#FailedState #Election
Alleged Pro-Beijing Groups Registered as "Corporate Voters": "Come when you find our address"

On July 18, 2021, the Hong Kong government's Registration and Electoral Office (#REO) announced the 2021 Election Committee subsector (#ECSS) provisional register of voters.

Among them, 404 groups identify themselves as "grassroots associations" that belong to the third category of "corporate voters". The names of these groups include "Happy Family", "Family with Fate", "the Best People", "Enjoy Together", "Team Modern Moms", and "Friends of Tai Kok Tsui".

For most of them, relevant information and contact details cannot be found on the internet.

The Stand News made a phone inquiry to one of these groups called "Enjoy Together" on July 19, asking for the identities of the chairperson, their events organised and the time of their establishment; however, the person answering the call responded vaguely.

In their social media platform, the group has mostly reposted messages from an ousted pro-Beijing district councillor Chow Chun-fai in Sham Shui Po since 2017.

The Stand News was asked by the group to contact other members or to send a letter. At the same time, the group refused to give details of other members nor that of the chairperson. "Come when you find our address," the group said.

Source: Stand News #Jul19
https://thestandnews.page.link/BEJQs178S32q9dux5

#RegistrationandElectoralOffice #ElectionCommittee

#WuhanPneumonia #HumanitarianCrisis
COVID19 Quarantine Center in Hong Kong, a Torture to Patients: "No One would Remember Us"

A video of a distraught woman inside Hong Kong's COVID-19 quarantine center has gone viral on social media on Feb 22.

The video shows the woman in her flip flops at Penny's Bay, Hong Kong's main quarantine facility, breaking down in tears and yelling in desperation as she frantically looked for a way out.

Several staff members, clad in protective gear, tried unsuccessfully to calm her down and persuade her to return to her room. She eventually lashed out and kicked at a staff member who was apparently trying to approach her.

Online media Channel C interviewed another patient, Ms. P, who is also undergoing quarantine in the Penny’s Bay Center. Ms. P said that she totally understood the woman’s desperation, adding that she was also feeling very depressed during her stay.

In fact, distressed patients crying, shouting, yelling in their rooms or along the walkways are a daily occurrence in the center, she said.

A man even attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of disinfectant, Ms. P added.

“The worst thing here is you're easily forgotten,” Ms. P said. When she was admitted into the facility, she made tens of phone calls and waited for 4 days before her initial test bottle was delivered. No one came back to pick it up until she made another round of phone calls, until she finally reached medical staff.

When her quarantine period ended on Feb 19, the facility did not arrange for her to leave, and she spent another 3 days on the phone trying to contact staff - again, receiving no reply. She was elated when staff finally notified her on Feb 21 that she could leave.

However, just before she boarded the bus, she was turned away because she was not given a doctor's note. She watched all the buses leave before being sent back to her room.

"We were all very scared," she said on the interview, her voice breaking, "Once we're back in our rooms, no one would remember us."

However, she was sympathetic to the medical staff and other supporting staff members on the site. “They are suffering just like us. The staff member who came to deliver my documents was soaked in the rain.”

Ms. P questioned the purpose of putting Hong Kong people in quarantine centers where they are not properly taken care of.

She stressed that the costs and suffering inflicted upon so many citizens grossly outweigh any foreseeable benefits.

Source: Facebook; Channel C HK; #Feb23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42SwTQPrtF8

#FailedState #PennysBay #Quarantine