Sitting in Hong Kong and thinking about the whole quo vadis of the blog once again. It has been two and a half months since I have posted and, almost coincidently, that last post was on China. Different impressions are the order of the day when you get a bit closer to the source and the mind drifts back to 2006 and my getting upset when they closed Starbucks in Beruit’s Hamra. Well, the bombs were flying over my apartment, which was next to the AUB, on their way to South Beruit, but closing Starbucks just because of the Israeli attacks on the Lebanon. Life for the rest of us has to go on, doesn’t it?
And that is why I am in Hong Kong and not the PRC. Although, after Xi’s speech a couple of days ago, I am not quite sure if Hong Kong is the PRC, or not? Still, whatever it is, it is still fast free internet, people letting people out of the train before they try to get on, “rechtsstehen und linksgehen” (standing on the right and moving on the left) when they are walking up the escalator and, all in all, a civil society that most Europeans would recognise. A coming up for air and a living in the bubble until the other is all pervading. Yes, reminds me of those halcyon days in Beruit before I had to get onto HMS York and make a dash for Cyprus.
The Fifth Estate 