Referring to the Internet, Jay Bookman says sometimes "communication displaces community."
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
亂罵與默許
最近臺灣兩件事讓我非常難過。 其一、呂秀蓮污辱原住民。 她講的話，一個正常人想都不會想，更何況說出口。縱使說出口，有一絲惻隱之心的人也不會在山民飽受災難時說。現在山上最熱門的話題是罵呂秀蓮、罵民進黨、罵那幾個不吭聲的民進黨籍阿美族立委。原住民說，民進黨平常沒有為他們做任何事，很多『政績』對他們不利，然後副總統如此落井下石，怎能忍受?一位泰雅說，"副總統剛上任時，不住政府給她配的房子，另外租一棟月租四十七萬元的房子，錢是我們納稅人出的，還花了不知道多少錢幫她裝潢；住了一年又不住。她是大官，可以亂講話，不怕沒地方住。我們呢? 四十七萬，我全家大小可以生活一年!!"
其二、呂秀蓮污辱災民，平地人隔岸觀火，沒甚麼反應，政要亂講話，司空見慣：這是一個健康的政治環境嗎? 為什麼副總統仗勢凌人，大家袖手旁觀?這事若發生在歐美，她早已下台；不等受害者街頭抗議，自己政黨早就把她拉下台了，以免破壞形象。在此地同黨不但不譴責，反而辯護。很顯然執政黨眼中原住民只是用來撬大兩岸距離的棋子；假如稍有利用價值，姑且留著它吧。
好啦，臺灣政客亂講話，只顧鬥權不顧民權，不是一兩天的事。 臺灣大官離國際水準還差一大段距離，大家心知肚明。真正讓我難過的是老百姓默許大官狂言亂語、民眾對政壇人事的態度已淪為看笑話。民主民主呀，老百姓應該是主人，應該主動。不知是臺灣政壇要算太早呢? 或者已經太晚了。
其二、呂秀蓮污辱災民，平地人隔岸觀火，沒甚麼反應，政要亂講話，司空見慣：這是一個健康的政治環境嗎? 為什麼副總統仗勢凌人，大家袖手旁觀?這事若發生在歐美，她早已下台；不等受害者街頭抗議，自己政黨早就把她拉下台了，以免破壞形象。在此地同黨不但不譴責，反而辯護。很顯然執政黨眼中原住民只是用來撬大兩岸距離的棋子；假如稍有利用價值，姑且留著它吧。
好啦，臺灣政客亂講話，只顧鬥權不顧民權，不是一兩天的事。 臺灣大官離國際水準還差一大段距離，大家心知肚明。真正讓我難過的是老百姓默許大官狂言亂語、民眾對政壇人事的態度已淪為看笑話。民主民主呀，老百姓應該是主人，應該主動。不知是臺灣政壇要算太早呢? 或者已經太晚了。
無論如何，中正機場國門到處寫Naluwan、貼原住民照片，事實證明太虛偽。應該全部撕下來。 可以換上"第一家庭密友羅太太" 的照片。
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Taiwan was hard hit by a typhoon earlier this month. It just stayed and dumped water on us, creating disastrous landslides in the mountainous center of Taiwan. Over fifty people were killed, mostly Aborigines. Many people are homeless.
Faced with all this suffering, Vice President Lu Hsiulien announced that it serves those people right to die in landslides; the government should not do anything to help them, because they brought it down upon themselves by building roads and deforesting the mountains. (I am not supplying word for word translations of what she said, but this is all accurate.) The Vice President also pointed out that since she walks with a cane, the local people should be grateful that she went to all the trouble of visiting their disaster area, because, she says, she suffered from walking around there.
The Aborigines were not very happy with this unsympathetic announcement. They pointed out that the Aborigines are not the ones profiting from the destruction of the mountains; the money behind all this all flows into Han Chinese pockets, not theirs.
In response, the Vice President said, If you don't like it, why don't you just leave? You can go live in South America, or find some place in Central America like Nicaragua or San Salvador, nobody is asking you to stay here. (I swear I am not making this up.)
You can imagine that the Aborigines, trying to pick up the rubble of their destroyed villages, were angry with Vice President Lu. They exclaimed that they are the original inhabitants of Taiwan, having been here for six thousand years, so why should they have to leave their ancient homeland? (The main Han Chinese migration to Taiwan began in the 19th century.)
Vice President replied, You call yourselves aborigines, but you're not anything, you're not the original inhabitants of all. The original inhabitants of Taiwan were the negritoes, and they're extinct, they've all died, all gone, so you people who calls yourselves Aborigines are nothing, and you have no special claims to land or to anything.
The negritoes she refers to are mentioned in some tribal myths. Although there are still some negritoes in the Philippines, as far as I know there is no sure archaeological, anthropological, or genetic evidence that negritoes ever lived in Taiwan, while ample evidence proves that the ancestors of today's aborigines reached Taiwan six thousand years ago. No artifact or site has ever been solidly linked to black pygmies, and the time reference in the tribal myths does not specify who reached Taiwan first. In any event, this is not the sort of statement you would expect from a Vice President when disadvantaged minorities in her country are being wiped out by a natural disaster.
Needless to say, the Aborigines are furious. Friday groups from several tribes gathered in front of the Presidential Office, where Vice President Lu was having a meeting. She ignored their requests to explain her remarks to them, preferring to let her racist, unfeeling statements stand. The Aborigines are now reminding people that they have a tradition of headhunting. However, Vice President Lu has made it clear that she spits on their traditions, and that to her they are just a bunch of subhuman savages whom Taiwan would be better off without.
Faced with all this suffering, Vice President Lu Hsiulien announced that it serves those people right to die in landslides; the government should not do anything to help them, because they brought it down upon themselves by building roads and deforesting the mountains. (I am not supplying word for word translations of what she said, but this is all accurate.) The Vice President also pointed out that since she walks with a cane, the local people should be grateful that she went to all the trouble of visiting their disaster area, because, she says, she suffered from walking around there.
The Aborigines were not very happy with this unsympathetic announcement. They pointed out that the Aborigines are not the ones profiting from the destruction of the mountains; the money behind all this all flows into Han Chinese pockets, not theirs.
In response, the Vice President said, If you don't like it, why don't you just leave? You can go live in South America, or find some place in Central America like Nicaragua or San Salvador, nobody is asking you to stay here. (I swear I am not making this up.)
You can imagine that the Aborigines, trying to pick up the rubble of their destroyed villages, were angry with Vice President Lu. They exclaimed that they are the original inhabitants of Taiwan, having been here for six thousand years, so why should they have to leave their ancient homeland? (The main Han Chinese migration to Taiwan began in the 19th century.)
Vice President replied, You call yourselves aborigines, but you're not anything, you're not the original inhabitants of all. The original inhabitants of Taiwan were the negritoes, and they're extinct, they've all died, all gone, so you people who calls yourselves Aborigines are nothing, and you have no special claims to land or to anything.
The negritoes she refers to are mentioned in some tribal myths. Although there are still some negritoes in the Philippines, as far as I know there is no sure archaeological, anthropological, or genetic evidence that negritoes ever lived in Taiwan, while ample evidence proves that the ancestors of today's aborigines reached Taiwan six thousand years ago. No artifact or site has ever been solidly linked to black pygmies, and the time reference in the tribal myths does not specify who reached Taiwan first. In any event, this is not the sort of statement you would expect from a Vice President when disadvantaged minorities in her country are being wiped out by a natural disaster.
Needless to say, the Aborigines are furious. Friday groups from several tribes gathered in front of the Presidential Office, where Vice President Lu was having a meeting. She ignored their requests to explain her remarks to them, preferring to let her racist, unfeeling statements stand. The Aborigines are now reminding people that they have a tradition of headhunting. However, Vice President Lu has made it clear that she spits on their traditions, and that to her they are just a bunch of subhuman savages whom Taiwan would be better off without.
Friday, July 16, 2004
Thursday, July 15, 2004
The government has never really gone out of its way to encourage Tayal traditions, which may sound nasty and ethnocentric and politically incorrect until you remember that the epicenter of Tayal traditions rested squarely on headhunting. Governments tend to get a bit finicky about having headhunters in the backyard, so they went along with the Christian missionaries who told the aborigines that their superstitions would land them in hell.
Now everything is all sanitized and Disney, so a couple years ago, the reviled mayor Mila Watan got the idea of having a sacrifice to the ancestors and turning it into a tourist photo opportunity, bringing in the press. The village was furious, and Mila Watan died before the year was out, “because the ancestors were mad at him.” They don't want a bunch of Han Chinese gawking at their sacrifice.
A lotus grows out of mud; the seed had been planted. The tribespeople decided that they wanted to have sacrifices for their ancestors, and the minister and the church can go to helllllllp themselves. Last year, with no publicity, the ceremony was held on the Wulai athletic field. The only outsiders were an invited anthropologist and the camera crew they hired to film the whole event. Somewhere they even found a shaman to officiate. (When my computer crashed, I lost all my photos from last year's sacrifice. If any of you have those, please send me copies! I promise I will be better about backing up files!)
Last night as I was walking home after pottery class, Agogo pulled up beside me. “Yugan! Get in the car!.... do you know we are having the ancestral sacrifice tomorrow?”
“No, I hadn't heard anything about it.”
“It's just Wulai village, Shawye started it.”
“So the other villages aren't coming this time.”
“We will do it properly. We will sacrifice a wild boar and offer it to the ancestors. You have to come!”
“Where?”
This year the sacrifice was held off in the mountains, a distance from the village and from outsider's eyes. “There will be buses leaving the village at 8. It is just half a day. You can bring your dogs on the bus. Be sure to come!”
“Are you going?”
“Of course. Not that I really care that much about those two slices of boar meat – although I do care about those two slices of boar meat, talagay blaq niqun! (delicious!), the main thing is to show our respect for our ancestors and our tribe.”
I was not so enthusiastic about watching them knife the boar. I figured I would wake up when I woke up, and if didn't catch the bus, I could walk there. The place he mentioned is somewhere out by Lomankobu, and by the time I walked there, the meat should be cooked.
Exactly where, I wasn't sure, but there's a checkpoint there for cars entering the mountain, and Ahsiung, the policeman, would be able to tell me.
As usual, at sunrise I still had my brains scrambled in my pillow, so I missed the bus. Around 9:30 I left the house with the dogs. We walked down to the village, out past the school, and off into the beautiful, steep mountains. About an hour later, I reached the checkpoint. A bunch of picnickers, hikers, and mountain bicyclists were busy filling out forms (they want to make sure that those who enter the mountains make it back out again). When Ahsiung saw me approaching, he gave me a big salute: “Yugan! Are you going to the sacrifice?”
“Yes, but I'm not sure where it is.”
“Oh, it's not far, keep going and by a qesu tree you will see motorcycles and cars from the Tribe. Right there you'll see the path.” (note: there are a million qesu trees in Wulai.)
“Okay, sounds good. Not far, you say?”
“No, it's not far.”
“I'm walking.”
“Just keep going, you'll get there.”
“How far is it?”
“Not more than ten kilometers.”
“Ten kilometers? By the time I get there, everybody will have finished eating and be ready to go home.”
“No, because they won't be finished drinking yet. Go on, Yugan, ten kilometers is not far, you can get there before long.”
To make a long story short, I cut a long walk short. This explains why I missed the village's sacrifice this year. I wandered around the area of the checkpoint for a while, and decided to turn back. I comforted myself and the dogs by going swimming wherever the stream was convenient to the road.
I have to ask around. This was the village's sacrifice, so there may be others for all the Wulai villages together.
Next year, I'll take the bus.
Now everything is all sanitized and Disney, so a couple years ago, the reviled mayor Mila Watan got the idea of having a sacrifice to the ancestors and turning it into a tourist photo opportunity, bringing in the press. The village was furious, and Mila Watan died before the year was out, “because the ancestors were mad at him.” They don't want a bunch of Han Chinese gawking at their sacrifice.
A lotus grows out of mud; the seed had been planted. The tribespeople decided that they wanted to have sacrifices for their ancestors, and the minister and the church can go to helllllllp themselves. Last year, with no publicity, the ceremony was held on the Wulai athletic field. The only outsiders were an invited anthropologist and the camera crew they hired to film the whole event. Somewhere they even found a shaman to officiate. (When my computer crashed, I lost all my photos from last year's sacrifice. If any of you have those, please send me copies! I promise I will be better about backing up files!)
