Past Future Continuous may not be the documentary it's presented to be (Film review)

  

One of the posters that was part of the HKIFF's 

poster exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre

 

Past Future Continuous (Iran-Italy-Norway, 2025) 

- Firouzeh Khosrovani and Morteza Ahmadvand co-directors, and co-scriptwriters (with Naghmeh Samini)

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

This deceptively straightforward entry in this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition was the winner of an award at last year's International Documentary Film Amsterdam (IDFA).  It also is described as a documentary on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) website, Letterboxd and elsewhere I've looked.

 

But something seems amiss when there are three scriptwriters along with two co-directors (USA-based Firouzeh Khosrovani, and Moretza Ahmadvand, who resides in Tehran, Iran) listed for Past Future Continuous but none of them have the same name as Maryam, the involuntary immigrant from Iran now teaching at a university somewhere in the USA, whose story is told (in first person narrative form) in the film.    

 

To be sure, it would be understandable if Maryam is not the real name of someone who has resorted to having closed circuit television cameras installed in her family home in order to be visually connected with her parents living thousands of miles away in a country it no longer is safe for her to return to.  Very sadly, there are many people, including Hongkongers, who can only see beloved family members on TV, computer and smartphone screens these days.  

 

I just wish it would be more clearly outlined if Maryam is a real person's pseudonym or fictional character since there is a whole world of a difference between watching something is reality versus fiction, however based-on-reality the presented fictionalised situations are.  And the truth of the matter is that the nagging possibility that the people we see on screen for the bulk of Past Future Continuous are actors playing parts rather than the actual parents of someone who clearly loves and misses them can be distracting -- and detract from what actually would be a genuine tragedy unfolding on the screen; one involving a lonely couple -- who no longer have guests in their home, the way they used to do so in their younger, pre-Iranian Revolution days -- growing older, frailer and ill before our eyes.

 

Alternatively, if Past Future Continuous were indeed taken as a realist work of fiction rather than documentary, I actually would have been more tolerant of the repeated images of a fluttering white dove that feature in more than one part of the film and looked upon them as lyrically poetic rather than aesthetically indulgent!  Either way though, it speaks volumes that so much is left unsaid in this enigmatic work where so many things (and people?) may not be all that they (initially) seem.

 

My rating for this film: 6.0    

A Japanese anime with arresting visuals and an Italian film with a whole lot of dialogue! (Film reviews)

  

Moments before the beginning of a Hong Kong 

International Film Festival screening

 

The Last Blossom (Japan, 2025)

- Baku Kinoshita, director and co-scriptwriter (with Kazuya Konomoto)

- Voice actors: Kaoru Kobayashi, Junki Tozuka, Pierre Taki, Hikari Mitsushima, Yoshiko Miyazaki

- Part of the HKIFF's Animation Unlimited program  

 

For those people who still think that anime is just for children: check out The Last Blossom.  Okay, yes, it has a child character (Kensuke is voiced by 30-something-year old Natsuki Hanae) and even a talking flower (voiced by Pierre Taki).  But this truly is a mature dramatic work about an elderly, dying yakuza serving a life sentence looking back at his life and reflecting in particular on the phase of his life back in the 1980s when he lived with the love of his life, devoted single mother Nana. 

 

Such is the length of the time line of The Last Blossom's story that both lead character Minoru and Nana are voiced by not one but two people; with Kaoru Kobayashi supplying Minoru's younger voice, Junki Tozuka his older one, Hikari Mitsushima voicing Nana in the 1980s and Yoshiko Miyazaki in the 21st century.  Yet I must confess that I only realised this when looking at the film credits!

 

Meanwhile, the Housenka flower is voiced by only one actor despite it appearing in flashback scenes taking place in the 1980s (when it was growing in the garden of the house that Minoru, Nana (who he chose not to marry so as to ensure that she would be unsaddled with yazuka connections) and her son Kensuke lived) and as a potted plant in Minoru's prison cell that Minoru talks to in the early 21st century period.  (More than incidentally: the audience of The Last Romance is informed that young and dying humans can hear the Housenka flower's utterances.  Also, people who are seriously ill (who may recover rather than die).)  

 

Such fancifulness is the exception rather than the rule in this sombre, evenly paced film that poignantly details a long, deep love and what Minoru was willing to do for the woman he loved, and also the sacrifices that he made not only for her but also Kensuke -- who Nana had accused Minoru of not thought of as his son -- and his yakusa boss/"older brother".  But director Kinoshita also is to be credited for making sure there is beauty in what would otherwise be an overly sad work: visually, including via a hanami fireworks display one festive evening; and with music, notably via inspired use of the classic Stand By Me tune.    

