State of affairs

I’ve had two girlfriends who’ve been raped (obviously, not by me).

One was drugged and done-in by her boss at a Christmas Party, and the other was again drugged and raped, repeatedly, by a famous KMT official, and his gang.

A few weeks ago, a bus carrying tourists from mainland China, being driven by an unlicensed bus driver drove off a cliff. The skid marks at the site of the accident indicate that the man was not breaking, but was in fact going almost twice the legal and posted speed limit.

Never the less, and despite the fact that I have an ARC card, I guess “substitute teaching” is the real enemy, and after being caught doing that last month, the Taiwanese government will not renew my ARC card, and is in fact, banning me from even stepping foot into the country, for the next five years (it would be laughable, if it weren’t true).

I was going in with my boss and friends on Monday to beg/plead/make a case as to why I am a “good foreigner in Taiwan”. I had copies of my tax statements from the past several years, letters of recommendation from my boss, several students and friends, and thought I had a decent chance.

However, after speaking to at least two different lawyers, and a Ms. Cai at the Beauro of White Collar Crime in Taipei, I discovered that I have “no room” to try anything. She said that I should be expecting a letter soon, and once I receive that letter, I will have around two weeks to leave the country.

Taiwan has been good to me. From my early “young-dumb-and-full-of-cum” days (I even challenged maoman, whoever he is, to a fight at the Q-Bar because he made fun of my spelling) to finally learning Mandarin, and sort of growing up, it’s been great being here.

Along the way, I have also grown an appreciation for Taiwan, its people, and culture. When I first lived in Asia, Seoul South Korea to be exact, people were not people. They were images, shells, ghosts in the darkness silhouettes of humanity, but not animate objects, rather, inanimate things, like puppets. Now, I see eyes, souls, personalities, conflicts, I can see the love in the eyes of a mother towards her child, and the hatred in the soul of a tattooed gangster at the door outside of Luxy. The love, the hatred, dreams, and desires that we all share, no matter what other external differences, languages, or cultural divides that we think we all have.

It’s been a wonderful transformation, and I’m truly blessed to have undergone it.

I’ll close now. While in time, I’m sure I’ll look back on this and laugh, I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’m a bit pissed off right now. Why aren’t those dirty politicians banned from this great land? What about those punk foreigners who take this place for granted? Why aren’t they ban for five years? Is there no justice in this world?

Maybe, maybe not, but Asia is a strange mistress. We’ve all taken long chances in our life, me more than others, and no matter how things end up, compared to some of the things we’ve all seen and done here, weather it be a homeless beggar with no limbs in Viet-Nam, a hooker in Nana Plaza, the Killing Fields in Cambodia, or the flat out ugliness of war in Iraq, I can’t help but feel as though I’m still a very, very lucky man.

Peace.

This is an opportunity in disguise. It’ll all turn out fine. It’s probably just the thing you needed to shake things up a bit.

The only comment I will say about the result of your being caught is: what a shame and what a waste (for Taiwan that is). Sometimes their laws kick out the wrong people and keep in the worse.

I wish you luck and God speed, wherever you take life next. I hope you find opportunity and good fortune in your future endeavors.