Quietly
sitting, in Hong Kong by water, twelve stories up. Five years ago I lived not far from here. So I know there are birds with
extraordinary calls, out there in the trees that run up the hills around all
these luxury apartment blocks.
Maybe the air-conditioning was too loud, but I could only barely hear
one bird call out there this morning. A lovely sound but too faint and too far to really
enjoy. But there, below me is an
enormous kite, resembling an eagle with its’ screeching call so common here on
the Island.
When we lived here there was a boy in my younger daughter’s
class who, as I recall, from her vantage, was a bit of a drag. His name was pronounced “Gee Hoe.” There was a bird out our window with a prominent
call that sounded just like it was saying the kids’ name, over and over with a
long emphasis on the Hoe. But the gee-hoe
bird was not around this morning.
I used to have anxiety dreams where I’d fret about some college
class that I’d signed up for but hadn’t attended and with the final exam
pending, I was hopelessly ill prepared.
Last night I had an odd variation on this drama where I realized that
there was a client that I could have been billing, should have been billing,
but wasn’t. They were expecting
something from me, and as with the class I’d somehow missed the whole semester
for, it was suddenly clear in the dream that I’d overlooked something
important. I was perplexed of course but also so excited to have this bucket of
extra revenue I could go out and try to claim. Some dreams you’re grateful to awake from, some leave you
melancholy about what turns out not to be true.
A friend in Portland who is a collector of Brazilian music
has told me in an email this morning that I need to listen to a list of
wonder. I’d asked him if he’d
known Cirolo, whom I’ve written about on this page before. He mentioned a concert he’d seen of his
in Brazil that was wonderful and provided for me the following link. Here's the Youtube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXrRJ-DZmq4
I am listening now to some lovely samba jazz from an album by Os Ipanemas and the song is entitled “Berimbau” and looks to be from the year 1964. Gorgeous. Who needs the ‘gee hoe’ bird? Thank you Oregon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI94V1BiAeM
I am listening now to some lovely samba jazz from an album by Os Ipanemas and the song is entitled “Berimbau” and looks to be from the year 1964. Gorgeous. Who needs the ‘gee hoe’ bird? Thank you Oregon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI94V1BiAeM
And now, the obligatory entry from within the Hong Kong
cab. Sailing out and over to the
harbor. Up and up we go over and
around on to Bisney Road, past elite housing estates and higher towards the
massive graveyard that occupies the vast space between here and the adjacent
mountain. At the summit we merge into Pok Fu Lam Road. All this rich green even amidst so much
concrete verticality is forever softening in Hong Kong. On the left is the Hong Kong Electric
complex and dozens of people standing on the road for their busses and mini
busses to take them to work. A
lovely lady spins my head to the left and then back and back and back for a
moment further, till she is overtaken by a flashing ambulance that is less
appealing to consider. Now the
steep rush down Hill Road, and then flush down under the overpass that you’d
otherwise take to Central. Because, this morning, my destination is Sheung Wan
A haze out over the beautiful harbor this morning. But the temperature is fine. I’m not sweating yet, in my long
sleeved shirt. No jacket necessary,
that’s for sure. But if I’m careful I should be able to get around with out my
pits becoming liquid. Stopped
finally at a traffic light after a wonderful uninterrupted ride over all the
way from Pok Fu Lam. Hong Kong
traffic, as always, strikingly efficient.
Or perhaps it is always just that much more obvious and immediate in comparison
to the rest of China. The red
girders of the Shun Tak building are now up ahead.
I hear that the PLA building that juts out into the harbor, which
used to house the British military, has a new flashing light on top of it to
promote the PLA. Subtly is out, 如火如荼[1] is the sign of the times. That makes me
want to snicker. However it
appears to be timed with the release of Beijing’s new white paper asserting
definitive control over Hong Kong and if it is all part of some kind of choreography
to dissuade dissent, than it is most assuredly not funny at all.
My hotel’s provided me with a free copy of the South China
Morning Post. The front-page
article suggests that Hong Kong barristers are livid. Today, they are loudly protesting the notion that local
judges are somehow in the same category as Hong Kong officials. Who has the final word: the Law, or the
Party? The barristers have been
asked to clarify whether they love their country or the ideal of justice more. Lovely. If the barristers quit and an Occupy movement commences with
their backing, Xi Jinping will be forced to decide whether he backs down or
comes down hard, to drive his will.
Xi has shown he is willing to push the envelope in many directions,
taking on a Standing Committee “tiger” like Zhou Yongkang internally and
asserting territorial claims forcefully with at least three neighbors, two of
whom have defense treaties with the U.S..
But this one is different.
Hong Kong people arrested en masse or worse may well be an irreparable
tipping point in relations with Taiwan.
And what’s more worrisome, Xi and the CCP leadership are all well aware
of this. It is the one thing no
CCP leader can ever have transpire on their watch. If that is so, they must reckon that this is as good a time
as they are ever going to get to force matters roughly with Taiwan. That then would be the end of the East
Asian World we’ve known for the last twenty years.
[1] rúhuǒrútú: lit. white cogon flower like fire
(idiom); fig. a mighty army like wildfire / daunting and vigorous (momentum) /
flourishing / magnificent
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