
The Essential Tool for Hong Kong Protesters? An Umbrella - baylearn
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-hong-kong-protesters-umbrellas/
======
abbracadabbra
> Chinese e-commerce sites like Taobao and AliExpress no longer sell them to
> customers in Hong Kong

Impressive coordination of public & private bureaucracies

~~~
lvturner
A cursory glance indicates I am perfectly able to buy an umbrella from Ali
express in Hong Kong - didn't go all the way through the purchase however.

I do somewhat question the reliability of the source in this instance.

~~~
jellicle
Some more information on the subject:

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-18/china-
e-c...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-18/china-e-commerce-
sites-block-sales-of-protest-gear-to-hong-kong)

[https://bitterwinter.org/bans-on-shipment-of-goods-
imposed-t...](https://bitterwinter.org/bans-on-shipment-of-goods-imposed-to-
curb-protests/)

------
terenceng2010
Following the Be water thinking, ppl start to have no specific items or
clothes to represent themselves now. So the essential tool would be the
determination to live in this city with courage, hope, dignity and helping
each other in a crisis created by no one but the government.

This government has lost all its credibility within a hundred day, which is
impressive in a way I guess? I don’t think HK will be totally recovered when
CCP continues to intervene. The damage has be made, and the scar will always
be there.

~~~
77546throw
>...and the scar will always be there.

Will it? I think over time, people will forget.

When the British colonized Hong Kong, they were especially brutal to the
protestors. During the protests in the late 1960s, the British controlled
police killed over 50 protesters.

Yet today, the protesters are wishing for the British to intervene.

~~~
bobthepanda
It’s worth noting that after the 1960s protests, Britain made laissez-faire
policy official and economic growth skyrocketed, creating lasting social
changes that were beneficial for boosting living standards.

To win the hearts and minds of Hong Kongers, Beijing needs to either give
people the power to dismantle an economy strangled by property tycoons (e.g.
electing a chief executive with actual power) or do it itself, and neither is
permissible. China will never let a territory it controls have unfettered
universal suffrage, and the mainland itself is turning into the
conglomerate/tycoon economy that now restricts Hong Kong. Which is a great
deal of irony for a party that started riots over working conditions in the
1960s.

------
paulcarroty
Remember 2014, Kyiv, Maidan. We actively used a push-to-talk mobile app Zello.
Cheap used mobile phone, burner sim-card without id, and you're on the way.
Also many people used whatsapp, Facebook was very liberal to UA protesters.

"Winter on fire", Netflix, highly recommend.

Of course times changing, and heard now Zello is affiliated with Russian
government.

~~~
WilTimSon
Yeah, but there are new options. I've seen Telegram and Briar both listed as
options that the Hong Kong protesters have used. When a company sells out to
the state, it's time to switch to another one. Briar, in particular, was made
specifically for dissidents and protesters.

~~~
Avamander
People should seriously consider Keybase with it's non-required use of a phone
number and strong encryption in every chat. I'm not in any way affiliated with
them but I just don't like Telegram suggested with it's unaudited homebrewn
crypto and Russian roots.

~~~
WilTimSon
The unaudited thing is definitely raising questions but, come on, let's not
act like people being from a certain country should automatically discard
them. Signal is made by Americans and so is Briar, I'd hope neither are
thought of as NSA stooges or something. Telegram creators got essentially run
out of the country and the app itself was banned in Russia, that's a pretty
good sign that there's no cooperation with the government.

Not suggesting we put blind trust into it, just saying it's unfair to judge an
app by where its makers come from.

~~~
Avamander
It's definitely not a single thing (e.g. origin) I find untrustworthy, it's
the things combined (homemade crypto + Russian origin).

------
seandoe
What's the most effective way to support the Hong Kong protesters/people?

~~~
Leary
[https://www.change.org/p/international-court-of-justice-
requ...](https://www.change.org/p/international-court-of-justice-request-
international-court-of-justice-to-investigate-excessive-force-of-hong-kong-
police)

[https://www.change.org/p/the-grand-chancery-of-the-legion-
of...](https://www.change.org/p/the-grand-chancery-of-the-legion-of-honor-
revoke-hong-kong-chief-executive-carrie-lam-s-legion-of-honor-
distinction-19c4dc0e-f0ca-433a-9496-08e6705dbdeb)

[https://www.change.org/p/international-police-association-
re...](https://www.change.org/p/international-police-association-reporting-
misconduct-of-hong-kong-police-force-during-the-protest-in-hong-
kong?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_message&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=4e0f5610-c6bc-11e9-8ef7-4d89fc670684&share_bandit_exp=message-16946662-en-
US&share_bandit_var=v3)

[https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/244402](https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/244402)

[https://www.pori.hk/donation](https://www.pori.hk/donation)

~~~
seandoe
This is great, thank you.

