the jimmymac attack!

I like Jackie Chan movies such as Rush Hour. He is a funny and talented guy. But my opinion of him took a jump in admiration recently. He said he would not visit Taiwan for four years because his presence would probably cause a disturbance at the airport. I'm sure it would. Some time back he said the last Taiwanese election was a joke. Now recently there's been calls in Taiwan to boycott his movies. In Taiwan if you're not for them you are against them. So they do not like Jackie now. This is despite the fact that he's done a lot of things for Taiwan and in Taiwan. He even married a Taiwanese woman! But here it is always, "what have you done for me lately". The day this news was in the paper there was another item on the same page. Some Taiwanese politicians were in Geneva to attend World Health organization meetings. Politicians would always rather fly to far off places than work in their offices. Two female Taiwanese politicians had a fight in Geneva and one slapped the other! Wow! Now why wouldn't WHO take Taiwan seriously and make them an official member? While at the Health organization meeting one bitch slaps the other over some perceived insult. So they returned to Taiwan and one is suing the other. That is Taiwan. Jackie is right. Better stay away for a few years. Maybe they'll get their frustration and aggression out and grow up.

I go to eat at the Banqiao night market often. Not because it is a great place to go but because it is only ten minutes walk from my apartment. If it was a pond or stream it would be a cesspool. It is a dirty, smelly, ugly place. Taipei has many night markets. It's very odd that in Taipei they call them, 'Tourist Night Markets'. 99.9% of the customers are local people. They are wonderful, interesting places to visit and shop and eat. They are mostly pedestrian shopping areas where cars and the ubiquitous motorcycles are not even allowed. However in Pan-chiao the market is plagued by the motorcycles. Imagine a shopping mall crowded with people where motor scooters are allowed to drive through. That is what it is like. In a very busy crowded place one must always step aside so the lazy, selfish motorcycle riders can drive through. They even drive right up to stalls to buy something without even getting off the bikes. And of course they are noisy and spouting fumes as well. It is madness.
Also at the Panciao night market garbage cans are few and far between. Litter is often just thrown on the ground. I do not like to litter but I sometimes just drop garbage on the ground while I am sitting in an 'outdoor restaurant'. Why? Because if I put it on the table the wind will soon blow it on to the ground anyway. And the staff don't seem to care about coming to pick it up. I stopped going to my favorite place in the Banqiao night market because it just got too disgusting. The 'restaurants' are mostly just folding tables with little cheap plastic stools to sit on. My favorite place had food that actually tasted good but when they hired a kid with very dirty hands to serve the food I could not take it any more. It was bad enough when someone would serve with a cigarette in their mouth. But you cannot say Banchiao has no character! and characters!
ps, I have deliberately spelled Banqiao in different ways. When in Rome do as the Romans do. In Taiwan they spell it many ways so I'm doing the same to show you. It's not four or five different places - its one place with five different ways to spell it. Even on a map you might see it spelled two different ways on the same map! What a place! New York, New York is so nice they named it twice. Banqiao, Banchiao, Banciao, Pan-chiao, Panciao is so mad they had to name it five times.

Everywhere things are done differently. It makes the world interesting and exciting. What is normal in one place is not normal somewhere else. I come from Toronto, Canada and things are done differently there from Taipei, Taiwan. For example in Toronto the police will put on their sirens and flashing red lights when they are chasing someone or stop a vehicle on the side of the road. So for me this is normal. In Taipei the police drive around all the time with their flashing red lights on. I do not know why. It does not make sense. It is very much like the boy crying wolf. What do they do when there is a real emergency? What do they do? One day I saw a car go by obviously speeding on a city street. Behind it was a police car which was obviously chasing the speeder. And the police car had his flashing red lights off. So this is normal in Taipei. The complete opposite of Toronto. I do not know why or understand it. Is it madness?

Then there are the garbage trucks. Big dirty, smelly trucks like in most places. What is the difference? In Taipei they play music. The trucks go around playing music like a good humor ice cream truck in America. In America kids would be running out for ice cream. In Taipei it is the signal to bring out your garbage. They play tunes like edelweiss as they make their way along the street. In a way it is brilliant. People bring out their garbage and throw it in the back of the trucks. It's brilliant.

And finally the buses. I ride the buses often. They run very frequently and are a good way to get around. On the other hand many are past their prime. Yesterday I sat down and the seat almost tipped over. It was missing a vital bolt required to hold it down. There's always something shaking and rattling on the buses. And the drivers are often very wild. Some will drive not just like a car but even like a motorcycle driver. It's not unusual for a bus driver to weave in and out of traffic. Within one block they will go from the curb lane to the passing lane and cross three lanes to go back to the curb lane. It's madness.

In Taiwan I've been slowly learning mandarin Chinese. It is very interesting and challenging. I can say some basic things after one year. Progress is slow and painful but I think this is normal. I also teach English so I know how slow and difficult the learning process can be. Sometimes I look at and think about children and how they learn. I would love to be able to speak Chinese as well as an average five to ten year old. It seems one problem adult learners have is unreal expectations. They seem to think that in one or two years they should be fluent in English. And this is doing only a few hours of study a week. Children spend hours and hours every day for years repeating and repeating. Adults do not want to spend the time. And they skip steps. Before learning the basics they want to learn advanced grammar. I've seen so many students agonize over the present perfect tense when they cannot even use present simple properly.

I've been in Taipei, Taiwan for one year. It has been an amazing experience. Many Taiwanese people ask me how I like it. My standard answer now is 'the people are nice and the food is delicious'. Most people do not want to hear my comments about their politics or other criticism so it's best to just say nice things. If they care I will go on. One of the first things a foreigner learns here is the different ways they have to convert Chinese to English. There are not just 2 or 3 ways to do this. They actually have about 4 or 5 ways to do it. China with 1.3 billion people has settled on the pinyin system as the one and only way to translate Chinese into English. Taiwan with 23 million people cannot simplify things. But that is typical of Taiwan. If some people want something 1/2 the population will disagree just out of spite. So I live in Banqiao or Banchiao or Ban-Chiao... and I really don't care if there are other ways to spell it. I choose to use the pinyin system. It's a sensible system and if over 1 billion people are using it I'll go with the majority. Thank goodness some people here are also using it. Significantly the City of Taipei and their MRT (subway) system are using pinyin. There is hope they will get organised one day. However the post office officially uses another system. This is no small thing when you consider the mail is one of the major forms of communication that relies on accurate written instructions. My first 6 months and several attempts to send and receive mail were very frustrating. Some mail I anxiously expected never arrived. Now I have given up on the post office here and seldom send any mail at all. Telephone and e mail are dependable and I don't really need to send anything.

I can be rather critical and judgmental. I am saying this from the beginning because comments I make could offend some people. I apologize in advance. However there are certain pluses to being critical. If everyone accepted all things without question there would never be any change or improvements. The world is far from perfect and sometimes it's necessary to point out where things are wrong or could be improved. I came by this trait from my mother I believe. She was also critical and judgmental. It is a deep rooted habit and an integral part of my personality. I'd like readers to be aware of it and please don't be too upset if I criticize your country or company or favorite whatever...