Propaganda machines

Many old ex-pats here complain of the noise caused by the celebrations of gods birthday. And for you chirstians out there who think this only happens once a year, the Chinese have a pantheon of Gods that would shame the best pagan, there is a gods birthday 3-4 times a week. Seriously. And they get out the firecrackers and bang a drum and dress up in that lion costume and ask you for money. It is cool at first and then it gets really annoying. Anyways this rarely bothers me. For whatever reason, i have only seen it once or twice. However the real problem is the propaganda machines. This is what woke me up today. It is a blue truck with a megaphone attached to the top, the only equivalent thing we have is the ice-cream truck. He comes down the street blaring his crappy message. It's in Chinese, or possibly Taiwanese, so I have no idea what it is, but I guess it goes something like this: "Come on down to crazy eddie's mattress warehouse, where the prices are so low, you'll think I'm crazy! Located on blah blah street, call blah blah number. Legal disclaimer: Sat. and Sun. only, this message is not actually intended to indicate a sale but simply a ruse to trick you into coming to my crappy store." This message is on a loop, said through a megaphone attached to the top of a truck, said by a girl who sounds about 15 yrs old, and he will pull up to a corner and just stop, so that the loop gets played again and again. I live on the 9th floor, off a side street, not really all that close to the main street, and this woke me up like someone yelling at me in my room. It is like the voice is in your room with you. With all the doors and windows shut and the curtains drawn. So as I realize what has woken me up and why, I start to think about my weapon of choice, but unfortunately I don't have a baseball bat. So I start thinking " A knife?" cause I am really gonna go down there and hurt this guy if he doesn't move that *^#$%&^** truck. Then, finally, agonizingly, he moves off. Just imagine in America, this guy would get pelted with rocks until the police came, especially if he woke you up Sunday am with that shit. Here it is a fun normally happy part of life. Taiwanese like it cause they like to feel like they know what is going on. They think the countryside is boring becuase it doesnt' have stuff like that. In chinese propaganda doesn't have a negative connotation, it simply means "information". But imagine the driver. This tape is about 30 sec. long and its on a loop. And it is sooooo loud. So this guy drives this truck around 8 hrs a day (maybe 10-12hrs actually) listening to the same 30 sec. loop over and over and over. How long until you go batshit insane? For me I wouldn't last a week at this job. You would have to lock me up after a day or two. But his guy does it everyday. I dream about going to the depot and setting off an explosive charge that destroys all the blue trucks at once. Speaking of violence, I also need a small metal pipe to keep in the trunk of my scooter, because everyday somebody cuts me off in traffic and almost kills me, and just blazes away as if nothing happened. So if I ever do actually get hit, and am still able to move afterwards i'm comin for ya. I will go upside your head, preferably with said metal pipe. Tainan, you're on notice. You hit me, we're gonna brawl, and I may lose, but the advantage I have is that the Taiwanese won't expect to have to fight after ramming me. They will expect to just drive away. So when I go upside their head I will definitely get the surprise attack factor in. Of course it could be a woman, so I will stop once I can see it s a woman, but those first few blows will still come. If its a dude, its on and it will be ugly. Another advantage I will have in this situation is that I always wear my helmet, and many taiwanese don't, so when I come after you, i am protected and you ain't, its gonna get ugly. I don't care about the lawsuit, i don't care that your brother/cousin/father/ will come after me and take revenge when I least expect it, if you hit me, and its your fault, i'm goin upside your head. And i've been going to the gym lately.

Hang Saddam

Ah good times. Hanging Saddam. I just only wish that the video leaks and gets posted on You Tube. What a snuff film! The best of all time. Think of the money you could charge people to watch that!