------
gbuk2013
Makes me think of this: [https://unbreakableumbrella.com/product/unbreakable-
walking-...](https://unbreakableumbrella.com/product/unbreakable-walking-
stick-umbrella-model-u-115/)

I own one and it’s a great umbrella that I have only ever used for
conventional purposes. :)

Now I just need to learn this Kunfgu set ...

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uWtZmKrENDE](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uWtZmKrENDE)

------
vnchr
Are there any interesting startups specifically focused on protest technology?

~~~
ignoramous
Not protest-tech per se, but Alphabet's Jigsaw [0] has an impressive
collection of opensource tools they themselves built.

And the usual suspects (a few are not startups): the guardianproject [1],
lantern-vpn [2], the tor-project [3], freedom-box [4], matrix [5], GNU Jami
[6], letsencrypt, grapheneos [7], signal [8], freedom.press [9] ivpn / pia /
mulluvad et al.

[0] [https://jigsaw.google.com](https://jigsaw.google.com)

[1] [https://guardianproject.info](https://guardianproject.info)

[2] [https://getlantern.org](https://getlantern.org)

[3] [https://torproject.org](https://torproject.org)

[4] [https://freedomboxfoundation.org](https://freedomboxfoundation.org)

[5] [https://matrix.org](https://matrix.org)

[6] [https://jami.net](https://jami.net)

[7] [https://grapheneos.org](https://grapheneos.org)

[8] [https://signal.org](https://signal.org)

[9] [https://freedom.press](https://freedom.press)

------
secfirstmd
Part of the inspiration for us building Umbrella: a free, open source app with
advice on how activists can deal with protests, arrests, surveillance and
communication. It's available in multiple languages, including Chinese. (More
information at [https://www.secfirst.org](https://www.secfirst.org))

iOS: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/umbrella-
security/id14537153...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/umbrella-
security/id1453715310)

Android:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.secfirst.u...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.secfirst.umbrella)

~~~
tptacek
See Zeynep Tufekci's Twitter thread on Rory Byrne, who you Do Not Want To Be.

[https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1169323269297717248](https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1169323269297717248)

------
pcmaffey
To be remembered as the Umbrella Revolution.

------
isostatic
Terrible GDPR page - not clear if you’re answering “yes” or “no”

Why do websites insist on the most terrible custom designs? What’s wrong with
“input type=checkbox”?

~~~
capableweb
The "not clear if you’re answering “yes” or “no”" part is the entire point of
the deliberately poor design. See
[https://www.darkpatterns.org/](https://www.darkpatterns.org/) for more
examples

~~~
jpxw
Tbh they’d probably get more people to answer “yes” if they made the “yes”
very clear. Most people just blindly press whatever looks like yes. The dark
pattern would have the opposite effect in this case imo.

------
mrfusion
Anyone have a quick summary for the paywalled folks?

~~~
squeezingswirls
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190920083048/https://www.bloom...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190920083048/https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-hong-
kong-protesters-umbrellas/)

------
tikumo
Next year on AliExpress, weaponized umbrella's

~~~
crystalsforme
Yeah, they will shock the user if opened in a protest area.

------
avar
> “If you compare the umbrella with the weapon the others are using to attack
> us, the umbrella is nothing for that. Actually, umbrellas are really easily
> broken and we only use it to protect ourselves.”

Are umbrellas in China just really light and flimsy? I've had a lot of
umbrellas heavy and sturdy enough to do some serious damage if I were so
inclined.

~~~
isostatic
Compared to British umbrellas.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tukQDg22o9M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tukQDg22o9M)

~~~
tikumo
That video screen on the inside of the umbrella could be made with some
portable beamer projecting it, would be cool to have in a storm so you could
see oncoming traffic haha

~~~
crystalsforme
You know, there are transparent umbrellas out there...

------
boyadjian
All those people who protest ... They protest against what ? In France, we
have the "Gilets Jaunes", who also protest, there is also the young people who
protest against climate change. They protest, and they go nowhere ...

~~~
xwolfi
Honestly, right now, the "unfairness of life" is the closest to a coherent
message I can interpret from their "movement".

It was really a tense and passionate debate 2 months ago, but now many of us
just roll our eyes at the latest news, like when they shave people who clean
the streets, burn an MTR station, cry in a foreign country they need to be
"freed", and the like...

~~~
barkxyz
Seems a little bit unfair not to mention the five demands in this context:
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/what-do-the-
ho...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/what-do-the-hong-kong-
protesters-want)

If you really want to "interpret" the message of their movement, that would
seem like a good place to start.

