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Geopolitics

West Berlin To Hong Kong, When Freedom Is At Stake

After months of quiet amid the COVID-19 crisis, Hong Kong demonstrators attended an unauthorized rally this weekend to protest Beijing’s proposed security law that would tighten China’s control over the island territory. Police repeatedly fired tear gas,

Hong Kong police fired teargas and pepper spray onto demonstrators after thousands took to the streets, protesting against a new National Security Law.
Hong Kong police fired teargas and pepper spray onto demonstrators after thousands took to the streets, protesting against a new National Security Law.
Klaus Geiger

BERLIN — Germany is facing the biggest crisis in post-War history … So why should we be interested in Hong Kong right now? Quite simply because the threat Hong Kong is currently facing is even greater than the pandemic. Germany and Europe will eventually defeat the virus, we will survive the economic crisis, and at some point, move on to a brighter future. However, this will only happen if our greatest achievement — freedom — is not lost along the way. And that's exactly what is at stake in Hong Kong.


Autocracies and dictatorships always try to use force to bring more and more people under their control. History has shown us that strongmen cannot be stopped by policies of appeasement, but only by determination and intransigence. Hitler's takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1938 is the best-known example where a nation was sacrificed in the cowardly and deceptive hope of others being spared in the future.

This is not an abstract debate on freedom or lack of freedom on the other side of the world

As for Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the ending is still an open book — after all, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken an uncharacteristically hard line. But the most important historical precedent is often overlooked by Germans: Stalin's ambition to annex West Berlin. Whether it was the 1948/49 Airlift or the second Berlin crisis in 1958, the United States always remained steadfast and unwavering in its defense of West German freedom.


And Hong Kong? Britain has the moral, economic and legal duty to stand up for its former crown colony, handed over to China in 1997, the colony's last British governor Chris Patten, wrote last week for The Times. The West should not be tempted by the illusory prospect of trade advantages to kowtow to China – a message that is clearly also relevant to Germany.


This is not an abstract debate about freedom or lack of freedom on the other side of the world. The young demonstrators in Hong Kong are fighting for us, defending the freedom that was given to Germany by courageous people after the War. And anyone who considers Hong Kong's current situation none of our business betrays that very heritage.

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Society

Who Is Responsible For The Internet's Harm To Society?

A school in the US is suing social media giants for damage done to children's well-being. But fining tech giants is a feeble response to their attacks on society's welfare.

a young boy looking at a smartphone

Are parents, website owners or government oversight bodies for to blame for the damage done to children and young adults?

Mónica Graiewski

BUENOS AIRES - In January 2023, schools in Seattle in the United States took court action against the websites TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking damages for losses incurred from the psychological harm done to their pupils.

They maintained that behavioral anomalies such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders were impeding pupils' education and had forced schools to hire mental health experts, develop special educational plans and provide extra training for teachers.

Here in Argentina just days after that report, two teenagers died from taking part in the so-called "blackout challenge" on TikTok.

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