Live data from Hacker News

Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

slate.com

41–50 of 233 posts

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#41

If your occupied territory is far from the main seat of your remnant empire, you MUST send in as many troops as possible in the short term and then as many immigrants as possible in the long term, to consolidate your overseas hold by means of demographic claim. There is no great mystery here. What is interesting is how this behaviour from the Western nations is tacitly ignored but somehow China asserting its claim ov…

So basically like how the US annexed Hawaï?

There never was a native population on the Falklands.

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#42
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I think you are missing key details: Britain has already given up Hong Kong, i.e. (edit-->) according to how I understand you( The problem with China is they have broken the agreement on how they should rule Hong Kong during the first 50 years, isn't it?

Giving up Hong Kong isn't necessarily the "right thing" - Hong Kong Island was ceded to the UK in perpetuity ages ago, in the 1840s. Kowloon and the New Territories were on a 99 year lease expiring in 1997. The UK giving up Hong Kong Island is as "right" as America ceding California to the Spaniards in the late 1990s IMO. Both defeats occurred around the same time. The people of Hong Kong were as much Chinese IMO as…

By this logic China ought to have invaded Taiwan ages ago because it's all peachy once you win

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no great conspiracy here. The vast majority of people in Taiwan do not want to be a part of the PRC. The vast majority of people in the Falklands want to remain a British Overseas Territory.

It doesn't matter. You can kidnap a daughter from a poor family and now she doesn't want to to back. Yes, we should respect her decision, but it does not make kidnapping right. It is the result of the colonial age.

That analogy might work for the Falklands, but with Taiwan it would be more like "a poor family that abused the daughter".

Anyway, I dislike analogies for political discourse because they over simplify the issues at hand.

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no great conspiracy here. The vast majority of people in Taiwan do not want to be a part of the PRC. The vast majority of people in the Falklands want to remain a British Overseas Territory.

It doesn't matter. You can kidnap a daughter from a poor family and now she doesn't want to to back. Yes, we should respect her decision, but it does not make kidnapping right. It is the result of the colonial age.

Your analogy is insipid. If kidnapping is not right, the people who sold their children to kidnappers should never again get custody of their children, especially if the children are begging not to go back. How ridiculous to claim something belongs in the colonial age while defending the nations that continue the practice today, namely China. China defenders are the lowest of the low, the political equivalent of the pedophile defenders.

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#45
post #17

"...(the only access to the islands) is to have a pre-arranged job contract with a company that has signed a form of bond taking responsibility for you" That sounds like all British immigration rules. My employer had to apply for my visa and had to pay all my healthcare contributions for a year up front before I could move for a job in London. If I lose my job I have a few weeks to find a new employer (who will have…

These are completely normal and typical immigration visa rules the world over. As always though - there are "better" visa's available but they have different sets of requirements and/or costs involved.

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#46
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, however nobody is asking "should we do it again?" - I think the west has decided that's not their cup of tea - but instead "what should we do next?" The challenge is in a very real way the PRC is interested in replaying the colonial era, taking over Taiwan and exerting iron-fisted control over Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Macau.

Hong Kong and Macau are relics of the colonial era and exerting "iron-fisted" control there is no different from exerting it over, say, Shanghai

Artifacts of the era, sure, but I think that's a very incomplete take.

IMO they're closer to the people of St. Pierre and Miquelon than they are to Shanghai. [1] The people of Hong Kong were British Citizens until 1997, and the citizens of Macau, Portuguese citizens until 1999 (it's a little more complicated there, it's ~1981-1999, depending). Just as the Miquelonians are French citizens - not British, not Canadian and not American.

A tiny island, in North America, that retains its allegiance to France and uses the Euro. Even flights to Paris are limited, to say the least.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#47
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, however nobody is asking "should we do it again?" - I think the west has decided that's not their cup of tea - but instead "what should we do next?" The challenge is in a very real way the PRC is interested in replaying the colonial era, taking over Taiwan and exerting iron-fisted control over Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Macau.

Hong Kong and Macau are relics of the colonial era and exerting "iron-fisted" control there is no different from exerting it over, say, Shanghai

What's different is the will of the people. If Shanghai, or San Francisco, or anywhere, developed a cultural consensus that it wanted to leave its parent country, it would be evil to prevent them.

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#48

If your occupied territory is far from the main seat of your remnant empire, you MUST send in as many troops as possible in the short term and then as many immigrants as possible in the long term, to consolidate your overseas hold by means of demographic claim. There is no great mystery here. What is interesting is how this behaviour from the Western nations is tacitly ignored but somehow China asserting its claim ov…

The difference is that the UK government does not round up citizens who criticize it and send them to re-education/torture camps. So, people are a little less upset about being under UK rule.

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter. You can kidnap a daughter from a poor family and now she doesn't want to to back. Yes, we should respect her decision, but it does not make kidnapping right. It is the result of the colonial age.

Yes, however nobody is asking "should we do it again?" - I think the west has decided that's not their cup of tea - but instead "what should we do next?" The challenge is in a very real way the PRC is interested in replaying the colonial era, taking over Taiwan and exerting iron-fisted control over Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Macau.

In PRC's opinion, it is not colonial replay. Taiwan was returned to the China after WW2 officially, and the government that time was ROC, Republic of China, and there is no official end of the Chinese civil war, no peace agreement signed. Taiwan's independence party want to make Taiwan to be the front of containing China, which can only make the situation worse.

I don't like to predict, but I have to say a war will happen. Ever since PRC was founded, unifying China is part of its mission. There was a hope for a peaceful unification of some sort, it is long gone now. It is the reality now.

Re: Why do so many people move to the Falkland Islands? (2009)

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter. You can kidnap a daughter from a poor family and now she doesn't want to to back. Yes, we should respect her decision, but it does not make kidnapping right. It is the result of the colonial age.

That analogy might work for the Falklands, but with Taiwan it would be more like "a poor family that abused the daughter". Anyway, I dislike analogies for political discourse because they over simplify the issues at hand.

That analogy doesn't work for the Falklands neither, the only people ever living there are British. There never was a native nor an Argentinian population there.
Post reply on HN