A spectacular night view of the peaceful protest and mass hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Before the CCP sent in the army to slaughter and murder thousands of unarmed peaceful protesters.
Category: editorial
Remembrance Day 2019 – Lest We Forget
Remembrance Day
We wear a poppy
On Remembrance Day,
And at eleven
We stand and pray.
Wreaths are put
Upon a grave.
As we remember
Our soldiers brave.
The Poppy Appeal in Hong Kong
Poppies can be obtained at the following locations:
From Tuesday 29th October 2019: Temporary Poppy Depot at Room 3505, The Landmark Edinburgh Tower, Landmark Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong (Tel : 2713 3315).
Opening hours: Mondays-Fridays 9am-5pm
Friday 8th and Saturday 9th November 2019:
Charity Booth in Pacific Place (at the end of Skybridge Level L2) from 10am to 6pm
Saturday 9th November 2019 – Poppy Day.
The streets of Hong Kong Island from 9am – 12:15pm.
For the Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
– Laurence Binyon (2014)
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
– John McCrae
HongKongers are NOT objects!
Was this the first time the HK Police inadvertently spoke the truth?
That Carrie Lam and her Beijing buddies just see HongKongers as objects to be beaten, kicked and jailed if they stand in the path of Xi and his sycophants using Hong Kong to get evermore personally wealthy.
Xi, we understand you hate Hong Kong. All your citizens flock here to buy safe foods, get proper treatment in hospitals and to put their money in banks where you can’t just steal it from them on a whim.
And then the real truth hits them, that China is a massive prison with the CCP as jailers and thugs controlling and manipulating lives through violence.
You thought to break us with your batons, instead, you united us, made us stronger, resilient. By nature, HongKongers are not violent (and bc doesn’t support or condone violence), so you might win a battle or two, but this is now a ‘war’ you can never ‘win’!
Why because you can never win our hearts and minds, Xi you have shown HongKongers and the world what life in China today is like… Do as we say or get dragged off and beaten.
HongKongers are NOT objects!
We are free to think and act, argue and love.
Glory to Hong Hong!
689 Threatens FCC Over Andy Chan Ho-tin Talk
In a post on his facebook page 689 threatened the Foreign Correspondents’ Club with eviction from their clubhouse if they allowed Andy Chan Ho-tin’s talk about his views on Hong Kong’s future to go ahead.
https://www.facebook.com/leung.cy.108/posts/678471159182031
It’s amazing how thin skinned and insecure Xi Jinping and his sycophants are.
CY Leung did nothing but demean and denigrate the people he was ‘elected’ to govern during his time as ‘Chief Executive’ of Hong Kong – while enriching himself and his Beijing buddies.
Xi and the CCP by their actions and policies directly created the idea of an independent Hong Kong. By ignoring the needs and desires of HongKongers they sowed the seeds and then actively fertilised dissent and dissatisfaction.
Why because it’s easy to rule and skim the cream from the pot by pitting HongKonger against HongKonger. Favouring and rewarding the sycophants, penalising those who don’t kiss the ring is designed to divide and distract while the oligarchy feasts on both.
If you think China is so wonderful, then why do so many mainland Chinese – including Xi and all his top CCP cronies – look to get their money out of China as quickly as possible!!
No other people in the world have so little faith in their own country when it comes to investing their own personal wealth.
Beijing and Xi want to destroy Hong Kong and it’s values including freedom of speech, an independent judiciary and an honest police force.
Yet it’s to Hong Kong that mainlanders flock to secure and safeguard their savings and future. You have to ask why they do this, if China – as supreme leader Xi loves to espouse – is such a wonderful country where all are equal and people’s rights are respected.
Xi and the CCP are so jealous of what we HongKongers have created without them that they need to destroy it because they fear it.
We do not agree with Andy Chan Ho-tin, but we respect that he has the right to express his views.
To quote the poem of anti–Nazi theologian and pastor Martin Niemöller
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Tiananmen Square Vigil @ Victoria Park – 4 June, 2017
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/4-June-tiananmen-square-vigil-Victoria-Park/i-QF48W8w
Tens of thousands of HongKongers gathered to remember those who died as China’s communist leaders turned their guns on their own unarmed people.
Tiananmen was 28 years ago, but the CCP continues to use violence to suppress freedom of speech, sexual equality and especially against those who speak out on corruption, incompetence, nepotism and party members self-enrichment.
