Well the trip to Hong Kong was uneventful. I have never seen so many police and the only protesters I saw were in the post office mailing home boxes of Christmas presents they had bought in Hong Kong... I couldn't help laughing outloud at the irony and their hypocrisy.
Apparently the day before for the march there had been 3000 people marching and 6000 police on duty along the route. Hong Kong is NOT the place to protest the WTO. In fact were it not for international trade the city would not exist. I think this fact was lost on the people attempting to drum up support among locals for their protest. Let alone the fact it is a very law and order place owing to one hundred years of British influence.
In the end I took some pictures of the police "launches" which are more like a vessel somewhere between a WWII PT boat and a Destroyer. I'll post those up in the pictures forum forthwith.
I understand now, thanks to some handy leaflets I found, what these people are on about. A couple questions come to mind as to how poor are these people protesting when they can afford round trip airfare and a week's accomodations in Hong Kong??
And in the end even were I opposed to the WTO it is an unstoppable action and if the protesters had any brains they would be protesting in their country of origin as the ministers attending the conference are civil servants and not policy makers. In the end its a waste of time for those wanting to really affect change and influence policy and an excuse for violence among those who merely seek to engage in senseless violence hoping to hide behind the speciousness of calling it "political protesting".
Just my humble opinion on the matter.
UPDATE:
Seems I just got lucky when I was there, its turned ugly now...
Quote:
Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas on Saturday to repel hundreds of protesters trying to force their way into a building where world trade ministers were meeting.
"The protesters got very close to the building, they were standing just across the street," a Reuters reporter said.
Tear gas fired by riot police exploded near protesters outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, venue for the the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong December 17, 2005. (REUTERS/Stringer)
"They made several advances on police but pulled back a block or so after tear gas was used."
Cable Television reported at least 30 people had been injured in pitched battles in the area, while the government said five had been injured, including one policeman.
Most of the demonstrators were South Korean farmers who say free trade is ruining them.
It was the worst street violence in Hong Kong since angry protests following the Chinese army's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.
But the fighting was less intense than that which marred the last two big World Trade Organisation conferences, in Cancun and Seattle. A South Korean farmer stabbed himself to death in the Mexican town of Cancun during a WTO meeting in 2003.
At one point on Saturday, protesters seized metal crowd control barricades and used them as battering rams against the police, but police lines held and reinforcements pushed the protesters back.
Police fired numerous volleys of tear gas near the WTO building, Reuters correspondents said, and television showed officers bringing up what appeared to be armoured vehicles.
"Police will take decisive action to stop violent scenes," Security Secretary Ambrose Lee told a hastily called news conference.
Inside the convention centre, trade ministers continued the quest for an elusive world trade deal, which critics say will hurt the world's poor. Journalists and delegates crowded around TV monitors watching live feeds of the brawls outside.
European and Japanese delegates were taken to the harbourfront centre by boat for late night meetings as fighting raged.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Chinese state media were silent on the protests.
"DOWN, DOWN WTO"
Protesters began storming heavily fortified police lines in late afternoon, breaking through rows of police who used pepper spray, batons and fire hoses to try to beat them back.
Some demonstrators put plastic wrap around their eyes while others donned goggles and surgical masks to protect themselves from the irritating spray.
Police with what appeared to be shotguns were seen patrolling one street.
Police blocked off large parts of the crowded Wanchai entertainment and office district and closed a nearby subway station to prevent protesters from moving around the area or to other parts of the city.
At 9:30 pm (1330 GMT), about 500 protesters were staging a sit-in on a street near the convention centre, demanding permission to deliver their anti-globalisation message to trade ministers.
"We love Hong Kong," some chanted as wary police encircled the group. "Down, down WTO."
Thousands of protesters from numerous anti-globalisation groups had taken peacefully to the streets in the afternoon.
As the first marchers reached police lines, they handed the officers pink and yellow roses and released yellow balloons printed with the words "No, no WTO". As their numbers swelled, they pushed against police lines and probed their defences.
An estimated 10,000 anti-globalisation protesters converged on Hong Kong for the trade meeting, including about 2,000 South Korean farmers, workers and unionists, who have a reputation as the most militant anti-globalisation group in Asia.
"This is really the international fight of the farmers. People are very angry about what is happening inside the WTO ... farmers are fighting for their lives," said radical French farmer and anti-globalisation campaigner Jose Bove, who was on the fringes of the fray.
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http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...c=Worldupdates
And I'm going back in the morning... not by choice but so be it.
December 13th, 2005
