ONCE UPON a        TIME
                                                                                          ezine at l'atelier bonita
                                                     established since december 2002

SEVEN ONE HONG KONG   : WHY WE MARCHED : On the First of July, 2004, they took to the streets in 34.5C heat ... AA, 25, Kowloon, Hong Kong Hong Kong is now a service and knowledge dominated economy, there is insignificant agriculture, no natural resources and manufacturing can be done at a fraction of the price over the border in Mainland China. The only things going for it are the fact that the British based law makes it a good and safe place for foreign businesses to base themselves and the driven, educated, experienced population. Many people are saying that as soon as China improves the transparency and legislation for business and investment a large number of financial institutions will leave Hong Kong like a shot and set up their regional base in shanghai. We need to keep the educated, middle class and business people here as otherwise there will be nothing left here for anyone else. As it is you have university educated tri-lingual people many now with MBA's competing for jobs paying less than GBP 700 per month. T, 28, Hong Kong [Answering to someone who advices him to move..] How would you feel if someone told you to leave you home town/city/country? There is far more to life than a fat pay check and there are a lot of people in HK who really don't have the choice to simply up sticks and leave. The answer is to campaign for democracy and human rights throughout China. Defending existing rights in HK is an essential part of this. The SAR and central government should see that improving Hong Kong's economy alone is not enough to satisfy the public. Only when the government listens to public opinion, develops democracy and improves administration can it find a suitable remedy to the problems and prevent public anger from accumulating. - Hong Kong's Ming Pao / 2 July 2004 Hong Kong people should unite and value today's opportunities of economic upturn. The government should really work hard and deliver improved performance. If the two sides can turn anger into peace, that would be what society wants to see. But if the government still doesn't improve its administrative performance, no one can say if next year's march will turn angry again, or if the protests will become more intense. - Hong Kong's The Sun (Tai Yang Pao) / 2 July 2004 Z, 26, Hong Kong I support China, despise the CCP (although am still willing to give Hu and Wen the benefit of the doubt in the short term - things do move slowly in Beijing) and dream of a democratic, peaceful and prosperous nation - within my lifetime. It starts in Hong Kong and the time is now. The CCP has made some terrible mistakes here in HK over the last few years and none have been as misguided as the recent debacle of yet another Baisc Law "interpretation", so now our mini-constitution assures us that a cat is a dog and a bird is a lamb. The CCP's recent actions in HK have done more to damage China's interests both internally and internationally than democracy in HK EVER could. The interests of the CCP are NOT the same as the interests of China. A democratic Hong Kong would be good for China; and the sooner the better. One of the 250,000 marchers, engineer Wing So said: "I came because we are not satisfied with the government, especially their policies and behaviour." - BBC news / 1 July 2004 A small number of 'Democratic faction' politicians insist on shouting slogans like 'return power to the people', which smacks of 'Hong Kong independence' tendencies. This has exposed their true position of resisting the central government. Their actions aimed at sabotaging the 'one country, two systems' principle and harming Hong Kong's interests must be exposed and opposed. - Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po (Beijing-backed newspaper) / 2 July 2004 But Bella Luk, from Amnesty International, said: "It's not the numbers which count, it's the views of people in Hong Kong." - BBC news / 1 July 2004 Hong Kong citizens have always enjoyed the right and freedom to convene meetings, march and protest... However, it must also be pointed out that the slogans some organisers used in the march were inappropriate, and didn't comply with Hong Kong people's common desire for stability, development and harmony. - China's Xinhua News Agency / 2 Jluy 2004 It now looks likely that a massive anti-government rally calling for the election of the chief executive and all legislators by universal suffrage will become a regular fixture on July 1. While yesterday's turnout may have been lower than last year's, what is significant is that the pro-democracy camp has exploited the government's lack of electoral legitimacy... A proliferation of street protests and massive turnouts are signs of a malfunctioning polity. - Hong Kong's South China Morning Post / 2 July 2004 This sign reads "No public elections, more money to lauder." HB, Hong Kong The majority of the people of Hong Kong either arrived not long after 49 with just the clothes the wore, or swam the Yellow River estuary to escape the Peoples Republic- as a child I saw bodies washed up on the beach, hands tied behind their backs, shot in the head after summary execution by Peoples Tribunals- or are descended from those who suffered this way. The people of Hong Kong do not trust the Government in Beijing. Why should they? Having promised one thing, they deliver another. This is still the same Government that drove tanks over sleeping protestors. Only by having control of their own destiny can they hope to avoid the fate of those in the rest of China, victims of an utterly corrupt, greedy and murderous regime. Its only by taking to the streets in vaste numbers that they have preserved the freedoms they have, the slightest relaxation and the slide back into the maw of the all pervasive Party leaving them no better off than all those poor bastards with no Iron Rice Bowl anymore and just grinding poverty, whose very survival is at the whim of some totally unaccountable local Party Official. I grew up with and still count as friends people who ran away at great personal risk from exactly this kind of deranged authoritarian crap. Some says, Mao was simply a sort of modern age Emperor, it will never change, blah, blah... You forget, Confusius actually allows that people can rebel when the Emperor is bad and is failing his people. China down the centuries has had numerous risings by the people when they have been badly treated, a tradition that Mao exploited to get them to throw out the Nationalist Govt. Hong Kong is more racially diverse than any other City/Region in China, it has a tradition of a free press, throwing eggs at the Governer during the Brit times was almost a national sport- they will not lie down easily to Beijings writ. They are independant minded people, who in the main would provide a beacon of hope to the rest of China if Beijing lived up to its promises. I think that the Party should trust the people of HK and keep their promise. They would see that they can give control to the peole without anarchy breaking out. Once they have seen this, perhaps the rest of China would have a chance. The best hope for China, all of China, is for HK to given what it was promised There's even a sign for "Chan Aw Aw" or "Gucci," the recently captured Yuen Long crocodile which has come to symbolize freedon for the people of Hong Kong. When over 500,000 people are willing to bear the searing heat to take to the streets to ask for universal suffrage and comprehensive democracy, how can we feel isolated and how can we not feel full of confidence? More important, more than 500,000 people have marched on the streets to tell the central government and the SAR government a simple fact: Hong Kong people really want democracy, democracy, democracy! - Hong Kong's Apple Daily / 2 July 2004 M, 28, British currently lving in Yuen Long, Hong Kong WOW! What a day. 11:45pm. Just home. Wow! I love these people - my people - my home. I am so proud. No violence, no arrests, no injuries (540 people fainted in the 36C degree heat tho' ) We ARE the people. We WILL prevail. :) ©2004 L'Atelier Bonita _______________ This gallery of images is created by the Editor, her friends and the brave people who marched in Hong Kong on 1 July 2004. Photos credits: AFP, AP, BBC, CNN, MingPao.

                                                   ONCE UPON      a TIME
                                                                                          ezine at l'atelier bonita
                                                     established since december 2002