OPD Redux

By Gregory K. Taylor

The Oakland Police Department, once the bellwether of policing has now been reduced to an agency that is so hamstrung that it can't, with any consistency, carry out many of its designed duties or get out of its own way. When I hired on, the OPD (with the aid of Federal Funds) was a bastion of technological prowess that stood head and shoulders above most, if not all, California Police Agencies--and that includes the touted LAPD.

We were one of three agencies, and the only one in the state of California, that had in-vehicle Computers (Albany, N.Y. and Kansas City, MO., the other two) called Digicom—the forerunner of today's police computers.   Argus, our helicopter before it was named that, was so valuable to the beat officer that fleeing suspects often surrendered to its spotlight. The long foot chase became a few fence hops followed by the surrender of a totally befuddled bad guy. We were always on the cutting edge of police technology.  I remember sitting in a new tricked out, high-tech police car thinking I had just entered a NASA space capsule; from the overhead console with an array of alert buttons, to the Digital computer, to the newly installed electronic siren with yelp, and yes, finally our first rudimentary light bar.

Now, I hear stories of Highway Patrol and Sheriff's officers handling calls for service in Oakland. Unheard of during my tenure. The deepest a CHP officer would venture into Oakland was to get a bite to eat, and an ACSO officer, if he wasn't serving an eviction notice, he would be sitting at a desk in a courtroom or monitoring a prisoner in a Jail cell. The murder rate was just as high setting records then too. The strength of the department, as best I can remember, never exceeded 715 sworn members--if it ever got that high.

So, what went wrong? Are these the death throes of a dying department? I don't know where the blame lies, perhaps, with us all. The election of an accidental mayor (ranked-choice voting) has only aggravated the situation.   Maybe, the previous years of questionable and some downright bad behavior might be catching up to the department.  Whatever the reason, I am disheartened to see a once proud agency that “knew how,” now asking, “how to” and lamenting, “how come?”

This is China

By Gregory K. Taylor

About 20 years ago, I was catching a train to leave Bordeaux, France. At that time smoking was quite pervasive in the country, so I specifically requested a nonsmoking car. Once I boarded the caboose (the designated no smoking car) and took my seat it was obvious that I wasn't alone in my desire for a, now packed to the rafters, no smoking car--or so I thought. Leaning back and adjusting my seat to a comfortable position, I waited for the train to depart the station. Slowly the locomotive lurched forward as each car's coupling took up the slack and like the little engine that could we began to move forward.

To my utter shock and dismay almost the moment when the train began to move 90% of the passengers LIT UP! Cigarette smoke billowed upwards throughout the interior of the rail car blurring the placards that read in both French and English--NO SMOKING. Now slack jawed and bemused, I became painfully aware that the no smoking car I had requested, by sheer volume of smokers, was now a de facto smoking car and there wasn't anything I could do about it. After my gasping, burning, itchy-eye trip came to a merciless end in Paris, I complained to a station official about the smoking “nonsmoking” car. His response with a slight shrug of the shoulders was, “this is France.”
 

March 2013, I was in Shenzhen, China eating at a Hotel restaurant located in “San Lian” village. I would rate the Hotel about 4 or 5 stars that catered mainly to the Chinese. During my week stay there I saw no other foreigner in the entire village. So, as I ate at the 4^th floor restaurant, which incidentally had excellent Chinese cuisine, I observed the ubiquitous No Smoking placards affixed to several structural pillars throughout. Approximately half way through my meal I could smell cigarette smoke. As I looked around for the culprit, I observed a table full of men smoking and eating. I looked at them inhaling and exhaling smoke, I looked at the plethora of No Smoking signs, and I then looked at the serving staff. I had a visibly annoyed look on my face as I asked my dining companion and a waiting staff member about the smoking “no smoking” restaurant. Is there or isn't there suppose to be no smoking in this restaurant? Both agreed that there should be no smoking in the restaurant. So, of course, I asked then why was smoking permitted. With a slight shrug of their collective shoulders their response was, “this is China.”

