Like Tree1871Likes

Occupy Central Updates

Closed Thread
Page 622 of 1209 FirstFirst ... 614 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 630 ... LastLast
  1. #6211

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    12,799

    A Mong Kok Youth, The Incomprehensible Battle - (The Initium) September 22, 2015.

    http://www.zonaeuropa.com/OccupyCentral_4.htm#329
    He said that he is known as Fire.

    Pale, thin, black t-shirt and black pants, so that he can hide easily in the darkness. Two large earrings hang down from his ear lobes. It is not hard to notice that the ear lobe piercings are almost 2cm long.

    He is good-looking and sometimes want to look handsome. He is an amateur artistic bicyclist. Hong Kong is not a big place. He is like a small-town boy. He said that he comes from Tai Po, he love the place, he knows it so well that he can walk around with his eyes closed. Strictly speaking, he has never left there. He grew up there. He graduated from secondary school and got all his jobs about the Tai Po Centre area. He has make milk tea, sold Internet access, sold electronics, sold clothes ... he loves to sell mobile phone most of all. That is his current job, which pays a base salary of only $10,000. When customers come in, he doesn't have to hard-sell them. He plans to save more than one hundred thousand dollars in a couple of year and open his own mobile phone store.

    It was a late summer night at the end of August. After getting off work at 10pm, Fire came with a low-slung bicycle to the Waterfront Park, Tai Po. This is different from the normal artistic bicycle, because it is painted black like a ghost warplane. He built it up himself, and it is better than brand name models. It costs him one month's salary.

    I met Fire in mid-October 2014. It was late night in Mong Kok when the police and demonstrators were both taking a break during a lull. He and many other resisters took off their gear and sat down wearily by the roadside to rest.

    When I spoke to Fire, he was polite and friend. He and many others who stayed to defend in Mong Kok consider themselves Valiant Ones for resisting the police and the unjust system. The mainstream opinion classified them as "troublemakers" or as fully-armored masked "moles" sent in by the Chinese Communists to radicalize the Movement.

    "The glory of the Admiralty was gained with our blood. Never mind that, because it is alright by me. But to say that the Valiant Ones are saboteurs? I was hit and I had to get treatment at the hospital. Am I a mole?"

    That was one year ago, and we are now by the balustrade of the Waterfront Park and not in Mong Kok anymore. But Fire is still angry.

    "Peace, Reason, Non-violence, Non-foul language?" He snorted. Although we were standing several meters apart, I could still see the glint in this eyes.

    "The government saw through us. They ignored us completely. Those 'peace, reason, non-violence and non-foul language' people eventually sat there and got arrested." He said: "They are celebrities so nothing happens to them. We are nobodies. We have to earn a living. We can't afford to sit down and get arrested."

    This is the most controversial aspect of the masked Valiant Ones: They choose to use radical methods to clash with the police while criticizing the more moderate persons. To many people, they are missing the willingness to accept the legal responsibility in civil disobedience.

    "If all those Valiant Ones who are willing to resist are arrested, who is left to resist?" Fire doesn't understand why staying behind to be arrested should be "responsible civil disobedience."

    Fire did not think that he was playing around during the Umbrella Movement last year. He was using his blood, sweat and tears to resist for 74 days. He used his body, not his morality, to resist. That is the logic of his movement.

    Do you know what the fuck is resistance? Do you know what the fuck is valor? While I was tear-gassed and clubbed, where the fuck were you leftist retards? Seventy-four days. I gave up my job for seventy-four fucking days. I stayed to defend Mong Kok. I went to to Admiralty for a couple of days, but I left because your bunch of dickheads were holding a singing competition on the Grand Stage!
    ...

    To stand in the front row holding a wooden shield, do you know how it feels?

    Let me tell you. I was fucking scared. It was fucking hard to take. Do you know?

    The front row protects the back row. The front row is the most important. I am not a military man. Facing a group of undisciplined disciplinary force, I had no idea what to do. I only knew that if one person takes it, everybody else is better off. I was clubbed several dozen times. Several dozen times. I know that I am rough and I am accustomed to frequent injuries in practicing artistic bicycling. But I can be hurt and I feel pain. What about everyone else?