PTSD

My students have PTSD. They have been tortured by the Taiwanese school system for their whole lives, in some cases for 20 yrs. They have been both physically and mentally abused. Once when they were being bad and not paying attention, I said "I should get a ruler to make them pay attention", and my one student in that class with good enough English to understand what I said (out of 50), said, "You can't hit us, we aren't kids". When planning my finals, for finals week some classes regulary meet Tues/Thurs. or twice a week and they all ask me "if we take the final on Tues. do we still have class on Thurs?", and this shocks me cause in America it is understood that of course Finals Week means you just have to take a final and that's it, and after you take a final, what more class can you have anyways? But they are all terribly relieved when I say "no, no more class after the final", which tells me that they are often forced to go to this empty class for no reason, and are therefore held up from going home for winter break for several days. Often my students will get exited and talk in Chinese and start to run a bit wild, so I have to change out of my normal mellow mood and get kinda angry and maybe yell at them. Then they become quiet and still as death for 5-10 min. This is the way they are normally used to being talked to in class, and this is why they are sooo bored in class.

Draft

This says it all.

Freshman Class

My Freshman English class poses for photos in the hallway. They have been waiting patiently for me to post this pic for a while, so here it is, sorry it took so long. They still have a long way to go, but their English has been improving a lot recently. This is a night class, and many of them work jobs, and then come here for class. I have had to improve my Chinese in order to talk to them, but this is good for me. These are only some of them, there are actually 50 students in this class. This is common in Taiwan, and Asia, but luckily I only have three classes of 50, and my other three classes have 6, 5, and 2 students respectively.

Saddam

OK so in "Flags of our fathers" we see US troops trying to raise money for the war, cause back then you actually had to pay cash for wars, you couldn't put them on your credit card like we do now. Bush has cut taxes while paying $2 Billion/week for his war. Imgine that money going to a worthy cause. Why you could turn the whole state of Mississippi around with that kind of money. Or put computers in the classroom, or save the endangered spotted owl, etc. etc. Anyways, so I have an idea for raising money to pay for the war. Nobody wants more taxes right? OK so f%$# the Saddam trail, it is BS anyways. Put him in a bullet proof glass cage where he can stand up or sit down in, and take him on a tour of the US. People would pay good money to see him and have a chance to curse him or spit in his general direction (of course some people would try to kill him, that's what the bullet proof glass is for). You could raise a lot of money. Charge $100 a pop, and go on tour. Next stop, Saddam in Chicago! Then its on to LA.! Special appearance in your town soon!


Another great idea I have for rasing money (and changing US policy) is to have Rumsfeld, Bush, and Cheney all stand there, and people could buy tickets to kick them in the balls. And hundreds if not thousand (or millions) of people would line up. And you could give one of them one good punch or kick. Only one. And the point is you could raise some money, but also, at some point they would give (they would be tied up so they couldn't run away) and then they would beg and ask "what do you want?" and then you could have a list of demands ready, like pull out of Iraq, scrap tax cuts, scrap No Child left Behind, Increase the EPA's funding by 1,000% and so on. And when they laugh and say no way, they get another kick in the balls. This would be very effective. Much better than a trial or an impeachment.

I found this listed under "Why we hate George Bush".

Stuff I do

I have been more active recently, actually than I have been in a long time, doing several things that I have done on and off during the years that I found interesting, but they faded away over the years. Well, for whatever reason, in Taiwan, with my situation, I am able to do these things and it is good. I feel like I can activate myself as a person again. First of all, I don't really watch TV much. Partly because I can't, I only get 7 channels in English, mostly movies, so once you have seen a movie, how many times are you gonna watch it? We also get CNN, but that gets depressing after a while, and ESPN which is in Chinese and tends to cover a lot of sports I don't care about. We also get the Discovery channel and animal planet which are pretty cool. So anyways the choices are limited, and whereas at home I would just come home and watch TV, here that is not so much an option. I have a bunch of cool DVD's including family guy and simpsons, but I try to ration those because I don't know when I will ever get new ones.

