London Update 3

There’s been some major developments – I’ve surfed to another couch in a new neighbourhood, started a new job and found an apartment within the space of four or five days. Surprising really, given how slow things were moving in the first few weeks.

In the shadow of the Giant Gherkin

From Wendy and Deno’s IKEA fold out bed in Dalston, I surfed over to Emma’s ‘couch’ in Whitechapel last weekend. Whitechapel is in the heart of the East End, around the Brick Lane area – you can’t miss Sir Ian Foster’s Giant Gherkin every time you look up to check if its still raining. It’s another smorgasboard of cultures and flavours in this exciting and eclectic part of town – ofcourse the stronghold of London’s Bangla population, the home of the cockney, and a playground for the young alternative sub culture of semi punk bohemian types that are too cool for the yuppie rules and etiquettes of the West End and the increasingly toursity and plastic Camden.

I can’t stop singing the East Enders theme song every time I walk past this cute little cozy pub on the corner. 1, 2, 3, 4 – dodo do do do doo dooooo, dodo dodo doo do do do do do deehhh doooooh. The girls and I celebrated St Pats day there with a toothful of Guinness. The complimentary hats make us look a bit like Qing Dynasty concubines some how though.

And on the right is Alutesia (Emma’s Brazilian flatmate who is a diving instructor in England to learn English and the only Dyke on Bike in the Tribe... ), myself and Daiv hanging out in Brick Lane last night, where we met more random enlightening English people (on the left). OK, the one in the Samosa hat is actually Norwegian.

New Job in Holborn

My new job is on Lincoln’s Inn Field, around a public square/park which used to be a former execution ground in Holborn. Holborn is a very commercial area full of offices and numerous good pubs (when you have lots of offices you have lots of pubs, its just how it works here), it lacks much more character than the neighbouring busy Covent Garden. However, Lincoln’s Fields which is only one row back from the mainstreet is in an alternative universe in a beautiful surrounding much inherited from the 17th century. Most of the buildings in the area had been built through out the last three or four centuries and many of them are historically protected, a notable one being the Old Curiosity Shop which Charle’s Dicken’s book was based on. The law courts next door is a giant secluded almost mysterious Ivy League campus styled area with grand brick castle like wings and beautifully manicured flowering gardens – all just one steel iron gate away from the hustle and bustle of Fleet Street and Kingsway’s buses, black taxis, pedestrians, marketers and free London Lites, completely left at peace and in dignity. I just can´t wait to immerse myself in the middle of this great neighbourhood in the lunch times - when it gets warmer though, I suppose!

New Apartment in Bayswater

Another interesting turn in my mad life. I will be sharing an acclaimed architectually dsigned apartment in Bayswater next to Hyde Park and the Nottinghill markets with its landlady Victoria, who is an Italian-Ethiopean former Italian Literature lecturer turned Fashion buyer in her 60s. why would I want to share an apartment with someone older than my parents you ask? Victoria is crazy and eccentric and full of fascinating stories from a life of rich events and experiences. She speaks six languages, been married three times, and have traveled pretty much all over the world four or five times over. She just knows SO MUCH about things like history, food, spirituality, art, etc, I really think I am going to learn a lot from her. Vicky is charging about a quarter of the current market rent for the room just to get someone to amuse her and keep her ideas young. She usually take Japanese girls (the ad was posted at the Japan centre when Em and I dropped in for Miso) as they are very ‘agreeable’ and ‘well behaved’ – but she decided that a near enough version will do because we pretty much clicked instantly. I have a feeling that I will be very much like her when I get to her age. I think it will be fascinating to live with her and can’t wait to meet some of her interesting friends. I´ve always found friendships with older women of my mum´s age really fruitful for me because they mentor me and play a mother figure to me without the intensity of family members or treating me like a complete child, I think its gonna be great.

I move in tomorrow!

ps.

I´d like a to wish all Taiwanese people and Mr Frank Hsieh very good luck for tomorrow´s Presidential Elections and the UN referendum. May courage and integrity be on our side!

