plan. Or that the end is nigh and we're on the brink of collapse. We also have strong personal narratives - those we tell ourselves about our lives and identity - maybe that we're a failure and our lives have come to naught, or that we're special enough that the limits that apply to others don't apply to us, or that human beings are so fundamentally evil that anyone's bold, imaginative thinking about a positive future is childish and naive. These narratives are so omnipresent that we often barely notice them, or notice the fact that they're stories - stories that might be inaccurate, or incomplete, or subject to change - even though they can dictate major decisions like who to vote for, where to live, and what work to do. Stories influence the shape our lives take and the path by which society charts its way forward. The Power of Story is, in fact, something we underestimate at our peril. Rob Hopkins • FROM WHAT IF TO WHAT IS
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everyday life is approaching a new normal. Not everything is open, but in Hong Kong the bars and beaches are busy, it's been days since any new Covid-19 cases were detected, while friends there are full of the joys of Spring on hikes to Victoria Peak. But this taste of freedom will be short lived. Tomorrow, Beijing will extend its control over the territory with the introduction of the mainland’s national security law to Hong Kong.
Under the Sino-British Joint Declaration that marked the beginning of the end of British rule in the territory, it was agreed a high-level of autonomy would be maintained from the mainland for a period of at least fifty years. Yet it has come under threat as never before, from the Chinese Communist Party.
The autonomy we guarantee includes free speech, freedom of the press, free assembly of people, local control over new laws, and no interference with police or army forces. The writers of Hong Kong’s Basic Law foresaw the problem of Beijing’s overreach by writing that national security legislation of this type will be enacted by the Hong Kong government "on its own." Tomorrow all that changes. Beijing’s communists are making national security laws that they will impose on Hong Kong.
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