And another thing...

Not long ago, I was complaining about the Taiwanese being not-very-civic minded. Since I've been in a foul mood today ("This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays."*). So I thought I would add a few more.

1. While some Taiwan-based or Taiwan chapter-InternationalNGOs have donated to the tsunami vicitims efforts, there has been very little private donating. Several foreign teachers who tried to begin fund-raising efforts at their respective schools were met with what could almost be described as incredulity:
Foreign teacher: Let's raise some money for the tsunami vicitms.
Local teacher/administrator: Really? But won't the charities just keep it for themselves? What's UNICEF? Why are you asking the students to work for this money? [someone suggested a pledge-walk].
And then when the teachers organize it, the parents donate 25 cents.

2. People claim public property for themselves. I realize that space is a valuable commodity in this country, but I would estimate that about 50% of the sidewalks in this country are completely impassable. people claim them as private driveways, or storage for their food stalls, or work space, or parking lots, and even occasionally build permanent structures on them. People usually have to walk in the streets. I only bring this up today because I'm particularly irritated at the grand new sidewalks that were recently built along a major boulevard in the city. Within hours of their being completed, they were impassable. They were as wide as a lane of traffic, on either side of the road, and now they're just the urban equivalent of a trailer park. I don't walk to work, but it still burns me up. The businesses that front the sidewalks don't even have the courtesy to leave a path just in case some pedestrians happen to show up. The fucking police department parks their fleet of scooters completely across it. When I drive by, I imagine a massive fleet of tow trucks carrying all of the sidewalk obstacles away and pushing them down a ravine. Or driving a bulldozer down the sidewalk after giving a 2 minute warning. Or spray-painting "NO PARKING" in Chinese (I'd have to use a stencil) on everything in the way. Or a little explosive charge that would flip a car ass over teakettle out into the street (Actually, I was imagining something more like a superpowered hydraulic jack, but let's not get too technical here.)

Oooh, I think I need to stop now. There are compensations for living here. But for some reason, I get really worked up about sidewalks. I actually wrote a long rant about it ages ago that got published in my hometown newspaper. Of course, compared to Taichung, Muncie's sidewalks were like Paris. Little did I know...

* Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy