To quote the Dead....

“You're sick of hanging around, you'd like to travel
Get tired of traveling you want to settle down
I guess they can't revoke your soul for trying
Get out of the door, light out and look all around

Sometimes the lights all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately, it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been”

Yep, it has been about two years since I last posted to this blog, mostly because I don't think anyone really reads it. But I have a few musing I thought I would commit to some sort of electronic memories.

Back in 2008 Dick and I traveled to India via Hong Kong. The intervening years have seen many social events in Hong Kong and its evolving relationship with mainland China (PRC) thus I am curious as to what that may look like. My first trip to Hong Kong was amazing but short. We wandered about the city to the various tourist attractions and parks, went to street markets, ate Cantonese food. There were touristic videos at the hotel about other areas outside of the main core and into areas more focused on outdoor activities. We wished we had time to partake in some hikes out in the nature areas but did not. We did have a really short stay in Hong Kong this year but it was interrupted by rain and a doctor appointment. Other than the metro trip and the taxi ride back to the cruise terminal we saw nothing of the city but did view a lot from the water. There is much that can be discovered about the local economy by watching the shipping traffic in a port city. There was a lot of activity around the Kowloon waterfront and much of it with new construction.

In 2019 we will again travel to India via Hong Kong so a renewed search has begun for accommodations. Which leads to many other searches, like those for museums, transportation, and of course dining options. But why should I care you may ask as I am only a visitor? 

It has been well known that mainland China (aka Beijing) is trying to move the corporate center to Shanghai and away from Hong Kong as well as influence the language spoken. Wait, what did you say, doesn't all of China speak Chinese. Yes and no. Under the Basic Law of Hong Kong, Mandarin was made an official language along with Cantonese and English. On paper, the three languages were given equal status, however, Mandarin is being increasingly used in day to day activities in Hong Kong today. This has led to fears of Cantonese being replaced as the majority of Hong Kong people speak Cantonese as their first language. On May 2018, The Education Bureau of Hong Kong stated that Cantonese is a dialect, thus cannot be considered a mother tongue language. I don't speak either language but from my experience, they are not just dialects but much more complex and different languages.

Again why is there so much angst in Hong Kong? For one Hong Kong has never been an independent country but has had a very strong cultural identity. The sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997. The terms agreed between the governments for the transfer included a series of guarantees for the maintenance of Hong Kong's differing economic, political and legal systems after the transfer, and the further development of Hong Kong's political system with a goal of democratic government. These guarantees were set out in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and adopted into the semi-constitutional Basic Law of Hong Kong. The Basic Law was to ensure that Hong Kong would retain its capitalist economic system and own currency (the Hong Kong Dollar), the legal system, legislative system, and people's rights and freedom for fifty years, as a special administrative region (SAR) of China. This is set to expire in 2047, the current arrangement has permitted Hong Kong to function as its own entity in many international settings rather than as a part of China. Things have not gone well over the years and many aspects of the "One country, two systems" is a constitutional principle formulated by Deng Xiaoping are not being enacted as originally intended. 

As Americans, we are able to pick up and move to another city or state and take up residence without much thought but in China, this is not the case. Where you are born is the city where you obtain your social welfare, this is referred to as the right to adobe. Pregnant mainland women seeking to give birth in Hong Kong, specifically to benefit from the right of abode, which results in their children gaining the right to abode and enjoy social welfare in Hong Kong. Potentially, this can put a heavier burden on Hong Kong's medical system if not other populace cities in the mainland. This is a similar concern in the US as the same has been occurring. The 14th Amendment allows the babies born on American soil the right to American citizenship. 

So you are still asking what does this mean to me and why am I thinking about another country that I was not born in? Well, our current US president seems to like that Xi Jinping has no term limit and would like to have the same offered to him. He like all of the repression of the press, building a border wall, and undermining judicial independence, and fear mongering.  This scares me as well as his base. I am not a citizen of the US by birth but I am a naturalized citizen and I greatly appreciate my personal freedoms and privileges and I hope my grandchildren also have the same but I fear the direction we are going as a nation. When the bullies take over it is very difficult to get them out or make changes to bad public policy.