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| i've heard of the fact that the reputation of the incumbent President is somewhat, if not always, correlated with the status of the economy within America. with that thought in mind, i wonder if it's correct to assume on a grander scale that the incumbent Presidential party's reputation is somewhat, if not always, correlated with the status of the economy within America.
now let's assume that it does. so by corollary, i dare to assume that in our current situation, the Republican party is unpopular because the economy isn't doing so well. as i sit and write, i realize that they may be serious flaws in the previous sentence. however, the statement itself isn't the point. what follows is more of an interesting exercise(though i can't guarantee it's a very good one!)
let's ponder this...as the global market begins to gain more power...it seems to me that it will be affecting the American market...namely the American economy. what sort of implications will this have upon the popularity of incumbent Presidency's to come? will the first trend stated in this post still apply? if so, it means that the incumbent President will be at the mercy of the future world marketplace. assuming that this does happen, i wonder how long it would take for the American government to flex its power upon the world marketplace in order to ensure that the American market affects the global market, and not the global market affecting the American market. of course, this may be already too late...globalization and worldsourcing are words that are buzzing around all over the place right now.
assuming that the first trend in the post no longer applies...what does that mean for the American people? will it mean that since the American marketplace is no longer the effector, and is now the affected, that the status of the market will no longer change the reputation of the incumbent Presidency? will that mean major shifts in focus of party platforms in general?
dunno. maybe my questions are completely out there and make no logical sense(in the economic/political sense)....but nevertheless, it was fun to write about it for a little bit. | | |
| pressed. and more pressedi walked around today with a shirt on that is mostly black, but with a multi-colored African continent on it, plus the words, "Books for Africa". it wasn't until today when i was about to bite into my food when a kid just walked up to me and told me that he'd trade anything for the shirt. i got it for free from Better World Books, and i was surprised that he didn't mind that the shirt was 3 years old, with holes in it. to be honest, i was too attached to it to let him have it, but it did make me think of the shift towards "social justice" among college students. i think the thought originated from the murmurings within articles here and there regarding the connection of more and more students towards social justice in general. couple that with the fact that students in the first couple of weeks of school are far more open to the new ideas, and are far more outgoing...makes me conclude that it was only natural for such an encounter to happen. i'm glad it did, it was an interesting, yet fun, exchange. | | |
| Day 8 - August 11
+ stayed at home mostly...the days are beginning to get so blurred, I'm having trouble remembering what happened on what days
Day 9 - August 12
+ Went to a place called Dan Shui, mostly known for a man named Dr. Mackay. Dr. Mackay was a Presbyterian missionary that opened up many schools, hospitals, and churches around Northern Taiwan. pretty cool.
+ i already talked about the Taiwanese public transportation, i like it lots :)
Day 10 - August 13
+ stuck around home again, good to get a breather from lots of stuff that's been happening. it makes me think of what it means to need a vacation after a vacation. my dad does most of the planning, and he's the one who loves to go and pack a vacation schedule full of things. sometimes it's a bit much for me :(
Day 11 - August 14
+ went to the National Palace Museum today. i'm a sucker for history, especially when it comes down to stuff like this. there were lots of beautiful articles they had shown, especially jade. that's something you don't get to see much of in America, and i really soaked it up. it's interesting to see how lately academia has seemed to be emphasized in Taiwan(and perhaps other eastern Asian countries?) and has seemingly overshadowed the rich tradition of beautiful art that we're capable of. then again, the national palace museum only focused from wayyyyyy long ago up to the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty(1911), so perhaps there isn't a really good idea of what has happened since then.
+ also went to Yang Ming mountain national park...that place was really beautiful as well. many of the pictures i tried to take didn't work out because of the mist + sun, which absolutely destroyed the contrast between the land and the sky. alas, a point and shoot camera can only do so much :(. we did get to visit a nice crater with steam still coming out of some places. it smelled thick of sulfur. a good thing about the park was that it was definitely a couple of degrees(centigrade) cooler than down in the middle and thick of Taipei. i really wished that i had some hiking gear with me so i could go, and preferably alone. but my parents were with me, and they're not so much into climbing, so i wasn't so inclined to go and abandon them either. maybe one day i'll head back to this place and hike some, if not most of it :) | | |
| tidbits from Taiwanthe subway
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one of the cleanest(exclusion: dust doesn't count as dirty) places in Taiwan. also one of the greatest bastions of public air conditioning available. all of the cars are connected together with walk-throughs, so you don't need to open a door in between cars and what not. a cool thing about that is when the train accelerates or decelerates, you can totally feel a slight breeze from the air that has yet to catch up to the right speed with the train. talk about real-life application of physics! i can picture it: a young child gets on the train, feels the breeze, and figures over time that the breeze is just supposed to happen when the train goes faster or slower. over time, as s/he goes to school and learns more about physics/fluid flow, they come to appreciate that what they assumed as a child was in fact true, and by golly, they already knew about one of the principles of fluid flow before school!
i always guilt-trip myself when i get on a light rail train. i'm always wondering whenever the door opens, should i get up and let them(someone who looks older than me) sit? or should i not? should i make sure they're way older, or should i just get up anyway? what if someone else swoops in to take the seat i intended for someone else? couple all of this with the fact that my Mandarin is below the first-grade level, that i carry a thick accent, and I'm a grown man, I would probably end up saying that i'm pretty inhibited....heh. Nevertheless, I did get up, after second-guessing myself and kicking myself over and over for missed opportunities. i think i may one day finally accept that i should just be one of those people who always stand on the train unless no one else is standing.
