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Showing posts sorted by date for query V for Vendetta. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Raining Frogs & Fish: A Whirlwind of Theories

By Benjamin Radford April 11, 2014

#FORTEAN PHENOMENA #ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA

A woodcut showing a rain of frogs in Scandanavia, from 'Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon,' one of the first modern books about strange phenomenon, was published in 1557. (Image: © Public domain.)

For millennia, people have reported a rare and strange phenomenon: a sudden rain of frogs — or fish or worms — from the sky. You may be minding your own business walking in a park on a blustery day when a small frog hits you on the top of the head. As you peer down at the stunned animal, another one comes down, and another and another all around you, in a surreal rain of frogs in various states of trauma.



Charles Fort was an early collector of reports about strange phenomena. (Image credit: Public domain.)

Charles Fort, an early collector of reports about strange phenomena, noted the following in his 1919 tome, "The Book of the Damned": "A shower of frogs which darkened the air and covered the ground for a long distance is the reported result of a recent rainstorm at Kansas City, Mo." This report first appeared in the July 12, 1873, issue of Scientific American. Fort noted dozens of similar reports from around the world and wrote that as "for accounts of small frogs, or toads, said to have been seen to fall from the sky, [a skeptical] writer says that all observers were mistaken: that the frogs or toads must have fallen from trees or other places overhead."

Any number of small animals have been reported falling from the sky, including ants, small fish and worms. Modern examples tend to be rare, but reports do surface occasionally in magazines devoted to strange phenomenon such as Fortean Times (named after Fort). Frog rains were mentioned in an episode of "The X-Files" titled "Die Hand Die Verletzt" ("The Hand That Wounds"), in which Agent Scully exclaims, "Mulder... toads just fell from the sky," to which the unflappable Agent Mulder replies, "I guess their parachutes didn't open."

Bob Rickard and John Michell, in their book, "The Rough Guide to the Unexplained," note that "The quality of the evidence for rains of fishes and frogs is good, with a canon of well-observed cases going back to antiquity." According to Jane Goldman's "The Book of The X-Files," "Falls of animals were first recorded in A.D. 77, in Pliny's 'Natural History' which scoffed at the idea that they could rain from the skies, suggesting instead that they grew from the ground after heavy rains.

This explanation likely seemed reasonable 2,000 years ago — after all, some animals such as worms and insects do seem to suddenly "appear" on the grounds during and following heavy rains, driven to the surface because they cannot breathe in the soaked soil. So if the frogs don't originally come from the skies, and they don't "grow" out of the ground after being watered, where do they come from? [Pictures: Cute and Colorful Frogs]


Explanations?

The most likely explanation for how small frogs get up into the sky in the first place is meteorological: a whirlwind, tornado or other natural phenomenon. Fort admitted that this is a possibility, but offered several reasons why he doubted that's the true or complete explanation: "It is so easy to say that small frogs that have fallen from the sky had been scooped up by a whirlwind ... but [this explanation offers] no regard for mud, debris from the bottom of a pond, floating vegetation, loose things from the shores — but a precise picking out of the frogs only. ... Also, a pond going up would be quite as interesting as frogs coming down. Whirlwinds we read of over and over — but where and what whirlwind? It seems to me that anybody who had lost a pond would be heard from." For example, Fort argued, one published report of "a fall of small frogs near Birmingham, England, June 30, 1892, is attributed to a specific whirlwind — but not a word as to any special pond that had contributed."

