A jet ski rider who has been detained since he washed up on South Korea’s coast is believed to be a Chinese dissident who feared for his safety and fled by crossing hundreds of miles of sea, trailing barrels of fuel behind him.
The coast guard in the western South Korean port city of Incheon said in a statement Sunday that a Chinese man in his 30s tried to illegally enter the country Aug. 16 by riding a jet ski from the Shandong area of China, an eastern province around 200 miles away across the Yellow Sea.
any country a citizen needs to run from in fear for their life is objectively an utter shithole
Like the US?
I might be off base, but your comment has the feel of a “gotcha!”. Yeah, America certainly qualifies.
Edit: Perhaps worth pointing out that I’m not the first person you replied to.
I mean yeah America might be a shit hole but at least you can always get your passport go to the airport and leave
at least you can always get your passport go to the airport and leave
“The US State Department estimates that 37 per cent of the population has a valid passport” according to the Telegraph. There’s also the question as to how many people can afford a flight anywhere. A theoretical freedom to have the ability to do something is great, but many Americans lack the ability to exercise those rights.
This is not a what-aboutism but rather a more fundamental conceptual separation between the negative liberty and positive liberty. The US and other Western countries like the UK are better at one than the other to varying degrees.
I’m genuinely curious about the part of how many can afford flights. If anybody out there have any stats on that I would greatly appreciate it.
For a start:
One in 10 American households struggled to feed their families last year, with more than 5 million families missing meals and cutting portions due to poverty https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/07/us-food-insecure-families-poverty-study
My assumption would be that if you barely afford food, a flight would be out the window too.
As ever Wikipedia is a good resources to further information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
This bit in particular sticks out:
Among married couple families: 5.8% lived in poverty.[89] This number varied by race and ethnicity as follows:
- 5.4% of all white persons (which includes white Hispanics),[90]
- 10.7% of all black persons (which includes black Hispanics),[91]
- 14.9% of all Hispanic persons (of any race)[92] living in poverty.
Among single parent (male or female) families: 26.6% lived in poverty.[89] This number varied by race and ethnicity as follows:
- 22.5% of all white persons (which includes white Hispanics),[90]
- 44.0% of all black persons (which includes black Hispanics),[91]
- 33.4% of all Hispanic persons (of any race)[93] living in poverty.
Among individuals living alone: 19.1% lived in poverty.[89] This number varied by race and ethnicity as follows:
- 18% of white persons (which includes white Hispanics),[94]
- 28.9% of black persons (which includes black Hispanics)[93]
- 27% of Hispanic persons (of any race)[95] are living in poverty
“The US State Department estimates that 37 per cent of the population has a valid passport”
How is it the govt’s fault that so many Americans are self absorbed to the point they have no interest in ever leaving their home country?
Did you not read the comment you replied to?
Dude didn’t mention much of anything about if people are interested in leaving. They mostly said we’re too damn broke to afford a plane ticket even if we wanted one.
There’s 2 parts to that comment. Percentage of population with a passport, and number of people who can’t afford it. I wasn’t debating the 2nd one, though I probably have quite a few things I could say on that point.
The first point however, relates to the practically-a-meme about how many Americans have no interest in ever leaving the states even for a brief holiday, whether or not they can afford it.
There’s no point in getting a passport when you know you’re too broke to afford a plane ticket my dude. The two issues are heavily correlated.
Got em
American, don’t really disagree
Lee said Kwon attended Iowa State University and has a degree in aerodynamics.
He puts his knowledge to good use.
He Is a Man of Focus, Commitment and Sheer Fucking Will
And a lot of petroleum.
Nobody noticed the dude zip tying 300 miles worth of fuel to his jet ski?
It’s not that much fuel. From what I can tell, jet skis usually get about 20 miles per gallon, so he would need 15 gallons of fuel, minimum
Article states a lot more than that.
I can’t imagine crossing a sea for hundreds of miles on a jet ski, this sounds crazy dangerous especially given recent weather in East Asia
Milton Fludgecow did it.
Like that last scene in resident evil 4, he might be carrying the President’s daughter too.
Most fun defection ever! Going to lose his deposit though.
Jk jk that’s a terrible joke.
He can afford jet ski, but not a plane ticket?
I’m sure you read the article but missed this part:
“[They] told me that they found out from the Chinese authorities that Kwon was banned from leaving China,” Lee said. “[He] had no choice but to flee China for his safety.”
China has increasingly used exit bans to bar people — including domestic critics and foreign executives — from leaving the country.
Skimmed the article, missed that part.
