TJ, yes, yes, Hong Kong is free as a bird.
The fact that I am a state serf suffering less freedom than you do, in some ways though I dare say I can frolic in a forest with a gun more freely than you can in Hong Kong, is irrelevant. Unfortunately, I have no desire to frolic in forests firing guns, so that freedom is not a big deal for me. Being able to cut down my own trees would be a freedom I'd prefer. "Altering vegetation" is a crime in NZ, punishable with greater penalties than attacking people. They are quite insane there!
The point is whether Hong Kong is free. My point is that Hong Kong is only free until China decides to change things.
<... Don't be silly, why would we want to do that? > A bit like why would you climb Mount Everest? Just because it's there and non-hostage people like to check that they are actually free. Hong Kong is like Truman in The Truman Show. Sure, you can do all sorts of things. But within tightly circumscribed boundaries.
You seem like a Stockholm Syndrome victim. You LOVE your Big Brother. Why on Earth would you want to do other than be under the thumb of Beijing which lets you do absolutely anything you like, provided it's within their rules? Just human curiosity perhaps. Not that there is much of that in China, which is why all the good stuff is invented in the USA where there is less stricture. China steals intellectual property, the USA produces it. Watch their efforts, for example, on TD-SCDMA.
Let's hope your freedom remains and increases.
New Zealanders can actually vote for more freedom, unlike you. But I am NOT holding my breath and perhaps I should beg for asylum in Hong Kong before it's too late - suppression in NZ continues to grow as bureaucratic rules proliferate and Big Mother's suffocatocracy increases.
Mqurice |