    He had nowhere else to explain. He wrote his thoughts on his Facebook. Only 31 persons pressed "Like."

    On the evening of September 28 last year, Fire saw the tear-gas in Admiralty on television. He remembered that his younger sister was there. He asked his boss for time off and immediately rushed over to Admiralty. Like many other persons, he said: "I want to protect the students."

    In truth, Fire was born in 1994 and therefore younger than many of the students. But he has entered society for six years already: "I am a grown-up, so of course I have to protect the students. I know a lot more than Joshua Wong and them about things that they cannot see in school."

    He and his artistic bicycling friends went to Admiralty. At 11pm that night, the Federation of Students and the Occupy Central trio said on Facebook that the police had used rubber bullets and they called on citizens to withdraw. Fire was astonished at the scene: "There were more than a hundred thousand of us. The situation was great. How can we withdraw?" He was angry, he thought that the movement leaders were abandoning those stay remind.

    Fire was not yet born on June 4th 1989. He bet that the Communists won't shoot this time. It was like betting on show-hand. It is not that he was unafraid, but there was nothing to be afraid of when he is at the bottom. "My life isn't worth much. Let's see who has more guts."

    Unlike those Hongkongers who carried the scares of June 4th, Fire's judgment is simple and direct, just like many of the young people that I have encountered in the Umbrella Movement. On the morning after September 28th, a 17-year-old tanned first-year university student with short dyed blonde hair said calmly and firmly to me: "If we retreat because of the bullets, the government will do so in all future demonstrators. So what is the difference with the previous demonstration marches? Hong Kong can never be changed."

    The crowds did not disperse. Thus began the unprecedented 79 days of the Occupy Movement in Hong Kong.

    In a mere five days, Fire thought that he was not a fellow traveler with the movement leaders in Admiralty.

    On the night of September 28, some of the Admiralty resisters drifted to Causeway Bay and then to Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. For a long period of time afterwards, there were three Occupy areas in Admiralty, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay.

    The Occupy Mong area is centered at the intersection Nathan Road and Argyle Street. It is a shopping area, and also where prostitutes, pimps and gangsters mix around. During the 2014 Occupy Movement, it obtained a new identify: The symbol of valiant resistance in Hong Kong. Fire found his belongingness there.

    [...]

    Like many Occupy Movement participants, Fire set up a daily schedule: He gets off work at 10pm and he takes the minibus to Mong Kok. He stays until 6pm, walk 5 minutes over to the Mong Kok East Station to take the first train back to Tai Po. He showers, sleeps and goes to work at noon. He did that for 74 days. "If it wasn't for the clearance, I could continue to Occupy." He said proudly.

    Compared to the utopian Harcourt village in Admiralty: tents, study rooms, bountiful supplies, music concerts, artistic creations, tidy public restrooms, Mong Kok was not a comfortable place for staying.

    In the earlier days, the Mong Kok intersection became a spot for citizens to articulate their ideas: Yellow Ribbons, Blue Ribbons, citizens, mainlanders took turns to air their complaints. The triads and the Blue Ribbons often act violently. The police cleared the site by force. Each time, Mong Kok looked like it would die but it was always resilient and bounced back. There were even statutes of Lord Guan and a Jesus Christ altar. However, the gods of the east and the west could not stop the feces, the vermin and the curses to rain down from above ...

    "If there wasn't Mong Kok, I would not have stayed behind. I don't belong to Admiralty." Although Fire seldom got any good sleep during the 74 days in Mong Kok, he didn't mind. "I am accustomed to living in uncomfortable conditions."

    Fire grew up in public housing. His parents who sold fish balls paid $1,000 a month to rent a public housing apartment with two bedrooms and one living room totaling 300 square feet. His family of five lives there. He is lucky because he would have to wait ten years if he were single.

    At this time, he shares a room with his sister while his elder brother sleeps in the living room. "Hong Kong housing is too expensive. There is no way to afford it. All the resources of this government are given over the middle-class and the wealthy, and none to us." He has calculated that he needs to earn $20,000 a month before he can think about buying a house. Right now, he only makes half that amount. "My hourly salary is $40. A meal costs $40. It is impossible for me to move outside."

