I promise I'll be back.

Hi guys,
So, it's obviously been a while since I updated this blog. I have been busy... Left Taiwan, saw the family, drove 3,000 miles across America with Susan, then fall into Grad-school in Vermont. But, I'll start writing again soon. Maybe I'll put up some of my essays and you'll get to see some photos again. So, be patient, it's coming.
Until that time be at peace and prosper!
Hugs, Colleen

From my Expeirential Archives: Do you hear the voices?

Do you hear the voices in the beer bottles? I can hear them, can you? If you do can you tell me what they're saying. We use different languages. Thank goodness there's beer! Communicating is that much easier.
Have you ever been somewhere that you don't speak the language? I don't mean Tijuana, if you don't speak Spanish you certainly speak "una cerveza por favor" and they know what you're saying. I mean someplace where you are standing face to face with someone who desperately wants to help you and you can't say, please. A place where the expression on both your faces is one of utter and helpless confusion. If you have you know what I'm talking about.
Being language-less is not a disability. Thank goodness no one will ever starve from not knowing how to say "I'm hungry" in another language. Our bodies and faces can communicate well enough to meet our basic human needs. But, is it possible to make a deeper human connection without mutual language? I'm sure many an anthropologist, speech therapist, musicologist, or linguist has asked this question. How many have ever tried to answer it through personal experience?
Communicating without language on a daily basis would be painful and pointless if you could not retreat to a place populated by people who do speak your language. After all communicating is a basic human necessity, which is why not-communicating is a favored punishment for justice systems across the globe. But, that's another issue all together.

For the past 18 months I have lived among, and interacted everyday, with people I cannot communicate with through language. It's something that I am openly ashamed to admit. Of course I have my stock of maybe 300 or so words that I use over and over again to be polite and express needs. But, I can't really communicate beyond the level of "how much is that" and "I would like the noodles, please". Why have I not made more of an effort to move beyond my basic language inability and explore the culture around me more deeply, you may ask. I should account for this since one of the reasons I do what I do is I do take pleasure in learning from other cultures. Laziness, comfort, or is it something else?
Perhaps I actually take more pleasure in the non-linguistic communication that I share with strangers. I really enjoy watching people, not to judge or imagine their lives, but just to observe them. I like to see how they act in the presence of strangers, see how they react to me. Children are especially interesting and I communicate with them more than anyone else. They are curious and open about how they feel. It is natural and easy to share a smile, express camaraderie, and intuit emotions with a child, never using one word. A sympathetic adult will often also communicate non-verbally of they sense your linguistic limitations. These shy and sly glances, gestures, smiles, and nods are one of my favorite things about being this stranger in a strange land. I feel connected without actually having to work at making a connection.
I'm still ashamed that I still can't remember how to pronounce and express tonally the very important question, "where's the toilet!" but I'm not too put out by it. I can always follow the signs and my body language will certainly tip off a nice stranger in the crowd who will catch my eye and discreetly point me in the right direction. Some stranger who knows exactly what I need because they've been there before. I believe this natural ability to perceive the needs of strangers in Taiwan is the biggest reason why travellers feel this is one of the friendliest cities in the world. (In my limited opinion it's 100% true, no place beats Taiwan for that friendly smile and openness to helping out a lost visitor)
You really don't need words to say things like, "Hey, come on in and see how beautiful our home is! Don't you love the sights, smells, and people?" All you need is the right kind of look and a smile. Beer is also nice in the grand mix of things.
The photo in this story was taken at City Fables, The 5th City on the Move Art Festival ( http://cityfables.culture.gov.tw/ )at the Taiwan Beer Bar inside the Taiwan Beer factory.

This multimedia art expo, and post-rock three weekend festival had a lot going on. It reflected the discordant, hectic, surreal, and surprisingly peaceful rhythm of Taipei's life. It also incorporated a reflection of the global information driven cultural impact on uniquely Taiwanese creativity and innovation. The venue was chosen because of it's historical connections and spotty history in the ever changing and constantly adapting city. While drinking beer is not currently a major part of the regular cultural life of Taiwanese youth, they understand how significant it is to the youth culture of other nationalities. This city knows how to party-hearty without the booze, which is wonderful for people like me who like the dance but can't hold her own with other western drinkers. The government of Taipei sponsored this fest and they are also sponsoring a launch of non-alcoholic beer designed to make the sober youth of Taipei more comfortable with the global bar culture where art, music, and people laugh and learn from each other. This is a truly innovative approach to rivaling other Asian culture movers and shakers and to moving Taiwan's vibrant and active creative artist onto the global stage, along with Ang Lee and some other less well know but equally influential Taiwanese artists.
This is how the modern world speaks, through strange and broken noises our economic messes and electronic distortions, the emotions we share in response to the static and movement all around us. By smiling at each other through the messy distortions and orderly mobs of humanity.

What do you think about?

OK, so this is something that I think about quite a lot, maybe it makes me a worry-wort, but somebody should care about these things, "what happens to all the trash that I produce?" Let's face it the quantity of garbage that has filled up some previously pristine land and oceans in the last 100 years is downright depressing to contemplate. When I reflect back on my nearly 30 years of contributions to this very real and visible problem I'm ashamed. Check out this article:
Break the throwaway habit
"Paper or plastic?" It's a question that's confounded ecoconscious shoppers for decades. But is it the right question? Imagine how your response might start to change if baggers instead asked, "Did you bring your bags today?" Here, we highlight what's at stake and how a small, simple change like carrying reusable bags can make a big, positive impact.
Easy ways to use fewer plastic (and paper) bags
Invest in reusable shopping bags. The latest ultracompact bags, made from ripstop nylon, are inexpensive and easily stow in a purse or pocket. Another bonus: Many stores offer a 5-cent per-bag credit.
Refuse a bag. Cashiers are often on autopilot, bagging even single items. If you don't need a bag, tell them.
Reuse plastic bags. They make great garbage-can liners, pet waste bags, soggy athletic wear (or swimsuit) holders …
Did you know?
Plastic bags don't biodegrade; they photodegrade—breaking down into toxic bits that contaminate soil and waterways, eventually entering the food chain.
Plastic bags are difficult to recycle or compost.
Paper bags aren't necessarily better. They take more energy to produce and to transport because they're bulkier. If you must have a bag, the best option is one made from recycled paper.
Plastic bags were widely introduced in the United States about 30 years ago.
By the numbers
88 billion+ plastic bags are used each year in the United States.
12 million barrels of oil are used to produce the bags the U.S. uses annually.
Less than 1 percent of plastic bags get recycled in the U.S., according to Worldwatch Institute.
Up to 1,000 years is the estimated length of time it takes for a plastic bag to decompose.
Share your wisdom: Send your best strategies for using fewer plastic bags (or remembering to bring reusables) to deliciousmagazine@newhope.com.
A worldwide movement
At home: San Francisco and nearby Oakland enacted the first U.S. plastic-bag bans last spring. (Rules apply to larger groceries and drugstores.) U.S. cities considering similar measures: Boston; Baltimore; Annapolis, Maryland; Portland, Oregon; Santa Monica and Santa Cruz, California; and Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Around the world: Countries that already have banned—or taken action to discourage—plastic-bag use include Australia, Bangladesh, France, India, Italy, South Africa, Kenya, and Taiwan. In Ireland, plastic-bag use has dropped by more than 90 percent since the country instituted a roughly 20-cent per-bag "plastax" in 2002.

So, as you can see just as one person has the power to make a difference for the better, that one person can also have the power to cause a significant amount of harm, not intentionally, but by choosing to remain in the dark.
I for one am not going to be guilty of this crime against our future any longer.

Happy capitalist, balance?

Shoppers in Tai-Jung night market.

