The Kernowkid

Fish Ball Revolution

4/4/2016

Chinese New Year is the most important family cultural celebration of the year for Chinese people wishing their family members and friends good health and good fortune for the coming year. Many like to “gau wu” or stroll the streets and alleys in the evening to snack on fish ball fast food from licensed and unlicensed hawkers as part of our collective memories

Mong Kok in Kowloon is a major shopping and residential mix of old area in Hong Kong.The area is dotted with dubious entertainment area attracting triad run bars, nightclubs, massage parlours and brothels. Last year at the “Occupy” movement protests in Mong Kok was one hub of the fiercest protests testing police control.

The District Councillor politicians have for the last two years called for a non-tolerance policy to curb the unlicensed hawker fast food often considered unhygienic. Previously, little action was taken against hawkers during the New Year holidays.

From the night of Chinese New Year of the Monkey 8 February 2016 until the next morning civil unrest occurred again in Mong Kok,

Similar minor hawker conflicts occurred at an estate in Tuen Mun district. A group of men dressed in dark jackets with "manager" printed on the backs intimidating residents and hawkers.

The Mong Kok incident on 8 February during the Chinese New Year holidays escalated from a Food Environment Health Department (FEHD) poorly planned clearance on unlicensed street hawkers. A group known as the ‘Indigenous’ called for action online to support the hawkers. By around 9 pm a few hundred had gathered and verbally assaulted the FEHD officers. Things were turning nasty. Only six traffic police officers attended the growing incident and the police were totally outnumbered.

Many thousands of HK residents and tourists with a large number of police officers were deployed gathering at vantage points around the harbour waiting for the annual fireworks display. The clashes in Mong Kok between protests and the police became increasingly ugly. One traffic officer fired two warning pistol shots.The bullets could have ricochet anywhere. The unworried inflamed protesters continued to throw glass bottles, bricks, flower pots for ammunition and trash bins were set fires in the streets.

The protestors were particularly savage and the police, as usual the meat in the sandwich, were being beaten back until heavy police reinforcements arrived leaving nearly 130 people – including around 90 police officers received injuries and eighty persons arrested.

Mong Kok being a well known trouble and tinderbox hub it seems police intelligence units and informers were asleep and wanting? An independent enquiry could well come to the conclusion the senior police hierarchy deployment and preparedness over the period was lacking in judgement! The professional police force was caught napping and outfoxed by an emotional unruly mob.

The HK government lamely flatly rejected holding an independent public inquiry into the civil unrest as was done in the 1966 Star Ferry riots. The 1966 hearings and investigation were conducted in public parallel with the court proceedings for those arrested during the protests.

Despite calls by hundreds of academics and professionals for an independent committee to look into the causes of the mayhem the government stuck their heads into the sand ostrich style to avoid blame.

Police commissioner Stephen Lo Wai-chung announced that a "full investigation" will be held. An internal police enquiry is certainly needed to examine the poor deployment and lack of preparedness together with the FEHD. Even frontline police officers were disappointed with their senior management that left more than 90 officers wounded.“What does he need to investigate, one said? As a sop to the police Rank & File the Commissioner dispersed 250 awards like confetti upon them. One has every sympathy for the police difficult task facing frustrated unruly violent behaviour. Those arrested and charged must face the rule of law and the consequences for their actions.

The increasingly dysfunctional administration weakness seems the central government and departments are desperately avoiding criticism in their own failing to identify the reasons of the mayhem?

The root problem of the protestors unruly behaviour has to be first ascertained as it was in the 1966 public enquiry to prevent similar incidents.

“JIngtian Qinmin” - Revere Heaven and serve the people?

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HKU in Crisis

5/3/2016

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The Chinese motto on the University's crest is taken from the Confucian classics. Great Learning and refers to moral and intellectual enrichment of human lives.

Sapientia et Virtus conveys the application of knowledge to the necessities of life, subject to moral restraints. The grant of the coat of arms to the University occurred in two stages. On 14 May 1913, shortly after its foundation, the University was granted a shield and a motto by the College of Arms In 1981.

For sometime there has been criticism the University was loosing its scholarship lustre.

Questions raised over two University of Hong Kong academics were accused of mishandling donations involving Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting has not helped the cause.

Professor Arthur Li Kwok-Cheung GBS was appointed as an HKU Council member by the Hong Kong CEO C.Y. Leung in March 2015. Many academics were further troubled to learn that the Council of Hong Kong University rejected Professor Johannes Chan’s nomination as the University's Pro-Vice Chancellor. For those who were against the appointment made at the last Council meeting of Sept 29, 2015 included Arthur Li.

Leaked tapes in October 2015, sparked a controversy. Li spoke of legal action against students charging into the Council meeting room in protest and challenged members with divergent views on public accountability and freedom of the press. In November, HKU alumni voted overwhelmingly against appointing Li as Council chairman.

Thousands took to the streets hand in hand on the first Sunday of 2016 saw a large-scale protest against the appointment of former education minister Arthur Li Kwok-Cheung to helm the governing body of the University of Hong Kong. Unlike previous protests, attended mostly by staff, students and alumni of HKU, the march was led by twenty organisations from various universities and concern groups, as they claimed the crisis affected society wide.

On 30 January Li chaired the council for the first time as Chairman appointed by C.Y .Leung. There were chaotic scenes at the University of Hong Kong in the early hours on the Wednesday morning as its new Council chairman, Arthur Li, was trapped in a school building by hundreds of angry students demanding he come out to talk to them.
The students had been calling for a review of the way the university is governed claiming
political interference. Earlier, the students clashed with security guards and police after they tried to prevent several council members from leaving the school. At least one person was injured. Li was trapped in the building for several hours but later left with the help of police.

After the meeting, the council released a statement it agreed to set up a review panel to study the governance and effectiveness of the university, but not immediately. The student’s confrontational approach and King Arthur Li’s well known combatively and divisive style did not promise better relations. Li directed a vitriolic attack against his own students “they were like drug addicts”.

Idealistic students claim they were fighting for their own academic freedom. Many said Li could have done better by channelling the student’s idealism towards worth while positive quests?

The “widely held view remains” Li is not the right person to address the current crisis governance at HKU to restore confidence in the university? If not who is?
As a HKU alumni and senior staff member of the University Grants Committee I recall some opportunities to meet with the heads of Hong Kong Universities including Arthur Li. He is an intelligent and knowledgeable person but leaves one not comfortable in discussion. One can only conclude that his wealthy and elitist background there was no place in his mind for the common touch necessary to reach out to young intelligent students?

Is King Arthur responsible to the crisis, in one word: “disaster”?

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Red and Green Books and Letter Post Boxes.

5/11/2015

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Recently the Hong Kong Post issued new stamps featuring the British insignia on the city’s Final Court of Appeal. Hong Kong Post office now plans to cover up the royal insignia on Hong Kong’s most recognisable street furniture. There has been no public consultation with local residents.
The Postmaster General limply claims the insignia do not recognise them as serving postboxes. Others say the decision may have come from the political de - colonisation skunks works units as recently occurred with the castration of the Hong Police 1967 history period?
There are still 59 serving boxes in Hong Kong. The oldest box bears the marking royal cypher GRV during the reign of King George V and served Hong Kong residents for 130 years. There are eight in-service GRV or GRVI post boxes. One manufactured during Queen Victoria (VR) reign 1837 -1901 was retired and is exhibited in the Central Post Office.
British-designed letter boxes can still be found throughout the UK, Ireland and in many former nations of the British Empire and members of the Commonwealth and other countries. In some cases, they indicate an interesting historical study of a nation’s development.
Most British houses have a simple letter box in the front door, usually a slot with a flap over it, through which the post is delivered. The Post Office first encouraged people to provide these in 1849. Similar letter boxes were provided at post offices for people sending letters. One such letter box which was originally in the wall of the Wakefield Post Office has the date 1809 on it and is probably the oldest British letter box still in existence.
In 1840 Rowland Hill suggested the idea of roadside letter boxes for Britain. Letter boxes of this kind were already in use such as France, Belgium and Germany. There were no roadside letter boxes in the British Isles until 1852. The first pillar boxes were erected at St. Hellier in Jersey at the recommendation of Anthony Trollope, a Post Office Surveyor's Clerk.
In 1853 the first pillar box on the British mainland was erected at Botchergate, Carlyle. A similar box from the same year still stands at Barnes Cross, Bishop's Caundle in Dorset. It is the oldest pillar box still in use. Most of the early boxes were similar in design to the Channel Island boxes. But there were variations.
They are recognised the world over and are frequently featured in tourist brochures, postcards and greetings cards. They are sought after by collectors throughout the world and adorn gardens, office premises and even aboard ships.
Post Boxes Colour
The earliest boxes on Jersey were red, green was not introduced universally until 1859. The colour of letter boxes is a part of the nature of the iconic post box. Everyone remembers when letter boxes were pillar box red. Early boxes, however, were camouflage green so as not to appear too obtrusive in the landscape. So effective was this that complaints were received by people having difficulty finding them.
In the 1930s special boxes were introduced for posting airmail letters, these were painted blue. From 1938 blue airmail boxes were removed and repainted red from 1938. In 2012 post boxes in the home towns of Great Britain’s London 2012 Olympic Games gold medal winners were painted gold.The Postal Services Act 2011, which paved the way for privatisation, But the act does not specify what colour those boxes should be.
The HK Commissioner for Heritage’s Office only plans to preserve nine of them: the seven King George V postboxes, one King George VI postbox and one oval-shaped Elizabeth II postbox.

