Okay. I’m obviously lost. Can you direct me to the “Fouled Our Nest” thread because I’m not done giving those people a piece of my mind yet?
Thank you.
As would washing hands with soap.[/quote]
And hot water in the kitchen.
They should stop doing dishes and food prep on the sidewalk … looks third world like as if they live in a small hut and don’t have a kitchen
Responses to dumb posts were sent from my Nexus 7, I hate Apple BTW, with Tapatalk 8
As would washing hands with soap.[/quote]
Are they primary criteria for a seat at the G8 summit? I mean, I enjoy a pristine khazi as much as the next citizen, but I don’t see it a major socio-economic barrier. 
[/quote]
Perhaps not. (for some reason this has me imagining Deng Xiaoping meeting world leaders with his spittoon). Actually, as for ‘technique’ I think it is safe to say squatting 
is superior to sitting :bluemad: . It’s just amazing that a country so obsessed with education fails to teach basic sanitation. In my school I have never seen another male use soap. One guy washes his hands before but not after. Some wash two fingers and a thumb, often for only a second or two. When the soap eventually runs out I go and buy another bar myself, rather than inform the management who see it as a very low priority.
As would washing hands with soap.[/quote]
And hot water in the kitchen.[/quote]
Maybe even a few more men in their too.
As would washing hands with soap.[/quote]
Are they primary criteria for a seat at the G8 summit? I mean, I enjoy a pristine khazi as much as the next citizen, but I don’t see it a major socio-economic barrier. [/quote]
Shaking hands is an important part of the G8 summit meetings.
Taiwan is very developed. The only place with more concrete would be Japan.
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As would washing hands with soap.[/quote]
Are they primary criteria for a seat at the G8 summit? I mean, I enjoy a pristine khazi as much as the next citizen, but I don’t see it a major socio-economic barrier. [/quote]
Shaking hands is an important part of the G8 summit meetings.[/quote]
I never touch people. But then again, I probably lack the social skills to be a world leader. Shaking hands is an odd custom but I loathe the new British thing of lunging for a kind of backslappy bearhug. Ngrnnnnn! Don’t fcking touch me!
The sensible thing to do is to wash your hands before peeing, the social thing is to wash after. I’m a zealous hand washer, especially since a stomach bug had me treated for dehydration in A&E and the doctor casually said ‘oh, you could have picked it up from a bus handrail or anywhere really!’
Taiwan is pretty good at public health, generally speaking, though, don’t you think? Women’s health could be better, with stuff such as cervical screening being less promoted than it should be, but stuff like public smoking bans makes it less peasantish, and you see a lot fewer people spitting and pissing in the street in Taipei than n the past.
I still do all of those things, although, admittedly, in a more refined and sensible manner than the local riff-raff.
‘On the Question of Sanitation’ by Nat Mee Pu
It’s an interesting thing toilets in Taiwan. You’ve got a range from Trainspotter’s jacks right up to loos in the malls that you don’t really want to leave.
The quality of public toilets is really good though in Taiwan, have to hand it to them, and they never charge. 
[quote=“headhonchoII”]That wasn’t the question here , that was another thread.
I don’t see the charm in air pollution, noisy scooters , contaminated food and shithead drivers.[/quote]
But HH my friend , who was only given 1000NT to vote for his local politician, said that he does not really care about all that stuff. His local politician helped him get 10 Million NT for his smallholding ,so they can build some really expensive houses and maybe a Power station…(he’s not sure exactly what). He can go and buy a large,black Mercedes and have a better life. He seems happy enough.
After returning to the US for these last two weeks, I’m guessing that the ridiculous prices for groceries in Taiwan probably keep the poor poor.
Well the US has massive hidden govt support for farmers, and massively industrialised food production (read: High fructose corn syrup), so their price structure is quite skewed.
Indonesia and India also have super cheap food, for similar but different reasons.
so it’s not quite a universal truth.
[quote=“finley”].If they ever have, they’ve probably died of terminal boredom… and Taiwan will be close enough to “arriving” without becoming a social Volvo.[/quote]See what you did there? It’s called Sweden. That’s how Volvo was created. That’s why I’m sitting in my apartment with wallpaper, insulation and heating, reading this thread and thinking about moving back to Taiwan.
Just like there are no shortcuts in nature, there are also very few shortcuts in development.
Korea, Taiwan and to a lesser (though on a grander scale) extent China have all come further, faster than any other nations on Earth (I exclude HK and Singapore here because it is much easier to manage a city than a country).
These countries have all the top flight shit that the best countries have, and in many cases they are newer and better (airports, highways, mass transit systems etc.), but when you grow and advance so quickly a lot of the little shit still lags behind and that shit takes generations to catch up. And with rapid development comes have and have nots, pollution, inequality etc.
That is where we are here, and the rest will just take time and an adjustment of priorities. Right now the priority is chasing the Yankee Dollar, as time moves on it will be about bettering people’s lives.
This is the word of the Deuce, thanks to our Lord Deucy Deuce.
chinese culture… well, the negative parts of it.
Expensive cars and dress code … you don’t drive a Mercedes covered on one side in betelnut spit into town wearing cheap blue slippers …
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[quote=“urodacus”]Well the US has massive hidden govt support for farmers, and massively industrialised food production (read: High fructose corn syrup), so their price structure is quite skewed.
Indonesia and India also have super cheap food, for similar but different reasons.
so it’s not quite a universal truth.[/quote]
I don’t think farm subsidies are exactly “hidden” in the US, but my understanding is that they’re used primarily as a jobs program and as a means of manipulating markets to make them favorable to imported goods from South America.
Since India and Indonesia are other examples of places with cheap food, what countries have highly subsidized and industrialized food production, but still have high food prices? Japan? Taiwan? Japan’s problem is pretty obvious, but Taiwan is much more open to importing goods, so why would the markup for those imports be so high?
Farm subsidies are the thin end of the wedge. The entire food production system, from seeds and genetics, through land management, storage, transport, and retail, is heavily skewed in favour of big business. About 80% of the price you pay at the till is pure profit, spread among many different sticky fingers. The food may be (relatively) cheap, but the ingredients that go into it are virtually worthless. Hence the epidemic of diet-related disease and morbidity in the US, Europe, etc.
Apart from the usual suspects (asparagus, seafood, etc) food in Taiwan is extremely cheap. Eating out is also very affordable, even if you’re on a low income. Can you give examples of “expensive” food?
I can’t think of a single country that doesn’t subsidize the food industry in some way, or at least support it with protectionist legislation. I suppose the only ones that don’t are the ones that can’t afford to. There’s a very simple reason: food price volatility leads to riots, and gov’ts hate riots. Bullets cost money. In the end, subsidies do bring political stability, but they have little to do with the relative retail price. They affect what kinds of food you have access to, or which ones are cheap. In the US, for example, starch, sugar and soy protein are abnormally cheap, so vegetables (which are, in fact, reasonably priced) appear expensive in comparison.
I’ve not noticed particularly large markups on imports (except luxury goods, obviously - they mark those up because they can). Mostly you can’t even tell from the price if something’s local or imported.
[quote=“ehophi”]
Since India and Indonesia are other examples of places with cheap food, what countries have highly subsidized and industrialized food production, but still have high food prices? [/quote]
Most of Europe.