Hello!!! How you've been? I thought of writing this blog as a channel of reaching out to all our clients and potential customers. I hope everybody is keeping well at these times. 

I've been working a lot towards how Absolaw should present its service model to its potential customers and I am also working towards acquiring some business from some law firms in the United Kingdom and the United States initially because our work model gives us ample flexibility to deal with our clients situated in different geographies. 

As far as Absolaw's services are concerned, we have begun with Litigation Support & MDR and Paralegal Services. Litigation Support & MDR comprises of all sorts of legal or litigation document review and on the other hand, Paralegal Services comprise of Legal Drafting and Legal Research. 

We are offering our new customers a PROMO, to begin with. All the services that we currently offer, i.e. Litigation Support & MDR and Paralegal Services, are being offered at a flat discount of 50%. We have even employed a way by which our customers may come to our webpage and discuss how much they are looking to spend depending on the size of their tasks. The final discount will be given at the time the invoicing is done for the task and the total amount will be slashed into half, no questions asked. 

To avail of this discount, drop into one of our member pages which has the details of the pricing plans that we offer. To access the member area, you need to enter your email address and create a password. After that, you would be able to see the pricing plans that we currently have for the two service lines that we offer. A straight up 50% off will be given to our customers if they go by one of our pricing plans. On this page, members also have an option to reach out to me directly to discuss if they want to have a customized pricing plan just for their project. I am giving at the end of this blog the URL to access our member area.

This promo is only valid for a limited period and we at Absolaw are only targeting a limited number of customers with this offer. So as soon as we get a significant number of clients and customers with this offer, the promo may get suspended.

I hope this blog would solve all your queries regarding how to take advantage of the 50% OFF Promo. Please comment on this blog to let us know how you want us to improve our services, or if there is any other suggestion which you may want us to implement.

Our Pricing Page: https://www.absolaw.com/pricing

Reach out to me by Email: admin@absolaw.com

Social Media. It is something which didn't even exist 15 years ago. And now no one can imagine their life without some sort of social media platform. Every one of us using some of the other social media platforms and while you are reading this, it is a proven fact that this blog post reached you via some sort of social media involvement only. It so important that if I ever try to circumvent the usage of social media, I would only be able to write my blog posts and wouldn't be able to circulate them to my audience. It has become so important that during the earlier days the news articles were keeping in mind the events which took place in the actual world and then they became a news piece, and now, everything that happens on the social media could anytime become a part of the news, be it a trend, or a post, or a feud between some of your film stars.

There are many platforms that people use and in today's market, we have a lot of options on what we want to use. People generally use social media which suits their choice or the content which they think is easily digestible for them. For example, some people are generally interested in what happens in their friend circle and how their 'near and dear' are doing, use Facebook. Some people are more inclined towards sharing photographs and use Instagram as a great photo-sharing platform. While some people like to follow their favorite politicians, actors, and artists on a micro-blogging website and Twitter gives them this functionality.

Today we are going to talk about Twitter and how it came into existence, this day, 14 years ago. Who knew back then that this project would explode in popularity and become the world's one of the most used social media platforms.

Back in 2006, a San Francisco based podcasting company, Odeo was working on a platform where users can upload and view podcasts. This project was headed by Evan Williams, who was the founder of the very popular diary publishing platform, Blogger. Evan sold Blogger to Google worth millions of dollars and established his own company, 'Odeo' with Noah Glass. The idea behind using Odea went obsolete very quickly when Apple launched iTunes which had a great feature of podcasts.

The team initially founded 'twttr' and the idea behind founding it was to let people share their status with their friends. The first-ever tweet sent from the website was 'just setting up twttr'.

'Twttr' was launched for the public in July 2006 and it was still a side project of Evan's 'Odeo'. They later posed a restriction on the users to only post content which limits to 140-characters. This limit was based on the more conventional Short Messaging Services which was 160-characters during the time. It was later named to 'Twitter' and it was then regarding as a micro-blogging website.

