Although officially a democracy, I still struggle to see the logic behind some of the laws that exist in Taiwan. Not that any democracy is perfect mind, it’s just that in particular, Taiwan seems to have some pretty messed up laws which then result in some pretty messed up court rulings.

Take for example today’s story about how a woman forgetting to log out of Facebook saw her and her lover sentenced to three months in jail. [Read the rest of this entry...]

My first Surly seatpost clamp died on me after three or so years of service back in mid 2011.

Due to whatever reason, it developed a great big crack down the front which eventually led to seatpost slippage failure.

To their credit, Surly sent me a replacement clamp free of charge no questions asked.

I’d been using that on my bike happily until a few weeks ago when I experienced bolt failure (in that it snapped in two): [Read the rest of this entry...]

Curious as to what you can expect if Taiwan ever got into a diplomatic dispute with your country?

Just ask the Filipinos currently living here.

I’d only briefly touched on this a few days ago when I noted that the at least five Taiwanese companies has contacted the government and expressed their desire to “expel” their Filipino employees.

In the subsequent days since, things have only deteriorated.

Occurring in southern Taiwan, where most of these type of incidents seem to happen,

a Philippine worker was attacked by four Taiwanese and beaten with iron sticks and baseball bats in Tainan City on May 16.

According to the police, a 30-year-old Philippine worker was surrounded and beaten by four Taiwanese men when he was on his way to work.

The police said no one that the worker knows has any resentment against him, so the police suspected that it may have been a random attack.

Random as in the attackers might not have known the victim, but obviously they were out for a little anti-Philippine vigilante justice.

Meanwhile the Philippine government aren’t really helping, advising Filipino nationals in Taiwan to ‘eat at home and avoid the streets‘.

Some communities have held rallies saying that they do not welcome Filipinos, vendors in a market in Changhua County posted signs saying that they would not conduct business with Filipinos

Filipino workers in Taiwan who were interviewed by Manila radio stations complained that some shops refused to sell them goods and restaurants would not serve them.

They did not give their names for fear of reprisals. A Taiwanese company that employs Filipinos printed a memo advising them to avoid fishing villages.

And it’s not just Filipinos being targeted either, if you have darkish skin and look south-east Asian, you’re fair game:

“It’s not just Filipinos; all immigrants from Southeast Asia in the country would feel threatened when walking on the streets,” TransAsia Sisterhood Taiwan executive secretary Ly Vuoch-heang (李佩香), who is an immigrant from Cambodia, told a news conference in Taipei.

“I’ve not been attacked, because I’m from Cambodia, but I don’t feel comfortable when people keep asking me whether I’m from the Philippines when I’m just going to buy lunch,” she said.

From the Philippines are you? NO LUNCH FOR YOU. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Not all business names are created equal, with some obviously not suited for acronymization.

Case in point?

I have no idea what the business actually is but I can’t help but giggle everytime I go past it when I visit Taichung. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Apologise, pay the family off, release the damn video footage (morons!), both of you sit down at the negotiation table until you work out who can fish where and maybe… just maybe we can all get on with our lives.

I wrote the above yesterday on the news that the Philippines had sent a “special envoy” charged with apologising to Taiwan on behalf of the Filipino government.

Case closed and the Taiwanese media can get back to reporting on the latest YouTube videos they find.

Not so. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Local Taiwanese media has been saturatingly dominated over the last few days following the machine-gunning of a Taiwanese fisherman aboard an unarmed fishing boat in waters between the Philippines and Taiwan.

For those who came in late, on May the 9th Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) was shot dead by a Filipino “naval cannon“.

A total of 52 bullet holes were found on the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, Liu Chia-kai (劉嘉凱) from the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office, said after examining the 15-tonne vessel that is registered in Liouciou Township (琉球), Pingtung County.

Investigators found 10 holes on the port side, where the bullets penetrated parts of the boat that are quite thick. This means they may have been fired from “heavy weapons,” such as machine guns, Liu said.

Possibly hoping the issue would die down quietly, the Filipino Navy were quick to deny any involvement:

the Philippines’ naval authorities said they had not received any relevant reports on the incident.

The Philippine navy, coast guard, sea police and fisheries and water resource bureau all indicated that they had not received any notices of the attack.

“If a naval vessel was involved in such an incident, we would have received a notice immediately,” said a Philippine naval public relations officer.

“The location where the attack occurred is far from the coast, and our boat was not present at the time,” said Philippine seawater police.

Less than 24 hours later the Filipino Coast Guard claimed responsibility for the shooting, with Philippine coast guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo stating that

the incident took place in Philippine waters and the Filipino personnel had been properly carrying out their duties to stop illegal fishing.

“If somebody died, they deserve our sympathy but not an apology”.

And with that single statement, a barrage of batshit crazy was unleashed. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Some temples in Taiwan are gargantuan monuments built to honour the deities within. Usually built to mark a spot where something spiritual happened or to evoke the protection of one or several of these beings, the general idea is that the more money you spend and the longer the temple takes to build, the more “effective” the temple is.

In contrast to this, dotted around the island you then also have the more personal places of worship. Usually built by a family for personal use or for travellers through the area to come and pay their respects, these temples are much more modest and intimate.

One such temple is that of the Earth God, located just outside Toufen Township’s Vagina Cave. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Gatsby’s Perfect Hold Wax series comes in distinctive plastic cube shaped packaging. While it looks quite big in size, unfortunately when you open up the cube inside you’ve got a narrow cylinder hole that holds the wax.

Coming in at 60g a cube, Perfect Hold Wax is available in three varieties – Extra Hard (black), Short Hair Hard (red) and Medium Hair Hard (white).

I bought all three and have been using them in rotation for around two months now. Here’s my review. [Read the rest of this entry...]

The main obstacle for foreign nationals in Taiwan wanting to apply for Taiwanese citizenship is the unavoidable requirement that you renounce your current citizenship.

Well, that’s not entirely true. If you’re Chinese you get to keep your citizenship because Taiwan’s government doesn’t officially recognise the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

As such the end result is a hugely discriminatory process wherein everybody but the Chinese runs the risk of being denied Taiwanese citizenship and consequently rendered stateless.

Now even though I don’t agree with it, I can appreciate that such arrangements exist in many countries, where citizenship criteria can vary depending on the nationality of the person apply for it. Yeah it’s discriminatory but I’m not about to hold Taiwan to a moral standard much of the rest of the world ignores, that wouldn’t be fair.

What I do object to is why it’s in place.

Ok, so as the Taiwanese government you don’t officially recognise the PRC and thus there’s (conveniently) no issue with PRC citizens being forced to renounce their citizenship to become Taiwanese.

Then what’s all this crap about “we should treat Chinese spouses differently” in the military of late? [Read the rest of this entry...]

If you live in Taipei you’re lucky enough to have the Taipei Zoo right on your doorstep.

Although readily accessible from much of the island, due to the size of Taipei Zoo (maybe I’m just slow but I’ve never been able to see it all in one visit), a trip from another county any further out than Taoyuan and actually expecting to enjoy yourself might be pushing it.

Hardly a substitute for the real thing but as close as some might be able to get to seeing these animals up close is the wild animal exhibit at Taichung’s National Museum of Natural Science. [Read the rest of this entry...]