“As HK enters a new year, challenges ahead are sobering” | Cliff Buddle

Good ol’ Cliff Buddle. Long time journo here, mate back in the day, now back in U.K., says it right. 

Two things can be true at once: Hong Kong is not just another city in China. It has its separations and freedoms not on the mainland. And it can still be worse today than it was four years ago, thanks to the National security Law, thanks to 2019 rioters demanding independence. Hong Kong government does itself, and U.S., no favours by front paging the pursuit of bail jumpers. 

Like the Japanese Consul General I’ve had people say similar things. Believing that the crushing of HK is complete. It’s not. Not yet anyway and there appears to be no desire to make it so. Only in the face of— unlikely— of a reprise of 2019.

Unherd’s best of 2023

Flo Read and Freddie Sayers discuss the best stories of 2023.

I support Unherd and encourage you to do so. It’s fine, independent, heterodox journalism.

Happy 2024!

Colonialism | Douglas Murray and Bruce Gilley

Link to interesting video posted for my record. 

Spoiler: it wasn’t all bad!

As support for ‘two-state solution’ grows, what role will China play in Israeli-Palestinian peace process? | SCMP

Short answer to the above question: NONE. There is NO role for China in a "two-state solution". 

Because….

The two-state solution is DEAD. 

The sooner the world comes to terms with this, the sooner we might get to some sort of peace in the Middle East. 

A peace that requires the removal of Hamas. Because Hamas have only one aim: the complete genocide of every Jew in the world. That is no partner for any kind of "two-state solution". They don't want it and never did. 

We must not forget: the two-state solution has been on the table since the 1937 Peel Commission and has been re-offered no less than eight times. Each time, it was the Palestinians that rejected it. 

Pushing for a "two-state solution" is a kind of a weird mantra: that people like China's leadership, feel better repeating. A kind of Buddhist Chant. Nan Wu Ah Mi Tuo Fo. Ohhhmmm….

But: 

It's. Not. Viable. 

There. Is. No. Two-State. Solution. 

Period. 

PS: Famous international affairs "realist" professor John Mearsheimer has been a "long-time advocate" of the two-state solution He now says it is not viable. It's done. We have to move on. 

“It’s best not to panic about climate change” | My letter published

“China population: …demographic woes deepened”

Dramatic!
Snip: 

The total fertility rate – the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime – could drop below one in 2023, compared with 1.05 in the previous year, He warned. More… [Wayback]

Remember: it takes 2.13 children per woman to keep a population stable. Only 1 per woman means tepid population decline. 

The two state solution is dead

	Quantum Flux ⁦‪@QuantumFlux36‬⁩ 🌸The 2-state solution is dead -- luckily, there are already 22 Arab and 57 Muslim states with 10 million+ sq miles of land. 🌸The entire fictional "Palestinian" debacle is a complete lie. Jihad explicitly calls its followers to terrorize, colonize, and ethnically cleanse the… pic.twitter.com/fVahdkDKoO   29/12/2023, 3:14 am

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Northern Hong Kong gateway to “Bay Area”

The Greater Bay Area’s GDP of around $US 2 Trillion makes it the 8th largest in the world, ~ the size of Canada. Despite which, my reading is that hongkongers are pretty leery of getting involved in the GBA. Partly because wages are still much lower than in Hong Kong. 

In the pic above, that’s not the Hong Kong skyline, but Shenzhen, across the border into China. Which, when I first went in 1976, was rice paddy fields. Now a city of ~13 million. The green area is Hong Kong land, in the northern New Territories. 

War in Gaza: is God to blame?

	Quantum Flux ⁦‪@QuantumFlux36‬⁩ ☀️The Romans invaded and occupied Judea, then enslaved and scattered us. They renamed Judea "Syria Palaestina", in an attempt to erase our identity. ☀️Our faith was appropriated and mixed with others to create a state religion worshipping a Jew, yet cynically teaching hatred of… pic.twitter.com/O414Oqbc8z   27/12/2023, 1:30 pm

Quantum Flux: destroying with facts and logic. 

This describes Norman Finklestein!