So anyway, the point I am trying to make is that I am now active and doing things that I want to do. For example, learning Chinese. Here is my Chinese teacher: She is very active and fun. Unfortunately I only meet her for two hrs a week. But I also have a lang. exchange, but that is also only 2 hrs / week. I need like full time Chinese 20hrs/week. But I will just have to study more on my own. Vocab, pronounciation, and tones are murder. Forget about grammar. But I have picked up many things from osmosis just being here, and my students have taught me many things unwittingly, because their English is so bad that they are always talking Chinese, and I have to learn some survivial classroom Enlgish or I will be eaten alive.

Also I bought a new guitar for around $100, which in the US would be a POS but here it is OK.
My guitar teacher:
He is pretty cool. His English is not great, but he has ESP (English for Special Purposes) and his
English music related vocab is pretty good. Also he is a great guitarist, a good teacher, and a cool
guy.

I have also joined a new environmental group that just started (pictured here) which is trying to do something proactive to help clean up the environment here. Apparently it has gotten better recently, and it is not as bad as China, but it's still pretty bad. We are doing a beach cleanup, and thought about starting a petition, but it can't just be local, Taiwan is very top down and it has to go to Taipei. Anyways we are brainstorming and we are trying to contact other local groups that we can team up with. The air quality is really bad here. Depending where you are in the city, you just can't breathe without a mask. It makes me choke.

Also (and I don't have a picture) I have been going to Meditiation nights at the Yoga center every Wed., and I have met some cool people there, and the Monk in charge is really cool. He is from Texas but left America 21 yrs ago and never went back. He has been doing meditation for 33 yrs. It is really mellow and calm, not severe like Zen. He plays a bit of guitar and there is some chanting. It is very relaxing.

Also I go to the gym (again sorry no picture) and it has weights, treadmill, elliptical, and a swimming pool/spa/jacuzzi. Very nice. I even sometims go running on the track at the high school across the street which you can see in this pic from the roof of my building. I would love to hang out up there, but it just got colder, and there is a TV satellite there, so all those beams aren't good for your brain.

Doing all these things and working 40 hrs/week, I have been very busy (and also a bit of travelling), but I feel very positive and happy, more so than I have in a long time. It is like waking up again after a long sleep. Having recently seen (again) Lord of the Rings (all 3 extended version) and Star Wars 3, which are both Sci-fi stories that I love it made me think about things. If I really believe this, then I must act. You know the point of those stories is that there is good and bad in the universe, and once you wake up and the veil is lifted and you see what's really going on and take the blinders off (most people choose to wear blinders, like the people in the Matrix they are sleeping but living in a bubble world, they just go to work, go home watch TV, talk about the weather, and the health of people in the family, and maybe sports and politics, but that's it) so if you know, if you KNOW, then you can only choose to ignore it for so long. I have been ignoring it for a long time, and this is what has made me depressed from time to time over the last 10 yrs. Knowing and ignoring is worse than not knowing (this is why ignorance is bliss). And I have wanted to take action and be pro-active, but it is hard for me to motivate on my own, I need stimulus, or the right environment. In the US this is out West, Europe is cool too, but for some reason Taiwan brings it all together for me.

Anyhow, back to LOTR and Star Wars,the thing is if you know what's going on, you can only sit on the fence for so long, and then you have to choose sides. Well, although sometimes the dark side seems tempting (you can just wreck shit and be evil and get what you want) in the end it is emtpy and hollow and destroys your soul. And the thing is you want to feel good right? Well getting some things you want makes you feel good temporarily, but feeling good all the time inside is way better long term. So being good is really the only choice. And these movies make it very clear. I mean do you want to be the evil emporer? Do you want to become corrupted like Anakin? Do you want to sell your soul to the devil like the witch king? All these people thought they would gain power but they lost their soul, their humanity, their dignity, and ultimately were defeated. But even before defeat they had become this ugly horrible twisted creature (like gollum). So obviuosly the darkness rots you from the inside, whereas Luke, Obi-Wan, Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Aragorn and so on are who you want to be. You want to shine your light. There is a great quote about this in "Coach Carter" with Samuel L. Jackson that I just saw that kinda sums this all up:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?

