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  • Walter's Blog.
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  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
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    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
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    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
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    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
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    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
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    • Uncle Ho
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Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you wh at life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

14/7/2021 2 Comments

Let Rip

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"The people have unlocked themselves and marked the occasion by inserting flares up their bottoms"
Oh boy, this is going to be interesting to watch. Boris Johnson is intent on relaxing England's Covid restrictions on 19 July. While around 68 per cent of the British adult population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and just over half are now fully vaccinated, the data on new cases is less encouraging. These surged with 221,000 people testing positive in the UK in the week to 11 July.  

Am I comfortable with this approach? Not really, because the pandemic reminds us that we are all connected, and the unfolding crisis in one country can impact every country. That's especially so when Hong Kong and the UK have such close contacts. 

Although sitting 6,000 miles away, at least we will have time to put the barriers up if it all goes awry. But, wait a minute, aren't direct flights from the UK already banned? Yes, but we still have rare cases arriving here by around-the-houses routes.

In fairness, Boris did ask that people take personal responsibility and wear masks when appropriate. 

Then again, why bother with any restrictions? The footage this weekend of England fans running amok in London while the boys and girls in blue skulked away suggest it's all rather academic. 

The people have unlocked themselves and marked the occasion by inserting flares up their bottoms. Forget all the talk of football as the beautiful game — there is nothing appealing in a lardy lad with a firework sticking out of his bum. Where do these people think they are, the PTU Officer's Mess?

When this particular practice came into favour, I'm not sure. What is the cultural significance? Although, it does appear popular given the number of pictures and video clips circulating. Also, getting your kit off, waving your man-bits about and throwing beer accompanied the Hershey highway action. No doubt, an anthropologist will secure a grant to study all this. Is it a right of passage to manhood or some form of fertility dance? 
​

What also struck me was the absence of the police as the fans ran amok. Maybe the cops are adhering to Prof Clifford Stott's 'Elaborated Social Identity Model' and keeping their distance in fear of radicalising the fans. Stott is well-known in Hong Kong for advocating that the mere sight of police officers causes spasms of disorder and the breakdown of civilisation as we know it. 

Better to let the mob run riot than taking enforcement action that may lead to people being upset. 
I suppose the saving grace is that the police's absence meant they didn't need to take the knee. Moreover, some yobs balls on fire are, rightly, a lower priority.

Meanwhile, with people sticking flares up their bottoms, personal responsibility for Covid-19 precautions feels like a stretch.

Once again, Johnathan Pie sums it up with eloquence.
 

2 Comments
Mark Taylor
14/7/2021 03:32:45 pm

Walter. On that Sunday morning, I thought I'd get a hair cut. My local head shavers in Wellington are Pakistani boys, so open on Sunday, and it's usually very quiet to get in. Not the day of the final, it was rammed with youths getting spruced up in time to get the morning train to London. I asked them how they'd all got tickets?This was met with some laughter, as they explained most of them didn't like football, but they were going for the piss-up and inevitable birds, booze, and fights. It is in part, too easy to pin the trashing of London on football fans, as I learned a coach load of lads front my Dad's local in Wolverhampton, with no interest in getting in Wembley, had done the same. Deep social troubles than football, laid bare by that day.

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Chris Emmett
14/7/2021 03:42:22 pm

Don’t knock Stott – he is eminently advised by the esteemed ex-supercop, Martin Purbrick. In fact when I sent the professor video evidence debunking his claim that on 12 June 2019, Hong Kong police had used tearsmoke against peaceful protesters, he took the trouble to remind me that as I had not published any peer reviewed papers, my evidence was unworthy of consideration. Thank goodness for experts; where would we be without them?

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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