    In Fire's mind, the carefree university students ought to stay in Admiralty. They are civilized and polite, they make the people of Hong Kong proud and the world praises them. There is no excuse for the government. He accepts that those glories are not his. If Admiralty is Light, then Mong Kok is Shadow. He belongs to Hong Kong's shadows. There is no happiness and calmness. His world is the unstable and chaotic Mong Kok.

    Given that there is not much hope, he has thought about moving to Taiwan. "But when I consider that Taiwan will ultimately become China's and no different from Hong Kong, I changed my mind."

    FIre thought that the double-no pregnant women, the parallel traders and the individual-permit mainlanders are stealing Hong Kong's resources, so that young people like himself are squeezed with nowhere to go. "There is no reason why the young of Hong Kong should bear the burden." He said that this was another reason why he resisted. "We are not just going this for 'genuine universal suffrage'. We are also fighting for the simple basic life that we want all along."

    I got to know Fire two days after the re-taking of Mong Kok.

    On the early morning of October 17, 2014, about 800 police officers came to Mong Kok to "dismantle obstacles." About 100 demonstrators staying there were cleared off, and traffic resumed at the intersection of Nathan Road and Argyle Street. That evening, several thousand citizens got off work to attempt to re-occupy the location. After a battle with pepper spray and baton, the resisters broke through the police line and re-took the intersection. They called it "the re-taking of Mong Kok."

    Such battles were not rare in Mong Kok. Many resistsers were injured. I asked these young men why they would "rather die than retreat"? Why were willing to stand in the front row to face the violence? During the interviewing, I got to know Fire.

    At the time, Fire and his partners were fatigued after facing off against the police. He was smoking a Mild Seven and sitting on the ground to rest. He used plastic bottles and silicone floor coverings as protective devices on his forearms and lower legs, like a robot cop.

    Since the moment when the students charged into Civic Plaza, the Occupy people's equipment were upgraded with each battle. At first, they wore plastic wrap, umbrellas and raincoats to protect against the pepper spray. Eventually, they had fully equipped helmets, gas masks, shields and body armor. They started with holding up their hands when confronting the police, now they go full tilt.

    Fire's fighting evolved over the 74 days.

    When the police baton arrives, he is scared. But he was filled with the sense of resisting with his body. When the police baton falls, he raises his hand to ward it off. He remembered that it was a dull pain without bleeding. It was different from ear piercing and tattooing.

    "The pain of being by the police was nothing." Fire said lightly. For him, the ear piercing ritual to join the artistic bicycling group was far more painful. For him, the piercing of the ear, the infection and the subsequent healing to create a 2-cm long hold was a growing-up ritual. He was not an adult, and therefore can protect the students as a Valiant One, such as Mong Kok was protecting Admiralty.

    Tattoos, bicycle crashes, ear piercing, resistance. Fire got his sense of existence through pain. Fighting the state apparatus seems to be the only way for him to do something for his homeland -- he is not an intellectual, he is not a leader, he can't offer explanations, he can only use resistance and defense to show that he was present, even if it was all futile.

    But the true hurt did not come from the flesh. Instead it was about not being understood.

    To those who opposed the Occupy Movement, the Occupy Mong Kok area is the root of all evil, being filled with "Golden Forum young men who were incited." To many who supported the Occupy Movement, Mong Kok is a trouble-making spot where violence and clashes abound, thus causing the Movement to lose the moral high ground and public popular support. It may even be a conspiracy to destroy the Occupy Movement.

    "These Valiant Ones carry out Hit-and-Run every time. The anarchists and flash mobs do not take on any responsibility. They go to Mong Kok to make trouble. Strategically speaking, it makes no sense to occupy Mong Kok." Long Hair (Leung Kwok-hung) is a representative figure of the preceding generation of resisters and he told me that.

    Fire's self-sacrifice was deprecated and not praised. Fire felt deeply betrayed. He emphasized repeatedly that he did so to protect the students and Hong Kong, and that he is not a person incapable of independent thinking.

    "Last July 1st, 510,000 persons marched in the streets. Was that any use? At Admiralty, they hold singing contests for Vast Sea Boundless Skies from morning to night but they shouldn't smear us." In this eyes, the Hong Kong democrats toiled thirty years with nothing to show, and that prove the old-style method of resistance does not work.

