Shaving in the Street
Yes, I did go to Hong Kong while the WTO meetings were being held. And no, I did not see any of the anarchy and riots by the Korean farmers.In fact, I didn’t see anything unusual. Okay, I did see a guy in a bathrobe shaving his face on a street corner near Kowloon Park. And there was a mini-McDonalds inside the park too! You find “Mickey D” everywhere here. The guy shaving was doing some kind of advertising stunt for a department store. You think that sells more shaving cream?
Getting around Hong Kong last week was a little confusing. I usually stay in Wan Chai, but it was practically cordoned off from visitors since the convention center where WTO was meeting is in that area. The MTR subway trains were even bypassing the station. We had associates at Decca unable to get to their homes for several days. When I first started down to the MTR on my arrival, I thought it odd to see guards at the doors, and then it dawned on me: they were there because of WTO. You then appreciate their presence.
All in all the WTO Conference went pretty well. Most everyone was orderly. The farmers wanted more attention, and got it without too much controversy. The most dangerous situation was probably not the confrontations with police, even though over a 1000 were arrested stemming from their staged melee Sunday night. No some farmers jumped in the infamous Hong Kong harbor. It’s famous because of the contamination. It was a dangerous act for their own health.
From what I could gauge, and there was a lot of discussion around Hong Kong, public opinion was mostly sympathetic to the farmers, but also prideful of the way the Hong Kong police were orderly and kept control. Damage to property was very minimal.
Businesses are complaining profusely that they lost significant sums over the closure of the area to visitors. On the other hand, the hotel where I stayed probably had more visitors than usual on a Sunday night. The guy in a bathrobe in the park probably caught a cold.
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 10:18 PM
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