The Hong Kong Post’s decision to cover up all royal insignia including those on the nine fore-mentioned is puerile. The preservation of Hong Kong’s iconic heritage post boxes slipped under the radar of the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance somehow also and it is recommended that there should be a public consultation over the remaining post boxes.
History can never be exorcised through a pathetic brush of whitewash!

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October 22nd, 2015

22/10/2015

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Castrated Hong Kong Police History

Pro-communist leftists in Hong Kong, inspired by the Cultural Revolution folly in China, in early May 1967, turned a San Po Kong artificial flower factory labour dispute a spark igniting a conflagration now known as the 1967 Riots.
The dispute at San Po Kong was contained but these disturbances spread to north Kowloon and then to other areas. Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution was in full sway along the China border and pressure on Hong Kong’s borders.

There were rumours circulating in the colony that China was planning to take over the Hong Kong colonial government. On 8 July 1967 there was a serious border incursion incident when China militia and civilian mob threatened Sha Tau Kok, New Territories fishing village where the border was only marked by a line of boundary stones. The demarcation line divided the main street of the village of Sha Tau Kok into Chinese and British sectors. Three hundred or more communist demonstrators chanting Mao slogans and waving the ‘little red book’ of his sayings and began pelting the local police station with stones and dynamite ‘fish bombs’. A senior police officer said that three or four snipers forced the police to keep their heads down and received short bursts from “some form of machine gun,”

The Hong Kong police fired tear gas and wooden batons to disperse the unruly gang. The Rural Committee Office and the police post then came under heavy sniping and machine gun fire from Chinese armed militia. The besieged policemen sent out appeals for help. The Gurkhas were immediately dispatched, arriving in armoured vehicles to contain the situation. Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald McAlister, commander of the 1st Battalion 10th Gurkha
Rifles, had been ordered to secure Sha Tau Kok, using minimum force. McAllister took two companies from his battalion, about 240 Gurkhas backed by a troop of armoured cars provided by the Life Guards. He was to fire only if fired directly upon. There was a burst of gunfire from Chinese militia across the border, providing cover as their communist comrades withdrew hastily.The Gurkhas did not return fire as the aggressors retreated. By the time a detachment from the 1/10 Gurkha Rifles had arrived to relieve the Police companies, five police officers had been killed and eleven wounded. The policemen were released and the dead and wounded evacuated.(FCO Confidential report, ‘Border Incidents’, NA FCO 21/193)

HK Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung made changes this month October to the “Modern Era 1945-67” section of the force’s history particularly the HK 1967 Riots. With respect, he feebly and clumsily said readers might find the force's history too long and lose interest and was not political. Others, particularly Hong Kong police
officers who faced the 1967 onslaught found Lo’s changes were a ghastly understatement, unsupportable and the police website no longer untrustworthy. Descriptions of mobs’ political links during the riots were played down in the latest Chinese-language version. One line which previously read: “Huge mobs waving Mao’s quotations and chanting slogans at Government House” was changed to “Huge mobs finally ‘rallied’ at Government House”.

Lo’s update might have been acceptable as follows: “ The left wing aggressive rabble attempted to intimidate unflinching Governor Trench but failed.” An 180-character description of the mobs making bombs in the hot May that year in the older version was cut short and summarised into a 34-character sentence. The term “leftist schools” – where mobs made bombs to be planted “indiscriminately on the streets” – “was removed”. Lo’s change might have been acceptable as follows: ” Leftist school made bombs were distributed indiscriminately in the streets 588 being ‘genuine’ bombs leaving six people dead including children and law enforcement officers and168 injured”.

In another line, the words used to identify gunmen who shot and killed five police officers were changed from “Communist Party militia” in the old version to “mainland gunners” Lo’s update might have been acceptable as follows: “The Rural Committee Office and police post came under heavy sniping and machine gun fire from Chinese militia leaving five police officers killed and eleven wounded”.

