Globalisation's Challenges are Multiplying

"Globalisation has reduced the bargaining power of unskilled workers and pushed up inequality in many Western countries... the OECD said this week.. urging governments to improve their social safety nets...

The prospect of off-shoring was likely to have increased the vulnerability of jobs and wages in developed countries... (However)... Offshoring, where companies reallocate production or services to cheaper places, was not as big a job-killer in OECD countries as believed... (as) it is not the preserve of 'Anglo-Saxon' economies such as the UK and the US...

"Millions are benefiting from globalisation but at the same time, there's a feeling that something's wrong with the process," said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria...

The report pointed to a 'remarkable' fall in the share of wages of national income in OECD member countries in the past decade... Also rising wage inequality...

The OECD urges governments to resist protectionist responses and instead adapt employment policies to help people move from one job to another with greater ease and sense of security.

"The job for life is dead... In order to reap the benefits of globalisation, you have to move. People have to move into new areas... The thing now is to protect people, but not protect jobs, because some jobs have no future."

- 'Globalisation's Challenges are Multiplying,' Ashley Seager, The Guardian
Taipei Times, June 22, p.9

Musings

You feel free in Australia. There is great relief in the atmosphere - a relief from tension, from pressure, an absence of control of will or form. The Skies open above you and the areas open around you.

D.H Lawrence

Duan Wu Jie photos

Picturesque views down by the Jilong River,

on a beautiful warm Monday in Taipei


More Dragon Boat races on the river

Duan Wu Jie

Dragon Boats on the water. The person at the front of each boat tries to grab a flag to signal the end of the race, stretching themselves as far forward from the bow as possible.

Dragon Boat Festival

Apologies to any of you that have been hanging out for another post! We've been a little slack on the blog front lately, so there's a few things to catch up on.

Firstly, Simon has been quite sick over the past week. About a week ago he started complaining of sore throat and a fever. After a few days we realised that it was a little more serious than a cold, so we've since fed him a bunch of antibiotics and its done him a world of good! The difference has been a little startling, to be honest! This definitely confirms what we've heard so far about the quality of the health system here.

Also, we've had much more time for R and R than usual, being a long weekend here in Taipei. (We've also got tommorrow off, hooray!) This is because the Taiwanese are celebrating 'Dragon Boat Festival' ((端午節, Duānwū Jié). It's a traditional festival held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and its said that once the festival begins, so too does summer.

The exact origins of Duan Wu are unclear, but one traditional view holds that the festival memorializes the Chinese poet Chu Yuan (c. 340 BC-278 BC). He committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he was disgusted by the corruption of the government. (One of our good friends shares in his ancestry!)

The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. They also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called 'dragon boats', and tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and the fierce looking carved dragon head on the head of the boat. Other thoughts are that after Qu Yaun committed suicide, that because the people loved him so much, they raced out to recover his body, and the races signify the boats skimming across the water to find him.

However, researches have also revealed that the festival is also a celebration that is characteristic of ancient Chinese agrarian society: the celebration of the harvest of winter wheat, because similar celebrations had long existed in many other parts of China where Qu Yuan was not known. As interactions between Chinese residing in different regions increased, these similar festivals were eventually merged.

In the early years of the Chinese Republic, Duan Wu was also celebrated as "Poets' Day," due to Qu Yuan's status as China's first poet of personal renown. Today, people eat bamboo-wrapped steamed rice dumplings called zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fish) and race dragon boats in memory of Qu Yuan's death. (Delicious!)

So our celebration of Dragon Boat Festival was shared today with some of our fantastic Taiwanese friends, Margaret and Leo. Being life-long Taipeiers, they offered to take us to Jilong River (on the city's outskirts) to see the famous Dragon Boat races. It was fantastic! Lots of teams competed, including local high schools and the Taipei Police. The event had the air of a high school sports day, with lots of people running around and lots of eskies filled with ice-creams and watermelons to combat the heat. I guess the photos really say it all.

