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Latin Lessons: A History of Shady Relations

The following is the original text of an op-ed piece I wrote which appeared in today’s Taipei Times. I’m posting my original text because (naturally) I prefer it. There are several stylistic changes that I can’t see any good reason for and a couple of annoying mistakes, including in the very first sentence where [...]
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After Laughter Comes Tears: Wu-Tang’s Ghostface and Raekwon in Taipei

It’s hard to believe I was a month shy of my 17th birthday when Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) dropped in November 1993. Back then I can vividly recall running down Willesden High Road with a TDK copy in hand to breathlessly offer to my mate Jamal with the standard hip-hop imploration to “check dis [...]
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Let’s Stick to the Facts

Everyone’s pissed off at the mo. I just got turned away from a 24-hour eatery across the road from my new place on Hot Spring Rd. because the boss doesn’t allow booze. In Taiwan. In a raucous stir-fry gaff. Seriously. The protesters who are currently making a move on the Executive Yuan, having occupied the [...]
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The Art of Storytelling

The KMT have been getting a hard time of late. No, seriously, hear me out. They may be trying to exploit legislative loopholes in a patently undemocratic fashion to force through a bill against mounting public opposition, but they’re always good for a story. Having worked my way through the 47-book Mr. Men series (cheers, [...]
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Sinking Feeling

My 6-year-old loves nothing better than beating innocent bystanders to death and stealing their cars. If you’re still showing so much as a twitch of life as you lie prostrate in the gutter, guaranteed he’ll stomp it out of ya.* A first-grader and I’ve already caught him reflex aping the betel-nut chomping jaw [...]
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Mandela and a tale of two pariahs

My op-ed piece from today’s Taipei Times. This is my original version. They ran it pretty much intact, but there was one stupid change that annoyed me. The piece as it is in the paper is here. “O my friends, there is no friend.” With this line attributed to Aristotle, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida opens [...]
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I’d pay to see this guy get battered

I try not to make this little space that I maintain here a repository of mindless abuse but when I see people like this, I really can’t help myself. As part of a moronic protest against same sex marriages (let’s be clear, that’s what it was) by people calling for “family values” this prick donned [...]
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Flexible diplomacy is anything but

Here’s my op-ed piece from today’s Taipei Times. A couple of minor oversights on my part and theirs but generally not too bad. Flexible diplomacy is anything but By James Baron Taiwan’s perennial quest for legitimacy has long been what Samuel Kim has described as “diplomatic Darwinism” as successive regimes have been nothing if not [...]
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An Exercise in Anticommunism

Struggling with my on-off perennial battle to shed some flab, I was in the changing rooms of Songshan Sports Center (松山運動中心) the other morning, about to shower after a feeble effort on the track, when I heard an old man crooning away. Old men and crooning are pretty standard fare at such establishments in the [...]
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Beitou Granary (北投榖倉)

Since I moved further into the belly of Beitou, I’ve been passing the old granary on Datong St (大同街) almost every day on my bicycle journey to and from Beitou MRT. I’ve been meaning to have a proper look for a while and finally stopped by last week. There aren’t many eye-catching pieces of architecture [...]
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