Occupy Central

For those of you following international news you may have heard some talk about protests in Hong Kong.  In 2017 Hong Kong is due to elect the next Chief Executive.  Many Hong Kongers would like this to be a democratic election.  Beijing would like this to be a traditional Chinese Communist Party election, meaning one in which a small group in Beijing determines which candidates are acceptable.

Activists here in Hong Kong have been threatening to protest and shut down the Central financial district.  They followed through yesterday.  Last night PJ went downtown with a friend and his father to witness the protests.  He said it was an unbelievable experience.  They watched as one protestor stood his ground against the police.  They saw the police dawn their gas masks and knew that something was about to happen.  Then they witnessed the growing cloud of tear gas headed their way.  They decided it was time to leave when they saw the police coming over the barricade towards the lone protestor who appeared to be the cause of the unleashing of tear gas.  As for the tear gas, PJ now knows how that feels.  “My eyes were watering and I had snot running all down my face.”

This morning PJ and I had to be in Central by 9:00am for a doctor appointment.  When I asked the taxi driver to take us to Central he told me he couldn’t; “All shut down.”  Instead I had him take us to the other end of the MTR line in Chai Wan and we took the MTR into Central.  I take the MTR from Chai Wan to Central 3-5 days a week on average.  It is never crowded in Chai Wan and certainly not at 8:00am.  It was complete chaos.  However, when we came out of the exit at Central the streets were not crowded at all.  I think that because people knew some roads in Central were closed they all decided to take the MTR and figured they better get an early start because it would be crowded.  PJ tells me that last night the protesting was confined to in front of the Chinese Embassy and we are a little ways from there.

You can add this to the list of experiences we never would have had without moving here.  As my brother said, “Who got the, ‘May you live in interesting times’ fortune cookie??”

PJ took some pictures for me, but he thought I should use these from Huffington Post instead: