They have a spokesperson now. Say reasonable stuff, do whatever you want; Just like every government or corporate with PR.

One man's journalist is another man's .... ;-)

And the same invariable lie is always used, "oh, don't worry, we're only going to use this against the bad guys". Bad guys only exist in a world without nuance.

bad guy is a just not a term that should be trusted when coming from politicians at this point. "bad" is an opinion in the sports of politics and power, because they are worried about their own hind end, not that of the state at large.

Exactly. 'Bad' and 'terrorist' is just the word play decision of some politician who surely does not have your best interest at heart.

People are really getting fed up with being lied to on a constant, grand scale.

Where exactly is the so called tech talent shortage? I would certainly like to immigrate there. (Australia is out of bounds now, but which parts of Asia are you referring to?) Also all "tech" is not equal. Are you specifically referring to back-end web development?

Malaysia specifically, but I'm seeing recruiters from Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Thailand recently. So I assume it's regional to SE Asia. I'm experiencing it with mobile dev, but I'd assume it applies to web as well.

Now that I think of it, it could be that richer countries are hiring remote from cheaper ones, as they're hiring remote anyway. But it doesn't explain why Australia has a shortage.

Tangential but genuine question - can you please provide examples of such countries?

Touché - no such places exist

I think you and the parent commenter don't understand the ground realities in such countries. A lot of stuff will remain "on paper" or in "official" communications. There is no way any government here is going to pay $5000 to so many people. Either they will claim fewer numbers or will make an argument in court that they can't pay. Also, the availability of free vaccines is much lower than paid ones, so your claim is inaccurate.

Not that I agree with the root comment, but China is not that large without Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia. These provinces also have the least population densities - the terrain doesn't support it.

In a liberal country that is. I am sure certain single party dictatorships can regulate any company of any size within a day.

I think the most underappreciated story of the last year is the humbling of Jack Ma and Alibaba by the CCP. Imagine the same thing happening to Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg or heck even Mark Cuban.

In China people like Jack Ma are essentially the "white glove" of someone else or something else that have access to power if the company grows big enough.

Could you explain this in a bit more detail? Are you suggesting that there are powerful stakeholders who gain greater power outside the company through the success of the company?

What happened to Jack Ma is one of the few things that scares this class of wealth.

In reality it's still difficult because companies need to have support from top level politicians to grow big. So essentially it's a political problem.

Yes. These are the major reasons not the "only" reasons. Sure, there will be a few percentage of people who are irresponsible, but we have to look at the big picture as well. Mass gatherings are far more responsible for the spread than a few people not wearing masks.

Absolutely, I am not trying to defend that stupidity here. Also, it was not a 'few' people not wearing masks. It has always been a few people wearing masks. And what qualifies as a mask for most people should really be questioned.