, wearing bright orange life-vests.

I saw one Korean farmer lying on the ground near the water. He was taken away on a flat board with his body strapped down and his head held in place with a brace. I’m not sure what happened to him.

At 7:45pm, a small group of Korean farmers sat down right in front of the police ‘wall,’ and said that they would give the police three hours to release five other farmers that had been taken into custody. After that, they would “not wait.” I went home for dinner at that stage, and later saw that the other farmers had been released and the farmers had dispersed.

Chicken on the Frontline

2005-12-13T21:18:00.000+08:00

TVB doesn’t seem to like the anti-WTO chicken.

An TVB crew member pulled the chicken away from the front of a TV camera as he used a loud-hailer to interrupt filming, saying that “99% of the protesters are peaceful,” that the use of a helmet by the reporter was unnecessary and that they should report the issues, not just the police build-up. A struggle ensued between the crew member and the chicken, 22 year-old Tom Grundy from England.

Over the previous hours, hundreds of police in full riot gear blocked one of the exits, forming a wall of plastic shields. Most of those around the ‘wall’ were reporters.

Grundy demanded the name of the crew member who pulled him away from the reporter. The crew member refused to give it.

During an interview, a photographer yelled “Why don’t you report it? There are quite a lot of police around!” referring to the wall of riot police. Grundy talked to one of them, without any luck.

When TVB tried to file another report, he again interrupted, saying that he had been assaulted. They later allowed him to make a statement to their cameras, during which he repeated that he had been assaulted.

The incident "should be headline news," said Grundy, as the only violence had come from a journalist accredited by the WTO against a protester.

He said that two ATV reporters had earlier “tackled” him for interrupting one of their broadcasts.

(Pictures to come)

Security Around the Convention Centre

2005-12-12T16:06:00.000+08:00

The physical security provisions are going into place around the Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), where the WTO talks will be held.

It looks very different today to how it was on Saturday.

The HKCEC has been surrounded by a metal fence around three metres high. Around the main car entrance, some points on the fence have been concreted into the road and it is reinforced with water-filled barricades. The water-filled barricades and the metal fences block off access around the sides of the HKCEC. Still, some parts of the building around the front are protected only with netting.

Several small grey navy-type ships sat in the harbour around the HKCEC.

Divers with helmets were going into the water this morning. On Saturday I saw the police check manholes with mirrors, then seal them.

This morning, I was able to walk inside what will soon be the restricted area in the HKCEC. Inside, tens of plastic shields were being unloaded from a white van. Apart from a few police, photographers and four tourists, it was quiet.

The police vans have had their windows shielded with metal caging for the last few days. Even a mobile police canteen was protected.

Many over-passes, including those over Gloucester Road, have had netting hung across the open areas to stop anything being thrown onto the road. The netting is made of thin nylon, and probably easily cut. Christmas decorations are hung along the netting.

Drums, songs, prayers, guitars and chants

2005-12-12T00:14:00.000+08:00

The protesters and their music were diverse today. Click on the pictures below for video.

Police Deny Indonesian Migrant Union Raid

2005-12-12T00:04:00.000+08:00

Police deny they raided two Indonesian migrant unions on Saturday, contradicting claims by the Asian Migrant Centre.

Sajida Ally of the Asian Migrant Centre said that three or four policemen went to the offices of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union and the Hong Kong Coalition of Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Organisations in response to information about overstayers as members prepared for today’s protest.

However, the police say that there was no such raid, and that the claims were “absolutely not true.”

Sajida Ally of the Asian Migrant Centre said that the Centre had not purposely spread the word about the raid to Indonesian protesters.

Indonesian protesters made up a large portion of the approximate 3000 protesters at the march today. They were demanding that the Indonesian consulate in Hong Kong act to stop the prevalent underpayment of domestic helpers and that Hong Kong extend the “two-week rule” that gives domestic helpers two weeks to find a new job after the termination of their contract.
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I plan to ask for a statement from the Indonesian consulate on Monday.

MSF and WTO

2005-12-09T19:55:00.000+08:00

Just a few days ago, the WTO agreed to make permanent a temporary waiver that allows a country to produce drugs for export to the world’s least developed country, even when these drugs are still subject to patent laws.

Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the WTO, said that the move "confirms once again that members are determined to ensure the WTO's trading system contributes to humanitarian and development goals."

But the medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says that the decision to make permanent the 'August 30 decision' is a mistake.

"The waiver has not delivered any drugs," said Ellen ‘t Hoen, Director of Policy Advocacy for MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.

The August 30 decision was a 2003 amendment to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. Under TRIPS, a government could issue a compulsory license which would allow the generic manufacture of a patented drug. The majority of that drug should be for the domestic market and the patent holder must be compensated, though the rules for compensation are vague.

However, the countries that need access to the cheaper generic drugs are often those that do not have the means of production, and those that have the means of production often have no need to issue a compulsory license. The August 30 decision allows the exportation of more than half of the medicines produced under a compulsory license.

‘t Hoen said that the WTO should learn from the August 30 decision and make improvements before finalizing the amendment to TRIPS. She said that the decision is too complex to provide adequate economic incentive to make generic drugs.

Also in the last week, China has changed its patent laws, in accordance with the August 30 decision, to allow the production of generic drugs predominantly for export. Such production will legally take place only when a compulsory license is issued.