The use of Twitter then exploded and it quickly grew in size. More than 60,000 tweets were being sent daily just after 9 months from the day it was launched for the public. The company then grew the number of employees it had and it finally went public in November 2013. The time it went public, it was valued at around $31 Billion.

Nowadays, people use twitter to stay updated with the events which are happening around the world. Many famous people, such as world leaders, politicians, film stars, sports personalities, etc. are all on Twitter and people use the platform to get their daily dose of entertainment and current affairs. Twitter is also a great source to get to know what is trending around the world with the help of the hashtags. Hashtags can be used along with the tweets a user sends with his account and the more such usages occur, the more trending a hashtag becomes. Hashtags help to give a very decent idea of what is trending around the world. Hashtags played a very important role during the very recent Black Civil Rights protests around the world. The hashtag BlackLivesMatter was trending around the world and it played a very important role the strengthening the movement.

Twitter is also used to announce important policy changes by the government and people and political parties also use the platform to oppose their opponents.

As the number of internet users is rising around the world, the usage of common platforms is sure to go up in the future. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have immense popularity among their users and are growing more in terms of the services they offer and the user base they have. As I said, who knew, that a side project by Odeo would grow so much in popularity. I am pleased to have Twitter as a great source of information and current affairs.

We are living amidst a raging pandemic. Every other service we use daily is taking a toll. When the worldwide lockdown began, many necessary and auxiliary services came to a screeching halt. There were also so many services which could not be termed as necessary but still are called pseudo-necessary by many. Services such as dining-out, a quiet bar after a long workday, and a party with friends by the weekend, everything has got stopped and came to a halt. But there is still an entire industry which is trying hard, despite one the worst hit by the pandemic. Yes, I am writing about the film industry today.

Since my childhood, I've been watching movies and I call myself a movie buff. Not because I watch a lot of movies, but because I like the idea of going out now and then with friends and family and enjoy a good movie night. And if the movie turns out to be a good one, it makes the idea even more attractive. I like the notion of how we wait for a Friday when we anticipate a good movie to be up for a show at our nearest theatre. But ever since the world got hit by the pandemic, some of us have not even been able to go out even for the most necessary needs, going out to a theatre to watch a movie is a far-fetched dream. Hence, the effect the pandemic has to date on the film industry is worth millions.

When the first case of coronavirus confirmed in Wuhan, the theatres began shutting all around the world. A few weeks during the end-January and early-February rake big business for the film industry around the world because of the Chinese New Year. During these weekends, people are every year treated with good movies and the producers, therefore, get treated well too by good footfall at the theatres. But since early this year only, there has been none of this and the industry has taken a hard hit around the world.

After seeing China closing the doors of its theatres, countries such as Italy, Singapore, and France also closed its theatres. During mid-March, 2020, India went into a countrywide lockdown and shut its theatres in entirety. India is one of the worst-hit by the pandemic and its film industry is also taking a toll. It has a booming Hindi Film Industry also known as Bollywood which produces more than 100 films every year. Due to the pandemic, many producers are forced to release their movies on OTT platforms such as Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc, and because of that, the entire Hindi Film Industry is seeing a domino effect of cancellations.

As for Hollywood, there has been a total shut down of the theatres since April 2020, and that left the producers no choice except for planning the release of their fils at a later date. There has been a drop of roughly 75% in terms of revenue as compared to the last years. Big budget movies such as Tenet and Wonder Woman have been postponed for release due to the shutdown of theatres worldwide. Very recently, Tom Hanks starrer 'Greyhound' had to be released on Apple TV. Tom Hanks was also contracted by the virus along with stars such as Idris Alba and Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Owing to this situation, film production companies such as Warner Bros, Pixar, and Disney are incurring huge losses and in the process of tackling such losses, they are forced to move to OTT platforms to release their movies as there is a seemingly perpetual shutdown of the theatres currently.

