bc magazine

International Friendly: Hong Kong 5:0 Myanmar @ Mong Kok – 7 November, 2015

Hong Kong hosted Myanmar on Saturday afternoon in Mongkok Stadium in an international friendly match. The home side displayed great attacking prowess and delighted their supporters by scoring five unanswered goals in a convincing victory.

Hong Kong got off to a dream start, when in the 3^rd minute Jaimes Mckee connected with a Ju Yingzhi corner-kick and headed the ball into the Myanmar net, giving the home side an early lead.

Myanmar came close to equalizing in the 6^th minute when Hong Kong failed to effectively clear the visitors’ corner-kick and the ball fell to Aung Thu but the Myanmar striker hooked his shot wide off the Hong Kong goal.

The game got bogged down until the 33^rd minute when Hong Kong’s Leung Chun-pong danced past several Myanmar defenders, penetrating deep into the visitors’ box, before seeing his shot smartly palmed away by the keeper. Chan Siu-ki was on target with the rebound and scored into an empty net, making it 2:0.

Hong Kong almost added another goal in the 42^nd minute when Jaimes Mckee’s smart pass sent Chan Siu-ki through the Myanmar defense. The Hong Kong striker pulled the trigger but saw his quick-shot hit the goal-post..

Hong Kong made it 3:0 in the 45^th minute when a beautiful build-up between Xu Deshuai and Lo Kwan-yee saw the ball delivered to a surging Jaimes Mckee. The Hong Kong speedster shook off his marker before calmly slotting the ball home.

The home side almost extended its lead in the 50^th minute, when Alexander Akande teed up the ball nicely for teammate Alessandro Ferreira. The latter stepped up to the pass and drilled the ball towards the Myanmar goal, only to see his shot sail marginally over the crossbar.

Hong Kong found the back of the net again in the 66^th minute when Lam Ka-wai picked out Cheng King-ho with a neat forward pass and the full-back alertly sent the ball towards the Myanmar goal-mouth. Alexander Akande’s quick-shot was blocked by a Myanmar player but Alessandro Ferreira made no mistake and smashed the loose ball home, 4:0.

Myanmar had a rare chance on the 74^th minute when Kyaw Zin-lwin dodged a tackle only to see his low-shot hit the side netting.

The home side was at it again on the 75^th minute when Lam Ka-wai, displaying great vision, sent Alexander Akande through with a defence-splitting pass. The latter did not disappoint and finished off the attack by flicking the ball past the Myanmar keeper and into the empty net.

It was almost 6 in the 90^th minute, Cheung Kin-fung’s cross from the left created havoc inside the Myanmar box and the ball squirmed into the path of Cheng Kin-ho but the Hong Kong full-back side-footed his shot wide of the Myanmar goal-post.

Your Rights v Police Powers

The increasing suppression of freedom of speech, the blocking of the press by the police to prevent their actions being recorded, scrutinised and exposed when illegal is fast turning Hong Kong into a police state.

There has been nothing public from the ineffectual buffoons in Legco to instruct the police to act in this manner. So one can only assume the harassment is on the instructions of Cy Leung and his Beijing puppet masters.

With this random stop, search, arrest, assault – it’s important that you know your rights and what the police are legally allowed to do. Not that, as we have seen, the police obey the law.

It’s called the Hong Kong Civil Liberties Union Protestors Rights Handbook – but it’s worth reading by anyone as it offers a good simple explanation of your basic legal rights when dealing with the police. Download a pdf copy here

The police have extensive powers, the two most relevant sections of the Police Force Ordinance are Chapter 232, section 54 entitled ‘The Power to stop, detain and search’ and Chapter 232 section 50 entitled ‘Arrest, detention and bail of suspected persons and seizure of suspected property’.

Several tweets have quoted police officers in Mong Kok as saying that if they see the same id card in their random stop and search harassments – then that person will be arrested.

The attraction of Mong Kok is wandering the streets full of wonderful street food and restaurants while trying to decide what’s to eat or buy… if that’s now been deemed illegal then it looks like a slow death for Mong Kok shops by police intimidation of their customers. I love the red bean pancakes and other pastries at the Kee Tsui Cake Shop 奇趣餅家, 135 Fa Yuen Street, but going there to buy them each week I now face the prospect of being arrested.

Or perhaps this is part of the bigger plan by the government, property tycoons and the Urban Renewal Authority to destroy the Mong Kok we love and replace it with more generic shopping malls targeting mainland tourist shoppers.