 

Beautifully rendered throughout, The Last Blossom is visually impressive.  But what makes it a thoroughly as well as quietly absorbing watch is its touching story revolving around a taciturn yet very understandable main character -- filled with regret but also imbued with a stubborn belief that defeat can be turned into victory in the final stretch with just one great move -- that tugs at the heart.

 

My rating for this film: 8.0 

 

Year One (Italy, 1974) 

- Roberto Rossellini, director and co-scriptwriter (with Marcella Mariani and Luciano Scaffa)

- Starring: Luigi Vannucchi 

- Part of the HKIFF's Gala Presentation program 

 

This Roberto Rossellini film was the opening film of the inaugural Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1977.  I imagine that it was very well received since the 4K restoration of it was chosen to be screened at the 50th edition of the fest; and got a far better audience reaction than that at the screening I attended, which saw a few walkouts and also people dozing off midway through the movie!

 

Early on in this neorealist work, its main character, real life Italian politician-statesman Alcide De Gasperi -- a leader of the Christian Democracy party who served as the country's prime minister from December 1945 to August 1953, passing away just one year later -- states that he prefers dialogue to monologue.  If only that was so too for Roberto Rossellini, in whose film De Gasperi (as played by Luigi Vannucchi) talks and talks and talks... at great length, and mainly at, rather than to, other people in an efforts to preserve a fragile democracy and turn a country divided and in shambles into one that could offer more to its people!

 

Year One mainly consists of three type of scenes.  The type that features the most has De Gasperi speaking in whole paragraphs -- expounding really -- without much pause, mainly about weighty, political issues, and prompting me to idly wonder how the actor was able to do so without his mouth turning dry and his needing to drink some water!  The second type features a Greek chorus or so featuring either the chattering class idly chatting in what looks like a bar situation or fellow politicians in serious discussion over political moves by various figures. 

 

And then there's which this incredibly talky film opened with, and I wish there had been more of: scenes with far more action than dialogue, and which I honestly think conveyed so much more with images than all the words coming out of De Gasperi's mouth did.  Including a dramatic World War II bombing scene; another of the terrible aftermath of bombs hitting a village; another showing Rome under Nazi occupation; a fourth showing Rome in the ecstatic moments after its liberation by Allied forces; and a fifth of frenzied rival political campaigning in the first post-war years.

 

I am sure people who with greater knowledge of Alcide De Gasperi and Italy in general would get far more out of Year One than the likes of me.  But, look: I knew about as little about Ghost Elephants before watching Werner Herzog's film about the search of them or Lebanon before viewing Lana Daher's Do You Love Me; and yet found them far more to my liking!  Also, it's not often that I come out a movie thinking its story might have been better served as a book or even as a radio show.  Or, at the very least, that it really would have been more effective in communicating its entirely serious messages with far less talk, however impassioned, and more action!

 

My rating for the film: 5.0  

"The March on Rome" and "Eastern Front": the first two films I've viewed at the 2023 Hong Kong International Film Festival (Film reviews)

  

The 47th Hong Kong International Film Festival has commenced!

 

The March on Rome (Italy, 2022)

- Mark Cousins, director and co-scriptwriter 

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Reality Bites program

 

It has Rome in its title and is an Italian production but this documentary about the rise -- and fall too, but to a lesser extent -- of fascism in Italy is primarily in English and narrated by its Northern Irish helmer, Mark Cousins -- whose brogue and speaking style some might find calming but I must admit to thinking was at odds with a lot of material presented!  With a far-ranging script co-written by Cousins and Italians Tommaso Renzoni and Tony Saccuci, it splices together such as archival and contemporary film footage, historical photographs and scenes in which actress Alba Rohrwacher playing an Italian mother who's enamoured by fascism before falling out of love with it to advance its arguments; some of which are more compelling than others.   

 

Known for his works on film (notably the 15 hour The Story of Film: An Odyssey), Mark Cousins' The March on Rome discusses the role of cinema as propaganda in supporting the rice of fascim -- particularly by way of a close analysis and dissection of sections of a 49 minute work by Umberto Paradisi (1878-1933) entitled A Noi! Dalla sagra di Napoli al trionfo di Roma that mythologised the titular march of black shirts on Italy's capital in 1922 that led to Benito Mussolini becoming prime minister of the country.  But, actually, I found such as its shorter -- but sharper? -- discussion of fascist architecture, a surprising amount of which is still extant in Italy, to be more on point (along with "Il Duce" and his fellow fascist leaders' proclivity for making speeches from balconies)!

 

Benito Mussolini first appears in The March on Rome as a head floating in, and peering out of, the darkness.  There are scenes in the film in which he appears all powerful but also ones in which he does not appear in control -- and it is interesting to see that this was so even when he was supposed to be approaching or at his peak as well as after he had been sacked in July 1943 by the same monarch, Victor Emmanuel III, who had, Neville Chamberlain-like in 1922, allowed Mussolini to take command of the government.

 

After seeing so much of what Mussolini looked like in life in much of the film, how he looked in death can come as a shock -- even if one's seen the infamous photos of his corpse and that of his mistress hanging upside down in Milan. Seeing a small photo on one's computer screen or (history) book is inadequate preparation for seeing the same image on a big theatrical screen.  But all this is no where as chilling as seeing images of Mussolini and Italian fascism's victims in Ethiopia and Libya, which also appear in The March on Rome, along with horrific statistics of the numbers of people killed there, and by the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese military that Mussolini's Fascists were -- lest we forget -- in an axis of evil with during World War II.

 

These images, more than the footage from A Noi! ("Us!" in Italian), speak to the power of film for me.  Speaking of which: while The March on Rome has visuals which are hard-hitting at times and arresting at others, I must admit to thinking the overall work would have been better served with better audio -- including a narrator with a less laidback-sounding voice than its helmer!        

My rating for this film: 6.5

 

Eastern Front (Ukraine-Latvia-Czech Republic-U.S.A., 2023)

- Vitaly Mansky (who also is the scriptwriter) and Yevhen Titarenko, co-directors

- Part of the HKIFF's Auteurs program

 

"I'm sorry but I feel like throwing up!" Those were my first words to two friends after we got out of the screening of Eastern Front. It's not just that this documentary about the first six months of the still-ongoing war in Ukraine has harrowing footage along with motion sickness-inducing ones filmed by an iPhone of a man running in a battlefield; it's also that it is a psychologically intense watch.

 

This being said; I still want to highly recommend this amazing documentary work, one of whose co-directors, Yevhen Titarenko, is a volunteer paramedic whose battalion, the Hospitallers, have indeed served in the Eastern Front of the war.  (More than by the way: the film's other co-director, Vitaly Mansky, is a veteran Russian director who has spoken out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and and has been placed on a Kremlin wanted list for slander.

 

A good part of Eastern Front takes place at, as its name suggests, the Eastern Front.  We see footage shot from: inside a makeshift ambulance rushing patients to a hospital; inside homes where medics await to be called to duty and from where explosions can be seen and gunfire heard; from trenches that look like something out of a World War I movie (except they are real, and exist in 2022-2023) and where people have been recently killed; and muddy battlefields where the wounded lie and wait to be evacuated.  And we see bravery and caramaderie but also blood, destruction and lots of pain.

But Eastern Front also features talk as well as action, which helps to balance things and also contextualise events and stories.  Some of the conversations take place within war zones but many more take place over in the western part of the country, where there are opportunities for people to relax with a swim in the lake, hanging out with friends, see a comrade's child getting Christened, have dinner with relatives and relatives.  

It may seem strange but the peaceful, "normal" sections of the film actually strengthen it overall.  I think this is not least because it serves to remind the audience that few, if any of the people seen in Eastern Front in military gear and at the battlefront are, in fact, careeer soldiers or even paramedics.  And that they are human beings who have loved ones who care and worry for them and, also, people who they wish to protect -- which is why they are in the situation they are shown to be in but also hope will end before too long, in victory for their nation.

 

My rating for this film: 8.5    

Some of my favorite members of the Yellow Economic Circle (Photo-essay)

Although there are people who might want it to seem otherwise, Hong Kong pro-democracy protests have been predominantly peaceful and non-violent in nature.  This include many massive protest marches (including that which is estimated to have had some 2 million participants) and large rallies that took place in 2019 and into 2020.  Two other notable forms of protest that do not involve violence -- unless one talks about attempts by opponents of democracy to destroy them -- include the Lennon Walls and Yellow Economic Circle (the latter of which is still going strong up until today).   

 

Re the latter: they consist of shops, restaurants and bars whose owners and staffers are pro-democracy; with many of them having done so as helped protestors (by doing such as offering free food, drinks and other items, or having opened their doors to people when the areas they were in saw tear gas attacks by the police).  And many of their customers have chosen to support them in order to thank them for their actions, and continue to support them in these often trying economic times.          

 

One of the most popular and successful Yellow Economic Circle members has been AbouThai, a Thai lifetstyle chain owned by Mike Lam, one of the 47 Hong Kong politicians and activists accused of having broken the national security law by taking part in the pro-democracy primaries of July 2020, and his Thai-born wife, Bowie Kanokwon.  So imagine the shock that many people felt yesterday after he publicly denounced the Yellow Economic Circle, calling it a mistake.  In view of this, I won't be shopping at AboutThai any more.  But the good news is that there still are thousands of other "yellow shops" for me to support -- including the eight which offer up the following tasty fare:

 

Wong char (King stir fry) at Man Wah, a restaurant which suffered

an attack by pro-Beijingers in 2019 but still is going strong in 2023

 

Cha chaan teng fare at  一日三餐, a restaurant owned by

former Cathay Pacific pilot turned legislative councillor

(and currently imprisoned pro-democracy politician) Jeremy Tam

 

One of many pizzas I've eaten at Jacomax, a pizza chain 

whose owners (an Italian born man and his local 

Hong Konger wife) are very openly pro-democracy

 

Italian food and Hong Kong beer at Villa Villa, a North Point eatery 

that helps provide proof that that part of Hong Kong 

is not as wholly "blue" (pro-Beijing) as is often assumed! 

 

Assorted (and unusual -- e.g., including peanut butter and chocolate!)

siu mai at Tsui Kee Dim Sum, a "yellow shop" just a few minutes' walk
away from Prince Edward MTR station

 

The signature crab at The Chairman, a highly rated fine dining

establishment known for its championing of local produce

 

Seasonal sushi at Sushi Masa, whose Sheung Wan branch

I'm a particular fan of (and has replaced the Maxim Group's 

owned Senryo in my heart) 
 

A confession: Seng Seng Pocha/Korean Cuisine would be my favorite

Korean restaurant in Hong Kong even if it weren't "yellow"

(though, of course, if it were "blue", I wouldn't eat there)! :)

The third -- and most serious to date -- Wuhan coronavirus wave in Hong Kong

An extra cautious police officer in a part of Hong Kong

that has recently recorded Wuhan coronavirus cases

Way more chilled people in a part of the city where at least

 one office has suspected Wuhan coronavirus cases among its staffers

The nomination period for September's Legislative Council elections opened today, the day after Hong Kong's legislative body's tumultous sixth term came to an end yesterday.  It remains to be seen though which, and how many, of the candidates put forward by various political parties will be allowed to actually run for office; with there being much speculation -- even expectation -- that many of the winners of last weekend's democratic primaries (including incumbent Legislative Councillors like Roy Kwong, Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Ray Chan) will be disqualified pretty much right from the start by the returning officers assigned to the task. 

When that happens, further fuel will be added to Hong Kong's political fire.  And it shouldn't go unnoticed that one of the democratic hopefuls, Tam Tak-chi, was arrested yesterday on one of those ridiculous "incitement to take part in an unlawful assembly" charges.  Also, that, also yesterday, the police went once again onto the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) -- this time to search its student union office and seized computers from there; apparently because they suspect members of the university's archery club of having attacked them during the siege of PolyU last November.

For now though, much attention has turned back to the Wuhan coronavirus -- which has been with us since January, and whose third wave has now hit Hong Kong with a vengeance.  This is not least since today, Hong Kong recorded 64 new Wuhan coronavirus infections (bringing the current tally to 1,777) and one more death (to bring the total now up to 12).  In doing so, the territory passed a sad milestone: the total number of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases recorded in the territory (1,755; back in 2003-2004).

Since Wednesday, the territory's most sweeping social distancing restrictions have been in force in a bid to stem the Wuhan coronavirus tide in Hong Kong.  While it's (still) far from the kind of lockdown that the likes of hard hit Italy and worried Malaysia have endured for a time, it has reinforced for many the notion that the situation we're currently in is a serious one.  In short: we need to really buckle down to control this terrible thing which Hong Kong had managed to keep out of elderly care homes and kept from infecting any medical personnel until this month.

While walking in my old neighborhood earlier today, I caught sight of a police officer dressed unusually.  Not only was he not in riot gear but he also was wearing the kind of plastic face shield and latex gloves that I'm expect more to see on medical personnel along with the now pretty standard surgical mask.  Seeing an ambulance driving away from the scene, I surmised that he had been called to the scene of a (suspected) coronavirus case; which, if confirmed, would make for there being a cluster of them in that particular area (since at least one case has recently been reported there).