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/03/22/2003406598

Rally in Taipei - Gumbade Taiwan

Aunt Jean, my sister and I went to this huge UN for Taiwan rally/concert in Taipei on Saturday - marking the end of a successful round-the island marathon type thing trying to get around 3 million signatures on the petition to hold the UN for Taiwan referendum in March 2008. The atmosphere was superb and music was really fun, but the great speeches by President Ah-Bian and Frank Hsieh (DPP Presidential Candidate) was the cream on the icing. And hello stardom - the three of us got on TV a few times head banging to the rap (can you believe that this guy is the Minister of the Government Information Office??) what a blast, though Cindy and I had to make sure Aunt Jean didn't have a heart attack, she was pretty wild. Unfortunately camera played up so borrowed a few pics from http://www.socialforce.tw/people/ for the moment.

A-Gong is out of hospital and doing really well. He can pretty much do all the daily things by himself now and eating well. So I'm heading back to NZ via Australia (for sure this time) early Wednesday morning. Its hard to leave when there's so much excitement going on here, but unemployment and lack of green space & alcohol is catching up on me, so going home to regroup is the best plan for now.

My Name's Taiwan:咱ㄟ名是台灣

We're Already Independent, Stupid! 笨蛋 -我們早就獨立了!
I thought I should clarify some terminology here. Although most people know about the movement to create a Taiwanese state as "the independence movement", Taiwan is in fact already an independent and sovereign territory. Taiwan does not need to become independent from the People's Republic of China (PRC), because it has never actually been part of the PRC. Therefore its not even a "secession" or "splittist" movement as they coin it in PRC - just like it would be absurd to get a divorce without even getting married at the first place. But generically, Taiwanese Independence is still widely known as the movement to establish a Taiwanese state free from any Chinese ties, whether it be the Repulic Of China (ROC) or the PRC.

Taiwan, unlike Tibet or Hong Kong or Macau, has every prerequisite of an independent nation. First of all, constitutional sovereignty over its territory (Taiwan main Island and its outlying Islands of Penghu, Jinmen & Matzu etc), a defence force which guards the security of the territory and its 23 million citizens, a governance structure based on democratic elections, a judiciary system to protect human rights, formal foreign diplomatic relationships, separate economy& currency etc etc. All of this is completely independent from and operational without the PRC's Beijing government.

Rectify Our Name 台灣正名
What the Taiwanese people are working on at the moment is asserting Taiwan's formal statehood by RECTIFYING Taiwan's name from ROC to Taiwan. The Kuomingtang (KMT) led ROC government has been occupying Taiwan since 1945 - and Taiwan has been forced to use ROC as a name, which has created a number of difficulties for Taiwan internationally (eg. UN & bilateral diplomatic relationships), because it implies that Taiwan wants to represent China or is a part of China, or that there are "two Chinas". No wonder China (PRC)'s pissed off!!

Therefore to get rid of these array of confusions as well as the PRC's misleading claim over the Taiwan's territory, we need to change our state's name formerly to Taiwan, from a "Chinese state" to a Taiwanese state. Simple as that.

What I've been up to 2

Meanwhile I've been getting back into my favourite political (and personal) subject. Thinking about Taiwanese politics always gets my pulse racing, and being back here it has basically dominated my spare time. The one thing that has shaped the person that I am and the beliefs I have today is being born a Taiwanese, and witnessing and experiencing the pro-democracy movement as a young child. I am part of a generation that has been spared of the sad and unjust Chiang Kai-Shek autocracy, and grew up in an atmosphere of sweeping changes and political awakening. And while living overseas, I have continued to support the pro-democracy movement and the Independence movement. I would never be able to forgive myself if I am not part of this important sojourn. I remember getting a death threat sent to my house back in 2004, most likely from a Chinese, after one letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, would you believe. Things like that would never make me change my mind or my ways, because so many other people have had a much sicker ordeal in their personal journey for Taiwan. Every Taiwanese person knows how to fight back - it runs in the blood, just don't get it boiling.

And so every time when I come home and plunge myself back into people who share the same culture and history as me, the reconnection and reaffirmation of my beliefs is always so overwhelming. Every two years or so the politics gets a bit further and sometimes messier, but coming home and getting pulled back into being a Taiwanese person standing on Taiwanese soil the affect on my soul is always so enriching and welcoming, because I can see clearly how far Taiwan always moves through this time of absence and sometimes disconnection. This is perhaps why its so different for me coming home to Taiwan as opposed to visiting a new country for the first time. It absolutely awes me to think how extremely different this Taiwan is to the one that I left in 1990, and certainly the one that I was born in in 1980. In the twenty seven years of my life time Taiwan has transformed from a one-party autocracy under the White Terror into a multi-party democracy with open and free elections, and government monopolised media to a smorgasbord of free press all over the Internet and cable networks, and from a people basically forced fed Chiang Kai-Shek/Kuominggtang's version of Chinese dominated political history to a people that question, discuss, write, and create a history that centers around the Taiwanese identity. And this is against repression from the old KMT autocracy whom were still murdering and jailing dissidents up till the early 1990s, and that is against the military threats and international assaults from Mainland China. That's courage and that's guts. So that's my fullest respect and gratitude and pride. And hence the above post re UN for Taiwan campaign. If all this could happen in the 27 years of my life time so far, I know much much more is going to happen in the next 27 years of my life. I am so very very optimistic and positive that I will see a Taiwanese State raise its flag in every country in this world before my last breath. I want it!

Myanmar #2: 我抓狂了!!!

I always knew that the Chinese government has an extremely strategic method of controlling access to information/news as well as manipulating political messages to its people through the way it owns/regulate/control news reporting and editing (and rest of public political space, for that matter) etc, but never to the extent and the blatant falseness I witnessed myself while I was there.

The situ in Myanmar in the last few weeks for example, is like HUGE, but I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT till when I got back to Taipei. It really baffles me how successfully they are at keeping ANYTHING they don't want their people to know from them, and how good they are at diverting people's attention from what should be important (in my mind) to obliviously happy subjects like those bloody Friendlies. No wonder they were willing to cut throat for the 2008 Olympics. Don't get me started on how else they have been writing about Taiwanese politics just yet (just you wait). How its pretty self-destructive at the end of the day to keep one's own people from knowing about the world just because they don't want their people to realise the shameful way they've been conducting in international politics. Isn't it nice to back a few more autocratic police state leaderships so China doesn't look so bad? Wake up China, get off your high horse your face needs a good clean whether you still have it or not.

Thank you Nat for sending the link by Avaaz re Burma, here it is again,
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/t.php?cl=21221990While personally I don't think President Hu is going to give a rats arse about what we think, I think the more people know that he ain't giving an arse about what we think the better. But I recon the kids on Facebook are pretty revolutionary too.

Its when I get back to Taipei and witnessed the complete contrast in freedom of the press, political awareness, and the matter of fact expression of public opinion, it hit home to me on exactly how much is at stake should China one day take over this island. It baffles me that the international community, including both Australia and New Zealand chooses to backdown from China and its requests to shun Taiwan where ever it tries to have any sort of international representation and voice. It is so extremely ironic, in the sense that Taiwan can not have normal/basic diplomatic relations with most countries in the world, and therefore unable to make any direct impact on stopping atrocities happening in Myanmar, whether it be sanctions of any kind or requesting action in the UN. Despite not possessing much international leverage, the Taiwanese people are committed towards human rights nevertheless, because we know from our own sad history that its WRONG without it ( http://www.cna.com.tw/eng/cepread.php?id=200710010044 and http://www.dpu.org.tw/En/newsDetail.php?Mode=News&ID=2007&ArticleID=44 ), while ironically, China has more international leverage than any other country in the world at the moment on Burma, they choose to stay in support of the perpetrators http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7015526.stm .

