tim's experiment

The case of Ms Alpais Lam, who can be found on Youtube excoriating the police for providing a special enclosure in which the Caring Hong Kong loonies could persecute the Falun Gong, continues to provide riveting reading.
Let me first correct all those cynics who suppose that Alpais is another of those notorious Hong Kong made-up Christian names – perhaps a garbled version of the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Not so. There is (where we would be without Wikipedia on occasions like this?) a historical figure called Alpais of Cudot. This lady is officially Blessed, which means she was a candidate for sainthood but didn’t quite make it. This ruling can probably be regarded as final because the original Alpais died in 1211. This is a pity in a way because otherwise she could have been the patron saint of anorexics — her claim to miraculous status is based on the fact (well, the story, if you like0 that she never ate. She was apparently fed miraculously by the Virgin Mary.

Happily our local Alpais looks well-nourished, which is just as well because several people seem to be out to get her. It is not difficult to see why. If you watch the Youtube footage – which some thoughtful soul has kindly fitted with sub-titles – you can see that the dispute with the police is actually an afterthought. The main meat of the speech was a spirited denunciation of the communist party and all its works. This is the sort of thing that some people don’t want to hear.

The Chief Executive’s request for a report, meanwhile, has clearly caused the Secretary for Education some embarrassment. He has, according to yesterday’s prints, passed the request to the school where she works. This was, said Mr Eddie Ng Hak-him, in accordance with “the existing mechanism”, Which will surprise all those readers who thought it was unusual, if not unprecedented, for a Chief Executive to ask for a report on an individual teacher. Come on, Mr Ng. You’re passing the buck.  Ng went on to say that “the school’s management and board of directors are going to hold meetings to study how to best handle the case.” Note the Secretarial split infinitive. “They will file a report to the bureau. The report will offer an updated and holistic report of the whole incident.” What a load of sh … manure.

The school, like other schools, is on holiday. So the management and the board of directors are going to get back to work some time early in September and the directors, following Mr Ng’s distinguished example, will pass the request for a report to the principal, who will, if he has any sense, pass it to a deputy principal. The lucky final holder of the parcel will be in an interesting position. What does Mr Ng mean by “the whole incident”? Is he suppose to consider the Falun Gong protest, the Caring loonies protest against the protest, the decisions of the police, view the videos, and talk to Ms Lam? But wait a minute, that was not what sparked the interest in the first place – what got everyone interested was the later pro-police demonstration and its encounter with a pro-What the F*** counterpart. So perhaps he should cover that as well. What exactly is the whole which he is supposed holistically to cover … or as the Secretary for Education would say to holistically cover? This person, whoever it is, has a full-time job and no legal powers to seek evidence from anyone. Actually it would be good for everyone concerned if the school took a robust line and told the Secretary for Education that what teachers get up to in their summer holidays is none of its business and none of his either. But I fear the meetings “to study how best to handle the case” are going to conclude that something in the nature of a head on a plate is required.

Meanwhile Ms Lam has heard that the Mong Kok District Crime Squad is investigating a complaint by a nameless member of the public (aged 59 – clearly a DAB voter!) that she may have been guilty of “disorderly behaviour in public and obstructing officers in executing their duties.” This is going to be another interesting task. The one thing which any viewer of the video footage can establish to his complete satisfaction is that there were policemen present in very large numbers. So the idea is that an offence or two were committed, but this crowd of constabulary completely missed it, until enlightened by a 59-year-old peasant?

Let me introduce here a note of indelicate pedantry. Strictly speaking  , “What the f***?, though certainly rude, is neither abusive nor insulting. This is because it is not a suggestion or a description, but a question. Not a bad question, under the circumstances. This persecution of Ms Lam is not going to do anyone any good. If it continues I shall nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize.