Alan, we seem to make a good team in this forum, my relentlessly positive, optimistic, rose-tinted glasses attitude and your reliably pessimistic world view, a real glass half-full / half-empty kind of dualism.

So I'll just be putting up some new posters again and see what happens this time... Another week up would be enough....

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The wall is empty -- completely empty, no halfway about it -- no matter how optimistically you look at it.

Well, yes, because nobody dares to put up notices. Let's test it once again.

I'm relying on this recent email from the Islands District Office's Ivy Chan to Living Lamma, District Lands Office, FEHD and Home Affairs Dept.
If the cleaners still haven't received a clear directive, we'll just talk to them in person and to our local FEHD officers.

"I have confirmed with Mr CHOY of DLO/Is that it is a private wall on government land. As far as the owner agrees to the posting of notices on the wall, villagers can still do so.
Having said that, FEHD staff will not carry out clearance to the wall."

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Perhaps you should stick that on the wall?

That's actually a great idea!

I might just do that if they'll take the posters down again, ignoring the instructions from all their higher-ups.

But it'd would have to be translated into Chinese and I doubt they actually ever read any poster before ripping it down...

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If the DLO is serious, they could make a sign to that effect and bolt it on the wall themselves. They put up enough other inane notices telling us to do, or not do, things.

Cost basically nothing.

I begin to suspect that, like bike parking on the pier, this is something that the government will "tolerate" but don't want to publicly endorse, giving them the freedom to take away the "privilege" at will.

And I find it absurd that they claim to have instructed the staff to allow posters.

Certainly, when they want them cleaned off, that happens pretty efficiently.

Why would staff bother to this work if they had been told not to?
So I doubt he's actually sent clear instructions to the people concerned.


Anyway, I find it hard to care one way or another. Posters have now migrated to the fence opposite, and many other, less appropriate, places, making a much messier environment. So I will have no problem finding somewhere to advertise a toaster oven.

But the important thing for the government is that the "Welcome Wall" greets visitors with its institutional grey blandness.
Seems an appropriate message from the bureaucrats.





Be seeing you.

Enough is enough! What about Independent Anarchic State of Lamma. National emblem - Vespa Tropica.

The powers that be (could it be the enthusuastic cleaners) have done it again. I saw Lammazine and Island Bar Treasure posters up one minute and gone the next.

These must cost money to print. What a waste.

I wonder who tore down the posters though. I saw torn posters just drapping on the ground under the wall. I didn't see all of them coming down that way, just 2.

Also, Lamma Gung's posters didn't come down all in one day. If it were done by the FEHD, then shouldn't they be done at the same time?

strange...

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E's remarks and suspicions are correct.

We've just visited the local FEHD office this afternoon, very close to the YSW Playground, Tel. 2982 1554.

The officer-in-charge assured us that it is NOT their cleaners removing any posters from the Democracy Wall, as they have been given clear instructions NOT to remove any posters anymore!
He knew about the instructions from his "boss", Ivy Chan at the Islands Districts Land Office, see above, and the local FEHD office is following them.

The officer even advised us, to our surprise, to get the police involved if we spot somebody tearing down posters. The Wall is actually still private property (but on public land) and removing posters could be some kind of offense with a fine involved. Quite ironic, actually.

So we can be pretty sure it's not our hard-working cleaning ladies who are doing this. Even purely charitable, fund-raising posters like the Treasure Hunt for Operation Santa Claus and the Lamma Fun Day posters got ripped down by a still anonymous person.
Somebody seems to have taken up daily vigilante duties watching the Wall and destroying anything that spoils its all-grey cleanliness, ripping posters to shreds and leaving a mess behind?

Could people keep an eye out for ANYBODY removing posters from the Democracy Wall, ideally even taking a quick phone photo of the person as evidence, so somebody can have a friendly word with him/her. I'll sacrifice a few more of my not cheap posters to lure out the "perpetrator".

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If the vigilante is monitoring the wall, to communicate with them you could make a poster pointing out that you have permission to post.

Not really fair to blame them. How could they know what was illegal/tolerated/legal around here? They may well feel they're being a good citizen.

Or just someone who hates you. No way to tell.

Must be people from DB!

Just an update:

The Democracy Wall is dead for now!

There was a big meeting yesterday morning when the local top politicians, Lammadonna, Chairman Chan, Vice-Chairman of the Rural Committee Chow and some of their assistants had a very short meeting with some of the owners of the Democracy Wall, all of them visiting the owners in person, the powerful family behind Man Lai Wah hotel above it. Lamma-Por and I were having Dim Sum with Chairman Chan when he had to rush off for the short meeting. Returning, he updated us first-hand.

Even though this private Wall is on public land, the Govt. depts. acknowledge the ownership and will not interfere with the wishes of the owners, even though the Govt. paid for the complete, expensive renovation and painting of the Wall recently, and the FEHD's cleaning ladies have been cleaning the Wall for decades, usually once a week or so (which was ideal for keeping the posters fresh, up-to-date and relevant).

The Wall owners saw the amateurish graffiti on the seawall and elsewhere and took that as an excuse to stop any efforts of "beautifying" it with any artworks. So no Democracy Wall contest and no more posters. They don't want anything on that steel-grey Wall anymore, no painting, no artwork, no more posters.

Despite the former explicit permission from the Govt. that posters are still allowed and will not be cleaned off, the owner's wishes take now preference and the Govt. will follow their wishes, not interfering and not cleaning the Wall anymore. The Wall owners will have to clean posters themselves now, but would unlikely spend any money on painting or maintaining it. The person(s) ripping down any and all posters recently appearing on the Wall, even pure charity-related ones, might be connected to the Wall owners, maybe...

If a lot of posters would appear they might get tired of cleaning up daily, but that's a slim chance as everybody seems to have given up already on posting anything there.

That's probably the end of that for now. For quite a long time the Wall will probably remain steel-grey, ugly and unwelcoming to visitors, till somebody can convince the large family with many siblings otherwise, or illegal artwork appears, or the owners get tired of cleaning off the posters.

A really sad outcome, a cleaning up operation backfiring, stuck indefinitely in the middle, in a "temporary" state, ending up looking much worse than it was before....

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In what world does that makes any sense?

This wall, maintained by the government, on government land, is private?

The well-connected can do whatever they like on public property*, and tell everyone else to fuck off. And the government just kowtows.

*cf Man Fung reclamation, just up the street.

I've asked Man Fung about the extension. They've got official and full permissions from the Lands Dept. now, it took several years, they say.
The extension construction workers just had their Lunar New Year dinner there when I was stopping by to ask, stopping now for the long Lunar New Year break.

This will increase their seating area from 200 to 260 seats and should be ready in about 1 month. Not sure yet about the outside look and the type of railing they'll use but it'll be new and different from the current one, promised to look "nice".

If the extension's wall doesn't look nice enough, the Lamma graffiti "artist" (or vandal as some call him) behind most of the local, very controversial graffiti paintings might have a field day (or a late night.) I might ask him about this as I've discovered his identity a little while ago, but had to promise him anonymity first.

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