If you play Grand Theft Auto where all civilians are trying to crash into you, you will do fine in Taiwan’s traffic 
Many will agree that lack of traffic rules enforcement is contributing to that dreadful situation.
But police are mostly busy making sure the intersections in the cities don’t become deadlocked.
The people who try to direct traffic at busy intersections during rush hour are police? I never see them wearing police uniforms.
Come to think of it I’m not sure what the police in Taiwan really do? I always see them driving around in their cars and on scooters going nowhere? I stopped counting the number of times somebody violated traffic laws with police around and never got ticketed.
In some cities they seem mostly absent as well e.g. Taoyuan.
Some kind of ancillary police, also taxi drivers I heard.
I thought this article should be mentioned in this thread, seeing that Taiwan is viewed as a covid-free “paradise”
The story is basically saying that more and more wealthy non-Australian celebrities are heading to Australia to weather the Covid storm in freer conditions. However, a number of Australian citizens are protesting because they are stuck overseas as they cannot afford the new higher price of airfare + quarantine costs.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Yes, Australian citizens should have priority over others to return to their country. But if we want to be able to travel post Covid then the airlines need to stay afloat, which means raising their prices because of current low capacity flight rules.
My feeling is, if the wealthy can afford the cost of flights and quarantine then that’s just a perk of being rich.
Maybe the government can do more to assist Australians in returning, but should it subsidize cheaper flights? I’m not so sure, but then I’m not the one stranded so my thinking is probably skewed.
There will be enough airlines surviving, well better said no matter what there will be enough planes, and people willing to work. If there are less planes flying, much better. We need to cut down on air travel anyhow to reduce co2 emissions…
The problem is the government at the start asked Australian citizens overseas to stay put to protect Australia. Then then they go do this.
Plus imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and it was you who was not able to work, stuck in a foreign country and the flight cost to return home so you can work is so expensive you can’t even put it on a credit card And pay it off later.
In Taiwan we are lucky. We can work. Some others trapped in other countries can’t work and get no assistance from the Australian government or the government of the country they are trapped in. But the Australian government is assisting foreigners who are in Australia. I’m Sure you found feel a little uncomfortable with that situation.
Yes countries like Canada and some European countries are helping Australian citizens. But not all countries are.
Australia government assistance was only for companies and not for individuals outside of increasing social welfare payments for unemployed. But that has also finished and you needed to be in Australia.
So you are a citizen of Australia but you may feel abandoned but your own government.
I can sympathise with people feeling they are abandoned by their own country.
It needs to be stressed how great the Taiwanese government has been to foreigners trapped here. They have left foreigners to work even when they would not normally have work rights due to their country of origin. Other countries are bit doing this.
Well…They let people extend their visa free stay but not work. They had to apply for gold cards etc.
Everybody who is working is entitled to work. Some were given extensions so they didn’t need to exit.
And Taiwan really needs foreign workers.
They are working. The government knows and they are letting them be.
Yeah, as I mentioned I’m sure my thinking is skewed. My life and livelihood here in Taiwan hasn’t really been affected except for international pleasure travel and mask wearing.
I’m grateful to be in my little bubble during this time. While I can sympathize with people like those in the article and my family in the US, I don’t really know what it’s like to be in their shoes.
Yeah I saw some admit they were doing odd jobs alright.
Just imagine everything you have here being the opposite. Having lockdowns, not being able to see family friends, not being able to go to the beach or mountains, your business having less customers etc.
For me it’s not hard to imagine.
I think I would miss certain people if they left.
That’s a common practice worldwide on citrus and apples, they wax them to shine. Look for some that have ‘not waxed’ on the box.
" … Many fruits naturally produce wax . But after they’ve been picked and washed, the fruit’s natural coat comes off. Artificial wax is then sprayed onto fruit to keep the produce fresh and presentable for grocery stores"
Volunteers, mostly taxi drivers off duty.
As well as the morning community sweepers, all volunteers.
A legacy from Japanese era, I read somewhere.
Remember the Eddie Huang guy of Fresh off the Boat fame? We discussed his quarantine offenses in another thread. Well, if you read this article, you find out he’s gone already, back to LA. And I really do not know what is the deal with his quarantine: going hiking the first week?!
We made a drill song: “Plug Speak Taiwanese.” Our intention was, No. 1, we want to make Taiwanese drill. No. 2, we don’t want this to be like those corny A.B.C. [American-born Chinese] rap songs where it’s, like, you’re trying to speak English, but you don’t speak English. I was, like, “Yo, our language is good enough.” I love Taiwanese. It’s a language that lends itself to this. It’s a patois, you know. It sounds like your parents beating the shit out of you.
I’m dying to come home. I love Taiwan, but I always knew that what I loved was living in a diverse society. An entire new district in another city is just one block in New York. I never took it for granted, but I’ve never missed it more than I have the nine months here, living in a country with only one race of people with very, I would say, homogenous ways of thinking.
OTOH, parents live in China, he lives in US. Taiwan was just a stepping stone. Do not like his view of Taiwan but I understand where it comes from.
My dad was a street dude out here. He’s not connected to Taipei American School [the private school synonymous with globe-trotting locals and rich expats]. It’s, like, I meet my dad’s broke friends that bootleg CDs and DVDs. My dad would always talk about how he loved Taiwan, taught me all the values, everything. I was, like, “Yo, if you love this place so much, why did you come to America?” And he says, “I just wanted to grow my hair and listen to the Bee Gees, man.” I was, like, “That’s it?” And he’s, like, “That’s it. Sex with girls. You can have a lot more sex here.” He just wanted to live a free life.
Guess he never knew about White Terror and the generation under Martial Law.
Hmm, I’m guessing he might’ve arrived in Taiwan right before the mandatory 2 week quarantine was enforced? Hopefully he wasn’t knowingly breaking quarantine rules…
It’s kind of sad that in the west this guy is relevant and he has something to say. He has nothing to say.
He just talks a lot of rubbish, even claiming he lives on a mountain, when he was basically just living in xin yi district.
He constantly moans about white people and doesn’t shut up about his identity and heritage, but after being in taipei for less than a year he figures out america is the best.
What interested me about the opportunity to tell Asian stories in America was that it was Asian-Americans. We have a different experience. And our experience projected back to Asia has a lot of value.
It really doesn’t. The appeal is the people in the west who know no better and take gimps like him as the spokesperson of asia. For everyone else the guy is just irritating and vapid.
Check the quarantine thread. He arrived after. Got 5 minutes of fame here because of that. And a nice little fine…which makes his statements both puzzling and disturbing.
It is sad that someone with such a high profile makes such statements.
When it comes to pop culture in the west and relevant Taiwanese or Taiwanese Americans, there’s him and… JLin and Ang Lee?