The grim sowers/reapers
Dear Johnny,
Isn’t it interesting, if true, that the US is turning to Taiwan, a “non-country,” for assistance in Afghanistan? Hmm ... be it military or NGO-type assistance, this might make for an interesting leverage tool if true.
Anyway, my wife and I just finished our annual trip back to Taiwan.
It never ceases to amaze me how the cities are becoming busier and more crowded and that pollution is up, but something else really caught my attention.
On most prior trips I came away more and more concerned about the apathy shown by university-aged young people toward the increasing “lean toward China” that is being exhibited by the current administration, as well as the reluctance of the West to curb China’s push toward “unification.”
But this time was markedly different.
We traveled the length and breadth of Taiwan this year visiting many young folks who we met while they were in Minnesota last summer.
They and many of their friends are concerned and voiced disappointment and almost anger at the current administration’s lack of concern over China’s goal of unification/takeover.
Further, they expressed anger at the international community for lack of real support for independence. Nice change.
The three months we spent was never enough, and it is becoming harder and harder to return to the frozen tundra of Minnesota.
Our good friends in Taiwan keep urging us to “transplant” ourselves and find a home on the island. Some day soon ... we hope.
DOC
Johnny replies: On Afghanistan, quickly: As this newspaper’s reports have pointed out, this would not be the first time that the US has asked Taiwan for assistance of some sort in its military agenda. On the one hand that is kind of comforting; on the other hand, it makes me wonder: “Where’s the beef?”
As for the young folks of this fair isle, there can be little dispute that the education system specifically attempts to turn our little ankle-biters into pliable fodder for distribution in the tertiary education sector.
Individualism, unencumbered creativity, sexual development, critical thinking that would extend to criticism of the school system in part or whole — all of these things are anathema.
Why, only the other day one of my grandchildren came home with a slip of paper that accused her of violating some school protocol.
Of course, as a militant of old, I was intrigued at what my kin would be doing to attract the ire of the school, and when I asked the little tyke, she said: “I wrote my name on my school bag in big black marker pen.”
Well, bugger me. Call the police. Get the interrogators. Prepare the waterboarding equipment.
If kids can’t even write their own names on their school bags, how can they advance to the more mature levels of personal non-conformism?
With our schools, Doc my friend, we reap what we sow.
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