🌊Keeping Up With Carrie Lam & Co.

Crime to the dozens

Aug 21, 2022

Good morning,

On what a late-night YouTube binge has brought me while writing this Tide: apparently the World Whistling Championships are a thing! A marvellous thing at that- enjoy the performance, I was blown away.

-Charlotte

On Today’s Tide

Politics | What’s Carrie Lam up to now?
COVID |
- Increased testing for care homes
Crime | to the dozens…
- Bus plows into pole
- China/HK prison swap for fugitive
- Hiker collapses from fatal heat
- 5 arrested for roles in Southeast Asian employment scams
Events

Behind the paywall:

Property |
- Paul Chan on optimism for the property market
- NovoLand properties- raging buyers

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Keeping Up With Carrie Lam: The Sequel

As I’m sure you definitely remember, I’m somewhat reusing this Tide title (nostalgic throwback)- but in very different circumstances. Anyways, because we’re starting off this Monday by snooping none-too-severely, here are just a few insights onto what the former CE and the other 8 leaders who stepped down on June 30 have been getting up to.

For improved user experience, feel free to imagine the following in an early 2000s-Mean Girl-esque stream-of-consciousness narrative:

Carrie : AWOL. Or just chilling at home with her family, like most people with spouses and kids do. Lam has deleted her social media accounts since retiring from the position of CE, and she has reportedly been traveling to mainland China from late July to early August.

Patrick Nip : The former minister is active on Facebook. Likes long runs, cha chaan tengs, luncheon meats, and egg sandwiches. Also taken, for all of you wondering.

Wong Kam-sing: In his social media influencer era, posting about climate change and the like on his Facebook (boasting 14K followers) and Instagram accounts.

Law Chi-kwong: Former minister of labour- guitar, Marie Kondo-ing his home, big brain IQ.

Sophia Chan: Former health chief, returned to continue teaching at HKU after 10 years of unpaid leave.

Other members of the gang include Teresa Cheng (justice), Edward Yau (commerce), Frank Chan (housing and transport), Alfred Sit (technology).

A source says Carrie Lam recently travelled to mainland China. Photo: Robert Ng — I’m certain everyone misses installments of *The Carrie Show. Image* via SCMP.

Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk

The Centre for Health Protection says it is looking into 6,276 additional locally acquired #COVID19 cases, of which 2,239 were directly identified through nucleic acid tests and 4,037 via verified rapid antigen tests

news.gov.hkHK sees 6,276 virus casesThe Centre for Health Protection says it is looking into 6,276 additional locally acquired COVID-19 cases, of which 2,239 were directly identified through nucleic acid tests and 4,037 via verified rapid antigen tests.

COVID-19 in Hong Kong

New cases: 6,513
Total cases: 1,458,238
New deaths: 3
Total deaths: 9,605
Compulsory Testing locations: 58

More frequent PCR tests for care home workers

The rising number of cases at care homes- 48 reported new infections during the past week- has led to the government urging staff to do PCR tests more frequently. Currently, care home workers must take a daily rapid antigen test (RAT), known to be less sensitive, and a PCR test every week, though there is talk of increasing PCR test frequency to once every two or three days.

Twelve people were injured as a result of the accident, with five taken to hospital. Photo: Facebook. — Image via SCMP.

But thankfully, not the dozen people who were involved in this incident. The KMB bus on Route 277X hit a 14-year-old girl and felled a metal pole at Choi Hung Bus Terminal, around noon on Sunday.

The other seven women and four men also only suffered minor injuries; three reportedly refused to go to hospital, while the rest were soon discharged.

A spokesman for the KMB firm said they will be working with the police in investigating this incident.

Fugitive handover to HK police

Among another group of dozen, Quinn Moon is one of the fugitives who tried to take off to Taiwan by boat in August 2020. Tried, because their speedboat was stopped by the Chinese coastguard and they were then arrested by mainland Chinese police.

These dozen activists, between 16-31 years old at the time, attempted to flee due to their offences tied to involvement in the 2019 protests.

Moon is set to be released from a Guangzhou women’s prison on Monday morning after having done time for her role in the aforementioned illegal border crossing. Though she’s very in demand- Moon will promptly be handed over to the HK police. Apparently she’s also wanted for her connections to a bomb-making case in the city (yikes).

The grave dangers of heat

Yet another group of twelve (an eerie correlation?) set out to have a hike from Tung Chung this sunny Sunday morning, only to have one of their number collapse along the way.

The 59-year-old man sadly passed away after feeling sick and passing out around 3:10 pm while hiking. He was taken to hospital but could not be resuscitated. The exact cause of death will be investigated by a postmortem exam.

There were further separate instances of collapse from overexposure to heat- so to our HT readers, always remember to stay hydrated. I know water can be (lol always is) flavorless as hell, but chug that bitch down and your body will thank you.

5 arrested in connection with Southeast Asia human trafficking scams

On Sunday, HK police reported that they arrested 5 residents for allegedly baiting and coercing no less than 36 people into travelling to Southeast Asia. 22 people are still being held against their will in places such as Cambodia and Myanmar, while the police force are in contact with 13 of those there.

In these employment scams that have recently received a lot of attention on social media, people are lured into traveling to other countries before being held captive and forced to work illegally.

Lee’s administration has faced increasing pressures to bring the victims home safely and improve civilian protection. Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry has also pledged to work with embassies and foreign governments to look for the missing people.

A preliminary investigation showed that the 5 arrestees seem to belong to the same syndicate, though further arrests aren’t by any means ruled out.

Events and deals

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Ukrainian Cinema: Contemporary filmmaking @ The Goethe Institut

“Fear sows political bigotry, rumours turn into conspiracy theories, cultural fronts harden” – for these reasons The Goethe Institut is hosting a series of films by Ukrainian filmmakers to support local cultural creators and explore Ukrainian culture together.

Five films will be shown over the course of September including The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy), Atlantis (Valentyn Vasyanovych) and The Rain Will Never Stop (Alina Gorlova)

Find all times and dates here.
And book your tickets directly from Broadway Cinematheque here.
Look under the ‘bc Sunday’ special programme when booking!

Schol! Belgium Beer Week: 22 - 28 Aug

Belgium Beer Week’s first foray outside of their home country sees them expanding across the world and Hong Kong is leading by example, having a whooping 11 venues to celebrate in - one of the highest number in the world.

Each bar will host their own events during the week.

harbourtimes

A post shared by Harbour Times | Hong Kong News (@harbourtimes)

See our full coverage for details on location, timings and events!

TONIGHT: Lifeline Mental Health Livefest at The Wanch

The uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic has made it exceedingly difficult for the music industry, particularly live music. Indefinite restrictions have taken a heavy toll on the mental health of not only the artists, but also the thousands of people who work alongside them.

Official media partner: ReThink HK returns 5-6 Oct

HT is proud to once again be a media partner for ReThink - HK’s biggest and most exciting sustainability conference. This year’s conference invites more than 300 expert speakers to share their visions and insights, covering important topics like economic progression while coexisting with nature harmoniously, efficient use of resources, transformation to a low-carbon society, and circular economy for future generations.

Sign up here using the code HTP22 for 40% off!