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Democracy is a good thing, or as Churchill put it, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". Still, if it is a good thing, maybe you can have too much of a good thing, and so the ruling elite in Hong Kong have tried to ration out the democracy so nobody gets too much of it at once.
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Democracy in Hong Kong redux
Historically speaking, there's not much justification for a British person to be complaining about the lack of democracy in Hong Kong. After all, it didn't seem to perturb anyone that much until we were getting to the end of our 150-year lease, when all of a sudden various people began to make noises about how important democracy is, and how the people of Hong Kong should get access to it.
Democracy is a good thing, or as Churchill put it, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". Still, if it is a good thing, maybe you can have too much of a good thing, and so the ruling elite in Hong Kong have tried to ration out the democracy so nobody gets too much of it at once.
Democracy is a good thing, or as Churchill put it, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". Still, if it is a good thing, maybe you can have too much of a good thing, and so the ruling elite in Hong Kong have tried to ration out the democracy so nobody gets too much of it at once.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Oversleeping
I was still feeling pretty sickly today, so I slept until 1 o'clock and then lay in bed reading Harper's. This seemed like as good a way as any for me to prepare for comedy this evening, and in any case, it's always interesting to read about the zany adventures of Arizonian officials working on creating budget deficits and victimising Hispanics and believing the world was created six thousand years ago. Any one of these faults would be bad on its own, but together they're almost endearing. Cute little Arizonian senators! They're almost human!
Later, we went to Tin Hau to pick up the keys for the new flat. I'd tried to get them yesterday, but in a fabulous feat of jobsworthism,the guard had first denied any keys existed and sent me off to get them from the estate agent, and then when I returned with the agent in tow, magically remembered that I didn't have the right paperwork for the keys he'd had all the time, and by this point I'd lost half my body weight through perspiration and retreated in disarray.
Today, though, armed with contract we picked up all five pairs of keys for our one bedroom apartment, deposited our breadbin and turned on the fridge. Which was enough for one day so we went back to the old flat to sleep it off.
On the way home we had to fight our way through the forces of democratic progress.
Or rather, because the general population doesn't seem too keen on the government's plans for democracy (basically, they don't believe in it and hope it will go away), the government has had to resort to bussing in coachloads of pensioners, paying them $200 and a shrimp dinner to show support for the government's electoral reforms.
Mainly by standing around in Tin Hau near Victoria Park and getting in the way of everyone.
There's more to be said on this, but I'll leave that until tomorrow: time now for some sleep, snatched after a fairly exhausting show at the club. Oh, sleep, when I've had only 13 hours so far today...
Later, we went to Tin Hau to pick up the keys for the new flat. I'd tried to get them yesterday, but in a fabulous feat of jobsworthism,the guard had first denied any keys existed and sent me off to get them from the estate agent, and then when I returned with the agent in tow, magically remembered that I didn't have the right paperwork for the keys he'd had all the time, and by this point I'd lost half my body weight through perspiration and retreated in disarray.
Today, though, armed with contract we picked up all five pairs of keys for our one bedroom apartment, deposited our breadbin and turned on the fridge. Which was enough for one day so we went back to the old flat to sleep it off.
On the way home we had to fight our way through the forces of democratic progress.
Or rather, because the general population doesn't seem too keen on the government's plans for democracy (basically, they don't believe in it and hope it will go away), the government has had to resort to bussing in coachloads of pensioners, paying them $200 and a shrimp dinner to show support for the government's electoral reforms.
Mainly by standing around in Tin Hau near Victoria Park and getting in the way of everyone.
There's more to be said on this, but I'll leave that until tomorrow: time now for some sleep, snatched after a fairly exhausting show at the club. Oh, sleep, when I've had only 13 hours so far today...
