Saturday 28 July 2007
NEONLIGHTS
Neon, neonlights, shine, shine in the dark. Macao by night, the Lisboa Casino, the finances ministry as used to call it the locals, the empire of Stanley Ho.
The suicides in the Chinese business classes, the kidnappings in exchange of fortunes of the ones who did not pay back the loans, 100% a day; an ear was sent to the family and sequesters were done on the fifteenth floor of some skycrapper, where nobody could hear the victims.
From 1997 onwards, when Hong Kong went back to Chinese sovereignty, a massive emigration of the underworld of the ex-colony towards Macao and Taiwan took place.
A war, with no equal, began between the sects, seen that the local terrain was already occupied, the "Water-Air", the 24 Carats, others smaller disguised as beneficence or sports or cultural associations, or God knows whatever.
Everything to control Macao's underworld, gambling that paid its tribute to the government, the girls, fortunes were paid for the new and fresh from China, for some exotic mushrooms.
The government has been threatened, it was joked about, some "bags with powder" have been thrown inside the government Palace, some firecrackers bigger than the usual, but with no serious effects.
In the newspapers, some spoke of a cut horsehead in the house of a judge. The Godfather? Some machineguns shots injured Portuguese workers who were opening the concurrent casino, a bomb at Campo Grande, another at the military quarters; a few troops before a China with a billion and a bit.
In the administration, among the Portuguesemen from the continent, only the judiciary police's director spoke Chinese. He ended being transferred to Portugal.
The more important judicial matters and not only, were dependant of the mestizo translators' mafia. The pre-99 era, under Portuguese administration that did not control anything anymore, was the period of the Transition, the hand-over of Macao to Beijing. As F. said, the rats leave the ship when it sinks, only the captain stays on board. But there were no sailors anymore...
When the Chinese elite troops gathered on the other side of the "Portas do Cerco", the border with communist China, some talked about the Incorruptibles. They would be ready to enter the city of the Holy Name of God, even before 1999. Some were speaking of playing Mahler at the ceremony of the hand-over, the flag-descending part of the event, I've always found Mahler rather funny, on the depressed side.
That was the scenery in Macao during the transition, the officials were coming back to Lisbon, to give place to the locals, if possible bilinguals. But nobody spoke Portuguese among the population, we communicated in English, and nobody spoke Chinese between the 3 thousand and so, Portuguese who were there exiling themselves. There were contributions, of course.
Relatively to the freedom of press and the continental values, those who dared criticize publicly the government or anyone else, was casted away.
I remember a journalist who fell in disgrace because of a judge surviving from the old fascist regime, who was forced to go back to Lisbon, but only after being chewed and forbidden to work in the territory. The judge also would also end repatriated, he was making too much fuzz.
Exiled from Timor also had their place in Macao, still were fighting at that time and still are now in Dili, and had in the territory their open counter. "Runaways" from Angola, from the high Angolan colonial casts also were found in Macao, in important places. Deserters from the PLA, the People Liberation's Army of China, recycled themselves in the local mafia.
The public enemy number one, favorite of the local tabloids, arrive to stardom in the person of Pang Nga Koi, Broken Tooth. Leader of a sect, he came from Hong Kong, when this one returned to China. The Chinese still hold the death penalty, the mafia was running away like rats. Even the underworld fears Beijing. Some say that Beijing, for the ceremony of the hand-over of Hong Kong to the mother land, the rising of the Chinese flag and the descending of the British, ordered that there were no trouble during the week. All the sects obeyed with no exception. Prince Charles and governor Patten went away with no incident, on a ocean liner back to London.
Back to Pang Nga Koi, after terrorizing Macao for a while, the Portuguese administration did manage to capture him. Beijing wanted him, to execute him of course, then started the debate around the question of the extradition of the man, who meant a certain death, which was contrary to the Portuguese values.
I knew from a secure font, who did not allowed me to publish the news at the time, that a man belonging to the sects had been killed in the prison of Coloane. With style, with a fork. The news was censored. The prison isolated. Nobody controlled anything anymore.
The sectarians, were recognisable by tattooed arms, the Hugo Boss suits, and the last models of mobile phones, not speaking of fast cars. Speaking of fast cars, some were offered in exchange for publicity in newspapers, maybe one or another favour, baksheesh in Hindi. Yellow? Dubious discos.
I have found some writings from that time, there it goes.
Stanley Ho, uncle Stanley was losing power. The warning had been given when the Lisboa casino was robbed with weapons. Never before, such a thing had ever occurred, they had fired against the ceilings as a warning sign.
Stanley Ho cannot control the sects anymore. To control, financially obviously. Money always help. A few contributions, a few donations and the peace between the sects is maintained, Macanese or Hong Konger. But now, came up on stage, the very powerful Big Circle, coming from China. The demonstration of power came to mix the whole game, already defined a long time ago.
The message was clear: Mr Stanley will never enter in China. The Big Circle - deserters or dead theorists from the PLA who ran away to Macao. The PLA - People's Liberation Army, the regular army or better known the Chinese red army.
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