My Lamma Forums

[Lamma-Gung]

New forum member RichF writes:

"The Great Lamma Drug Raid has been the most enthralling and fascinating thread on the forums for some time now.
I lived, and worked for a spell, on Lamma between '96 and 2000. I would have remained longer but for the insistence of that fine body of individuals in the imaginatively named building, Immigration Tower.

"I loved living on Lamma, it was a latter day Utopia. There's not many places left in the world with such a sense of community and spirit of tranquility. I worked (turned up) in the Island Bar for a couple of years.
This introduced me to what some of my then contemporaries considered the 'hardcore' Lammaites. Now I use the word 'hardcore' with a figurative inflection...I think the term you use for them is 'Lamma Oldsters'!!
To be honest, there are some nights that I worked in The Island Bar that I feel that I should have paid Pete, Dan, Sharon, Cath et al to be there!! These nights were part comical, anthropological, educational, historical, whimsical, touching, reflective, hazy and hysterical!
With hindsight, I probably knew at the time that my days in HK were numbered and I'm probably over-romanticising but I was quite keenly aware that Lamma was a truly unique place , the like of which I would struggle to find anywhere else in the world.

"Anyway, I digress. Having hopefully laid out my qualification to comment, I'm drawn to observe that the fifteen (possibly 16 by now) pages of comments are the closest thing that I've seen in print, or pixel, to a fictionalised transcript of a night in the Island Bar. Indeed, I'm fairly sure that most or some of the protagonists may have even been served a beer or two by my own hand !!

"From the outside looking in, I would throw the following bullet points your way;

• As in anywhere else in the world. The HK Police are salaried employees. The operation on Lamma would not really have cost anything because as serving officers they're all being paid for their time anyway. It's their job to do these types of things and if they weren't doing it there, i.e. on Lamma, they would have still been incurring cost, in the form of salary, elsewhere.
  
• I note with a wry smile that you very wisely removed the 'ethnic' from the post's title. Having said that, there were still posters endeavouring to persist with this vein of thought. To them I would hypothesise the following.
  Is it a reasonable assertion to make that at any given point during a raid on predominantly local premises that the phrase, "Why are you busting my chops, when there's all them pot smoking gweilos on Lamma-doh, lying in the streets, off their nuts?"
  To whit, the Rozzers may now be able to reply ,"Don't you read the papers? We went in there mob-handed last week, and guess what? We found nowt"
  Purely Hypothesis I know, but I would imagine that the operation on Lamma was strategic in terms of PR as well as perceived crime.
  
• Come on, the fact they went away relatively empty handed is very very very funny.
  
• Lamma does have a reputation within HK amongst locals and expats alike. So what ? I'm baffled a little by the righteous indignation and the letters to the editors, all a bit bourgeois if you ask me.
  The nature of the beast of being a true Lammaite is being able to take this on the chin, maybe play up to it a little and then pity the poor soul who holds this perception as true for they truly don't have a clue.
  
• If anyone who still remembers me fancies a cold one this Christmas, let me know, for I'll be passing through HK before and after Christmas. I might even see If I can get a shift in the Island Bar !!

"Cheers and hope to see you all soon."

[Alan]

[RichF]

[Alan]

[RichF]

So is it the act or the reportage that offends ? I'm guessing both.

Their spin is always going to be published ahead of the good people of Lamma. They're a public body with a press department. Also Journo's and newspapers need them to feed off.

Cliche number three coming up ; why let the truth get in the way of a good story ?

Face it, Lamma will ALWAYS have a set reputation in HK, in the same way that Haight Ashbury has in San Francisco or Greenwich Village in New York or three streets in Amsterdam has in Europe !! It isn't going to change.

The reporting of the raid certainly panders to and reinforces the stereotypes but it isn't the end of the world and I would hark back to my original advice

[higgsboson]

Rich F. said:

[RichF]

I persist with wise.

