If the women in the new Trek movie aren't wearing uniforms like this.
Y'know, if the whole Starfleet Academy thing doesn't work out, there's always a brilliant future hawking Taiwanese aphrodisiacs.
Category: Taiwanese Culture & People
Innocent Until Proven Unemployed
Horrible, horrible story in Taiwan about a drunken man who had an argument with his live-in girlfriend, and to get even, drops their 10-month old daughter into a pot of boiling noodles. Scalded over 95% of her body.
Girl lingers a few days in hospital, then dies. Hard to see how this guy doesn't get the death penalty, but he WAS drunk, so I guess some judge might view that as an extenuating circumstance. *
Anyways, that's the background for this:
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday urged the Ministry of the Interior to include alcoholics and those who have been unemployed for a long period of time in the ministry’s database for observation in a bid to prevent potential domestic violence and child abuse.
Ho. Lee. Crap. Taiwan's KMT wants the government to SPY on its own citizens.
Correction: It's already happening.
Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) on Monday vowed to pour more resources into reducing domestic violence by expanding its database of high-risk families.
At present, the database only includes children whose parents have alcohol and drug addictions or families that often have arguments.
I've never heard of this before. Any OTHER Big Brother-esque databases here we should be aware of?
* I'm a little ashamed to say, but my initial reaction was that the culprit should be asked to do the right thing — then placed in a room alone with his conscience for ten minutes with a single bullet and pistol.
Terrible idea, of course. If it became common practice, you'd have suicides and "suicides" occurring in every jail in Taiwan. So, due process is where it's at.
Wednesday's Taipei Times included one detail that wasn't mentioned in previous reports:
The mother reportedly dared the man after he threatened to throw the infant into water being used to make noodles.
OK, that's really not cool, either. You don't dare somebody with impaired judgment to do something stupid, dangerous or just downright evil. You don't do that in the West — and you certainly don't do that in Taiwan, which has a whole "face culture" dynamic to exacerbate the situation.
UPDATE: The mother in the case may indeed be charged for her role.
It was reported that the mother might also face charges of incitement to commit murder for daring her drunken partner to toss the girl into the pot during an argument.
A Quick Look At The Olympic Charter
Nothing there about freedom per se, though the second fundamental principal of Olympism does hint at it (see page 12 of the pdf link):
The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity. [emphasis added]
Therefore (in theory at least), the goal of Olympism IS freedom — for without it, men have the dignity of serfs or slaves. Which is why the pro-slavery views of Jackie Chan make him unsuitable for the job of spokesman for Taiwan's Deaflympics:
"I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want."
– Jackie Chan
– Jackie Chan
Tuesday's China Post attempted to defend Chan's job as Taiwan's Deaflympics spokesman, on the basis of . . . free speech.
Which is a straw man, because Chan's free speech isn't the issue. As a free man, it's Jackie Chan's right to express his odious wish that he and all other Chinese should be servile. For speaking his mind, I do not advocate that he be jailed, fined, or hauled in front of a human rights tribunal by any government. Nor do I hear anyone demanding that the State retaliate against his economic interests, banning his movies or otherwise damaging his livelihood.
The Post asks:
After all, aren't democracy champions also the champions of freedom and equal rights for every individual?
Indeed they are — but that doesn't mean that democracy champions are obligated to accept anti-democrats as their SPOKESMEN!
It's a similar issue to the whole Durban II "Anti-racism" Conference. The UN holds an international meeting on anti-racism . . . then invites MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD as a keynote speaker?
Whatsa matter? David Duke and "high-class" Chinese nationalist Kuo Kuan-ying weren't available?
Here's a clue for UN Secretary Dim-Bulb Ban Ki-moon: If you want your little anti-racism shindig to have any credibility, it's MAYBE not a good idea to give the limelight to hallucinatory psychotics who're jonesing for genocide.
And here's another clue for Ban's counterparts at the China Post: If Taiwan wants a spokesman for freedom and human dignity, it's contradictory to hire Jackie Chan. He's already got a job, moonlighting as a spokesman for governmental repression.
UPDATE: One other thing. Companies and organizations hire spokesmen in order to create GOODWILL for their products or events. If a celebrity (for whatever reason) isn't creating that goodwill, then shouldn't someone ELSE be given their job instead?
Apropos of this, CNN has a long list of commercial pitchmen who were fired for offenses ranging from raunchy speech (Madonna) to partisan speech (Whoopi Goldberg) to bitter divorces (Burt Reynolds).
That's life. All of these celebrities have the right of free speech. What they do not have is the right to keep their lucrative endorsement jobs after they send product sales down the toilet.
Falun Gong At The Lake Of The Sun And The Moon
Chinese tourists to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan are being treated to disturbing evidence of their government's persecution of Falun Gong. And there are objections aplenty:
Following complaints from several tourists, the director of the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration said yesterday it did not know how to deal with the Falun Gong protesters at the nation’s premier scenic spot.
Tseng Kuo-chi (曾國基), director of administration, told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview that the protests by Falun Gong members were directed at Chinese tourists, who normally visit Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, the National Palace Museum and other popular tourist attractions.
Chinese tourists may have been the targets, but a Canadian visitor to the lake was found to be unhappy as well:
The Taipei Times contacted Tseng after it ran a letter on Monday from Canadian Paul Gallien, a high school teacher who visited Sun Moon Lake last week and was disturbed by a Falun Gong display he saw at one of the shoreline temples.
“Part of the display included very graphic images of dead bodies, including a pregnant woman with parts of her skin and flesh removed revealing an unborn child within the womb,” Gallien wrote.
[…]
Traveling with his two-year-old daughter and her five-year-old cousin, Gallien said he doubted the two youngsters “have necessary faculties to avoid being traumatized by such photographs.”
Even though I don't have children, I know where he's coming from. On the other hand, the Canadian government requires cigarette makers to print gruesome images on cigarette packs, in an effort to discourage people from smoking. 51 billion cigarettes sold yearly in Canada works out to . . . oh, I don't know HOW many packs. But it's a good bet Mr. Gallien's kids will come across at least some of these at grandpa's house or the neighbor's living room or even as litter on the side of the road.
(You oughtta see the anti-smoking warnings the Aussie government requires. Hope you're not eating when you take a gander at the gangrened foot.)
If governments mandate the printing of nasty photos to educate people on societal ills, they have absolutely no room to object when private individuals or organizations do likewise.
POSTSCRIPT: Personally, I'm of the notion that "The Lake of the Sun and the Moon" is whole lot more poetic than the Chinglishy "Sun Moon Lake."
UPDATE: Now, I guess I can't object if the Taiwanese government tries to REASON with the Falun Gong group about this. Certainly, if I was a member of that religion, I would have concerns that distasteful images might turn some observers against my cause. But if Falun Gong wants to run that risk, then that's their business.
UPDATE #2: Falun Gong displays grisly photos outside a provincial legislature in Mr. Gallien's home country. A few kids may have walked by, I dunno.
UPDATE #3: Falun Gong displays similar pictures on a shanty outside a Chinese consulate in Vancouver, B.C. for 7 or 8 years. On a public sidewalk.
(The mayor, under pressure from China, eventually got his way and had the hut dismantled. While the fate of the structure is being appealed, Falun Gong adherents are nonetheless still at liberty to protest AND DISPLAY THEIR PICTURES outside the consulate, minus their makeshift hut.)
All this is not to pick on Mr. Gallien, whom I sympathize with. I simply point out that Falun Gong is free to use graphic images in public places within Gallien's home country to protest China's ill treatment of their co-religionists.
So why should they not have that very same right in Taiwan as well?
UPDATE #4: Now that Taiwan's opened the door to the Chinese, we can probably expect opponents of the regime to be attacked by hired goons or mobsters, as was done in this case.
UPDATE (Apr 23/09): Wednesday's Taipei Times' editorial on the issue.
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Would The KMT Have Won Last Year’s Elections In Such A Big Way
. . . if they'd openly campaigned on a platform of turning Taiwan into Beijing's offshore brothel?
Somehow, I kinda doubt it. But as I was reading over the China Post's latest editorial supporting the-policy-Chinese-Nationalists-dared-not-speak-of-until-they-won-power, it struck me. Why, didn't the Post used to go on and on about how MORALLY-DEPRAVED Taiwan had become once the KMT had lost the presidency?
Yes, they did. So it's pretty entertaining to watch these self-appointed watchdogs of societal morality now cheerleading plans to legalize PROSTITUTION.
KMT Moots New Job-Creation Program
What, didn't you see this coming?
1) Record number of Chinese tourists in Taiwan
AsiaOne.com reports:
Daily tourist arrivals from China hit 4,600 [on March 22/09], according to the newspaper [the Economic Daily].
2) [KMT] Legislator proposes bill to decriminalize prostitution
Hey, a lot of average Joe Ho's love their ho's. And think of the damage to Sino-Taiwanese relations if some two-bit sheriff somewhere were to turn around and ARREST them for it !
Now the thing is, I'm actually pretty libertarian on prostitution and drug legalization issues. So ideologically-speaking, I ought to be applauding the KMT on this one.
But the timing is rather suspect. And just because I'm libertarian on this doesn't mean I can't be cynical about it as well.
UPDATE: I should note that Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party isn't all of one mind on the issue:
KMT Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said Cheng’s proposal was “controversial.” It would be unreasonable to seek to legalize the sex trade while, at the same time, the National Communications Commission was banning TV commercials that accentuated women’s breasts, he said.
THERE'S the problem in a nutshell. Too many KMT politicians are pro-China; too darn few of them are pro-Cleavage.
UPDATE #2: I understand the new tourism slogan will be, "Taiwan: Touch (A Lot More Than Just) Your Heart"
UPDATE #3: Heh. Some hardware geeks from Australia agree the Yao Yao and Shu Shu ads should be banned — not because they're exploitative of women, but because their voices are so annoying.
UPDATE #4: Another heh.