                                           The Three Screams of the Mouse

                                             三吱兒，三叫鼠，老鼠三叫

You've heard of the "Three Blind Mice" now learn about the "Three Screams of the Mouse."  In the southern part of China, namely Guangdong (aka Canton), from which the first Chinese immigrated to the west coast of California, there exists a culinary reputation for the mysterious and exotic. I've been told (by the Chinese themselves) that the Chinese will eat anything that walks, crawls, swims, or flies.

 I have seen the 狗商店 dog meat shops in the northern part of China, I have seen a nervous monkey chained atop a table outside a restaurant in the alleys of Beijing, and I have seen the snake aquariums, from which the blood is extracted and consumed (sanguivorous) for its purported virile affects on the male libido, front and center in restaurant display windows. The method and cruelty in which the monkey's brain is eaten is legendary illustrated by the liberal application of sauces and spices to the exposed noodle (excuse the pun) while the monkey is left dangling alive attached to the center of the dining table. Questions abound to the gastronomy and appetite of any carnivore for such a delicacy. However, not to be outdone, due to the proximity of Shenzhen and Guangdong, I was informed about a practice of eating live mice loosely called, "the three screams of the mouse."

The mice are usually newly born with no hair on the skin. The first scream is heard when the mouse is grabbed with the chopped stick's pincer action, the second scream is heard when the mouse is dipped in a sauce, and the third and final scream is heard when the mouse is placed in the mouth and chewed. Thus, “the three screams of the mouse.”

I have long since stopped being judgmental about the gastronomical peculiarities of a people. One man's meat is another man's poison. Slitting the throat of a chicken and hanging it upside down for the blood to drain or wringing its neck is, I guess, considered to be more humane. However, I must admit to a personal aversion of eating something while it is still alive and kicking. I'm just saying.....


Gregory K. Taylor is currently in Shenzhen, China

Django Unchained, Flight, and Skyfall—I've Seen Them All In Taiwan for Free!

By Gregory K. Taylor

As I prepare to hibernate for the upcoming nine day Chinese Spring Festival, I am making my list of movies I will be watching to wile the time away. Virtually everything will be shut down from grocery stores, gyms, and food stands. Taipei, the bustling capitol of Taiwan, will be from the 9^th to the 18^th of February, 2013, a ghost town. The proverbial shoot a cannonball through the center of town without danger of hitting anyone. This can be a lonely time for a foreigner. I've experienced it before and there is just nothing to do during this time—sheer boredom. All the Chinese will, ritualistically, be celebrating the holidays at family gatherings leaving us foreigners to ourselves.

Ghost Town in northern China

First, I will be flying to Hong Kong on the 9th for my passport run—formerly Visa run. Since November of 2012, Americans no longer need a Visa to visit Taiwan. The reciprocal Visa Exemption Program allows for a 90 day stay on any one entry. If one wishes to stay longer than the 90 days they must leave the country and then come back—usually accomplished by a quick flight to Hong Kong.

Once I return, I will have to be self-sufficient for the next week plus two days and fight inactivity by reading, writing, hopefully exercising, and watching movies. And, not just any movies, but the most recently released movies. I'm not talking about third generation rip-offs either where the quality is hardly worth watching. I'm talking about High Definition first generation quality.

When I came to Taiwan I brought with me several DVDs to watch, so I could get a taste of home every now and then for the times when Chinese language TV starts to drive me a little crazy. My Chinese friend looked at my stack of DVDs and asked why I brought them because, according to him, no one watches DVDs anymore. What did he mean no one watches DVDs anymore? Why of course they do and that's why I brought mine! A day or two later he uploaded a program called “Funshion” from an internet site easily found through a Google search to my computer. I was told this was a site out of mainland China that provides Chinese, European, and American movies. 

While America was debating the merits of Django Unchained , I typed in the title, waited for the green light (you will understand this once you use the site), and began to watch the movie. In fact, I've watched the movie a couple of times. I've also watched the Denzel Washington movie “Flight.” I have been able to watch many cable TV series, such as, Boardwalk, The Last Resort, The Walking Dead, and Hell on Wheels to name a few. And when I get a bit nostalgic, I spin up classics like, Ben Hur, Spartacus, and From Here to Eternity.  Funshion's library appears to be limitless.

Funshion main page

I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of how the Chinese do it, but they have, in the past, been the masters at intellectual property theft.  I've asked around about this website and it has been suggested that there might be some tacit agreement between Hollywood and China as it relates to copyright issues.  That is to say, this must be another revenue source for Hollywood under the principle of if you can't root it out or control it, then get some revenue from it—something of something is better than nothing of something. Whatever the reasons are for this site, I must admit it really brings a piece of home to my doorstep over here. If one watches American movies plus cable TV programming distance becomes just a state of mind.

Not every movie "Funshion" lists is available for viewing. I've concluded once a movie has been given Chinese subtitles it then gets the green light for public consumption.

If Youtube has you blocked in America, I uploaded another version at:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtANrMc1dzA&feature=share

www.funshion.com

The Curious Case of Policing in Taiwan

 By Gregory K. Taylor

Taiwan police have a unique way of catching criminals--by letting them know they are coming! While not actually tipping them off in the literal sense, they might as well, because the effect is the same.

To the foreign observer, the patrol procedures employed by the uniformed police can be a bit puzzling, if not confusing, considering the peculiar practice of patrolling with constantly activated emergency lights. It would seem that this practice of nonstop red and blue rotating lights emanating from the rooftop light bar doesn't lend itself to pulling over vehicle code violators or clearing traffic ahead--but merely assists the law breaker by providing a beacon in which to zero in on. Essentially, this negates any action to catch the bad guy in the commission of his crime. Were the perpetrator to pay only casual attention to his environment, he would have enough lead time to make good his escape.

Taiwan Police Officer in Dan Shui District

Notwithstanding, preventive patrol strategies whose purpose is to prevent crime before it occurs, decrease police response time, and interrupt in progress crimes, the general patrol method of choice is to make police presence known, but not exactly where. That is to say, the purpose is to scare off the bad guy before he commits the crime by inferring omnipresence, but not to tip him off once he has decided and is in the process of committing the crime. It would be considered ineffective police work in most jurisdictions to cruise through a neighborhood with red and blue lights flashing in a less than urgent situation. To do so takes an arrow out of one's enforcement quiver.

Taiwan also has a, well...unusually loose attitude towards law enforcement impersonators. An article written in the OZSOAPBOX Blog, titled, “Impersonating police isn’t illegal in Taiwan?” dated the 25^th of May, 2012, listed the following in its comment and response section:

This is a civilian car, not an actual police car

“I know a foreign guy down in Hualien who likes to impersonate a police officer from time to time and direct traffic. He’s been beaten up in the process at least once while 'in uniform.'”

“You certainly seem at first to be highly misinformed.
To my knowledge,
1) I am the only foreigner here in Hualien with a full Taiwanese police uniform. And, I teach at the police station.
2) I have only worn it once, and that was to a costume party on Halloween Night.
3) I have donned my “Volunteer Police” hat on a few occasions in order to direct traffic around an accident scene until the proper assistance arrived.
4) I have never been beaten up while wearing ANY uniform, nor while assisting during an emergency.
I must conclude you are either:
A) A complete idiot.
B) Anti-police, because you are a dope-smoking criminal at heart.
C) Referring to someone else.”

Another civilian car, not a real police car

If the above comments don't find you catatonically slack-jawed perhaps the accompanying photos of civilian cars decked out in full police regalia, minus the light bar, will.

This writer has never seen in all the years of coming to Taiwan the police conducting one car stop--only sobriety check point pullovers. If in the rare instance that a car stop drops in the police officer's lap the method for pulling the violator over is by using, yes, you've guessed it—the Public Address (PA) system, because the light bar has been rendered useless for any other purpose than to inform the citizenry that the police are on duty. Trying to make sense of this can give one a headache. However, it clearly works here in Taiwan and the fact that they have a low crime rate...how does one argue with that?

