[quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]Like some guy get creamed by a blue truck because they decided to speed past a red light in a scooter?
Sometimes natural selection works.[/quote]
Bad example. The guy on the scooter could have already reproduced. Natural selection only works if the organism is killed before it reproduces. In this case, it’s unknown.
Bloody hell, another Spaniard (or Catalan…nod to your fellow Barcelonan here) with excellent English…please tell the Taiwanese your secrets to success!
[quote=“wonder”][quote=“Blaquesmith”][quote=“wonder”][quote=“headhonchoII”]I’m not sure what you mean, what would be the point do a red light if you let people drive through it?
There are filter green lights for right and left turns.[/quote]
I didn’t say people should drive through the red light. I said people should be allowed to turn right on the red light and merge with the traffic. That way, there would not be such a surge of traffic when the light eventually turned green and pedestrians would be in less danger.[/quote]
When you say turning right but not crossing the red light… you mean turning right and ramming the pedestrians that are on the sidewalk? yeah, that will teach them to walk instead of driving a huge SUV.[/quote]
Oh dear… Blaquesmith has just given us a textbook example of why it is so important to clearly read a simple post. 
[/quote]
Em, so you are saying drive through the red light?
Or not?
So I brought my kids to the playground this evening, while waiting at the intersection the lights changed to red but I wisely held on for a second or two. Sure enough a car drove straight through the lights (other drivers were waiting so he/she knew what he was doing).
My 500 ml tea cup connected splat onto the side of his/her car with a very satisfying thump. He/she didn’t stop :fume:
I don’t recommend this strategy as it could end up badly for all concerned, but it was a stand for red light vigilantism everywhere 
.
Hell I spent about 4 hours driving around Greater Taichung today, if that doesn’t wind somebody up I don’t know what will.
I’ve often wanted to do this, but rarely have a convenient missile to hand. The last time I tried it was with a rolled-up New Scientist magazine, which connected (completely without effect, obviously) with the passenger side of a blue truck. Other people who nearly got creamed by said blue truck (it was a pedestrian crossing) looked at me as if to say “uncivilised bloody foreigner”. It didn’t seem to register that blue truck guy had done anything remotely wrong.
Quite. If there’s one thing a certain sort of person will not put up with, it’s being forcefully reminded that they’re an asshole, and they will beat your brains out with a tyre iron to prove that they’re not.
That’s the other problem. It really, really winds me up when I tell people why I’m following the rules (for example, by honking long and loud and continuing on my way, as opposed to stopping dead in the middle of a 3-lane, 50kph road to let some bozo creep out from a side road without looking) even though nobody else does. They sort of shake their heads and say, ‘this is Taiwan’, as if to say ‘the laws of physics don’t apply here’. 
[/quote]
lol ‘i am a taiwanese! don’t look down on me!’
Bloody hell, another Spaniard (or Catalan…nod to your fellow Barcelonan here) with excellent English…please tell the Taiwanese your secrets to success![/quote]
As far as I know Catalonia (Cataluña, coño) is still part of Spain (España, cojones). You can check any maps 
Asc dude, take care when skating/cycling/whatever out there. I used to ride my bicycle a LOT back in Madridlandia, but here… no way, I don’t dare. I need a throttle for those special situations involving blind idiots and cars…
If you have a convenient missile in hand to teach bad drivers a lesson better make sure you got a loaded weapon with you as well… because if they come at you with a tire iron you have no defense.
Bloody hell, another Spaniard (or Catalan…nod to your fellow Barcelonan here) with excellent English…please tell the Taiwanese your secrets to success![/quote]
As long as I know Catalonia (Cataluña, coño) is still part of Spain (España, cojones). You can check any maps
Asc dude, take care when skating/cycling/whatever out there. I used to ride my bicycle a LOT back in Madridlandia, but here… no way, I don’t dare. I need a throttle for those special situations involving blind idiots and cars…[/quote]
And here’s a note from the third side of a coin, a guiri living in Barcelona with his Taiwanese wife and child: Barcelona is great for cycling. walking and skateboarding.
Well Jesus80. many citizens here think of themselves as Catalan and not Spanish, rather than Catalan before being Spanish. Nothing to do with geographical location or what’s on their passport …
[quote=“nonredneck”][quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]Like some guy get creamed by a blue truck because they decided to speed past a red light in a scooter?
