Saturday, October 04, 2014

Occupy Mongkok - Oct 4

This morning I went out running on Nathan Road.  It is not everyday that you get to run free on Nathan Road, so I try to do that as much as possible these days.  I went to have a look at Occupy Mongkok, for the 4th time.  


Some young men were fixing the flimsy barricades.  Perhaps about 100 people were sitting around at the junction of Argyle Street and Nathan Road, presumably these are the Occupiers.  They were all calm and quiet.  They are surrounded by several hundred onlookers and snit-Occupiers.


First thing that caught my attention was 2 men arguing with the Occupiers.  They seem to be saying that revolutions always end badly, in chaos.  They seem reasonably calm and their arguments were not without merit.  However, many people surrounding them started cursing the Occupiers, using very foul language.  


A man pushing a wheelchair with a person in it was particularly abusive.  He seem intended to provoke an argument or worse.  When the Occupiers refuse to engage him, he drifted away.  Strangely, in the direction opposite to where he claimed he was going. 


A lady continued to blame the Occupiers, loudly and agitatedly, for obstruction.  She did not use foul language. But many people around her were abusive and foul-mouthed.  Many times the anti-Occupiers trued to incite the crowd into some kind of action.  But it did not work.



All the time, the Occupiers were calm and collected, encouraging each other to not respond to provocation, to not engage in arguments, and to stay their ground.  


Those were what I personally witnessed.  I saw no police there. 







2 comments:

YTSL said...

Hi Stephen --

Thanks for your report.

For my part, was out in Causeway Bay this afternoon. During this time, was asked twice if I wanted water, once if I wanted food, got words of encouragement and signs of approval from others. Happily didn't get abused.

My sense is that there are many people who want this movement to go on.

Is the Occupy Tsim Sha Tsui area gone though?

StephenC said...

I heard that TST has been cleared. Yes, many want it to go on. But I feel it is getting more and more dangerous. Not from the Occupiers. But from the anti- elements. I am urging my students to retreat, for safety.