A Nasty Little Habit--Betel Nut

 By Gregory K. Taylor

Found in nature's holistic cabinet of pain relief are plant based medicines that are often abused for their satisfying endorphin rush. During the 1993 U.S. incursion known as “Operation Restore Hope” and the resultant Black Hawk Down calamity, America, if not the world, became aware of a plant called Khat being chewed by the local Somali militia. Decreed by segments of the western media to be a causative factor in the Somali's bravado to fight--this amphetamine-like stimulant induces euphoria and mild addiction.

Betel Nut Beauty

Similarly, the Areca nut, aka betel nut, which hails from parts of the equatorial Pacific, Asia, and slices of east Africa is chewed in much the same manner as Khat. In Vietnam, the Betel nut is so interwoven into society's social fabric that it has come to symbolize an integral part of love and marriage. Malaysian tradition offers areca nuts and betel leaves in the same manner one offers drinks to a house guest. The Areca nut is wrapped in Betel leaves with an edible lime spread (the secret sauce--if you will) and chewed mixing with the mouth's saliva forming a stimulating red chemical reaction. The red saliva is then expelled not swallowed.

Areca Nut wrapped in Betel Leaves

Streets discolored with spittle can tell as persuasive a story about a people as pictures of hieroglyphic etchings. Not immune to such practices, turn of the century America found snuff dipping and smokeless tobacco in vogue witnessed by its dotted-spattered streets. In Taiwan, so common is the ingestion of the Areca nut one can hardly walk a block without spotting a Bin Lang, 檳榔 (betel nut), outlet from the “Mom and Pop” stand to the competitive scantily clad “Betel Nut Beauty” beckoning her customers to buy from her with the lure of sexual innuendo.

Red-stained teeth

Countless scooter riders and automobiles pull to the side of the road at these outlets to make their purchases as convenient as drive-thru customers buy fast food. The Betel plant is commonly bought by the bag ranging from 20 to 40 or 50 to 80 nuts. Widely popular among taxi drivers, truck drivers, and fishermen whose long work hours require them to remain awake and alert--the abuser is easily spotted and tracked by their red-stained teeth and trail of red spittle leading to their doorstep.

Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25mpTLoxE0U

Gregory Taylor is currently in Taiwan

Vignettes of a Foreigner in a Foreign Land

By Gregory K. Taylor

Hair fashions:

Student happily poses for photo while riding Taiwan's MRT

The swirl/swish hairstyle

 The Beatles were the first to introduce to the “modern world” the revolutionary hairstyle known as the Mop Top. There have been several incarnations of this thematic coif by subsequent generations from the Gen X'ers' spiked mohawk to the Hip Hop'ers' fade. Often the hallmarks of the free-spirit found in most western cultures, these hairstyles make an independent and political statement of identity for the wearer . As for the more lockstep toe the line political systems, until recently, expressions of individuality were routinely discouraged when it came to one's outward appearance—but even that is changing. Dateline Taiwan: Hair expressions of the latest school-age generation.  Beauty is truly in the eye of the current generation.

Baton wielding Taiwanese:

I think he intended to thump me with his baton !!  This year, I have been driving for the first time in Taiwan which I always avoided in my previous visits. The reasons are many, but my main hesitation has been due to the ubiquitous motor scooters scooting in and out of traffic often passing on both sides of cars in a haphazard manner. So, with a degree of humility, I ventured into Taiwan's free-for-all traffic and as advertised I was immediately beset on all sides by these scooters like drones around a Queen bee. After a few days of this apprenticeship boot camp, I began to feel a level of satisfaction, if not smugness, with my ability to adapt in a chaotic environment.

Location of the baton wielding scooter driver

Then came the night I almost got brained by an irate scooter rider. Surrounded, as usual, by passing scooters I pulled over to the curb to wait for a friend who was exiting from the subway. Unbeknownst to me, I had cut a scooter off, who was in my blind spot, when I pulled over to the curb. Once over, the irate scooter rider passed by my driver's side window hurling Chinese obscenities. I exited my vehicle to let my friend know that I had arrived, and to my surprise the scooter rider pulled over ahead of me. With baton in hand he climbed off his scooter and walked back in my direction. Was he a policeman, I thought? There's not much distinction between a police scooter and civilian scooters. Blue and red lights to the front and rear are common to both scooters. As he continued to approach me with a contorted face, I was planning my defensive strategy for when he entered my "Def-Con 1" personal space.