+++++
rings
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people always found it slightly funny when i would tell them that my mother doesn't always wear her wedding/engagement ring. my dad, on the other hand, has never been seen without his silver band on his left ring finger(heh, i think it's actually stuck on by now, hahaha[well, that's a bad thing...oh well]) in fact, it was just recently that i learned that it's common to have people wear both their engagement and wedding rings together. another one was that the engagement ring is often better than the wedding ring itself. i've asked my mother in the past why they didn't do so, and she did explain to me. so i asked again today...apparently 10-15 years ago there were a series of ring thefts that would occur. ladies who had rings on their fingers would find their rings taken away from them via a series of different methods: chopping off the whole hand or dragging women down the street(while on motorcycles). since then, less people would wear rings on their hands so that they wouldn't become victims.
entirely interesting. a cause for the refresher on why rings aren't so commonly worn was because of the ongoing difficultly of me trying to figure out how old people are(i'm one of those people who almost compulsively look at everyone's face in my surroundings while walking down the street). another would be attributed to the news that Taiwan is experiencing a population decline, with less people getting married(apparently there are many women now in their 30's who aren't married and less people married who want children. because of that news, i found it weird that almost EVERYONE i saw had no wedding rings, so i just had to ask.
it's interesting to see how the culture influences exactly what sort of appearance is deemed valuable or not... | | |
| more TaiwanDay 5 – August 8th
+ Lazy day today. Actually not. I went running with Dad at a big park, on a red dirt track. I’m not sure where all the red dirt comes from, but it made my shoes very red and dusty.
+ I got a doctor’s physical checkup done. There really didn’t do much, but they deemed me healthy enough
+ Received a National ID number! Time to open sketchy Taiwanese bank accounts and MORE!!! jk :D
+ Taiwanese music is far different. On top of that, they enjoy singing in a much higher octave. I guess it’s cool
Day 6 – August 9th
+ Started the trek to Kaohsiung to see my extended family. They’ve changed so much. In addition, it’s gotten to be more awkward to be with my cousins, no longer are we the young kids who didn’t have any vast differences in interests. My extended family also moved into a different house, much bigger, and much more spacious. They’re considered lucky to have such a house. At any rate, I’ve been able to see how much my younger cousins have grown too(my second uncle has two kids: boy[starting junior year in college] and girl[starting freshman year in high school], my youngest[and third] uncle has two kids too: boy[starting his freshman year in college] and boy[starting 8th grade]). In a way, it’s sad that we’ve moved on, but I continue to recognize that it will happen. The world in which my parents had placed me into is far different from theirs, and unless we make the moves to bridge the gap, who knows how much the gap will grow? Perhaps the “person” I bonded with the best was their dog, a golden retriever called Mia.
+ We ate in a particular fashion today. The direct translation is eating “hot pot”. Everyone got their own pot of stock soup, which was placed on top of a electric hot plate. Then everyone got up and got their own raw meat, vegetables, and brought it back to put in their pot to heat up, and all of the food is cooked in the pot.
+ My extended family falls in line with traditional Taiwanese culture of playing favorites. I’ve blogged about it before, but for me this time, it was even more awkward to experience it. Another tidbit of the culture: We had 16 people split across two 8-person tables. So my grandparents sat with all of the husbands, plus me and my older girl “cousin”(since there were two more spots and we were the oldest cousins). All of the wives and the rest of the kids sat at the other table. A note to make, I said “cousin” because she’s the daughter of my grandfather’s neice. Since my grandfather never had his own daughter that’s still living(she died of a water accident when she was still a baby), his younger brother “gave” his daughter to him to be as his “daughter”. So, the “daugther’s” daughter currently is a “cousin”, but in reality, a second cousin.
+ My grandparents asked what I’d be doing after I graduated. It’s hard to see how their world revolves around fame, money, and power, while I know that it’s a bit different for me. Along with that, it’s even harder to know that I can’t really communicate it well to them that it’s not about those three things(well, their Mandarin isn’t great, so learning that would only help so much, they honestly speak Taiwanese 95% of the time). However, I did get to tell them that I’d be working for the year after I graduate. However, they never got to ask me what exactly is what I’d be doing…I guess it’s a plus and minus that I wasn’t able to tell them. Perhaps they need some warming up to the fact that my desired job isn’t exactly what they may agree totally with…
Day 7 – August 10th
+ Back to Taipei we go.
+ Got to go to my parent’s church. It was fun trying to understand what was going on…and in actuality, I did understand part of the sermon. It was also fun to make myself believe that I’m absorbing some of the language. Whether or not I’m actually doing so, I can’t say :(
+ Went to Taipei 101, pretty cool building
+ Wished I ran into a Lenovo store somewhere in Taipei 101
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