[Marc Antony]

IMO police seem to be inherently racist everywhere - it's in the genes or summat, but I agree this wasn't a racist raid - more likely just plain incompetent. I spoke with a friend about the op last week (a Cantonese lady who's lived on Lamma for donkeys and knows both 'halves' of the community). She said how odd it was that a day or two after the raid she saw all the 'local' dealers having a hoot (and maybe a toot) outside Deliverance together. Why hadn't they been busted too, I asked. She said because (in her opinion) it was all about career promotion for a gweilo cop - for Toby, in other words. Toby of course would stick out like a ... gweilo, amongst the locals - hence no locals targeted.

So, here's the story. Toby goes to his boss one day and says boss, how about I do a big undercover op and bust those cocky pot-smoking hippies on Lamma that we keep hearing about? Boss says yes, go for it Tobes, me old sport. Toby's not actually a drugs cop (he's an antiques cop), so he brings along a sidekick to help him out, who turns out to be equally hopeless. As he knows bugger all about drugs, Toby gets the impression that Lamma is indeed chock-full of pot-smoking, drug-fuelled gweilo hippies, so he tells his boss it's worth bringing in the cavalry. Toby has visions of glory - perhaps he'll hit the bigtime at last ...

[Gatts]

[foreign body]

those who were using drugs before the raid, still do. They might have to catch a ferry to get their supply in town, but that's just a minor inconvenience.

The war on drugs (what a silly idea) is just as likely to be won as the war on prostitution. Drug-taking and prostitution have been around since we were living in caves. Legalise both and the crime rate will go down by magic, triads will lose a source of revenue, and the police will finally devote their resources to more worthwhile cases.

[Marc Antony]

[angelic]

This is an example of the lack of human rights in HK.
this is an embarrassment!
I notice they do not raid the midlevels or Dragon i... places that have bathrooms designed for coke usage!
I think they might get more than a couple of joints from any of the bars in central!
I think there must be an ulterior motive - otherwise it is just plain ridiculous to spend so long & so much money on an operation that is about 10 years too late.

[Marc Antony]

Based on information received confidentially from Lamma Underground:

Scene: The morning after, a dingy office at Wan Chai Police HQ, walls adorned with pics of pseudo models. Toby enters, looking a bit rough - he hasn't had much sleep.

Morning sir.

Morning Toby. A brief rundown please.

Well, a bit of a cockup sir, in a nutshell.

How so?

Well, all we found was a bit of pot and some charlie.

(strained).Hmmm, so I heard. What happened to the 'knee-deep in drugs' thing Toby? All those pothead gweilos you told me about?

(blubbering) Dunno guv. Maybe there was a tip-off ...

Or maybe you fucked up royally. I heard that bar managers were arrested. Was that your idea?

Er... yes sir - in for a penny, in for a pound!

You daft twat. It's a good thing we've already sold our story to the press - they like the international drug syndicate stuff, even if there isn't one. Lucky for you Toby. But you'll be glad to know you're back on the antiques. Now piss off.

Thank you sir.

Toby heads off to Starbucks ...

[Tigger]

That is laugh out loud funny! I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment of 'Toby's day'

[Sneaky-O]

Maybe we should stick up posters of Toby's wonderful countenance around the place with the heading "Wanted for Fraud."

[Lamma-Gung]

This Lamma Drama is brilliant!

From this forum to Lamma-zine on the home page within less than one hour! A new Lamma.com.hk e-publishing record, methinks.

Marc Antony, next scene, please?

[pit]

[Alan]

[Lamma-Gung]

Dear pit,

RichF's and Marc Antony's stories will in fact get a lot more people to read this forum, including your uncensored comments.

It does in no way detract from the totally unnecessary and unjustified suffering of the unjustly arrested people - several of them friends of mine - but it actually gets Lammaites' version of the story and our comments out there, well beyond Lamma, when no other local website or media seems to have seriously followed up on this story yet.

[Marc Antony]

I'm as outraged as anyone at the police antics of a few weeks ago, and also a friend of some of those ill-treated and unjustly arrested. Lampooning the police is fair game, IMHO - at the very least it's one way of gaining attention for the cause, as LG says.