I mean, that headline implies intentionality, no? I doubt the guy knew that his lunch would get him slapped with a $10k fine.
I know I don't Google every single item in my bag to make sure that something like the type of cotton my socks are made of doesn't get me thrown in jail.
I mean, I don't know that that changes my point at all, but if you'd really like me to rephrase it:
I don't Google every item in my suitcase to make sure the the type of cotton my socks are made of won't get me immediately deported and fined $10,000 that I don't have.
Check what though, that's the issue. I would never think that my carnitas burrito from Chipotle might catch me a 10k fine.
And let's be real, there's no reason to put that "(maybe)" in there. Are you suggesting the dude was like, "Ahahaha, my dastardly plan is in motion! I'm going to snuggle 4oz of pork hidden away in my lunch, in direct violation of import controls. It's so clever because I have absolutely no discernable reason I would want to do this on purpose!!!"
And what are you recommending me check? Google every item on the "ingredients" list on my coke zero to make sure I'm not smuggling red dye number 33 into a country that bans it?
Most civilized countries don't fine people $10k for breaking laws that it would be very reasonable they have no idea exist.
And let's be real, there's no reason to put that "(maybe)" in there. Are you suggesting the dude was like, "Ahahaha, my dastardly plan is in motion! I'm going to snuggle 4oz of pork hidden away in my lunch, in direct violation of import controls. It's so clever because I have absolutely no discernable reason I would want to do this on purpose!!!"
No.
I’m saying he might have known that pork was banned and didn’t think it was that big of a deal. that happens all the time.
Except it’s actually a really big deal. The ban on pork, specifically, is to prevent ASF from entering the local herd.
Bio controls are one of the few ways to prevent spread; and it takes all of five minutes to check what is or isn’t banned.
Further more he could have declared it- “hey I have this pork lunch,” which would have led to a very different conversation.
And what are you recommending me check? Google every item on the "ingredients" list on my coke zero to make sure I'm not smuggling red dye number 33 into a country that bans it?
It was literally called “chicken and pork combo.” Not exactly hidden.
You don’t have to google anything- except maybe to find their customs website where it’s all very plainly stated.
There are a dozen travel advisory warnings about pork products, specifically, and clearly stating that all pork is barred from entry.
More generally, meat and dairy products are almost always barred from entry (along with most every kind of ag product in general.)
I can't find the pork ban on the link you provided. The closest I saw was "Quarantine inspection of animals, plants and their derived products" which isn't a prohibition of anything in particular, and the link to the relevant authority literally goes to a dead page.
That literally says all live animals and product s from them are banned (with a few exceptions that wouldn’t apply.)
You don’t get to not spend five minutes checking customs before traveling to another country and pretend like you’re the victim for getting dinged.
Particularly since the customs agent is specifically asking if you have anything. “Do you have any food with you…?” (This would be your last chance to declare it).
Anywhere with a biosecurity law has signs posted in the most popular languages. And they'll usually tell you not to bring food or animal products into the country in any form. And there are convenient trash cans in case you did bring something you need to get rid of before you hit customs.
The guy was from Indonesia and routed to Taiwan via Hong Kong. There's a good chance there were no signs or announcements in a language he could understand.
Do you think he traveled to Taiwan without being able to speak any English or any Mandarin? Also there is a very solid chance that his flight company informed him of the rules as he was booking the flight. Also there is stuff like pictograms. Also Indonesia is majority Muslim country, so being part of a pork eating minority further increases the likeliness of being able to speak at least some other language.
They take pork products particularly seriously. At least on their flag carrier, China Airlines, it would be incredibly hard to ignore the video played prior to landing with the talking pigs specifically pointing this out.
The article states that the virus is very resistant to many environmental changes and can “survive” for a long time on clothes, boots, and even some pork products. This is probably one of many issues involved during an outbreak.
Almost no countries allow meat products due to potential exposure that couldn't be easily seen. Sometimes for commercially prepared meats there are exceptions but these are in relatively few countries. For countries with substantial livestock keeping diseases out is critical to their economy and therefore treated with such a high level of urgency.
Trains pay for their infrastructure, trucks don't pay for the road.
Time. Shipping by rail means lots of sitting and shunting into different trains. Trucks can just go.
First and last mile. Because we have set up industry and commence to work off road, that means to go by rail has a first and last mile that has to be truck anyway. So double/triple handling adding to cost. I wonder if we'll redo some.
