How to not suck less
Dear Johnny,
I'm a music producer and have constantly been asked why the talent here sucks. When I set out to figure out the answer to that question, I started an investigation to find out the reasons for it and discovered many upsetting issues.
I can remember when Taiwan used to look at Korea as a country that was not up to par. Now we have to worry about losing to Thailand.
Taiwan is so complicated when it comes to growth and development. Like the stock market, it all seems to be on the brink of collapse and then remarkably turns around just to the level of surviving.
Could it be that we just try hard enough to get up when we're down and then fall back to a comfort zone?
Part of what gives us the shameless selection of singers these days has a lot to do with schools having talent shows and contests from early on.
The students spend a couple of months preparing something.
Much like our politicians. We don't have qualifications good enough for people to step into the political arena. Not even an electoral college vote.
So like the kids in school, they all step up to see who sucks less and in the end there is a winner.
That winner will set the bar for the rest of the people out there who want to succeed.
Kids in Taiwan are getting it too good. Parents want to imitate the American way to raise their children with the freedom and creativity it has to offer.
Sadly, what they don't consider is that education in Taiwan is on a downhill streak, so with all the freedom and poor education we get a new breed of kids.
In the past few years, more and more nightclubs have popped up with "all you can drink" rules. Just check out some of the places like Lava, 9%, Luna and PaSoul to name a few; they are packed about four nights a week, with some averaging 200 to 400 people a night.
Since it's harder to get a good education and a good job, this has become a common place for kids to burn away their time, and they'll stay there longer now with the "all you can drink" theme.
It makes me sad when I see these places. I bet most of them operate without a proper license, too. But some of the kids think it's better than doing something constructive because they'll get the military draft not long after starting their path to a career. So why not burn the time?
I read that Korea has an incentive for young men to avoid the military draft if they go into the tech industry. That sounds smart; why don't we do that?
When they finally get out of the military, they get into a job with people in management positions who don't have proper training or education for leadership skills.
Much like the singing contests we see today, with people who think they sing well without any education or training for it.
I really hope Taiwan can do more about raising its bar instead of settling with who sucks less.
As a country, we still suck less than many others but the chart looks bearish for now. Time for our government to consider arbitration on that and raise a few basis points on our nationalism.
The best leverage for Taiwan's sovereignty is a thriving nation with a positive outlook in business, education and democracy.
Maybe then we'll see some better albums out in the market.
bjack
Johnny replies: Some challenging ideas there, Mr Bjack, though I have to say that I feel no threat from Thailand -- or from South Korea. But North Korea still makes me a little nervous.
It might be a bit of a stretch to liken overworked schoolchildren to our legislative line-up, but there is some substance in asking what young men have to look forward to in a country that prizes material wealth at the expense of its nationalism and then sends these poor creatures off to military service.
Yet nobody complains. Maybe we're all too busy rehearsing for our showstopping performances at the KTV: The ultimate Taiwanese show-and-tell.
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