You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world. For those around us to feel peace, it is not a good example to make ourselves small. We were born to express the glory of god that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us. While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same. When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others.’

- Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles

This of course, sounds rather Christian, but it could also be Buddhist. I personally would cut out the bits about God, unless you can understand that God is also the "Chi" (or Mohammed or Vishnu or Jahweh or whatever you want to call it, but not just Jesus). That is how I choose to see it. But there definitely is an energy and a power in the Universe, I just don't think it is an old white guy with a beard and a thunderbolt in his hand sitting on a cloud. If so and he created us all in a grand experiment 5,000 yrs ago and is always watching is, he is a sick sadistic bastard. He lets people be raped, tortured, and slaughtered for his own amusement. So no, it is not a conscious being, but an unconscious force that created the universe, and the Universe is finite and it is shrinking (according to Einstein), the big bang started it and now inevitably (I love this word) it is slowing down and going back. Yin/yang there is always a balance. Unfortunately human action has drastically sped up this course of events. Naturally we would all die in millions of years when the sun explodes. But we should have these millions of years to frolic in our happy little world. However we do not, in 20 yrs London and Shanghai will be under water if we haven't nuked ourselves first. The Mayans, Nostradamus, the Egyptians, and the Bible Code all say there will be cataclysimic change in the year 2012. However this does not have to be bad. The true good Jedi, the buddhist monks will fight to protect us (and they say they have foreseen this is in a vision and will win the final victory, but of couse this is all just speculation). It may be a comet, aliens, war, or gloabl warming, but something is gonna happen around Christmas in the year 2012. I just really hope (and I know this is naive, but without hope all is lost) that it can be positive change. That the aliens are good. Or that people figure out how to live in harmony with nature. But it will take a major shock to the sytem to get us on the right track. Right now we are headed for hell in a handbasket, in large part because, we the American people allowed Bush to steal the election from Gore in 2000. We should have marched on Washington like they do in Latin America. But of course the worlds problems are greater tha just America. If Iran gets a nuke, if N. Korea gets a missile to carry their nuke, dirty bombs, terrorists, republicans, etc. etc.

So the thing is, you, me, we, we all gotta do something, because regardless of 2012 I could get hit by a bus tomorrow (knock on wood). Life hangs by a string. We thought we won a political victory, but now a Dem. Sen. is sick and the evil bastard Cheney might take over again. It all hangs by a thread.

So doing these things, and I am going to add Tai Chi is my Jedi training to try to make myself stronger, because when the fight comes, you have to be ready, and if you want to be effective, you have to be strong. Ideally, in 2-3 yrs, when i have some money and my Chinese is better, I will drop out, and go study under a monk for 3 or 6 months or however long I can take it. I know it will be very hard. But I have always wanted to do that. It is the only true path. I can't ever really fully drop out of society because I love my xbox, ipod, internet, and so on too much, but I just know I feel better if I do what's right.

"It's not how you look, it's how you feel. It's not where you're born, it's where you belong, it's not how weak, but what will make you strong."
U2- Summer rain

Cheerleaders

We had cheerleading games at our school the other day. Outside. In December. The cheerleaders cheer at cheerleading championships, they don't cheer for a team. We don't have a real team, just intramurals. Which is really sad because they have a lot of cheer, I mean serious school spirit. They have class until 10pm, and then they practice in a field lighted by floodlights after that. They really j-eye yo themselves (gogogo). This condition is true of many students. In class they are asleep, or half dead zombies, just bored to tears. They drag their body to class, but usually do not bring their minds. However the second that bell rings they come right back to life and want to play ping pong, basketball, cheerlead, go bowling, play computer games, or study? Maybe? I think the Taiwanese sytem has sucked the life out of them, but I guess a lot of American students are that way too. It is just frustrating as a teacher. I tell them turn the Dian Now on. Dian Now means "electric brain" which is Chinese for Computer, and they are there in class, but the switch is not on.