Motor scooters passing to the right of cars

Once he approached close enough to see that I wasn't Chinese his demeanor began to change. The scowl now morphed to inquisitive bemusement. Not missing my Barack Obama opportunity to negotiate with my adversary, I threw him a gambit. In my best Chinese I told him that I was confused and didn't understand why he was approaching me in such a hostile manner. He was still steaming a bit, but he tried to explain that I didn't signal when I pulled to the curb. Now we were standing right in front of each other, in fact, side-by-side when he was pointing to my turn signal light. The danger pretty much negated by proximity, I apologized with a slight bow and told him I was embarrassed by my driving actions. This is the gracious thing to do when one almost kills someone in a traffic accident. We shook hands and with a slight smile he walked back to his scooter and drove away.

This was a great lesson for me about a few things, but the most important one I took away from this incident was that not all Chinese are docile, deferential, and willing to handle a situation in a non-violent manner. This guy had every intention of cracking me one, maybe two or three, on the head! I have noted this for future reference and now carry a blunt instrument of my own in the car for such violent encounters.

To get an idea of the difficulty involved in negotiating traffic with these motor scooters
see the attached video to the right  ~~~>

 Full Service Gas Stations?

Female service station attendant pumping gas

With gas in America teetering between the price of four and five dollars per gallon in any given month, it is refreshing to see Full Service being offered at gas stations in Taiwan. Long gone and never to return (anywhere in the world) are the good old days of the attendant checking your oil level, radiator coolant, wiper fluid, and tire pressure. The semi-service in Taiwan I'm told, jokingly, is more out of self-preservation from a clumsy customer who might cause the entire station to go up in flames. At the average price of $9.00 per gallon this full service should be required penance and then some. Practically, all the crude that is refined in Taiwan must be imported which explains the comparatively high price. So, the next time you top off your tank at $4.00 or $5.00 a gallon, that you must pump yourself, you might take solace in the fact that world prices are generally twice that amount.

         See attached video to the right:    ~~~>

   MY FIRST TIME DRIVING IN TAIPEI

Gregory K. Taylor is obviously still in Taiwan

Ex-Police Officer for Gun Control!

By Gregory K. Taylor

For the life of me, I just don't understand the gun craze in America. There is a national psychosis when it comes to gun ownership. As an ex-police officer in a city where gratuitous murders have become unspectacular, I lament the fascination with a weapon whose exclusive invention and design is to kill and maim. Had I the power of a King during my tenure, I would have disarmed the entire city in order to make my job that much safer. I am painfully aware, ad nauseam, of the 2^nd Amendment arguments for one's right to bear arms. I, however, personally make a distinction between a private citizen and a well regulated militia notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to the contrary; but I also recognize until the U.S. Congress amends the constitution we all have to, and do, live with the consequences of this national pandemic.

There really is an unhealthy obsession with this lethal instrument and it borders on mental illness. I can only surmise, for a great many Americans, the pleasure derived from gun ownership and its related usage stimulates a primal area of the brain that can't be satiated by more innocuous stimuli. This elemental state is too compelling and too gratifying to overcome, in all likelihood, due to the immediate and permanent effects when the gun is used as designed. I don't even understand the hunting of animals. I am at a loss to see the sportsmanship in stalking and killing a prey that is simply pursuing its life as nature intended. The bravado displayed by the hunter in all his/her regalia, the scouting, coaxing devices, flushing methods, and social chumminess, on the one hand, and then the sudden mood swing to stone cold killer--honestly, I just don't get it.

