OPINION - Politics
A City of Protests
By Mui So Yee
subsequently a job with high salary. Anyone living in Hong Kong can easily discern the extent to which Hongkongers care about money. However, the protests have brought tremendous changes to the city. For one, law and order within society has been severely affected. While mass protests in June were very peaceful, within six months, police have arrested more than 4,000 people, and no more approval has been granted by the police for peaceful demonstrations. At the same time, police brutality has been a core grievance for protesters after the proposed bill was withdrawn. Police have been firing thousands of rounds of tear gas in many residential areas and recently in central business areas as well. As Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, according to an article published by Bloomberg on November 9, up to 88% of the population has been exposed to tear gas and have started to feel the effects of long-term tear gas exposure after police had fired as many as six thousand canisters at protesters. Protesters have also recently started firing petrol bombs, arrows and even catapults against police.
Since June this year, Hong Kong has been on the headlines of international news due to the ongoing protests, triggered initially by a proposed extradition bill. Like many other Hongkongers, I found it very difficult to digest what has been happening and comprehend the drastic changes over these few months.
As such, Hong Kong’s economy has been critically hit. The city has been crippled for a few days in November. People could not work, schools were closed, roads were paralysed. Hong Kong was like a warzone. Businesses have been badly affected and there has been a significant drop in the number of tourists. It appears that protesters would rather sacrifice their future or even their lives for fighting for freedom and democracy, showing more concerns about their rights and justice over making money.
Prior to the protests, the political awareness of most Hongkongers was relatively low. As a city “The protests have brought renowned for its competitiveness, its fast pace of living and its sky-high property prices, the main tremendous changes to the city� focus of many Hongkongers was on their jobs. For adults, working hours are notoriously long. For This goes hand in hand with the significant increase children, they are often subjected to the pressure of in political awareness among Hongkongers. One attaining a high level of achievement in academics million people participated in the mass protest on and extracurricular activities, with the ultimate June 9 while two million showed up on June 16 goal of getting into a reputable university and regarding the proposed Extradition Bill. The scale of 8
