I’m not sure if this belongs in the politics thread, but I’ll just post it here because I saw it all the time when I was in Taiwan.
I feel that a lot Taiwanese are very receptive to the incoming Obama administration that is coming to America. In all the bookstores I saw there would always be pictures of Obama smiling, and nodding, with his written Chinese name underneath his photos.
I think Taiwan, just like America has lowered its level of racism towards other people (of different cultures) throughout the past few years. Yes, I am well aware that racism still exists in Taiwan, but I think the levels of racist behavior with people around my age (20-ish) are very low, if almost non-existent.
A lot of the Taiwanese public also seems to strongly support Obama, although I often heard this: “although he is black, I think he will be a great president.”
Maybe Taiwan one day may have decedents of Vietnamese or Thai families become important politicians in Taiwanese politics…
[quote=“Rabidpie”]A lot of the Taiwanese public also seems to strongly support Obama, although I often heard this: “although he is black, I think he will be a great president.”
Maybe Taiwan one day may have decedents of Vietnamese or Thai families become important politicians in Taiwanese politics…[/quote]
A Taiwanese colleague shocked me by asking me, “You’re OK with the fact that he’s black?”
Then she went on to explain how it would be impossible for an Aborigine to ever become president of Taiwan. Too much racism against them here.
(Side note: I dreamed last night that radio host Randi Rhodes became president!)
[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]It could also be to do with the Taiwanese tendency to jump on the bandwagon for anyone famous/rich/successful.
In Taiwan, if someone had a giant gold dog turd for a head and ate babies, but had a huge marketing campaign behind him, everyone would love him.
[/quote]
there are exceptions to this, for example see Sean Lien, son of Lien Chan…who the Taiwanese derogatively call 神豬 (golden pig) because he really has no special skills except for his dad.
It depends on how you interpret that. Maybe he/she doesn’t have any problem with it, but is assuming that most white Americans are overt racists who would have a problem with his race.
He hasn’t closed it yet, and I hope he doesn’t immediately close it. Taking a moderate planned course is better than a hurried action to fulfill campaign promises. They need to figure out what to do with the prisoners there, whether they A) continue to try the ones they can, B) send them somewhere not in the US to be held while waiting for their trials or C) release the ones who shouldn’t be there.
Al-jazeera English has an article here about what some of the possible options are for handling the remaining detainees: Guantanamo Bay: Obama’s options
Really though, what is the POTUS going to do about the 50 detainees who can’t be returned to their home country because they may be tortured?
[quote]At least 50 of Guantanamo’s inmates have already been cleared for release but the US government says they cannot be returned to their home countries for fear of torture and persecution.
The US state department and international human rights groups have urged third-party countries to accept these Guantanamo prisoners.
In Berlin on Monday, five rights groups issued a joint call to European governments to grant humanitarian resettlement and protection to detainees from China, Libya, Russia, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan, among others.[/quote]
He hasn’t closed it yet, and I hope he doesn’t immediately close it. [/quote]
I never claimed it was an immediate close. The idea is to close it within the year. He has started the ball rolling, and in the right direction. This is a Good Thing.
He also wants to open up dialogue with Iran. That’s nice. Reportedly, Castro watched the inagural speech and was really impressed.
And he called a bunch of Middle Eastern leaders on the phone today and made nicey-nice.
My head is going to explode and part of me does not want the US president to do anything so popular. It is causing me some cognitive dissonance and giving me a feeling of a national identity crisis. If we are who we are because we are not like Americans who the hell are we now?
It depends on how you interpret that. Maybe he/she doesn’t have any problem with it, but is assuming that most white Americans are overt racists who would have a problem with his race.[/quote]
Please. If the person had no problem with it, it wouldn’t have been mentioned like that.
[quote=“hi12345”][quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]It could also be to do with the Taiwanese tendency to jump on the bandwagon for anyone famous/rich/successful.
In Taiwan, if someone had a giant gold dog turd for a head and ate babies, but had a huge marketing campaign behind him, everyone would love him.
[/quote]
there are exceptions to this, for example see Sean Lien, son of Lien Chan…who the Taiwanese derogatively call 神豬 (golden pig) because he really has no special skills except for his dad.[/quote]
I’m sure there are. However, the cult of celebrity in Taiwan is amazing. There’s a certain cult of celebrity everywhere and anywhere, but it’s something shocking (for me at least) about Taiwan.
If the person had no problem with it, it wouldn’t have been mentioned like that.