I am saying these quite intentionally by the way to make a point. These crimes are organized and involve huge amounts of corruption! That kills far more people in taiwan than the street stuff.
I am not disagreeing that taiwan has relatively low levels of violent crime, thats exactly what i am saying.
But…taiwan has very high levels of what i am calling organized crime which affects everyone in .taiwan sometimes other countries in cases of environment especially. Perhaps my terminology is incorrect? Correct if i am wrong.
There are plenty of polluted areas in the west. Is crime rampant there too?
No… this is muddying the waters because that’s not what people mean.
Not really, given the fact that the life expectancy is slightly lower than Canada’s… Taiwan’s food is safe.
But that’s what people mean when they talk about ‘crime’ in a city. When you screw with the definition, then it hurts your argument. I don’t worry about the indirect parts because it’s not worth my time. If someone cheats the government a few thousand Taiwanese dollars, the impact to me is so miniscule it’s not even worth a per cent of a Canadian penny.
Organised crime and white collar crime are different things. And… to be honest, if you look at the data and compare it with other developed countries, Taiwan’s pretty middle of the road. If you ask me, I think it’s a failure to look into the mirror and see that this happens in our own backyards.
When we’re in a new country, we see EVERYTHING. But we may not look closely at our own because it’s our home and we grew up in that situation and used to it. Try talking about suburbs to Canadians and they’ll defend it because that’s what they’re used to.
Mafiosi in Canada used to ask my family to join them. They try to influence the government there too.
Anyone who has watched Friendlyjordies in Australia can see the corruption of the Gladys Berejiklian government with John Barilaro. Conflicts of interest happen all the time. I think we put on rose tinted glasses when looking at our own countries.
They have some pollution. We have car dependent suburbs. We have NRA and other dodgy, even if legal lobbying in the US. We have a lot of our own problems that are IMO, equal to Taiwan’s.
Jeepers. Not sure why certain people push so hard on a poll about opinions and yet dont want to read what is written in replies. But if you guys really want to get into it, here it is. worded yet ANOTHER way for your convenience in case my diction is not up to snuff Leave it to the fugger that cant type worth shit and isnt an english teacher, nor major, to explain english definitions . Crikey.
So.
Rampant means widespread (dont get snarky when i spell it out because it seems i need to explain myself very carefully for people that are either not understanding me or totally disagree). See 2.b.
Crime is when people do illegal shit. Pick your definition, they all work just fine ,though i am talking more the illegal type that could land one in jail or severely fined:
Rampant crime = widespread illegal shit.
Rampant crime has nothing to do with severity of the crime. It has to due with quantity of crimes (illegal acts). And taiwan has wholesale quantity, i am a bit surprised i need to even say this.
Perhaps you want to define it as rape, murder, assault, terrorism etc because that is in our face abusive crazy shit. And thats understandable, though incorrect. That is violent crime or other descriptive words used to describe what kind of crime it is (like my simply saying street crime or petty crime ,i should of added violent). Crime does not only mean violence or petty theft.
So, as i mentioned previously the violent crime, which i called street cime (probably erroneously), is not so prevalent. Terrorism like your extreme example is also not common . Or widespread. Or…rampant.
The other side of that coin is taiwan is absolutely suffering from rampant crime in general. Our seas are over fished (illegally), industrial dumping and exporting waste illegally is common, corruption is rampant (see the funny sign of the politician paying to tell people he is not guilty of A B and.c lol, you can view many of these signs throughout pingtung county right now),illegal buildings are rampant, factories dumping shit into water sources are rampant, blackmail is rampant, foreign worker abuse is rampant, domestic abuse is rampant and so on and so on. i cant tell you how fucking hard it is to do things like build factories LEGALLY without them telling you how to cut corners and break the law. Unless you’re rich and can pay the right places. These all lead to REAL consequences. both safety and health sometimes just financial. Virtually everyone in taiwan knows this as undisputed fact. And for many, real life experiences confirm these as actual fact. Whether or not some people notice them is irrelevant, that does not negate them. Sure air pollution kills slowly, its not like a pipe to the face or daddy beating mom level of obvious to everyone. But it is large scale wholesale widespread crime. And my only original point in this whole thing is i wasnt expecting that BEFORE i moved here because thats what the threads question is asking. Now i see it ,as do many others . Breaking minor laws is so common it has become cultural to avoid certain laws. thats a hint of what rampant means. I could list those minor examples but i think you know damn well without me needing to type it out…and there are way more important wholesale industrial organized crimes worth paying attention to.
Essentially:
violent/petty/street type crimes. Less than i expected. Before moving here.