As a military reserve officer, during the Vietnam era, I've trained and familiarized myself with weapons, such as, the .50 Caliber and M60 machine guns, M79 and M203 grenade launchers, M61 hand grenade, M-16 and M-14 rifles on which I qualified as an “Expert,” I've handled C-4 plastic explosives, Bangalore torpedoes, and Claymore mines to name a few. As a police officer, my two main tools were the Colt Python .357 magnum and my12 gauge shotgun--but my best weapon, wasn't a weapon at all in this sense of the word--it was my radio. For those who might wish to assail my motives, I submit the above bona fides as a muzzle to silence knee-jerk critics as it relates to my knowledge and experience with firearms. In other words, I'll stack my weapons “know-how” and skills against most.

So, when America has another disgusting episode of mass shootings, this time of her BABIES, did you hear me, her babies--this ex-police officer, who would not have hesitated to defend those babies by putting a bullet in the head of the shooter, not only laments the tragedy of those murders, but the tragedy of America's inability to come to terms with its illness. No longer comical are the bumper stickers depicting old ladies aiming what seems to be a revolver the size of a Howitzer toward whomever is in her gun-sights as the caption reads, “Gun Control is Hitting Your Target,” or the ghoulish, now ironic, NRA slogan trumpeted by then Charlton Heston, “...[F]rom my cold dead hands.”

Too many, shall we say, undeserving people have access to a firearm. There are too many loop-holes which enable people to purchase firearms LEGALLY at gun shows. How about just too many guns are floating around in this country. For those of you who target and skeet shoot (which I have done plenty of in the past), I am not advocating the controlling of guns for that purpose. But, I will conclude by saying, paradoxically, when I was a police officer I not only carried a gun on-duty, but off-duty as well. Virtually, 24 hours a day I was armed to the teeth. When I left the police department one of the earliest things I did was to sell all my guns. I have no firearms! I haven't had any for years! What I had that most of the gun-lovers and would be psychopaths will never have is the sober temperament and on-going training to use those firearms correctly! 

Gregory Taylor is currently in Taiwan

TAIWAN “Where 'Going to the Nightclub' means visiting the Graveyard”

 By Gregory k. Taylor

As you'll find on most islands of the world--land is a finite commodity. Allocation and land development are considerations that government officials can ill-afford to squander. Overriding land use is usually reserved for housing, farming, and industry. There is, however, an inevitable allotment of set-aside land for burying the dead.

Most western societies, particularly America, still prefer to bury their dead in coffins and inter them the proverbial six-feet deep. If the body is cremated the pulverized remains are placed into urns, boxes, or coffins and either inserted into a crypt, tomb, or mausoleum or disposed of in a manner the family members so choose. Eastern societies, such as, Taiwan do use coffin burials, however, most use cremation as the interment of choice often with sarcophagi, false or otherwise, miniature or majestic, dotting the grave-site landscape. The method of burial is often commensurate with the size and heft of one's wallet. The only limitation is the imagination and skill of the contracted artisan. What is conceived is often achieved for this crowning send off.

From a distance perched high on a hill these look like houses

Superstition prohibits the Taiwanese from using words like Graveyard and Cemetery, so they employ the euphemism of “Night Club” when referring to such places. Family members on their way to the cemetery to visit a deceased relative can be heard to say, “we are going to the Nightclub.” Whimsical as this might sound it falls into the same category of not giving a person a clock as a gift, which symbolizes death, as in, time running out; or listing the number four on elevators because the pronunciation of the number “4” in Mandarin is identical to the pronunciation of the word for death. These are considered to be situations of bad luck much like the listing of the 13^th floor on an elevator in America would be.

Ancestral worshiping while diminishing in irreverent China places like Taiwan still have a strong tradition. Wholly-owned teachings of Confucius as it relates to filial piety presumes even in death the hierarchical family relationship is inviolate. The living family members will continue to provide for the deceased family member. It is not uncommon to see food set aside at a table on certain occasions for the deceased family member. Traditional burning of money (apparently, this sacrifice goes only so far--reality dictates that fake money not real money be burned), clothing, and other offerings of valuables is a method of passing on to the deceased ancestor(s) the means for continued happiness and prosperity in the afterlife.