What about the reasons that Fort and others cite for why a whirlwind is not a good explanation? Frogs and fish do not of course live in the sky, nor do they suddenly and mysteriously appear there; in fact they share a common habitat: ponds and streams. It's certain that they gained altitude in a natural, not supernatural, way. [Countdown: Fishy Rain to Fire Whirlwinds: The World's Weirdest Weather]

That there are very few eyewitness accounts of frogs and fish being sucked up into the sky during a tornado, whirlwind or storm is hardly mysterious or unexplainable. Anytime winds are powerful enough to suck up fish, frogs, leaves, dirt and detritus, they are powerful enough to be of concern to potential eyewitnesses. In other words, people who would be close enough to a whirlwind or tornado to see the flying amphibians would be more concerned for their own safety (and that of others) to pay much attention to whether or not some frogs are among the stuff being picked up and flown around at high speeds. These storms are loud, windy, chaotic, and hardly ideal for accurate eyewitness reporting.

A 1555 engraving of a rain of fish. (Image credit: Public domain.)

The same applies to Fort's apparent surprise that, following frog falls, farmers or others don't come forward to identify which specific pond the frogs came from. How would anyone know? Whirlwinds and tornadoes may move quickly and over many miles, destroying and lifting myriad debris in its wake. Unless a farmer took an inventory of all the little frogs in a pond both before and after a storm, there's no way anyone would know exactly where they came from, nor would it be noteworthy.

Of course, a wind disturbance need not be a full-fledged tornado to be strong enough to pick up small frogs and fish; smaller, localized versions such as waterspouts and dust devils — which may not be big enough, potentially damaging enough, or near enough to populated areas to be reported in the local news — may do the trick.

High winds, whirlwinds and tornadoes are strong enough to overturn cars and rip the roofs off of buildings. In 2012, a 2-year-old Indiana girl was lifted into the air during a storm, and, incredibly, carried into the sky and found alive 10 miles away. Strong winds are certainly powerful enough to lift up and carry frogs into the air. It is, of course, possible that there is some unknown, small-frog-levitating force at work in nature, but until and unless that is verified, it seems likely that this mystery is solved after all.

Benjamin Radford, M.Ed, is a member of the American Folklore Society and author of seven books including Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries. His Web site is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

Charles Fort: Pioneer in the Search for Scientific Anomalies or Anti-dogmatist who Collected Bizarre Stories?

25 MARCH, 2016 - 13:50 DHWTY

Charles Hoy Fort was an American “self-educated newspaperman, modestly-successful short story writer, unsuccessful novelist and inventor, and eccentric natural philosopher,” regarded by some, especially his devotees, who call themselves ‘Forteans’, as a pioneer of anomalistic.

This is a term coined in 1973 by an anthropologist by the name of Roger W. Wescott, and has been used to describe the “interdisciplinary study of scientific anomalies (alleged extraordinary events unexplained by currently accepted scientific theory)”. Fort was fascinated by such anomalies, and spent much of his adult life collecting accounts of such events.
Charles’ Troubled Early Life

Charles Fort was born on August 6, 1874 in Albany, New York. Fort’s parents were Dutch immigrants who became fairly prosperous in the United States. Fort’s family owned a wholesale grocery business in Albany. Fort had a painful childhood, as it has been said that his father was abusive and often beat him. Some believe that as a result of these experiences, Fort became skeptical and distrustful of authority and dogma.

Charles Fort. ( Daniel Moler )

In 1892, at the age of 18, Fort escaped his father’s authoritarian ways by leaving home. He began working as a journalist for a New York newspaper and eventually became an editor of a Long Island paper. He quit his job, however, in 1893, and hitchhiked around the world.


His travels were cut short in 1896 when he contracted malaria in South Africa. After that, Fort returned to New York, and married Anna Filing. One source claims that Anna was “an Irish immigrant whom he had known in Albany”, whilst another says she was “an English servant girl in his father's house”.
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Fort’s Writings

For the next couple of years, Fort lived in the Bronx with his wife. During this time, the couple lived in poverty, and Fort tried to make ends meet by writing stories for newspapers and magazines. Fort eventually gave up on writing fiction. In 1906, he began to collect accounts of anomalies. However, this was not his initial aim. Instead, whilst doing his research in the New York Public Library, he read about a whole range of subjects, including science, art, philosophy, and economics. It was here that he found reports of odd things, and started to collect them by scribbling them on small sheets of paper.


