Live data from Hacker News

An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

jaapgrolleman.com

481–490 of 559 posts

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#481
post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no power can stop an angry population The longer you wait, the hungrier you get. The hungrier you get, the weaker you are. Best for the people of Shanghai if they start rioting now than a week from now, when it may be too late.

of course, but the hungrier you get the less you have to loose so you act with far more fierce effort accepting more and more extreme consequences. Honestly food issues will be spread all around the world in the near future: we are too much for the food quantity we can produce, it's just a matter of time. Probably the key most élites count on are a divided population between a mass of young kept a bit nourished and w…

> of course, but the hungrier you get the less you have to loose so you act with far more fierce effort accepting more and more extreme consequences.

Definitely true. I just hope people aren't so tolerant of hardship that they miss their window of opportunity.

With respect to food shortages in the rest of the world, I'm not too concerned. Many items are missing from grocery stores in my corner of the world, but basic sustenance doesn't seem threatened. Maybe I can't find chicken one week, or cheese the next, but there is still plenty of beans and bread around to keep stomachs full and I don't anticipate that changing. In Shanghai, the food shortages seem to be to be the direct consequence of the government locking down the city and disrupting supply chains. It's not a food production problem, it's a lockdown/logistics problem. If the rest of the world doesn't follow suite with this sort of zero-covid insanity, then I think we'll be fine.

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse, they do lockdown in place and without warning. So if you were at work, and your dog was home, then your dog would stave alone. I really don't understand why they don't at least let people stuck at work go home, really crazy situation. Source: Chinese gf's dad is in lockdown at his work, while mom in lockdown at home.

Is gf's dad work in another city or does the lockdown in place prevent movement from any buildings to get back home even if close apart?

Shanghai is big enough that being in the same city can still be far away, especially when no metro etc is running.

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#483

Everyone here is commenting on Covid, vaccines, social policy and whatnot. I can't help but see a different, bigger and human story here. It's about how the systems people erect around themselves turn against them. Gated communities whose guards become jailers. Convenient fast food delivery systems that become tools of rationing and siege. News and communications systems turned to propaganda and social control. Meanw…

...self-driving cars that can be turned off enmasse by the "authorities"..

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#484

Kind of crazy how sentimental and emotional the response is with barely any actual discussion going on about the merits of this on a grand scale. Yes, stories about people's dogs and temporary economic depression are awful. The larger picture is that China by pursuing these policies has stopped millions of deaths, probably tens of millions of cases of long term disabilities, and overall kept the economy going. It's w…

Have they prevented anything though, or just forestalled it? Other countries aren’t having this crisis at the moment. Granted in many countries they had the crisis already, but that’s what I mean. If doing all this just delays what’s going to come then what good is it?

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#485

For anyone interested, here are a couple Instagram accounts I am following posting from inside Shanghai. Scary stuff. Potentially NSFW (sometimes they post videos of some nasty stuff happening) https://instagram.com/kaypapaii https://instagram.com/ciaransingleton

So I’m signed into Instagram in my browser and I don’t see any Stories link for these. Is it the case that not only do you have to have an Instagram account, but also have to use their mobile app? Instagram kinda sucks lol.

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#486

A high school friend of ours is apartment-jailed in Shanghai right now. She is a young mom, and all the moms in the apartment are all out of everything required to care for babies. Trying to share strategies on how to use any kitchen ingredients to make formula or rash ointments… I wonder if this will actually have any political blowback in the coming years, or if this only strengthens the ccp.

You don't need baby formula, it's sad how MANY Chinese fall for baby formula propaganda banned in west with formula samples given to new mothers in Chinese hospitals. Only 1-5% of mothers are unable to breastfeed, the most of the formula buyers just believe fairy tales and feed their kids unhealthy formula and then they complain about being unable to get formula. Also you dont really need much for baby besides breast…

>is rash ointments which can be really issue

If you'd ever shared your home with a baby that had nappy rash I feel you might have a different pov here.

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#487
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude I live in Shanghai and I’m starving. Just wiped the refrigerator for tomorrow and got no clue for what’s next.

I hope you pull through this, I would likely be in a similar position as I don’t stock food up often. Also ignore the GP he’s all over the thread defending hyper aggressive lockdowns like Shanghai is doing and accusing the blogger of using the term “identity politics” as a “dog whistle” which is borderline paranoid (the kind of people you would expect to obsessively fear COVID and back extreme measures).

Thanks for your kind words. Unfortunately thoughts like the GP’s is still hold by the gov and the majority of people in this country out of Shanghai. They turned blind eyes to the humanitarian emergencies as always.

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#488
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From GP comment it sounded like there are multiple mom's with infants in the building and statistically most of them should be breastfeeding. So if I run out of formula another mom is probably the best solution to not let my baby starve.

In China breastfeeding is less popular than other parts of the world[0], so the statistics might not work out. [0] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2187934/chin...

These numbers are actually surprising considering that natural breast feeding has health benefits for the baby. Although it says "only breastmilk" which can also mean formula is used as a supplement.

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#489
post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no government, no power can stop an angry population There are plenty of examples of the government doing just that in China. Boxer, taiping, 8 trigrams rebellions, etc, and those are just a few recent historical examples. In a country as large as China, you need substantial support from sympathetic government insiders if the angry population is even remotely regionally located. Uniting a billion people is an extre…

That's a matter of scale: all revolts you've cited was made by few and often repressed even with exterior help. A hunger revolt is at nearly-country scale, no one can stop it. And China have already an extreme food issue because to develop industries they have to sacrifice food production and there are not much fertile lands around so they need to mass import foods from distant places, so general hunger unrest are ve…

The ones I mentioned most certainly were not small scale. The taiping rebellion alone eventually had hundreds of thousands of troops by time time it essentially turned into a civil war.

As for hunger, the last mass famine in China was during the Great Leap Forward. Let's also not forget the effects of the Cultural Revolution.

I think you vastly overestimate the extent to which governments and populace form an "us versus them" mentality- it is rarely so simple as government on one side, populace on the other. At the end of the day, no matter who wins, someone still has to be in charge, and no large group of people will readily agree on exactly who or how.

Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown

#490
post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In China breastfeeding is less popular than other parts of the world[0], so the statistics might not work out. [0] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2187934/chin...

These numbers are actually surprising considering that natural breast feeding has health benefits for the baby. Although it says "only breastmilk" which can also mean formula is used as a supplement.

In lots of poorer parts of the world formula is marketed as being better than breast milk. In many developed countries adverts like these are banned but they used to be allowed. There were also problems with e.g. young children with well-to-do parents being given only canned food and getting scurvy. The theme was again about a supposed better-planned diet than what poorer people from less advanced times had to use.
Post reply on HN