Where is Matt right now?
DECEMBER 23, 2011 - Today I'm learning to dive at Fun and Sun Dive and Travel on Malapascua, Philippines (http://bit.ly/vAoQjP). In three days, we be swimming with thresher sharks. Merry Christmas to me :)
Scratch Magazine June, 2004
Music has long been used by the poor and oppressed to lift spirits and communicate messages of social change. From the African-American slaves of the deep south singing soulful, subtly rebellious, gospel hymns, to Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine belting out “We gotta take the power back!” over grinding guitars and machine gun bass kicks, politics have always been an undercurrent in Western music.
These days bands from most genres, like punk (Propaghandi, NOFX), metal (Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down), hip-hop (Spearhead, KRS-One), and turntablism (Dj Shadow, Cut Chemist), combine politics with music. But for the first part of the twentieth century political music, music with a message, was pretty much limited to the folk music scene.
Unions and Acoustic Guitars: The Folk-Protest Music Scene
Five artists were key in the development of the folk-protest music scene in North America. As Jerome L. Rodnitzky, author of Minstrels of the Dawn: The Folk-Protest Singer as a Cultural Hero, put it, “Woody Guthrie did it the earliest and most convincingly, Pete Seeger did it the longest, Joan Baez did it most artfully, Phil Ochs tried the hardest, and the young Bob Dylan did it best.”
The first North American compilation of folk-protest music was contained in the “Little Red Songbook” compiled by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1904. The songs of the book were written to inform the working masses about issues of unionism and socialism.
The songs of that Little Red Songbook inspired a thirty year old, political-minded author and newspaper columnist named Woodie Guthrie, to start writing his own songs of change in 1942. American music would never be the same.
Guthrie traveled the country with his signature acoustic guitar boasting a sticker reading “This Machine Kills Fascists” playing heartfelt songs of social change to working-class audiences. By the end of his career Guthrie had written thousands of classic socialist folk-protest songs including the famous This Land is Your Land.
Although Guthrie was a popular artist, and a cultural icon, he wasn’t a star. Subsequently, he never got the opportunity to deliver his message to the masses. He would, though, get to meet the man that would.
In 1962, while Guthrie laid up in a New York hospital with Huntington’s chorea (the disease that would cause of his 1967 death) a young musician and admirer, who was quickly building a following among the coffee house-goers of Greenwich Village, visited Guthrie’s hospital bed. The visitor was a 21-year-old Bob Dylan.
Dylan was influenced enormously by Guthrie. His straightforward, talking style, songs like Song to Woody and Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie, and an enormous collection of covers of the old rebel-rouser’s protest anthems, are tribute to that. But Dylan was something Guthrie wasn’t. Dylan was a poet.
Dylan also had something the Guthrie lacked: topical issues. While Guthrie sang about philosophically broad topics relating to unions and socialism, Dylan had current events to sing about that already had the attention of the American people—events like the unpopular Vietnam War and nuclear bungling of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Dylan’s down-to-earth honesty and straight-talking style quickly gained him critical acclaim and in 1962 (the same year he first visited Guthrie) he signed a deal with Columbia Records. His first, self-titled album wasn’t much to speak of. It boasted only two original songs among the traditional folk and blues cover tunes. But Dylan’s second album, 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, would secure him a place among history’s great poets and musicians. Freewheelin’ was a lyrical protest masterpiece. It contained two of the most enduring protest songs of all time: Blowin’ in the Wind (about Vietnam), and A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (about the Cuban Missile Crisis).
Peter, Paul, and Mary’s cover of Blowin’ in the Wind went to #2 on the pop charts later that year bringing protest music, and Bob Dylan, to a wider audience that either had ever reached before.
Dylan led the outbreak of crazy-hippy, fight-the-power protest songs of the sixties. It’s often joked that Bob Dylan wrote all the hits of the sixties–and it’s not far from true. Many of Dylan’s songs, performed by other artists, became huge hits; like Bob Marley‘s version of Knockin‘ on Heaven‘s Door (later redone by Guns N‘ Roses) and Jimmy Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower.