What is wrong with this world? If this is a world that has its eyes open, about Burma as well as simple pure logical justice, then take this: How about China out of the Security Council and Taiwan in the UN - Sign up here.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-un-membership-for-taiwan.html

Town, Beach and Country

Lisbon is an incredibly chilled out town for a capital city. The Jacarandas are on full bloom and the streets are lined with old tile marble stones and faded statues, small monuments and relatively creative "street art". I-ve been wondering around the streets all day just poking around enjoying the sun and relatively pollution free air. The hilly area of Alfalma is gorgeous and traditional, small houses line the streets, even though they look uneven, the vintage beaten look is so very attractive with a huge festive look with ribbons, flags and decorations lining the walls and balconies. Old school trams run up and down the street casually tries to miss the pedestrians. Prices are so much lower here and I was able to stock up a week's worth of food and alcohol for seven Es. Woo hoo!

The locals are so sweet. They are generally very dark in their facial features and are much more petite than other Europeans. Brash, love their drink, their music, and their pork served in big chunks. They are a lot more relaxed and welcoming than the Spanish. I met this Spanish doctor who treats a lot of broken Australian limbs in a busy Barcelona hospital at the hostel, she says the Spanish are just sick of tourists. But the Portuguese are laid back as they don't get the crowds in the same way, and are still relatively economically in need of tourists so they are pretty friendly to most visitors.They have a huge pride about their past as world super power and have no qualm about bagging out the Spanish and the Americans. If you think ppl in Macau, Brazil, Timor Leste and Mozambique all speak Portuguese, then you wouldn't be surprised to know that its actually the seventh most widely spoken language in the world. But the Portuguese have given up on world domination, while some others are still trying.

Seeing a green cargo with the Taiwanese shipping company's logo "Evergreen" painted on it made me think so much today about my first home, Taiwan. The first Westerners to reach Taiwan were the Portuguese back in the 1500s and gave it the name "Ilha Formosa", which means The Beautiful Island, and that was the name it was known to the rest of the world till World War II. Before that time the Portuguese also set up shop in Taiwan and used the northern port of Tamsui as a trading port, and fought continuously with the Dutch, Spanish and English to control the Fort till the Chinese and Japanese took over. The name Formosa has since become synonymous to the Taiwanese Independence movement after a pro-democracy magazine was named after it and the KMT tried to ban it, sparking the end of martial law over Taiwan imposed by the KMT government in the mid 80s. To me, Formosa asserts Taiwan's identity as an outlooking worldly nation, as oppose to the self-centered and self-obsessed Chinese. Being a Portuguese given name is also a reminder that it will forever be struggling off its unfortunate history dominated by colonialism and foreign powers. But the meaning behind the name is a poetic and optimistic lament about both outer and inner beauty and strength of the Island and its people. I still get emotional thinking about the unfortunate but brave history of my country. Visiting Portugal brings it back home for me. When will we have a home of our own?

My Top Recoms for Lisbon
http://www.lisbonpoetshostel.com/index.php
Walk around the Castle next to Alfalma
Night out at Barrio Alto
Beach at Cascais
Belem for the antique markets and the egg tarts

Uranium, China, Australia, Taiwan

Well why the bloody hell am I not surprised that the federal government is selling uranium to China? and why do I think its the most stupidest decison they have made (this week)?

First of all, second of all, and third of all: Money
Obviously domestic pressures would never see Australia have a nuclear power station (for all the right reasons ofcourse), so what are they going to do with all the stuff sitting in the ground (by the way, aboriginal land, where the traditional owners don't want a mine, and don't want a waste dump put back in there to pollute their land and their health either). Export it. Where? Anywhere where public information is limited and controlled, and political oppression is rife and demand for energy for a booming industrialising economy is high, and the government and the big businesses licking their arse can do whatever they want. The offshore businesses loves you, the onshore businesses loves you, you get a big chunk of GDP growth/foreign reserves, voters are happy cos the nuke waste isn't coming back here, wah lah, k'ching!

