Yellow ribbons symbolizes universal suffrage or pro-democracy. The umbrella, to ward off the sun and in this protest, tear gas, has become another symbol for Hong Kong's pro-demorcracy demonstrations.
My Dear Great Ones,
Obviously the news from Hong Kong this week is BIG. While the pictures and video from news agencies around the globe have told me (and you) everything and I could have just stayed home, I was simply too curious to bypass a historical time in Hong Kong's and China's history. So Tuesday after school I headed down to one of the protest sites in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon. Things were pretty easy going, but it was early, and a lot of people had not arrived yet. Still there was some tension in the air and a sense that this was very serious. Yet, despite the tear gas and rhetoric you have to hand it to the Hong Kongers. The protests are extremely well organized. The demonstrators are being well fed and watered by protest volunteers who are getting free food from local stores and restaurants. There are first aid stations, and instead of looting and going nuts the protestors clean up after themselves. They are even recycling! Instructions on what to bring to a protest, ie food, clothing etc, was put on the internet. In other words how to make a protest survival pack. So here is a very personal peek at the "Umbrella Revolution," from my eyes. First however I found the following article which gives a pretty good explanation about why protests are happening in several parts of Hong Kong.
In the summer of 1996, the Chinese Communist Party erected a giant digital clock, fifty feet tall and thirty feet long, beside Tiananmen Square, which counted down the seconds until, as it said in large characters across the top, “The Chinese Government Regains Sovereignty Over Hong Kong.” After a century and a half under British colonial rule, Hong Kong’s restoration, in 1997, was a hugely symbolic moment for China’s national identity, an end to a history of invasion in which, as the Chinese put it, their land was “cut up like a melon” by foreign powers.
Under a deal brokered with the British, China agreed not to alter Hong Kong’s internationalized way of life—including freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and other political rights not permitted on the mainland—for half a century. The theory was that, as mainland China continued to climb out of the poverty and political instability of the past, its leaders would gradually allow more political openness on the mainland. After a half century, or so the thinking went, the gap between the mainland and its reunited territory would have narrowed so much that they could mesh without much difficulty.
But, after nearly two decades, things are turning out differently. On Sunday,the Beijing government rejected demands for free, open elections for Hong Kong’s next chief executive, in 2017, enraging protesters who had called for broad rights to nominate candidates. China’s National People’s Congress announced a plan by which nominees must be vetted and approved by more than fifty per cent of a committee that is likely to be stacked with those who heed Beijing’s wishes. If that plan comes to pass, opposition figures who favor more democracy have little chance of making it onto the ballot. (As Boss Tweed liked to say, “I don’t care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating.”)
The crisis, which will likely grow, is proving to be a test not only of Hong Kong’s political culture but also of which political ethic will prevail across China in the years ahead: globalism or nationalism, two fundamentally different conceptions of how China will relate to the rest of the world. Hong Kong takes pride in its role as Asia’s original global city, a cultural and political mashup with a raucous, multilingual press corps and hot and noisy local politics—a largely borderless world of money, people, and ideas. Its courts rely on English common law, which is, in theory, free from political influence.
But, on the mainland, even as China’s economy has continued to grow and its population has become more integrated with the world, leaders have set new limits on political liberalization. They have concluded that greater democracy would threaten political stability and sovereignty, and they believe that China must instead adhere to its own centralized, one-party model. Last summer, as the scholar Sebastian Veg described, the Party circulated an internal directive to members that singled out seven “do not mention” topics: “democracy, universal values, civil society, market liberalism, media independence, criticizing errors in the history of the Party (‘historical nihilism’), and questioning the policy of opening up and reforms and the socialist nature of the regime.”
Hong Kong’s growing activist network, known as Occupy Central (named after the city’s downtown) has increasingly alarmed leaders in Beijing, and they now describe the activism as a brush fire that could sweep over the mainland. In a piece published on Saturday, the People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, hinted about foreign agitators “attempting to turn Hong Kong into a bridgehead for subverting and infiltrating the Chinese mainland. This can absolutely not be permitted.”
In theory, China’s President, Xi Jinping, could have sought a middle road that would have opened up the nominating process enough to produce a competitive election. But, when the protests began earlier this year, Beijing worried that backing down would embolden further acts of resistance, not only in Hong Kong but also on the mainland. “If we yield because some people threaten to commence radical, illegal activities, it would only result in more, bigger illegal activities,” Li Fei, a mainland official, told Hong Kong lawmakers.
That is a strategy that points toward confrontation. Beijing chose the safer, short-term solution, but it left in place the ingredients for growing tension. Benny Tai, a law professor and opposition leader, said that the announcement opened a new “era of resistance.” “Today is not only the darkest day in the history of Hong Kong’s democratic development,” he told reporters. “Today is also the darkest day of one country, two systems,” a reference to the relationship between Hong Kong and the government in Beijing.
The most important questions are now up to the opposition: How far will pro-democracy activists go? Historically, Hong Kong’s political culture is loud and demonstrative, but not violent. The protesters have vowed to block Hong Kong’s financial district, in order to bring it to a standstill. But will it be a symbolic effort or a functional attempt to force a confrontation?
I can not explain it any better than that. However, I have come to appreciate Canada a little bit more and all the democratic rights we take for granted. It is precious and as the Hong Kongers are showing, every little bit is worth fighting for.
Yellow ribbons are everywhere.
Pro-democracy signs and curious bystanders are everywhere.
Many of the people sitting here have done so for hours. Most are young college students.
This is a main intersection in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon. Now its been taken over.
This guy obviously needed a break from protesting.
A tarp was set up in the middle of the intersection and people gave stirring speeches.
An innocent bystander was impressed.
Protesters filled the road for as far as you could see.
Many people, like this guy in front wore black with a yellow ribbon.
Two guys with makeshift signs. "Oppose violence by police." "Fully support occupy central."
TV cameras were set up on top of the MTR(subway) entrance.
This slogan was put up in front of busses that blocked the intersection from traffic and police.
The buses were covered with makeshift signs proclaiming rights for democracy.
Yellow ribbons were everywhere.
A very symbolic display of the Umbrella Revolution.
Garbage cans, pylons, gates, wood, busses were all used for barricades.
This is Nathan Road. Usually it is covered with cars and vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
Rather provocative. Hope no bloodbath! CY stands for Chun-Ying as in Leung Chun-Ying the unpopular CEO (leader/governor) of Hong Kong. The Chinese say/write their last name first when they give their full name. ie. Budwill Dirk
Love adios and ping on!
Dirk
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