Live data from Hacker News

Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

bbc.co.uk

31–40 of 106 posts

Re: Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

#31
The Chinese investment into strategic spots around the South China Sea & Gulf of Thailand is really interesting to witness.

I was at Sihanoukville (Cambodia) around 5 years ago and was surprised to find what was seemingly a Chinese city. There was a lot of dust, construction, and the city seemed like it was being raised out of the ground really quickly. Massive Chinese casinos and hotels were around and locals reported some casinos didn't even let them in. There were some whispers about shady stuff too.

I suppose if I were to go there today I'd find there are no more dirt roads and that the city is "fully built" given the rate at which these things happen. Would be cool to see.

Re: Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

#32
It's not just some scams. It's the darkest thing ever in the whole human history.

After China banned using of death row organs around 2014, the world's largest organ black market has moved to southeast Asia. There are estimated more than 100k victims (mostly Chinese) annually. Some of them may be released, if their families can afford the ransom. The remaining victims are treated like livestock. They are forced into doing scams to lure more people. Their blood is drawn monthly or even weekly for sales. They'll be tortured to death, if they try to run away. And finally, their organs will be harvested and sold, which most likely will also be the end of their lives.

United States once proposed to classify these organizations as terrorist organizations at UN but was denied by China.

Re: Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

#34

You know those quasi-libertarian dreams of independent privately-owned city-states? Yeah, doesn't seem like such a good idea now, does it? (I'm kind of surprised none of those crypto-libertarian groups have tried Myanmar, actually; it is, at least at the moment, particularly vulnerable to this sort of thing.)

Not enough law 'n order. If you had $10M in crypto they would torture you for the keys and then kill you. Almost as bad as Florida:

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/twelve-defendants-se...

Re: Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

#37

It's not just some scams. It's the darkest thing ever in the whole human history. After China banned using of death row organs around 2014, the world's largest organ black market has moved to southeast Asia. There are estimated more than 100k victims (mostly Chinese) annually. Some of them may be released, if their families can afford the ransom. The remaining victims are treated like livestock. They are forced into…

Are you sure you didn't just describe RimWorld?

Someone doing that in real life is truly disturbing

Re: Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

#38
post #29
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk, the crypto libertarian who works for the US government?

I suspect that when he's done working for it, there won't be a (functioning) government anymore, so yes.

I am offended by the foul Musk as much as the next guy but if we are being fair wasn't the story always that the federal government was a disfunctional mess? Does anybody think our leadership over the last 50 years accomplished anything worth preserving? I was taught in civics nobody is really trustworthy to open a new constitutional convention and change things but if we never take any risks wont that be bad too?

Re: Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

#40

You know those quasi-libertarian dreams of independent privately-owned city-states? Yeah, doesn't seem like such a good idea now, does it? (I'm kind of surprised none of those crypto-libertarian groups have tried Myanmar, actually; it is, at least at the moment, particularly vulnerable to this sort of thing.)

Libertarians would answer that in a True Libertarian World, gambling would be legal everywhere: so gamblers would have a rich choice between casino's and wouldn't have to resort to shady casino's with bad reputations, as they do now.

[dead]
Post reply on HN