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Man flees China by riding jet ski hundreds of miles to South Korea (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] dublet@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] wahming 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"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?

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] wahming 0 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] SmokesForBreakfast@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] dublet@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

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

this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023

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