No empathy for the environment nor public health
The environmental impact of radio active activity and waste is obviously extremely severe. Areas near the Chinobyl disaster is still badly contaminated and highly radio active (researchers need to enter in high-level protection suits) after almost 20 years after the disaster, never mind the cancers and feotal deformities of the people exposed to the radio activity in that area. This is considered short term. So think about what the long term impacts will be of other nuclear accidents. Over 22 known nuclear accidents around the world from power stations and other experiments have happened since Chynobyl. Given the fact that the Australian Government wants to contrain Australia in an energy system from 2 centuries ago rather than investing more towards renewable energy research and development, its not really that surprising that the environment isn't given much consideration in this decision to sell uranium off to China. I refer you to "Blowing In The Wind", a documentary by David Bradbury about the environmental destruction and health affects to local indigenous ppl from uranium mining and nuclear waste storage in South Australia (and other places) for an Australia context of the issue.

And now comes China, the most accident prone country in the world. They are prone to easily avoidable disasters because of corruption and lack of stricter controls in their rapidly growing industries. over 5000 miners died in coal mine disasters in China last year alone. Imagine what's going to happen in a completely new field of nuclear fission with a much greater risk of destruction to human life compared to coal mining.

Bringing Cross-Strait Arms Race to a New High
Great - China and Taiwan hates each other, and have been building up their arms on both sides of the coast of the Taiwan Strait for over 50 years. US sells billions of dollars worth of (old/retiring) arms over to Taiwan to deter China's edging military buildup each year. China buys more from other sources so it could just top Taiwan. Next year Taiwan stocks up more. On it goes. I ask you, if you were Taiwanese, would you feel safer if you had MORE weapons or less? Not the point, but certainly a sad one I should point out.

So here Australia goes fuelling this whole thing. China "promises" that its not going to use the uranium for weapons (as a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty) but Taiwan, who is not a signatory to the NPT, (Only BY DEFAULT not cos they are a rougue state, but cos they got kicked out of the UN and China won't let them back in) does not have an obligation not to develop nuke weapons. How do you think this make China (who loves their bloody ugly face, on top of it all) feel? They could never be trusted at the first place not to develop nukes in secret anyway, and now Taiwan possessing more uranium is going to ENCOURAGE China to do so.

The Taiwan Strait is probably one of the biggest flashpoints for conflict in the Asia Pacific - neither side are quite desperate enough yet to start any war yet, but if you think about the human, environmental and economic casualties if these two countries go to war. And especially if both sides had nuclear war heads. (by the way I staunchly stand by my view that Taiwan is/always should be an independant country, and this mess with China could be easily sorted by peaceful means if they'd barge, rather by brutal force from either side).

Hypocricy - now that's new
Meanwhile Downer sits around counting his cash from his free trade agreement, not really particularly concerned about human rights, a country's sovereignty, environmental degredation, blah blah blah, not going to help Taiwan if China declares war on it, cos you know, its ok to go to a totally unjustified and illegal war in Iraq to promote so called Western Democracy, but its not particularly justifiable to stand on Taiwan's side cos its a fully fledged democracy that elects their own parliament and goes about their business without hurting anyone, and instead stand by China which is an autocratic, corrupt, human rights abusing freedom hating regime.

I love Australia, I love this government, and where the bloody hell are ya?

Not Excited About Pandas, either.

To my surprise I have very little interest in Taiwanese politics at the moment, except for yelling at a few particularly insatiable politicians when they turn up on the telly.

I told you I was in a vegetating state. I arrived in Taiwan between President Chen making a full on speech on New Years Day re "China is for real, lets buy more missiles to get back at them" and the pending decision on the naming of these pandas that the Chinese want to give to Taiwan. If I had enough energy I'd say, fuck pandas, even if I was five. But I don't. (What's in a name? Just read the Chinese version of the story. Fuck Pandas.)

But I did find a cool picture of my Dad at the anti-sucession law protest he went to last time he was back visiting Grandpa. Go Dad.

Rising The Taiwan Flag

On the last day of 2005 I rose the flag symblising Taiwanese independence amongst 12 flags representing 12 other nations which helped build the PEPY Ride School. This is probably one of the proudest moments of my life. Being able to bring Taiwan to the world the way I want to has always been my biggest dream. In 2005 I have achieved so much in both my personal and professional life, in big ways and little ways. But I think this tops it all.


Flag courtesy to World United Formosans for Independance, and my Aunt Jean that posted it to me. This is for all of us.