By Raphael Blet
Around a hundred protesters marched to the Thai consulate, prompting the Thai government to explain Joshua Wong’s deportation.
On Wednesday afternoon, about one-hundred protesters marched to Fairmont House in Admiralty, where the Thai consulate is located.
The protesters attempted to enter the office building to reach the consulate but were blocked by the police and security guards who cordoned the building’s main lobby.
Protesters demanded Thailand’s government some explanations on Joshua Wong’s detention and removal from the country.
Amongst the protesters were Demosistō members, legislators Leung Kwok-hung (Long Hair), Raymond Chan, Fernando Cheung and the newly elected Eddie Chu.
Protesters were later able to handle petitions to representatives from the delegation.
Joshua Wong was due to give a speech at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He was invited by local students activists to commemorate the the fortieth anniversary of the Thammasat University massacre.
After spending hours being detained at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, Wong arrived in Hong Kong during the evening.
While it is too early to determine the official reason behind Wong’s detention, a Thai immigration officer reportedly said that Wong was blacklisted ‘on Beijing’s request’. However, the Thai government denied the officer’s allegations.
Before departing for Bangkok where he is due to head a delegation promoting Hong Kong’s legal profession, Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen promised to use this opportunity get more information from the Thai authorities and Chinese government.
Speaking to the press, Wong said that he was prepared to such a situation. Last year, Wong was barred from entering Malaysia and returned to Hong Kong on the same plane.
Hong Kong citizens visiting Thailand are not required to hold visas prior to their arrivals.
Hong Kong residents who need consular help abroad can contact the Assistance to Hong Kong Residents 24-Hour Hotline (+852) 1868.
This is a developing story. Stay with RISE NEWS.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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South Florida Tech Should Make It A Priority To Make Miami A 2016 NewCo City
By David Capelli
Miami is on everyone’s radar, as the NewCo movement sparked heightened interest in the Magic City’s bustling ecosystem. I was able to go behind the scenes of Newco San Francisco and Oakland earlier this month. While there, I made the case for why Miami should be the next Newco city in 2016.
NewCo is a movement celebrating people in a city sharing a new narrative of business and culture. From a selected applicant pool companies, non-profits, and initiatives open their doors to the public and share their space, story and experience with an interactive crowd, catalyzing a narrative of collaboration, culture and ecosystem building for a more resilient economy.
“Business is changing” NewCo CEO John Battelle said at Newco’s open house in the Bay Area. “75% of millennials say they prefer working for a company focused on positive change. Technology is not a vertical, it’s horizontal.”
Read More: Start Up Miami-LiveAnswer Leads The Way In South Florida Tech Innovation
At a time when the economy is rapidly changing from an industrial to innovation economy, Newco empowers communities to celebrate and spark new positive change. Battelle, a former media executive with several successful exits, was inspired to start Newco for the Valley to “see a world bigger than them.”
After a while, Battelle realized he needed to “ stop being half- pregnant and go. Just do it.”
NewCo is now in 17 cities and rapidly expanding, with their newest media platform featuring Newco companies around the world on their daily newsletter, building community around the new innovation economy.
NewCo experiences cost at most $500 for the VIP level. The aim is to engage the entire community in the experience. For included companies and non-profits, there is zero cost to host and much to gain, most notably, exposure, customers, and connections. Being selected as a Newco city is a rigorous process.
“Although I don’t know Miami well, I know Miami has a strong connection to Latin America. To me, that is an interesting narrative for Miami.” Chris Redlitz, Managing Partner at Transmedia Capital said.
“We look to see the city’s narrative, their unique companies and extensive team of various leaders that can pull off all components of hosting a Newco experience,” Lee Ann Mariglia, NewCo’s Communications Director said.
During the NewCo event, I was able to meet the CEO’s and go behind the scenes of Slack, Lyft, BetterDoctor, EatWith, NovaEd, the City of Oakland, Comrade, and Uber. Each session has Newco “ambassadors” that assist with the open-house experiences in the companies.
I served as an ambassador for EatWith, an in-house restaurant experience concept. The next day their team and I grabbed coffee and discussed their interest in entering the Miami market, along with other plans for the Miami ecosystem to spur more food entrepreneurs. Experiences like these connect cities and people together for stronger economies, something Miami has been doing for years for tourists.
Sitting next to me at the Newco session was one of Newco’s first investors, Chris Redlitz, Managing Partner at Transmedia Capital. I asked him what about Miami excites him as an investor and what he hopes to discover in Miami.
Read More: In Miami’s Wynwood Art District, A 25 Year Old Artist Is Ready To Take The City By Storm
“I am interested in discovering global market trends early on and nurturing that unique, fresh talent” Redlitz said. “Although I don’t know Miami well, I know Miami has a strong connection to Latin America. To me, that is an interesting narrative for Miami.”
Miami has a narrative that truly resembles the mission of NewCo of identifying, celebrating and connecting engines of positive change in our society. The entrepreneurial community, governments, and tourism/travel groups all contribute to our developing ecosystem and are critical to having a successful NewCo festival in Miami.
Miami has a new narrative to share with the world: the most diverse and bustling entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country at the nexus of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Let’s tell the story together and make Miami a Newco city in 2016.
David Capelli is Founder/CEO of TECH Miami and a contributor to Rise News.
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Cover Photo Credit: Vladimir Kud/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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What Are The Wukan Protests And Why Should Young People Care?
By Joy Pamnani
HONG KONG- The Wukan protests have hit global news headlines over the past few weeks, and yet many people, still don’t have a good idea of what it is all about.
The controversy seems to have begun in 2011, and it is certainly complicated.
But in this piece, we’re just boiling it down to the basics.