Last night as I was walking home after pottery class, Agogo pulled up beside me. “Yugan! Get in the car!.... do you know we are having the ancestral sacrifice tomorrow?”
“No, I hadn't heard anything about it.”
“It's just Wulai village, Shawye started it.”
“So the other villages aren't coming this time.”
“We will do it properly. We will sacrifice a wild boar and offer it to the ancestors. You have to come!”
“Where?”
This year the sacrifice was held off in the mountains, a distance from the village and from outsider's eyes. “There will be buses leaving the village at 8. It is just half a day. You can bring your dogs on the bus. Be sure to come!”
“Are you going?”
“Of course. Not that I really care that much about those two slices of boar meat – although I do care about those two slices of boar meat, talagay blaq niqun! (delicious!), the main thing is to show our respect for our ancestors and our tribe.”
I was not so enthusiastic about watching them knife the boar. I figured I would wake up when I woke up, and if didn't catch the bus, I could walk there. The place he mentioned is somewhere out by Lomankobu, and by the time I walked there, the meat should be cooked.
Exactly where, I wasn't sure, but there's a checkpoint there for cars entering the mountain, and Ahsiung, the policeman, would be able to tell me.
As usual, at sunrise I still had my brains scrambled in my pillow, so I missed the bus. Around 9:30 I left the house with the dogs. We walked down to the village, out past the school, and off into the beautiful, steep mountains. About an hour later, I reached the checkpoint. A bunch of picnickers, hikers, and mountain bicyclists were busy filling out forms (they want to make sure that those who enter the mountains make it back out again). When Ahsiung saw me approaching, he gave me a big salute: “Yugan! Are you going to the sacrifice?”
“Yes, but I'm not sure where it is.”
“Oh, it's not far, keep going and by a qesu tree you will see motorcycles and cars from the Tribe. Right there you'll see the path.” (note: there are a million qesu trees in Wulai.)
“Okay, sounds good. Not far, you say?”
“No, it's not far.”
“I'm walking.”
“Just keep going, you'll get there.”
“How far is it?”
“Not more than ten kilometers.”
“Ten kilometers? By the time I get there, everybody will have finished eating and be ready to go home.”
“No, because they won't be finished drinking yet. Go on, Yugan, ten kilometers is not far, you can get there before long.”
To make a long story short, I cut a long walk short. This explains why I missed the village's sacrifice this year. I wandered around the area of the checkpoint for a while, and decided to turn back. I comforted myself and the dogs by going swimming wherever the stream was convenient to the road.
I have to ask around. This was the village's sacrifice, so there may be others for all the Wulai villages together.
Next year, I'll take the bus.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Living in a village where everybody knows everybody else makes economy of words practicable.
On my way down to the city this afternoon, I saw Apin by the side of the road, astride Qalux's motorcycle, busily punching a number into his cell phone.
“Apin, what's up? Yesterday you were driving Yagi's taxi, and today you are riding Qalux's motorcycle.” Indeed, he even had Qalux's little son, fearless Qosun, with him.
“My motorcycle fell into the stream.”
“How did that happen?”
“I lent it to Hozin.”
“Understood.” I continued on my way. Hozin is a notorious drunkard, but there are no wakes in Wulai now, so he must have survived the plunge. If something as trivial as careening off a road into a stream would kill Hozin, he would have died years ago.
In a few minutes, Apin passed me. “Where are you going?”
“Teaching.”
I caught up with him a few minutes later as I passed the store. “Is the motorcycle still in the stream?”
“No, yesterday I got a crane.” So that explains why I saw Meina, Hanna's brother, driving his truck with the crane up the road yesterday.
On my way down to the city this afternoon, I saw Apin by the side of the road, astride Qalux's motorcycle, busily punching a number into his cell phone.
“Apin, what's up? Yesterday you were driving Yagi's taxi, and today you are riding Qalux's motorcycle.” Indeed, he even had Qalux's little son, fearless Qosun, with him.
“My motorcycle fell into the stream.”
“How did that happen?”
“I lent it to Hozin.”
