11. Taiwan, the Fast Lane

Taiwan is in the fast lane of the worlds motorway! People live at hyperbolic speed and with blinkers on. A slow person has no place in life, and if they are not already as flat as a pancake will soon be squashed and starving before a week is out. I don't mind it generally, but after seeing Canada and having been in Edinburgh for the last few weeks I sort of feel a bit on the "I can't quite keep up on this side of life" just now.

Eating out is an exercise in dexterity, not from the wielding of chopsticks but to finish the first course before the second one comes hurtling out of the kitchen! And no mooching homeward please; the ability to dodge cars (because pavements are reserved for motorbikes and dogs), as one has to compete with the traffic in the middle of the road, requires speed and a pair of eyes at the back of the head!

I have in fact realised one thing, that nobody really cares very much about anybody outside of the family unit. In one sense this is extremely worthwhile but in another it makes public life quite 'jumpy'. Doors are not generally held open for other people! Should one do the gentlemanly act everyman-Jack-and-his-dog and any Jills hanging around, will simply march through without compunction, leaving the self-elected doorman to stand there looking extremely foolish! The older generation are generally more self-centered than others; old men barge around without care who they hurt, old women never enact the subtle shoulder shift so passerby's typically end up with a series of bruises, from elbows sharpened for war!

With one of the highest count of convenience stores in the world, with take-a-ways a three times a day occurrence for most families and with kitchens made for not much more than a cup of coffee (and usually not even that) life is just one big race to the finish!

And if I carry on at this rate I will finish sooner than expected!

Hey, citizens of Taiwan! Where are your green parks, your recreational areas (no not that dirty brown square meter patch at the end of the road that the dogs use for extra-curriculum activities) and where has all the fun in life gone that you should be having! Let your children play, let them learn from the lessons of life and not those forced down their throats till all hours of the night.

And dear parents, there is more to life than earning money. You may not think so but look around, sit back for a minute or two and see what sort of life you are making around you and for your children. All that money pouring in, you and your husband working all hours of the day and the night and doing this by banishing your children to mismatched schools and English-learning centers! Your offspring aren't having fun and you as parents are missing out on the most important times of your lives, when your children are young. But they never see you so ............ carry on earning that money, for what I don't know but it must be good to be neglecting your children and living a life of stress and seriousness.

Och well, I don't expect an answer! I am just away to the roof of this large and noisy apartment block! Nobody goes up there as it serves no purpose! So on this flat piece of concrete I will gain some sense of proportion, recharge my batteries and be alone to collect myself before re-entering the 'rat race' down below!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.Com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, December 2005