Occupy Central

10.01.14 // 1:55AM

Today marks the 4th day of Occupy Central. This protest officially started on Sunday, Sept 28. In the past month, there have been students who would advertise the protest around school in hopes of gaining more supporters. However, I hadn't realized at the time that there were actually participants in the event until this Sunday. Many local students are skipping classes as part of their protest, and bringing resources such as water, masks, umbrellas to protest locations. On Monday, classrooms were practically half-empty, signs regarding the protest could be seen everywhere on campus, and people were giving out yellow ribbons (representing support for democracy). Although I haven't been to protest locations (Central, Admiralty, and Mongkok), I'm surprised by the unity amongst Hong Kong people. Many people are helping each other out during the protest to ensure no one gets hurt. It was truly heart-breaking to hear that policemen would throw tear gas at their own citizens. Many protestors were caught by surprise. Because of the violence sprouting from a non-violent movement, Occupy Central has increased in support.

On the other hand, I've also been keeping up with China's reaction to this movement. When attempting to search for "Occupy Central" through China's popular search engine - Baidu, I've realized that all news regarding this event have been blocked. Furthermore, the government has voiced that they fully support what policemen have done so far to maintain order in Hong Kong.

The main issue behind Occupy Central is that Hong Kong people wish to elect their own chief executives under the Special Administrative Region. The current system is China's central government assigning candidates to Hong Kong, between which Hong Kong people will vote for their chief executive. Because Hong Kongers believe they deserve to select their own pool of candidates, they resulted to this non-violent protest.

It's unfortunate that an agreement had not been reached before citizens were harmed. One can only hope that no one else will get hurt from this movement.

// 2:10AM