National Post has an even more interesting article on his stay in HK [0].
And I hope this finally lays to rest all those BS accusations that Snowden's a 'russian spy' and how he 'partied at the Russian consulate in HK'... like Washington Post disinfo kept on repeating for years. [1] There are people still on Twitter who are smearing Snowden and they claim he's a spy and everything he did was to somehow 'help Putin' and they bring up this nonsense.
Real gems these ones. It is simply astonishing that strangers could give refuge to a man that, at the time, was America's Most Wanted. The courage of these refugees is staggering: they had lost practically everything in their lives and were now confronted with hiding a target as valuable as Snowden and the (mortal?) risks that came with it. Really remarkable people!
It's true these people are kind. However, a lot of people have kind hearts and it could be argued that anti-bureaucratic, anti-government sentiment is basically omnipresent in much of Asia.
> I hope this finally lays to rest all those BS accusations that Snowden's a 'russian spy' and how he 'partied at the Russian consulate in HK'
If simply presenting the truth stopped the spread of rumours, lies and conspiracy theories, there would be no rumours, lies and conspiracy theories spreading.
> People talk a lot about courage in politics, courage in war; standing up in the face of great odds. These things are fabulous, wonderful, but I’ll tell you right now that I would trade them all for a world of these everyday heroes. What I thought I knew about bravery was nothing compared to what I saw in Hong Kong.
-- Edward Snowden
Truly worth the read. I encourage everyone to do so.
I believe that the point of this story was to shine a light on how one of the wealthiest cities treats their poor and to show us what courage they have to keep fighting.
I come from Asia. This is something I noticed first-hand. Those with nothing donate a much larger percentage of their wealth than those with a lot. Seems absolutely insane, but it's true the more experience I gather... here in America, I find it to be true again. Seems so counter-intuitive, I wonder why this is so persistently true.
I don't have sources, but I've read before, repeatedly, of this being noted.
I believe there may even be some economic, sociological, psychological, anthropological studies to this effect.
As I recall, one argument is that a lack of resources requires greater cooperation.
Or, people without portable, fungible wealth, are required to trade and cooperate with those in their immediate vicinity.
However, I feel all this misses the heart of the matter: Human connection.
One way in which the "modern" world often feels increasingly sterile.
Though that human connection works both ways: Great kindness, and great exploitation. Though the latter may be limited both by geographic reach and the ability of local society to simply "cut you out" should your transgressions exceed the pain of doing so.
Personally, in the "middle class" here in the U.S., I have struggled for that connection. I've found it with select friends I've made over the years, but not with neighbors. A few neighbors respond kindly, but many are indifferent and a few outright hostile.
I wonder if part of the story might be that Americans (and really most wealthy countries) have a tendency to feel like they've "done their part" through taxes. And since the rates are progressive, you not only contribute more in dollars, you actually contribute a larger portion of your income the more you make, so wealthier people actually are "giving more". Surely this has an effect on the culture.
Contrast the 33% tax bracket in America @ $190k (then you add on medicare taxes and social security and state taxes which would be about 10% in California) with Hong Kong's maximum of 15%. I don't know what it's like in the country in Asia you come from.
I volunteered a couple times at an elementary school near Jordan (a neighborhood in Hong Kong) where lots of South Asian kids attend. I am not sure if the ones I saw were refugees but they clearly needed more help.
Many of them were sufficiently smart to do well in school but the curriculum was only designed for people who are fluent in Chinese. For example, the Math homework was all in Chinese but many of the kids could barely spoke Chinese, let alone read (they spoke English reasonably well though). It's no wonder that many of them didn't want to do homework and (presumably) not doing well in school, even if you don't consider the situations at home.
Hong Kong has good public education but the local schools are all designed for the local population. The expats (and well off families) send their kids to international schools which are expensive. I am really not sure what's the best way to help those kids.
Do they not have special classes to teach people Chinese? Like how in English speaking countries, there are normally resources to help people learn English.
They might have. I was volunteering at a weekly afternoon tutoring session but clearly that wasn't the objective of the session. There could have been another session where Chinese was taught. Judging from their language competency though I don't think whatever classes existed helped.
Even if those special classes existed, you have to realize how much of a daily discouragement it is to be asked to do homework everyday in a language you don't understand. I ended up translating the Math problems into English for one kid and she had no problem doing them afterwards. (Another kid though couldn't do basic additions even though he was already at 2nd grade. Not trying to say that language is the only problem they have)
The schools don't offer them, as they aren't a part of the public curriculum. People are still campaigning for it.
