🌊Not so Bleak

Oh god don't make schools go back to half day Zoom classes

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On Today’s Tide

• Culture | Bleak House Books reopens in New York

• COVID |

  • Kai-Tak opens for business

  • CHP stops double checking all RAT tests

• Education |

  • All students to start testing 2 days before school starts

  • Schools to get awards for vax rates

  • Students scared of socialising without masks. Don’t go back to half days: education sector

Behind the paywall:

• Protest and Politics |

  • Gun-shot wounded protestor gets charged

  • 99% of LSD case redacted by prosecution

  • Bao Choy appeals conviction

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Bleak House Re-opens in New York

Exactly one year ago today, we wrote that Bleak House books, a little boutique store in San Po Kong, was closing. The political uncertainty made owner Albert Wan and his wife Jenny decide to take their family back to the States.

🌊 It's bleak

Today, they announced on Twitter that Bleak House Books will be re-opening in Western New York.

“If all goes according to plan, our new bookshop will, in many ways, mirror the bookshop of old. It will still have a kiddie corner, lots of fiction, a mix of used and new books, and, of course, our own ‘Love Letter to HK’ in books. But it will also be bigger, in space and selection, and operate in a climate of considerable uncertainty, conflict and cost”

Bleak House Books on Twitter not being bleak.

Bleak House Books @bleakhousebooks

One year ago today we announced that Bleak House Books would be closing in Hong Kong. It was a day I will never forget for as long as I live. What came after though would be equally unforgettable: A thread 🧵 on the re-opening of Bleak House Books. (1/9)

The bookstore was known for being one of the few independent English bookstores. Aside from the normal offering of bestsellers, they also stocked rare antique books, political writing and had a large comfortable reading corner.

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COVID in Hong Kong

Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk

The Social Welfare Department announces that in light of the rising occupancy rate of the Temporary Quarantine Centre at AsiaWorld-Expo, the #KaiTakQuarantineCentre will come into operation on September 2

news.gov.hkKai Tak centre to start service Sept 2The Social Welfare Department announces that in light of the rising occupancy rate of the Temporary Quarantine Centre at AsiaWorld-Expo, the Kai Tak Quarantine Centre will come into operation on September 2.

COVID-19 in Hong Kong

• New cases: 8488 (236 imported)

• Total cases: 1,522,460

• New deaths: 4

• Total deaths: 9,668

• Compulsory Testing locations:

Treat yourself to a stay at Kai Tak

Kai Tak Quarantine Centre at the old airport runway is opening for business. The camp will primarily take close residents of elderly homes classified as close contacts. 260 out of a max capacity of 768 will come online on the 2nd.

CHP stops double checking everyone’s tests

Health officials said yesterday they’ll stop doing PCR tests on everyone who reports a positive RAT test, but instead carry out spot checks.

Currently, self-reported RAT tests are all double checked by the CHP. This was due to a large amount of false positives when the self-reporting system was first announced.

However, due to the current increase in cases, the CHP said they need to conserve manpower. They also said that the rate of false positives is currently quite low.

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Education & COVID: a match made in hell

• Mandatory student testing to start before school starts

Students and staff have to start doing daily RAT tests from today - two days before school officially starts on 1st Sept. Until further notice, all students and staff have to do RAT tests in the morning. The EDB said this will help the affected get used to the system.

Half-day face-to-face classes will continue operating into the new schol year.

• Awards for vaccinations

The EDB will get statistics from schools on vaccination rates and give ‘gold’, ‘silver’ and ‘bronze’ awards to schools with 90%, 80% and 70% vax rates respectively.

What the awards encompass is yet to be announced.

The statistics gathered will be used for better policy design but will not be publicized to avoid giving undue pressure to schools.

• Father, I cannot speak without the mask

Education sector lawmaker Lau Yu-Lung cautioned he government against “casually rolling back face-to-face teaching” as studies are now showing detrimental social effects of prolonged online teaching including video game addiction, obesity and issues with socialising.

A new study undertaken by the Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service found that some 63% of 1000 students interviewed were afriad of socialising without masks on .

Lau said that if vaccination rates went up to 90% in a school community, full day face-to-face classes should be continued. He also said that schools should be allowed to keep running extra-curricular activities, as they complement what students learn in class.

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Events and deals

Support Harbour Times, our friends and partners by attending these events! Let everyone know who sent you by tagging @harbourtimes

• Official media partner: ReThink HK returns 5-6 Oct

FINAL PUSH FOR DELEGATION PASSES:
Sign up here using the code HTP22 for 40% off! ACTIVE ONLY TILL 4 SEPT!
HK$575 instead of $949 after 5 Sept!

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.

• 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!

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