While news of few of these violent put downs makes it past China’s draconian censors, we only need to see what has happened here in Hong Kong to know it’s far worse north of the border.
Here publishers disappear, kidnapped from our streets while the police do nothing. A police force that used to be respected and trusted by all. But now a force that cannot ‘see’ a pro-Beijing supporter beat someone up even when it happens infront of their eyes and is recorded on multiple cameras – yet thinks a woman’s breast is a weapon…
Sadly China is infesting Hong Kong with it’s corruption, bribery, censorship… anything that helps China’s leaders and their sycophants to make more money.
If China is so wonderful why do so many people there, especially the very rich CCP leaders, want to take their personal money out of the country and stash it in countries they claim to despise?
We cannot keep silent! We want to keep our city corruption free. Retain freedom of expression, the press, religion, sexuality, an impartial judiciary…as enshrined in the Basic Law.
If you prefer China’s vision of life, everyone working to enrich the chosen and connected few. Feel free to move North.
China gave us the Basic Law, article 25 of which states ‘HongKongers are all equal before the law’. Some though are more ‘equal’ than others and we’ve seen our government buy the tools and guns to suppress the views of those who disagree with China’s view of ‘equality’…
Who will hold a vigil for us?
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/4-June-tiananmen-square-vigil-Victoria-Park/i-LB5dNsx
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/4-June-tiananmen-square-vigil-Victoria-Park/i-g9CV32H/A
Hong Kong Rugby’s Sexual Bias
This week Hong Kong’s women stand on the brink of a stunning achievement, qualification for the rugby World Cup. Not now and perhaps never again will Hong Kong have a better chance in a global team sport to reach a World Cup.
Ardent HongKonger that I am, I’m also a realist and unless the new Messi is a HK resident Hong Kong are sadly never going to make the football World Cup. Nor sadly, however much money is pumped at them, will our men’s rugby team – much as I’d love to see them qualify – with the current format there are simply too many countries ahead of us.
Recognition should be made here of the HK men’s cricket team who qualified for the last two T20 World Cups and with the current crop of super talented youngsters both male and female could well do so again – but cricket is not yet a truly global game.
Rugby is a global game and with the popularity of the Sevens at the recent Olympics growing fast. This is what makes our women’s potential achievement so amazing. Especially as they are playing not only the opposition but also the blatant sexual discrimination and lack of interest within their own male dominated Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU).
When the Hong Kong football team played their World Cup qualifiers last year, the HKFA advertised heavily, produced posters, banners creating a buzz and a massive awareness in both traditional media and online. Everyone, whether you were a football fan or not, knew the matches were coming.
The extent of the HKRU’s marketing is one ugly banner, the first published version of which hadn’t even been proof read and had Hong Kong playing Fiji twice. Even the recent men’s rugby Cup of Nations competition was advertised on a tram and accompanied by numerous articles, banners, tweets… There’s one ugly banner for the Women’s World Cup Qualifier.
The first two games of the World Cup Qualifier are being played at King’s Park which is frankly nothing more than a school playing field and a complete pain for fans to get to. Why are the games not being held at Mongkok Stadium – which with even basic marketing could have been a noisy sell-out – or at any of the other LCSD grounds which at least have a grandstand where the crowd can really get behind their team and help lift them to qualification? It’s frankly embarrassing to have such important matches played at such an amateur ground.
It’s frankly disgusting that the HKRU promotes rugby as a game for all – yet as you can see the Women’s World Cup Qualifier isn’t even listed in their upcoming events! There are more articles on the HKRU website about the New Year’s Day Youth Tournament, than the women’s national team being one step from playing at the World Cup.
The sexual bias at the HKRU is sadly not just limited to the national level, where HK’s women professional rugby players are paid far less than their male counterparts (none are willing to comment on the record, such is the petty vindictive nature of the male dominated culture that permeates the HKRU), but extends to club level.
The HKRU made a big deal at the start of the new season about a sponsorship deal for women’s rugby one part of which, as can be seen published on the HKRU website includes a live video stream of the women’s Premiership game of the week. Look online you can find extensive video coverage of the men’s Premiership. There’s video of women’s first games of the season (all the matches were played consecutively at King’s Park), where are the rest? Will KPMG the sponsor complain? No chance. Many of it’s senior HK management are rugby old boys and it heavily sponsors the mens game.