China has the capacity to make generic anti-retro viral drugs (ARVs), which are used to combat HIV. It is the largest producer of the raw materials in the world for ARVs, though currently produces just a few of the drugs in small quantities. If a compulsory order is issued, China may produce a wider variety of ARVS. The economy of scale allowed by the production of generic drugs largely for export may encourage manufacturers to produce the drugs where a smaller scale might make it unfavorable to do so. This will benefit Chinese HIV/AIDS patients.

However, Suerie Moon, the China Campaigner for the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, said it was yet to be seen whether compulsory licenses would be issued. There were political issues that would have to be considered by China.
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These agreements are the result of trade negotiators protecting their country’s industrial interests, ‘t Hoen said. "If these [negotiators] were ministers of health, you would have a different dynamic."

‘t Hoen said that the WTO’s intellectual property laws were not the result of member nations thinking that the laws were the best way to control the trade of medicine. She noted 1995 comments of Ed Pratt, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, about the inclusion of medication in international intellectual property laws: "The current GATT victory, which establishes provisions for intellectual property protection, resulted in part from the hard-fought efforts of the U.S. government and U.S. businesses, including Pfizer, over the past three decades."

While emphasising that MSF is not anti-patent, ‘t Hoen said that the development of medicine should not be supported by charging high prices for drugs that would be consumed only by a minority. "What sort of innovation is that?"

‘t Hoen explained that fixed dose combination ARVs, which combine various medications into a small number of pills, were developed in India and available only in countries where the drugs were under compulsory licenses. Fixed dose combination pills make taking a course of medication far simpler as fewer pills have to be taken, increasing the number of people correctly taking the medication. However, in places that do not have compulsory licenses for these drugs, including the US and Europe, patent laws do not allow the drugs, which are under separate patents, to be combined in one pill. Fixed dose combination ARVs are not available in these countries.

Why protest?

2005-12-08T09:35:00.000+08:00

Sunday’s protest saw a stream of placards and black t-shirts flow for three hours from Victoria Park toward the government headquarters. Each called for democracy.

“Like everyone else here, I’m hoping for universal suffrage,” said Richard Simmons, an assistant professor at Lingnan University.

But the march was about more than democracy. Banners proclaimed that “New China Begins when CCP vanishes.” People chanted “No more CCP.” Monks, nuns and normal Christians obeyed instruction from their religious leaders to attend.

Mr Wong, 75, and Mr Leung, 70, attended the protest together. “The Communists are not people. They are devils,” said Mr Wong, who blames the Communist Party for the death of his wife and children who died in poverty in the 1950s. “I want to get rid of the communist monsters.”

Mr Leung said that “we should capture the government, take them to China and let them stay there.”

The vice-chairman of a youth group waving Taiwanese flags said that they were out to support democracy in Hong Kong and that Taiwan should be a model. Their motives seemed to go beyond this. A young member said that they were waving the flags because “the Taiwanese government is the Chinese government.”

One elderly man, Zhou Zhou Wen, dissented from the anti-Communist sentiment. A red banner, topped with a Chinese flag, towered above him. Marchers heckled him and yelled insults. A passer-by shouted back at the marchers, pointing at the sign which denounced the worship of western religions and ideas. “This is freedom! This is freedom!”

Others didn’t agree with this definition of freedom.

“You wouldn’t get this in Beijing,” 75 year-old John Gump said of the protest. Gump, an American professor at a South Korean university, attended the protest to hear Anson Chan, the former chief secretary, speak. He had arrived in Hong Kong after a visit to Beijing where he saw an attempted protest broken up by the police.

Mrs Tsang was not convinced that Hong Kong and the mainland were as different as Mr Gump thought. “I’m scared!” she said as she handed out pro-democracy stickers.

Christian leaders had called for followers to attend the march.

“As a Christian, I am always obedient to the Church,” said Brother William, a young Franciscan monk. He emphasised that he would be protesting for universal suffrage even if the church leaders had not instructed him to do so.

The march was also about democracy in action, as protesters marched to show their numbers and make their voices heard. Though the protest was peaceful, crowd-control measures were strained as marchers relished a rare opportunity for the people to take control.

Police struggled to contain marchers in the narrow route that covered less than half the road, marked out with police tape and low metal barriers. A small group of protesters who had crossed over onto the restricted tram-lines called on others to follow. Soon, traffic was brought to a halt as the road was filled with protesters.

“We’re using our maximum resources but can’t contain them,” a police officer was overheard saying into his radio. “I can only speak to one person at a time to tell them to move, that is all.” Long before they had reached the battle-cry of “Po suen! Universal suffrage! Hong Kong people unite!” the people had embraced the message, and the officer’s one-by-one negotiations were futile.

After property tycoon Gordon Wu had dismissed the protests as “mob politics” and chief executive Donald Tsang’s televised plea for support for the constitutional reform package that sparked the protest, the marchers showed they would not submit to orders from above.

As the march turned into a sit-in at the Government headquarters, veteran democracy advocate Martin Lee spoke.

“Why, after the economic crisis, after Tung Chee-hwa resigned, are there still protests?”

Even with a better economy and a more popular Chief Executive, the protest was about more than just democracy.

Protest images

2005-12-05T23:04:00.000+08:00

I took some (pretty sketchy) video of yesterday's march against the government's refusal to set a timetable for direct elections for the Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

View this clip on Vimeo

And some pictures...