Not just the movies, there have been so many festivals that had to be canceled because of the strict measures of social distancing put in place due to the pandemic. Coachella 2020 is a major example of how hard the entertainment industry has been hit by the virus that the festival had to be canceled. Also, the Cannes Film Festival, which takes place every year in France had to be canceled due to the pandemic. During its illustrious history, it has only got canceled when the nation was in a state of war. But this year, since more than 10,000 celebrities from different parts of the world were expected to attend the festival, it has been canceled for good owing to the stringent social distancing measures. The Cannes Film Festival is currently being used as a homeless shelter. As for the KPOP sensation BTS, they had to postpone the dates of their North American concerts because of these circumstances.

It’s already a piece of worldwide news that the Tokyo Olympics 2020 has got canceled and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning to reschedule it to a period not later than the summers of 2021.

I am hopeful that the situation is going to improve soon, but the question here is, will many people now feel safe to watch a film in a packed theatre? I know its fun to watch a movie when it’s a blockbuster, but the way theatres are packed during the screening of a hit film, it could be a feeding fest for the virus. I can only hope that a vaccine comes out to fight the virus so that there could again be mass gatherings (with all precautions, of course) and people could again enjoy the company of their loved ones out of the homes. Not just for the films, but there would be so many things which it would enable us to enjoy outside.

While the pandemic is affecting millions of people worldwide, many people accuse China of a foul play in its role of spreading the virus. These accusations range from controversial lab activities to failing to contain the virus, the role of China during the time Covid-19 was on an initial rise has been suspected to be foul by many. We in this blog are going to take a deep dive into the country's role in the spread of the pandemic and will also see how the country might try to satisfy its desire for world dominance.

I got this idea behind writing this blog when I saw in the news that a Chinese virologist fled to the US from Hong Kong. The virologist, Li-Meng Yan has accused China of foul play in its role with the handing of Covid-19. She, with many other expert virologists, was asked by the University to study a SARS-like virus that is coming out of Mainland China at the end of December 2019.

After a few days, these experts at the University were not allowed to talk about it but on the other hand, they were asked to wear masks at all times. There was also a change in the tone of the people who were dealing with the virus, like the authorities and the other scientists at the University when they were asked about the virus.

Yan, after seeing all this decided to pack her bags and leave the country for good. She took a flight from Hong Kong to the United States and left the country. She was chased by the Chinese government by asking her to shut her mouth about the news of the virus and various cyber-attacks were plotted against her. The Chinese authorities also thrashed her apartments in Qingdao in the hopes of finding a proof of her whereabouts in the US. They also questioned her parents about the same.

This is not the first time China has been accused of foul play by its scientists. On 30th December 2019, a doctor at the Wuhan Central Hospital, Dr. Li Wenliang shared a message with his fellow doctors warning them about the outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin and also advised them of wearing protective gear at all times when at the hospital. Later Li was summoned by the authorities for spreading false reports and disturbing the social order. He died of coronavirus after a month on 7th February 2020.

China's role has been heavily criticized by many in the spread and handling of the virus. People also suspect China of deliberately spreading the virus so that the world order could be shaken, trade may be affected and China's medical equipment manufacturers could be given an upper hand in the entire scenario. This could only be confirmed if the world initiates an international level investigation against the country, and also if whistleblowers like Yan come out of the dark and speak openly about the truth.

I am not accusing China of actually playing a foul act in the Covid-19 outbreak, but since there are so many people accusing the country of doing such a thing, I can only think where there is smoke, there is a fire.

As the pandemic is slowly passing by, or I'm not even sure if it's spreading more, because of it’s not much hot news now. We all are wanting to travel soon, for leisure or necessary purposes. I am also wanting to travel to some of my favorite vacation destinations for a very long time but not been able to. My entire summers came and passed by while I looked out my window, clouds passing by and sun's setting, daily.