	Hillel Fuld ⁦‪@HilzFuld‬⁩ It occurred to me recently that despite the Jews finally being able to stand up for ourselves, so many Jews are still apologetic. So many Jews prove that you can take a Jew out of exile but you can't take exile out of a Jew. It is deeply saddening to me seeing Jews stand up for… pic.twitter.com/2YC6Y9iSr0   27/12/2023, 4:42 pm

I saw Norman Finklestein debate a comedian a while back, on the current Gqza war. As an alleged "historian" he had a poor grasp of basic facts about Gaza that even I knew. He parroted alleged "facts" about Gaza that are plain wrong but part of the problem-Hamas, left narrative. Things like "Gaza is the most densely populated place on the planet". For the record: no, it's not. It's not even in the top 50. 

The comedian got the better of him, I thought. Through many on his side declared him the victor. Weird that, isn't it? That our priors give us opposite readings of the very same event. 

He goes on, this professor Finklestein, cheering the massacres of October 7 (they "warmed his heart", he said, proudly), wildly Israel-hating, warmly Hamas-loving. 

All that is in what Hillel Fuld describes, above. At other times called "self-hating Jews". And imdeed they are. 

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“It’s time for Palestinians to be held accountable for the society they have built”

	leekern ⁦‪@leekern13‬⁩ You've all been manipulated by Islamists to treat the Palestinians like a magical people who can do no wrong Mischievous speech taboos have been put in place It's time for Palestinians to be held accountable for the society they have built They have built a racist jihadist…   27/12/2023, 2:19 pm

Been saying it for ages. Needs constant resaying. Because it's widely ignored. Including by the likes of China's foreign minister Wang Yi, and Joe Biden, and the constant "calls on Israel" to "implement a Two State Solution".  Which is dead. Killed by Hamas. Who are never called out for it. Except for the likes of "leekern".

How can you have a Two State solution when on side wants to kill the other side. Down to the last Jew. 

Hamas have created the horrors of Gaza as an "open air prison".  Of Gazan poverty. Of Gazan food deficiency. Of Gazan water shortages. 

Hamas are the ones who stole billions of aid meant for the people of Gaza and stashed  it in Qatar. And somehow we love Qatar. Because they funnel money to western universities and western politicians. Rotten they all are and the people of Gaza did the voting in of Hamas. 

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Liz Cheney exposed

Some truths from the “Never Trumpers”. 

Greg Foreman shows that she’s a hypocrite. 

Merry Doodle Christmas 🎄 🎈🤶🎅🇨🇽

Christmas Eve in Hong Kong. — Sunny and cold

It’s just 10 C outside and barely 18 C inside. Brrrrr …

It’s been a brisk cold winter this last week. Rare for us to have such a long spell of cold.

On our dear motherland, up north, it’s record lows and feet of snow!

“Just Stop Oil”? Inconvenient facts

 Click above for the video 

I mentioned this in February: wherever you are, look around you. Everything’s made from fossil fuels! Even this iPad I’m writing on.

Going Net Zero can’t be just shifting to Renewables. There’s so much more that we rely on fossil fuels for. Above video goes through the main ones. Full Net Zero is a recipe for poverty and civilizational destruction. 

“How Hong Kong can step up the fight against climate change” | Lau Siu Kong

LETTER TO SCMP:

There sure is a lot we "must" do in Hong Kong according to your letter writers! 

Just today, in a single screenshot of the Letters page on your App (see below) we see demands that we "must show we care" about voting rights; "must uphold the rights of climate activists"; must keep libraries "on trend"; and must allow retail prices "to fall further".

Today's letter from Lau Siu Kong [above] demands we must "step up the fight against climate change". 

A couple of points:

1.  Lau claims we have "significant carbon emissions per capita". According to Our World in Data, we are low, at 4.1 tonnes per capita per year. This is lower than the world average (4.7) and just half those of China (8.0). Our carbon emissions have come down in recent years thanks to our increased use of nuclear electricity from China and changing from coal-fired to natural gas-fired power stations. We can improve yet further by buying even more nuclear energy from China, as suggested by Dr Lam Ching-choi, head of the Council for Carbon Neutrality and Sustainable Development (Online here).

Daya Bay nuclear power station from where we get 
25% of our electricity. Isn’t it nice, neat, pretty?
Clean, green and small footprint
We get a further 17% from Yanjiang Nuclear in Guangdong 

2.  In terms of death and injury from climate events, Hong Kong has shown dramatic improvements: the number of deaths from typhoons alone has fallen by 99% since 1960 (HK Observatory). This mirrors similar trends worldwide, where we have seen a 98% reduction in deaths from climate disasters.