In 1915, Fort had finished writing two books, X and Y. Unfortunately, publishers during that time were not interested in them, and hence they were considered failures. These books were later lost, as Fort destroyed both manuscripts later in his career.

In the same year, Fort was encouraged by Theodore Dreisner (a magazine editor whom Fort met in 1905 and befriended) to compile his reports of anomalies into a book. In the following year, Fort received a modest inheritance from an uncle which allowed him to concentrate on his writing. Thus, in 1919, the Book of the Damned was published.

Theodore Dreiser, photographed by Carl Van Vechten. ( Public Domain )
The Emergence of the Fortean Society

Whilst Forteans regard Charles Fort as a pioneer in the study of anomalies, others are less certain about it. For example, one source describes Fort as an “anti-dogmatist who collected weird and bizarre stories.”
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Apart from collecting bizarre reports, it has been claimed that Fort did not actually do much else. For example, it has been pointed out that Fort did not question the veracity of the accounts he collected. Additionally, Fort was not really interested in making any sense out of the accounts he collected either. It has also been argued that Fort’s primary goal of collecting these accounts of anomalies was to embarrass and ridicule scientists with stories that could not be explained or answered by science. For Fort, scientists were on his list of authoritative figures he distrusted.

Charles Fort died at the age of 57 on May 3, 1932 in the Bronx, New York. A year before his death, the Fortean Society was established by one of Fort’s friends, Tiffany Thayer. Fort, who was a skeptic even of his own authority, refused to join this society. Whilst some emphasize his hostility towards science, other regard him as a hero and an inspirational figure whose writings on anomalies has profoundly impacted the way we view and approach this subject.

Fortean Societies can be found in different parts of the world, but Charles Fort also inspired magazines, such as the Fortean Times, and a short-run TV program called Fortean TV . Both the magazine and the show have a focus on anomalous phenomena that probably would have interested Fort.




Steve Moore - obituary
Steve Moore was the co-founder of The Fortean Times who detailed the strange and supernatural

Steve Moore DIED 13 Apr 2014
Steve Moore, who has died aged 64, had a prolific career at the margins of literature. His output included scripts for comic strips, novelisations of films and supernatural fiction. He also edited several collections of pieces sent in by readers of The Fortean Times — a magazine devoted to strange phenomena — of which Moore was a founder and mainstay.

He compiled The Fortean Times Book of Strange Deaths (1999), in which one entry ran: “In Japan in 1981, Kenji Urada was killed when a robot at the Kawasaki factory where he worked mistook his head for a component that needed tightening up.” For their Book of Close Shaves And Amazing Luck, he observed that “you may be lucky to be alive if you’ve just had a six-foot steel crowbar driven through one side of your skull and out the other, but most of us would rather we didn’t actually need that sort of luck in the first place”.


Long fascinated by the I Ching and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, his Fortean contributions also included book reviews and articles on Oriental curiosities. His involvement had begun in 1973 when he contributed stories to what was then known as The News; he had known its publisher, Bob Rickard, since 1969, when both worked on a fanzine, Orpheus (where Moore once penned an editorial on “the psychological benevolence and universal importance of the suet pudding”).

Moore favoured goatee beards, wore black satin jackets and practised magic. He believed that as he had been born “at the full moon atop a crescent-shaped hill” and bore a “crescent birthmark on my left forearm … I was obviously destined to be either a werewolf or a lunatic. Fortunately there’s been no sign of fur or ripping out people’s throats so far.”

The hill in question was Shooters Hill in south London, where he was born on June 11 1949 and where he lived for nearly all his life in the same book-filled house. It was where he published fanzines during the late Sixties, where he worked on nearly all his subsequent writings, and where he died.