From there Margaret and Leo took us for a tour of the area surrounding National Taiwan Normal University ('Shi-da' for short) where we'll be learning Chinese in a few months. Being a student area, it has a really different vibe to other parts of Taipei - heaps of well-priced food (especially Malaysian and Indonesian to cater to the international student community) and funky little stores, just gorgeous. It's definitely the place for us. So we had a lazy afternoon lunch over noodles (also v. delicious!) So we'll be back there over the week or so to look for houses with those guys, which will be great.

So that's the update for the moment. Simon's having a peaceful nana nap beside me, as he's pretty zonked from his first day out and about since he got sick. When he wakes up, it'll be time for some more West Wing (there's a few duds in season six, I must say... not cool!) and perhaps some online Lateline too!

When it rains, it pours...

The weather here over the past few days has been absolutely incredible... It's just rained and rained, absolutely pouring most of the time, for at least three days now.

The city is still functioning as per normal, thank goodness. It's just strange seeing so much water around the place after coming from drought-stricken Australia.

It's also really strange being in the pouring rain whilst it being so warm - it was a balmy 27 degrees here today and 25 degrees overnight.

Beitou, in northern Taipei - our favourite little hot springs spot, so close to the city! - has experienced some of the heavier floods over the past few days.

We've been told stories about the floods of 2001 in which Taipei City received four months of rain in one day; flooding houses and low-lying areas, soo too was the whole metro (subway) system forced to go down. Sounded like chaos.

The weather is set to continue like this for the next week or so, with most people staying indoors when they can. Hopefully, our little island will be spared from anything more drastic than that.

KTV!

Last night I indulged in one of the most popular Taiwanese night-life activites... KTV! For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's basically Japanese-style karaoke and is one of the most popular things to do in Taiwan.

Some of the teachers here organised for a small group of us to go along - since its quite expensive on weekends, we chose to go last night between the hours of 11pm and 2am.. which felt a little strange. Simon has been working very hard and decided to give it a miss as his Thursdays are quite busy... hard-working lad that he is!

Basically, you're ushered into what looks like a plush little lounge-room with big couches, a large table and a big TV. (There's also a private bathroom.) Then you can choose from a little screen either English or Chinese songs. The English selection is absolutely hilarious, with numbers from Billy Ray Cyrus, the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears alike! You could also choose from a couple of Eric Clapton numbers... With Eric Claypton's Chinese name translated as "beautiful old man", it's generally pretty funny.

So then, of course, there's beer to dissipate any nerves on the microphone. Needless to say, I'm a little tired today and my heads a little sore (I think it was the vodka that did it.) Oops, must run, student has arrived... :)

Transcript - Taiwan's Regional Security

TONY 'Gorgeous' JONES: "If the Chinese leadership regard this missile defence system in the same way that the Russian leadership have regarded the one that the US and Europe want to put into Eastern Europe, you're going to have a serious diplomatic problem on your hands, aren't you?"

BRENDAN NELSON: "Well Tony, it is a concern if it is held... which is not a reality on the facts that are being developed. Australia's relationship with China is such that under no circumstances would we be wishing to be supportive of something which was destabilising to the security of the region..."

TONY: "... Here's the point. Should Australia's defence not look at worst-case scenarios? And the worst-case scenario in our region would be a Chinese military invasion of Taiwan. And the question in the Chinese' minds and in my mind right now is whether that military system could protect Taiwan in those circumstances."

BRENDAN: "..As far as any military capability being developed by Japan and the US, having an extension to any other nation or indeed any other part of the region, such as Taiwan, is not something I'm willing to discuss publicly..."


- Lateline, www.abc.net.au
June 6, 2007
Brendan Nelson with Tony Jones, discussing the Australia/Japan/US trilateral Military Ballistic System

Resident Visas Ahoy!

