[quote=“Fortigurn”] My quality of life is superior here to the quality of life I had in Australia (a 1st world country, last time I looked). But it’s all about how you define quality of life.
There are people who want a certain quality of life, without any of the inevitable problems which come with it. People who want the big city life without the big city problems. Who want everyone to have a car, but don’t want any pollution or bad traffic.
It’s madness. People are dreaming. They’re chasing a quality of life which does not, and cannot, exist.[/quote]
Well fuck me… somebody actually can come out and say what I’ve been saying for years… A fella he agrees that Oz may be 1st world but it aint the place me me either… The first para I agree with
the 2nd & 3rd… well mate… I gave up the bloods rush of $$$, farking fled to the hills mate… reminds me of Captains Flat and Yass and marino sheep… I fled the big city and it’s big city nothingness… got me a plough and went back to the farm… almost… a dish farmer I am now
Thank god there’s no pollution or traffic problems where I live…
But I do miss the bike rides from Canberra down the Kangaroo Valley and Bulli PAss or upto to the Warrambungles and thru the back roads to Wisemans Ferry… and summers in Wagga Wagga and Captains flat … and hunting with a 303… and pub grub
I’ve fallen into a dream but I’m not mad… just a couple of biscuits short of a bread crumb…
damn… 7am I’m gonna suck me coffee thru a Tim Tam and eat some Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs… then I’m having a Cherry Ripe…
Thens it’s off to Bega thru to Bermagui and the mountains for some lush mushrooms… and a bit of fishing
well sort of… I’ll admit that when I’m motivated to post a rant here on forumosa, it’s more often than not a negative response to the foolishness that is so pervasive in Taiwanese culture or at least the part of Taiwanese culture that I experience on a daily basis… and I’ll admit that from time to time I can come across as being a little overly scathing when it comes to how much credit I give the somewhat paltry exceptions to the rule of “idiocy uber alles” that seems to define a large percentage of what goes on here…
but I have come to realise that there’s not a hell of a lot I or anyone else will ever be able to do about it apart from the “be the change you want to see in the world” as Miltownkid quoted and other suggested… needless to say I’m far from up to the task of walking around barefoot in a robe convincing the masses to refrain from being igorant and chewing binglang, but I do find myself picking up garbage off the street in an effort to set and example for the 80+ year old pensioners who live in our neighborhood and do nothing but sit around all day amid the garbage talking shite instead of lending a hand to clean it up… but i digress…
what i have come realise is that the only losers in the this whole equation of rediculous disregard for the tantalizingly easy improvements that could be made to the average Chen’s quality of life… are the Taiwanese themselves… sure it irks me when the pro TI idiot, minister of education (the guy at the helm of what surely must be the biggest running joke of an education system since Apartheid South Africa) gets on the TV and announces that there should be more Tai-yu and less English taught in schools and that in an effort to distance Taiwan from China from now on all school Geography books should print the world map on it’s side with Taiwan above China… :loco:
sure flat out garden variety stupidity such as this and countless other examples does irk me… but at the end of the day it’s the Taiwanese themselves that are going to suffer because of it… all of the dumbness and filth and chaos is the welcome mat they are laying out for their own children… they are harming no one (almost) but themselves… and it’s the ringing poetic justice of that little notion that allows me more and more to just grin and shrug off the idiocy…
oh… and I would post lengthy rhetorics about the profound beauty of the mountains and the east coast, but I don’t have my computer with me on bike trips, and after the fact re-hashes always turnout so bland…
Love your style plasmatron, and sympathize with your perspective more than I let on. But one day not long ago I realized that wherever I was I’ve always found things to be frustrated with. That frustration only hurt myself and didn’t do anybody else a bit of good either. At least not that I could ever see.
That part about you mentioned about the minister of education really is too much I’ll admit. But even here there is a silver lining in the fact that most people will do their best to ignore him.
[quote=“Satellite TV”][quote=“Fortigurn”] My quality of life is superior here to the quality of life I had in Australia (a 1st world country, last time I looked). But it’s all about how you define quality of life.
There are people who want a certain quality of life, without any of the inevitable problems which come with it. People who want the big city life without the big city problems. Who want everyone to have a car, but don’t want any pollution or bad traffic.
It’s madness. People are dreaming. They’re chasing a quality of life which does not, and cannot, exist.[/quote]
Well fuck me… somebody actually can come out and say what I’ve been saying for years… A fella he agrees that Oz may be 1st world but it aint the place me me either… The first para I agree with
the 2nd & 3rd… well mate… I gave up the bloods rush of $$$, farking fled to the hills mate… reminds me of Captains Flat and Yass and marino sheep… I fled the big city and it’s big city nothingness… got me a plough and went back to the farm… almost… a dish farmer I am now
Thank god there’s no pollution or traffic problems where I live…
But I do miss the bike rides from Canberra down the Kangaroo Valley and Bulli PAss or upto to the Warrambungles and through the back roads to Wisemans Ferry… and summers in Wagga Wagga and Captains flat … and hunting with a 303… and pub grub
I’ve fallen into a dream but I’m not mad… just a couple of biscuits short of a bread crumb…
damn… 7am I’m gonna suck me coffee through a Tim Tam and eat some Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs… then I’m having a Cherry Ripe…
Thens it’s off to Bega through to Bermagui and the mountains for some lush mushrooms… and a bit of fishing[/quote]
This was a brilliant post. I only have one question- how did you do it? You’re in Taiwan right?
