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@matigo I don't think Hong Kong's power grid is significantly tied to China's…haven't checked on that though.

It's actually that mentality that's why I have no intention to invest in property in Hong Kong (read: buy any at all): come 2047, all bets are off and I suspect there'll be a huge re-distribution of wealth to other cities.

For now, if China directly intervened and tried anything of the sort, one hopes the US and UK would intervene.

The "one country two systems" is quite amusing: a group of protestors set fire to a portrait of Xi outside one of the People's Liberation Army bases about an hour ago, yet the PLA comprises only troops from the mainland, so without special authorisation they couldn't come out and do anything about it.

matigo.ca.

Yesterday, workers dug up bricks from the roads and removed quite a few of the metal barriers that separate pedestrian areas from roads — under police supervision — leaving large patches of compacted earth as walkways.

At first glance, a simple act to deprive protestors of projectiles and barricade materials for the National Day marches, but it's not hard to see the connection to Mao's Down to the Countryside Movement [en.wikipedia.org]:

As a result of what he perceived to be pro-bourgeois thinking prevalent during the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong declared certain privileged urban youth would be sent to mountainous areas or farming villages to learn from the workers and farmers there. In total, approximately 17 million youth were sent to rural areas as a result of the movement.

Only, instead of sending Hong Kong citizens to rural China, they decided to make Hong Kong look a little more rustic.

@matigo I would have to relocate all my belongings to Canada first, yes. But then I would probably try to find a job somewhere in the EU that I could do long enough to get an EU passport.

I grew up with 2 passports that I never allowed to expire and I would very much like to keep that going. Because my British National Overseas passport is currently useless…though perhaps one day the UK will grant right of abode to BNO passport holders (it has been discussed for a while, and the pressure on the UK to allow this has grown since the protests started).

matigo.ca.

The Hong Kong police's treatment of protestors is very probably in violation of the law and of international agreements. Their treatment of journalists is even more inexcusable.

Perhaps the day I renounce my citizenship will come sooner than I'd ever anticipated.

@matigo But think of the fun on Halloween when your son, in a few decades' time, can say "Hey guys, did you know my dad's brain was buried right where you're sitting? And you're standing on his spine!"

matigo.ca.

@matigo ah. But if you're burying, why cremate?

matigo.ca.

@matigo I would do that, except my requirements are so specific that the problem ends up being a dearth of choice.

Pure linen trousers that don't look like vinyl fused to cardboard (à la H&M), for example, are pretty hard to find.

matigo.ca.

@matigo What will happen to those? Do you intend to display them [c8.alamy.com]?

matigo.ca.

Funerals are such pointless affairs. And environmentally costly too — the Chinese kind, at least, where you not only burn incense but also a whole lot of paper objects (with the belief that, for example, burning paper money will give the dead person money to spend Over There).

Whereas the only person actually getting money is the guy running the funeral centre.

I've already told my parents that I'm doing precisely none of this when the time comes.

As for me, I wonder if science would have a use for my body. Or at least someone could make cutlery handles from my bones? Maybe a nice club.

The Codabow Luma is deafening to play in my bedroom compared to my old (no-name) bow.