There is no GFW in Hong Kong, so you enjoy unfettered Internet access.
For traffic inbound to China from HK, traditionally it's been slightly faster but that may just be proximity rather than any preferential treatment by the GFW.
Good. 99% of it was utter bullshit and any worthwhile research was getting drowned out.
Regardless of whether or not blockchian and cryptocurrencies end up being pivotal technologies in future, one positive fallout is that we are asking "how can we do this better" of some very traditional and established industries.
I first heard of Franzen through a book review by the Welsh professor Robert Adams. Adams is a tour de force, who brings an incredible depth and character to every book he reviews. He retired years ago, but TVO has thankfully archived some of his best.
I did a year in Berlin and tend to agree with Peter Thiels assessment - “I always thought Berlin would be a great place for innovation, but now I think it’s a place people in their 20s move to when they want to retire”
Personally I had a lot of good times in Berlin, but it didn't feel like it had the drive of the valley.
Recently moved to Toronto, and loving it here so far. Great scene, smart & friendly people and lots of growth.
Not trying to badmouth Berlin, it's a super cool city. Just didn't hit the mark for me.
That’s a good point, which I should’ve mentioned as it goes hand in hand with the topic.
Despite how intense some situations can get in China, I’ve rarely ever felt physically threatened. It’s culturally abnormal to resort to violence.
Yes there’s a few nutjobs out there (sword-guy in Sanlitun), but on the whole it’s pretty incredible that such a big city, and country is relatively speaking, so peaceful.
Since the line-cutting topic seems to be of interest, I thought I’d share some first hand experience.
Having succumbed to the need for a Big Mac a handful of times during a decade long stint in China, I became accustomed to the devolution of queuing when it was peak time. I quickly found myself pushing in and cutting others off, to make sure my order was taken.
This made me reflect on how quickly I adapted to the situation. I found that when push comes to shove, we seem to have a threshold which says “bugger it, I want my burger more than I care about being polite”. I guess this is obvious, but how easily I threw my supposed Western manners out the window was what surprised me.
I think there’s a couple of observations that are interesting, which aren’t covered in the article;
- People that tended to queue jump just hadn’t been told it wasn’t ok. If it wasn’t already complete anarchy, quite often another person in the queue would tell them off with a stern “get in line”, to which the offender would apologize and shuffle to the back of the line
- In some places they have staff that “queue-manage”. Nobody cuts the queue or complains, they just wait for their turn patiently, albeit not usually quietly
I believe China knows it has accrued some deep social issues to deal with, and that debt will need to be paid off slowly. I remember a few years back that TV and print adverts promoting “dynastic and elitist” culture were banned. I think that says a lot about the governments mindset.
I hope the above gives a little more context to anyone who hasn’t had the privilege of finding themselves stuck in a fast-food restaurant in downtown Beijing during peak hour.
I think it’s fine, most Chinese people complain about these things too. Nobody likes a line-jumper, in any culture.
What I think is a problem is to suggest the entire Chinese populous of being money-loving but without asking how that happened. Life is tough when you have over a billion people to feed, and no government support structures to lean on in times of need. It’s dog-eat-dog because it needs to be, not because the Chinese people like it.
Regarding the not-stopping-to-help someone hit by a car; There’s pretty well known story about a bystander who tried to help, getting into deep trouble for doing so. I don’t have the link, but some creative Googling should surface the story.
The way to think about censorship and risk in China is to consider reach. This article is in English, and hosted on what appears to be the authors own blog. The chance of it being spread to any significant number of people in the Mainland is negligible. Suffice to say, I think he’s pretty safe.
In case it’s relevant, I’ve been in and around China since 2004.
Another Aussie in Toronto. I’ve found the driving here quite a contrast to back home. Drivers tend to veer all over the road, and don’t really indicate. Love the relatively small number of speed cameras though, Australia is getting a bit out of control with the whole multinova thing.
Reminds me of this quote from the tabbacco industry in the early 90s;
“We don't smoke that shit. We just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid."
- R.J. Reynolds executive’s reply when asked why he didn’t smoke