Safe in Taiwan

To follow up on my post about Taiwanese friendliness, you are also totally free of crime or threat here. As America slides toward the abyss, see:

Pennsylvania town mulls recommending guns for all

In Taiwan you are perfectly safe (except for scooter traffic). There is no physical crime, such as muggings or attacks. And almost no stealing, that I see. Of course these things exist. One guy went bonkers in Taipei and attacked some people with scissors before the police came. But he was probably mentally ill, and in America he would have climbed a water tower with a sniper rifle. Some guy did try to break into BeeJen's family home, but father sleeps on the couch downstairs and the noise woke him up, so he started calling to see if it was brother Wu coming home. This scared the burglar away. But the other day I left a CD player and two guitars sitting outside and went into a store, and nobody touched it. I always leave my scooter helmet just sitting on my scooter, and nobody touches it. In contrast, my brother had his backpack stolen while standing on the street waiting for the bus because he turned his back for a minute and left his bag. He also had his car broken into and all his CD's stolen. This is not to say the US is bad. Of course shit happens everywhere. In Poland, I knew a British guy who owned a car (by the way this is a big deal, to own a car, everywhere except in the US where half the 16 year olds have one) and people broke into his car constantly. He refused to get a car alarm based on the principle that he hated the noise when people left their car alarm on all night and he couldn't sleep. Well, he finally changed his mind when he found one morning that a guy had not only broken into his car, but was still sleeping in his car. In Poland poverty and alchohol fed these types of incidents. Once I was biking with my buddy in the woods in Poland on a beautiful Tues. morning in May, and we came upon these two fishermen at a lake. Being innovent, naive, and hopeful, we approcahed them full of good cheer. Turns out they were sloppy falling down drunk. The one guy turned around and puked. On a Tues. morning. In the US these guys would be homeless, but the family structure is very strong in Poland, and Mama and the family will always take care of these guys. Anyways the point is this type stuff just doesn't happen in Taiwan. Partly it is because they don't really drink alchohol, and partly they have money, and partly they have this Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, thing going which says losing face is worse than confrontation and social harmony is the most important thing. This means fighting or violence or anger in public is almost unheard of. Of course there are other societies with the same values (Thailand, China) who have major social problems. But in Taiwan mostly it is chill. Of course they will riot over politics. A man in the legislature last month set off a tear gas bomb in the legislature to protest that the 3rd recall of the president had failed. (Yes the 3rd, and they will go for a 4th, and it will fail too, but they won't give up). This guy, even if he was a congressman in the US, would be arrested as a "terrorist". Here is an eccentric. But politics aside, it is very safe here. I can't tip anybody. Cabbies will studiously count my change and ensure that I get back every nickel. A cabbie in Taipei gave a lady back $10,000US in cash that she left in his cab (even though he had $30,000 in gamblng debts and the gangsters were coming to break his legs, seriously). He followed the lady and when he couldn't find her he went to the police, and then the lady called and got her bag. When they asked him about it, he said he just wouldn't have felt right about it if he took the money. Criminals will try to steal money from locals, but not knowing Chinese ensures safety from all these scams. They lend money at extortion rates, and call the house saying they have kidnapped your son and you have to pay ransom. This usually doesn't work, because everyone has a cell, so they just hang up and call their son and he says, "I'm OK", so they know it's a scam. But they shrug it off. If people did this in the US, you would have the FBI on the case and shit. OK, last example, I go running on a high school track close to my house, which sometimes is lit at night and sometimes not. But nobody is around, you can't see the street, just trees. To do this at night, alone, is not safe in America. Some wierdo guy may attack you. Here I am perfectly safe. The worst that happens is a couple of students are around and gawk at me.

Jianada rocks the House

The Canadian Invasion was a beach party with two stages, one hip-hop and one House. It was at Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung, on the beach. I had never been to this area before, and getting there we saw a very cool waterfront district. The Uni itself is magnificent, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, but I only saw part of it at night, it must be great during the day.