Beach Front Property

Author's Note: While traveling on a highway south of Taipei city, I observed what I believed to be homes dotting the hillsides. I thought this unusual because the homes appeared to be like the homes one would see in the hills of America—that is, single-dwellings with surrounding front and back yards. This was a sight I had not seen, heretofore, in all of Taiwan. I asked my companion if this was the secluded hill area where the well-to-do Taiwanese live. I was told that those weren't homes—they were graves.

I love Mugabe! I love him!

 

 By Gregory K. Taylor

While riding the bus through “Little Africa” Guangzhou, China, I happened on this Zimbabwean who adamantly expressed her love for the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.  Known as Rhodesia under white rule, this writer was surprised to hear such admiration being expressed for a man who according to the English and American governments is a murdering-ruthless dictator, who has turned the country once known as the bread basket of Africa into the basket case of Africa.  

The adage regarding two sides to every story is clearly evident here as we rode through a noisy section of "Little Africa." Mugabe is considered a pariah, persona non grata in the west, but from the perspective of this traveling businesswoman, who makes her wholesale purchases in China and then takes them back to sale in Zimbabwe, he is a great man who has been subverted at every opportunity by the English and their progenitors who now find themselves on the bottom rung of the Zimbabwean ladder.

She states that the redistribution of farm land from its illegal-colonial occupants to its rightful owners contributed to the huge flight of wealth from her country which now finds itself in a hyper-inflationary state. According to her, Mugabe, in spite of some mistakes, has been the only person in sub saharan Africa to stand up to the whites for what is right. She further stated, “If he decides to run again, I'll vote for him.”

Taiwan's Domestic Caretakers

By Gregory K. Taylor

One of the ways to judge the wealth of a nation is by the number of foreigners recruited to enter that country to work. Domestic importation of workers, usually from poorer countries, is often done through recruitment agencies and brokers. The number of domestic workers can, and often does, run into the hundreds of thousands for any given country. As household income rises the housework responsibilities that used to fall on the shoulders of the housewife is now relegated to the live-in domestic. This new unskilled labor force, particularly the females, are consigned to a variety of household duties, such as, cooking, laundry, ironing, shopping, and caring for the children and elderly parents. In Taiwan, most domestics are “live-in” with room and board calculated as part of their salary.

The potential for abuse is high when the employee's work visa is strictly dependent on the largess, goodwill, and sometimes whim of the employer as it is in Taiwan. Working hours and days off, if at all, can be ad hoc and arbitrary at best without the benefit of overtime compensation while a less than hospitable environment can be par for the course. The laments of some Taiwanese, particularly the younger generation, regarding this unfavorable work environment only confirms the ill-treatment meted out by some employers. How effectual the government is in regulating such abuses is unknown, but the fact that these abusive practices exist belies the regulatory statutes on the books.

Protesting Filipinos for a minimum wage in Taiwan

Attempts to interview a cross-section of imported domestic workers both Filipina and Indonesian were met with a palpable concern, if not, fear of speaking with a foreigner about their working conditions. The following response was copied and pasted verbatim from an email sent to me in response to an interview request, “sorry Mr Greg everyday I'm very busy, must takecare grandfather&grandmother so I'm really no time to go outside meet you I'm so sorry”

Indonesians near the MRT station Taipei, Taiwan

This individual indicated that she gets no days off and is always at the beck and call of her live-in employer. If this is true this surely is an abusive employer/employee relationship by most standards in the developed world. This isn't to indict all domestic employers in Taiwan because many employees, if not most, get days off. Sunday mass at St. Christopher's Catholic Church in “Little Manila” and the countless Indonesians that congregate near the main MRT train station on any given Sunday bears witness to that fact.

Many employers have fair and friendly relationships with their domestic helpers, but as usual it only takes a few to taint the entire group. Below is a statistic regarding the immigrant work force in Taiwan.

Filipinos and Thais used to dominate Taiwan's foreign worker market, now Indonesians make up the majority of foreign workers in Taiwan - up to 40 per cent of the record number of 420,0931 people according to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA)


Gregory Taylor is currently in Taiwan