Apart from that there are free Chinese classes at some churches, that's about it.
Outside classes are simply not enough though, there's no way a foreign child could catch up to local children who've been immersed in Chinese since birth. And the public Chinese curriculum is a challenge even for locals.
Lastly, Hong Kong people speak Cantonese which is considerably more difficult that Putonghua which most of China speaks. (More complex characters, more than double the tones)
That's unfortunate. I was able to go to a subsidized private school for ethnic minorities, which cost about USD 300/month. Same local curriculum, all English.
Quite a striking contrast between the super high tech spy world on the one hand and the poverty of the Hong Kong refugees on the other. It's like something out of a William Gibson novel from the 80's or 90's.
Sometimes I wonder if Gibson himself is surprised at the similarities between his 1980's fantasy world and our current reality. The world is a strange place...
He is fond of saying "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."
I've seen a quote attributed to him along the lines of "Cyberpunk as a genre died out because if became real life", but I have not been able to track down any source or proof of that attribution.
26 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 70.9 ms ] threadAnd I hope this finally lays to rest all those BS accusations that Snowden's a 'russian spy' and how he 'partied at the Russian consulate in HK'... like Washington Post disinfo kept on repeating for years. [1] There are people still on Twitter who are smearing Snowden and they claim he's a spy and everything he did was to somehow 'help Putin' and they bring up this nonsense.
[0] http://news.nationalpost.com/features/how-edward-snowden-esc...
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/report-snowden-stayed-a...
If simply presenting the truth stopped the spread of rumours, lies and conspiracy theories, there would be no rumours, lies and conspiracy theories spreading.
-- Edward Snowden
Truly worth the read. I encourage everyone to do so.
'The refugees who harbored him three years ago still live in miserable conditions in a wealthy city that doesn’t want them'
I believe there may even be some economic, sociological, psychological, anthropological studies to this effect.
As I recall, one argument is that a lack of resources requires greater cooperation.
Or, people without portable, fungible wealth, are required to trade and cooperate with those in their immediate vicinity.
However, I feel all this misses the heart of the matter: Human connection.
One way in which the "modern" world often feels increasingly sterile.
Though that human connection works both ways: Great kindness, and great exploitation. Though the latter may be limited both by geographic reach and the ability of local society to simply "cut you out" should your transgressions exceed the pain of doing so.
Personally, in the "middle class" here in the U.S., I have struggled for that connection. I've found it with select friends I've made over the years, but not with neighbors. A few neighbors respond kindly, but many are indifferent and a few outright hostile.
Contrast the 33% tax bracket in America @ $190k (then you add on medicare taxes and social security and state taxes which would be about 10% in California) with Hong Kong's maximum of 15%. I don't know what it's like in the country in Asia you come from.
The last thing, about the Oliver Stone movie, what a shame.
They have a donation page under "Take Action".
Many of them were sufficiently smart to do well in school but the curriculum was only designed for people who are fluent in Chinese. For example, the Math homework was all in Chinese but many of the kids could barely spoke Chinese, let alone read (they spoke English reasonably well though). It's no wonder that many of them didn't want to do homework and (presumably) not doing well in school, even if you don't consider the situations at home.
Hong Kong has good public education but the local schools are all designed for the local population. The expats (and well off families) send their kids to international schools which are expensive. I am really not sure what's the best way to help those kids.
Even if those special classes existed, you have to realize how much of a daily discouragement it is to be asked to do homework everyday in a language you don't understand. I ended up translating the Math problems into English for one kid and she had no problem doing them afterwards. (Another kid though couldn't do basic additions even though he was already at 2nd grade. Not trying to say that language is the only problem they have)
Apart from that there are free Chinese classes at some churches, that's about it.
Outside classes are simply not enough though, there's no way a foreign child could catch up to local children who've been immersed in Chinese since birth. And the public Chinese curriculum is a challenge even for locals.
Lastly, Hong Kong people speak Cantonese which is considerably more difficult that Putonghua which most of China speaks. (More complex characters, more than double the tones)
Sometimes I wonder if Gibson himself is surprised at the similarities between his 1980's fantasy world and our current reality. The world is a strange place...
I've seen a quote attributed to him along the lines of "Cyberpunk as a genre died out because if became real life", but I have not been able to track down any source or proof of that attribution.