The HK South China Morning Post wrote : “the police should rethink the force clumsy whitewashing of 1967 riots. Playing down mainland China’s communist inspiration for the deadly unrest is notably unprofessional, morally wrong and laughable. The force should do its homework before rewriting its own history keeping in mind there is no restriction to length for online content”. Questions from the Post went unanswered.

The Shanghai textbook revisions do not address many domestic and foreign concerns about the biased way Chinese schools teach recent history. Like the old textbooks, for example, the new ones play down historic errors or atrocities like the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the army crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989.

“Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you.”

Stephanie Klein, Straight Up and Dirty: A Memoir.

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Hong Kong Post 1967 ill tail wind fall out

30/1/2015

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Hong Kong post 1967 ill tail wind fall out

The local rule of law and practice with Hong Kong’s liberal core values, rights and liberties maybe become less distinguishable between the former gulf between Hong Kong and China mainland due to the constant lecturing and pressure by Beijing authoritarian Communist party and HK government leaders and pro-Being selfies rolling over.

On Christmas Eve 24 December 2014 a band of Hong Kong police arrested a young fourteen year old girl in Admiralty accused of scribbling some flower chalk drawings on the Hong Kong ‘Lennon Wall’ used by supporters of the civil disobedience 79 days Occupy Central movement last year.

On 31 December the police arrested the girl requesting a magistrate to issue a ‘care and protection order’ which seemed to be on the most flimsy evidence and the girl was sent to a children's home 'pending’ a Social Welfare report. She had not been charged and was not on bail. The normal practice in a case of a young person is for the police to first approach the Social Welfare Department officers for a report before seeking a care and protection order before the magistrate. Why in this case the procedure was not followed and in such great haste?

On 31 December 2014 the girl was released after a High Court granted her bail. The girl again appeared before a court magistrate. After considering the case and Social Welfare Department’s report the magistrate was of the view it was not necessary to grant the protection order. Some were critical of the the police application as ‘unusual’ and the Commissioner of Police should explain fully otherwise the public will attenuate the trust in the police and growing fears of the use of the police as a political tool hiding behind the mask of civil injunctions used by commercial companies in which the police heavily handed cleared the civil disobedience protestors?

Today 23 January 2015 police officers found Chinese characters daubed on the wall outside the Fukiien Middle School and another school North Point in translation ‘the baton in the hand of a kind mother’. It is an apparent comment on police commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung’s remarks that police protected Occupy protestors from attack on 3 October 2014 like “ kind mothers protecting their children”. Police were heavily criticised in failing to protect protestors in that incident and abusing demonstrators in other similar clashes.

In the SARG CEO’s annual policy address he began with denigrating student thought on self determination in the Graduate magazine. Big mistake? Hong Kong savvy residents and students are pragmatic and fully aware of the autonomous responsibilities under the Basic Law. They simply do not want ‘fake’ elections and throttling pressure from Beijing. No doubt the unpopular CEO policies document may now only end up the nearly full landfills while the’ Graduate’ issues will become one of the most read in town.

here to edit.

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Hong Kong Brolly Brawls

3/11/2014

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On 31 August 2014 China National People’s Congress Standing Committee set a powder keg in Hong Kong canyons by shutting the gate on Hong Kong resident’s aspirations so that they could elect their own leader rather than pro Beijing puppets under the ‘one country and two systems.’ Also there seems to have been an undercurrent of growing dissatisfaction among the local public due to the cankered blighted public service failures over affordable housing, growing grievances failing the grass roots and too much kowtowing to Beijing playing hard ball political parlour games. The HK government already was aware something was brewing in the form of a civil disobedience of Occupying Central (OC) intent in closing roads in the main financial and government offices area. The government leadership kept their heads in the sand and made no effort to head off the potential trouble to avoid possible street confrontations. Emotional loaded large crowds should be
avoided in any country only engendering skunk dirty works to go to work to disrupt even the most well meaning peaceful protests.

Disappointed HK bright students over the lack of government efforts over constitutional reform and concerns over their future lit the fuse and conjoined with OC parties started street protests. On 28 September large crowds assembled but mainly peaceful protested against the HK CEO C.Y. Leung’s Beijing supported suffocating administration. The invisible CEO, Chief Secretary and Commissioner of Police failed to walk up to the plate to seek a dialogue with the protestors and hid out of sight behind video cameras. The well armed 3,000 police impatiently turned on the protestors using pepper spray and tear gas into a mini Tiananmen disaster against protestors
armed with only brollies. Following more baton charges only incensed the protestors further who split into three camps erecting barricades closing roads. The inevitable happened with paid thugs waded into peaceful protestors in Kowloon.

