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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Odds and Ends from the News

A Canadian teacher here lets everyone know that in Taiwan is paradise in a local Canadian newspaper.....

But it is not all bad here. The people are friendly and gentle, there is hardly any petty or violent crime, and the women love white men. It’s also pretty cheap to live here.

.............

That’s probably the biggest contradiction about this place. Although the laws appear oppressive, there’s actually more freedom here than in Canada, mostly because the police don’t do anything.

You can ride a motorcycle with nar licence nor helmet. You can go out and buy fast food, hundreds of varieties, at all hours of the night. You can drink beer on the street and there’s no problem.

Er...I'd like to thank our friend from the Frozen North for not reinforcing any stereotypes about white foreigners. Heh. On a more serious and reflective note, Taiwan's food situation is looking a bit dodgy, according to this commentary in the Taipei Times:

Taiwan’s food self-sufficiency rate is based mostly on rice and grains. But in the past 10 years the rate has fallen steadily from 55 percent down to 44.5 percent, and the rate for wheat and corn is less than 10 percent.

Although the self-sufficiency rate for meat is 72 percent, the rate for pork and beef is less than 10 percent, showing that food supply depends for a large part on imports, making it very susceptible to the global food crisis.

Faced with global food shortages and the long-term rise in prices, Taiwan should make a plan for putting some of its more than 220,000 hectares of unused farmland back into agricultural use. Also, it should use biotechnology to develop genetically modified crops that suit the country’s soil and climate in order to achieve a large-scale increase of crop production and reduce its dependency on imported food.

Currently, seafood is the fastest-growing source for animal protein. Raising fish is now even more profitable than raising pigs, sheep, cows or chickens.

China is asserting its claim to the areas around it by attempting to influence the way search engines and maps depict its colonial projects. As this report observes:

Many online services run into problems when they are introduced into new countries, and mapping services are no exception. Sensitive information, such as the location of certain government buildings or details on military bases, often show up in satellite view for the entire world to see. Those are just some of the things that Chinese officials are concerned about—a concern that has prompted an investigation into a number of mapping services, including Google Maps, in hopes of having the maps removed or altered.

China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping told Chinese-language paper the People's Daily that it—along with the Ministry of Industry and Information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Safety—had begun the investigation in April and will continue it through the end of the year. Bureau vice head Min Yiren said that, along with military secrets, the maps offered by these services do not offer correct representations of China's borders, according to the AFP.

Some of those supposedly inaccurate representations include how disputed territory—such as Taiwan, Spratlys and Paracels islands, and the Diaoyu Islands—are represented. (The mapping services place these territories outside of China's control, which China predictably takes issue with.) When it comes to military secrets, however, it's possible that China has accelerated its efforts to shut down mapping sites after catching wind that its nuclear sites are being actively monitored using these services. The Federation of American Scientists told Ars that it has been using Google Earth to locate Chinese nuclear silos for some time, and recently used satellite images to discover a ballistic missile submarine deployed in the South China Sea.

It's always been an uphill fight to get mapping services to depict Taiwan correctly, but with China's growing clout and our incoming President here who thinks we're part of China, things will only get tougher. The person who flipped me the piece observed that the newspapers did not point out that Google and other mapping systems typically have servers located outside of China, and need not kowtow.

Finally on tap is a piece from David Shambaugh on China's two types of nationalism, the Dr. Banner type and the Hulk type:

It is a nationalism that is cosmopolitan rather than insular and xenophobic. It is a nationalism of many (but not all) urbanites and intellectuals. It is a nationalism that is proud of China's newfound role in world affairs, its new status as a major power, its permanent membership on the UN Security Council, its prowess as the engine of global economic growth, its dramatic socio-economic transformation, its lifting of 200 million people out of absolute poverty, its contributions to addressing international "hot spot" problems like North Korea, and its role as an upholder of the international order.

This is the China the Olympics were supposed to celebrate. Instead, China risks squandering its credit through its nasty nationalism.


Option three, China's nationalism is that of an emerging hegemonic power that is aimed directly at displacing the US, is not on the Establishment table yet. That nationalism is embodied neither in protests nor the Olympics, but in the submarine base that it has completed on Hainan Island. Whether it emerges as a dominant strain remains to be seen, but China's territorial ambitions in the South China Sea are certainly provocative a force for stability.

16 comments:

  1. Yeah, it's pretty disgusting how American media stereotypes are so easily exported to other parts of the world like Taiwan too.

    But the US is changing. California and urban Northeast and many other places have more and more Asian American male--hot white girl pairings and there are just so many colored and mixed people, so much so that TV and Hollywood look so stupid to me. It's just way too white, or else they have one of the following token idiot stereotypes: chip on his shoulder smart black man, buffon black man, karate Asian man that doesn't have a gender (doesn't kiss, doesn't fuck, etc.), scientist/doctor Asian man, seductress Asian women, loud/annoying/fat black women.

    Yeah, I find the racism funny too.

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  2. Taiwan has its pluses and among them is health care. The trends in politics are just as variant it seems as here in the USA. Today we see that Mrs Clinton may duck out of the presidential race soon after her showings in North Carolina and Indiana primary results. Divergent opinion is and should be the hallmark of a functioning democracy. Her long time friends have started ditching her for Obama.

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  3. "and the women love white men"

    So that explains why its so hard for us Taiwanese guys to get a date around here. Michael, this is certainly not directed towards you personally, but one of the things that I am thankful for to all the white bachelors here is that you tend to be less discriminating than native Taiwanese in evaluating Taiwanese women.
    By the way, I've long since given up on trying to figure out why you white guys and us Taiwanese guys view Asian women so differently in light of the research that indicates there are certain universal traits of physical attractiveness.