    Mong Kok and Admiralty stand for two different routes of resistance, and they split up due to differences in real life. When the masked young men charged into the Legislative Council and broke the glass doors, there was a furious storm that led to an internal splitting of the movement. The pan-democratic legislative councilors unanimously condemned the act because it destroyed the image of "Love and Peace" of the Umbrella Movement.

    Long Hair (Leung Kwok-hung) thought that the Valiant Ones failed because these political rookies used their very limited political experience to analyze the resistance movement, and thereby forgot that the most important political strategy is to win the support of those who are previously indifferent: "Success cannot be accomplished by a small number of individuals taking direct action. The direct action must grow into larger and larger actions."

    But Fire's reasoning is: "The Grand Stage wants to gain the popular support of the wealthy middle-class. But the middle-class will only give some talk and never take to the streets, thus betraying us young people who are stilling to stay behind to defend."

    Before the Occupy Movement ended, there was a rift between Admiralty and Mong Kok. This became an underlying factor in the internal divisions of the Hong Kong democracy movement after 79 days of the Occupy Movement.

    December 11. Early morning on the day when Admiralty was to be cleared, Fire came with his equipment to Admiralty. He imagined that this would be the final battle. But the atmosphere in Admiralty was serene, with people hugging and bidding farewell to each other and taking commemorative photos.

    "I can't accept sitting down and being carried away. That would be surrendering. It applies no pressure whatsoever on the government. There is no bargaining chip whatsoever." So he left.

    He remembered watching the live broadcast the next day when the politicians sat down on the front row to be carried away. He was angry. "Putting on a show!" he said. To him, these resisters were sitting down and waiting their turn to be arrested. With the high degree of media coverage, they didn't have to worry about being beaten up. They have lawyers to help them all the way. They become heroes. But this is the logic of survival for a working class person like himself.

    But Fire's reasoning is sometimes self-contradictory. He is sometimes angry, sometimes carefree. He is disappointed, but also hopeful. "When these Hong Kong students came out, they give us hope. We need leaders. I am willing to trust one more time, but it should not make us regret."

    No matter what, Mong Kok changed Fire.

    If it were not for those 74 dark nights, Fire would never care about politics. Everyday, he would go work at the mobile phone store. When he gets off work, he will go out and have fun. He would be a Tai Po young man who dreams of earning $20,000 a month and establishing a family.

    He is spending the same type of life now, he goes down to Mong Kok often to have fun but he doesn't feel the same way. As he walks on Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Shanghai Street, Nathan Road, Shan Tung Street and the back streets and alleys, he can clearly remember that he came down here prepared to be hit last year. He remembered saving someone at some spot, or the marvelous camaraderie with his fellow warriors. These are the emotions that Mong Kok evoke in him.

    "I never imagined that I would be like that. But I feel very proud." Fire thought that he could tell his grandchildren some day that their grandfather once shed blood to defend Hong Kong. He felt that for the first time, he made history and became part of Hong Kong's destiny.

    As we said goodbye in the Waterfront Park, Fire yanked his bicycle into the air in a move that took 3 years to perfect. When he got back down on the ground, he sped away into the darkness of the night. He did not give me any reply, just like the Mong Kok that has vanished.

    Last edited by threesummers; 26-09-2015 at 03:23 AM.

  2. #6212

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    12,799

    Former HKFS secretary-general Alex Chow revealed that the intermediaries involved with the talk between HKFS & HK government officials during the Umbrella Movement last year were Professor Joseph Chan (HKU) and Gloria Chang (HKU alumni).
    https://twitter.com/vickchan/status/647262968392974336


  3. #6213

  4. #6214

  5. #6215

  6. #6216

  7. #6217

  8. #6218

  9. #6219

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    12,799

    Joshua Wong's speech - Fri Sept 26, 2014 - before the rushing of Civic Square - last day of student boycott (age 17 - just graduated high school)

    - 3,000 high school students joined the university students for the final rally in the evening
    - 1,500 high school students participated in the 1 day high school boycott earlier in the day



    Here's my attempt to give a gist/essence of the speech.

    00:00
    Hello Everyone,

    I'm Joshua Wong - the convenor of Scholarism.

    Recently, the HK Federation of Education Workers (pro-Beijing) has been saying that I'm a triad, a drug addict and a jihadist.

