Pictures from Sunday's Vigil

What I Saw at the Demonstration part 2 of 2

Slow, morrnful traditional Chinese music played over the intercom. I was in the park, but stayed to the periphery where I continued to take pictures. Finally, just after 3:00, someone took to the podium.

This vigil that was intended to give voice to Hong Kong's outrage at the Philippines, began while the demonstrators were surrounded by hundreds of Indonesian and Filippino domestic helpers who were enjoying their Sunday afternoon picnics on the sidewalks surrounding the park. Many of the domestic helpers had tied yellow ribbons to their wrists.

Most of the speeches were in Chinese, so I didn't know what they were saying. No translation was needed for the three-minute moment of silence.

After a few more rather subdued speeches, the rally-goers slowly moved to the street, where the obliging police had roped off two lanes. I walked with the crowd, but chose to walk on the sidewalk rather than in the steet among the demonstrators.

As we walked, I asked a man why he was here today. At first he started to explain to me that last week in the Philippines, a bus full of Hong Kong tourists . . . . I interupted him to let him know that I knew about the hostage-situation-gone-wrong, but I wanted to know why he choose to come to this public rally today. He told me he was angry at the Filippino government. Over the course of our ninety minute march, I asked several more people the same question. They gave me the same answer.

Finally, hot and exhausted we reached our destination: a park in Central. I was anticipating rally part two with more speeches, but I was wrong. Instead there was a spot where people had been leaving flowers. A table had been set up with oversized cards for well wishers to leave their condolences. Marchers -either spontaneously or by design- took off their yellow ribbons and started tying them to the railing in front of two large banners.

The rally and the march filled the need for a significant number of Hong Konger to give public airing to their grief and outrage.

Dehydrated and exhausted, I crossed the busy street and ducked into the MTR station. I began my 45-minute train ride home.

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.

Lanie

Last week all my colleagues and I received an email from our co-worker Jeff. A woman that he met once at an international conference was going to be in Hong Kong for two weeks while she applied for a China visa. Jeff and his wife were unable to host her and was wondering if any of us would be willing to give her a place to stay.

She was scheduled to arrive in four days.

I didn't repsond right away. I figured I'd wait until someone else had stepped up and then I would respond. That way I could get credit for being a generous guy, but we wouldn't have to actually host her.

By the time I finally replied 48 hous later, five of my colleague had already offered Laney a place to stay. She had a whole schedule worked out where she would be staying at each of their places for three days and three nights. I emailed her and said that if any of those offers fell through, she could use us as a back-up.

Man, I'm pretty good guy.

Lanie emailed me less than 24 hour later saying that the Loo's had to retract their offer because the air con in their spare room had just died. Shoot, we were on. Now I had to go tell my wife what I had done.

Man, I'm such an idiot.

It all worked out, though.

Laney was a delight. She's in her mid-twenties, born and raised in the Philippines, trained as a teacher, and had just taken a job at a school in China. She arrived in China on a tourist visa two weeks ago, but had to leave China now to apply for her work visa; thus, her two weeks stay in Hong Kong.