Hong Kong Protests

[birguslatro]

I've been following the Hong Kong protests as best I can. This is a good insight into the cost to those protesting...

https://popula.com/2019/07/06/the-face-of-protest-in-hong-kong/

The New Zealand government sort of has to take sides on this, due to this court ruling landing in their lap...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113387161/china-extradition-decision-profound-and-important-human-rights-victory

I can't guess which way they'll go.

Comments

[allwhowonder]

Random comment from /random hit; I went to Hong Kong in 2012 to visit the "Occupy Central" protests and when I arrived it was clear they had been shutdown for at least some time. At that exact point in time, western media was reporting that it was in the process of being broken up, but I had gone to the area and there was nothing to be found nor broken up. I later found the remainder of it down by the docks and it was clear it had been there for weeks or more.

Shortly thereafter the "anti-brainwashing" protests broke out and I went because why not, I was in Hong Kong. On the one hand, I can understand what it must mean to them, they're extremely independent overall and the western media's perception and presentation of the PRC is...well, lacking. I'll accept the presentation as true, but I don't know that it is, I figure the people of Hong Kong probably have a better idea than myself what life on the main land is like, although years ago I had a co-worker from the PRC and we briefly had a conversation about politics there and I made the comment about him being from a repressive country and he sort of gave me an eyeroll and explained that life in the US and life in CN were more or less the same thing, that it was a matter of perspective, branding and media presentation.

That said, they had presentations of what type of propaganda they were protesting and it more or less looked like what we would call a Raytheon or US defense contractor pamphlet-- although I don't know the context they were protesting it in, a contractors pamphlet is different than like forcibly put on the door of your bathroom.

Finally, the people were extremely orderly and mostly polite. I always cringe because of the bad influence English-speaking societies are, particularly American-- there would be a ramble in cantonese and then someone would blurt out "I don't need sex, my government fucks me everyday!" which of course gives a giggle and a reaffirmation about the truth of the statement to all citizens of all countries, but then a little bit of a cringe when you realize everything except vulgarity is in Cantonese.

It was a really large set of protests, most everyone was extremely orderly and polite. Within days, they had the chief executive out and addressing the crowd and I would have to say the Hong Kong government is probably one of the most responsive governments in the world, I don't know what happened over the years since, but this is a different crowd than what I saw in person in 2012.

Moreover, what I know for certain is that what was being said in Western media while I was there was wrong-- what they were saying was happening was in fact not, and now when I look all of the media has changed to conflate later protests with those.

When these broke out, I said to myself-- I support everyones right to self-determination, but I earnestly do not know the situation there and I ought not allow myself to be incited based on what amounts to my own indoctrination.

[allwhowonder]

This is the Hong Kong student activist crowd in September of 2012, although this video in particular is later at night and a more generalized audience would join by then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebM-WkAY4r8

[birguslatro]

The general demeanor of the Hong Kong protesters is fascinating. There's no sense it's very organized, more that it's just something that's happened naturally. A less mob-like crowd would be hard to find. They deserve to succeed.

[birguslatro]

I assume you joined Dreamwidth to make your comments and then unjoined, hence the strike-through on your name. That's fine though, except you won't get notified about my replies.

Anyway, I'm well aware of the difference between news reports and what actually happened. Which is why I search for live streams of protests and the like to get a feel for what's actually happening, as opposed to believing the few minutes of edited video I'll see on the TV news.

Most probably believe the Hong Kong protesters broke into the HK Legislative Council through its windows, because that's the image and film most news sites show. But they actually got in through a large roller-door, as in big enough to drive a truck through. I was watching a YouTube live feed (along with 20,000+ others) and it showed what was happening both inside and outside the building before the protesters got in. The building was full of police along with a lot of press reporters and photographers. In front of the roller-door were rows of police, some with shields. Mostly you couldn't see what was happening to the door because of the police, (other than hearing bangs and seeing it shaking), but occasionally the camera would get above the police and look down and you could see the door being prized open from below. This went on for a long time and I eventually stopped watching, I only hearing the next day that they'd actually got into the building.

That live feed has been removed from YouTube, though I've no idea by who. Either by YouTube or the news-channel of course, but who ordered it to be removed? I don't know. There may have been legal reasons it needed to be removed, but if not, it was taken down to shape the narrative about the protests.

Did that feed show the protesters breaking in? I don't know, but I assume it did, along with the police not doing much to stop them. Good luck in finding any photos or video from inside the building before the protesters got in though, despite all the press that were there.