Dramatic Moment in "The Crown" Season 2

In the Netflix series The Crown season 2*, one whole episode is devoted to the true story of Lord Altrincham who helped the British monarchy survive by publishing his thoughts on Queen Elizabeth II and openly criticising her and her courtiers of being outdated and irrelevant. Sixty years have passed and the story represented one of the most dramatic moments that influenced the centuries old institution. The monarchy still survives, and the British majority seem to be proud of the coexistence of, and are well aware of the distinction between, the executive who actually administers the country and the Queen who serves only a titular role.

For audience here in Hong Kong, the most dramatic scene in the episode was probably when the Queen candidly arranged herself to meet with Lord Altrincham and to listen to his critical and relentless views against herself. Given it was 60 years ago, the Queen's status was supreme, and she had all the reasons (and power) to ignore any unlikable comments or even to mute them off completely! But the Queen eventually accepted all the "stops" and "starts" proposed by Lord Altrimcham, and created a whole new era in the history of the British monarchy. This story, well documented in the British news archive, demonstrated the magical power of the Queen's willingness to listen to comments, however critical and unwelcome, in winning the hearts of people. Moreover, most of us here would be tempted to compare what would happen to Lord Altrimcham if he were in China or Hong Kong now! Would he be loyal or stupid enough to publish his open comments against the nation's leader even if the comments were for the good of his nation? If he would, his only fate would be to spend the rest of his life behind bars. The reality is that no Lord Altrincham would ever exist in China, and neither would his journal or any media that don't dance to the leader's tune. The root cause, as we can clearly see, is the lack of an effective mutual control and an open accountable system that are necessary for a nation to advance in a world that increasingly shares the values of freedom and democracy.

July 31, 2020

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*The Crown Season 2 – Netflix

Cause and effect can't be reversed!

Anyone who has some common sense would have felt very frustrated in the past one year hearing all the nonsenses from our highly paid officials. How can one be not offended when the top administrator, who receives an undeservingly high salary, could not even distinguish a cause from its effect, or a decision from an outcome as a consequence of it.

Our CE said, in defending her belated decisions in rolling out sub-optimal disease control measures, the "6-month long" fight against the virus was very well managed and delicately balanced with due consideration of our economy and other societal activities. Looks like she was very proud of her half-arsed policy that has kept us in this state for 6 months, and she knew it would take this long!

So, she was correct in delaying the border closure until early March; she was correct in allowing infinite number of people to gather indoor in support of restaurant business in June; she was so so correct in allowing 50,000+ people to travel in and out of HK unchecked in the past couple of months; she was also correct in delaying work-from-home arrangement of civil servants for a week (against her advisors' advice Monday last week). All these appeared convincing only to her blind supporters!

Anyone with an ability to think should know that the present is the outcome of past events, plus other factors of course. Didn't she know that the "6-month long fight" was the outcome? We didn't have to fight for 6 months if she agreed to implement more drastic measures earlier, and keep the measures in place.

July 21, 2020

上蒼的默示

讀小學時，神父跟我們講道，說只要你細心聆聽天主給你的訊息，回應祂的指示，祂必會眷顧你！當時覺得神父講的太深奧了，從來沒有聽到天主跟我說話，所以沒甚麼感覺。現在人大了，卻對此話深信不疑！所謂冥冥中自有安排，可能是造物對我們的一種賞賜，回報我們相信和履行祂的旨意！

看看過去一年在香港發生的事，嘗試逆天而行的，上蒼都給他警告訊號。誰真心假意的說是為了香港好，不讓香港成為逃犯天堂，上蒼就賜予你成為超級逃犯天堂的最有利條件（終斷美、英、加、澳和你一早訂下的引渡協議）！誰主張禁蒙面的，就偏要給你天天戴上口罩；但上蒼沒有即時譴責，還放你一馬，從去年9月開始，讓你最痛恨的社會運動暗助你減低九成訪港遊客。12月至1月期間，大型活動的主辦單位諷刺地以「示威者可能威脅公眾安全」為由，取消了近60場紅館騷和公眾活動，冥冥中在關鍵時刻，正當病毒靜悄悄但猛烈地蔓延時，把香港從極危險的疫情中拯救出來！試想，按前年12月至1月期間的一千多萬訪港旅客計算，年初香港的第一波疫情應該嚴重千倍，成千上萬的個案在所難免！幸乎！上天真的眷顧了我們，還給予如此清晰的訊息！

這幾天的感染數字再度飆升，上天又一次訓示我們要做好該做的事。現在政府全副精神投入中國模式的國安，上天給你重要提示，你卻充耳不聞！甚麼才是該做的事？「香港書展」本週三（三天後）開幕，將是鑽石公主號的翻版。打個五折來計算，假定五萬人入場，在室內環境逗留數小時，共用設施、廁所，並頻頻觸摸商品，假若當中十分之一的參與者沒有嚴格遵守防疫規定，其中十分之一由於隱形帶菌者而受到感染，再帶回家居和社區，以一傳三的比例傳播開去。書展過後，將會有1500人以上確診，繼而有更多人受感染！

上天給我們的信息不只在於疫情的反覆，細心聆聽，仔細分析，誰是誰非也不難判斷。若不懸崖勒馬，一場浩劫勢必降臨！

2020年7月12日