Since they had their office nearby, I decided to drop in and say "hi" to a couple of friends who work but don't live in the area.  Over the course of our conversation, the pair conveyed to me their fear of being close to what might end up being declared a coronavirus "hot spot" by telling me that they no longer dare to eat takeout food from, as well as in, eateries in the area!  Instead, they've been bringing their lunches from home and going straight home for dinner; neither of which were all that usual practices for them.

In contrast, there are people who still don't seem to think twice about going out drinking and socializing as well as for meals and pretty much everything else besides.  I honestly hadn't realized this until I walked passed by the section of Central near the Discovery Bay and Park Island ferry piers a couple of days ago and saw a bunch of people hanging out in close proximity to one another, and mask-less too because they were there to drink as well as socialize!

Something else I had not expected to see was that the bar located in the area was still operating (since bars are among the establishments that have been ordered to close for at least one week starting this past Wednesday).  I am guessing that it's less because they're classified as a restaurant because they do serve food as well as drinks and more because they're considered a takeaway place.  

Frankly, if they were closed, those wanting a drink in the area could just go the stores in the ferry piers that sell alcohol along with snacks and other sundry items.  Still, I must admit my surprise that those unconcerned waterfront drinkers appear to have escaped the criticism of the likes of the bars and bar patrons of Peel Street back in March, when the onset of the second coronavirus wave was associated with bar goers -- and the attention of the authorities too! 

Rather, this time around, the newsmakers are those who refuse to wear their masks on public transportation -- as is now the required case.  This is particularly so since some of those who have refused to do so have pulled out weapons when asked to put on masks (for the protection of themselves and others)!  A question: what kind of person carries a cleaver onto a bus, never mind would wield it at police officers called to the scene as well as his fellow passengers and the bus driver?  And what too of the first man arrested for not wearing a mask on public transportation -- who "happened" to have a wooden pole with him to threaten people with while on the MTR?! 

For those readers of this blog who don't live in Hong Kong: please trust me when I tell you that it's really not normal for Hong Kongers to carry weapons of any sort with them at pretty much all times!  Hence my wondering if those anti-mask men are the same category of people as those who appeared outside an MTR station last September and attacked pro-democracy protestors with foldable stools as well as long sticks, and their fists and feet!

Pointing fingers but also calling for unity in Hong Kong's fight against the Wuhan coronavirus

Seen at a cinema concession stand hours before Hong Kong's

cinemas were closed down for what I hope is just a two week period

A much less crowded than normal Saturday evening 

shopping mall scene at Cityplaza yesterday

Another phase has begun in Hong Kong's battle against the Wuhan coronavirus: with cinemas, gyms and other entertainment venues (though not mahjong parlours!) being shut down for at least two weeks and restaurants and bars being among the public venues being subjected to new social distancing laws that allow a maximum of four people to gather together at any one time.  With the number of infections being reported to have risen by a further 59 today to a total of 641, I really do hope that these measures will prove effective, and before too long; this not least since there does appear to be a genuine danger that Hong Kong's public hospitals will run out of isolation beds "very soon" if the number of cases continue to surge by the dozens each day.

To be sure, Hong Kong is not currently a major disaster area like, say, Italy (whose death toll surged past the 10,000 mark earlier today), the USA (which became the country to have over 100,000 confirmed Wuhan coronavirus cases on Friday) or Britain (whose number of coronavirus fatalities went over 1,000 yesterday and whose medical director was trying to be optimistic when he talked about being able to keep the numbers of deaths to below 20,000). Even so, there is little doubt that many residents -- including those who previously weren't -- have gotten freaked out at the increase in Hong Kong's confirmed infection numbers.    

In addition, a good number have become pretty mad at the minority of people who have insisted on continuing to party and otherwise gather in large crowds and close proximity as well as chosen to eschew wearing masks.  While Carrie Lam appeared to zoom in on reports of a 50-year-old female coronavirus patient who purportedly had one night stands in Lan Kwai Fong, others' ire have been more generally directed at those expatriate folks who frequent the type of bars whose crowds tend to spill out onto streets and which tend be associated with the alcoholic drinking style of the West.

One reason for this is that a number of those expats are the type who had left Hong Kong for safer environs some months back, only to return after those territories started to have way more Wuhan coronavirus cases than the Big Lychee -- and bring not only the behavior that encourages the rampant spread of the coronavirus but also the very disease itself back to Hong Kong!  And adding fuel to the fire is the distinct sense that quite a few of us have that those also were precisely the type of people who do not care all that much for Hong Kong, did/do not support the pro-democracy protests and, indeed, would frequently complain that the struggles for a free Hong Kong were threatening to destroy Hong Kong's economy.  

