"Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon?"
  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • 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
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • 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
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • 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
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • 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
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • 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
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • 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
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
Picture
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

1/12/2022 1 Comment

Selective Amnesia

Picture
"Covid doesn't adhere to any political doctrine"
Western leaders are condemning China's strict lockdowns to tackle Covid, with British PM Rishi Sunak stating that keeping people in their homes over Covid rates and penalising anyone breaking lockdown laws was "shocking and unacceptable". 

Let's pause for a moment — isn't that precisely what the U.K. and many Western countries did in 2020? Didn't thousands of old folks die in care homes without the comforting hand of a relative to hold? At one stage in 2020, the U.K. recorded 68 care home Covid deaths daily. 

I know that Sunak has a passing resemblance to Mr Spock of Star Trek fame, but is he living on the same planet as the rest of us, or does he have selective amnesia? No, he's weaponising the issue to appease elements within his party as he clings to power in a deeply fragmented government.

As I pointed out in an earlier blog, Covid doesn't adhere to any political doctrine nor give a hoot for any policies we humans may devise. It cares not a jot for politics, the correct ideology or a party line. All it does is seek to spread, evolve and seek to spread more. It's Darwinism in action.

And yes, while keeping out Covid once looked like a good plan and served China well in the early stages of the pandemic by buying time - the approach's limitations are now clear. 

With zero Covid, you eventually need to open up and allow people to return to normal. But, before that, you need to moderate the impact with enough people vaccinated and resistant to the virus. 

Very few people in China have acquired immunity through prior exposure, and vaccination rates among the elderly are low. Hence, opening up risks a massive surge in cases, yet keeping the system in place invites possible economic and social problems. It's a tough call to make.

The leaders in Beijing must fear a significant surge in Covid that will impact the elderly, given the low vaccination rate. Hong Kong saw the same effect earlier this year when we topped the league for the number of Covid deaths per 1000. And Hong Kong has a better health system; hence, the impact on the Mainland would be far more severe. 

With pressure building on many fronts, China is not only making decisions that will impact the domestic front. If they get it wrong, and the Chinese economy takes a significant hit, the whole world will feel it. 

China currently exports roughly close to 15 per cent of the world's total exports; often items countries can't get elsewhere. For example, the U.K. relies on China for lateral flow tests and many other medical products. As a result, NHS spending on imported medical supplies from China has tripled since 2019.

How long will it take for the West's politicians and the MSM scribblers to admit the critical reason for this state of affairs? The labour cost differential between China and the West keeps the likes of Apple and the thousands of Western companies making or having made stuff in China on their behalf.

How China steers a course through the current challenges is difficult to see. Yet, those in the West enticed by the protests and China's difficulties need to temper their hubris.

Be careful what you wish for. 
1 Comment
Human Hunter
2/12/2022 10:32:52 am

China is at the beginning of a population collapse and the top heavy burden of an ageing and increasingly costly population should be allowed by natural science to balance off - Covid is a God/Universe given solution and China should allow the virus to run its course, natural selection, natural immunity and allow the population to balance and economy to flourish. Also, no place for any unelected or elected government to infringe humans basic freedoms and natural rights. As for the West’s reliance on Chinese goods, this will diminish over coming century. Ultimately, nature and freedom must prevail. God’s will.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    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. 

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    RSS Feed

Home

Introduction

Contact Walter

Copyright © 2015