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  4. As for putting Taiwan's unused farmland to use, that an environmentalist's dilemma. Do we use to grow more food, thereby reducing the food miles of imports, or do we use it for reforestation (which is what's been happening, albeit on a small scale), which captures carbon?

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  5. ..us Taiwanese guys view Asian women so differently in light of the research that indicates there are certain universal traits of physical attractiveness

    Ha, ha...what a crock of shit. Believe this is you want if it makes you feel good.

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  6. About the stereotypes of white people that this one Canadian teacher represents, I have to say that there is a good reason for them.

    Although Taiwan's economy is not in the gutter, and unemployment is relatively low, there still remains a poor market for professional foreigners. I can only imagine that this is because so many foreign corporations have long since relocated their regional offices to China, leaving satellite offices in Taiwan. Since professional foreigners are more likely to be found at the regional offices of foreign corporations, the whole professional expatriate group that is visible in Shanghai and Hong Kong is not really well defined in Taiwan. Once again, I am guessing.

    This means that the white population is overwhelmingly made up of young English teachers who have no plans on staying in Taiwan in the long term, and couldn't find a better job if they wanted to, unless their Mandarin really is fluent. I left for employment reasons. Although I can speak conversationally, I am not good enough in Mandarin to truly compete in Taiwan. I looked for a job for a year. Nothing materialised.

    In the 2.5 years that I was in Taipei, I met very few white people who were professionals, and those that I met did not go out as much as the teachers, making them less visible.

    So despite the chortle that I let out upon reading this buffoon's comment, I can see how such a stereotype could exist. Taiwan just does have a higher percentage of young, beer-guzzling, womanising, loud, pill-popping, mary-jane-familiar whities.

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  7. "and the women love white men"

    Taiwanese girls are very selective if choosing a Taiwanese male but will will expand their criteria when selecting a western male.

    A green card has strong sex appeal.

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  8. Hello, I am trying to find someone who knows something about international schools in Hsinchu. I am contemplating a move in the area but I need to know something more about the international schools in the area aside from just the websites. Can you give me a recommendation or a person to contact? All the best.

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  9. Great descriptive writing skills Reg Porter: "Taiwan is an interesting little island off the coast of China." And here I'd been thinking of China as a country off the coast of Taiwan all these years...

    I'm not sure what to make of the "and Taiwanese girls love white guys" statement. Although that's evidently true (and not racist), I have to wonder why Porter would choose to highlight this in a short "introduction to Taiwan" piece. In fact, I wonder what the white female readership of the Independent thought of this comment.

    Conclusion: very poor writing from yet another suspicious expat in Taiwan.

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  10. Four words to remember when making statements about people and groups of people you don't know... and this goes for words like Western,Chinese, Taiwanese We,Them,You Eastern, Asian etc... :

    Assumptions Loaded With Stereotypes

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  11. Mormoni story

    Scott said Powell had done a two-year stint as a ****Mormon missionary**** in Colombia at his own expense before joining the Air Force.

    could it happen in Taiwan?

    mormonbuster asks

    TODAY NEWS

    ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A man who was supposed to be returning divorce papers at a courthouse pulled out a gun instead Wednesday, opening fire in the lobby before two bailiffs fatally shot him.


    Glen Lee Powell is wheeled out of the Pinellas County courthouse after being shot. He died at a hospital.

    1 of 2 Several people were in the lobby at the time, but only one -- a bailiff, who was shot in the shoulder -- was injured. He was treated and released from a hospital.

    Glen Lee Powell, 30, entered the courthouse wearing a backpack shortly after 1 p.m. and approached a security checkpoint. A deputy ordered him to remove the pack and place it on a conveyor belt, but instead, he threw it on the ground and opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun, Pinellas County Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner said.

    Deputies B.J. Lyons and Marvin Glover returned fire, seriously wounding Powell, who later died at a St. Petersburg hospital. Lyons, a 58-year-old firearms instructor, was wounded.

    A representative speaking for Powell's family said he had been living with his parents after returning from duty in the Air Force in California.

    Bishop David Scott of the Brandon ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which Powell attended, said Powell was returning divorce papers due at the courthouse Wednesday.

    Detectives were working to determine a motive, Bordner said. He said Powell's wife is safe and had been notified of his death.

    Scott said the man's parents did not know he had a gun and had no indication Powell was troubled.

    "They weren't aware that he was contemplating this," Scott said. "We don't really understand why it happened."

    He added that Powell hadn't been upset about the divorce.

    Scott said Powell had done a two-year stint as a Mormon missionary in Colombia at his own expense before joining the Air Force.

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  12. I am confused about the point of that comment.

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  13. I was going to post something about the few douche bag comments, but I'll submit this recent ebay find instead:

    Taiwan Beer 4 liter bucket

    Seller is in Taichung. Cost is US$50.

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  14. You will notice the Mormons never take Taiwanese wives. Yet, of the foreigners residing in Taiwan, they are at least fluent in Mandarin. I suspect this holds true for other cultures and races they try to foist their religious doctrine on. It is a racist sect.

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  15. I think the average white guy has the same tastes as the average Taiwanese dude, but the white guy with an Asian fetish (eh-hum... um... nevermind, there's no politically correct way of saying it)... well, he's a totally different kind of animal.

    He typically likes Asian women with dragonlady eyes or generally doesn't seem to be able to tell attractive from unattractive. But this all makes sense, right? Once a thing is fetishized, you can't explain why the thing is so attractive, it just is.

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  16. Horrific article from the Maritimes. I'm now ashamed to have that blood coursing through my veins.

    Of all the doltish comments, my favorite pick is where he comments on the fact that there's little crime, then goes on to detail how he flouts the law himself.

    I also am amazed at how he's managed to have been cheated by "dozens" of employers.

    Clearly there a card short of a full deck here.

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