Occupied

We’ve been watching the Occupy Wall Street movement spread around the world in the news but decided to see it for ourselves one night when we were in the central business district.  Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” activists have set up their “camp” on the ground level entrance of HSBC Bank Headquarters (one of the largest banks here).  I’m sure the bankers (and their customers) love going past it every day! 

It was dark, and these were taken from my phone, but here are some snapshots of what we saw:

 
In addition, there was a small group of people sitting in a circle, eating take-out food, listening to an anti-capitalist diatribe being piped in.  It looked more like a gathering of disaffected teenagers camping out in the urban jungle rather than a serious revolution.
 

Other than the residual anger from the global financial meltdown, I can’t say I really “get” what the Occupy Central people are protesting; based on local news reports, it's not clear that the protesters are quite sure either.  However, the he fact that they have the freedom to protest (and use it) is something that I really enjoy about Hong Kong.  Plus, given the number of protests and some of the issues protested, it’s always hugely entertaining!