Leaving school aged 16, Moore was a flour grader at the Rank Hovis McDougall laboratory in Deptford, then an office boy at Odhams Press, a subsidiary of the publishers IPC. Within three months he became a junior sub-editor on Pow! and Fantastic comics, both of which featured imported strips from Marvel Comics (by the late Seventies, Moore would be working for the British arm of that imprint). He became a freelance writer in 1972.

He produced film and TV tie-in Christmas annuals for Supergran, Dick Turpin and a Polish-produced series, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson (1979) — which was never shown in Britain. Moore also wrote for IPC’s girls’ comic Mirabelle, but was too embarrassed to buy any of its copies; embarrassment continued when, having been assured a Titbits feature on sexual exploits in Bangkok would be credited to his pseudonym Pedro Henry, it went to press under his real name.

Returning to IPC in 1977, he wrote for 2000AD from its 12th issue onwards. His strips for Marvel’s Doctor Who Weekly (later Doctor Who Magazine) were also clearly in 2000AD’s style. Moore’s creation of muscular, weapon-wielding “Abslom Daak – Dalek Killer” had more in common with the character Snake Plissken from Escape From New York than any jelly baby-proffering timelord.

A fellow Doctor Who contributor was the unrelated Alan Moore, who described Steve as his “oldest and dearest friend”, who had taught him the mechanics of comic strips. Alan made his namesake the subject of the essay Unearthing (2006); meanwhile, Steve wrote the novelisation of the film V For Vendetta (published 2006), adapted from his friend’s graphic novel.

He published a Gothic fantasy novel, Somnium, in 2011.

Steve Moore never married. For many years he cared for his brother Chris, who suffered from motor neurone disease and died in 2009.


Steve Moore, born June 11 1949, died March 16 2014

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Farmers are rioting over a “gay” painting on display at a museum

Farmers started punching LGBTQ people and shouting anti-gay slurs and "Burn it! Burn it!"


By Daniel Villarreal Monday, December 16, 2019


https://www.facebook.com/chairez.art

In Mexico City’s Fine Arts Palace, one of the country’s most prominent cultural centers, a small painting by 32-year-old queer artist Fabián Cháirez has caused traditionalist protestors to attack LGBTQ counter-protestors and others to call for the painting to be burned, compelling the Mexican government and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to intervene.


The fight is over Cháirez’s “La Revolución,” a 12 x 8-inch portrait from 2014 that depicts one of the country’s most celebrated revolutionary heroes, Emiliano Zapata, as a pouty, naked pin-up. In the image, Zapata wears a pink sombrero and high heels shaped like pistols. He’s wrapped in a flowing ribbon colored like the Mexican flag while riding a horse with a giant erection.

Zapata is revered as an early 20th-century Mexican revolutionary leader who helped overthrow the “hacienda system” that kept poor farmers indebted to a small landowning class. As such, he’s become a symbol of social and economic justice for Mexico’s poor and working classes, according to WESA. He’s often depicted as a hyper-masculine figure with a bushy mustache and a sombrero.

Mexico’s Ministry of Culture of Mexico selected “La Revolución” as part of an exhibition entitled “Emiliano: Zapata after Zapata,” featuring 141 depictions of the revolutionary as an activist icon. But after Cháirez’s artwork was featured in the exhibit’s promotional materials, Zapata’s descendants pledged to sue the artist and the government for defamation, suggesting that he might be gay.

(The real-life Zapata never married.)

BEFORE V FOR VENDETTA THERE WAS ZAPATA 


On Wednesday morning, a fight occurred outside the palace between poorer Zapata-admiring farmers and LGBTQ activists. The farmers, who spouted anti-gay slurs and shouted “Burn it!” while blocking the Palace’s entrance, refused to move until the painting was taken down. After LGBTQ community members showed up to support the artwork, saying it challenges machismo stereotypes that endure to this day, the farmers began pushing and punching the counter-protesters.

