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Hong Kong: what next?

Some further insights I've recognised from the flow-charts above, compiled daily by Gigi Choy over the last two weeks and showing the emerging and growing clusters up until yesterday (sadly now discontinued but follow @tripperhead for daily data updates).

Notice the disparities between the "Dance Group cluster" and the "Silka Seaview cluster"?

What do we know?

And what may we surmise, dear Watson?


The Dance cluster emerged from a "middle class" Index case. Omicron.

Cathay Pacific, 28 year old, female, passenger-flight Cabin Crew (Stewardess), arrived on a Cathay cargo flight to bring her home for three days home quarantine before off again on a passenger flight. Living with her parents in a flat in a private housing estate. Mother spreads it around a few fancy restaurants and goes dancing and it spreads, through various contacts - and all of their domestic helpers - across churches, a smallish indoor pop concert, to a domestic helper cluster, then through to an office of finance peeps at Citic Pacific Securities and on to a private party for 230 people at a restaurant thrown by a senior govt. official with many other officials and legislators in attendance!

All relatively easy to get on top of and contain - with meticulous, hands on, 24/7, contact tracing. Maybe!

Almost certainly local Hong Kong, ethnically Chinese, middle class++ outbreak.

Fewer than 60 cases confirmed to date.

Some leeway given to, exemptions made for and special consideration of - how to say - the more "important" among all the people involved.

Probably, though far from certainly, containable.


Compare and contrast to/with the Silka Seaview cluster.

A 43 year old, female, "working class" Hongkonger. Certainly of Pakistani descent. Returned from a trip to Pakistan and, after 21 days locked in a, cheap-ish, quarantine hotel room (Silka Seaview - @ GBP 70 per night,) at her own expense - where she caught Omicron on her 20th day of stay - went home to her, minuscule-sized, public housing flat in an estate in Sham Shui Po. There, she infected her husband and four children. It was spread to schools, other places and beyond.

Her 46 year old husband (almost certainly born in Hong Kong and Cantonese speaking - but not reading or writing,) went off "dumpster diving" in the not-so-far-away, and massive, Kwai Chung public housing estate. That's normal. Many people do this. Chinese New Year is coming. People (that can afford to,) throw away stuff and buy new before CNY every year.

I've been dumpster diving in the large skips placed in my village at CNY, every year, for the last 15 years now - eighty percent (80%) of my current furniture and clothing in use derives from dumpster-diving!

Anyway ... A cleaner on the Kwai Chung Estate picked up Omicron from one of the various refuse stations he'd been rummaging through - each of them situated underneath a 50-storey housing block with 3,000 residents.

The cleaner spread it around and it EXPLODED, exponentially throughout a poor, ethnically diverse, public housing estate (and beyond).

35,000 peeps in public housing, currently locked indoors under huge control.

And the poorer people are going to suffer further. Lost income. Lost jobs. Lockdowns. And more. Small businesses will be further decimated.

And the worst is yet to come, especially for the 50%+ of "working class" and the elderly, the vulnerable, the poor, the 25% living under the poverty line, including the 20% in relative deprivation and the 10% living in sub-divided, privately-rented, squalor.


Compare and contrast.

And how the fuck does anyone in "power" here contain that?

Hang the fucking rich! :mad:


Oh!

And, as an aside, the 43 year old woman gave birth to her four children in Hong Kong - the first when she was 19 years old - the oldest is now 24.

She was likely brought to Hong Kong from Pakistan at 17 years old for an arranged marriage to a locally-born HongKonger of Pakistani descent.

But this is just yet-another-issue that's been long been ignored and is now just-another-problem left behind in the last of those - oh so British - ex colonies.

And that's for another time!


The dichotomies are stark and telling and, I'm sure, relevant to the majority of global outbreaks.


What the fuck has humanity come to in this era of money-driven deception?


Wake up peeps.

Stay safe.

Woof
 
The crazy watchmaker and I have been WhatsApping each other throughout today, Sunday.

He was off work at home last week and is back tomorrow, Monday 24th Jan for a week.

Everyone at his work is a-week-on-and-then-a-week-off until further notice.

I hate the bastard! He's still on full pay and his housing is paid by his company (and holiday days racking up every week!).

