oiwan's blog

Below is a summary of an advocacy meeting on "Cross-border feminist strategy" which took place in Hong Kong on June 11, 2011. The meeting is part of the research effort on "Gender, ICT and citizenship" coordinated by IT for Change. It aims to bring together feminist activists from China and Hong Kong to address debate over citizen rights in relation to the authoritarian regime in Mainland China and the border politics under the post-colonial conditions of One Country Two System in Hong Kong.

Chair: Ip Iam Chong (Hong Kong In-Media, Hong Kong)

Speakers:
Lu Ping (Gender Watch China, Beijing)
Li Jun (Gender Action Network, Guangzhou)
Sally Choi (AAF, Hong Kong)
Oiwan Lam (Hong Kong In-Media, Hong Kong)

Blindfolded for 22 years, it is time to lift the shroud of pseudo-democracy.

22 years ago, in December 1988, the public consultation of the draft for Basic Law came to an end. It was a historical moment of political awakening for Hong Kong citizens. Indifferent to the 60,000+ proposals submitted by Hong Kong people (see note), Beijing was adamant on adopting the conservative package going against popular opinion at that time. This decision triggered two historic social actions: burning of the Basic Law draft and initiation of a hunger strike in protest. This was a critical moment for Hong Kong citizens to safeguard the ideals of “Self-Governance, High degree of Autonomy”, to tear away the façade of delusions and deceptions. The criticism received by the conservative package then: “An undemocratic beginning; taking leaden steps along the way; but with no end in sight” is unfortunately still applicable to the current political reform package. This statement has foreshadowed our painful struggle for democracy over the past 22 years.

Just received an email from MediACT about the regression in democracy under the Lee Myung-bak regime, in particular the Grand National Party's (GNP) and conservative newspapers' attempt to take-over of public broadcasting and the replacement of major broadcasting networks' executives with pro-government figure. MediACT, South Korea’s first public media center, has become one of the victims of the regression, as the Korean Film Council has decided to dismantle the media center and force its staff to resign as of February 1. To support SaveMediact petition, please visit petition online.

On the 12th of August 2009, a labor dispatch company hired by Coca-Cola’s designated Hangzhou-based bottling plant was discovered to have threatened two university student-workers who asked for their own and their two other fellow workers’ backpay upon their resignation. Xiao Liang, 24, was beaten up by two managers at the labor dispatch company’s office, resulting in serious wounds over his left eye, left hand, and right ear. Xiao Xu sent Xiao Liang to the Dongfang Hospital immediately after police arrived on the scene. Xiao Liang was later diagnosed with a ruptured eardrum, resulting in compromised hearing capacity.

This letter is written by Yoko Akimoto from ATTAC Japan and circulated through the e-mail list of Asia-social-movement.

Dear all,

I guess people in this ML is interested in the result of the general election in Japan yesterday. Here's my observation of it as a part of Japanese social movements.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won the general election by a landslide Sunday, ousting from the top position of power the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) which has controlled the country since 1955 and been a strong ally of the US. This is really a reflection of people's voices calling for a drastic change or switch of power.

Blogger, doubleaf has created a google map about cancer village in China based on the official data collected by Deng Fei. (via Micheal Anti's twitter)

During a recent trip to San Francisco, I was asked to comment on China's threat to global environment by a local student regarding the fact that China is now the top country in greenhouse gap emission.

We are pleased to announce the launching of Info-Rhizome: Report on Independent Media in Chinese-speaking world (2008/09) and the re-launching of interlocals.net.

Info-Rhizome: Report on Independent Media in Chinese-speaking world (2008/09)

The book published in two languages English and traditional Chinese and is free to download for individual use.

Nine Dragons Paper has been listed in Hong Kong Stock market since 2006, its peak market value was worth of HKD$100 billions. The corporate has two factory campuses in China, one in Dongguan, Guangdong province, one in Taichang, Jiangsu province, with 9,000 and 6,000 workers respectively. It has planned to develop its third and fourth manufacturing campuses in Zongqing and Tianjin. The corporate is listed the top in China, the second in Asia and the eighth in the world in paper manufacturing.

Watching the Olympic new on T.V, I laughed until tears came out.

The news about the Olympic torch is never ending. Details like whether our chief executive Donald Tsang’s arm is strong enough to hold the torch and run for 200km are reported in length. As for Hu Jia, who has been sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment because of “sedition of the state power”, has been sidelined by piles of Olympic public relation news. The International Olympic Committee and T.V station want us to see a colourful Beijing, with grand spectacles. I looked at the smiling face of the news anchor, it looked like the Olympic symbols – Fu Wa.

The darkest day

It is cold and dark, not only because of the weather but because of the crazy crack down of internet and massive arrest of netizens.