“Understood.” I continued on my way. Hozin is a notorious drunkard, but there are no wakes in Wulai now, so he must have survived the plunge. If something as trivial as careening off a road into a stream would kill Hozin, he would have died years ago.
In a few minutes, Apin passed me. “Where are you going?”
“Teaching.”
I caught up with him a few minutes later as I passed the store. “Is the motorcycle still in the stream?”
“No, yesterday I got a crane.” So that explains why I saw Meina, Hanna's brother, driving his truck with the crane up the road yesterday.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
President Bush has defended his decision to invade Iraq. “Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq, we removed a declared enemy of America who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them. In the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take."
According to that logic, Reagan should have attacked the Soviet Union, and Nixon should have attacked the People's Republic of China.
They had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder, so we attacked them. This reminds me of the ruler during the Warring States period (3rd century BC, sorry, I'm too lazy to look up just who it was) who passed a law severely punishing anybody who simply had the capability for producing liquor; you didn't have to actually produce any liquor, but if you had the vats and whatnot (which were common farm devices), you were guilty. One day he was standing on his palace wall with his advisors when an old lady and a little boy walked by. One of the advisors said, “Quickly, go arrest them for adultery!” The ruler said, “But they haven't done anything.” The advisor said, “No, but they have the capability for adultery; the equipment is all there.”
The difference being that the ruler in our story, being an intelligent man, revoked his idiotic law, rather than continuing to defend it with his stiff neck.
According to that logic, Reagan should have attacked the Soviet Union, and Nixon should have attacked the People's Republic of China.
They had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder, so we attacked them. This reminds me of the ruler during the Warring States period (3rd century BC, sorry, I'm too lazy to look up just who it was) who passed a law severely punishing anybody who simply had the capability for producing liquor; you didn't have to actually produce any liquor, but if you had the vats and whatnot (which were common farm devices), you were guilty. One day he was standing on his palace wall with his advisors when an old lady and a little boy walked by. One of the advisors said, “Quickly, go arrest them for adultery!” The ruler said, “But they haven't done anything.” The advisor said, “No, but they have the capability for adultery; the equipment is all there.”
The difference being that the ruler in our story, being an intelligent man, revoked his idiotic law, rather than continuing to defend it with his stiff neck.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
L is a super-orthodox far right wing DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) diehard. He pines for the good old times when sons obeyed their fathers, and when women obeyed their husbands and stayed in their place. In his mind, if Japan had won World War II, the world would be a much better place, Taiwan a garden of delight. He insists that the KMT (Kuomintang, Nationalist Party) has never done anything good for Taiwan. Everything that is wrong with Taiwan is the fault of the KMT. Nothing the KMT ever did was right; nothing the DPP ever did was wrong. When DPP officials turned out to be even more corrupt than their KMT predecessors, L's explanation was simple: “They didn't want to take the money, but the KMT forced them to. It isn't their fault.” You get the idea: the DPP is his religion.
Or was? The other day he told me,“Over the years I have spent a great deal of time, effort, and money for the DPP. From local officials up, I always campaigned hard, ever since even before the DPP was founded. Earlier this year, almost every night I took people out to dinner, expensive dinners with good food, so they would vote for Chen Shuibian so we would have a DPP president and a DPP administration.
“It doesn't make any difference. It doesn't matter who is in office. They are all rotten. It doesn't matter what party they are. They just want power and money. They don't care about the people. It doesn't matter whether they are Minnan or mainlander. They don't care about the people, they just want to fight for their own power and money. Every single one of them is corrupt, even the DDP. They are all rotten.”
Kind of scary.
Or was? The other day he told me,“Over the years I have spent a great deal of time, effort, and money for the DPP. From local officials up, I always campaigned hard, ever since even before the DPP was founded. Earlier this year, almost every night I took people out to dinner, expensive dinners with good food, so they would vote for Chen Shuibian so we would have a DPP president and a DPP administration.
“It doesn't make any difference. It doesn't matter who is in office. They are all rotten. It doesn't matter what party they are. They just want power and money. They don't care about the people. It doesn't matter whether they are Minnan or mainlander. They don't care about the people, they just want to fight for their own power and money. Every single one of them is corrupt, even the DDP. They are all rotten.”