One of the biggest challenges that all American ex-pats, who live and interact with their local communities, face is how to be both critically honest of and positive about our American culture roots. This is especially challenging when the culture that is exported from America is overwhelmingly a culture of materialism and consumption. We all know that America has more to offer the world then KFC and Hollywood, but it's hard to see the good stuff under all the plastic stuff from across the big wide ocean.
Our free market capitalist economy has made us unbelievably wealthy as a nation but increasingly it leaves behind huge portions of it's population who realize they will never achieve the "American Dream" without sacrificing financial independence from debt and even personal ethics of environmental, social, and economic responsibility. Most people understand that our culture of consumption and waste is not sustainable and does horrific damage to the global economy and environment as well as to our own economy and environment. It is evidenced in the crises of clean air and water, heavy droughts and excessive pollution around the corner from every beautiful purple mountain and sunken fruited plane in America, for those who care to look. But, in our profit driven economy prosperity is measured by how much more we can consume, read destroy, compared to the previous year.
As a citizen of this culture, with an outsiders perspective, I see how much this "GNP focused"culture is leaving a legacy of mimicry across the globe. Most notably in China, where the degradation to its' people and environment both within and beyond its' borders grows unchecked while western nations focus on cleaning up their own messes and ignore the East, except to buy cheap polluting products that feed the need for consumption but get sent right back where they come from once they fulfill their temporary need and must be disposed of but, "not in my back yard".
There is one little tiny exception to the mimicry of American capitalism in Asia. This tiny little country with a monarchy that recently held it's first ever democratic elections. Imperfect like all nations and one of the "poorest" in the world they are never the less determined to be happy with what they've got. We all have some things to learn from them, Bhutan. They recently took their message beyond their borders and shared it with the world in Bangkok Thailand. Thailand, a country constantly besieged by the influences of the west because of it's desirability as a paradise of beauty. This op-ed piece from the Taipei times does a pretty good job of explaining the concept of GNH (Gross National Happiness) something that I feel US and other western economists and social journalist need to spend a little energy on.
Following Bhutan in pursuing happiness Sunday, Jan 06, 2008, Page 8
THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL Conference on Gross National Happiness (GNH) was held in Thailand from Nov. 22 to Nov. 28 at Nong Khai Province and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. The conference was an attempt to launch three changes in the form of a social movement: a paradigm shift, institutional transformation and structural change.
One outstanding feature of GNH -- as opposed to using gross national product (GNP) to measure the quality of life -- is its focus on the Eastern world in an attempt to deconstruct the long-standing practice of viewing the world largely through Western perspective.
The concept of happiness as the ultimate goal is common to both Eastern and Western religions and philosophies. Unfortunately, capitalism has narrowly defined the quality of life in economic terms, as measured by GNP, putting excessive emphasis on anthropocentrism and materialism.
As such, the "invisible hands" directing the market has turned into "invisible feet" that trample on society, producing the phenomenon of "poverty within prosperity" as well as incurring other social costs. In fact, some have defined GNP as "gross national pollution." The incurred social costs are diametrically opposed to the core values of happiness: dignity, sensibility, faith, reassurance and hope.
Bhutan took the lead in promoting the GNH movement in an attempt to pursue happiness at the national level. The king of Bhutan set an example by partaking in the movement organized by the Center for Bhutan Studies.
The movement covers eight areas: psychological well-being, health, balanced use of time, education, cultural diversity, good governance, communal vitality, ecological diversity and resilience and living standard.
Bearing in mind that the government is responsible for connecting public opinions to these domains to create happiness on a structural level, Bhutan set up two commissions -- the Royal Civil Service Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission -- to carry out the three changes in order to integrate and expand the scale of happiness.
Since 2004, when it began hosting international conferences on GNH, Bhutan has become a focus of discussion because it has been brave enough to create new paradigms.
One of the paradigms from which Taiwan can learn is Bhutan only has diplomatic relations with 22 countries, as it believes that sparing expenses is conducive to domestic affairs.
Adrian White, a social psychologist at the University of Leicester, has produced the first-ever "world map of happiness." White based the rankings on the findings of more than 100 studies from around the world, including data on life expectancy from the WHO and various national surveys about satisfaction with life.
Denmark ranked first in the survey, which covered more than 80,000 participants from 178 countries, followed closely by Switzerland and Austria. Bhutan ranked eighth and was the only Asian country to make it to the top 10 list. Taiwan came in 68th and China 82nd.
Taiwan should pay attention to such a trend as it is a crucial turning point for "globalization." Bhutan walks its own way and "thinks like a mountain."
If Taiwan "thinks like an island" and supports the "three capitalisms" -- natural capitalism, cultural capitalism and social capitalism -- it will also have an opportunity to make itself an island of happiness. Hopefully the public will speak out in pursuit of happiness and launch a grassroots GNH movement.
Juju Wang is a sociology professor at National Tsing Hua University.
TRANSLATED BY TED YANG