What a black bastard! I hate him and will take him to task for that next Friday. Hmmmph!


Anyway ... in among our message exchanges, below is one of the messages I sent to him earlier ...



"My friend. Tensions are rising in the community as Covid bites. Brace yourself for what lies ahead.

Be a little extra vigilant from here in. Hand hygiene. Watch for others sniffing/coughing. Preferably get N95 masks ready for use.

This is gonna blow wide open! We’ll all catch it soon enough, it’s inevitable (without full-on, mainland-style, stay-home Lockdowns of tens, if not hundreds of thousands at a time, but, watch this space, they may try - but how to feed everyone? When will people rebel and protest?).

It’s just too fucking transmissible!

Just today ... more than 240 new cases (confirmed+preliminary) taken off to hospital for a minimum 24 days. Many hundreds more close contacts off to camps for 21 days. 6,000 locked at home for minimum 5 days - food delivered. 29,000 locked at home for 24 hours minimum for testing. They’ve all been working, shopping, dining, schooling, in the community for days. Outbreaks beginning to emerge in multiple other locations and districts.

And tomorrow ... ?

It’s completely and totally un-fucking-sustainable! Something has to give or the whole fucking system will start to crumble and then implode!

I don’t know which way it’ll break but it’s going to be messy either way.

Buy a few home-use LFT tests. If you feel unwell, stay home for a few days and test. If positive. Stay home, test every 2 days until you test negative twice (likely a week, ten days at most). Then re-integrate.

TELL ME FIRST! NOBODY ELSE! Then talk to your supervisor at your work. You don’t want to get caught up in ANY of this if possible. If either of us do get ensnared, it’s off to jail for 21+ days - and close contacts too. If it happens to you, I daily feed, water, clean your cats. If it’s me ... I’d worship the ground you walk on ... if you could daily feed Bella once, shit outside once and pee twice. Water as required.

We need to prepare. Quietly isolating at home for a week or two is far, FAR preferable to having you - and your close contacts - (or me and mine,) locked up for three or four weeks by the govt.

Speak to XXX. I’ve spoken to XXXX.

Share this judiciously.

Let’s keep in touch this week.

Have a smooth week. Stay safe. Be vigilant. be water.

Love ya! 😘




I wonder how many thousands of people, across Hong Kong, are sending similar messages to each other tonight. More fearful of testing positive and being hospitalised or quarantined than of catching Omicron.

What think you?

It's a very volatile situation.

Hamsters unite! 🐹


Oh my Lord, what the fuck are we going to do? Locking down further - over Chinese New Year - will likely provoke a rebellion-of-the-elderly. The govt.s only remaining constituency!


What new hell awaits tomorrow?


I can't believe I still don a mask before wandering out into the jungle - long after 3:00am - with Bella for a last piss (both of us!) before bed. Not another soul encountered or in sight or hearing within a fifty metre radius (100m diameter), all around.

Last buses have come and gone hours ago. Not even a random porcupine is a'rustling among the undergrowth.

Still, rules are rules, right? And leading by example is important, in all circumstances. Just in case. No exceptions. No Downing Street parties, right?

(See "The Thick Of It" reference above for the current UK Partygate stuff.)


Anyway, as you were peeps ...

Normal, National Security Law, political coverage will resume as soon as possible.

If possible.


Stay safe!

Be nice to each other.

Four in the morning beckons again. What a fucking twat!

Rest well peeps.

Come Bells (it's been a month now - gradual improvement but still far from normal - I will update).

Teeth-clean for me then bed for us both.

Bleurgh!


Woof
 
.


Since 01/01/2020 ...

Two hundred and thirteen people have died from Covid in Hong Kong.

Nobody has died for more than a year now.

How many have died in (similarly-sized,) London since 01/01/2020?

And (similarly-sized,) New York City?

And how many have died in the UK? It's still currently running at @ 1,000 a week.

And the USA?

And the EU?

And the vast majority of them entirely preventable!

Hong Kong has, for most of this time, largely, been fully open internally, everything open and operating as normal (masks worn universally).

I think more drastic restrictions will now ensue.

But, in the meantime, in Hong Kong, over the last two years, many thousands of lives - probably tens of thousands - have been saved from a preventable, excruciatingly-horrible, drawn out, painful and lonely death.

