Unreported crimes
Dear Johnny,
Make yourself useful for a change.
Look at the story in the Taipei Times about several cases of innocent young men being beaten to death by gangs of youths (“Police arrest five suspects in Hsinchu murder case,” June 16, page 1).
Is this the end of the world?
No, it’s been happening for years. If anything, the situation is much better than before, as is the general crime situation compared with the 1990s (when I must have read of at least 50 cases of people beaten to death by gangs of young people).
The fact is that the English-language media hasn’t been reporting on what’s been going on crime-wise for years.
I read the serious papers and watched the TV news for almost 14 years and I know that some crazy shit goes off in Taiwan.
It’s not new. It’s just not being reported by you and the other media. And it’s by no means the fault of Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government.
Kev Lax
Johnny replies: It’s such a pleasure to receive correspondence from Mr Lax that is critical of me (or my associates) and printable in a family newspaper.
It’s also a pleasure to say that, by and large Kev, I agree with your assessment of the gap between the reality of crime and how it is reported in the media.
The fact is that criminality is an exceptionally difficult issue to pin down — and attempts to politicize crime are usually difficult to sustain. So, you won’t hear me criticizing the Ma government because a bunch of thugs killed some poor fellow in Hsinchu for apparently no reason.
Likewise, I thought the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) frequent criticism of the law-and-order record of the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) government was sheer bunkum.
The Greek connection
Dear Johnny,
Kalimera! You have already honored me by presenting one or two of my letters (on driving in Taiwan and the director of the Greek consulate in Paris). I used the name “Steve Tso,” also written as Chou, like the first lady (I am not proud of that).
I just read the letter of Harry Adamopoulos about Linux, and I am surprised as he has a Greek name and probably this is not a pseudonym.
I know that you cannot play the role of a secretary, but as a Greek who lived in Taiwan and cares for this country, I would like to invite Mr Adamopoulos (who is probably also Greek or Greek-American) to “meet” me on the Web and — why not? — really meet me one day in Taipei or perhaps somewhere on the Mediterranean Sea or in the taverna of Salonika, my city, with ouzo and souvlaki, etc.
By the way, of course, you are also invited. Taiwanese are so few in number in Greece, so we need them desperately! Would you please give me his e-mail address and/or give mine to him?
God bless Neihu ...
Steve Tso
PS: And speaking of Greek drivers: They don’t earn more points than the Taiwanese; I would say that they compete with them because egoism, emotionality and an absence of respect for pedestrians are very common among Greeks.
Johnny replies: You’d be amazed what people ask me to do (printable or otherwise). Recently a nice lady from the US asked me to help her track down her grandmother’s grave. So ... I’m on the job.
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