US President Barack Obama has had some bad luck recently.
First, two former US secretaries of defense and one former secretary of state appointed by him have published their memoirs, in which they accuse him of being indecisive and lacking a clear direction.
Second, his credit card was declined when he tried to pay for a meal at a New York restaurant while attending a meeting of the UN General Assembly.
The US president’s credit card was rejected — how can this be true? Occasionally, some poor or elderly, forgetful person may be rejected again and again when trying to pay with their credit cards. Now this has also happened to Obama, whose face is well-recognized all over the world.
Perhaps it is like Obama said: “It turned out I guess I don’t use it enough. So they thought there was some fraud going on.”
The New York restaurant simply rejected Obama’s credit card according to the law and asked him for another method of payment. In the face of this great embarrassment, the master of the White House had no choice but to rely on first lady Michelle Obama, who eventually paid with her credit card.
Obama said that this was not the first time his card had been rejected, and that sometimes he had to pay cash to save time.
This would not happen in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Taiwan. After causing so much public anger, Ma is unlikely to dine out with first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) at any eatery without having first cleared it of any other visitors, for fear of being hit by shoes or books thrown by bystanders.
Even if he were to choose to dine out, Taiwanese hospitality and the culture of government-business collusion would preclude any restaurant operator from charging him, and he would never insist on paying them. In addition, no one would ever dare reject his credit card.
The attitude of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) politicians has always been condescending and they never pay any attention to the people at the bottom.
Nor would something like this happen in China. Chinese netizens were surprised when they saw then-US ambassador to China Gary Locke carrying his own bag when waiting in line to buy coffee.
They also used the incident as an opportunity to mock arrogant Chinese leaders and bureaucrats.
To create a friendly image, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) aides then arranged a publicity event in December last year, in which Xi ate steamed buns at a Beijing restaurant and paid for the meal himself.
Does the emperor really need to have cash in his pocket when going out? This notion seems to be removed from reality.
Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) once tried to buy eggs from a farmer in the countryside to show how close he was to the common people. However, Chiang did not know the price of eggs, so he told an aide to give the farmer a few dollars.
This story, in which the “emperor” did not have any money and did not know the price of eggs, sounds much closer to reality.
James Wang is a political commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
President William Lai (賴清德) attended a dinner held by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) when representatives from the group visited Taiwan in October. In a speech at the event, Lai highlighted similarities in the geopolitical challenges faced by Israel and Taiwan, saying that the two countries “stand on the front line against authoritarianism.” Lai noted how Taiwan had “immediately condemned” the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and had provided humanitarian aid. Lai was heavily criticized from some quarters for standing with AIPAC and Israel. On Nov. 4, the Taipei Times published an opinion article (“Speak out on the
Most Hong Kongers ignored the elections for its Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2021 and did so once again on Sunday. Unlike in 2021, moderate democrats who pledged their allegiance to Beijing were absent from the ballots this year. The electoral system overhaul is apparent revenge by Beijing for the democracy movement. On Sunday, the Hong Kong “patriots-only” election of the LegCo had a record-low turnout in the five geographical constituencies, with only 1.3 million people casting their ballots on the only seats that most Hong Kongers are eligible to vote for. Blank and invalid votes were up 50 percent from the previous
More than a week after Hondurans voted, the country still does not know who will be its next president. The Honduran National Electoral Council has not declared a winner, and the transmission of results has experienced repeated malfunctions that interrupted updates for almost 24 hours at times. The delay has become the second-longest post-electoral silence since the election of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party in 2017, which was tainted by accusations of fraud. Once again, this has raised concerns among observers, civil society groups and the international community. The preliminary results remain close, but both
News about expanding security cooperation between Israel and Taiwan, including the visits of Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) in September and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) this month, as well as growing ties in areas such as missile defense and cybersecurity, should not be viewed as isolated events. The emphasis on missile defense, including Taiwan’s newly introduced T-Dome project, is simply the most visible sign of a deeper trend that has been taking shape quietly over the past two to three years. Taipei is seeking to expand security and defense cooperation with Israel, something officials
RSS