An open-ended visa for Formosa

Whoop-de-do! We have finally received our resident's visas. We are officially citizens of one country and residents of another. So they can't officially kick us out. Well, that may be stretching the truth. I'm sure they could very easily kick us out if they were determined to wade through the bureaucratic swamp of Taipei. But having resident visas will make it a touch harder.

Lisa and I are enjoying beer and sunflower seeds on our bed (not tim-tams, as the above photo may suggest). We've become quite the sunflower seed enthusiasts, so much so that our bedroom floor resembles that of a large birdcage. It's been a long day of teaching and we're looking forward to our one day off - the Sabath. Tomorrow we will visit an independent artists festival and perhaps find a local gym for some well needed exercise. The weather is becoming very tropical in Taipei - hot and humid. Thankfully nearly every interior space here has air-conditioning, the catch22 being of course that the power used for air-conditioning will exacerbate global warming. 'Tis the dilemma of our age.

The Social Democratic Tradition in a Hayekisian Australia

"...Hayek’s polemic against the left was an axiomatic component of his advocacy of a radical, neo-liberal alternative – one which argued the absolute centrality of the market; a role for the state as a protector of that market but little else besides; and apocalyptic warnings that any political interference with the integrity (even ‘sanctity’) of the market would place the entire national project on the “slippery slope” to totalitarianism...

It is important to state clearly the essential elements of the Hayekian orthodoxy. Hayek’s political philosophy is premised on a stark view of human nature that social democrats find confronting. In his Australian lecture, “The Atavism of Social Justice”, Hayek argues
that the altruistic feelings human beings had for one another in small tribes in primal society are rendered redundant by the impersonal demands imposed on human beings in more complex societies through prices determined in the market....

...In other words, social justice, whether it is taken maximally to mean equality of outcome, or more minimalistically to mean equality of opportunity, has absolutely no place in the Hayekian scheme....

...Social democrats have a range of objections to the market fundamentalism of the Hayekian system – a system which represents a radical departure from the schema expounded by Adam Smith two centuries before in the Wealth of Nations... Hayek is in every sense, therefore, a radical... whose philosophical system continues to drive much of the intellectual and policy software of the Howard Government, together with the bureaucracy that serves it...

...Furthermore, Hayek remains oblivious to the fact that social democrats are ultimately shaped by Smith (among others) rather than Marx. Social democrats have always respected and accepted the creativity, the efficiency and the wealth-generating capacity of markets.
But social democrats, unlike Hayek’s neo-liberals, have never been blinded by free market fundamentalism. Social democrats, by contrast, have always recognised a positive role for the state in performing functions the market cannot...

... Social democrats reject Hayek’s a priori assertion that altruism is a primitive value which can and should be purged from human consciousness. Social democrats accept the Smithian view that human beings are equally self-regarding and other-regarding and, as noted above, both should be reflected in a social democratic political economy. To the self-regarding values of liberty, security and prosperity should be added other-regarding values of equity, solidarity and sustainability. Properly constructed, these latter values are also market-enhancing
rather than market-detracting. Furthermore, this spread of values embraces social democratic concepts of both negative and positive liberty – not just the absence of coercion of the individual but equally creating the opportunity for the individual to participate fully in economic, social and political life..."

- The Hon. Kevin Rudd, MP
An Address to the Centre for Independent Studies
As Shadow Foreign Minister
Sydney, November 16 2006

Meanwhile...

Meanwhile, the national debate surrounding the name change from "Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall" to the "National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall" still rages...

(Photo: Taiwan News) - http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/gallery.php?highlight_id=760680&category=14

Lazy Fridays, Taipei

Today Leese celebrated her first day off for the week (after 4 days, 10-12 hours each) - exciting stuff! We were finally able to spend some time together, with Sim also enjoying the luxury of an afternoon off. We spent the day lounging about drinking coffee and trying out a bunch of Taiwanese food that we've yet to try.

i. We were hugely chuffed when we found this huuuuge packet of Arnott's Tim Tams sold in a pharmacy here (yes, chemists sell Tim Tams.) Amazing, and discounted, too!

ii. We also went to a noodle house, where we tried some amazingly fresh beef and veggie noodles over Asahis... While watching the chefs throw about the noodle dough, twisting and kneading like nobody's business. Awesome stuff.