UPDATE #5: "Doctor, you forgot your calipers." The immortal scene from The Aviator.
No Way. Taiwanese Women Can’t Be That Stupid
Despite the tighter regulations, tobacco companies [in Taiwan] still market fruit-flavored cigarettes to young ladies to give the impression that smoking these cigarettes has the same health benefits as eating fruit , the anti-smoking group John Tung Foundation said.
"Many young ladies, perhaps because they are unable to consume enough servings of fruit, believe that by smoking peach [cigarettes], they are getting the same amount of nutrition as they would from a real peach,” said Lin Ching-li (林清麗), director of the foundation’s Tobacco Control Division. “This is completely wrong, but young ladies pass it on to each other and create this kind of misconception.” [emphasis added]
I'm essentially left with the choice of believing young women in Taiwan are really, REALLY dumb, or that an anti-smoking NGO is playing fast and loose with the facts. Think I prefer to go with #2, thank you very much.
“I Can’t Imagine Anything So Heartlessly Wickedly Cruel”
If memory serves, that's a line from Brideshead Revisited, when Lady Marchmain dresses down Charles Ryder for deliberately giving her alcoholic son money for drink.
A story about how a Taiwanese local government similarly subsidizes alcoholism, from Monday's China Post:
Thanks to the lucrative business of a distilling company, residents of [Taiwan's] offshore Kinmen County started getting their "KKL liquor vouchers" distributed by the county government yesterday.
Magistrate Lee Chu-feng said the "KKL liquor vouchers" — which allows each resident to get NT$3,600 [about $100 U.S.] worth of the products of Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor, Inc. (KKL) — are a bounty to all people living and working on the islets under the jurisdiction of the county government.
[. . .]
Magistrate Lee said 85,143 residents are entitled to the vouchers.
The fund comes from the profits of Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor, which is owned by the county government. [emphasis added]
Fortunately, the Kinmen county government doesn't own shares in the local heroin business. That they're willing to publicize, anyways.
A year or two back I went back to my home town, and was taken aback to see a liquor store RIGHT NEXT DOOR to a homeless shelter in the downtown. Now, I'm about as pro-capitalist as they come, but anybody who'd open a liquor store next to a homeless shelter has got a pretty black heart.
And that goes ditto for any government that does essentially the same thing.
UPDATE: I'm fairly certain I've misquoted Evelyn Waugh for the title. The "heartlessly wickedly cruel" part is right, though.
Bogus Hocus Pocus
This story's a few weeks old. Sure instills confidence in the Taiwanese legal system, doesn't it?
Owner of haunted Kaohsiung flat gets refund
A Tainan district court judge ruled Monday [that the buyer of a "haunted" apartment] could return the flat to the [previous] owner, who had to pay back all the money.
The owner told the judge she didn't know the house was haunted . . .
But the owner had guaranteed the house was not haunted.
"Because you guaranteed it," the judge told the owner, "you have to take responsibility."
So without any REAL evidence, a judge in Taiwan invalidated a legal real estate transaction, based upon the fiction that the apartment was "haunted".
Goodness, I'm going to have to give this a try sometime:
The Foreigner: Your honor, denizens from the spirit world have informed me that the wicked sorcerer Ma Ying-jeou has cast an evil spell upon the land, blighting this year's mango crop. I demand he be burned at the stake.
Taiwanese Judge: Okey-dokey.
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Hallowe’en Tips From The Foreigner
[Been very lethargic due to allergies or a throat infection or something for the last few weeks. Apologies for not posting sooner.]
Taipei has costumes for rent on Han Zhong Street in the Hsimending district. If you're in Taiwan and in the market for one, simply take Exit 1 from the Ximen MRT station. Han Zhong Street will be immediately in front of you as you step off the escalators. Unfortunately, there are no street signs visible from the side of the road you're on, but if you walk to the left, you'll quickly see a few costume shops on this side of the road. There are a couple across the street as well. You'll also see some dance shops, which rent ethnic dance costumes (Thai, Spanish, etc). That might do also, in a pinch.
The road dog-legs to the right a couple blocks down, and takes on a different street name. No costume shops along that road, I think — only dance wear shops.
One other thing: If you don't speak Mandarin, you might want to bring a note written by a Taiwanese friend explaining that you want to rent a costume. I did that last year, and it seemed to work out pretty well.
Street sign on the same side of the road as the MRT station:
One of the first shops you'll come to:
Young Elvis and Fat Elvis? Hah! Well, THIS costume reflects all those years in-between, when The King fought crime under the tutelage of a certain Dark Knight in Gotham city . . .
'Nother store:
One of the shops on the other side of the road:
A dance wear shop. OK, the one on the left is a Taiwanese aboriginal costume. But what country does the one on the right belong to?
For some reason, these costume shops don't sell pumpkins this time of year, but I bet they'd sell a few if they bothered to stock 'em. I
happened to pick up a large one at FE-21 in Taoyuan this year, though there
weren't many left. In Taipei, Jason's Supermarket in the basement of
Taipei 101 also had some, for about $300 NT each.
(Photos by The Foreigner)
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