I amuse myself by watching the bus loads of tourists who come to visit on weekends. They are all looking like stressed out bubble heads. Nary a smile amonst them. Wearing their high heels on our mountain goat tracks lol.
Then some of them will say look… a foreigner… to which the locals ask where? You mean the ones on the bus?
Nah, that white guy over there…
He’s a lot darker than many of us though!!! Anyways he’s a local…
Noob tourists… some of them ask me why I live up here and what do I do for a living…
I answers I do SFA ( sweet fuck all ) and enjoy my time with my missus.
You got it right though Mr F… you can work less and have more quality time being at home.
My sister sends up packages of Jaffas, Cherry Ripes, Lollygobble Bliss Bombs and other important foodstuffs.
I’m currently going through one of my “I love this place” phases. Things that used to annoy me make me giggle or just shake my head and smile. Or I don’t even notice them at all and someone has to point out the annoyance to me. But I still don’t care!
I love when the cycle reaches this phase, it reminds me that positive thinking can do wonders for the soul.
Hey Wispy Swiller,
Nah, I wasn’t talking so much about patriotism. (Although I think some Taiwanese people are a little more patriotic than you give them credit for.) I was talking more about locals not being bothered by the same things that foreigners are. For example, lack of personal space is a big issue for a lot of foreigners in Taiwan. When I got to the beach, I immediately try to get as far away from the crowd as possible. Taiwanese people, on the other hand, seem to take great joy in piling up right on top of one another. This is just the first example that came to my head. Anyways, I was talking more in just general terms of liking where you live than patriotism.
[quote=“Satellite TV”]Yes mate… living up here in Alishan.
No big cities, not even a 7/11 in my town hehehee
I amuse myself by watching the bus loads of tourists who come to visit on weekends. They are all looking like stressed out bubble heads. Nary a smile amonst them. Wearing their high heels on our mountain goat tracks lol.
Then some of them will say look… a foreigner… to which the locals ask where? You mean the ones on the bus?
Nah, that white guy over there…
He’s a lot darker than many of us though!!! Anyways he’s a local…
Noob tourists… some of them ask me why I live up here and what do I do for a living…
I answers I do SFA ( sweet fuck all ) and enjoy my time with my missus.
You got it right though Mr F… you can work less and have more quality time being at home.
My sister sends up packages of Jaffas, Cherry Ripes, Lollygobble Bliss Bombs and other important foodstuffs.[/quote]
Mate, one question - how did you do it? I can’t figure out a way to have this lifestyle in Australia, which is one of the reasons why I’m in Taiwan.
I have a vague idea about eventually moving to the Adelaide Hills or to the Victorian Dandenongs, but the cost of living in Australia makes it prohibitive to have this kind of lifestyle.
I was out walking my dog on Saturday morning in Taipei around 7:30 a.m. It was already very hot and hazy, the air quality was extremely poor and I was having a hard time breathing. I started getting a very bad headache, my ears and jaw began to hurt and my head felt like it was about to implode. As soon as I returned inside my building, the pressure on my brain went away and I felt normal and healthy again.
[quote=“Fortigurn”]Mate, one question - how did you do it? I can’t figure out a way to have this lifestyle in Australia, which is one of the reasons why I’m in Taiwan.
I have a vague idea about eventually moving to the Adelaide Hills or to the Victorian Dandenongs, but the cost of living in Australia makes it prohibitive to have this kind of lifestyle.[/quote]
I guess I got lucky. When I met my yet to be wife she was very unhappy with her job and living in Chiayi. So I asked here where she really wanted to live.
Overseas? Nah she says… been overseas for 5 years
Another city in Taiwan? Nah… don’t like them either…
Then where? I ask… She says in her home town up in the mountains… Population 400, clean air and
So I says… quit you job and lets move there then… so she did, and we did.
I have a new strategy for anyone who is finding Taiwan too crowded, hot, dirty, polluted, etc. Next time you have some vacation time, visit India. I’m not actually dissing India because I love it dearly. However, I can tell you that anything which might bug you here is probably magnified there times ten. After returning from India, Taipei seems like the cleanest, calmest place I’ve ever been. It’s all a matter of perspective my friends.
I only visit forumosa occasionally because I so quickly tire of the the moaning about Taiwan. I have loved Taiwan from the moment I stepped off of the plane, yet half the time I feel like some sort of freak after visiting this board. I realize this place isn’t for everyone, but after two years I haven’t wavered yet, and it’s nice to see there are people that feel the same.
[quote=“plasmatron”]like everyone else, it seems, I go though phases varying betweeen being prepared to write off Taiwanese culture and society as whole as being void of any merit, foul and utterly worthless… to being fairly forgiving and open minded about it’s innumerous shortcomings and pitfalls and the fact that it
I know what you mean about the Forumosan attitude seeming a little negative. However, I’ve been observing the site for about a year now and it seems like there are far more positive posters in the past six months or so. I’m hoping that this means that people who really hate Taiwan are getting out. I don’t know why you’d stay someplace you complain about daily. Then again, some people just like to complain.
Yeah, I know what you mean about the negativity, but trust me, most of it’s perceived, not real. I know a lot (100+) of the regular posters on this board and they’re almost all pretty positive people. Come to our Happy Hour and meet some fo them for yourself.
As for the vibe on the boards, it’s human nature. It’s also why there’s always more “bad” news than “good” news in the newspapers and on the evening news. People want to talk about the bad stuff, because they think it’s not right. The “good” stuff is usually taken for granted…
