Thursday 12 November 2009

O, great motherland of China, we all love you

Is that sufficient to keep the propaganda committee away from me?

You know, it's been almost 13 years since the handover, and most of Hong Kong has gone from fearing the mainland to trying to to everything they can to please them/it. Why? Well, Hong Kong is all about the money, and this 1.4 billion market just north of us is just too good to resist. Hong Kongers are doing everything to wrangle their way into the market. Some do nice things like build schools, others fund government official's kids' Ivy League educations, and some do nothing. But even the last group wouldn't go out of their way to criticise the Motherland. No, no, that would be fatal.

Mainland leaders aren't the smartest, but they've managed to produce soft propaganda to have HK by the nose. How? Making it easier for HK businessmen to go into China to set up businesses, letting the floodgates open for the nouveau super riche to come and treat Hong Kong like a giant shopping mall... It's all money, honey.

The philosophy behind this is that as long as HK is fairly prosperous, no one will complain about their rapidly diminishing rights. Who needs rights when you can live comfortably in your 5,000 sq ft apartment on the Peak? Well, that's if your electronics factory hasn't been closed down because you let someone else pay for your local official's new car. Censorship? What's that? Just shut up and eat your abalone.