I took a bus ride into Taipei city the other day and was struck once again with how butt ugly the architecture is. And then it hit me - it’s those metal cages around the windows. Nearly every building has them! They look awful and contributue to the overall ‘shithole-look’ of the city. I’ve visited others cities around the world and I have never seen this before. Some cities have attractive grills on the windows, but cover only half of the window (e.g. New Orleans or Paris). Here though, these cages cover the entire window making them look like jail cells. Are they afraid of suicide jumpers??? Are there historical reasons? Chinese influence? Japan? Or perhaps there are practical reasons?
It’s for practical reasons: Taiwan is notorious for it’s spiderman-burglars. Why, just last week someone had their 41" TV robbed from their 25th-floor apartment.
The good thing about the place, where Michael Botti and I live is that there are nearly no metal cages up here… It looks normal, and I like that touch a lot.
Everybody who’s told me about being robbed has always had the break-in happen through the doors. Considering how fast the locksmith got me in the other night, it would probably be a lot easier and safer to go in via the front door.
In Vietnam, they call these things “tiger cages” and they’re all the rage. It’s like putting on a whole storage shed bolted to the outside of the building to hold all the consumery shit that they keep buying. These are families that have, like, 5 rice cookers and 10 electric fans because they NEVER throw one away. Most of the Vietnamese apartment buildings were built ages ago – they probably looked good when nobody really owned anything, but they’re completely inadequate now that people have all these electric appliances and other crap. If these guys discover plastic waterproof tubs to store their clothes in, then forget it! They’ll be attaching tiger cages double the interior size of their apartments.
Sadly they cause death as a result of fire victims becoming trapped and firefighters being unable to rescue them. A movement, sponsored by Taipei City Gov., is on to persuade people to not have them or ones with a door that can be unlocked easily for escape purposes.
I suppose people must keep lots of cash, gold and 68" plasma screens in their homes for them to be this fearful of burglars. I mean, who is going to break into to someone’s apartment and steal a LaserDisc player and a Hello Kitty Yoghurt maker?
They will, in the future, form a major anthropological resource because of all the weird shit people put on their balconies (unwanted gandma, old wurlitzer, 1956-1963 National Geographics etc.) Don’t some people throw anything away?
We got burgled on the 11th floor. Guy broke in through the "unlocked balcony door. Apparently he climbed out the stairwell window and was able to open the outside balcony window and crawl through.
You figure with all these burgularies that Taiwan doesn’t have a booming burgular alarm industry.
But I do believe the facade of each building should have the same design of patio cages, to be more pleasing to the eye. Of course that would mean the board that manages each building would actually need to do something.
Now if someone would regulate the amount of laundry one can hang out in the patio at one time to dry. Quite an eyesore to be walking about the capital city of Taiwan and having some woman’s laundry flapping in the air. But then all those panty thieves might take to stealing plasma tv.
Really anyone know the figures for this…1/100 of one percent of maybe 1/2000 of one percent of the population?[/quote]
I don’t happen to know any figures. I did attend a “Dangerous Balcony Cage Consciousnes Raising Event” run by Taipei City Government and the Fire Brigade. It was near Zhongxiao Dunha MRT station and involved about a thousand people (including my daughter who danced to a disco tune exhorting us to be aware of this problem)
This probably means that again I’ve completely misjudged Taiwanese society/culture and in fact it was all about something else and all those 100s of school children, city councillors, firefighters,volunteers etc. were all wasting their time on a problem that doesn’t really exist.
[quote=“Vannyel”]Really anyone know the figures for this…1/100 of one percent of maybe 1/2000 of one percent of the population?[/quote]I believe that even 1 life is worth saving. Whereas Vannyel would be happy to see 2000 people needlessly die.
But then again I’m not an apologist for everything evil and sick in Taiwan like Vannyel.
You live in LouJo? the place next door to Sanchong? and you think Taipei City is butt ugly [/quote]
Heh, I know… When I take the bus into Taipei City from LuChou - I have to go through San Chong everytime. So believe me, I know…
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”][quote=“Vannyel”]Really anyone know the figures for this…1/100 of one percent of maybe 1/2000 of one percent of the population?[/quote]I believe that even 1 life is worth saving. Whereas Vannyel would be happy to see 2000 people needlessly die.
But then again I’m not an apologist for everything evil and sick in Taiwan like Vannyel.[/quote]
So let me guess, since you value life so much and you practice what you preach - you’re working in Taiwan as a firefighter, EMT, doctor, or some other profession where you can actually save lives instead of talking about how valuable a single life is. Cool.
pjdrib [quote]I did attend a “Dangerous Balcony Cage Consciousnes Raising Event” run by Taipei City Government and the Fire Brigade…This probably means that again I’ve completely misjudged Taiwanese society/culture and in fact it was all about something else and all those 100s of school children, city councillors, firefighters,volunteers etc. were all wasting their time on a problem that doesn’t really exist.[/quote]
Sorry if my attempting to put things into perspective bothers you. It is a well know fact that special interest groups, etc. use some pretty strong language in their campaigns. I don’t see the need for special laws or legislation to dictate common sense. The problem is not the cages, it’s the lack of access (doors, etc.). Two hundred deaths (for example) a year from balcony cage related fires in a nation of 23 million doesn’t require new laws, etc. Statistically it’s insignificant. I know I am a cold callous bastard but the reality of it is you can’t stop idiots from killing themselves. They will find a way. darwinawards.com/
Please send me his/her address by PM. I’ll call my locksmith friend and we’re away.
