Hide and Sieg
I visited the Izzue store at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong to see whether they'd removed the Third Reich banners after the uproar against them.
The green camo barrels had been rearranged to conceal the black swastikas, and I didn't see any clothing with Nazi regalia; it was either piled in the store room or covered.
But the banners weren't gone:
They were draped over the top back rails of the clothing racks and arranged in such a way as to try to obscure the offending symbols. Considering the spartan design of the shop, why didn't they remove them outright?
One of the staff amused me after I took a photograph. He came out of the store, pulled out his mobile phone, made a call and started talking. He shot me the evil eye as I stood there with my camera.
He wandered to the mid-point between my position and the store front, attempting to block my line of sight. For the heck of it, I changed my angle to the right, and he followed. When I moved back to the left, he wheeled and again stood in front of me. I took his picture instead.
He'd been instructed to harass photographers. He didn't say a word, but if he thought dirty looks would frighten me, he was sorely mistaken. It didn't matter; I had the photo I came to get. The moment I put my camera away, he drifted back into the store.
If anything positive is to be gained from this event, it educated people, and we'll see less Nazi-related items for sale in Hong Kong.
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