Leese poses for the Papa

iii. We also finally decided to try "Beard Papa", the Taiwanese sweet store! Beard Papa is a Japanese concoction, a little stall which sells pastry puffs filled with vanilla and strawberry... Absolutely delicious!

iv. Summer is most definitely on its way - it was 38 degrees here in Taipei today, absolutely steaming. And we're set to experience the humidity which comes with the typhoon season, also set to begin soon. On the upside though, we did enjoy some delicious mango and starfruit today, to celebrate the beginning of the mango (and avo!) season.

v. We also realised that the two-and-a-half year mark just passed us by... Woohoo! (Note: We're still celebrating with Asahis, just like the good old days.) :)

Photos soon! x

Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) Memorial Hall name change

Under-wraps: a plaque that has caused quite a furore.

Yesterday the Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) Memorial Hall, a tribute to the infamous dictator who maintained martial law in Taiwan for 38 years, was officially renamed the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (國立台灣民主紀念館). The name change sparked demonstrations at the site as supporters and critics of the name change clashed in minor brawls. Barbed wire fences were erected around the newly christened Democracy Hall and hundreds of police were deployed to quell the unrest. The Sunday edition of the Taipei Times showed the image of an old Taiwanese man with his pants down, apparently proclaiming that President Chen Shui Bian (陳水扁) had no balls. Upon the unveiling of the new plaque President Chen said that the move was a step forward, away from the country's authoritarian past.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/photo/2007/05/20/2005068893

When Lisa and I visited the site today there remained a signficant police presence, with a dozen police guarding the entrance to the Hall. The sweeping grounds that encircle the Hall, however, were surprisingly peaceful. It was a cold, wet afternoon in Taipei. Perhaps the rain extinguished some of the controversy surrounding the name change, albeit temporarily. A lone camera-crew from one of Taiwan's news agencies took footage of the lonely square for the evening news. Apparently they were happy that Lisa and I arrived so that at least they'd have some footage for tonight's bulletin. Lisa was asked a few questions but was conscientious not to put her foot in it. Although she did say that it was a good thing without elaborating on her opinion. As she rightly said, this is a Taiwanese issue, a very sensitive issue, and one that foreigners should refrain from putting their large feet in.

A sole reporter finds reprieve in some foreign faces.

We have been asking our Taiwanese friends about the name change in the past few days. Most have been critical of the move, with the more pragmatic denouncing the move as a waste of taxpayer's money (the name change will require the amendment of tourist information and provincial/MRT signage). Some have said that the name change is an ill-fated attempt to change the nation's psyche and that, in the minds of the people, it will always be Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

The name change is part of a broader campaign by the Democractic People's Party (DPP) to dilute the legacy of Chiang Kai-shek and remove idols of the once-dictator from the Taiwanese landscape. The Chiang Kai-shek International Airport was recently renamed Taoyuan International Airport. In March Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the DPP issued an administrative order to rename the Chiang Kai-shek Culture Center to the Kaohsiung City Culture Center. The Kaohsiung government also removed a large statue of the former dictator from the centre.

As bright as...

Karma Cola Musings

"To go from the monomania of the West to the multimania of the East is a painful business. Like a sex change. Too many visitors discover that changing their names does not inevitably lead to a change in their vital organs...

The Eastern Master, when asked, "What is the Answer?" has traditionally replied, "Who is Asking?" In that lies a central difference between Eastern and Western thought. The East is not concerned with intellectual aggrandizement, so much so that Jung testily called the Eastern mind childish, a mind that didn't ask questions, but simply perceived them. In a tradition where the question asks itself and the answer replies itself and all that remains is to establish the identity of the asker..."

- "Karma Cola"
Gita Mehta