I was there for two weeks, starting one week before the protests began (I refuse to call them riots). What actually took place was the occupation...a sit-in if you like....of a number of key sections of major roads, principally outside the main Government Offices. The only "weapons" that the kids brought with them were umbrellas to protect themselves against pepper spray and mace.

Their intention was to get the Government to change their minds on how to pick the candidates for whom HongKongers will vote in elections in 2017. At present those candidates will have to be approved by Beijing-appointed committees, in other words stooges of the Communist Party.

Of course they've probably got a fat chance of doing that.

However the HK Government badly over-reacted and tear-gassed all these kids and teenagers on the first day of the protest. I saw it live on TV and was totally horrified. I stress there was no provocation by the protestors. The reaction was that many more ordinary people joined the protests and the Government realised their mistake and withdrew the Riot Police that had been deployed, leaving the ordinary police to control the crowds.

The next week had two public holidays in it, so although surface transport in some parts of the city was paralysed the overall effect on commerce wasn't too bad and you could still get around on the MTR (underground rail). There was no violence throughout this time. I certainly did not feel threatened in any way.

Then , on the following Friday, the kids were attacked by a mixture of ordinary people who wanted to go to work and didn't agree with them and triad thugs. Whether these criminals were instigated by Government agencies or whether they were stirred to action because they were losing money is a moot point.

The protestors say the police didn't do enough to stop the attacks, but my own opinion is that they were in a difficult position and tried to use minimum force to separate the parties.

The protests continue but the numbers appear to be dwindling and I left Hong Kong six days ago so I cannot give any account of events since then.

I have seen all sorts of rubbish and so-called analysis and commentary in the overseas media and I agree with Julie that a lot of it...if not most of it....was a sensationalised beat-up. On TV in particular the coverage was very selective.

As I said, I think the protestors have Buckleys chance of getting the HK and Chinese Governments to climb down, which doesn't mean they shouldn't try. Where I don't agree with Julie is that in my opinion the Chinese Government is breaking the agreements it made over twenty years ago to allow HK people full democracy, but they probably never will, because they are terrified that the idea will spread to the rest of the country.

Having said that, HK is still by far the freest city in China. If these demos had happened elsewhere in the country they would have been ruthlessly crushed.

Joanne