HONG KONG – As the hopes of the Arab Spring dissolved into brutality and chaos in 2011, I reported from Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Motorbikes roared through clouds of tear gas to pull out injured men with bloodied faces from the front line, where soldiers were deliberately shooting demonstrators in the eyes. Now I am in Hong Kong, where one of the planet’s busiest airports has been largely closed for the second time in two days after protesters marched there in anger at police violence. Many had bandages or patches over one eye in solidarity with a young woman who was shown in a video that went viral on Sunday, her right eye bloodied by what the protesters say was a beanbag projectile fired by the police. Such outrage over the wounding of one woman highlights what these protesters have been fighting to preserve for the past two months. A gentle city, one of the world’s financial centers that has grown rich from globalization and China’s rise, is battling to retain its values of civic and social freedom. The Hong Kong police, for all their woeful failings, are not thugs; the protesters could not be further from Beijing’s accusations that they are terrorists. Yet this is a clash of cultures symbolizing the struggle of our time between autocracy and democracy as it rapidly spirals into something dark, depressing and disruptive for global order. The protesters are mostly young and well educated. Many are teenagers. All are polite and friendly when I… [Read full story]
Leave a Reply