WTO MC6 Day 5

Frankly, I'm too tired to write a long account of tonight's experience. I will say this however, tear gas sucks. It's far worse than I thought it would be and since I found mself right in the front when it first reared its ugly head, I got it really good.

I will recount the details in the morning when my eyes stop hurting and I stop yawning. I will say, however, that I have a lot of respect for the Koreans. I may not agree with all of their opinions and acknowledge that a lot of their charm comes from very professional publicity stunts, but I like them anyway. Afterall, they outsmarted the police and broke throught barrier at Central Plaza around 7:30 tonight.

They've been very respectful of Hong Kong and its citizens, first of all. And when I was running up the Flemming overpass, tears in my eyes, gagging and gasping for air it was two Koreans, whom on seperate occassions offerred me water to wash away the pain. Of course, I felt guilty when a desperate Korean stood at the end of the overpass and in his broken English tried to deter people from running away from the protest, "No, don't go!" he said.

I did go, but we returned after some Shanghainese food. The Koreans had taken up camp on Glouchester Rd. and within minutes of our arrival, there was more tear gas. Things settled down and I left. Last I heard, no one was allowed to leave the Wan Chai area and John says the Koreans have started singing and dancing in a congo line again.

Tomorrow, we return for the last day of WTO meetings and what is supposed to be the largest protest/march yet.