Responding to growing unrest at the museum and in the media, Mexico’s President said at a press conference, “Artists have total freedom and we can’t have censorship. What is all this about entering the Fine Arts Palace and punching people? We totally reject this.”




The portrait is actually tame compared to Cháirez’s other NSFW pieces; most of it depicts naked Mexican wrestlers, vaqueros and clergy members seductively licking guns and crucifixes. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Culture says it has reached a deal with Zapata’s relatives, keeping the image in the exhibit but no longer featuring it in promotional materials.

In a recent interview, Cháirez said of the controversy, “A revolution is just that: moving ideas, moving established things to take them to another place, usually in favor of freedom and dignity. If Zapata were a contemporary person, he would surely be on our side.”



MACHISMO VS THE REST OF US


SANLUISOBISPO.COM
A painting showing Mexican Revolution hero Emiliano Zapata nude and in an effeminate pose has drawn the ire of some of Zapata's descendants.
CONFRONTING MEXICO'S MACHISMO
A nude portrait of revolutionary Emiliano Zapata riding a horse wearing high heels is causing an uproar in Mexico.
A SEXY POSE IN A PINK SOMBRERO
ON THAT HORSE FROM BUGS BUNNY WHAT'S OPERA DOC
THE REAL JOKE IS THE FACT THE HORSE HAS A FIFTH LEG ...
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-1:41
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DW News
A nude portrait of revolutionary Emiliano Zapata riding a horse wearing high heels is causing an uproar in Mexico.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Hong Kong protesters placed a Lady Liberty statue on the city’s Lion’s Peak overlooking Hong Kong on Sunday, as clashes with riot police caused chaos.  



'Lady Liberty' erected above Hong Kong
Reuters Videos Reuters Videos•October 13, 2019
In the dead of night, several dozen Hong Kong protesters scaled the city's Lion Peak early on Sunday (October 13), carrying with them their version of Lady Liberty.

The three-meter statue represents an injured protester, believed by activists to have been shot in the eye by a police projectile, and holds a banner saying 'revolution of our time, liberate Hong Kong'.

Alex, one of the protesters, says he hopes it will inspire people to keep fighting.

Hong Kong's Lady Liberty can be seen from the city below where, on Sunday, she watched over protesters and riot police clashing in chaotic scenes.

Several rallies were held in shopping centers against what is seen as Beijing's tightening grip on the city.

Police made numerous arrests and deployed tear gas after hardcore activists trashed shops and metro stations and erected road blocks.

More than 2,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations started in June.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says 40% of those detained since September were under the age of 18 and 10% under the age of 15.

香港民主女神像製作過程|
Making of Lady Liberty Hong Kong





Who is Lady Liberty of the Hong Kong protests? What’s the back story?
The hope is that it can motivate people in Hong Kong’s democratic movement, says Hong Kong protest coordinator Lomy.
“We hope that different voices in the society can come into consensus to create a better future for Hong Kong,” he says. “The statue reminds people of the Tiananmen democratic movement in China.”
In 1989, more than a million Chinese civilians, many of them students, staged the biggest challenge to the Communist Party’s legitimacy since it came to power in 1949. The pro-democracy demonstrations were sparked by the April 15 death of a former party chief, Hu Yaobang, who had a reputation as a liberalizer.
Hong Kong is now facing a similar situation, says Lomy. A controversial extradition bill was originally proposed by Hong Kong’s government in February and covered mainland China and other jurisdictions that don’t have an extradition agreement with Hong Kong. Lam and the law’s backers originally defended it as necessary to ensure the city wouldn’t become a refuge for suspected fugitives.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she would formally withdraw the bill allowing extraditions to the mainland, which triggered the unrest in early June. But demonstrators now have a host of other demands, and Beijing has ruled out the biggest one: the right to elect a leader of their choosing.
The posture of Lady Liberty looks like she is leading the movement. The protesters’ five key demands are written on a black flag that she raises in her hand. She carries an umbrella to protect herself as well as a school bag, which “is a signature image of the frontline protesters.”
“What’s under her is something is something we want to see the least but we need to show tear gas,” says Lomy. “The police fired a lot of tear gas canisters and the smoke from them. “
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Multiple arrests in Hong Kong as "flashmob" protests hit pro-Bejing targets
AFP AFP•October 13, 2019 