Setting up rails to be autonomous single cars powered by overhead electrical lines that can just go from one location to the next could solve a lot of this.
Your first point isn't exactly true for the rails relevant to the article. Outside some mining railways, the track is owned by the Australian federal government, like the roads. I don't know how the usage fees and tax structures compare between the two modes.
With regards to your second point, it depends on the cargo as to whether that matters. A lot of the cargo will also travel by ship for some of its journey, and that will take a lot more time, so the land side journey time doesn't really matter.
Autonomous pod bullshit doesn't help here. One of the major advantages of rail freight is the economies of scale. You load up a big efficient train full of stuff because you have so much stuff heading in one direction.
The article actually has a quote that sums up the why:
"It's largely due to the inefficiencies of a fragmented national rail network, ailing infrastructure and government policy and investment that favours road over rail."
The answer is just to invest in rail and incentivise its use.
That's pretty interesting to hear about the government owning the rail. Wasn't aware anyone did that. Depends on the fees for each but for the ones I'm aware of truck fees are negligible.
This article was talking about "across the country", the example being between Melbourne and Sydney.
Autonomous trains are a legitimate idea. Yes it gets a lot of attention from 'innovators' which make it sound like a scam, but it's legit idea. It has a lot of hurdles to get through. It solves some problems like not having to shunt and move individual cars around which can be a real problem. The economy of scale of one long train is a double edge sword, it introduces a lot of arrangement, assembly, moving individual cars around at the start and finish, and time (cost of inventory in transit is very real). Also it allows one crew (people are expensive) for many cars. I don't think there's a fundamental reason we can't do both on the same system. When you get down to it the benefit of rail is that steel on steel has lower rolling resistance, lower wear and tear, and cheaper infrastructure.
Government owned infrastructure is common outside North America.
Autonomous trains work in sealed environments (e.g. a metro tunnel) and make sense when you're running trains every few minutes or less (e.g. a metro system). For freight the ideas are thrown around to scare workers into agreeing to worse terms under the threat of losing their jobs to automation.
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But as the sun set on the fourth day, strong winds and huge waves saw the group still floating on the ocean, with Li feeling nauseous and hopeless.
What happened next hit national headlines, reviving a fierce debate about border security and boat arrivals that has vexed successive federal governments for decades.
Their fishing boat, carrying six Chinese men on board — including an alleged smuggler — was intercepted by Indonesian authorities as they tried to make their way to Australia.
It's rare to see people from China — a middle-income country — opting for illegal migration pathways to leave, according to Victor Shih, an associate professor in Chinese political science at the University of California, San Diego.
"The latest figure [from the Central Bank] also just simply reveals that people don't find a lot of opportunities for making investments in China at this moment," Professor Yang said.
As the men barely spoke any English, they communicated with officers from the centre through mobile translation apps, and when they had meetings with police and the immigration department, there was an interpreting hotline set up for them.
Traditionally, countries will have extradition agreements that facilitate arrest of criminals in flight.
Thanks to break down in relations between China and Western states, it has become increasingly common for Chinese embezzlers and con-artists to flee abroad with cash assets in hopes of evading arrest.
Of course, this works both ways with Australian felony suspects hiding in China to the same effect.
In 2017, the Turnbull government abruptly withdrew from parliament a proposed Chinese extradition treaty following significant backbench discontent.
Since then, the Australian government has resorted to various agreements with MPS and other Chinese security agencies as a means of cooperating with China on criminal matters.
So this becomes an end run for both countries to seek "voluntary" extradition, primarily by threatening potential accomplices and family property in the original country.
Yvette Wang, accused of being an accomplice of exiled and indicted Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, pleaded guilty in New York last week to defrauding many investors out of over $1 billion in "a complex scheme," prosecutors said.
Fraud in China has far worse consequences than fraud in Australia. Even if I were to be arrested, I'd prefer it to happen in Australia where I can get off with a slap on the wrist.
On Monday, as the temperature soared to 43 C in Roebourne, the Service revealed the "distressing outcome" is that prisoners are still living in cells without air-conditioning, in "conditions that could prove fatal from heat stress or heat stroke".
Oasis agriculture in the Tarim Basin occupies a large part of the population
In the Tarim Basin, July temperatures average about 80 °F (27 °C)
...
