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make your photo for the magazine oh yeah good Wednesday morning everyone and thanks for joining us for another episode of the 359 with Roger tang and Ben Fox Rubin guys what do we got going on today well hello folks on YouTube we've got it we've got a very serious subjected right after after we had a lot of fun talking about Samsung and getting really geeked out about that we are going to talk about the refugee crisis actually yes and yes there is a tech component and we're not when I just going way off base here a very own Ben Fox Rubin traveled out to to Greece to kind of cover the to uncover text role in the the Syrian refugee crisis right Syrian Afghan Iraqi and Pakistani I mean I met all sorts of people from all over the world we're all coming to Europe to try to you know find better lives and I it was interesting we'll talk about this more on the podcast but it was very interesting all the different roles tech played mmm when I first went over there there were a lot of people that were like why is that a text story and I was like you'd be really surprised to find out how many different tech ingalls there actually are happening with the refugee crisis and it's because this is really one of the first if not just the first refugee crises that have actually gone on in the 21st century yeah I mean that first one in the digital age for sure right so there's just like it's it's everything is like a wash and technology and including how the refugees respond to things and you know how people help them different stuff like okay I mean how they kill their time yeah yeah so we're gonna get to know this if you have any questions as always leave them in the comments section Brian will pick up some the best feel free to pick Ben's brain about his time and experience with the refugees yeah it's a fascinating professional experience it is but if you guys kind of get depressed we can answer a samsung question too so we are mindful of the fact that this is a little bit I had lot of the beaten path yeah yeah so and make sure to stop by cnet and watch our incredible video series yes yeah the videos will definitely make you cry so get ready for that alright hopefully we won't do that today I know tell Polly until your bad jokes haha we can we can work with that yeah all right let's let's get started with the podcast all right we're going to start rolling on the podcast going to record for four minutes and please send along your comments and questions and we'll get back to you as soon as we're done with the taping and here we go in three two welcome to the 359 when we talk about the top tech news of the day and all the other crap you want to throw in I'm Roger Cheng I'm betting Fox Rubin so today we're doing these a little bit differently we're going to focus on one story one special story Wow we sent our own bed Fox Rubin and rich navy out to Greece to uncover text role in helping migrants now this is the use this is a departure from the usual cnet stories totally so this is not your latest Google feature or galaxy note 7 or Amazon Prime day what have you so why are we doing this then so why why are we doing this um it's it's actually interesting i asked myself that question while I was researching the subject ahead of the trip and then when I actually went out there I was really surprised and fascinated to find how many different tech ingalls there actually were out in Greece I mean the thing is is that this is a refugee crisis that's happening in the digital age in the information age so every single adult or teen refugee that we talked to had a smartphone and they were using it to really level the playing field to be able to find housing food work different things like that and so this was a way for them to connect with like a new environment right there like kind of fish out of water well so it'd be specifically what what exactly what contact did you see what exactly did people use to kind of get by so the main story that we wrote about today was actually about squats which are illegal houses that are opened and unused in abandoned buildings in Athens and around Greece and the way that refugees find out about these places are either you know through their contacts you know like I'll check in with whatsapp or I'll talk to somebody you know in an unofficial site and also like the squats themselves because they operate outside of the regular protocol because most of them are illegal yeah they use Twitter Facebook groups different stuff that actually has the word out right there was one that has a Facebook page with almost fifteen thousand followers laughing so they use it to set up demonstrations and get donations and different stuff like that so one of the other examples you mentioned in your story is that these are skype and how skype actually kind of failed on yeah I'm refugees right so the Greek government because they're really understaffed and because they have a big economic crisis that they're just trying to get past yeah they used skype to try to set up one-on-one appointments for folks right to try to get asylum and it was a pretty horrible failure because as you can imagine I mean like it's hard unless you have a really serviceable Wi-Fi here yeah in our audience to actually like get a connection so folks with like bad Wi-Fi connections and like thousands yeah people trying to get through it was it was like destined to really do pretty poorly s'okay the skype thing did not end up working out and they had to actually send people out to camps to see people in person so they had to go with the low tech angle so what surprised you about the trip what surprised me about the trip was I mean a lot of refugees were it just about every refugee that we bumped into it was like super welcoming and interested in talking to us they wanted to tell people their stories what they've been through different things like that so that was and pretty and your team didn't leave Greece unscathed that is correct i'll tell us more about that story right so one of the areas that's like a real hot spot for squats was this anarchist neighborhood annex aria we were told that the police don't often go there right because I mean right gear when they go they need riot gear because the the the neighborhood will then turn on them they're like very anti establishment so but we went there and it would looked like every other neighborhood right that we were in in Athens but unfortunately we bumped into some folks that did not want us to be there because they saw us as part of institutions or the establishments or whatever this one guy comes up to eat this one girl had noticed us from before she brought over two of her friends we got into an argument and I thought that we had success fully extricate ourselves from this situation but as we were walking away one of these guys really wanted to get in a fight so he spit on rich I turned around to see what was going on I got smacked in the face then I ran for it and as you should right so the guy gave chase for like maybe five seconds turned around and like attacked our cameraman yeah hook all of this equipment so yeah that was that was pretty tough but fortunately James Martin our photographer was was okay and he's also like the most badass out of all of us he was he if anyone was gonna get assaulted I guess he would be best suited for it yeah so so definitely you know some of the intrigue of trying to get the story oh yeah alright y know more about the this store these stories are now road trip package which runs throughout the summer check us out on cnet I'm Roger