Protest Art Censored in HK

No Rioters was shown on the massive outdoor screen at Sogo

Art Basel is wrapping up today in Hong Kong after what seems like a pretty successful comeback with 177 galleries and 86,000 visitors, but it wasn't without controversies.

One of them involved a digital art installation on the giant outdoor screen of Sogo department store in Causeway Bay that was taken down apparently because of censorship.

The work was called No Rioters by American Patrick Amadon. Shouldn't the title have given a hint of what it was about? And who at Sogo was the one who allowed the piece to be shown there?

The work shows a surveillance camera filming

Or perhaps Amadon shouldn't have said anything?

That's because he revealed in the mostly red and black digital art display, there are flashes of computer coding that reveal the names, ages and jail terms of Hongkongers who were convicted for their participation in the 2019 protests.

The art installation, which mainly shows a surveillance camera swivelling around, was one of several shown on the massive outdoor screen.

No Rioters refers to the protesters who demanded the authorities drop their characterisation of the demonstrators as "rioters".

Amadon told a Hong Kong media outlet that he wanted to express solidarity with Hongkongers who were "doomed to fail against the resources of the government, yet so many protest[ed] and fought back anyway."

"Don't want the sacrifices, principles and people who participated to be forgotten. The world has moved onto art this week. Think this is a good opportunity to remind everyone of what Hong Kong has become and the tragedy so many are ignoring," he said, adding that the flashes of computer code represented protesters as a "glitch in the government matrix."

Flashes of code show names and ages of convicted protesters

The Los Angeles-based artist was not concerned about his safety because he was not in Hong Kong, but five days after the installation was put up, No Rioters was taken down.

It was unclear if the government was involved in the decision to remove the art work, but surely Sogo senior executives must have been terrified.

Nevertheless it gave Amadon an opportunity to show that Hong Kong had lost its freedom of expression and artistic freedom.

"This objectively shows that they are no longer here in the same way that they once were," he said. "From a narrative standpoint, I mean, it did have to get censored and taken down, I feel like, to be a completed piece."

He's made his point loud and clear artistically and politically...

CE to Decide on NSL Legal Representation

Lai had hired King's Counsel Tim Owen to defend him 

After Hong Kong's highest court allowed Apple Daily founder and publisher Jimmy Lai Chee-ying to have British national Tim Owen to represent him in a national security trial, the government asked Beijing for an interpretation of the law on this.

What was the verdict?

Hong Kong's chief executive, specifically John Lee Ka-chiu can decide on this matter once and for all -- and that the decision could not be appealed in court.

HK's high court had allowed Owen in NSL case

Well that settles it then... quite obvious on how Lee stands on the issue and is more evidence of the rule of law being further eroded.

"Hong Kong is to be governed by a decision-making body that works secretively and whose decisions are not to be challenged in court. The repercussions on Hong Kong's rule of law are clearly far-reaching," said Ling Bing, a Chinese law specialist at the University of Sydney.

Michael Davis, formerly of the law school at the University of Hong Kong, said he viewed the interpretation as creating further avenues for the local government to "dictate outcomes on critical issues before the court".

"The court will now face the prospect of a committee overruling it if it does not rule in favour of the prosecution when national security is raised," he said. 

"That will surely weigh heavily on every decision where national security issues are raised by the government."

Lee will now decide on Lai's legal representation

Davis also warned the expansion and strengthening of the government's power would have repercussions for the rule of law and free expression.

However, Professor Albert Chen Hung-yee, a constitutional law expert at HKU, said the interpretation didn't give the chief executive more power, but that the city's leader and the oversight committee already had this authority.

In any case, it does not bode well for Lai and the cause for democracy in Hong Kong.

The goal posts are constantly shifting, and for the benefit of the pro-establishment. 

Non-HK News Briefs

Rushdie was violently attacked on stage today before a talk

Quick news briefs on things that did not happen in Hong Kong today:

It was horrific to hear the news that as writer Salman Rushdie was about to begin a lecture in front of over 2,500 people in Chautauqua, New York, he was brutally and violently attacked. 

He was rushed to hospital, on a ventilator

He was airlifted to hospital and hours later he had surgery and was on a ventilator. His agent says Rushdie may lose an eye and cannot speak. Security detained the attacker but no news yet on the motive.

The attack was an attack on freedom of expression and speech. It must have been such a shock being in the audience and watching the shocking incident happen within seconds. 

Some witnesses expressed their bewilderment that this was happening where they lived, a place where no one locks their doors.

And then there was the latest developments on former US president Donald Trump and the FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago in Florida to retrieve documents taken from the White House. 

Trump kept confidential papers from White House

Attorney General Merrick Garland called Trump's bluff and had the warrant unsealed to reveal the list of items that are allegedly found on Trump's Florida property.

It's a really long list of documents, classified and some considered extremely sensitive. 

There is word that the FBI will fingerprint each page to see whose fingerprints are on them...

Meanwhile, the wagons are circling in on Trump -- his company, Trump Organization and his CFO Allen Weisselberg will be in court to face tax fraud charges in October. 

To end on a lighter note, the buzz in Ontario was watching Premier Doug Ford swallow a bee in front of cameras and an audience.

Ford realising he had swallowed a bee

It happened in Dundalk, On, when he was taking questions from reporters when a bee buzzed around him and then flew right into his mouth.

"Holy Christ, I just swallowed a bee," he said, coughing violently.

After taking a sip of water from a bottle, Ford said, "This is going to be played over and over again."

He sure knows the news cycle these days.

But the premier did not seem fine after the bee went down his throat.

"Sorry guys. The little bugger got away in there," he said.

When someone asked if Ford was all right to continue, he replied: "I'm OK, it's buzzing in there."

Now reporters are going to contact apiculturalists what it's like to swallow a bee and if it's OK for your body to have one buzzing in there...