After the Cultural Revolution, political and economic policies were moderated, leading to widespread improvement in the livelihood of farmers and pastoralists and to relative stability and economic growth in the region. This was accompanied—especially from the late 1990s—by increased economic investment in Xinjiang, as well as by an influx of Han from other parts of China.
I have no issue with Asian people. It's the prison system that's the issue, but you know that and just want to cry racist because claiming the Chinese prison system is preferable is laughable at best, nice try tankie.
The Chinese prison system. Whereas the Australian prison system that kills people with heat stroke isn't a problem, because...
the Chinese prison system is preferable is laughable
Of course. Its doing all the progressive-y policies that big liberal states like California rolled back under the Reagan Era. Rehabilitation, job training, quality health care, and public reintegration are all policies the US system dismantled a generation ago, because it was seen as "Hugs for Thugs" and "Soft on Crime".
I'm the only one that's posted any links to any data or "observational evidence" (tips fedora lol neckbeard). All you've done is vaguely hint at Chinese prisons being preferable to Aussie ones.
I've never really gotten to see one of you in the wild.
Kinda glad where I live there's absolutely no way our government would allow CCP police to reach me. (unless the CCP police goes undercover and kidnaps me)
Depends, are we talking about Chinese nationals or immigrants? They a naturalized citizen? I remember some reports about Chinese people being harassed by Chinese police here in the U.S. just last year.
Pretty sure there's no way my government would allow it. Sure, secretly kidnapping me might not be too difficult, but my government would never officially give permission to the CCP police to have a talk with me (as the Australian govt. did in this article). I live in Taiwan btw.
There must have been some kind of cooperation, Australia has custom offices and border controls at airports and harbours. They won't let her out without looking at her passport, etc.
Can't speak for Australians, but as a Canadian who expects that the same could happen here - why the fuck are our governments so apathetic about this shit?.
Stand up for the people trusting you. Be MAD. Stop doing it if you're also doing it.
In the UK there was a peaceful protester and the Chinese dragged him into the embassy grounds and beat him in front of the public. They have diplomatic immunity.
Nothing was done obviously.
No wonder China and Russia shit over us and act like we are weak. We are. We proved it multiple times.
Yeah, it's not like western governments, "intelligence" agencies or police would ever beat protesters, persecute political dissidents, murder civilians, torture suspects in designated black sites, ally with dictatorships who torture and murder journalists with bone saws, overthrow democratically elected governments, or engage in any behavior that is horrifically anti-democratic or anti-human rights.
That time when the west was historically great was a lie. We were only better than fascism or communism, but our ruling class, the politicians they own, and their corporations have always engaged in horrific shit. Ours just hide behind the media and a liability shield of a dozen LLC's, or do it hidden behind closed doors — unless you're a palestinian, protester, communist, or a dozen other groups who are okay to oppress publicly at any given time.
It would be Whataboutism if I defended the accusations against China or Russia. I explicitly said we were better — just only better than the bottom of the barrel — and the whole point of my comment was to refute the right-wing nationalist fantasy that we were historically "strong", "great" or "righteous"; a time that never existed in reality.
I suggest you learn what maketh a logical fallacy.
The name's origin came from the propaganda Molotov produced during the Winter War, mainly his declaration on Soviet state radio that incendiary bombing missions over Finland were actually "airborne humanitarian food deliveries" for their "starving" neighbours.[13][10][better source needed] As a result, the Finns sarcastically dubbed the Soviet incendiary cluster bombs "Molotov bread baskets" (Finnish: Molotovin leipäkori) in reference to Molotov's propaganda broadcasts.[14][10] When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack and destroy Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the "Molotov cocktail", as "a drink to go with his food parcels".[15][16]
The why is really really simple. The actions taken in result have the potential to cause more harm than help. Tariffs don't work, censureship is useless, and war is... yeah. They can get up on stage and shout about how angry they are but it means fuck all. The important part is how WE deal with it. Legislature starts from the grass roots level, political activism and engagement can help make new laws that expressly do not allow extradition by the CCP and other adversarial nations, or in any way allow an arm of the CCP to search for or request information on any individuals.
Sounds to me like China is asking for a bomb. Australia should give them one. You don't come steal my cat after asking for pets unless you want me to show up at your door and shoot you in the face.
abc.net.au
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