It's true that, as I fire-off my typical blogpost responses to the latest inanities and tragedies documented in (and even demonstrated by) the Taipei Times and elsewhere, my frustration sometimes shows in how I express myself.
That being said however, these are my opinions and other people are free to ignore them (and I daresay that is the norm). Three further points:
(1) Whether an abstract discussion* indicates a lack of emotional connection is a contingent truth, not a categorical truth. To merely presume it is true is an error. To put the same point in a less abstract way: just because I do the math, doesn't mean I have a CPU instead of a heart.
(2) Although many (perhaps most?) expats here in Taiwan eventually return to their native countries, that option is not so easy as it sounds for those of us who have been here for many years now and are either married or otherwise have significant emotional investment. Criticism should not be based on presumption.
(3) There is a difference between commentary and command. Command requires delegated authority, commentary does not. To wit:
"On my way home this afternoon I saw a car speed by on Minquan E Road atop which a large People’s Republic of China flag was flying, to the accompaniment of communist propaganda on a loudspeaker... Who am I, as a Canadian, a journalist, to get angry at such acts, and to presume to have the authority to tell Taiwanese that such displays are unacceptable and that something should be done about them?"You do not have the authority to demand that "something be done about them", Mr Cole (and in my view nothing should be done about them), but the authority you exercise over your own actions is sufficient to voice your disapproval of such things. Whether Taiwanese people listen to you or not, or agree with you or not... is entirely up to them.
*I don't know whether it was I, in my response to a question put by someone who had elsewhere claimed to be a Taipei Times journalist, or the anonymous commenters at Turton's place recently, who provoked that remark, but for what it's worth I should point out that, in my opinion, deterring annexation will depend on political reform first and foremost, with military preparedness by the MOD an emergency measure - the idea of a guerilla campaign in the event of invasion is a distant, highly contingent hypothetical and as things stand, it would almost certainly be crushed within a very short time.
Cole's opinion runs on the sole assumption that we're all going to leave one day.
ReplyDeleteSome of us have come to live.
What the hell are people who migrate to Taiwan supposed to do? Shutup and play the whitey role?
@OzSoapbox:
ReplyDelete他媽的滾出去，
你這討厭台灣的蠢蛋！
我們台灣不需要你的“意見”。
@Taiwan Person
ReplyDelete如果你看不慣他的意見,
你不用看他的網誌.
對不對?
@Michael Fagan:
ReplyDelete這跟我看或者不看他的部落格都無關。問題是，他是每天都寫一些垃圾（失敗的人總是太閒，而我們大多數人工作很辛苦）。這些垃圾就放在網路上，那些不認識台灣的人讀到這些垃圾言論就會因此而誤會我們的國家。他這麼做只是想要出名而已。這真可笑。定期閱讀他部落格的大多數都是像他這樣的失敗者，其他人只是恰巧從網路上找到他的部落格。我感到很遺憾，因為對於這些人來說，他們可能會覺得台灣是非常糟糕且不值得拜訪的國家。我喜歡你的部落格，因為你是為自己而寫，就算你批評台灣，但你也提出了很好的建議，並且真心希望台灣可以更好。他只是一個種族主義的白痴，總是攻擊我們台灣男人。有天因果會回到他身上的。