“organized” crimes like government and business are 'WAAAAAAY" higher than i expected. I was also not expecting such a high domestic abuse or drug abuse situation (fire away!!). Before moving here. If you have a better word for such crimes, please do inform me and. If it is correct, i will be sure to use it in the future
If even this level of trying to express what my before and after opinion is of crime in taiwan is doesnt register, then just read up and know my disclaimer was we probably need to agree to disagree my level of English education cannot explain it any more clearly, sorry!
this is about taiwan. I am not comparing to other countries i have never lived because thats just dumb. Pointing to china and.sayingw e are better is a scape goat. Canada doing the same to the US is a scape goat. Admit our flaws and stop worrying about how our neighbours judge us. Its a poll on opinions before arriving and i am comparing what i assumed before to what i have learned after. It is good to overcome ignorance. As is the whole point. I also enjoy reading other peoples examples. I would love to read more about some folks experiences in this land of not much crime give us some cup half fullisms if you disagree.
The level of industrial noncompliance (and health safety in terms of damaging water and earth and air) in Taiwan is waaaaaay beyond anything I’ve seen in any advanced economy. Taiwan is really in a league of its own here.
I don’t know. I don’t know how things are now. I stopped keeping up with that issue years ago. To guess from your posts, things must have changed for the better since I read this stuff 'way back when:
I should disclose that I’m from Louisiana, which has a historical organized crime problem, but I think it’s unusual for our actual gangsters to run for public office. (Leander Perez might be an exception, but I think he had cleaned up his act a bit–armed-gang-wise, at least–by the time he got directly involved in politics (I think).)
Ho Chi-hui (何智輝), former legislator and former Miaoli county commissioner, who apparently somehow escaped his “watchers” and fled to China and/or elsewhere:
My first ever boss in Taiwan (trading company job) was an academy class mate of the guy they killed in the Lafeyette scandal. He got out of the navy pretty quick after that.
As Marco stated earlier, it is my interpretation that “crime/safety” in this poll context is being discussed as in “personal safety”.
I have been here for many years and never once have felt that I was not safe in Taiwan, from a personal safety standpoint. Then again, I imagine that it may depend on the crowds you frequent.
I work in manufacturing, and “crime/safety” in the OSHA context is definitely a different animal however…
I would also make a few distinctions on what is meant by “crime” and “safety”. I treasure personal safety from a crime-free perspective and the freedom to walk alone wherever and whenever I want or live in whatever neighbourhood I wish to: on this Europe is no match. Taiwan wins all the way. I knew it before moving here and many years later I can confirm it.
The chabuduoness towards traffic, pollution, housing, hygiene (no, the white-vested guys spraying bleach on the streets don’t count ), etc. is a different animal. Same for organised crime, which would make Taiwan “unsafe” based on how widespread and endemic it is, but in reality most of us are unlikely to ever be affected by it.
Arguably, most people are affected by things like pollution. construction crime only ever gets attention in earthquakes or other disasters unfortunately. sometimes we get lucky and find out before mass loss of life, like the kaohsiung MRT collapse. other times, not so lucky like the kaohsiung street explosion. Continuing the norm of band aids over prevention
More like whack-a-mole. That evil guy responsible for the Kaohsiung street explosions perfected his craft poisoning people with his factory in Hsinchu City’s Shuiyuan beforehand. He was chased out of town through incredible persistence of the locals (who staged a 400+ day protest!) before later reemerging in Kaohsiung to cause more grief.
I think it depends on where you are. You get into more remote areas and outlying islands and the mob essentially controls everything — road projects, opening or not of Carrefours, the local industry, every penny that is spent by and employee of every school, etc… I’ve lost track of how many politicians/ people in high places that “died of suicide” at work or while partying at a KTV in Kinmen. Police would go so far as to burn “the rope he hanged himself with” immediately after the “suicide”, not that you can really extract fingerprints from something like a rope. (But why the eff would you destroy evidence immediately following someone’s death if the circumstances weren’t less than obvious natural causes?) If politicians in the US are dying “by suicide” that much, I certainly haven’t heard anything, and there are a lot more politicians in the US.
What? I interact with them often in Taipei and Taoyuan. You think all those tatted up guys driving white or black luxury cars around are just rich kid with tat obsessions?
Leave it to the fugger that cant type worth shit and isnt an english teacher, nor major, to explain english definitions . Crikey.
), etc. is a different animal. Same for organised crime, which would make Taiwan “unsafe” based on how widespread and endemic it is, but in reality most of us are unlikely to ever be affected by it.