Hong Kong’s security minister came under fire on Wednesday for saying that women should “not drink too much” if they want to avoid being raped.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok (黎棟國) was presenting figures on crime in the territory for the first quarter, which showed that rape cases soared 60 percent, when he made the comments.
“All of these [rape] cases happened between those who know each other. They are either friends, close friends or they just met a few hours ago,” Lai said on Tuesday. “Some of these cases also involved the victims being raped after drinking quite a lot of alcohol. So I would appeal that young ladies should not drink too much.”
Angry Twitter and Facebook users blasted Lai’s comments on Wednesday.
“Hong Kong Secretary for Security advises that ‘young ladies not drink too much’ after rise in rapes. Or, gosh, maybe tell men not to rape?” Hong Kong-based Twitter user Miss O’Kistic said on her feed. “Doesn’t matter if the woman has been drinking or dressing ‘provocatively.’ Rape and sexual violence against women are never OK,” Facebook user Noreen Mir wrote on the wall of protest group SlutWalk Hong Kong.
Women’s rights campaigners said Lai should retract his remarks and concentrate on preventing sex crimes and arresting attackers.
Linda Wong (王秀容), executive director of Hong Kong’s Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, said Lai’s comments were a backward step after rights groups had campaigned to encourage rape victims to come forward.
“The under-reporting of rape in Hong Kong is already very high and some of the reason is women feel that people will put all the blame on them,” Wong said.
Liu Si-si (廖珮珊), director of the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres, said the remarks were “not the message that the government should be sending out.”
A government spokesman said Lai had no intention whatsoever to blame victims.
“The sole purpose is to highlight the modus operandi of these cases, in which the culprits took advantages of victims whose ability to protect themselves was reduced after drinking too much,” he said.
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau said the number of rapes in the first quarter had risen by 13 to 35.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
RSS