Dylan was not the only protest musician around during the 60’s. Many artists, even conventional ones, started writing protest songs. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? criticized the Vietnam War and Nina Simone sang about racism and civil rights while Bob Marley was in Jamaica leading his Rastafarian “movement of Jah people” with music.
The folk-protest genre faded from the limelight when Dylan abandoned it in 1965, but it did not die. More recently Ani DiFranco, a street-wise, feminist, poet/musician, has been igniting social turmoil with her punk-inspired, rough-around-the-edges folk sound, since the late 80’s, and Billy Bragg, a British folk musician described by the London Times as a “national treasure”, has also been involved in political activism through his music for over twenty years and is still going strong.
The Unlikely New Protest Music: Anarchist Punk
The mid-seventies saw the end of the Vietnam War, and the decline of protest music. As the war came to an end, so did opposition to the war (which was the most popular topic for protest songs). Also, during the 70’s, corporations started taking over the music industry and it became harder for protest musicians to get record deals. Not many corporations are willing to sign artists who’ll turn around and criticize them.
So, protest music was forced back underground where it underwent a surprising metamorphosis. The sixties exhausted everybody’s taste for folk, but there was a new political sound emerging in Britain. It was called punk.
Punk, as a genre, is probably more political than any other. These days there are lots of poppy boy-bands, like Blink 182 and Green Day, playing stupid, shallow songs about girls and beer, while claiming to be punk. But the truth is, most classic punk albums are overtly political. The Sex Pistol’s “Anarchy in the UK”, Dead Kennedy’s “Holiday in Cambodia”, and Bad Religion’s “Recipe for Hate” are just a few of the more popular examples.
Punk has always been synonymous with Anarchism. Nearly every punk band that ever existed has used the word anarchy at least once. Black Flag, one of the most popular punk bands of the 80’s, even named themselves after the international symbol of the Anarchist movement. Most people think anarchy refers to a state of total chaos and destruction. The same people think punks just want to get wasted and destroy everything. This is not so. Anarchism is a serious (but little known) political philosophy based on individualism and equality, and many punks seriously believe in it.
The New Millennium: Everybody’s Doing It (About Everything You Can Think Of)
Nowadays everybody’s got a different cause: gay rights, animal rights, women’s rights, human rights, the environment, corporate imperialism, the War in Iraq, the list just gets longer. Just as the issues of protest music have become more diverse, so have the artists engaged in it. U2 wrote songs against apartheid in Africa. Artists from Bjork to the Beastie Boys performed at a concert to raise awareness about China’s oppression of Tibet. Even Lauryn Hill manages to squeeze feminist messages into her pop-infused, r&b stylings.
Though politics no longer dominate the punk scene they’re still important to a lot of the face piercing, leather-boot wearing, misfits. Winnipeg’s own Propaghandi is a leader of political punk, having formed it’s own record label, the G7 Welcoming Committee, to avoid corporate censorship. The now defunct Rage Against the Machine was arguably the most vocal, and active, political act of the Twentieth Century tackling issues from economics, to racism, to corporate domination of the media.
For information concerning political activism the websites of Propaghandi (www.propaghandi.com) and Rage Against the Machine (www.ratm.com) come highly recommended each sporting wealth of information and suggestions for reading and action.
Most recently, Hip-Hop has developed a protest scene. Most of the popular, early hip-hop groups, like Public Enemy and NWA, built their success rapping about issues important to African-Americans. Nowadays, Tribe Called Quest, Outkast, Michael Franti, The Jedi Mind Tricks, The Dead Prez, and other hip-hop artists keep the movement strong.
They’ve also expanded it in scope. Songs like Outkasts “Bombs Over Bagdad” and The Jedi Mind Tricks’ “Raw is War 2003” show strong concern for international affairs.
Protest music is more alive and diverse now than it’s ever been, and we’ll probably be hearing even more in the future. Just like the end of the War in Vietnam ended a strong protest scene, the post 9/11, aggressive military actions and environmental irresponsibility of the US are giving artists more and more issues to get angry about. The worse things get the more artists are going to jump on board–and they’re just going to keep getting louder.
Xpat Magazine March, 2008
I’m sitting here at my desk gazing out the window, trying to put to paper some kind of goodbye letter for my last issue behind the wheel of Xpat. But as I reflect on my time working on Xpat, and in Taiwan, I’m filled with a single emotion: gratitude. So, instead of saying goodbye, I’d like to thank all of the people who helped me make Xpat what it is today.
I would like to thank:
The good people of Taiwan for providing me with the opportunity to create this magazine and for putting up with the astounding amount of bullshit they receive from the ignorant and unappreciative portion of the foreign community
The foreigners who show our host country people the courtesy and respect that they deserve
Paul Andrew for his dedication from the first moment of the first meeting at McDonald’s nearly three years ago
Cindy Loo and Chris Scott for unwavering participation and excellent work on every issue
Rebecca Xiou for bringing in translations on time, but even more so for being a dear friend
Jeremy for showing me the nature of boundaries, and how flimsy they are
My tree-planting supervisor Matt for demonstrating to me the only way to lead – by example
Kurt Cobain for introducing me to the raw emotion of artistry
Kerouac for spouting streams of saintly spontaneous prose
Cervantes for a noble and timeless hero
Dostoyevsky for The Brother’s Karamazov; if you only read one book for the rest of your life, read this one – within its eleven-hundred pages you will find the greatest story ever written and everything you’ll ever need to know
Donovan for advice and support
Garret for thinking more and believing less
Hemmingway for illustrating the importance of a clean, well-lighted place
Twain for unimpeachable integrity and spawning American literature
Hunter S. Thompson for never backing down
Vice Magazine for picking up where Dr. Gonzo left off
Dante for the Divine Comedy
My parents for making me read instead of watch TV
David Lynch for hours of brilliant confusion
My brother Ben, for buying me my first tape: Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine
Ani Difranco for doing it her way gracefully and brilliantly
Bjork for being splendid unique
The Mars Volta for renewing my love of music
Danielle for sleeping on the beach and running through rice fields at dawn
Ghandi for showing that the only real strength is strength of will, and that violence is the weapon of the weak
Buddha for being. And not being.
Picasso for painting Guernica; a morbid billboard-sized depiction of the Fascist bombing of a town by the same name, and for solemnly telling the Fascist fuckers when they asked him if he was responsible for the creation of the painting, “No, you are.”
Emily for yoga on the dance floor and friendship as thick as blood
Mickey for being an incredible animal and caring for my dear sister
Jana Mattie for showing us how fragile we all are; something we could forget no more easily than we could forget her beautiful smile, piercing eyes and unending kindness
Steve for listening during troubled times
Emilie for a year and a half of abandon and adventure
You for reading
Sincerely,
Matt Gibson
Xpat Magazine September, 2007
Most recent athletic feat undertaken by Taiwanese ultramarathon champion, Kevin Lin: Running 6,920 km across six countries, and the Sahara Desert, in 111 days
The average distance run per day: 62 km
Total number of Taiwanese to play Major League Baseball: 4
Number of Taiwanese MLB players, present and former, of aboriginal ancestry: 2 (Chin-Feng Chen and Chin-hui Tsao)
Number of the Taiwanese MLB players, present and former, from Tainan City and County: 3
Day of the year that the most collect calls are made: Father’s Day
Number of people killed by falling coconuts each year: approximately 150
Number of people killed by sharks each year: approximately 10
Reaction of some octopuses to extreme stress: Eating their own arms
Oldest defense secretary in the history of the United States: Donald Rumsfield
Youngest defense secretary in the history of the United States: Donald Rumsfield
Worst defense secretary in the history of the United States: take a wild guess
Which came first, the chicken or the egg: The egg, as concluded by a panel of scientific and philosophic experts last year
Name of the first company to offer genetically designed hypoallergenic (non-allergy inducing) kittens: Allerca Inc.
Cost per kitten: USD$3950
Product’s popularity: There’s currently a two-year backlog of unfilled orders
First-ever genetically modified pet sold: The GloFish®
Date GloFish® first entered the US market: December, 2003
Colors of GloFish®: Starfire Red™, Electric Green™ and Sunburst Orange™
Suggested retail price: USD$5
Factor by which the volume of land used to produce genetically modified crops increased between 1996 and 2005: 50 (from 4.2 million acres to 222 million acres)
Countries that saw the greatest increases: Brazil and India
Percentage of normal baby rats that die within three weeks of birth according to a recent Russian study: 6.8
Percentage of baby rats born to a mother fed a natural soy diet that died within three weeks of birth (same study): 9
Percentage of baby rats born to a mother who was fed a GM soybean diet that died within three weeks of birth (same study): 55.6
Percentage of soybeans grown in the United States in 2006 with GM traits: 89
Taiwan’s policy towards labeling GM foods: Products containing more than 5% GMO ingredients must be labeled as such. Products containing less can be labeled “Non-GMO”
Percentage of GMO ingredients that must be present for mandatory GMO labeling in the EU: 1
Percentage of GMO ingredients that must be present for mandatory GMO labeling in Japan: .1
Canada and the United States’ policies for mandatory labeling of GMO foods: nonexistent
Percentage of processed foods containing GM products in the United States according to the Grocery Manufacturers of America: 75
Xpat Magazine September, 2007
I pen this letter from a remote stretch of shore on Kootenay Lake, an enormous, unmolested body of water hundreds of kilometers long, slung in a deep valley in British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains. As a child I spent countless summers running barefoot through these cedar forests. Today is the first time I’ve reclined on this quiet shore in more than 1,000 days; 1,000 days since I’ve lain on this rocky beach, smelled the clean mountain air perfumed with cedar and gazed at a night sky flooded with more stars than darkness. It’s sunny, but not hot. The waves lap at the pebble shore where I sit against driftwood in the shade of a poplar tree. I should feel at ease but I don’t. I’m lonely and I’m frightened.
Lonely because I recently parted ways with my partner, and frightened partly because I’ve suddenly re-entered North American society after a long absence and I find myself uneasy among hordes of large hairy white beasts with booming voices and a penchant for ceaseless small talk. But I’m scared mostly because I’ve flung myself into a torrent of brash life changes that promise to keep me in turmoil for months to come. In the past six months I’ve thrown away everything that’s been important to me for the past two years.
I’ve begun the process of packing up, tucking away and selling off three years of my life in Taiwan, including this magazine. Xpat hasn’t been a bad experience. On the contrary, it’s quite fulfilling and has been more successful than I ever expected. But I never wanted to be a publisher or an editor. I want to be a writer – so I’m quitting.
Taiwan has treated me wonderfully. Better than I ever expected. I have wonderful friends here, a job that I enjoy, a benevolent employer and a workplace filled with kind and gracious employees. But, I never planned to live in Asia (I’ve always been more inclined toward a Latin culture), so after three years, I’m preparing to leave.
And I broke up with Emilie. Intelligent, kind, adventurous and beautiful Emilie, with whom I lived, slept and traveled with for more than half of my Taiwan life. She is a great person, yet I felt that we couldn’t stay together because our relationship didn’t fit with the Future I seek.
All of the above changes that I’ve suddenly heaped upon myself are for the same reason: they don’t fit the over-romanticized traveling-writer Future that I contrived as a child running barefoot among these mountain cedars.