What sparked the protests?
Back in September 2011, the Wukan protests began as a result of land sales disputes in the Chinese coastal village.
Protestors argue that corrupt government officials got involved in land sales in the region without properly compensating villagers for their land that was sold.
Protests soon erupted, and clashes between the police and villagers left dozens wounded.
The movements grew in scale when a protest leader in police custody died in December 2011, as villagers forced the entire local government, Communist Party leadership and police out of the village.
Why is Wukan known as the “democracy village” experiment?
Wukan became known as China’s democracy village after villagers were granted the right to vote for officials following protests in 2011.
The term “democracy village” comes as many of China’s villages are state-controlled.
Read More: Was There Massive Voter Fraud In The Hong Kong LegCo Elections?
The country has started to introduce grassroots democracy for its villagers, and Wukan is a place people see the impacts of democracy in China, akin to an experiment.
What brought the issue into the spotlight again recently?
Protests have been on-and-off for the past few years, as villagers call for an eradication of corruption and better protection of land rights in China.
Authorities, on the other hand, have sent police and troops to crack down on the protests.
Clashes have continued.
WATCH: BBC News Report from Wukan in June, 2016
One of the elected village leaders, Lin Zuluan, was looked up to by many villagers in his fight against land seizures.
In June, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment facing bribery charges after he drafted a letter to the government demanding an end to corruption.
Lin released a taped confession, admitting to his crimes.
However, villagers believed his confession was forced and began marching along the streets, calling on authorities to release him.
If corruption is prevalent in China, why is this one of the only few uprisings we’ve seen so far?
Many mass movements have been a result of corruption, yet mainland media censorship stops information about protests that get out of hand.
While most people think the news was spread as a result of large-scale of demonstrations, experts believe it had to do with villagers’ intentions of making the news circulate around the world.
“The protestors in Wukan were very smart and invited international media outlets to broadcast the story,” Chen Xi, an Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong told RISE NEWS in an interview.
Yuan Weishi, a retired historian from the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, told the New York Times that geographical factors also play a role in Wukan’s mass coverage.
Guangdong is China’s wealthiest and most liberal province, and its citizens tend to look at uncensored news reports from Hong Kong, where people enjoy a higher degree of political freedom.
“People in Guangdong watch Hong Kong TV, rarely China Central Television, and so have a better understanding of civil society and the rule of law,” Weishi said, in a telephone interview with the New York Times back in 2011.“Being exposed to the Hong Kong media in their daily lives gives Guangdong people a better understanding of how the media works and what they can do.”
Hong Kong people held a democracy movement called the Umbrella Revolution two years back, and they didn’t receive as much backlash from the government. Why so?
Before going into comparisons, it’s important to understand the political context involved when comparing Hong Kong and Wukan.
Deciding whether or not to stop demonstrations in Wukan and Hong Kong don’t share the same dimensions in decision-making.
“Hong Kong was a British colony, and got handed over to China in 1997. The city has a considerable amount of autonomy, and a crackdown is an important decision related to national sovereignty,” Chen Xi told RISE NEWS. “An incident like Wukan is only a local matter.”
What’s in store for China’s democracy scene in the years to come?
Well, different experts have different thoughts on the issue.
According to a New York Times interview with Johan Lagerkvist, a professor at Stockholm University, Lagerkvist believes the Wukan incident will discourage the spread of democracy in China.
“It is now unlikely that other villages in China would adopt democracy in the mold of Wukan.” he said in the article.
However, Professor Chen Xi begs to differ, as grassroots democracy has spread well over China, as officials begin to embrace the concept of self-governance.
“Wukan is not a good model for democracy in China,” Chen Xi said. “Many elected officials have taken good care of their villages and I believe grassroots democracy will spread.”
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
You can also like our RISE NEWS Hong Kong Facebook page to stay engaged with our local coverage.
Cover Photo Credit: BBC News/ Youtube (Screengrab)
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Millennial Intelligencer: Russia’s Options After Turkish Plane Downing
In light of the ongoing situation in north-western Syria, it is worth considering what options are available to the Kremlin in terms of their response to Turkey after the Turks downed a Russian SU-24.
First, let’s note what the Russians won’t do; they won’t directly respond in anyway. There probably won’t be direct military action against Turkey, because of Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty.
NATO’s Article reads in part:
“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all…”
While a clever reader may note that most of Turkey is in Asia Minor and not technically in Europe, and thus the Russians could potentially wage a war against Turkey as long as they steer clear of Istanbul, it seems unlikely that the Russians would risk this liberal interpretation of Article V.
Also it is worth noting that the downing of aircraft between NATO and the Soviet Union occurred multiple times in the 50s and 60s and it did not lead to direct war.
All right, so the Kremlin won’t be annexing Anatolia anytime soon, but what can they do?
As of now the Russian government has been shaping the narrative by claiming that this was a “stab in the back” and that Turkey is trying to “put the alliance [NATO] into the service of ISIS”.
Bellicose language like this will not get Mr. Putin far outside of Russia, but it will save some face domestically. While the claims being applied in this instance are utter nonsense when looking at a map like this one from the Institute for the Study of War and comparing it to the location of the shoot down, Mr. Putin could feasibly drum up xenophobia in the citizenry of NATO countries who frequently say to “kick Turkey out”. Especially as Turkey has faced changes in the domestic sphere as a conservative strongman– President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tightened his grip on power.
However, due to there being no mechanism in the North Atlantic Treaty for “kicking out” a member, and the strategic significance of the Bosporus Strait in containing the Russians, more than likely the response by Moscow will consist entirely of outrage and diplomatic wrist slaps.
Cover Photo Credit: Presidencia de la República Mexicana/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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