WTO protests...continued...
From the SCMP...
updated at 5.45pm:
About 1,000 anti-World Trade Organisation protesters marched through the streets on Sunday as Hong Kong tried to recover from a night of rioting that marked one of the city's worst spasms of violence in decades.
The demonstrators chanted "Sink WTO" as trade ministers from around the globe wrapped up six days of negotiations at a WTO meeting. The protesters oppose the WTO's efforts to open up markets to foreign competition.
Hundreds of police formed lines, cordoning off streets where the crowd was heading.
Some of the marchers were South Korean farmers who carried cardboard signs saying, "Hong Kong government quickly release our comrades!"
Police said they arrested 900 demonstrators after Saturday's violence, and many were Koreans who went on a rampage just outside the WTO meeting venue. They attacked police with bamboo poles and tried to break into the building. Police scattered them with tear gas and seized control of the area.
Such large-scale violence is rare in this stable Asian financial capital. The last time the city saw such a melee was during 1967 riots aimed at usurping British colonial rule. Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said Saturday's riot was "unacceptable" and pledged to prosecute those involved.
The Koreans began holding a sit-in on Saturday night that blocked off one of Hong Kong's busiest streets. Police began arresting the demonstrators early on Sunday and spent hours loading them into buses.
Sunday's procession was led by Hong Kong activists, who held a giant red banner saying "Oppose WTO." The protesters included Thai and Filipino migrant workers along with Japanese farmers.
...
Militant French farmer Jose Bove - best known for ransacking a McDonald's restaurant under construction near his home in 1999 - said Sunday's protest was supposed to be the biggest. But he said the size of the crowd was uncertain now because many migrant labourers who planned to join were worried they would be arrested and be deported
To the final sentence...they should be worried...this is not the time to start testing HKG's "freedom of speech" to its limits...the government and the police are on edge and as such 'towing the party line' is something I would strongly advocate..being 'guests' in a country generally means that you have to be on your best behaviour...
More from Flagrant Harbour, with a press release from HK Alliance on WTO - the woman who issued this must be living in La La Land (the real one - not Discovery Bay!). I have already commented under the post so will not repeat myself.
updated at 5.45pm:
About 1,000 anti-World Trade Organisation protesters marched through the streets on Sunday as Hong Kong tried to recover from a night of rioting that marked one of the city's worst spasms of violence in decades.
The demonstrators chanted "Sink WTO" as trade ministers from around the globe wrapped up six days of negotiations at a WTO meeting. The protesters oppose the WTO's efforts to open up markets to foreign competition.
Hundreds of police formed lines, cordoning off streets where the crowd was heading.
Some of the marchers were South Korean farmers who carried cardboard signs saying, "Hong Kong government quickly release our comrades!"
Police said they arrested 900 demonstrators after Saturday's violence, and many were Koreans who went on a rampage just outside the WTO meeting venue. They attacked police with bamboo poles and tried to break into the building. Police scattered them with tear gas and seized control of the area.
Such large-scale violence is rare in this stable Asian financial capital. The last time the city saw such a melee was during 1967 riots aimed at usurping British colonial rule. Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said Saturday's riot was "unacceptable" and pledged to prosecute those involved.
The Koreans began holding a sit-in on Saturday night that blocked off one of Hong Kong's busiest streets. Police began arresting the demonstrators early on Sunday and spent hours loading them into buses.
Sunday's procession was led by Hong Kong activists, who held a giant red banner saying "Oppose WTO." The protesters included Thai and Filipino migrant workers along with Japanese farmers.
...
Militant French farmer Jose Bove - best known for ransacking a McDonald's restaurant under construction near his home in 1999 - said Sunday's protest was supposed to be the biggest. But he said the size of the crowd was uncertain now because many migrant labourers who planned to join were worried they would be arrested and be deported
To the final sentence...they should be worried...this is not the time to start testing HKG's "freedom of speech" to its limits...the government and the police are on edge and as such 'towing the party line' is something I would strongly advocate..being 'guests' in a country generally means that you have to be on your best behaviour...
More from Flagrant Harbour, with a press release from HK Alliance on WTO - the woman who issued this must be living in La La Land (the real one - not Discovery Bay!). I have already commented under the post so will not repeat myself.
posted by Madame Chiang at 7:57 pm
4 Comments:
The real question is WTF did the government offer to have the WTO meeting in HK? WTF are taxpayers paying $256M (and counting)? Despite the mouthed platitudes of being a world class city, this is another one in a long list of ill advised pompous and corrupted projects. Thank you Antony "Lexus" Leung and Tung "Dumbass" Chee Wah. To be continued by Donald "Fuckface" Tsang.
In fairness - the opportunity was requested after SARS. It was seen as an opportunity to put Hong Kong back on the map.
I guess hindsight is always the clearest sight...As Flagrant says we requested the opportunity in order to put HKG back on the map. With the clarity of hindsight we know that HKG bounced back as it always has done in the past..after SARS things looked so bleak that there was no guarantee that would happen.
If it weren't for the expected (and delivered) level of violence our the amount shelled out would not be quite as high..
"If it weren't for the expected (and delivered) level of violence the amount shelled out would not be quite as high.."
Exactly! The affair is costly because of the security arrangements, and particularly because of the Korean peasants (resisting the uncontrollable urge of writing "Korean assholes!").
Ciao!
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