3. Sea level rise: scientists predict rises of a bit less than a foot, or 30cm, per century. Humans have overcome far swifter changes in sea levels in the past, and we can certainly do so in the future, as we are much more technically advanced. Hong Kong is more than able to handle such an increase. Large parts of The Netherlands are already below sea level, and have been for centuries, yet they hold the sea at bay. If the Dutch have figured out how to stay dry, so can we.

4. As for “severe weather patterns” I’ve commented before on the alleged stronger typhoons. Short story: there is no increase in typhoon severity. There may be more frequent heavy rain events, which we are more than capable of handling, by improved flood control. 

I'm fully behind more renewables, more nuclear energy, and more sensible climate change mitigation, such as improved flood control.

But could we please cease our climate panic? Mitigation of CO2 and abatement of climate change are improving across the planet and we must recognise this to have a sound basis for policy going forward. 

Policies based on panic are rarely sound policies.

PF, etc…

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slander

 

From Jesus and Mo “slander”

The Fall of Minneapolis

Click above for the video 

This is the one that Glenn Loury and John McWhorter discussed the other day. Two Black professors, men mostly of the Left, now convinced that the George Floyd trial was a travesty. That deeply harmed America. But which they think no one is going to change their minds about, no matter the facts. 

I’ve watched the doco and I wonder: is there anyone — the Minnesota Governor, the Minneapolis Mayor, the Minneapolis Police Commissioner, Keith Ellison, Nancy Pelosi, President Biden? — involved in pushing what turns out to be a falsehood, an enormously damaging falsehood, who thinks at night “oh boy, what I did, what I let happen, what I enabled, what I encouraged, was really, really bad for America”?

It appears not a one. Indeed most are proud of what they did. Which has so profoundly damaged America,  people of colour the most. 

“The real target of anti-Israel demonstrations: American democracy” | Alan Dershowitz

Click above for the video 

Alan Dershowitz identifies four group who make up the anti-Israel, aka pro-Hamas rallies:

1. Islamists

2. Communists 

3. Nazis 

4. Useful idiots

I have friends who are now violently anti-Israel, even unto pro-Hamas. They’re older. Have changed from being supporters to being very anti. I’d have to out them in a combination of 2 and 4. 

Dershowitz says if Israel falls the next target is the United States. I’d add Europe. They used to occupy Andalusia and southern Italy. They never give up land that was once occupied by Muslims. Hence the manic demand that all of Israel belongs to Islam. That once a part of the Islamic waqf, always a part of the Islamic waqf. 

IOW: there will be no peace even if Israel is sacrificed to the demands of the “Palestine must be free, from the River to the Sea” crowd. The next demands will be to retake Andalusia, Rome, and Washington. 

I’m such an Elon Fanboy

 

We need to become an interplanetary species. We are only a tiny drop of consciousness in this part of the universe. If we don’t keep having babies, our population will drop by 90% in 3 or 4 generations. 

First they came…

	Imtiaz Mahmood ⁦‪@ImtiazMadmood‬⁩ First They Came… "First they came for free housing, free health care, freedom from oppression, the right to speak freely, and most of all for the free money, and we welcomed them and helped them because freedom, democracy, multiculturalism, and charity are good. "Then they… pic.twitter.com/A9bEem68nc   17/12/2023, 1:16 am

This is too true. 

I have watched it with mine own eyes. In Britain. In France. In Germany. In Denmark. Even Australia. Where Muslim Lebanese immigrants claim unemployment at three times Christian Lebanese do. Pretty telling, that, given same country, same people; just different religion/ideology.  

And yet, to call it out is to be called a xenophobic Islamophobic bigot. 

Doonesbury: “Witch Hunt”

This is a curious strip today.

We know that Garry Trudeau is violently anti Trump and anti-GOP. So, presumably the strip today is meant to be making fun of Republicans who call the Trump court cases a "witch hunt". That's the Left's take on the strip today, we must assume. Those crazy far-rightists! Even legitimate court cases are "witch hunts" to them! Silly, silly Nazis! 

But conservatives will look at this cartoon — if they ever come near Doonesbury — and think "yeah, right! That's just how it is! A full- on witch hunt!"  Spot on!

Which of course it is. Even the occasional article in the New York Times calls the cases "weak gruel". 

The worst of the lot is the case brought by Latitia James the New York DA, and a punchline to the strip above — "Black DA, female … or both?". Tish: Black and a woman! It’s wrong. 

