Dispatches from the State Ministry of Truth

[Grinning_Colossus]

I don't get the reference. 

Perhaps one day someone will sneak in a translation. Until then, maybe look into local samizdat networks?

[celedhring]

In defence of Mono, I have read the book and I'd have not got that building is meant to be the Ministry of Truth.

[mongers]

I don't get the reference. 

1984

It isn't like I live in North Korea.  I can go to any website I want.  The courts are truly independent.  I have all the freedoms I want.  I don't have democracy, true.  But I don't really mind, because the people who want it only want to rob me.

If anything it's you whose helping to deprive or rob them of their freedom.

[Jacob]

I love that Jacob's leftist principles compelled him to comment on your racist joke, but not on Mono essentially calling on a police state to crack down on a student protest. But that is why the pony-tail-wearing, latte-sipping left is such a joke. 

Different people on this board have different subjects that are worth engaging them on, and other subjects that are tedious and best avoided.

Mono on politics = tedious.

You on pretty much anything = tedious.

[garbon]

I love that Jacob's leftist principles compelled him to comment on your racist joke, but not on Mono essentially calling on a police state to crack down on a student protest. But that is why the pony-tail-wearing, latte-sipping left is such a joke. 

Different people on this board have different subjects that are worth engaging them on, and other subjects that are tedious and best avoided.

Mono on politics = tedious.

You on pretty much anything = tedious.

Am I : tedious?

[Jacob]

Mono with lunch bag:

I don't think Mono is going to exhibit that kind of moral and physical courage.

[Jacob]

Turns out that the arrested university level student leader is a minor.  His 18th birthday is next month.  They used this as a reason to apply for his release, and the courts approved.

[Monoriu]

The student union has given up.  They call on students to leave for fear of their safety. 

Riots have happened on the Kowloon side, and in Central as well.  Tear gas everywhere, including inside train stations.  Police reinforcements are advancing on the crowds outside government HQs from Central side.

[Jacob]

HK's entire reason for existance is a closed China.  If China opens up and trades with the rest of the world, why is there a need for a middleman?  HK's best days are long gone.  Our factories are gone; our ports are no longer needed.  Really, the only thing left is finance.  But finance tends to make a very small number of people very rich.  The rest are left with low level retail, cleansing, and security jobs that can't be outsourced to China, or can't be automated.  Young people no longer have hope for the future.  They realise that their only hope is to build a welfare state for the losers, and they want more government participation in the economy so that corporations will create more jobs for them.  Since they can't replace the government that has refused their request by votes, they now try to unseat the government through civil disobedience.

... and you are unsympathetic to this? You think they should just give up hope instead?

[Monoriu]

HK's entire reason for existance is a closed China.  If China opens up and trades with the rest of the world, why is there a need for a middleman?  HK's best days are long gone.  Our factories are gone; our ports are no longer needed.  Really, the only thing left is finance.  But finance tends to make a very small number of people very rich.  The rest are left with low level retail, cleansing, and security jobs that can't be outsourced to China, or can't be automated.  Young people no longer have hope for the future.  They realise that their only hope is to build a welfare state for the losers, and they want more government participation in the economy so that corporations will create more jobs for them.  Since they can't replace the government that has refused their request by votes, they now try to unseat the government through civil disobedience.

... and you are unsympathetic to this? You think they should just give up hope instead?

I think they should do better in their exams, and join the finance sector

[Jacob]

Am I : tedious?

Only rarely

[Zanza]

Mono with lunch bag:

I don't think Mono is going to exhibit that kind of moral and physical courage.

Yeah, it's more likely that he drives the tank. And doesn't stop.

[Zanza]

I was in my corporation's office in Hong Kong last year and they seemed to lack qualified IT personnel. Other than that I would agree with Mono's description of Hong Kong's best days having gone by. It was much more pronounced in Macau though.

[Monoriu]

I was in my corporation's office in Hong Kong last year and they seemed to lack qualified IT personnel. Other than that I would agree with Mono's description of Hong Kong's best days having gone by. It was much more pronounced in Macau though.

Yeah, we have huge problem recruiting programmers. 

[Monoriu]

Central, HK:



Tear gas exploding in Central.