Just to mess with the Canucks I wore this shirt. If you don't know me, you don't know if I am a semi-proud, semi-self mocking Canadian, or an American making fun. There are a lot of Canadians down south where I am. They are by far the largest contingent of "Westerners".
All the Americans seem to be in Taipei. Anyways so it was a good disguise. Many asked which province I hailed from. This girl I talked to said it was strange to see the shirt because no Canadian would be "proud" enough to wear it. (I though it was making fun!). Only an American would do something so silly as wear a shirt with his national flag on it (to Canadians). Lots of people wanted to take my picture. All in all it was a good time. The beer tent was selling beer (corona) for $5US but we found Taiwanese vendors selling Heineken for $2, and they also gave us free water. I should have got a jedi light saber, they had both blue and red, but I got a free glow stick so that was good enough for me. But the light saber would have been fun later for play fighting my roomate. Good times. The DJ rocked it. I am still supposed to get the CD of the show from the guy who sold me the ticket, but I haven't met him yet.

Taiwanese Friendliness

Taiwanese are very friendly. At least to me anyway, because they like white Americans. So far my students have given me teas, coffees, a small stuffed bear, a small seashell (heart shaped) box,
and so on. You can get small repairs and things done for free at shops. I bought a small tea for a quarter from a small stand and the lady gave me a free tea bag (from Alishan, arguably one of the best tea-producing areas in the world). Everytime anyone goes to get gas you get a free box of tissues or a bottle of water. Since these things are practical and you will use them anyways, and they cost about 10NT and gas for my scooter is about 100NT this is like getting 10% off gas everytime. Most places I have been to or called asking for something, if the person doesn't speak English they will call or go get somebody who does. My school has really gone out of their way to meet my "crazy" American demands (to them, to me normal) and have done everything possible to make me happy and feel comfortable.

Me and Bee find another Temple

We found another temple in Tainan just driving around. There are soooo many here. Tainan is a very old city for Taiwan, and some of these temples date back to the 17th C. This is not old by Chinese standards, but then again the commies destroyed all the good stuff on the mainland anyways.

A cool boat. What was it used for? Beats me.
Artwork on the side of the boat. Is this a Chinese Neptune?
It's nice to find these green places because the city is so gritty.
Cannon for defense.
Beautifully landscaped garden and bridge.
The temple entrance.

The People in my Neighborhood

The school cafeteria. This is where I eat lunch almost every day. They are very helpful for me with my poor Chinese, they try to understand me. They are very fast, and really hustle at lunch. The lady on the left has some lungs, when an item is ready she screams that it is ready. And boy can she yell.
Students in my graduate TOEFL class. They hope to go to the US next year to study.
Another TOEFL class. The good thing about these classes (as you can see) is there are only 5 students, so we can actually make progress with specific problems that they have. This is an "experimental" program that we are copying from the Japanese. The "experiment" as far as I can tell, is to have 5 students instead of 50 like all my other classes. I have to right a weekly report on their progress. Overall they are a good lot.
Diana is my office assisstant. She is from Seattle and is doing her IMBA at STUT. Most of the other students in this program are from Vietnam or Thailand, and are in my Chinese class.
Cindy is the go between for me and my boss, so she is always giving me new instructions. We try to smooth relations by going to lunch. sometimes.

We teach the new iBT TOEFL

My office now that it is set up a little bit

The big picture of the office

We are hip to Azar at my Job


Student in the undergraduate night TOEFL class. This class has 50 students. Some nights it goes until 10pm, so it is hard for us to stay awake, but we try. They are motivated though, and mostly, their English is pretty good for Freshmen.
A real action photo of students at work.

A couple of my Grads.
Brooks hard at work. He is one of the other teachers in my program. He's from S. Carolina. Having him around had helped alot, because we are about the same age, like sports, and so on.
Diana and Richard hashing out the issues of the day. Diana is the other American on our team, and Richard is a teacher in the Language Center.

Alright, I know that for a long time a complaint about my blog has been that there were'nt enough pictures of people. I just haven't had time to take so many pictures, but I finally got around to some. So here there are. I know you are all eagerly anticipating...