Several views of the anti-WTO riots in Hong Kong: from a National Democratic protester; from a Hong Kong resident (The Hong Kong consensus: enough!arrest them! all! and stop issuing stupid press releases -one commenter, in response to a commenter criticizing the post, asks, “perhaps you belong to a Communist-sponsored NGO from the Philippines” ); from another Hong Kong resident on the “Siege of Wan Chai”; a blogger got tear gassed (the entry suggests something interesting -that nations formerly against the WTO have hopped on the bandwagon); from an economist (apparently not an economist,m so perhaps, an activist??) who didn’t go, and from an economist who did (very interesting background tidbits). A good roundup of events is here (and of course, Simon World has day-by-day coverage). Also interesting: China tries to prevent the mainland from hearing about what happened.
Metro Manila should host a WTO event, no one would lift an eyebrow and it would save the usual suspects precious foreign exchange. (Photo from The Standard).
Compared to Seattle and Cancun, the Hong Kong WTO 6th Ministerial conference (MC6) was a lame affair (both outside and inside the convention center).
I thought the HKSAR government deserves a commendation on the way everything was handled. If it were in Manila? I cringe when I try to imagine what could happen!
Look at some of the things they did as preparation:
1. A specific place for rallies.
2. Bus routes surrounding the conference are were decreased considerably that there were almost no traffic backups.
3. The police force were very well trained
4. A fleet of brand new BMWs were purchased to transport the delegates.
5. Courts with government assigned lawyers were ready around the clock to handle those who will need “lawyering” and court services. (Each lawyer were paid 5,000 HKD a day to do that!)
6. Hospitals were readied (for whatever may come).
7. During the height of the disturbance on Saturday, the police sent an SMS message to all of Hong Kong not to go the the convention area (Wanchai).
8. Etc.
Of course it cost a lot of money, and fortunately for Hong Kong it doesn’t have a problem in that regard!
I’m a resident and I take pride that part of my taxes goes to this kind of projects. In the Philippines, where do taxpayers’ money go? To somebody else’s pockets!
I agree, why can’t they hold a WTO meeting here in Manila, Ate GLUE is number fan, it was just like old times,
hi manolo. just want to say that, unfortunately, i’m not an economist.
but thanks heaps for noticing my ramblings.
blurry, what?? but why did i get the impression you’re an economist???