Police clear barricades left by protestors. Clashes between police and activists were less intense than at the start of October when the city was virtually shut down
Police clear barricades left by protestors. Clashes between police and activists were less intense than at the start of October when the city was virtually shut down (AFP Photo/Mohd RASFAN)

Riot police clashed with anti-government protesters across Hong Kong Sunday as masked activists vandalised businesses deemed sympathetic to Beijing in another weekend of chaos in the financial hub.

Rallies erupted in multiple neighbourhoods, with some protesters blocking roads, sabotaging train tracks, and trashing pro-China businesses.

Police said an officer was taken to hospital after his neck was slashed. Local television networks also broadcast footage of a man beaten bloody by protesters after they found a baton in his bag and suspected him of being an undercover officer.

Police have increasingly posed as protesters, scoring some tactical successes and sparking widespread paranoia among frontline demonstrators.

During cat-and-mouse encounters on Sunday officers made dozens of arrests, but there were fewer protesters than have taken to the streets more recently during the four-month long protest movement.

In Mongkok, a bustling shopping district on the Kowloon peninsula, officers burst from an unmarked van over a blockade of bamboo scaffolding and quickly chased down multiple protesters.

Later, an AFP reporter in the neighbourhood saw protesters beat a woman earlier accused of helping police clear barricades.

The woman was struck with fists and umbrellas, and also had her face smeared with mud.

Protesters have increasingly turned on their ideological opponents in recent weeks, while Beijing loyalists have attacked democracy activists throughout the summer.

- 'Blossom everywhere' -

Online forums used to organise the largely leaderless movement advertised Sunday as a "blossom everywhere" day, encouraging activists to gather in malls across the city.

Protests and clashes were reported in half a dozen neighbourhoods, with police saying they fired tear gas during two incidents.

While the crowds were thinner, the flashmob tactics stretched police resources and still brought chaos to parts of the city for a 19th consecutive weekend.

Throughout the day, police found themselves berated and heckled by bystanders as they made arrests, highlighting how the force has become loathed and pilloried by large parts of the population.

"I’m furious," a female protester, who gave her surname as Chan, told AFP. "I want the government to disband the entire police force."

Hong Kong has been shaken by four months of massive democracy protests which have seen increasingly violent clashes between hardcore demonstrators and police, as well as regular transport disruptions.

The protests were sparked by opposition to a now-scrapped proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, but have since morphed into a larger movement for democracy and police accountability.

- Spiralling violence -

The city enjoys unique rights under the terms of its handover to China by Britain in 1997 -- including freedom of expression and an independent judiciary -- but many believe these are under threat from an increasingly assertive Beijing.

Street battles between riot police and small groups of protesters have become a weekly occurrence, hammering the already struggling economy, spooking tourists and undermining Hong Kong's reputation for stability.

The beginning of October saw a particularly fierce period of unrest with protesters upping their violence as Communist China celebrated its 70th birthday party.

Clashes further intensified after the city's leader invoked colonial-era emergency laws to ban face masks at protests.

Over the course of a week, protesters went on a vandalism spree, much of it targeting the city's subway network and pro-China businesses.

Police also increased their response, firing tear gas and rubber bullets with renewed ferocity. Two teenagers were wounded with live rounds during clashes with police.

But the last few days have seen a comparatively calmer period.

Protesters are pushing for an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,500 people arrested and universal suffrage.

