MUSIC – Clockenflap Festival 2014 Highlights
Clockenflap Festival 2014 continues today. Highlights from day one and two below…
Occupy umbrellas on stage at Chthonic on Friday & Ozamati on Saturday…
Monthly Archives: November 2014
NEWS: Occupy “Shoppers” Give Police The Run Around in Mong Kok
Police used batons and pepper spray to clear pro-democracy protesters from a junction in Mong Kok in the early hours of Saturday.
Hundreds of protesters, claiming to be “shopping”, have been gathering east of Nathan Road each evening since Kowloon’s occupy camp was cleared by police on Wednesday.
VIDEO – Hong Kong’s Ethnic Minority Community Speaks Up at Occupy
Film-maker Shannon Walsh follows three young women from strikingly different backgrounds during the Occupy protests:
NEWS – Occupiers Convene for Hours ‘to Watch Public Billboard Ads’
A day after the Mong Kok occupy protest camp was cleared by police and bailiffs, hundreds of pro-democracy activists descended upon Mong Kok’s main shopping thoroughfare to collectively watch movie trailers and adverts on a cinema billboard.
On Sai Yeung Choi Street South, parallel to where Kowloon’s occupy encampment once sat, police created cordons preventing crowds from stepping in to the road. Those present all claimed to be “shoppers” heeding CY Leung’s call for people return to the shops.
NEWS – Mong Kok “Shopping Revolution” as Occupiers Heed CY’s Call to Hit the Stores
On Wednesday night, thousands of pro-democracy occupy activists descended upon Mong Kok to “go shopping”.
Protesters say they were heeding CY Leung’s call to return to the shops after Kowloon’s occupy encampment was cleared earlier that day.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Front lines – Mong Kok Clear Out, by Martin Witness
Photography from the Mong Kok clear out front lines, courtesy of Martin Witness.
NEWS – Gov’t Shuts Down Suspect Maid Agency After Complaints
The Labour Department confirmed last week that the ‘Foreign Domestic Workers Association of America’ maid agency has had its licence revoked.
Click to view gov’t press release
The move comes following a complaint by a local domestic worker NGO and an investigation by Hong Wrong.
The agency was run by an American ex-fugitive named Earl Bagley who promised local domestic workers lavish new lives in Las Vegas if they join his ‘membership club’ and wait up to four years. The Labour Department said Bagley was “not a fit and proper person for operating an Employment Agency”
NEWS – Student Leaders Joshua Wong & Lester Shum Arrested in Mong Kok
Student leaders Joshua Wong and Lester Shum along with Szeto Tsz-long and Wong Ho-ming were arrested this morning during the Mong Kok occupy camp clearance.
Lester Shum this morning, via InMedia
Clearance work was being carried out by a group of civilians in red hats, some of whom were identified as known anti-Occupy demonstrators. However, police from the Tactical Unit took over shortly afterwards, pushing protesters southwards on Nathan Road.
早前學民召集人黃之鋒被拘捕的情況（10:51） pic.twitter.com/wpzO5AisZE
— 陈志斌 (@czb5438) November 26, 2014
Batons were used and police have threatened to use CS spray.
Images below from Apple Media:
NEWS – Arrests, Pepper Spray & Scuffles As Occupy Mong Kok Clearout Begins Amid Media Frenzy
A Huffington Post cross-feature
At least 80 people were arrested as an area of the Mong Kok occupy protest camp was cleared today, police have said.
Bailiffs were on site to enforce a court order to clear obstructions from a relatively small part of the encampment on Argyle Street. Most of the clearance was performed by an agency with bailiffs and police on hand to assist.
HISTORY – A Brief Visual History of The Peak Tram
It has been 126 years since the Peak Tram opened in Hong Kong though, technically, it is not even a tram but a ‘cable-hauled funicular railway’. Below is a brief, visual history of one of the city’s most iconic treasures…
Click to enlarge, via richardwonghk6 on Flickr
The son of Queen Victoria, Alfred, became, the first royal visitor to make a ritual trip to The Peak in 1869. It was noted how His Highness expressed “surprise that the wealthy merchant princes of the colony had not yet availed themselves of the opportunity of the presence in the vicinity of their city of a position offering so bracing a climate, in the hottest time of the year.” Quite.
The ‘Rush to The Peak’ had commenced with Hong Kong’s population rising to 173,475 by 1883. Several dozen of the city’s elite families were now living on The Peak and it was also home to The Peak Hotel. The area remained accessible only by horse or sedan chair. (One local eccentric, E R Belilios, preferred to travel the winding paths by camel, though none of these options were comfortable, especially in HK’s heat).
Thus, Peak Hotel owner and Scotsman Alexander Findlay Smith, planned to open up the area with a new tram system to connect Victoria Gap to Murray Barracks…