Politics and polemic Archive

The Philippines debacle and knee-jerk xenophobia

And it rages on … I’ve alluded to it before, as recently as my previous post in fact, but it really is a grotesque sight, the sepsis that inflames the body politic here in Taiwan anytime an opportunity to vent against The Other arises. Geese could waddle around blissfully for the most part with not a [...]
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Freeze Filipino worker applications? Why not just send ‘em all back? See how that works out.

I’ve not waded on this kind of thing for some time as there are a load of people doing it bigger and better than I am able, but the scenes I saw all over today’s papers and news channels of people (including legislators) burning the flag of the Philippines were embarrassingly adolescent but all too [...]
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Taiwan Land Reform Museum

As the protests over wind turbines in the towns of Yuanli (苑裡) and Tongxiao (通霄) descended into heavy-handed policing this week , I was reminded of the last high-profile land issue in my old manor of Miaoli County (苗栗縣), namely the expropriation cases in Zhunan (竹南) back in 2010. These compulsory purchases (a term which, [...]
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Of Migration

Peter Whittle’s comprehensive walloping of the unfunny joke that is Section 9 of Taiwan’s Nationality Act assails every inch of its target with heavy, precision blows. Two years ago, Whittle submitted a suggestion on reform of the blatantly discriminatory provision that requires foreign passport holders to renounce (at least one of 1) their other nationalities. Back then, [...]
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Of Monstrosity

The following review appears in this month’s issue of FlashArt magazine. In weaving this year’s Taipei Biennial (September 29, 2012 – January 13, 2013) around the theme of monstrosity, curator Anselm Franke has created a compelling, if at times elusive, premise. The jumping off point is The Monster That Is History (2004) by Taiwanese scholar David Der-wei Wang. The monster in question is [...]
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Kukutsu: The Jungle Camp

Half an hour later, the old locomotive shuddered to a halt at a terminus. We found ourselves at a small village of Shinten, situated at the foot of some thickly wooded, mountainous terrain. The guards were back to their repetitive screaming and we were hurriedly ejected from the carriages. The last one out got the [...]
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Taipei Guesthouse (臺北賓館)

As I was walking out of the southern portals of 228 Memorial Park onto Ketagalan Boulevard on Saturday afternoon, accompanied by the Russian philologist Professor Viktor Gisin, whom I had bumped into as I made my way through the park, the sight of the ostentatious building on the corner with Zhongshan North jogged my memory. The Taipei [...]
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Flag fiasco shameful but respect begins at home

Let’s leave aside the issues I have with the “Taiwanese” flag in the first place and start by saying this: I think the removal of the flag from Regent Street yesterday was a poor show. I’m well aware of the rules of the game(s). I’ve had to endure my copy being changed to fit the International [...]
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From 4-4-2 to 419

Footie is all over my brain at the mo. Halftime and we’ve barely touched the ball again. Still, at least watching England has been half interesting recently. Since I left the sceptred shores, “overpaid primadonnas” has been one of the buzzphrases used to sum up the English public’s disillusionment with football. Back in Blighty, the [...]
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Anti-Ma protests

My friend, the indefatigable plains aborigine actvist Pan Addaboy sent me these snaps from Saturday’s DPP protest against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). Media had the turnout in the tens of thousands, with the DPP claiming around 100,000 showed up. From Addaboy’s faltering reponse as I asked how it went, it was clear that this was wishful [...]
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