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> there’s growing outrage over the week-long disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials say was murdered last week in th
by ProAm 8y ago
> there’s growing outrage over the week-long disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials say was murdered last week in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on orders from the Saudi Royal family, then cut into pieces with a bone saw and removed from the building.
Wow, that's crazy.
>Silicon Valley big wheels as Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman and Travis Kalanick are advisors to a $500 billion megacity project being built by the country, which has pitched it as a model of what future cities will look like.
Has Sam Altman commented on this project at all, or is it not associated with YC?
- loceng 8y agoLikewise, YC's move into China was brought up by people on HN concerned about the censorship practices of the Chinese government.
- anon49124 8y agoTo be fair, China disappears dissidents too.
- acjohnson55 8y agoAnd movie stars and international police chiefs, apparently.
- anon49124 8y agoHollywood, YC, Google and anyone else whom collaborates with and enables the Chinese regime has such a level of moral turpitude that they're either fools or sociopaths.
- VonGuard 8y agoCensorship is one thing, but luring a person to be whacked like the mafia is entirely another. As a-moral as the US' foreign policy can be, we don't do outright assassinations anymore (Bin-Laden notwithstanding). What Saudi Arabia did here is just abhorrent, and akin to something out of the Sopranos or Goodfellas.
- jonny_eh 8y agoHow about concentration camps for Muslims in China? Not enough attention being brought to that.
- bilbo0s 8y agoOk look, Yes. There are camps in China. Yes, there are genocidal Rwandan warlords stealing resources in the Congo. Yes, Aung San Suu Kyi and her boys are doing a pretty brutal number on the Rohingya right now. Yes, there are murderous cartels operating in Mexico. Yes, the United States is holding children in camps in deserts. Etc etc etc. What I'm trying to say is, YES, there is a lot of misery in the world. But right now we're talking about the fact that you've taken a chainsaw to a reporter for saying that he thinks you might be too brutal. Can we stop with the what aboutism for a moment and just kind of let that sink in for a second?
- staticautomatic 8y ago"Misery" is not the word you're looking for.
- mkaziz 8y agoI'm surprised this isn't being talked about more, given hostility to China from the current US administration.
- staticautomatic 8y agoMy best guess is that the administration doesn't care because the people being "disappeared" are Muslim.
- loceng 8y agoCensorship would potentially block one from knowing a person was lured and whacked. Not sure how you can say assassinations don't happen anymore with any certainty. Russia does it via open poisoning. There are other ways to kill people subtly though without raising much or as much attention - or even making it look accidental. The countries where it's blatant are just because they have nothing to lose because they're safe in the areas they're in, however if targeting people outside that area - unless they're trying to make a point - they can be discreet, it's an illusion of safety otherwise.
- mbesto 8y agoOr how about clarification on the past relationship between YC and DST Global which has ties to the Russian government? If you don't think anything that billionaires (and their ilk) do is suspicious, then people are not looking hard enough. Just because they made their billions via tech doesn't make them any more benevolent.
- andrepd 8y ago> >there’s growing outrage over the week-long disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials say was murdered last week in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on orders from the Saudi Royal family, then cut into pieces with a bone saw and removed from the building. It's litearally medieval, which is par on course for what this odious country (regime, to be more clear). It's pretty much what Saudi Arabia is: a medieval regime in 2018. Of course, they just had to have trillions of dollars of oil under their feet, hence we are accustomed to seeing our elected representatives, our leaders, bowing and kissing the hands of that scum. Repugnant.
- blattimwind 8y agoMBS may be more liberal than his precursors (mostly because a majority of people in the country want that, and because it's the only way for KSA to lessen its dependency on oil), but he is in now way less of a monarch and if anything he clamps down on journalism and critics harder than ever, especially since he's one of few who ruled the kingdom holding power over all intelligence services and police/military/secret police forces (previously they were more "distributed" in terms of power).
- rgbrenner 8y agoRight. Forget about global warming.. there should be bipartisan support for clean energy because we can stop dealing with countries like this.
- stevenjohns 8y agoEnergy has little to do with it. US support for Saudi Arabia is based on an irrational opposition to Iran.
- eloff 8y agoIt's hardly irrational. You can argue the merits of their reasoning, but not that they have reasons. Don't dismiss viewpoints you don't agree with as irrational - that shuts down any attempt at a real dialogue or understanding.
- mattkrisiloff 8y agohe resigned https://theintercept.com/2018/10/11/some-silicon-valley-superstars-ditching-saudi-advisory-board-after-khashoggi-disappearance-some-stay-silent/ https://theintercept.com/2018/10/11/some-silicon-valley-supe...
- freddie_mercury 8y agoThat's not a resignation. He "suspended his involvement until the facts are known", which means he can & will "unsuspend it" later. If he had resigned he would use the word "resigned" instead of "suspend involvement".
- aaronharnly 8y agoSounds like he is “suspending his involvement ... until the facts are known”, which is a bit different. But appropriate enough.