"Tish" James should be prosecuted for judicial malpractice. I reckon. She campaigned on "Get Trump" — campaigned! — then spent four years looking for a crime, and found a completely bogus one which she is now prosecuting. Surely it can't be right in the U.S. legal system to announce you're literally going after a named person? Instead of what it should be: namely, (a) there's a crime committed (b) look for the perpetrator.  And if it's allowed, it ought not.

New York DA James is exactly following Beria, Stalin's hated head of the Secret Service who said "show me the man and I'll show you the crime."  Give me Donald Trump and I'll Get Trump!

But they won't let it go, the Dems, because by fair means or foul they must stop the Orange Man. Who is currently so far up in the polls that any crime pinned on him will do. And if that doesn't work, will they go for the big A? 

Anyway: today's Doonesbury is one for the ages, pleasing and playing to the priors of both parties. A bipartisan cartoon.

“HK must push back in Western smears” | Mark Peaker

There has been some chilling since the National Security Law of 2020, but agree with Mark Peaker that it's way over the top in western media, where it's, like, "China has taken over Hong Kong" and "it's not safe". Not so.

I've had those sorts of views said to me right here in Hong Kong by people passing through. Who should have read this blog and been more informed. At least on Hong Kong and at least more than the MSM in the west!

“Increasing numbers seek a way out” [of Hong Kong] | SCMP

Most of the reasons, highlighted, for leaving are related to freedom and democracy.
Not a good trend. 
Sadly the government and Beijing will only react to this by doubling down on patriotism and propaganda. 
For me — an early Boomer —  I’m fine. But I empathise with how they feel, these young kids. If I were 20 or 30 years younger I’d be heading off outta here. For now, though, in my later years, the safety, the cleanliness, the good governance, the good medical, the convenience, all are just fine. 
So it’s a generational thing. 
Boomers fine; Zoomers flee.

“Islamic nations’ ceasefire focus ignores roots of conflict” | SCMP

At least, and for once, there’s some denouncing of Hamas. Because all they want is destruction of Israel and killing of Jews everywhere in the world. How can we “make peace” with such a people? But this is so rarely mentioned vs the constant demands on Israel to “pursue a Two State Solution”.
Why does every Arab state from Algeria to Yemen refuse to accept Gazan refugees? Because they are radical terrorists. Why should Australia take one, then, let alone 1,000 as I’ve seen Albanese commit to. Why should we, a secular society, accept Nazi-equivalent Islamist that even their Muslim brothers won’t accept? Is it just to make ourselves feel better? Shame.

Calling for genocide of JEWS is “context dependent” according to Ivy Uni Presidents

Click above for the video

Elise Stefanik, grills Harvard president Claudine Gay, above. 

Gay has form, as I’ll show in another post -- the firing of brilliant young Harvard economics professor, Roland Pryor, for going against the narrative on school choice and police shootings. (He was right, by the way) 

And then there’s Stefanik's grilling of Penn’s president Liz Magill, here. 

The hypocrisy is glaring. Any speech calling for mistreatment of Black, or LGBTQ, or women, or any ethnic group, is called out and punished. It’s just when it comes to the Jews, that there’s “context” to be considered. 

As this X post shows. 

bans…

Danish authorities were worried “Islamic bodies might become violent in response to mistreatment of the Koran”. Very will. Arrest them. Deport any that aren’t Danish. Why should the response be to reduce domestic freedoms? 

The true reason Arabs rejected the UN partition proposal

The primary reason Arab leaders rejected the UN's partition proposal was their own disbelief in the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. In fact, they were opposed to it! Indeed, that's exactly as it sounds.

	Oren Barsky 🎗️ ⁦‪@orenbarsky‬⁩ One of the Arabs' best-kept secrets, skillfully obscured over the years, is the true reason behind their refusal of the 1947 UN partition plan: For those less familiar, here's a quick summary: After WWII, the British, looking to exit the complicated situation they found…   11/12/2023, 11:14 pm

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“SEVEN items of evidence that debunk claims of war crimes, genocide, unprecedented civilian deaths, etc.”

	Aizenberg ⁦‪@Aizenberg55‬⁩ 🧵Claims that Israel is "indiscriminately" bombing or causing disproportionate civilian deaths in Gaza can be easily proven false based on actions & statistics. Here are SEVEN items of evidence that debunk claims of war crimes, genocide, unprecedented civilian deaths, etc. 1/   11/12/2023, 11:58 pm

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