Unfortunately the protestations has led to inconvenience for commuters while small shopkeepers, taxi and mini bus operators lost income. Regrettably the court injunctions issued on protest spots were ignored the corner stone of our HK law for 150 years.

It questions the HK administration has lost their compass bearings while the protestors stay put on the morale high ground camps. On the whole this civil disobedience ‘umbrella movement’ decency and behaviour has gained the admiration worldwide and put HK on the international media circus map.

As universal law states: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Money obsessed HK people may have to chose between shekels or freedom.

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27 Lugard Road Rumbles

29/7/2014

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Lugard Road construction

27 Lugard Road

27 Lugard Road at night

The HK Peak towers over Central district on Hong Kong Island. It attracts residents and visitors with its stunning, panoramic giddy views over the harbour while strolling along Lugard Road named after Governor Frederick Lugard. The construction of the first section of the road started in June 1913. The remainder of the road was more difficult to build. In January 1919, with WW I over, work began again. This second section encircles the Peak and links with the Peak Tram station. The road was completed in March 1921 at a cost of HK$50,000. In the early colonial days, the Peak area for many years was the reserve of Europeans who built elegant houses on the Peak.

The oldest house on the road is No. 27 a two storey house
constructed in 1914 designed by Lennox Godfrey Bird of Palmer & Bird architects. The original land cost HK$2,160. The house was purchased for HK$384 million in September 2012. The current owners propose to convert No. 27 historical Grade II private house into a hotel on Lugard Road. The Town Planing Board has approved the use as a
hotel. The road is very narrow and only 2 m wide in some places so the owners propose to use electric golf carts for baggage and deliveries. However, it has become another controversial heritage site. Many are against the use of the mansion into a hotel due to mainly road safety concerns.

Cons

The proposed septic tank daily effluent could leech into the environment.

The road is far too narrow so vehicles could confront
pedestrians and baby strollers.
It would be easy to be pushed over the steep slopes.
Deliveries would need multiple trips per day.
Narrow access could limit rescues in case of accidents or sickness.
Reconfiguring the interior would negate its historic
importance.
It would encourage other owners to redevelop heritage private houses into glass monsters.
There are other possible adaptive
use to limit the traffic.

Pros

This particular house is a rare example of a colonial hill residence built before the First World War.
The architectural style of the elegant house is designed by one of the oldest architectural firms.
Protects part of Hong Kong’s history and retain its
architectural value.
If not used the owners can redevelop the site
into modern apartments.
Maintaining it for hotel use would add
to the value of the building.
There are few such houses left and
could encourage other owners as a model.

Wait for the Flash Mob call then pick up your sign FOR or NO at the Rent-a-Crowd shop Peak Tram.

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Rubble Trouble

24/6/2014

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Square-shaped Well Excavation Found in Hung Hom - Hong Kong

The Antiquities and Monuments office (AMO)) says the excavation has identified 239 archaeological features and around 3,700 artifacts on the site. During the MTR Sha Tin to Central Link construction site one of the most interesting discoveries is a Sung Dynasty square-shaped well. It is said to be "in very good condition structurally." Experts recommend that it should be preserved in situ. The construction delay has already become very costly. Some archaeology experts and the Antiquities and Monuments Office confirm that there's no need to preserve the site. The Director of HKU’s Architectural Conservation Program, says that in situ conservation is always preferred from a heritage conservation standpoint. He said. “Removing the artefacts to a museum will severely limit the understanding of the artefacts.”

Another Hong Kong historian said that the well is an important piece of archaeological heritage. it shows that the city was also a trade area housing a large settlement.

Who will cough up for the construction bill delay?Tax payers?

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Conservation of Government’s Historical Buildings in Hong Kong

2/6/2014

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1891 Aberdeen Police Station cage

1891 Aberdeen Police Station degeneration

1891 Aberdeen Police Station entrance

1891 Aberdeen Police Station

1891 Aberdeen Police Station - rear entrance

The former 1891 Aberdeen Police Station is one of government’s better heritage scenic, architecturally and historically interesting police stations. This splendid building has yet be identified for inclusion in the list suitable for adaptive re-use under the Revitalising Historical Buildings Through Partnership Scheme (Revitalization Scheme). This building is gradually loosing the degeneration battle unless there is a plan to fully maintain the site and building fabric and encourage a suitable partner is found before the deterioration becomes so great that the site might become a part of the government’s desperate land grab and the classic building demolished.
The revitalised 1902 Tai O Police Station is an excellent example what can also be done to the old Aberdeen Police
Station.
See the articles on the former two police stations in the Articles on this website.
Our links to our past to this building can be fully preserved before it is too late!!

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