Sometimes natural selection works.[/quote]
Bad example. The guy on the scooter could have already reproduced. Natural selection only works if the organism is killed before it reproduces. In this case, it’s unknown.[/quote]
Bad driving in Taiwan…Deja Moo. ( The feeling that you have heard/seen this bullshit before) 
DejaMoCar
The feeling that a car is being driven like a scooter
[quote=“pgdaddy1”]
And here’s a note from the third side of a coin, a guiri living in Barcelona with his Taiwanese wife and child: Barcelona is great for cycling. walking and skateboarding.
Well Jesus80. many citizens here think of themselves as Catalan and not Spanish, rather than Catalan before being Spanish. Nothing to do with geographical location or what’s on their passport …[/quote]
Hey, of course. People can think and feel whatever they want. Then, reality is still there 
Anything is being driven as a scooter in Taiwan.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
[quote=“jesus80”][quote=“pgdaddy1”]
And here’s a note from the third side of a coin, a guiri living in Barcelona with his Taiwanese wife and child: Barcelona is great for cycling. walking and skateboarding.
Well Jesus80. many citizens here think of themselves as Catalan and not Spanish, rather than Catalan before being Spanish. Nothing to do with geographical location or what’s on their passport …[/quote]
Hey, of course. People can think and feel whatever they want. Then, reality is still there [/quote]
Not really, the reality is that you are who you think you are. And the reality as you see it does change- referendums and all that …
Well, this is a bit off topic, but reality is what is going on, and it’s perfectly OK if you want to see things in a different way or even if you want to change reality. But don’t get overexcited and see things that do not exist. In example, those idiots who end up in jail in India, because they insisted on declaring they were not Spanish, but Catalan instead. Since there’s no such country, even though they “thought” there was, authorities put them in jail prior to further investigations xD
Just an example of what I’m saying. Another example yet: recently a guy from Germany end up in jail too because he refused to pay some traffic bills and insisted on being the king of his own small kingdom within Germany. You say reality is what you are who you think you are, and my point is that you can think and want whatever you want, but hey, don’t live in denial, don’t try to lie yourself and others. Back to independence movements in Spain, there’s a lot of delusions and plain lies. One example: Catalonia wasn’t ever an independent kingdom as some of the parties claim. They were always under another kingdom. Or just another joke: The Quixote was actually written in Catalan. One more: The Gioconda was inspired on a famous sculpture in Catalonia. Want more? the original “Spanish Jam’on” is actually coming from Catalonia. Ah! and Spain is stealing money from Catalonia!
Hey, I totally respect people wanting to be a new nation. I don’t agree, but I’m not blaming them for that. But there are many angles here, and also lots of lies. Independentists in Catalonia have a very strong propaganda agenda, but you are not aware of the most funny thing here: not even the politicians who are promoting this movement actually believe on the independence: It’s just the carrot you put in front of the donkey’s eyes for making it move wherever you want. Independence is not possible neither convenient for them, for a number of reasons including that it would suppose not to be part of the EU anymore (as Europe already made clear twice). Perhaps because of this the latest polls indicate that the actual trend of the people who want more independence is federalism, which implies that you are still part of Spain.
But as I said this is quite off topic. I have nothing against anybody just for wanting independence. But hey, reality is reality, and there are many stories to be told. You know that if you open a shop in Barcelona, and do not have your board written in Catalan, you get fined? what a modern approach to the problem…
[quote=“jesus80”]Well, this is a bit off topic, but reality is what is going on, and it’s perfectly OK if you want to see things in a different way or even if you want to change reality. But don’t get overexcited and see things that do not exist. In example, those idiots who end up in jail in India, because they insisted on declaring they were not Spanish, but Catalan instead. Since there’s no such country, even though they “thought” there was, authorities put them in jail prior to further investigations xD
Just an example of what I’m saying. Another example yet: recently a guy from Germany end up in jail too because he refused to pay some traffic bills and insisted on being the king of his own small kingdom within Germany. You say reality is what you are who you think you are, and my point is that you can think and want whatever you want, but hey, don’t live in denial, don’t try to lie yourself and others. Back to independence movements in Spain, there’s a lot of delusions and plain lies. One example: Catalonia wasn’t ever an independent kingdom as some of the parties claim. They were always under another kingdom. Or just another joke: The Quixote was actually written in Catalan. One more: The Gioconda was inspired on a famous sculpture in Catalonia. Want more? the original “Spanish Jam’on” is actually coming from Catalonia. Ah! and Spain is stealing money from Catalonia!