Kind of scary.
Monday, July 05, 2004
My Life's Plan and Ambitions
Central to my life's plan is this baby. Please go to
http://bemil.chosun.com/movie%20link/su-35.wmv
and watch the film. Neat! I want one! I want one!
So, I am going to go buy a lottery ticket. When I win the lottery, I will buy one of these one-seaters. The next six months will be devoted to playing with it and getting airsick.
Then I will declare war on Palau, or maybe the Seychelles. Some little country like that will (A) not have the firepower to beat my one-seater, and (B) be more than eager to obey anybody who has one: Coooooool!
When I have conquered Palau, or maybe the Seychelles, or even Tuvalu or Kyrgyzstan, I will declare myself Beloved Leader for Life and Minister of Air Defense. On selected days I will take selected constituents up for a joyride, thereby assuring their devotion and loyalty. If you're really nice to me, I'll invite you along too.
Central to my life's plan is this baby. Please go to
http://bemil.chosun.com/movie%20link/su-35.wmv
and watch the film. Neat! I want one! I want one!
So, I am going to go buy a lottery ticket. When I win the lottery, I will buy one of these one-seaters. The next six months will be devoted to playing with it and getting airsick.
Then I will declare war on Palau, or maybe the Seychelles. Some little country like that will (A) not have the firepower to beat my one-seater, and (B) be more than eager to obey anybody who has one: Coooooool!
When I have conquered Palau, or maybe the Seychelles, or even Tuvalu or Kyrgyzstan, I will declare myself Beloved Leader for Life and Minister of Air Defense. On selected days I will take selected constituents up for a joyride, thereby assuring their devotion and loyalty. If you're really nice to me, I'll invite you along too.
Friday, July 02, 2004
You will not find John or Mary in any book or teaching material I edit or write. These are so trite that I am done with them, and always substitute other names, variety being the spice of life.
All things in moderation: if you want to bust a gut on some of the names people come up with for their poor kids, http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/ is the place to visit.
It seems that some people name kids after where they were conceived: god help any poor kid whose parents honeymooned in Pumpkin Center, Louisiana! Keep your parents AWAY from Hot Coffee, Mississippi or Two Egg, Florida. If your parents had a good time in Spot, Tennessee, you probably grew up wondering why so many people wanted to play fetch with you. Wouldn't be much better for kids whose parents visited England, either. What if they booked hotel rooms in Frisby On The Wreake, Leicestershire, Fattahead, Aberdeenshire, or Spital In The Street, Lincolnshire?
Angela T. told me about some dopeheads who decided to name their kid after the place they conceived them, so they named their daughter Shenandoah Valley. The problem was, they had twins, so ~~ sit down, take a deep breath, this is gruesome ~~ they named the other girl Country Dreaming. Now as much as I wonder if they parents knew that Shenandoah is the name of an Indian chief, a man's name, I mourn for the other little girl, because Shenandoah Valley goes by Shenan (not Shannon), so can you imagine what poor Country Dreaming gets called?
Oh my oh my
All things in moderation: if you want to bust a gut on some of the names people come up with for their poor kids, http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/ is the place to visit.
It seems that some people name kids after where they were conceived: god help any poor kid whose parents honeymooned in Pumpkin Center, Louisiana! Keep your parents AWAY from Hot Coffee, Mississippi or Two Egg, Florida. If your parents had a good time in Spot, Tennessee, you probably grew up wondering why so many people wanted to play fetch with you. Wouldn't be much better for kids whose parents visited England, either. What if they booked hotel rooms in Frisby On The Wreake, Leicestershire, Fattahead, Aberdeenshire, or Spital In The Street, Lincolnshire?
Angela T. told me about some dopeheads who decided to name their kid after the place they conceived them, so they named their daughter Shenandoah Valley. The problem was, they had twins, so ~~ sit down, take a deep breath, this is gruesome ~~ they named the other girl Country Dreaming. Now as much as I wonder if they parents knew that Shenandoah is the name of an Indian chief, a man's name, I mourn for the other little girl, because Shenandoah Valley goes by Shenan (not Shannon), so can you imagine what poor Country Dreaming gets called?
Oh my oh my
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