It's not very usual I think about traveling, as I usually write about more political stuff or topics which are currently relevant in the news. But yesterday I was watching YouTube and I saw some very engaging blogs and I thought why not plan a vacation to some destination in the mountains. Bu the first thing which popped into my mind was the situation and the slowdown in the tourism industry due to the pandemic. I thought I don't even know how I will commute from one place to the other and save myself from all the spreading of the disease, as well as traveling safely so that any run-ins with the law enforcement could also be avoided. Then I also thought as I am not the only one planning to travel and take a vacation, there would be many who would be thinking the same and would be stuck on how to travel and carry their stuff around. So I gathered some information and decided to make a blog about it.

There are many modes of transport which you could choose, depending on where you're going and how far you have to travel. The safest way to travel these days is either by air or by your car, but both of them have their limitations. Let's assume that one wants to travel to the Himalayas, now there are no flights in currently serving the mountains, taking a personal car or a hired one is going to burn a hole in your pocket. Hence, its one's choice on how they want to travel and what the budget they've decided to travel with.

We can now discuss the ways one could travel while maintaining the basic norms which have taken place after the pandemic. These are as follows:

• Avoid crowded means of travel such as overloaded buses or trains, etc. Overcrowded places are like an open buffet for the pandemic to feast on.
• Always wear a mask. Yes, you read that right, Trump. Even if you're driving a car and are the only occupant inside, wearing a mask is an added measure for safety.
• Always maintain a distance to 6 Feet of 2 Meters so that you could help in restricting the spread of the disease.
• Carry a Hand Sanitizer which should contain a minimum of 60 percent of alcohol.
• Wash your hands often with soap for at least 20 seconds. Washing hands for 20 seconds break the outer layer of the virus and decreases its potency if it's on our hands. It ultimately us in not getting infected by it.

The CDC has put in place an action plan and best practices for the people working in the accommodations and hotel industry. Some of them are as follows:

• Public areas should be cleaned extensively such as lobby, elevator, escalator, restaurant, etc. 
• Social distancing should be followed at all times in a hotel.
• The basic things which have been discussed above, which help in the spread of infection should be available in an ample quantity at the hotel.

With this ongoing pandemic, we know that there has been a lot of pressure on us to stay at homes and help in curbing the spread of the disease. People are giving their best to stay at home and stay safe. Even the best of the plans may get canceled if you're not feeling well physically. Always remember that your health is the only wealth that matters these days. If you are healthy, you have a world waiting to explore. Not today, but maybe tomorrow.

Say Safe.

In one of my previous blogs, I have written about the introduction of the National Security Law in Hong Kong and how the region is facing the repercussions of the same, being a global economic center. 

There have been several developments since last week regarding this law. Recently, Australia has suspended its Extradition Treaty with Hong Kong, to extend its support to the Hong Kong citizens and Australians living in Hong Kong. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed this move of Canberra citing that the security law is a grave infringement of the basic rights of the people in Hong Kong and this is a way of the Australian Government to extend support to the region.

Beijing on the other hand was not very happy with this move of the Australian Government. China's Embassy in Australia termed this as an act of lifting a rock only to hit your own feet. It has also criticized this move as 'gross interference' in its internal affairs. 

Very recently, Canada has also suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and also lifted some visa restrictions. The reason behind this is cited as the introduction of the security law and also that such a move by the Canadian Government would ultimately help in boosting the immigration of Hong Kong people in the country. On the other hand, the UK has also suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong citing the same reason. 

Critics in the western countries are saying that it be very easier for the Communist Party to punish people who raise a voice against the government, that too in a prison in Mainland China. As the objections around the world concerning the National Security Law are piling up, China has further increased its grip over Hong Kong by initializing a crackdown on RTHK, a broadcaster that is famous for setting an example by criticizing the officers which are held accountable for their actions in China. Since holding a government or a Communist Party official accountable for its actions was not allowed initially in Hong Kong, such crackdown is now legal after the introduction of the National Security Law.

