English Teacher Work Advisory, Chiayi County

Do you feel safe in Taiwan?

  • YES
  • No

0 voters

voy.com/113223/12.html

Did miltownkid feel safe in Miltown?

Is this post about safety issues in Taiwan or is it about the death in Taiwan?

I feel very safe when it comes to things like muggings and getting held up for my wallet. I don’t think I’d feel very safe driving a scooter, but I haven’t driven daily yet. There are other things I might worry about here more then I did back home (street vendor splatters (aka the runs) or getting hit by a car).

When balancing it all out I’d say (for me) it’s about as safe here as it is back home (maybe a little more).

So yes, yes I do. :smiley:

Yup, safe as houses
:wink:

Do you think that jeepers and spack have run away together? :?: :smiling_imp:

No, I think they have changed usernames and you are one of them :wink:

No-one gets out alive (unless Maoman intervenes)

I started to think they were one of the same fer awhile.

GAME PARLOR GANSTER
:mrgreen:

Now I can get back to “quality” postings.

Aristotle

I went to the link you posted and the date is 12/15… is this a new incident or is this related to the one that was posted I beleive last year?

Nothing in the newspapers… nothing on the news… I’m a little confused… Can you clear it up for us?

This has been dredged up from a year ago. I spent enough time hanging around with local gangsters in my wild and reckless days to know that its VERY foolish indeed to piss them off. And that its naive in the extreme to expect the cops and the newspapers to do anything other than sweep the issue under the carpet as quickly as possible.

That’s what I thought…

And I Agree with you!

I feel safe here - and I try to give the mob a wide berth. That Chiayi thing is a bit weird. Police fucked up the investigation, but that does not need to mean anything. She could still have slipped.

Safe in terms of what? In terms of the risk of violent crime? In this case I feel very safe. The most dangerous things in Taiwan are the traffic and natural disasters (typhoons, earthquakes, floods, landslides).

Southern Taiwan has always been a bastion of corruption and organized crime. In the past foreigners who minded their own business were left alone.There are several reports coming from teachers (specifically female) in the Chaiyi area, who have been assaulted. If it was one isolated incident there would be nothing to worry about. Unfortunately the reports are increasing in frequency and the level of violence. Several people have gone to the local police station to be turned away for various reasons. Some who have persisted have been threatened. The death of Mary Bretle seems to have opened the door for assaults on foreign women. So far it seems to be isolated to the Chaiyi area. The biggest problem being, most women don’t want to talk about it. If you know anyone who has been assaulted, please have them contact the FAP in Taipei, not the local police branch.
A.

Reports from whom? To whom? Can you be more specific?

Ah, I see, a warning. I think your poll and your first post had everyone confused (had me confused). If there is real danger there for female teachers, it would be best that they leave. It’s not worth staying and trying to change things (IMHO). Expecially if your saying it’s life or death. More info would be nice.

Why are they being assulted? is my first question.

I will be the first to tell you that you will not hear about these things from many government agencies or newspapers. The majority of the info I have read has been put on the various forums like this one and then censored as they too " negative". (ie. Dave’s ESL and Tealit)
I clip and save as much as I can find but again there is not much. Most, is word of mouth from foreigners, coming and going from the Chaiyi area. I get it second hand from my wife as most women will not discuss it with the opposite sex. My wife volunteers at a womens help center.
In my experience, rumors and innuendos often prove to be more accurate than newspapers or government reports in Taiwan.
Hospitals would probably be the best place to get any real facts. I don’t have many connections in that field. If you do please help.
A.

Why not do a web search, find the websites of some of the many women’s groups active in Taiwan and enlist their services – if these rumors are true, I’m sure they’ll be VERY interested.

And if as you say, these women are going to your wife’s center, they’re already “coming forward,” aren’t they?

I know there are many very young and probably naive South Africans working in kindergartens down there, and maybe some of them are experiencing problems, but I have many friends and some family in Chiayi, and none of them appear to have any idea what you’re talking about.

Two of my wife’s friends are senior nurses down there, and I have asked my wife to ask them to keep an eye open for the kind of thing you mention – one works in accident and emergency and the other’s in ob-gyn, so I’m sure that if there’s any truth in these rumors, they’ll already be aware of the increasing numbers of young foreign female assault victims. I don’t know what you’d like me to ask them to do, however.

The problem with support groups and counciling centers is that they guarantee privacy. A good thing for them and the people they help, but not so good for the next potential victim.
What we are trying to do with the work Advisory/ Warning for Chaiyi is to give people a little warning about the possible risk.
Taiwan has always been a “look out for yourself” society. Neither government nor social services is going to take the initiative to ensure your well being. Especially foreigners. We are, for the most part, on are own here and must do our best to help each other. Teachers in this almost country are especially vulnerable because of their numbers and relative naivety.
A.
As far as the hospitals go, I am not sure how to document it without infringing on the patients privacy. Any ideas?

Well, according to my wife’s nurse friends, if these women are being assaulted in the way you describe, they’re treating themselves on their own, because there has been no increase in foreigner ER or OB-GYN admissions in the hospital where they work – its the biggest hospital in the area and one of the only ones that does ARC medicals, so its most likely the one with which most foreigners down there are most familiar. As one of them told my wife (in a somewhat condescending tone) a parade of battered and/or raped foreign women presenting themselves for treatment would hardly go unnoticed, even in Taipei.

This sounds like hearsay at best, irresponsible scaremongering at worst.

The fact is that a foreign ESL teacher was killed in a very suspect way. The fact that the police bungled the investigation then swept it under the rug only adds to the “scare mongering”. It cannot be disputed that this woman is dead. It is also widely known that when it comes to Taiwan and organized crime, the worst case is the closest to the truth.
How many women did the Panchio wolf rape before one case was even reported. It took two years just to find most of the victims. Many of them had made official reports, only to have them swept under the rug. That was Taipei.