Protests hit the poorest and most vulnerable

A shopkeeper looks out from a partly shuttered store Tsim Sha Tsui, 24/12/19

I’ve commented early and often on this blog that the costs and impacts of the protests here in Hong Kong fall disproportionately in the poor and disadvantaged in our society. 

Protests take place mostly in the working class areas: Tsuen Wan, Yuen Long, Kwan Tong, Shatin… they’re thrashing working class streets, wrecking working class shops, closing working class MTR stations. And doxximg working class “blues”.
Small businesses have fine margins; they can’t survive months of falling revenues. Lives are being ruined. For the chimera of universal franchise. And for the demand they not be called horrid names, like “rioters”. They ought be mocked for their self-indulgence, not indulged.
We here in Discovery Bay are secluded and cut off from the demonstrations. We continue to live comfortably in our own protected bubble.
So why wouldn’t we oppose the demos, right?  We’re well-to-do, insulated, gweilos, of course we’d want nothing to disturb our complacent peace, right?
Well, having been in business — in the very same working class areas of Hong Kong —  I really feel for the folks trying to make a living. It’s not their fault, whosever fault it is, that their businesses, built up over decades, are now bankrupt or teetering. I feel for them. Especially when I see — and many people any see — that this is going nowhere. It’s only hurting our city, hurting our most vulnerable, hurting them all, with zero upside.
Below, a couple of articles today on the damage to the poorest of our residents. One thing they don’t cover: the impact in charities, most of which have sharply lower revenues as a result of the demos.
1.  ‘Hong Kong unrest makes poor poorer…’. Paul Yip

It is a challenging time for Hong Kong and the worst is yet to come. People leaving the city and capital outflows are becoming more serious. But those within the low-income group face the biggest difficulties; they have less choice and cannot just leave Hong Kong.
The unrest continues, with no gain whatsoever. 

2.  ‘Hong Kong … the collateral damage…’  Brian Wong

While the mainstream media portrays the unrest as a battle between two camps – the pro-democracy movement and the ostensibly pro-stability establishment – those who have had to endure the aftermath of the destruction and violence wrought by all parties have been largely effaced from the narrative