5 ms·

The refugees who sheltered Edward Snowden in 2013 in Hong Kong

160 points by martgnz 10y ago

Jerry2 10y ago
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. [0] http://news.nationalpost.com/features/how-edward-snowden-escaped-hong-kong http://news.nationalpost.com/features/how-edward-snowden-esc... [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/report-snowden-stayed-at-russian-consulate-while-in-hong-kong/2013/08/26/8237cf9a-0e39-11e3-a2b3-5e107edf9897_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/report-snowden-stayed-a...
- tracymorgan8520 10y ago
  Nice find. Thanks!
- dorianm 10y ago
  Ironically by talking about it you are spreading the rumor.
  - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
    That's not exactly how it works.
- iamjeff 10y ago
  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!
  - contingencies 10y ago
    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.
- mhurron 10y ago
  > 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.
confluence 10y ago
The world's most wanted man protected by those with nothing. Absolutely incredible.
- confluence 10y ago
  > 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.
- aws_ls 10y ago
  And they remain with nothing: 'The refugees who harbored him three years ago still live in miserable conditions in a wealthy city that doesn’t want them'
  - confluence 10y ago
    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.
  - pen2l 10y ago
    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.
    - hood_syntax 10y ago
      They know what it's like to not have enough, imo
      - sophacles 10y ago
jkn 10y ago
So beautiful and upsetting at the same time. Is there any way we can donate to this lawyer and these refugees? The last thing, about the Oliver Stone movie, what a shame.
- aluhut 10y ago
  He's working for Vision First: http://www.vfnow.org/about/team/ http://www.vfnow.org/about/team/ They have a donation page under "Take Action".
khc 10y ago
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.
- analyst74 10y ago
  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.
  - khc 10y ago
    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)
  - pcr0 10y ago
    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)
cvwright 10y ago
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...
- hiddenkrypt 10y ago
  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.
shambala 10y ago
These Sri Lankans should go home to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is now at peace, and they no longer need to find refuge.

160 points by martgnz 10y ago

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. [0] http://news.nationalpost.com/features/how-edward-snowden-escaped-hong-kong http://news.nationalpost.com/features/how-edward-snowden-esc... [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/report-snowden-stayed-at-russian-consulate-while-in-hong-kong/2013/08/26/8237cf9a-0e39-11e3-a2b3-5e107edf9897_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/report-snowden-stayed-a...

tracymorgan8520 10y ago
Nice find. Thanks!
dorianm 10y ago
Ironically by talking about it you are spreading the rumor.
- PhasmaFelis 10y ago
  That's not exactly how it works.
iamjeff 10y ago
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!
- contingencies 10y ago
  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.
mhurron 10y ago
> 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.

confluence 10y ago

The world's most wanted man protected by those with nothing. Absolutely incredible.

confluence 10y ago
> 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.
aws_ls 10y ago
And they remain with nothing: 'The refugees who harbored him three years ago still live in miserable conditions in a wealthy city that doesn’t want them'
- confluence 10y ago
  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.
- pen2l 10y ago
  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.
  - hood_syntax 10y ago
    They know what it's like to not have enough, imo
    - sophacles 10y ago

jkn 10y ago

So beautiful and upsetting at the same time. Is there any way we can donate to this lawyer and these refugees? The last thing, about the Oliver Stone movie, what a shame.

aluhut 10y ago
He's working for Vision First: http://www.vfnow.org/about/team/ http://www.vfnow.org/about/team/ They have a donation page under "Take Action".

khc 10y ago

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.

analyst74 10y ago
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.
- khc 10y ago
  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)
- pcr0 10y ago
  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)

cvwright 10y ago

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...

hiddenkrypt 10y ago
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.

shambala 10y ago

These Sri Lankans should go home to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is now at peace, and they no longer need to find refuge.