News right now is covered with live footage of the funeral of some piece-of-shit murdering gangster thug fugitive. He’s getting way better coverage than the fucking president! Shows who’s really in charge of Taiwanese politics. Dirty bastards. Shame doesn’t even BEGIN to describe how the filth in this country should be feeling.
Agreed. Saw the breathless coverage on San Li this morning. Disgusting. I wonder which clean and respectable politicians will turn up to pay their respects.
There it is. Thats the sad, dirty facts of this island.
Makes me feel at home. In Australia (especially places like Melbourne), the local head thugs get the full works when they’re buried. Lovely church funerals with all the trappings, hundreds of adoring locals, approving religious murmurings from the priest, the lot. Of course this is usually when they are Greek, Italian, Croatian, or Serbian. Which is almost always.
And of course, plenty of front page news coverage, not to mention media footage.
Oh by the way, in Melbourne what usually happens is that the family members of the criminals ‘lash out’ at the media for being so hard on their poor dear daddy/husband/mate who was just chronically misunderstood and victimized by the press. Does that happen here?
This will give you an idea of what happens in Melbourne (and this guy was just a toecutter):
[quote]MARK COLVIN: It’s been nearly two years since the last funeral of a gangland figure in Melbourne but this morning’s funeral for the murdered standover man, Mario Condello, wasn’t much different from the 27 other underworld funerals Melbourne’s seen over the last six years.
A member of the notorious Carlton Crew, Condello was shot dead on Monday night outside his home in bayside Brighton. His death came on the eve of a court appearance to defend charges of inciting murder.
Condello’s daughter used today’s service to lash out at the Melbourne media’s fixation with the underworld.[/quote]
[quote]
PETER NORDEN: Raise him on the last day
to rejoice in your presence forever
. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
(sound of music)
DANIEL HOARE: Catholic priest, Father Peter Norden, did his best to bring dignity to the funeral of slain standover man, Mario Condello.[/quote]
[quote]But like many of the other gangland victims’ funerals, today’s service was used as a public platform for voicing resentment. And this time that resentment was directed squarely at Melbourne’s media.
VANESSA CONDELLO: We’ve been there. We’ve see him through the darkest times, when he was treated like an animal, ridiculed, his life completely intruded upon, where those who thought the public had a right to know callously published every detail of his life without consideration of whether it was relevant or not, whether they were writing fact or fiction and they didn’t stop at him. They took things too far when they intruded upon us, his children and his family.[/quote]
Typical celebrity quality media coverage.
Typical lunatic gangster wench:
[quote]VANESSA CONDELLO: Dad, you wanted to protect us and while you were our carer, our guide and our strength, we had to battle those who were the opposite: insensitive, tactless cowards, and those people know who they are. And I know they’re ashamed.
And I’m not angry at them. I forgive them for all the wrong things they’ve done to us because that’s what Dad would have done.[/quote]
Let’s remember that ‘Dad’ was a toecutter. Not an occupation known for overdosing on forgiveness. Stupid wench.
Did he die a natural death in Cambodia, or was he “put down” to make way for someone who could run the syndicate from Taiwan?
There was no mention of how he died in yesterday’s tt.
Ah for once i agree with you. I was pissed off when i saw this on TV today.
They are into child prostitution, human trafficking, you name it.
Just to let those of you know that don’t. The bamboo union gang is a KMT connected gang. That was once know as the green gang from Shang Hai in the 1920’s. They were basically the early KMT or formed a large part of it.
The ex president of Taiwan Lee Deng Hui turned up to the funeral of the last big gangster that died here.
Makes me want to puke. Not because i look down on that gangster, as gangsters are gangsters but more that politicians want to be seen with them or seen to be connected to them. Makes me sick that leaders of society want to be seen with underworld figures.
They are even putting up a huge remembrance picture of the guy in a busy Taipei street. Parents can explain to their kids who the “wonderful” (scumbag) man is. wow what a wonderful example and just to think Taiwan now wants to join the UN!
Absolutely agree with how disgusting the excessive coverage of that thug is, but then I wasn’t expecting any better.
Would a reporter who bothered to make an in-depth piece about the victims of those thugs survive? And would any TV station be brave enough to show it? Me not think so, not in Taiwan.
[quote=“Wookiee”]Did he die a natural death in Cambodia, or was he “put down” to make way for someone who could run the syndicate from Taiwan?
There was no mention of how he died in yesterday’s tt.[/quote]
He died of cancer in HK. I hope it was painful.
