Siu Lun

Unless you’ve lived under a rock, or in the west or middle east, you would’ve got wind of the fact that yesterday night, a tour bus comprised of happy summer holiday makers from Hong Kong was hijacked and the day ended with Philippines Police Force trying to storm the bus and in the end 8 completely innocent holiday makers were killed.

I happened to have watched the entire situation reveal itself on live TV here in Hong Kong and I am furious at the Philippines police’s seemingly don’t give a fuck attitude towards the entier situation and I will list all the failing I witnessed below and those of you who’re interested can verify my claims on recoded TV footages if you can find one.

• During the day, police negotiators were standing right next to the hijacker at the front of the tour bus negotiating for the release of the hostage. Police negotiators could’ve grabbed the hijacker and pulled him out of the bus and restrained him and ended the day peacefully, but no.
• As above, the hijacker was in the door in full view of the snipers, they could’ve ended the day by injuring/killed the hijacker, but no
• The hijacker’s brothers who’re also police officers should’ve been either kept in isolation as the situation unfolded but no, they first of all asked their help, then later tried to arrest them, this was the catalyst that started the end of the hostage situation with the hijacker started shooting hostages after his brother’s arrest.
• The reason why the hijacker knew is because there was TV coverage, and the hijacker can see it on TV, it should’ve been obvious that such hijackings should always have restricted TV coverage to ensure information is only available to the police force, but no, they decided to broadcast it.
• The police force moved in onto the bus after a couple of gun shots in the bus, but took an hour after surrounding the bus before being able to kill the hijacker,
• The siege on the bus, the police SWAT team were complete amateurs, first of all taking 30 minutes smashing up ALL the windows of the bus, before trying to pull the door of the bus down with a car and a rope. Which ended up with the rope snapping!!
• A random police officer then managed to pull the handle of the emergency exit door wide open, the police force acted in amusement that it opened and decided to drive a golf cart in as a platform for police to board the bus.
• As the first officer boarded the bus, the route into the bus is hard to get on, and there was no turning back for him, but he HAD a bullet proof shield, however he was shot as he moved in as he was not using the shield properly and he dropped out of the bus as he was shot.
• Many more gunshots were heard on the bus and seen on the windows, but apparently snipers were unable to kill the hijacker as they did not know his position. (On the tiny bus)

Above were all the failings I’ve witnessed on live TV yesterday night.

Now I’ll put in my thoughts.

Why didn’t the police shoot him in midday when he was in full view?

Why when night broke, and shots were fired, snipers could not kill the lone gunman? Did they not have infrared cameras and amor penetrating bullets that could’ve went straight through the bus and into the hijacker?

I give them the benefit of a doubt that they’re literally such a poor country that they can’t afford those two objects in their entire nation. Why did they not ask other embassy for the equipment. I refuse to think that there wasn’t even 1 unit of those equipment in that country.

Why did the line broke when they try to pull the front door open? Could they not afford a strong rope?

Why did it take them 30 minutes to break each of the window of the bus? Why don’t they have more than 1 axe/mullet?

All in all, it was an epic fail, and the entire high-ranking police official of the Philippines as well as whoever in-charge of the operation yesterday along with his/her tactician should be fired.

An official inquiry and a report from the Philippines government will not answer any of the above questions as they’ll more than likely fabricate the event to their favor. Given the corruption claims and only a couple of days ago claims of the use of torture in the Philippines police force.

All I want to say, and I’m sure many other Hong Kong people would as well. We don’t need your report or inquiry, just fire all of them, admit the failings and compensate for all the families that have been affected. No amount of compensation you give would settle the grieve the families will have to live through the rest of their lives and trauma they face the Philippines government should take FULL responsibility for them and for fuck sake train your police, the ‘SWAT’ are amateurs.

A group of counter-strike playing gamers in the US could’ve taken on that lone gunmen without casualties.

I also want to touch on the fact that while many in Hong Kong are furious, I also want to pressure Mr. Donald Tsang to be more aggressive and demanding much like the Chinese official have. I find it very disappointing that he seems like a cat without claws on many issues surrounding Hong Kong and every public appearance he has been on it seems very much like a puppet show.

I believe the US is more likely to enter into deflation, and possibly a double dip. The validation required for this to happen is when Chinese imports stops growing. The timing of which will affect the severity of the double dip.

Logic dictates that for an economy to raise it’s exports, there must be markets who are willing to take it in as imports.

China, with the largest population in the world, contains the ability to pull everybody out of recession.

However, China’s is at the moment is trying to cool it’s red hot economy to a more sustainable level, as the country could be engulfed in the biggest bubble ever to burst in the history of economics. (due to it’s large population) and unrest due to the disparity between the rich and the poor.

But if China’s attempt to cool it’s economy shifts to a point where by the level of imports is not enough to create growth in the US, the US will very likely enter into deflation.

From a strategical stand-point however, history, human nature of conquest, of being the best, it may seem to me that it is actually IN China’s interest that US enters into a long bad recession. Much like US vs Russia during the cold war.

Warfare has developed to a point where it is no longer viable, or feasible. However, the modern economy I believe is the new battleground. Cynical as it may seem, anybody who’ve played a game on the world, ran a country, what is their ultimate objective? If not to bring prosperity and superiority to their own people and ultimately themselves.

Cynical as it may seem, the recent moves by the Chinese government to offload US treasuries, and to stress-test their otherwise healthy banking system for 60% drop in property prices, could be seen as a pre-emptive check, on the impact of a double dip in the US. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-02/18/content_9473134.htm

This opinion might be too far fetched, but an even more worrying and more subdue scenario is that China continues to grow just enough that the US do not enter into recession, thereby, preserving the integrity of the debt they hold, and over the next half of the century, milk the US.

Whether these come true or not, not really my concern, but I sense the financial crisis of 2008, signals the start of the next chapter of events that would change the world, and I feel excited by the thought of it.

Later.

Just a post on life lately. Something got me ticked off today as the stock market plunged (I’m not in it so *phew*), and news reports and attributing part of the blame on N.Korean tension.

if N.Korea really sank S.K ship. Why would they react angrily for the accusations and said it would send a team of their own guys to investigate, fear of sanctions? But if it was done by a rouge agent, they can easily admit to it and dismiss the whole thing as an accident. Or is there more sinister forces in play. Somebody’s stole N.Korean torpedos and fired it off a private sub? There are questions, and we should seek answers before jumping to conclusions.

What has N.Korea got to gain by sinking one ship, if they’re not going for an all-out-war?

For all I can see, I’d say a rouge spy has infiltrated the ranks of N.Korean army and did that on purpose to ignite a war.

Wouldn’t surprise me if it was US top secret material, or maybe even more sinister than that. Maybe part of the plans of the ‘elite’ families of the world. Who knows, but I think right now, it’s uncalled for. South Korean broadcasting propaganda over the border and stopping trade would only provoke N.Korea.