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Freeze Filipino worker applications? Why not just send ‘em all back? See how that works out.

I’ve not waded in 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 [...]
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Trinity Indian Stores

Perhaps not from the very minute I started this blog, but fairly early on,I realised that, with a fair number of blogs relating to Taiwan already out there, I wanted it to be a little different. I don’t mean stylistically, though that too, but in the actual content I would present. Generally I try not [...]
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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 Mountains and Molehills

In 1336 Petrarch hiked up Mount Ventoux, near Avignon. Supposedly, no one before him had made such a trip just to see the view. Once on top, Petrarch opened a copy of St. Augustine’s Confessions (obviously a different kind of climbing gear was carried in the trecento) and happened on the passage where Augustine rails against [...]
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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 Music

There are some blogs that just won’t be written. At times, I’m frustrated by the feeling that these are potential pearls; that if I could somehow prise them from their unyielding shells they might outshine the rest of my largely ephemeral output. Mostly, I lose focus or interest. Or I feel that the effort I’d [...]
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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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All the Singles Ladies …

No Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) at this year’s Taipei WTA Ladies Open. Taiwan’s No.1 and the world No.25 is featured on the cover of the tournament brochure, which was presumably put together before Hsieh confirmed her place in the season-ending WTA Tournament of Champions in Sofia. The tourney is for the six highest-ranked tour winners [...]
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Corresponent’s luncheon

I don’t know which continues to surprise me more: Taipei, or one of the city’s foremost flâneurs. The other day, the Inveterate Bede promised a surprise for lunch and delivered. We were meeting to sign some application forms for a challenging day trek up and down Yushan in December. (My signature has me acknowledging the old rogue [...]
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Wandering Guandu

I’m very slowly joining up dots between hiking trails around Beitou (北投) and further afield. To be honest, I’m still not completely sure of the boundaries of the Qinshan Hiking Trail (親山步道), a network of trails that appears to extend from Shipai (石牌) at it’s most easterly point, to Xinbeitou’s Zhongzhengshan (中正山) peak in the [...]
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