And now I’m frightened; afraid that I’m flinging away these precious things in search of an over-idealized Future—that might not exist. I’m petrified that one day I’ll look back and think, “I just should’ve left well enough alone.”
But, when it comes down to it, I’m even more afraid that one day I’ll look back and think, “Damn, how’d I get stuck here? What happened to traveling? And writing?”
When my mind turns to the uncertainty of my future my stomach twists with excitement and fear – 20 percent excitement and 80 percent fear (similar to my feelings previous to moving to Taiwan). It’s a mix that, in the past, signaled I must push on because I could never forgive myself for giving up such an exciting and challenging prospect. So, I will.
I don’t have much of a point to this self-indulgent treatise about the changes in my life except to tell you that fear of change has so paralyzed my mind that it can’t even fabricate a more suitable topic for this letter. And also to share with you a morsel of wisdom imparted to me by a friend. After assaulting him with a windy monologue—similar to this one, which concluded with, “It looks like I’m in for a lot of change,” he replied: “It’s the only constant.”
And so it is.
The future is mine and the future is yours. Take it while you can. It’s frightening and irresponsible, but it’s easier to throw yourself into change now than to spend the long twilight of your life looking back on the things you wish you’d done.
Recklessly Yours,
Matt Gibson
Xpat Magazine June, 2007
At least once in their career, most English teachers in Taiwan stand in the unique position of naming children, or encountering a Taiwanese person, young or old, with a desire to assume an inappropriate English name. Sometimes kindie teachers, spurred by lack of sleep and unmetabolized alcohol, give kids wacky names for their own amusement, but more often Taiwanese people choose these names themselves and are unwilling to give them up despite the protest of their conscientious foreign educators and friends. Either way, Taiwan is a cornucopia of strange, incongruous, and hilarious names. I scoured various Internet bulletin boards in search of the most ingenious, insulting and comical English names that local xpats have come across. Here are the best that I found.
20) Cash
The funny thing about this name isn’t that some Taiwanese kid heard it in a movie and picked it for a name—it’s that I can actually punch the name into Google and find two dozen inept hip-hop artists who chose this name on purpose without realizing how ridiculous it sounds.
19) Pizza
Well, at least it’s better than Hamburger, or worse—McDonalds (which I was very glad not to have found).
18) Zigga
This kid was named after a DJ scratch sound. Now, no matter how dorky he may be, this kid can go anywhere English is spoken and be cool. He could walk through East LA in horn-rimmed glasses and an argyle sweater, and all the Latinos would drive by and yell, “yo, wassup Zigga,” and offer him a ride.
17) Snatch (female)
The guy who posted this one wrote that when his friend, this elementary schoolgirl’s teacher, suggested that she change it she replied, “No, I like Snatch.”
16) Easy (female)
The poster of this name said that the girl chose it because you have to smile in order to say it. I hate to tell you this sweetie, but that’s not why he’s smiling.
15) Facial (female)
I don’t think I need to comment on this one.
14) Titty (female)
My god, how many sexually suggestive female names are there out there? I swear this is the last one.
13) Swallow (female)
Okay, this is the last one.
12) Zeus
Sometimes kids have the balls to do things that we all really want to do, like stick their hands down their pants in public, pick their noses and wipe it on their pants, or choose to be named after the god of the gods. Well done.
11) Turbo
The poster of this one wrote that if you ask this guy why he named himself Turbo, he’ll stand up, do a James Brown hip thrust and proclaim, “because I’m turbo charged!” I have nothing but respect and admiration for this man.
10) Peter Pan
The poster claimed that this guy was actually a pilot for Singapore Airlines. Unbelievable.
9) Sorry (female)
Scene: A local bar
“What’s your name?”
“Sorry.”
“What’s your name?”
“Sorry.”
“What’s your name?”
“Sorry.”
“What’s your name…”
(Drunk foreigner breaks out in hysterics as the unimpressed Taiwanese girl rolls her eyes and contemplates changing her name to ‘Easy’ like her friend who’s now being pampered by a crowd of smitten foreign men).
Urine (male)
Why would you do this? There’s no explanation, not even that you don’t speak English.
7) Panda
It’s not such a great name in English, but I have this friend whose English name phonetically translates to “tricky panda” in Chinese. When he told me I was so jealous it made me sick. Mine means “lucky forest” or something stupid like that.
6) Booger
The poster said he asked the kid why he chose it and the kid replied that it was because he liked the game Boogerman, and because “it sounded dangerous”.
5) Iron
Apparently this is the name of a personal trainer at California Fitness. He must speak English and must have known exactly what he was doing. He’s the Taiwanese equivalent of those moronic hip-hop artists who name themselves ‘Cash-something’.
4) Jackhammer
This guy is probably Iron’s drinking buddy. On Saturday nights they sit around in bars wearing blinged-out fake diamond dollar-signs around their necks talking about Hummers and wrestling. Then they drive around in their low-rider Honda Accord blaring Justin Timberlake, stopping at betel nut stands and trying to pick up the betel nut girls. After countless rejections they rent a bunch of porn videos and go home together.
3) 203
Hands down, the most unique name in the list.
2) Flagellum
This word refers to the tail that sperm use to swim up the vaginal canal. What is this person trying to say?
1) Jesus Gun
This name kicks ass. Right now, somewhere, an avant-garde indie musician just read this and is now dreaming about album covers for his future band.
*Special thanks to Forumosa.com, the discussion threads of which supplied the vast majority of these names.
All the weird names that one Kindergarten teacher claims to have given to students:
* Arbloo
* Stuka
* Libo
* Zoot
* Carny
* Bleefstoop
* Kib
* Nailgun
* Hoorno
* Asp
* Deet
* Zingermeyer
* Oreo
* Messerschmitt
* Hole
* Lapper
* Tarpy
Xpat Magazine June, 2007
“Some of these kids are really poor,” Robert told me. “Some don’t even have shoes. If you see it you might cry.”
I was in the Cosby Saloon in Tainan talking to the owner, Robert Lo. He stood behind the bar with his back straight and his chin up. His black shirt was tucked tightly into his jeans beneath a prominent belt buckle.
Robert is an unlikely philanthropist. During the day he rides around on a maroon Harley with skulls airbrushed on the sides. He spends his nights with a bottle of Jack Daniels, a couple packs of cigarettes, and whoever happens to be in his saloon.
The first time I met him was to sell him an ad for his saloon in Xpat Magazine. With the same gruff demeanor that he used to command his underlings in the Taiwanese military, he ordered me to give him a half-page. He made it clear that he only wanted to support the magazine. He’s never cancelled it.
On a subsequent visit, over shots of JD chased with green tea, he told me that every year he volunteers as a lifeguard at the Lantern Festival in Anping Harbor in Tainan. So I wasn’t too surprised when he later told me that his bike club, the Taiwan Angels, goes on charitable tours to mountain villages every year to deliver toys, clothing and medical supplies to poor aboriginal children and that he, the unofficial leader of the club, organizes the tour and pays for most of it with the profits from his saloon.
He told me about the difficulties these villages endure. “It’s hard to get supplies because of washouts on the road. You’ll see many young children and very old people. There’s no work in the villages, so the parents go to the city and leave the children with their grandparents.” He suggested that I come on the next tour and I agreed.
My friend Pawl, a photographer, and his fiancée Anetka agreed to go with me. We wanted to ride our motorcycles, but later Robert told me that he’d arranged transportation for us. We met at the Cosby Saloon at 6am on Sunday morning. We were disappointed to find, not to a fleet of Harley’s, but a lone van filled with supplies and a driver.