Along with curbing anti-China protests, the new Security Law has also called for tougher actions against media outlets which are publishing news and articles against the actions of the Communist Party of China. This has been covered under subversion under the new law. The only intention of Beijing for such a law is to choke all sorts of pro-democracy schools of thought in Hong Kong. 

Critics fear that this could mean an untimely invasion of Hong Kong my making this new law a weapon to achieve this purpose by Beijing. We can only be hopeful of better developments in the future of this region.

We all have counties that boast on their mix of ethnically indigenous demographics. Countries such as India, Canada, and the United States have a multitude of people living who belong to different ethnicities. People of all such ethnicities co-exist with each other and they live with each other joyously. Sometimes there gets some saltiness between people of different regions over opinions about something specific in question, political choices, or linguistic differences. Otherwise, usually, humans are so wrapped up in their hustle to earn their place and bread in the world, they simply turn a blind eye towards the fact that they are living in such an ethnically diverse world.

Countries with such diverse demographics are usually proud of such an aspect and consider that as a matter of national pride. But that is not always the case. There is one such country that does not think that all of its citizens have equal rights and should be given equal opportunities to grow and thrive on their motherland, or at least the news shows that some countries are not proud of all their ethnicities. One such country is China.

When we think about China, we think about shining cities, the valleys of flowers, the great wall, and the tech sector. But there is also something China is in news for from the past few years. It's the Xinjiang province in North-Western China.

Xinjiang is the largest administrative region of China and bordered by many countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. The region derives most of its economic sources from agriculture and trade because the original Silk Route passed through it.

Xinjiang has not always been a part of China. It was an East Turkestan state and it became a part of China in 1949. Some protests for its independence started surfacing in the region during the 1990s but those were suppressed by the Communist Party of China. Since then, Xinjiang has been an indigenous part of China.

The majority of the population in the Xinjiang province is the Uighurs. Uighurs are mostly Muslims and they derive their ethnic resemblance from the provinces and ethnicities of Central Asia. Mainland China, i.e. regions accept for Xinjiang usually consists of Han Chinese people.

During the past few years, the news columns are filled with the news of Xinjiang people facing violence by the Communist Party of China. These people are the Uighur Muslims of this region. Critics say that this ethnic tension is caused because of the economic and cultural differences between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese, but the people of Xinjiang have their reasons for resentment.

Citizens of Xinjiang say that there is on so many levels that the Communist Party of China is discriminating against them. Their major concern is that the majority of the government designations in the Xinjiang province are given to the Han Chinese people and not the Uighurs. Since the recent infrastructure projects have brought an economical boom in Xinjiang, locals say that the top-paying jobs or the best jobs are given to the Han Chinese people who come here from the Eastern states. Since 2014, the Communist Party has also banned fasting during the month of Ramadan, which is totally against the beliefs of the people who follow Islam.

The reason for this cat and mouse chase between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese is unknown but it has been believed that when the Uighurs began their protests during the 1990s, the Communist Party induced crackdown on the protesters was the first instance of government-sponsored violence in the region. Things then worsened during 2009, when a large scale ethnic riot took place in the state capital, Urumqi, killing more than 200 Han Chinese people.

China's action and policy regarding this region are highly debated and are criticized by people all over the world. Critics believe that China is maintaining concentration camps in the Xinjiang province to keep political prisoners. Protesters are arrested and charged with Separatism and Terrorism and they are then sent to the concentration camps, without even informing their families of the whereabouts of the convicts. Some also believe that organ harvesting is then done by using the people living in such concentration camps. On the other hand, China maintains that it is the countrywide crackdown on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the people arrested are all extremists, tied somehow to this organization. Keeping in mind the state of the Chinese judiciary, it is quite clear that whoever gets convicted, is given a shot at a fair trial.

In a report published by Amnesty International, a civil rights group, it was said that China has criminalized what they thought as illegal or separatist activities, which further suppressed peaceful and cultural identity-based activities in the region, fuelling the rage against the Communist Party of China. Because of this pitiful condition of this region, tourism has also taken a toll, depriving the people of a major source of income.

