Introduction

I will briefly summarise the situation in Hong Kong, first by give it a proper context in Part I. Next, in Part II, I will point out main flashpoints during the three months of protests in Hong Kong. In Part III, I will explain what the protest demands are. Then I will try to discern different factions in Hong Kong in Part IV. Finally in Part V, I will give my analysis of the protest, and how New Zealand should respond.

Disclaimer

First, let me say up front that I do not speak for anyone, not least for Hong Kong. In…

Aotearoa New Zealand’s relationship status with Britain, if it were a line on Facebook, it would be “it is complicated”. Britain signed the Treaty of Waitangi with Maori chiefs in 1840, and subsequently became the colonial power in Aotearoa New Zealand, doing what colonisers do: expanding the Empire at the expense of the natives in the name of “civilisation”, a policy encapsulated by Rudyard Kipling in his poem “The White Man’s Burden”. While many of us now recognise that civilisation found on inequality and injustice is no civilisation at all, and therefore British colonialism is unacceptable, in Aotearoa New Zealand…

GCSB, the agency responsible for the network security of New Zealand, has denied Spark the use of Huawei telecommunication equipment in Spark’s rollout of 5G network, unless Spark and Huawei can come up with solutions that can allay the security concerns of GCSB. Spark, at this point, is the only telecommunication provider in New Zealand intending to develop a commercial 5G network beginning in 2020. Huawei is one of the few technology partners capable of supplying the necessary 5G network equipment. …

A few months ago, North Korea threatened to destroy South Korea by fire. Now, however, North Korea sent a delegate to participate in the Winter Olympic in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In addition, Kim Yo-jong, younger sister of Kim Jong-un, the “supreme leader” of North Korea, presented an invitation to the South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, to visit North Korea as soon as possible. In particular, a lot of people are taken in by the grace of Kim Yo-jong and the charm of North Korean cheerleaders. What are we to make of it?

As an interested outsider who favours peace on…

First of all, I recognise that the Israeli government’s continuing occupation of Palestine cannot be morally justified. Thus I share the outrage and indignation stated by Nadia Abu-Shanab and Justine Sachs. Abu-Shanab and Sachs, however, use the Israeli government’s occupation to call on Lorde to not tour Israel, because that would send a message that Lorde condones the occupation. As Dane Giraud rightly counters, this is a classic tactic used by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Giraud argues that it is a counterproductive tactic to use to bring about an end to the occupation because it…

The Big Sick tells a story about a man falling for a woman. Except that the man came from Pakistan and the woman is Caucasian. Like Romeo and Juliet, they come from very different background, but overcame their differences and fell in love, eventually. And nobody die at the end.

Interracial romance in general, however, has a more rocky history. The white supremacists think interracial romance corrupts the purity of the white race. Some black, brown, or yellow people see romance towards white people as a surrender to white colonialism. …

I watch videos on the virtual assistants like Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant and Siri. The most interesting aspect of the interactions between human and machine is that no one says “please” to the virtual assistants in all those demo videos.

“Alexa, remind me to pick up my daughter from soccer practice at 3pm”.

“Cortana, when does the sun set today?”

“Ok Google, play my workout playlist.”

“Hey Siri, google Alexa.”

Etc.

Where is the “please”? Where is the “can you please …” or “please tell me…”?

If you were talking to a person, it is impolite to not say “please”…

A relatively young, charismatic candidate running for political office promised to be an agent of change and hope. However, as it turned out, the candidate continued many of the policies of predecessors. This is one view of the Obama presidency. As a candidate, Obama promised to be an agent of hope and change, and received the Nobel Peace prize based on nothing but rhetoric. However, given his support of extra-judicial drone strikes, TPPA, NSA eavedroppings, and so on, I would say that Obama was merely a more agreeable American President than George W. Bush. So what happened to the candidate…