What I Saw at the Demonstration part 1 of 2

I recieved an email that said the rally began at 2:00 on Sunday. I got there a little early, and other than the obligatory t.v. news crews, there was nobody there. I wandered around Victoria Sports Park where the rally was supposed to take place. I bidded my time by strolling among the endless groups of Filippino and Indonesian domestic helpers who were picnicking on the sidewalks surrounding the park.

The press release had predicted a crowd of up to 50,000 people. When 2:00 rolled around, there was a grand total of maybe sixty people milling about the five hard-top soccer pitches that the authorities had cordened off. I had guessed that the turnout was going to be less than the authorities had predicted, but I didn't think it was going to be this low. At 2:20, when no one had taken to the podium, I finally asked a passerby what time the rally began.

3:00.

So I waited.

And then a little after 2:30, the people started pouring in. Lots of them. They kept coming. En masse. Wave after wave after wave. Volunteers manned the multiple entrances to the park and handed out yellow ribbons for attendees to tie to their wrists. Many in the crowd wore black. They opened their unbrellas to protect them from the unforgiving mid-day sun. I'm not sure if the crowd ever reached 50,000 people, but they filled up three of those large soccer pitches.

In addition to the official banners that the poltical organizer had hanging on either side of the speakers's platform, a few of the demostrators carried homemade signs of their own. "We are Furious" and "Shame of Filippino Government."

As I looked around me, It dawned on me that even though Hong Kong is 5% non-Chinese, almost every one of the attendees -like the victims on the Filippino tourist bus- was a Chinese Hong Konger. I was only one of the few Western faces I saw in a crowd that number in the tens of thousands.