In my opinion, as the Chinese investment is increasing in Xinjiang, so is the number of separatists, which China claims as terrorists. If China continues to clamp down Xinjiang like this in the future also, it would mean that there could be major civil unrest in the region and critics also believe that China could lose its sovereignty over Xinjiang.

I hope to see some positive changes in the future of this region.

No matter where you are in the world, you would be using some of the other Chinese technology right now. The past decade has witnessed immense Chinese influence in the tech market. The United States, which still in my opinion dominates the tech world, has only one competition in the consumer-based tech space, i.e. China. 

During recent times, or during the past one month, we all have witnessed some incidents which have shaken the Chinese tech world bad. Recently, India banned 59 Chinese Mobile Applications including the wildly popular TikTok and WeChat, which by the way had a huge consumer base in India. Although, it is not a blanket ban, and the authorities are considering the written submissions by all these apps. The ban was put in place due to privacy concerns. Some critics are also linking this ban to the very recent Indo-China Border Standoff which resulted in Armed Forces casualties on both sides, as a measure of putting a 'Digital Strike' on China by India.

The concern flagged by the Indian Authorities is privacy and data mining of the Indian users of those apps. The only question people now have in their minds is that are these apps really mining all the data pulled from the users of such apps? China has been very critical over this move by India, and on the other hand, China itself has arbitrarily censored the internet in its own country since the very inception of this technology.

Recently, the US has also initiated sanctions on the Chinese tech giant, Huawei over the concerns on its close ties with the Chinese Communist Party. Critics have always had suspicions that Beijing could use Huawei to spy over other nations and Huawei has always denied this claim and said that they will never allow such requests from the PRC officials. Due to the recent sanctions on Huawei, it has been said that it won't be able to deliver 5G in the country. This along with the rising Anti-China Sentiment in India is not helping Chinese Tech-Space.

China recently has seen deteriorating international relations due to the pandemic and the various border disputes it has are also a reason why this sentiment is growing. Also, Trump's vow to bring the manufacturing back to America and the recent Chinese labor cost rise is also a reason the tech space is suffering. Washington is also trying to provide a $25 billion stimulus package in the form of a reshoring fund, followed by Japan offering $2.2 Billion so that the country could reshore out of China because the tensions are rising between the two nations. 

In my opinion, the tech space of China should be made independent from the Communist Party in power, so that the users in other countries could see the transparency in the mode of operations while maintaining the data by such apps. China should also open its doors to western apps such as Google, YouTube, and Facebook. This will give the Chinese people an option to switch over other apps in the market which are not based in China, hence increasing healthy competition in the international tech space. Since the Chinese tech space is taking a toll at this very moment, Beijing should understand the need for not censoring the internet for its own citizens. 

Only the time will tell if China's billion-dollar tech space will sail through this mess or bite the dust by the actions of other nations.

People think that the world is liberating and men and women are being treated equally in all walks of life. This is more of an ideal situation than the actual situation. For many people who are working relentlessly for the equal treatment of all the genders and orientations, this post may come as a shock as it’s regarding instances of multiple sexual harassment in one of the noblest professions out there, i.e. the legal profession.

The international legal news these days is raging by the news of one man, Dyson Heydon, former justice of the High Court of Australia. The man is accused of sexual assault on multiple accounts by at least six women. He is accused of kissing and inappropriate touching by these women, who all are his former associates. Earlier, High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel was shocked to learn such incidents in an institution of such stature. She said she is ashamed that such harassment has happened at the High Court. Now, the High Court Chief Executive Philippa Lynch has emailed at least 100 former associates of Heydon and asked them to share their experiences and ordeals, if they faced any, with them.

This isn't the first time a judge has been accused of an act constituting sexual harassment. Earlier in 2019, a woman accused ex-CJI of India of sexual harassment while she was working as an assistant in October 2018. A panel was constituted at the Supreme Court of India to look into this matter as it was cited as a matter of grave public importance. The charges were however dropped later due to the lack of sufficient evidence and substance for the accusations leveled by the woman.