Beijing, and city leader Carrie Lam, repeatedly rejected those demands.
Petrol bombs thrown in Hong Kong metro, protesters defy face mask ban
Police officers patrol the streets following demonstration march in protest against the invocation of the emergency laws in Hong Kong
By Noah Sin

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Petrol bombs were thrown inside a Hong Kong metro station on Saturday but no one was injured, the government said, as pro-democracy protesters again took to the streets angry at what they believe is Beijing's tightening grip on the city.

The Kowloon Tong station was seriously damaged in the attack, the government said in a statement. Riot police deployed in the streets of Kowloon and inside several metro stations afterward.

Hundreds of protesters, many young and wearing face masks, were marching in Kowloon at the time and were headed to a district near the Kowloon Tong station.

"No crime to cover our faces, no reason to enact (anti-mask) law," protesters chanted. "I have the right to wear masks!"

The Hong Kong government introduced colonial-era emergency laws last week to ban the wearing of face masks at public rallies, a move that sparked some of the worst violence since the unrest started in June.

Some protesters erected road barricades using public garbage bins and water-filled plastic barriers used for traffic control and security.

Protesters elsewhere set fire to a government office in Kowloon and vandalized shops and metro stations, the government said.

There were no skirmishes between protesters and police and by nightfall protesters had dispersed into small groups scattered around Kowloon.

Hong Kong's protests started in opposition to a now-abandoned extradition bill but have mushroomed in four months into a pro-democracy movement and an outlet for anger at social inequality in the city, an Asian financial hub.

The protests have plunged the city into its worst crisis since Britain handed it back to China in 1997 and is the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.

The protests have been driven by a concern that China has been eroding Hong Kong's freedoms, guaranteed under a "one country, two systems" formula introduced with the 1997 handover.

The now-withdrawn extradition bill, under which residents would have been sent to Communist-controlled mainland courts, was seen as the latest move to tighten control.

China denies the accusation and says foreign countries, including Britain and the United States, are fomenting unrest.

Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam canceled a meeting with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the highest profile U.S. politician to visit the city since the unrest started, Cruz said on Saturday.

"I stand with the people of Hong Kong calling on the government of China to honor the promises it made to the world when it promised to maintain political freedom in Hong Kong," said Cruz, a vocal critic of China, who was dressed in black in solidarity with pro-democracy activists.

'DEFEND THE FUTURE'

Hong Kong had experienced relative calm since last weekend, when a peaceful march by tens of thousands spiraled into a night of running battles between protesters and police.

Since then there had only been small nightly protests and activists had not flagged any major action this weekend.

A small group calling itself the "Silver-Haired Marchers" began a 48-hour sit-in at police headquarters on Saturday, describing themselves as "old but not obsolete".

"The young people have already sacrificed a lot, it is about time for us, the senior citizens in Hong Kong to come forward to take up part of the responsibility from the young people," 63-year-old Shiu told local media.

"I mean for us, even if we are caught by the police because of an illegal gathering, I don’t mind," said Shiu, who was identified with only one name.

Police have arrested more than 2,300 people since June. Since September nearly 40% were under the age of 18 and 10% under 15.

Some protest marchers on Saturday covered their faces with photocopies of the Chinese president's face, others with "V for Vendetta" Guy Fawkes masks, and a group of protesters plan a "face mask party" on Saturday night.

The face mask ban carries a maximum one-year jail term, but thousands, including school children and office workers, have defied the order.

POLICE CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE

Hong Kong's police are also facing a crisis of confidence amid the worsening political tensions. Protesters accuse them of using excessive force, which police deny, and two protesters have been shot and wounded during skirmishes with police.

Hong Kong is facing its first recession in a decade due to the protests, with tourism and retail hardest hit.

Many shops have been shutting early to avoid becoming a target of protesters and due to closures of the damaged metro. Some stations on the network were closed on Saturday after being targeted.

Protesters have also targeted China banks and shops with perceived links to China, as well as U.S. coffee chain Starbucks , which had a store in Kowloon trashed on Saturday.


SEE: https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=hong+kong