Umbrella Movement – Mong Kok Clearance 26 November, 2014

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In a rare display of common sense the bailiffs and the police decided not to allow the plaintiffs hired help to clear Nathan Road. The red hatted, I luv HK wearing shirted ‘helpers’ were dressed to inflame and several people previously seen wearing blue ribbons and assaulting protestors were recognised. A violent confrontation was thus avoided. Not that the police were above shoving journalists and whoever was on Nathan Road as they marched down the street – clearing people first and obstacles second, a reverse of yesterday’s Argyle Street clearance. No bailiffs were in evidence, as the police marched aggressively down the road accompanied by the now familiar yellow towers hosting tear-spray armed police.

At the start of clearance student leaders Joshua Wong and Lester Shum were dragged off and arrested by police, although they appeared to be doing nothing more than standing there waiting for the clearance to commence, as was everyone else. The announcement regarding arrests was only made two-thirds of the way down Nathan Road, so the arrest of the leaders looks like a targeted move.

The red caps didnt like having their photo taken – turning away to hide their faces. It’s rumoured the 200 clearance helpers were paid $1000 each.

Click on any of the photos to access the full gallery of today, apologies that the duplicates are not edited out – a little too much going on.

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Umbrella Movement – Argyle Street Clearance – 25 November, 2014

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The bailiff’s moved to enforce the court injunction on Argyle Street in Mongkok today 25 November, 2104. The first part of the day, the removal of the barricades and obstructions passed smoothly if slowly and disorderly. The massed ranks of the media and onlookers perhaps proving more of a hindrance than the small number of protestors. It took several hours for the obstructions to be removed as the bailiff’s took a few bits away, stopped conferred took a few more. As the mainly rubbish and junk was removed the police line slowly advance into the short occupied section of Argyle Street where a stand-off as to what would happen next ensued.

There were lots – 4 on top of the MTR entrance with me and at least 4 more they spoke and shared information with on the road – of plainclothes mainland police or intelligence (identified by listening to their conversations) videoing and looking to identify anyone who looked like a protestor / spoke to protestor / appeared to be against the police action.

After the bailiffs tried to move forward through the massed ranks of people, someone – he didn’t identify himself or his position in English – announced in Chinese and English that the bailiffs had officially requested help from the police to enforce the injunction. (So what were the police doing helping them earlier if they hadn’t been asked to?). A further announcement of arrests with multiple criminal charges if obstructions continued was made. Then the bailiffs all moved to the back and three ranks of plainclothes police ahead of lines of uniformed officers moved aggressively into the ranks of protestors, media and onlookers. Why are plainclothes police being used? Most of the plainclothes officers were actively hiding their identities and warrant cards – either by not wearing them or hanging them under clothing.

As the plainclothes police moved in, several aggressive arrests were made and as those arrested were passed backwards it was easy to see from my high vantage point the police beating them unnecessarily. If you have 6 guys carrying a persons arms and legs why do you need a couple more hitting and kneeing in the head and ribs?

The altercations and scuffles over the final bit of the Argyle Street clearance were precipitated by the actions of the police – again why were plain clothes officers in black vests with no visible id being used instead of uniformed officers? The needlessly violent arrest of a few – none of whom, that I saw, resisted arrested – by police has triggered the evening’s actions across Mongkok – perhaps that was the plan. The use of pepper spray and a water/vapour version of tear gas (which doesn’t such a negative visual impact in the media as tear gas does) is ongoing across Mongkok with police indifferent as to who is sprayed – protestor, journalist or innocent passer-bye.

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/Umbrella-Movement-Mongkok-2511/45944108_fjsGQm#!i=3720380749&k=7cHkgGH

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All new helmets, gloves and other equipment for the PTU

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The photos link through to the gallery of today’s events – currently unsorted, my apologies for that. Click to see more

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Umbrella Movement Stamps

The Finnish Post Office allows you to personalise and design your own stamps. Twitter user @HKFinland created some striking Umbrella Movement stamps.

Here’s the link to create your own stamps Finland personalised stamps

Umbrella Movement: Miso Zo

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Towards the Wanchai end of Umbrella Square, artist Miso Zo has for the last few weeks been painting a series of large scale artworks in acrylic and oil. The images of the Umbrella protests are striking – walk down and take a look or have a chat with Miso.
Click on a photo to see more images

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Umbrella Movement – 20 November, 2014

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Click on the photos to see more

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Umbrella Movement – 19 November, 2014

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Broken windows, giant yellow umbrellas and a graduating Lustig
Click on the photos to see more

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