    Yesterday, Wen Wei Po said that I'm collaborating with the US - that the US Marines trained me in combat techniques.

    (crowd howls at how ridiculous this is)

    00.44
    I don't understand why these leftist newspapers have to smear students that are fighting for democracy and write such out-there stories that not even Robert Chow would believe.

    "Wake-up Wen Wei Po !!"

    (more whoops from the crowd)

    01:24
    Each smear, every pressure, was meant to suppress the high school boycott.

    But we made history - as this is the first ever high school boycott - and there were 1,500 participants !

    (cheers)

    01:54
    In the past, it was the teachers that went on strike - not high school students.

    I prepared materials for 200 to 500 participants - to have 1,500 students show-up is beyond expectations.

    For a high school student to participate in this boycott, he/she faced TREMENDOUS PRESSURE - from family, from principals, from the press, from classmates - as opposed to a university student like me.

    Please give a hand to these students who were able to withstand such pressure !

    (big props to the high schoolers)

    03:22
    Yesterday, a 16 year old student was handing out flyers about the student boycott, outside an MTR station.

    I myself have handed out flyers for the past 3 years without incident and would never have guessed that this would happen.

    The student was on a megaphone, when an elderly man came by and punched it towards his mouth - causing him to break his tooth.

    "I would like to ask !

    YOU (the pro-establishment) - are always loudly proclaiming that 'We must save the children !' 'We are anti-violence !'.

    Why is it ? That when a student is merely handing out a boycott leaflet, he is attacked to the point that he has to go to the hospital and ends up with a broken tooth !

    AND THE PRO-ESTABLISHMENT DOES NOT UTTER ONE WORD !!!!"

    (crowd roars approval)

    04:19
    Today, this student stated, that if this incident gets more people to care about society, gets more of the older generation to pay attention to political reform, then it was a price worth paying.

    04:50
    If a student puts it this way, I will ask, why has it come to this ?

    Looking out at the crowd earlier today (at the high school boycott/rally) - there were not only 16/17 year olds in attendance, but even a 12 year old just starting Form 2 came. Who would've guessed ? (This boy has since joined Scholarism.)

    When he took the mic to address the crowd, what he had to say, made my heart heavy.

    He was the only one in his grade to participate in the boycott, I myself think he was a little too young.

    He said he came because he didn't want to see the older generation, the uncles and aunties, push the responsibility to fight for democracy all onto the high school students.

    05:50
    Joshua is really fired up - at 06:08 - "I demand to know - OLDER GENERATION ! WHERE ARE YOU !!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?"

    06:22
    Talking about Occupy Central (in its original incarnation - now moot).

    06:48
    Today, we have students under the age of 18 - high schoolers participating in boycotts !! Participating in CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE !!

    Because the older generation keeps saying HONG KONG'S FUTURE DEPENDS ON YOU STUDENTS !!!!!

    BUT THIS STATEMENT IS WRONG !!!!!

    07:21
    For every one of you older generation that says Hong Kong's future depends on us, and only us - I CANNOT BEAR TO HEAR THIS !!

    Because Hong Kong's future belongs to YOU ! YOU ! YOU ! EVERY ONE OF YOU !

    07:36
    2 years ago, I was just next door to here, in Civic Square, when you were still allowed in - I was 15 and campaigning against National Education.

    I thought 15 was a pretty absurd age to be doing this, let alone 12 year olds participating in boycotts.

    I don't want to see 10 years from now - primary school kids boycotting classes in the struggle for democracy - DO YOU UNDERSTAND ?!?

    (primary school kids did march against National Ed so not unprecedented)

    08:06
    If genuine universal suffrage is this generation's responsibility -

    then I want to tell Xi Jingping -

    I want to tell CY Leung -

    that no matter the price, no matter the cost,

    this generation CANNOT PUSH this struggle onto the next,

    IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THIS GENERATION SUCCEED !!!!

    Last edited by threesummers; 26-09-2015 at 01:49 PM.

  10. #6220

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    12,799

    Nicholas Kristof interviews Martin Lee & Joshua Wong (at NYT in NYC)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl7_q5xVy08

    Last edited by threesummers; 26-09-2015 at 03:38 PM.