Hey, I totally respect people wanting to be a new nation. I don’t agree, but I’m not blaming them for that. But there are many angles here, and also lots of lies. Independentists in Catalonia have a very strong propaganda agenda, but you are not aware of the most funny thing here: not even the politicians who are promoting this movement actually believe on the independence: It’s just the carrot you put in front of the donkey’s eyes for making it move wherever you want. Independence is not possible neither convenient for them, for a number of reasons including that it would suppose not to be part of the EU anymore (as Europe already made clear twice). Perhaps because of this the latest polls indicate that the actual trend of the people who want more independence is federalism, which implies that you are still part of Spain.
But as I said this is quite off topic. I have nothing against anybody just for wanting independence. But hey, reality is reality, and there are many stories to be told. You know that if you open a shop in Barcelona, and do not have your board written in Catalan, you get fined? what a modern approach to the problem…[/quote]
I don’t want to engage into a pointless discussion, but half of the things you say are simply not true. The politicians are not promoting anything. It’s the people who actually want the change to happen, and the politicians have to follow suit or be replaced. Simple as that.
The “latest polls” as you say, which I believe to be the ones that “El País” published recently, are completely fake. Only a handful of people still believe on the federalism, precisely because we’ve been trying that. Our last try was with the Estatut in 2006, and it ended up being pointless, with the spanish government refusing to comply with what is left of it after the cuts made by the spanish government and after that, by the “Constitutional” Tribunal. People is fed up with everything, fed up with the spanish media critisizing the catalan people, which is only asking to be allowed to vote democratically if they want to secede or not, and then just accept the result that comes out of the referendum.
In a true democratical country, that wouldn’t be a problem. In UK, allowing Scotland to vote is not a problem. But then, that’s Spain we’re talking about. They don’t want people to think, much less to vote. And that’s another reason for many catalans to wish their freedom.
[quote=“Blaquesmith”]
I don’t want to engage into a pointless discussion, but half of the things you say are simply not true. The politicians are not promoting anything. It’s the people who actually want the change to happen, and the politicians have to follow suit or be replaced. Simple as that.
The “latest polls” as you say, which I believe to be the ones that “El País” published recently, are completely fake. Only a handful of people still believe on the federalism, precisely because we’ve been trying that. Our last try was with the Estatut in 2006, and it ended up being pointless, with the spanish government refusing to comply with what is left of it after the cuts made by the spanish government and after that, by the “Constitutional” Tribunal. People is fed up with everything, fed up with the spanish media critisizing the catalan people, which is only asking to be allowed to vote democratically if they want to secede or not, and then just accept the result that comes out of the referendum.
In a true democratical country, that wouldn’t be a problem. In UK, allowing Scotland to vote is not a problem. But then, that’s Spain we’re talking about. They don’t want people to think, much less to vote. And that’s another reason for many catalans to wish their freedom.[/quote]
Man, I don’t want to discuss it either, but I can say the same: what you say is not true. And I have been involved in many discussions about the topic. And yes, the media from Madrid talks shit… the same, or even less, than the media from Barcelona. So? Politicians in Catalonia have worked a lot for getting more adepts for their cause, and it’s simply a fact. People in Spain are fed up, everyone. Every single territory; it’s not something so unique that happens only in Catalonia and Vasque Country. As for the UK, the case of Scotland is just different. And the same that “Spanish politicians” do not want you to think, the messiah Artur Mas wants exactly the same, and hey, looking at the facts… I’m sure he’s actually good at manipulating people. He just fucks up all the social benefits and still lots of idiots complaining about the “fascists” from Spain. The worst police in Spain is the infamous Mossos (Catalonia), but the “oppression” comes from that fascist state… no shit. I could keep going, but as you said it’s pointless. I just wanted to point out that things are not as sold by the “Govern”, neither as appear on cartoons made in Taiwan. Catalonia has a big problem of corruption as well (Pujol, ERC, the famous “2 percent”, etc).