This brings us to the topic of our blog today that 'is the law a man's world'? There has been seen a predominance of men in the legal fraternity. From law firms to judiciary, there has been a shortfall of women in positions that are more respected in the legal world. According to some reports, only 27% of the law firms partnered by women and this is the case in the judiciary.

There are so many incidents in which an element of male dominance can be asserted. Women Judges are interrupted by the male counsels to assert male dominance quite often and men holding top offices often sexually harass their junior associates to assert the same hierarchy. As it is commonly known that a profession like law, which is highly driven by performance and hierarchy, sexual harassment is a way to assert male dominance.

The reason behind such behavior could be the fact that women were denied studying law for a very long period and it has only been recently, that women started studying law. Many reports also show that when a female lawyer holds a top position at an office, she is underpaid than her male counterparts. However, this situation is slowly changing, there has been a time when it drew a lot of flak. This could also be a reason behind the high attrition rate of women from this profession.

According to me, independent bodies should be constituted so that the women who have gone through any of such instances could come out and speak up. Fair investigations should be conducted in this regard so that serious and repeat offenders could be brought to justice. Relation mentoring should also be conducted on an organizational level so that people could speak about their grievances on an organizational level before filing any serious charges against someone they work with. Women themselves should develop networks where they could share their situations with someone's experience and talk about their issues. Speaking out is the only way forward in such scenarios.

Although we have been seeing a grim picture because of the news in Australia, there is still a ray of optimism if we stay connected to our peers and share our instances. With that only, we may hope to see more young women in the legal profession and hold prestigious designations.

So what does this drama over Hong Kong tell us about? Seriously, I don't have any clear idea of the situation that is unfolding in HK, because I belong neither to China nor to the UK. But one thing is pretty clear by all the news stories going around, i.e. Hong Kong is not stable currently.

I have been to Hong Kong just before the protest begun in June-July, 2019. It's a great city to spend a vacation. With soaring skyline, scenic beaches, and tax-free shopping, Hong Kong has something that caters to the tastes of people from every walk of life. But that doesn't explain the controversy surrounding the city, right?

Well, you have to rewind a few decades to understand this whole scenario. Hong Kong was initially ceded to the UK after they won a war against China. The duration of this lease was 99 years, which the British thought to be as good as forever. This lease ended in 1997 and Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories went back to China. Since then Hong Kong has enjoyed a special status of One Country - Two Systems. HK is a Special Administrative Region of China just like Macau. The validity of this special status was deemed to exist until 2047.

Under this special status, HK enjoys some exclusive freedoms which are not given to the people residing in Mainland China. Freedoms such as Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly are some of the vital rights, which the people of HK currently have.

The new Security Law for Hong Kong does exactly the opposite of what this special status is meant to do. The United Kingdom's Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that the new law violates Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy. The law has given the power to the officials to pronounce maximum life sentences in four categories of criminal offense such as secession, subversion of state power, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security. Damaging public transport and public facilities would also be deemed as terrorism under the law. Also, the accused in any of such offenses can be requested to be taken for a trial in Mainland China. Trials under this law will be held in secret, behind closed doors under the absence of a jury, and the judges will be appointed by Carrie Lam, the Cheif Executive of the City.

The law also applies to Non-Permanent members of Hong Kong, and they will be treated accordingly, even if they are not in Hong Kong at the time of committing the offense.

The new law will seriously affect the freedom enjoyed by the citizens of HK. The city has to date enjoyed the status of a place that gives trade, media, and tax freedoms. People of HK are also afraid that this also affects the image of the city as a global economic powerhouse.

Critics say that this law is clearly in violation of the One Country - Two Systems rule enjoyed by Hong Kong, but clearly, Beijing is in a position to do this as it has the power to bypass Hong Kong Parliament by listing such laws under Annex III after passing a decree.

Only the future will tell us what the new law has in the store for Hong Kong.