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Why did English Tsai lose the election?

17 Jan

I must admit, Apple Daily never ceases to amuse me with its cartoonish depictions of real life.

That’s the big question right now. Everyone wants to know. Was it her lack of a clear China policy? Was she not strong enough on the economy?

Well, I’ll tell ya what. I knew she wasn’t going to win.

How did I know, you ask? Simple.

I went out to lunch on election day here in Tainan. I was craving a burger, so I stopped by this little shop near the university. And, what, praytell, did I see transpire?

This.

Really? Gloves?

People wearing plastic gloves to eat burgers and fries. Shocking.

I kind of felt it, deep down, right then. Like, this is not a good sign for Taiwan. Here it is 2012, and everyone is trying to ignore the looming apocalypse, and then you got these nutters.

And it wasn’t just this couple. Oh, no. The whole shop. Everyone. They were given me the big eye for refusing to put mine on. I still don’t get it. You don’t see people doing this at McDonald’s. There was a bathroom. So, what, was the meat radioactive or something? What were the gloves going to really do here?

For shame, Taiwan. For shame.

 

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62hrs ’til Taiwan’s presidential election: DPP deception!

11 Jan

Wow. Real curve ball, here! It hasn’t shaken my support of the DPP or my faith in Tsai Ying-wen’s (蔡英文) presidential ability, but…

Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) completely fooled me into thinking she might be cute with this campaign poster!It’s been up for months right outside my apartment, and, ya know, puts a smile on my face every morning on the way to work. Like, look at this team of ladies! Now that’s something I can endorse, beauty and brains! Boom!

Turns out, it’s yet another case of the dreaded “Great campaign photo/Not-so-great Google search” (shaking my head). Nooooo!

I mean, as a citizen of Tainan, she still gets my vote. I haven’t seen any sure-fire Palins rolling out on the KMT ticket, so Chen’s vote is safe with me. Plus, I kinda dig the fact that she used to be in television. It’s as if she took my exact career path, except actually accomplished everything I ever wanted to achieve.

But even after all this, and in true Taiwanese political spirit, I’ll still give her a patented fist-pump!

 

P.S. Does this post totally kill my Taiwanese political credibility???

 

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More women, less marriage, less children– and this is bad?

16 Nov

"I want do I like thing!" Roger that.

Women now slightly outnumber men in Taiwan– 50.3 to 49.7 percent–according to its latest census.

The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) points to an uptick in foreign brides and an assumption that it is easier for Taiwanese men to move abroad permanently.

I’m not so sure I really buy those arguments. They strike me as a little chauvinist, but they’re not what really caught my attention here anyway…

The census, which is now taken once every 10 years, also showed that the numbers of those divorced, separated and unmarried have all increased over the last decade, the DGBAS noted.

“For those aged 15 or above, there were 1.05 million people who were either divorced or separated, 549,000 more than 10 years ago,” said the DGBAS.

The percentage of unmarried people for those between 25 and 29 has surged from 57.7 percent to 73.5 percent, and for those between 30 and 34 from 27.8 percent to 41.1 percent, according to the DGBAS.

The figures also show that, unsurprisingly, the number of young children is down and families have shrunk. Meanwhile, the number of elderly has skyrocketed almost 400%.

Now, I know I’m on the other side of the line on this one. Most people here these numbers and panic– Collapse of traditional values! No respect for the institution of marriage! No taxable labor force to support the elderly!

Well, not I. I’m encouraged by these numbers!

It sounds to me like rising equality for women, more opportunity for them in the work force, more respect for them as individuals, more respect for their choices in family planning.

It sounds to me like more reasonable population growth, less long-term stress on government social services, opportunity to improve existing social institutions like education and health care.

And, yes, of course, it also sounds like more single women, putting off marriage, and ignoring the “biological clock” bullshit.

And I like that, too.

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Taiwan OK’s Red-Light Districts

9 Nov

The times, they are a changin’, my friends. “Sex zones” are now legal here in Taiwan.

The amendment to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), went into effect today. Here is how the story read in the Taipei Times:

Although a legal amendment allowing local governments to set up red-light districts went into effect on Sunday, as of yesterday, no local authority had expressed willingness to designate special areas for the sex trade, meaning it is [still] illegal for anyone in the country to buy or sell sex.

The purpose of this amendment was to recognize that prostitution exists and, I assume, to provide a bit or legal protection to the women and men involved in it.

Well, hallelujah.

Honestly, resistance to the (limited) legalization of prostitution has always baffled me. I mean, who besides nutso Christians really is against protecting the women and men involved? And, don’t get it twisted. This is exactly what we are talking about here. To believe that prostitution doesn’t exist right in your backyard, or that it can somehow be legally outlawed and enforced into oblivion is just pure lunacy.

People like sex. People need money. Simple as that.

It only makes sense that the government regulates this, just as they should bars, and casinos, and race tracks, etc. You need to have some sort of rational legal framework in which those involved can be protected or prosecuted.

You can drink at a bar, but you can’t drive home drunk. You can gamble at a casino, but you can’t count cards. You can race around in a circle, but… well, you get my point.

And don’t try to turn this all around on me like I am supporting kidnapping young girls from the countryside in Cambodia and shipping them around the world. More rational legislation and regulation of the sex trade is exactly how less and less of those horror stories will occur.

Anyway, weirdest part of this story…

Police in New Taipei City (新北市) yesterday reported the first violation of the new law, in which a man and a woman were fined NT$1,500 each for engaging in illegal sex in a backroom inside a tea shop.

What!? I mean, this seems like a story unto itself, if you ask me– just leaves me with so many questions. Like, how did the police bust these two? Was there really money involved? Was it just some boyfriend and girlfriend who got narc’d on? Who narc’d? Why was the fine so low? And are the really tea stand brothels in Taiwan???

 

 

 

 

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New Wikileaks cables highlight PRC v. ROC “No-Consensus Consensus”

8 Sep

To-may-to. To-mah-to. If you enjoying reading infuriatingly obfuscated political speak, you need to be following this Wikileaks/’92 Consensus story:

While President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has reiterated that the so-called “1992 consensus” was reached by Taiwan and China in 1992 to the effect that each side recognizes “one China, with each side having its own interpretation,” US cables recently released by WikiLeaks show that Chinese officials and academics clearly have a different understanding on what constitutes the “consensus.”

So, here’s how I see this– and I could be totally wrong. If I am, feel free to set me straight. But it goes something like this…

Way back in 1992, the PRC and ROC got together for a cross-strait chat. Both sides made their points, and it ended in the PRC basically telling the ROC to go fly a kite.

The KMT came out of this, hoping not to lose face politically, twisting it into a half-win. “Hey guys, no, don’t worry, we got this. Yeah, they’re cool, ya know, we just said, ‘Yeah, you got your story. We’ve got ours,’ but everything is cool.”

This lunacy was further wrenched, wringing out the obvious truth, into a nice, dry political buzz word: “the 1992 Consensus”– a.k.a. “The No-Consensus Consensus.”

Because, as far as China is concerned, then and now, there is nothing to discuss: There is one China. It is controlled and governed by the PRC. Taiwan is a province of that country. The PRC is allowing a local government of that province to play some meaningless game of political charades before it all ends in an ultimate unification.

Taiwan is the little grandchild tugging on Grandpa China’s pantleg. Sort of annoying, but he’s just letting it slide because, hey, it’s family, and he’s got a lot invested in it carrying on the bloodline.

That’s how China sees it. There is no agree-to-disagree here. It’s a “disagree-to-agree-to-disagree.” See how that works?

President Ma and the KMT keep hammering this “1992 Consensus” line like a whack-a-mole game, and I just don’t get it. First of all, how has this been spun as consensus? Or an accomplishment? Or a legit policy stance?

Do I think either party in Taiwan has a much stronger leg to stand on? Eh, not really. But this whole “consensus” mumbojumbo is for the birds.

Yeah, the PRC kind of has the ROC by the balls here. But hey, that’s what happens when you lose a civil war in a continent-sized country and retreat to a tiny little island. The window to announce independence probably closed in the early 1970s.

What can be done now? Well, hopefully something a little more creative and constructive than basing the most important policy you have on agreeing to disagree, and not even really at that.

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