Now, with the government's imposition of stricter measures against such as public gatherings being seen as in no small part due to their errant behavior, people are further up in arms against these errant expats; this not least because, predictably, the disreputable outfit that is the Hong Kong police have made use of these new laws to target pro-democracy protestors and their supporters.  Put another way: the misbehavior of a minority of people, including those who currently reside here but don't really consider Hong Kong home, looks to have provided the authorities with further means to come down on those people it should be serving but consider to be their enemies.   

In view of such "developments", the possibility that further measures could be imposed against public gathering because of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic is really troubling.  Consequently, pro-democracy Hong Kongers have added incentive for helping get this infectious and deadly disease under control, and sooner rather than later.  So, no, I'm actually not celebrating that yet another police officer has been reported to have been infected by the coronavirus.  Incredibly (with such as the actions of the infected police officer who refused to wear a mask while in hospital), even in this fight, it can seem like we all may not be on the same side -- but, really, the sooner we are on the same page, the healthier it will be for all of us!  

Demanding that the government listen to the people in Hong Kong and willing it to screw up less in Malaysia

What would have been a normal dinner scene at a 

Baba-Nonya restaurant in Penang not so long ago

 Going out to bars and restaurants is still allowed in Hong Kong

-- but I find myself wondering for how much longer?

 

The Hong Kong police fired tear gas at people once more this evening in Yuen Long.  Earlier in the day, people had gathered in that northwestern New Territories town (which I used to love having post-hike meals in) to commemorate the eight month anniversary of the attack by white shirted thugs on MTR passengers -- some, but not all, of whom were returning home from taking part in anti-extradition bill protests on Hong Kong Island -- and, equally shocking to Hong Kongers, gross dereliction of duty by the police that night.

 

Despite what some folks might think, the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have not ended.  At most, many protestors have decided to use the past couple of months or so to try to protect Hong Kong against the Wuhan coronavirus (which we first got wind about in early January) -- by doing such as sourcing masks for people as well as pressuring the Hong Kong government to close the territory's borders and contesting the authorities' plans to set up quarantine centers in high density neighborhoods.  But, truly, as long as Hong Kong has a government that is more inclined to do Beijing's bidding than that of the local populace, I am sure that many Hong Kongers will feel obliged to resist the authorities, and demand that their voice be heard, respected and obeyed. 

 

Also, the way that Carrie Lam and co have responded to the Wuhan coronavirus threats (i.e., badly) has probably lost them more allies and supporters, and got more Hong Kongers realizing that they need as well as deserve a better government.  A case in point: in recent days, lawmakers across the political spectrum have united to demand that Hong Kong ban all non-residents from entering the Big Lychee, unanimously passing a motion in the Legislative Council calling for such a move, as well as for tests for the Wuhan coronavirus of all locals arriving home from overseas; this after a rise of confirmed cases of infection in the past week, mostly as a result of a number of people flying into Hong Kong testing positive for the coronavirus, to bring the total of cases in Hong Kong to 273.     

 

In addition, Hong Kongers were horrified yesterday to learn that only one third of the monitoring wristbands that new arrivals to the territory's were given by the authorities to wear to check that they were indeed self-quarantining for 14 days actually have been activated!  And then today, came the news that a test sample mix-up at the quarantine center set up close to the airport had resulted in two people infected with the Wuhan coronavirus being allowed to make their way home rather than be sent to a hospital isolation ward!

 

To be sure, these screw ups can see rather minor to people in other countries where tens of thousands of people have been infected (including Spain and Germany) and even died (e.g., Italy as well as Mainland China).  And, in all honesty, I actually have spent much of this week in greater shock over how badly Malaysia, for one, has been dealing with the Wuhan coronavirus onslaught.  This is the country, after all, that went from zero deaths from the coronavirus at the beginning of this week to eight today, and whose number of confirmed cases of infection has now risen to 1,183 (from 428 just one week ago).

 

This past Monday, the leader of the backdoor government appeared on television to announce the placing of a "movement control order" from Wednesday through to March 31st.  With his speech being short on details, the order sowed much panic, chaos and confusion.  Days after implementation, there still appears to be disagreement about what it actually entails, with new details emerging -- including that today which apparently makes it so that only the head of each family is allowed to venture out to shop for groceries and other necessities (which then begs the question: what if the head of the family is elderly, incapacitated and otherwise not the best choice of person to go out to do such?!)