The HKRU is perhaps the wealthiest sports organisation in HK, it’s 2014 financial returns show assets of around $250million and it extravagantly funds the men’s game. It’s sad that they are so blind to the women’s game where the potential for great things exists.
Let’s hope that the 26 women picked for the squad can take that final step and make the World Cup. Perhaps then the old men running the game will take notice – but then again, probably not as there’s nothing in it for them other than trying to steal the spotlight from the women who made it happen.
Hong Kong’s women need your support, lend you voices and your presence head to Kings Park, 7pm tonight and cheer them on against Fiji!
MAKE SOME NOISE, GO HONG KONG!
Editorial: Court of Appeal Reject Oath Appeal
[gview file=”http://www.bcmagazine.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/CACV000224_2016.pdf”]
Today the Court of Appeal rejected the appeal of Yau Wai Ching, Sixtus Leung Chung Hang, and The President of The Legislative Council over their oath taking disqualification. The reasons are steeped in legalise but essentially amount to the fact that Legco and the HK courts are subservient to the Basic Law and that China can change and amend the Basic Law whenever and however it wants.
And that any amendments are how the law should have been read since it came into being on the 1 July, 1997. Thus if China ‘interprets’ the Basic Law and says that, for example, the HK Bauhinia flag is green, even though we can all see its red. Then the flag is green! And anyone who says otherwise can and will be sent to jail even if they said the flag was red in 1998 years before the new interpretation existed.
Given the judge’s very precise interpretation and reliance on the new wording of Article 104 then strictly speaking since 689 omitted the words Hong Kong from his oath then he should be also be removed from office (and have to hand back all the money given to him as he threw the vast majority of HongKongers under the bus). It won’t happen of course, there’s one rule for the entitled, rich and connected and another for everyone else.
The question is will the Court of Final Appeal (CoFA) stand up for the people of Hong Kong, who it must be pointed out freely chose and elected Yau Wai Ching and Sixtus Leung Chung Hang to represent them, and affirm that the laws of Hong Kong are worth the paper they are written on or do we live in the dictatorship that exists north of the border where ‘the law’ changes according to the daily whim and benefit of the Chinese Communist Party.
It’s unlikely as it would mean the CoFA having to make a ruling on the Basic Law and having to decide whether China can amend (and make no mistake this ‘interpretation’ is an amendment) and make the amendment retrospective (as the Court ruled regarding ‘interpretations’ in 1999), whenever they want. Much as I respect the members of the CoFA I doubt they are willing to do that.
As I’ve said before, for those HongKongers who love China so much, you’re free to move there. Just remember that anyone who gets rich in China moves their money out of China as quickly as possible, chooses to educate their children in England, USA or Hong Kong and goes to medical clinics overseas whenever they can. If the China the CCP supporting Chinese have created is so wonderful, why are they so keen to leave?
Hong Kong Gets Plugged
Hong Kong, in IFC and ICC, already has two giant penises masquerading as gateposts to Victoria Harbour. Now we have a butt plug too. I guess it’s appropriate with China already having ball gagged the media and the transcendent one hand-cuffing elected legislators who stand up against the rape of Hong Kong by the CCP.
To salve it’s obviously fragile ego New World is to destroy the feng shui of the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront with a butt plug style building that just screams of insecurity.
You do have to wonder if the government department chief who approved the design is blind. Then again, even a blind man could see that the building is so out of character with the rest of Tsim Sha Tsui that it must destroy the feng shui of the harbour.
In that location New World you could have built something iconic and low-level to complement the harbour and enhance the skyline… But your ceo’s insecurity and fragile ego required the stroking of a tall ugly building to match the other tall dicks in the city.
New World, your new monstrosity is like the child standing alone and ignored by all who screams and screams for attention “Hey look I have a big dick too.” Yeah, maybe you do, but it looks more like a giant anal plug and will become the most reviled building in the city. No only because it destroys the harmony and beauty of our city and harbour, but for the giant shadow of corruption that it will cast over the city. The interests of the rich connected few trumping the benefits and wishes of the majority.
Not that New World give a shit about that… as long as the money rolls in and they can scream “Look at me, my butt plug is as big as your penis!”