All over the news tonight too. They make it seem like a virtual who’s who of the Taiwanese underworld. Did you see that guy who looks like Stripe from the Gremlins movie? They put up what looked like his resume under the heading “zhu lian da lao” 竹聯大老. What did Snoop Dog call it? A Gangsters’ Paradise? As the posts above indicate, the coverage seems like it’s glorifying these scumbags. You can’t begin to imagine what Henry Liu’s widow is thinking about all of this… IHT Story
Gangsters make up a significant portion of Taiwans populace and the underground economy is HUGE.
Japan is like that too by the way.
[quote=“tommy525”]Gangsters make up a significant portion of Taiwans populace and the underground economy is HUGE.
Japan is like that too by the way.[/quote]
At least in Australia gangsterism isn’t glorified in the popular media, as it is in the US.
[quote=“fenlander”]
Just to let those of you know that don’t. The bamboo union gang is a KMT connected gang. That was once know as the green gang from Shanghai in the 1920’s. They were basically the early KMT or formed a large part of it.[/quote]
I’ve always thought Taiwan should rededicate
國父紀念館
(literally “Father of the Nation Memorial Hall” a.k.a. “Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall”) to Big Eared Tu.
How “huge” is the underground economy and what does it consist of?
Also, what is a toecutter?
A toecutter is Australian slang for a criminal who is used to coerce or punish other criminals. They are used as standover men by gangs. Melbourne’s most infamous toecutter is Mark ‘Chopper’ Read:
You can read an enlightening (and genuinely valuable), interview with Mr Read here, conducted by Andrew Denton (arguably Australia’s best interviewer).
In that interview Mr Read helpfully explains what the role of a toecutter entails:
[quote]Andrew Denton: You were a standover man for many years. What is it like to physically dominate another human being?
Mark Read: Well, now, this is where we have… I never actually… A standover man, um… I don’t know what you think a standover man was. This is what we did. We simply went along and we…we negotiated with people. We said, “Rightio, you’re earning 60 grand a night selling heroin, right? I’d like about 20, please.” That’s not too much to ask — $20,000. So why are we even having this conversation, you know? And they wanna argue with you. Well, that’s when it starts getting insulting. I mean, the bloke’s so… And they’re not gonna give you 20 grand. So that’s how it all started. We didn’t just pick on people.[/quote]
As you can see, he’s really very reasonable.
Dont wanna mess with no Toe Cutters thats for sure.
The underworld in Taiwan and Japan as I understand it, operates such businesses as gambling dens, houses of prostitution, loansharking, many night clubs, pachinko parlors, etc. And many so called legitimate businesses where they bid on public construction, etc. Except they tend to strong-arm other bidders and either win the bid themselves or fix the bid so that certain companies will win the bids and then extract a commission.
I was walking past a large building in HK and there was a sign saying it was being built by the YAMAGUCHI GUMI, which is Japans largest underworld organization. Havent read any figures recently about the Taiwanese gang activity. But in Japan the underworld economy was estimated at some 20 billion U.S. dollars per annum. Pretty large.
Japanese gangs count hundreds of thousands of members. Taiwanese gangs are patterned after Japanese gangs in many ways and often cooperate with each other as well
Top Taiwanese gangs include the BAmboo Union, The Tien Tao Men (Heavenly way Gate), the Four Seas Brothers , etc.
Some on forumosa are way more familiar and I am sure they will chime in with more details.
Above is far as I understand it.
[quote=“tommy525”]
Some on forumosa are way more familiar and I am sure they will chime in with more details.
Above is far as I understand it.[/quote]
Yup. This is a dangerous place to be. Myself, I’m a gang of one. Look out.
:beatnik:
I just cut my toe while clipping my nails … Am I promoted now to the rank of Toe cutter … please …
[quote=“Fortigurn”]Makes me feel at home. In Australia (especially places like Melbourne), the local head thugs get the full works when they’re buried. Lovely church funerals with all the trappings, hundreds of adoring locals, approving religious murmurings from the priest, the lot. Of course this is usually when they are Greek, Italian, Croatian, or Serbian. Which is almost always.
[/quote]
Damned, you have GREEK gangsters in Oz? That’s strange to me.
In my country all Greeks open up restaurants, where they serve meat, meat, and meat, and serve a side dish of meat and some meat desert with meat… sauce and make a lot of monkey.
No need to become a gangsta with all those meat-eating Germans.
[quote=“bob_honest”]Damned, you have GREEK gangsters in Oz? That’s strange to me.
In my country all Greeks open up restaurants, where they serve meat, meat, and meat, and serve a side dish of meat and some meat desert with meat… sauce and make a lot of monkey.
No need to become a gangsta with all those meat-eating Germans.[/quote]
One of Melbourne’s claims to fame is the largest Greek community outside Greece. This has certainly brought significant culinary benefits, as you can see simply by walking along Lygon Street (absolutely packed with quality Greek and Italian restaurants). And of course souvlaki bars are everywhere.
Unfortunately we also have a lot of Greek crims.