Even the sky was crying over Hong Kong on Friday morning- a great city and home to over seven million suddenly reduced to a meandering, leaderless blob because of tolerating a combination of misguided priorities and politics, false prophets spreading a disease of frustration, desperation, depression, and anger with no end in sight.
Just as one thinks the worst is over, Oliver Twist marches in and demands for more- and it starts all over again with millions of lives on hold, the police handcuffed and unable to do their duty in fear of being accused of “brutality”, while Hong Kong is commandeered by a handful who have no legal, or otherwise, rights, to speak on behalf of an entire city.
How has Hong Kong allowed itself to reach this abyss? And even if all these different factions and fractions and dissatisfaction receive whatever they’re protesting for- by now, it’s become such a convoluted mess of Occupy Central, Umbrella Power, Occupy Government House and Occupy Grandstanding screaming over each other- all the millions on the sidelines having watched this freak show and circus unfold on television and in once-peaceful streets with mild curiosity, are now pissed off as was seen yesterday in Mongkok when ordinary Hong Kong people turned on these self-styled “leaders” and took the law into their own hands by “de-occupying” a barricaded area of Hong Kong.
Enough is enough is the mood of the everyday people of the city.
All this grandstanding by a vociferous handful that has been media-made to appear what it’s not is so far down the road with no backup plan, has quickly seeped into daily life.
Small businesses are badly hit, as has the travel industry, schooling, hospitals, restaurants, shops and every other part of what once was daily life.
Barricades and closed roads have meant Hong Kong virtually coming to a standstill, and what we have here is not only a failure to communicate, but a city that has self-imprisoned itself. Common sense has failed to prevail.
If Benny Tai and his zealots behind Occupy Central honestly believed they had the support of Hong Kong people, they don’t anymore. The best advice for them is to quietly and quickly leave town- and now- with their tails between their legs as they are pariahs who may think they might have won whatever battle they set out to win, but they have lost the war. Miserably.
Benny Tai and his Tai-Nots have done far more to tarnish the image of Hong Kong with their counter-productive- and the daft plan it was- to try and bring the Hong Kong Government to its knees in the name of democracy, more so than the enemy it was trying to fight.
Think about it, people: What has Occupy Central accomplished?
Who is Joshua Wong? Where did this student with his naive politics come from and what has he, other wannabe martyrs drunk on their new found “fame”, and media tycoon Jimmy Lai accomplished- not for their personal agendas, but for the millions of hard-working and peace loving people of Hong Kong who simply want their city to return to its former normalcy- even with all its faults and idiosyncrasies?
Jimmy Lai is a very rich businessman. So are the politicians around him and against him. They already have golden parachutes whenever they might wish to bail out while the muppets blindly following them are simpletons- pawns been given their fifteen minutes of fame, and now kept away from the much bigger back room politics being played out for stakes none of us are privy to understand despite the drivel being exchanged on social media and that other media called rumours.
Meanwhile, one has to wonder why there has been such a roaring silence from Hong Kong’s entertainment industry- all those publicity hungry actors, actresses, singers, quasi celebrities, directors and producers who always have something to say about everything even when no one cares what they think. Their goofiness is missed.
Where are Hong Kong’s business leaders- you knows, those billionaires who’ve got very rich off the back of the poor Hong Kong people and on the other end of the goofball spectrum? Watching from afar before deciding who is winning and then ride back into town as Hong Kong’s saviours?
Opportunists know the best time to re-appear is when new opportunities. And chaos creates opportunities.
Where is our fearless leader- Chief Executive CY Leung- other than hiding like a girl behind Chief Secretary Carrie Lam’s skirt, who stands there asking for “calm”.
Every time Auntie Carrie makes her token appearances, what we have is a worse horror movie than Brian DePalma’s “Carrie”. Don’t invite her to the prom.
Where has CY Leung led us, and why have those who placed him in this position of power become the silent minority and given so much control to the all the mice that roar? And roar and roar and roar until no one is listening any more as it’s just white noise and meaningless nonsense.
When SARS attacked this city, we all came together to restore confidence in Hong Kong. We didn’t give up and let’s not forget all those who gave unselfishly, especially those in the medical profession.
We need to remember those days in order to inspire us into giving instead of trying to take- and smash and grab- everything in sight while not losing sight of why all this turmoil started and why and how- and when- it was allowed to spin so out of control.
It’s not, however, hopelessly out of control. Nothing is ever hopeless when cool heads prevail.
Yes, many in Hong Kong want answers to a great many things other than parroting those words “universal suffrage”.
But creating chaos, triads infiltrating protest groups, and having brother turn against brother until no one knows who’s right, who’s wrong, and who’s on what side and what these sides really want, is NOT the way to restore confidence in this city and return it to its rightful rulers.
Those rightful rulers are the millions of Hong Kong people now fed up with not only a spineless Chief Executive unable to lead, but those creating havoc, many of whom are naively thinking they’re bringing about positive change.
They’re not. What they should do is own up to this mess they have helped create, APOLOGISE to Hong Kong, join with the police and play the “home team advantage” against those outsiders who have added to the chaos with agendas harmful to this peaceful city.
These are the real enemy. No one else. It’s taken way too long for these wannabe peaceniks to separate idealism from realism and see who those are wearing the real white hats.
Hans Ebert Chairman and CEO We-Enhance Inc and Fast Track Global Ltd www.fasttrack.hk
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