Shit, I seem to have unintentionally stirred a classic Madrid-Bcn dispute, just by being here! hahaha
We all (Spaniards/Catalonians) know what a tricky subject this is… I’m sorry, but I’m not getting into it here. Maybe another day, in person, with a beer in hand. Much better! But I won’t even promise I’ll get into it then. One of the reasons I left Barcelona/Spain is politics. See, I’m son of a Basque and a “Maña”, grandson of a Navarro and an Andalusian (one a communist, the other one a cop), and I’ve lived all my life in Barcelona. So my answers won’t be short…
Back to the topic: thanks for your replies! I left my skateboards in Barcelona and haven’t bought a bicycle yet (but I really want to, Neihu seems safe enough, specially the mountain trails). Regarding my English, short answer: I was a very lucky little dude because my parents gave me a proper education when I was a kid. I’ll keep the long answer (if anybody cares) for that beer.
And pgdaddy1, you’re back in Barcie? How are the panellets this year? I hear there’s not too many bolets due to the lack of rain. What kind of a guiri are you? I have many guiri friends back home. I bet we have some connections in common.
[quote=“asc”]Shit, I seem to have unintentionally stirred a classic Madrid-Bcn dispute, just by being here! hahaha
We all (Spaniards/Catalonians) know what a tricky subject this is… I’m sorry, but I’m not getting into it here. Maybe another day, in person, with a beer in hand. Much better! But I won’t even promise I’ll get into it then. One of the reasons I left Barcelona/Spain is politics. See, I’m son of a Basque and a “Maña”, grandson of a Navarro and an Andalusian (one a communist, the other one a cop), and I’ve lived all my life in Barcelona. So my answers won’t be short…
Back to the topic: thanks for your replies! I left my skateboards in Barcelona and haven’t bought a bicycle yet (but I really want to, Neihu seems safe enough, specially the mountain trails). Regarding my English, short answer: I was a very lucky little dude because my parents gave me a proper education when I was a kid. I’ll keep the long answer (if anybody cares) for that beer.
And pgdaddy1, you’re back in Barcie? How are the panellets this year? I hear there’s not too many bolets due to the lack of rain. What kind of a guiri are you? I have many guiri friends back home. I bet we have some connections in common.[/quote]
My father is from the south and his family was republican, my mother was from the north and her family more… well, let’s say conservative xD I understand you; that’s basically the story of Spain in short xD
Neihu is quite a nice place where you live, and sidewalks are really big. However, please keep in mind that lots of people ride and drive like if they were in a competition, and yes, I mean in the mountains…
[quote=“asc”]Shit, I seem to have unintentionally stirred a classic Madrid-Bcn dispute, just by being here! hahaha
We all (Spaniards/Catalonians) know what a tricky subject this is… I’m sorry, but I’m not getting into it here. Maybe another day, in person, with a beer in hand. Much better! But I won’t even promise I’ll get into it then. One of the reasons I left Barcelona/Spain is politics. See, I’m son of a Basque and a “Maña”, grandson of a Navarro and an Andalusian (one a communist, the other one a cop), and I’ve lived all my life in Barcelona. So my answers won’t be short…
Back to the topic: thanks for your replies! I left my skateboards in Barcelona and haven’t bought a bicycle yet (but I really want to, Neihu seems safe enough, specially the mountain trails). Regarding my English, short answer: I was a very lucky little dude because my parents gave me a proper education when I was a kid. I’ll keep the long answer (if anybody cares) for that beer.
And pgdaddy1, you’re back in Barcie? How are the panellets this year? I hear there’s not too many bolets due to the lack of rain. What kind of a guiri are you? I have many guiri friends back home. I bet we have some connections in common.[/quote]
Hi Asc, we are living in the Sagrada Familia area of BCN. What a great city right ?! I’ve only seen one other Eurasian couple here and they were tourists ! We get quite a few looks walking the streets in our area (not nasty ones, but it really pisses me off that the locals here find it so difficult to crack a smile ! The streets of BCN are really quite sombre outside the city centre/ beach area ) but no negative comments and generally a lot of positivity towards us. BCN is so multicultural now and you see quite a few locals who have adopted Chinese children, hence I have already been asked a couple of times whether our little one is mine !
I am the British type of guiri but maybe not the typical one as I speak Spanish along with several other languages, and even took one of the free Catalan courses provided by the Generalitat.
Let me know when you are headed back this way !
Regarding Catalan identity, I don’t see that it has anything to do with politics. If you feel Catalan then you have a right to call yourself one. Ditto for any number of nationless identities such as Palestinians or gypsies.