Truly, the more I hear about the "new" Malaysian government (which many Malaysians don't consider legitimate nor capable), the more I despair that it can steer Malaysia out of this crisis any time soon, and with fewer casualties than would be the case if, say, the Pakatan Harapan government were still in power and its health minister were in charge.  At the very least, unlike the present incumbent, the much respected Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad surely would not have fallaciously suggested that drinking warm water can help to prevent infection by the Wuhan coronavirus!  

 

And while I know this ridiculous pronouncement by someone who supposedly does have a medical degree is ridiculous, I really can't laugh about it because so many lives are at stake.  We're talking, after all, about the dangerous enemy that Malaysia is currently having facing, along with Hong Kong and the rest of the world, is one that the last time I looked at the latest coronavirus pandemic statistics a minute or so ago, had already been confirmed as having infected 288,044 people in the world and claimed a reported 11,949 human lives. :( 

Hong Kong guards against the Wuhan coronavirus as it continues spreading like wildfire elsewhere, including Malaysia

The kind of anti-infection measures that people in other parts

of the world might think excessive even now... 

...but which I do find assuring to see when out in Hong Kong

And I don't know what's the situation at your local bank 

but these kind of measures have been par for the course

in this part of the world for some weeks now!

I was in Causeway Bay yesterday evening and found it more crowded than it had been in days, weeks, even months. I'm not sure whether it's because people collectively felt a need to venture out after suffering cabin fever (or, perish the thought, complacency has set in in the midst of the effectively congratulory articles that have come out in recent days about Hong Kong's having limited the spread of the Wuhan coronvirus within its borders), on account of their having stayed at home so much these past few months.  In any case, I must admit to finding it all a bit offputting -- even while realizing that, yes, I was contributing to the numbers out on the streets, etc.!  

At the same time though, I did feel assured by the high percentage of people wearing masks -- and also by the other preventative measures in place. And while some might dismiss the likes of the ready availability of hand sanitizers and the sanitization of carpets and escalator hand rails as cosmetic, they do make me feel safer in Hong Kong than I'd be in a whole lot of other parts of the world right now.  

For the record:  Hong Kong's total number of confirmed Wuhan coronvirus cases rose to 145 with four more having been added to the tally today and five the day before.  But I reckon it's saying a lot that its most recent cases of infection by the Wuhan coronavirus have involved people who had recently travelled outside of Hong Kong (including to Britain and USA).

The last time I looked at the worldometer's Coronavirus page (i.e., a few minutes ago), the USA had 3,083 confirmed Wuhan coronavirus cases (2,967 of them active) and 60 deaths while the UK had 1,140 confirmed cases (1,101 of them active) and 21 deaths from the deadly disease.  Those numbers may still be dwarfed by those of Mainland China (with over 80,000 confirmed cases of infection and 3,199 deaths), Italy (with over 21,000 confirmed cases and over 1,440 deaths) and Iran (with close to 14,000 cases and more than 720 fatalities) -- but a sure sign that what's happening in Britain and the USA is concerning people can be seen in the Hong Kong authorities having decided to add those two countries to its list of territorities that people travelling from will be required to be quarantined after they arrive in Hong Kong.  

Another country whose Wuhan coronavirus trajectory is alarming me is Malaysia, whose total number of confirmed cases of infection hit 428 today after the country recorded its biggest daily jump in cases today with 190 new positive test results.  What makes things particularly upsetting to me is that the bulk of these cases are linked to a cluster involving a religious gathering of some 16,000 people at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur that took place from February 28th to March 1st -- close to two months after word had got out that a mysterious disease was infecting a hell of a lot of people over in Mainland China, and after the Wuhan coronavirus already had infected people in Malaysia along with a good number of other countries globally!

As things stand, only 4,492 of that ijtimak tabligh's Malaysian participants have been identified; of which just 3,206 of them have been tested.  This means that there's a lot of people to be found and tested -- and, in all likelihood, test positive -- still.  Disturbing as well is the realization that some 1,500 of the participants hail from other countries in the region.  Put another way: The participants and organizers of that event look to have contributed to an international wave of infections -- and, with it, no small amount of suffering and possibly some deaths -- and endangered goodness knows how many people by their willful ignorance.  They should be ashamed of themselves, and so much more.  

Something else I can't help but think and rue is that maybe this all would not have happened if the Pakatan Harapan government were still in place.  After all, it had a health minister widely adjudged to be doing a great job.  Instead, alas, Malaysia currently has a backdoor government that doesn't have much credibility; this not least because it is riddled with "Malay first" "nationalists" (racists), hardline Islamicists and suspect individuals from the discredited regime of the infamously corrupt Najib Razak, and one of its head's first moves was to postpone the next sitting of the Malaysian parliament from early March to May 18th! 

Wuhan coronavirus updates and discussion, including about conspiracy theories about it

Spot the non-mask wearers in the crowd...

 

Masks, hand sanitizers and other essentials in these 

medically trying times are back in stock in Hong Kong 
(albeit at painfully inflated prices in some instances)

Pro-democracy councillors are doing their part 

to ensure their constituents don't go without

Hong Kong reported its third Wuhan coronavirus fatality last night and news came earlier today that the territory now has 115 confirmed cases of infection by this deadly virus that is spreading like wild fire the world over.  For context: Just two days after I posted that the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases worldwide having passed the 100,000 mark, the number of people confirmed to have been infected by the Wuhan coronavirus now exceeds 110,000.

Within just 24 hours, the number of reported fatalities in Italy rose almost three fold from 133 to 366, and that same Sunday, the number of confirmed cases of infection in that Western European country went up by a single-day record of 1,492 to 7,375.  For a while, it was the country with the most Wuhan coronavirus cases outside of Mainland China (whose official numbers have its total cases of infection as a whopping 80,735; with more than 3,000 people dead, some 58,600 having recovered and some 19,000 still undergoing treatment); until South Korea returned to that position today with 96 new cases of infection, bringing its total to 7,478.

Italy's prominent position in the Wuhan coronavirus infection table (and the top ten currently also including France, Germany, Spain and the USA) should lay to rest the assumption -- seemingly held for quite a time by a good many people -- that the coronavirus was "only" infecting and killing people in East Asia, people of East Asian descent or both.  Or, even more specifically, people of Chinese descent.  (Which is one reason, I suspect, for many -- though not all (with notable exceptions including the great Hong Kong Hermit) -- Westerners in Hong Kong refusing to wear masks, unlike the vast majority of the territory's populace.) 

As virologist Ian M Mackay lamented in a Tweet back on February 16th: "Why is it hard to understand that a virus emerging in one country means *that* country has the majority of illness & death until it the virus has spread worldwide. Once it has spread, all countries will have illness and death. The receptor for SARS-CoV-2 [yet another name for the Wuhan coronavirus] is common among *humans*".

On a -- I suspect -- not unrelated note: it's only in the past week or so -- around the time that the deadly virus spread in earnest to Europe -- that I've finally seen posts about the Wuhan coronavirus from Facebook friends who live outside of Asia.  Even then, only a handful are actually serious, with more being jokey in nature.  I, on the other hand, have been posting about it -- both on Facebook and on this blog -- since early January, and never to make people laugh.   

Even more disturbing than people not taking the Wuhan coronavirus threats seriously are those who believe and help perpetuate the conspiracy theories concerning it.  Early on, I was sent "information" by well-meaning friends (including one with a Ph.D. in medical anthropology!) about the deadly virus having been a bioweapon which escaped from a lab in Wuhan.  More recently (including as late as earlier today), I've been seeing posts by Facebook friends (e.g., a former college mate) about all the talk about the Wuhan coronavirus being a serious threat is just to get people in the USA to panic and change their vote in the upcoming Presidential Elections.  

Frankly, about the only Wuhan coronavirus conspiracy theory I believe involves why a number of Western experts and governments are telling people that mask-wearing is not an effective deterrent against the coronavirus but, also, that masks should be reserved for medical staff.  As an Australian member of the Twitterverse noted, "I think it's increasingly obvious that the reason health authorities in, for eg, Australia and the US are discouraging mask use is that they don't have enough supply for medical staff. The "it's not effective" line is pretty transparent bullshit."  

Or as Hong Kong pro-democracy politician and social worker Lo Kin-hei observed (also in a couple of Tweets that I'm hereby translating into regular English): ""No masks until you have symptoms"-type people trust both the medical experts and the functionality of masks. But as Coronavirus is contagious even when an infected individual is asymptomatic, an "all people masked" policy would seem to be an effective way to cut the infection chain".  After all, "If you believe that sick people should wear masks and masks stop diseases from spreading to other people, and if you agree that the coronavirus is contagious with no symptoms and you can be sick without you knowing it, then you should also agree it's good for everyone to wear mask, and it's perfectly scientific to think this"!