Deaths that were also preventable in the UK and the EU and the USA too. But happened.

An awkward contrast.

It bears thinking about.


Anyway ...

It's coming 5:00am. And I'm fucked.

Take care of each other peeps.

Keep thinking! 🐬

Blessings all.

Bells? Bed!


Night.

Woof
 
For me?

A lifetime of childhood-abuse-induced OCD, emerging from years of poverty-stricken upbringing - layered with an ongoing continuum of brutal physical, emotional, sexual, psychological and other childhood mistreatment - has, I fear, disabled me for a lifetime.

I'm over 60 years now. I have never lived - nor will I ever live - a day without struggling to transcend the all-encompassing, pervasive, crippling fear that has haunted me forever.

And I'm rapidly slipping further back into the poverty that I was born into.

Born into dust. A life live in the dust. Dying back into dust.

A life entirely and utterly inconsequential.

A life that will be missed by nobody.

For now though, I'm still alive.

Kicking and struggling alone.

In pain and fear. Day by day.

I'm not quite done yet.

Fuck the world!

Let's all burn!

Or be nice.

Learn.

Late.

Bed.



Woof
 
Fuck it all.

Six in the morning to sleep means another, horrible, 10:00am awakening.

Four hours of fitful, dribbling, kip and then another exhausting day ahead.

Fuck it.


Be nice to each other peeps.

For fuck sake ... Hurry up!

It's already too late.


"Hong Kong: what's next?"

Indeed ... what's next?

It's coming to you.

Soon enough.

Wake up!

Night!


Woof
 
Never, never, never give up the fight.

Human rights are a human right.

At least for tonight, alright?

And, 'til tomorrow, g'night!


Woof
 
Kwai Chung Estate residents, I salute you.

As the chief executive and the two officials inspected the area, residents were heard shouting from their flats, saying “go back, this estate is very dangerous,” “when will you die,” and “you go into a five-day lockdown.”

 
Ummmm, but you see, the problem is, Andrew, that when you assert that ...


"Judicial independence in Hong Kong exists as a fact."


Everybody knows that it's simply just no longer true. Everybody, Andrew, including you.

In reality, it's just an increasingly empty and meaningless slogan.

And some people may be forgiven for interjecting with something along the lines of: "Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?"

Let's be generous though and assume that you're genuinely still labouring under the illusion that it is - in any way - otherwise.

In which case, may I refer you to your superiors? You may want to sit down and have a little chat with them.

It's been made perfectly clear, multiple times ...


"There is not, and never has been, any separation of powers in the HKSAR."


Have a chat, Andrew, eh?




Woof
 
There would appear to be some sort of self-styled "protest-artists" currently in Prague.

They seem to think they have a sense of humour.

Their installation stands in front of the Chinese Embassy.

I wonder if Wee Willy Winnie will appreciate their frivolity.

Personally, I just can't condone this kind of ... how to say ... overt display?

Some may argue that it's not worth worrying over such a small thing.

But I would assert: "No! Down with this sort of thing! No matter how apparently tiny and insignificant! No!"

Hmmmmph!


1643040648978.png

1643040725250.png

1643040776976.png


(Edit: 'Cause it's "Wee", not "Little". Apol's.)



Woof
 
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Kwai Chung Estate residents, I salute you.





Heh!


Let me assure you, Yoss, that (as you may imagine,) this is a highly sanitised and subdued headline, merely reflecting the very mildest of the language that was shouted at the CE and her team.

I've seen a few videos. The language was quite brutal.

As we all know, Cantonese can be such a wonderfully robust, descriptive and flowery language.

;)


Woof
 
Foreign forces here,
Foreign forces there,
Foreign, foreign forces,
Foreign forces everywhere.



"Speaking at a Legislative Council meeting, he said certain countries have been attempting to engage in activities to endanger national security in the territory, with the social unrest in 2019 being a "vivid example.""


They never actually name any of these shadowy foreign forces, despite saying they will since 2014.

Just more laws. More! Moar! MOAR!




Woof
 
Whereas the online vaccine booking system may well be difficult to navigate ...

... In order to find and book the specific, preferred, very-local, clinic, time, and vaccine of your choice.