Now the next question for me is; how can we get the next conference on GNH to be hosted in New York?

Check these guys out.

Hi everyone, you gotta see these guys Today they leave on a twenty day walking trip from Fulong to somewhere near the bottom of Taiwan. It should be a very interesting journey.
Steven and Jeff:
http://hellohowareyoujeff.blogspot.com/
http://www.walkingtaiwan.blogspot.com/

New Years 2008

Happy New Years everyone! We rang in the New Year last night with a wild and fun party and a rooftop fireworks view. It had all the elements for a good year. Lots of fun friends and many new ones. Lots of wild abandon fueled by drinks and chatting. Cold cold wind blowing smoke at us. One technical flaw involving 7 party goers (me included) and a stalled elevator, a few good kisses and no crying. Taipei 101 looked wonderfully dramatic even a little creepy looming over the low and colorful skyline. Laws were broken as neighbors held their own fireworks shows and the whole city danced on the rooftops and in the streets bundled tightly against the cold wet night. Taiwan may be the most pessimistic in country in Asia, believing the year of the rat will bring them a new beginning they don't want, or no new beginning at all, but that's not stopping us from having a great time!

Bowling as an example of the universal nature of people

Just to clarify, I don't actually live in a school or spend all my time with the kiddos, although sometimes it feels that way. I actually have a really active social calendar with lots of time with friends and interesting activities. Recently we discovered that bowling is a universal past-time that has no cultural differences across borders. The game is played the same way in the US, Canada, South Africa and Taiwan. Bowling alleys are the same everywhere you go. If it is an older alley, it smells like feet and stale cigarettes, the lights are unbelievably harsh and the balls are always chipped, which makes a good excuse for that dismal score. If it's a newer alley you are dazzled by the sheer size of these places, which in Taiwan can also include batting cages and massive arcades with the requisite 7-11 attached. Taiwan has warped my sense of convinence, anything you need, and most things you don't need are located within a 5 min. walk of where ever you may be in the entire country. It's dislocating being surrounded by so many 7-11's. I wonder if the per-capital intake of bottled beverages is much higher in Taiwan then in the states just because of the proximity of such beverages. Now, back to bowling;Too bad bowling consumes too many resources to ever be a sustainable link for world peace. If lawn bowling and that game they play in southern Europe and the Caribbean, with a small ball outdoors, could be made as popular as the indoor lanes frequented by teenagers and after-party groups, we could have the answer to world peace. Nobody fights when they are too busy cheering on the loser who can't keep the ball in the lane. The "dude" sees it right as an answer to the worries of modern life, if all you want is a midnight escape. Bowl on.
How many foreigners does it take to program the score card?
The Andrew sisters score one for the team.

Yes, those are cool shoes!
Mini-skirts and pink parkas are the perfect attire for 2am bowling in a tropical country!