Cheng I'm Ben Fox Rubin thanks for listening and cut and wrap on the podcast recording that was great coverage guys yeah sorry that went over a little bit was a pretty intense it's a story so probably was really a story you could like chopped down and sort of give via yeah I had a television by the way I had to tell my mom about it yesterday I kept it away from her up until now haha and I were just like yeah I got attacked in Greece and she's like what what do you mean she's Israeli and I'm like well I may have gotten smacked in the face by an anarchist she's like what is an anarchist so was she angry was she she was she was um so I did some reporting out of the West Bank last year and James much more nervous about that so she's now anytime I get sent anywhere international I'm gonna have to hear it from mom no no now she knows even Greece isn't safe for her little boy so don't worry it was a little girl like said you to Disneyland I'll be he'll be fine I know a guy you get Mikey mouse and maybe like corner me in like BB others I just want to fight academi tell me that tag yeah uh so it just to reiterate we are covering the tech angle specifically as a year on assignment yeah in Greece to take a look at but this is an incredibly broad humanistic story affecting millions of people I mean what is your perspective now how did you as a human change through your experience there um I'll try not to get too political about this but I think ultimately I find it really surprising now that I've actually been to Greece and met a lot of refugees I find it surprising how some politicians talk about refugees in this country because you know the term terrorism constantly gets referenced I mean like virtually everybody there escaped war because they didn't want to be there there were so many families there with children I mean like these are not people that were supposed to be afraid of I understand that you need to jump through hoops do different stuff like that nobody wants Isis in this country but at the same time it is I think on a personal level unfortunate how politicized the refugee crisis has gotten already and how much a lot of politicians just would rather not have anybody come into this country i mean like these are folks that really need help they a lot of thumb that we met were living outdoors in really horrible conditions and they just wanted to get away from war or you know the taliban and different stuff like that these are not the type of folks that are our enemy yes and unfortunately you know their countries in Europe or facing the same deal right there are countries are closing their borders so all these refugees right and there are there have been attacks and there have been attacks absolutely from terrorists that have snuck in right along with the migrant wave but you're talking about such a fraction of a one-percent and I it is it is really unfortunate in my mind that so many people including children are getting bundled into yeah you know like everybody's considering these folks terrorists I mean like a lot a lot of thumb almost every single one of them just needs help no 20 readers I definitely recommend beyond reading band and Richard stories take a look at the videos take a look at the galleries James shot just a huge amount of wonderful powerful photos definitely definitely worth a look yeah I'm just in this topic thanks yeah duh I know this is a rare compliment for me for me so just savor it did I have it I didn't even know what to say I might cry you feel largely that we were some kind of hopeful message help in any semblance I mean you really if this was 10 years ago do you think the technical technological aspect of what's going on now is a sincere benefit to what these people are going through you're talking about is tech actually helping them yes um it for the most part yes I mean like we're in the information age and so they a lot of refugees have much much easier access to information these days some of it is misinformation but a lot of it is just a useful information and so they're able to access readily available very quickly on their smartphones every day whether it's through a facebook group or through breaking news different things like that it's a very fast-moving crisis too so things change every day and you can't wait for like a news advertiser advertisement or bulletins or different ends like that so and even like in terms of downtime like reading your story like some of the kids you interview like they're they listen to Justin Bieber song yeah they're like I knew a ever what like you and I yeah maybe not us we're really immature but Pokemon go yeah they ended up playing pokemon girl but but no they're like that that's a very different situation if this was like 10 years ago they would be sitting around not doing anything right like yeah yeah there's a lot of waiting too and I did really think that it was very interesting how a lot of these grassroots initiatives were really enabled through the internet so that's that's a lot of what we wrote anything you guys you use google translate to interview some of your subject yeah we use google translate and we also found a lot of the squats which like I said are illegal through Facebook groups through independent volunteers and you know like you can walk around and like talk to people they'll tell you where squats are but for the most part I was doing research in the US and like I was able to find out a lot of information just for my desk because a lot of the stuff is on the internet and they are trying to disseminate their news and say hey this is what we're doing we need donations so yeah the internet enables like all sorts of this stuff so yeah it's kind of heartening to see that you know and something that's so dark that there is a kind of a glimmer of yeah and if it is just information information can be very powerful thing absolutely yeah it definitely changes the game yeah I mean I think I met a lot of people that were pretty unhappy with their situations but I think it's important to recognize the like day-to-day that were also like kids playing and chasing each other and folks like smiling and just hanging out so it's not like they're just sitting around being like depressed all the time like if you talk to them long enough a lot of people will be like I have no idea what my future is going to be I don't know if they're going to send me back to my country I don't know where I'm going to live whatever right so is there is that under current but it's important to recognize too that like people are trying to make the best of their situations and they're obviously mindful of the fact that like they fled war where they could have very easily been killed so there's um there's that aspect that they are relieved that they got out of an even more situation that way no one is ever trying to do just try to make it better yeah yeah hopefully we can find ways to continue to help any any questions no I think that's a good place to stop it all right ya know this is this powerful stuff like I said check out our road trip package we'll put it in the description below yep it's a first story as well as the reporters notebooks are out now this is a series that's going to be running for the next few weeks and so you can see a lot more coverage from different perspectives in the next coming month or two so check us on cnet if you like anything you saw here or here of checkers on cnet our podcast is also available on itunes google play music soundcloud to n and feedburner yeah ya gamil all right nice thanks for joining us thank for joining us we'll see you tomorrow cool