Credit where it's due ...


... It's very impressive that, at least, you can access this relative-cyber-confusion in the twelve, distinct - predominant - spoken/written languages used in Hong Kong.


繁體 简体 English हिन्दी नेपाल ارد ไทย Bahasa Indonesia Tagalog සිංහභාෂාව বাংলাভাষা Tiếng Việt


Cantonese (Traditional Characters)
Mandarin (Simplified Characters)
English
Hindi
Nepali
Urdu
Thai
Indonesian
Filipino
Sinhalese
Bengali
Vietnamese



And, frankly, it's even more impressive when you consider that the first two languages on the above list are read and understood by 90% of the population, of which 80% prefer Cantonese and 20% Mandarin.

English covers a further 5% of either native users or, fluent, preferred-second-language users.

Bahasa Indonesia and Filipino combined is a further 4%. (Though half of Filipinos would prefer written English.)


The remaining one percent (1%) of residents are covered by the other seven written languages available.


That's fucking impressive!



What a tragedy that a society, which over many decades and in many ways had, gradually and painfully, been inching towards being among the pinnacles of Asia in promoting progressive and inclusive policies ...

... has been so swiftly and brutally undercut by such a venal, vicious, corrupt regime.


Our civil servants have been fucking superstars - across all sectors - I salute them all!


That's all being swept away now.


Small things matter peeps.

Small things fucking matter!

We can lose them so quickly.

Use your time wisely peeps.



(Edit: To add ... Remember, be nice to each other peeps. And keep thinking! 🐬 )




Hamsters resist!

🐹

Woof
 
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I've always enjoyed the five-seven-five style ...




Wisdom, a rare thing,

Illusive, unrecognised

And always lonely.



;)


Rest peeps.


Woof
 
Worldometer tells me...
  • The current population of China is 1,448,039,045 as of Thursday, January 27, 2022, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
  • China population is equivalent to 18.47% of the total world population.
For 18pc of the world to be having compulsory 'thought discussion classes' on one person's thoughts is scary..
There is an idea that social and policy change can be manifested by engaging around 3pc of a country.
18pc is very high but they are up against other strong blocks, USA, Russia, Europe..

What's happening to the world?
Is peace and goodwill even possible?
Are we in little bubbles that ignore the suffering of others till our own bubble butsts?

,,, Edit to add.. it's rhetorical question aimed at myself.. not looking to derail Hong Kong thread or for long political debate.. it's just an opinion.. thought..
 
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Steady now Urbanites.


Prepare to brace yourselves!


Marauding hoards of Arab-East German Nihilists are heading this way ...



1643373959099.png


(Well, one is anyway, and that's plenty, surely?)


We're doomed.

We're all doomed, I tell ye!

Doooomed!

Enjoy yer Friday nicht peeps.

;)

Woof
 
I'll Haiku with you,
If you will Haiku with me,
Together, Haiku.

Under the spring rain,
Waiting for summer to come,
Haiku, together.

In the Autumn fog,
Thinking of winter ahead,
Together, Haiku.

Filled with deep passion,
Increasingly filled with dread,
Haiku, together.

When enough's been said,
And yet nothing has been said,
Together, Haiku.

When we care not life,
And yet also care not death,
Haiku, together.

When all is long lost,
And there's really nothing left,
Still, there is Haiku.

Dreams are never real,
Reality is a dream,
The mists of Haiku.

Wander in this world,
Drink from the cup of knowledge,
There will be Haiku.

Alive enough now,
And yet, all too soon, just dead,
In Haiku, with you.

End days are at hand,
Rare is any awareness,
Please Haiku with me.

The sands of time pass,
Nature emerges again,
We can all Haiku.

I'm willing to try,
It's a lonely, lonely path,
Will you too Haiku?


;)

Woof
 
Heh!


I forgot my shirt,

At the waters edge.

The moon is low tonight,

The recklessness of water.

They cannot see me naked.

Night swimming.

September's* coming soon,

What if there were two?

You? I thought I knew you.

You I cannot judge.

Every streetlight a reminder.

Night swimming ...



... I'm not sure all these people understand.







(Edited: To add a needed apostrophe*.)


:p


Woof
 
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