It wasn’t until we’d driven two hours and passed the town of Sandimen that we met up with the Angels. There were nearly one hundred. Not all were riding Harleys. Many were from another bike club whose members mostly rode crotch rockets, and there were a few cars as well. Robert led the tour on his maroon Harley. You could clearly see the back of his Taiwan Angel’s t-shirt, which read in large white letters “If you can read this, the bitch fell off”.
Paul, Anetka and I reveled in the fresh early morning mountain air and snapped pictures of the bikers from the windows of the van. We wound upwards on mountain roads that became increasingly dangerous. Slides scarred the hillside and in several places the road had obviously been recently submerged in mud and debris.
We arrived at the first, and furthest, of our three scheduled village stops invigorated and enthusiastic. We unloaded the gifts from the van in an empty storefront and waited for the swarm of children.
Twenty minutes later we were still waiting. “Where are they?” I asked Robert.
“They’re in church. Their angels are here, but they’re in church praying to god.” He said with obvious disapproval. After 40 minutes a group of about a dozen children and a few parents showed up. We snapped a flurry of pictures. The children were saddled with oversized bags of gifts and we prepared to leave. Already behind schedule, there was no time to wait for the other kids.
We moved quickly to the next village located at the bottom of a steep hill with several switchbacks. We arrived before the bikers, so Pawl and I rushed up the hill to snap dramatic pictures of the bikers as they rounded the final sharp corner. After everyone had arrived, we rushed down to the town square to see what was happening.
More villagers came out this time, but few were children. Most of the attendees were quite old. There were a few young children, and a couple that appeared to be high school age. The older folks looked through the clothes curiously. The children wore new winter coats and sneakers. One of the older boys listened to his iPod as he sifted through the goods we’d brought.
Robert had told me before, “You can’t take used things. You have to give them new jackets and shoes or else they won’t accept them.” I began to see why. If the goods weren’t brand new and somewhat stylish, the children wouldn’t accept them because they wouldn’t be as nice as those they already owned.
After discussing the trip, Paul, Anetka and I concluded that, although the day had been an enjoyable escape from the city, and a fulfilling charitable endeavor, something had seemed slightly askew. After seeing impoverished people living on less than one American dollar per day in Cambodia and the Philippines (where we’d all recently traveled), the lives of the impoverished Taiwanese villagers seemed surprisingly comfortable.
I wondered why the children and parents weren’t more enthusiastic about the Angels’ visit. After some thought, I realized that poverty in Taiwan simply isn’t as bad as in most other countries. Although the government of Taiwan offers very little in the way of social assistance to the poor, the family support system and general goodwill of the Taiwanese people have created a social safety net that equals, and in many cases surpasses, the government-funded welfare programs of other modern countries.
Indeed, after doing a bit of research I found that only 0.9 percent of Taiwanese people live below the poverty line—the lowest poverty rate of the 130 countries listed. Comparatively, 15.9% of Canadians and 40% of Filipinos live in poverty.
Many foreigners criticize the rigid tradition of family loyalty in Taiwan because it often infringes on people’s personal desires—but it’s that same duty to family that saves innumerable Taiwanese people from begging and living on the streets. Families here go to great extremes to help their troubled brethren.
And we mustn’t forget the goodwill of the average Taiwanese person. In Taiwan it seems that volunteering for a non-profit organization the norm. Most of the Taiwanese people I know participate in some form of charity. Hell, charity is so common here that even the biker gangs pitch in. It’s the generosity of the people—people like Robert Lo and groups like his Taiwan Angels—that keep poverty in this country at bay.
If you’re interested in donating to, or helping out with, the Tour for Toys, call Robert at the Cosby Saloon at (06) 228-6332, or stop by 20-128 Gongyuen Rd., Tainan (the back of the same alley as the Hangout).
DECEMBER 23, 2011 - Today I'm learning to dive at Fun and Sun Dive and Travel on Malapascua, Philippines (http://bit.ly/vAoQjP). In three days, we be swimming with thresher sharks. Merry Christmas to me :)
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