Got into a heated discussion with a coworker over this. My stance is it was probably for the best it was demolished. The entire thing was a massive fire and disease hazard. Massive amounts of crime and unlicensed businesses too. Despite its reputation for a kind of tight knit anarchist type community, most of the stuff I've read seems to suggest triads and the HK police were largely running the place.

I hate forceful eviction as much as the next person here. What else could have been done? There was some compensation given to the residents, but I know some residents complained it wasn't enough.

My coworker's stance is the place should have remained as it was, without any sort of intervention whatsoever, despite being so hazardous.

How do y'all feel?

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Some thoughts

    • Only the most baby-brained libs would call a tiny area, totally dependent on the surrounding capitalist economy and run by gangs anarchist. Child prostitution and opium dens are ancap shit.
    • Conditions there were dangerous and unsanitary. The residents deserved better.
    • In spite of this many residents remember the place fondly. The absence of government created a community and spared the residents of much oppression. This doesn't mean the Kowloon walled city was a good place, it means the other options available to the residents were even worse.
    • A government concerned with the well-being of its citizens ought to do something about a place like the Kowloon walled city. However it should be done in cooperation with the citizens and their democratic organs.
    • The right thing to do would have been to let the citizens form assemblies and let those assemblies be in charge of renovating the existing area as well as of the construction of new developments to house those citizens.
    • Renovation and construction should be funded as part of a larger programme to re-prioritise resources towards ensuring quality housing for all and away from the frivolous luxuries and bullshit work of the bourgeoisie.