<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">HK SAR CHINA'S SARS</b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"><b> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">It was the epidemic of 2002-03 that caught the world in what
is now known as SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) that started in the
southern part of China, got Hong Kong between the rock and the hard place, and
from there, its cosmopolitan reach stretched across the planet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">The Ebola epidemic plagues Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and
jumped up to Lagos in Nigeria, which like Hong Kong is also a cosmopolitan
center with its extensive worldwide oil trade and commerce. Nigeria has been assuring the world that it
is capable of handling the epidemic within its borders. Bravado or bravura, the world broils in the
same heat together especially now that Senegal has joined the fever!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4">I had malaria in Nigeria in the early 80s and learned that
ex-pats had twice a year at the hospital in their contract as the parasite came
calling every six months. In fact,
non-human creatures (there are 8.7 million species in the planet) originated HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, and other germs and
viruses. Humans also developed
anti-microbial resistance.</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">With the outbreak of the Ebola in the Congo (previously
Zaire where it emerged in 1976), the global health community finally raised the
alarm that every place in the planet be prepared to combat the epidemic. Fatalities are projected to reach 20K before
the "perfect storm" - the public health emergency, is subdued.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">China has its own tragedies, mostly landslides that
devastate communal structures, recent disasters attributed to long-term mining,
the frequent quakes that goes with the rain preceding the landslides bars
access to many remote villages particularly in the south and southwest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px;">But Mother Nature's convulsive behavior (a bridge under
repair collapsed) is not the only cause of China's distress. If SARS bedeviled Hong Kong in the past, it
is its status as a SAR, Special Administrative Region</span><font size="4">, that captures the evening
news; the election of executive officers in the former British colony has got
democrats roiled as Beijing weighed in on the nomination process.</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Margaret Thatcher thought that Westminster had something to
say about the city's future. Deng just
went to receive the return of Hong Kong, thank you! Xianggang has always been a part of China,
like Taiwan and Macau. Deng promulgated
his political philosophy of "two systems, one country", which appl</span><font size="4">ies to Taiwan as well. </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">Those familiar with China's political divisions, its ethnic
minorities are granted autonomous status not only to promote and protect
cultural heritage but also to indigenize symbolic positions. Many in Hong Kong forgot that their political
status is that of an administrative region, not an autonomous one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">China's promise to England was that Hong Kong's economic
basis remains the same for the next fifty years. The Occupy Central movement that we
encountered New Year in Victoria Island pushes for universal suffrage including
the right to nominate anyone, with some vocally egging independence from China.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px;">We shall not speculate who is stoking the fire. HK never had universal suffrage. We used to say before the return of Victorian
Peak to Beijing that political decisions were made with malt juice at the HK
Jockey Club by <i>taipans </i>rather than Britis</span><font size="4">h colonial officials. Nor does HK have a Hakka Lee Kwan Yew
to chart an independent course, and Beijing in disinclined to move in that
direction.</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">Inversely, Beijing supports the anti-Occupy forces that started
a million signature campaign to oppose disruptive activity in the island's
economic system, marched a 190,000-warm-body presence in a street demonstration
for peace and democracy in August.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Familiar with powerful old Koumintang forces (9 of the top
10 richest men in the Philippines are of Chinese descent) and Taiwan, we can
only speculate where Occupy Central in HK is getting its support. Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai </span><font size="4">in reform-and-opening-up drive started by Deng Xiao Ping drove many in China to
exit to other parts of the world, including SF, Vancouver, NYC, and HK. There is a strong undertow of despair, desperation
and frustration within 85 percent of China's population, some in the 15 percent opening Caribbean
bank accounts that Xi Jinping is now trying to unravel.</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;">Whether HK SAR becomes China's political SARS remains to be
seen. One of the illusions China needs not
to take too seriously is the western media's painting of it as the second
largest economy in the world exhibiting the fastest economic growth. Maybe it is factually accurate, but a huge
portion of the mainland population do not experience the wealth it supposedly
has, and most of it is in paper tied to a boom in construction annually
predicted to burst. To Beijing's
credit, it has managed to manipulate the numbers. I know.
I just became a reluctant home owner in a new development area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The vitality of trade and commerce is never far from the
specter of </span><font size="4">a few filthy rich, and that is China's present SARS! Some in HK are whining and lots in Manila
will oblige to stoke the fire.</font></div>
<br>
<div style="font-size: 18px; clear: both;"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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