A new frontrunner has emerged: we are now thinking of moving to Tainan in July. The reason for this is largely practical: Taitung doesn’t seem to have an oversupply of pleasant places to stay unless one is in a small surfing village, which itself is difficult to manage without a car. Tainan is also quite […]
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Breathless
This morning I watched the video of George Floyd begging for his life, his life being crushed out of his body by a policeman’s. So, another death, another ‘I can’t breathe’ and America burns again. But this time it feels different. This time I hope it is different. That video has haunted me since I […]
Imperial blindness
What a bizarre article in its acceptance of a teenaged slave girl bought from the auction block by a middle-aged Englishman, and this odd sentence about the end of her life: Widowed in 1893, Florence lived until 1916 at Sandford Orleigh, the Bakers’ estate in Devon, and was doubtless gratified when the Daily News called […]
Tidal rage
It has been striking to me, increasingly so over the past months, the voices that are absent in the West. Strangely, I feel they are more present in India, in Pakistan: I mean those who have been most affected by what is happening these days. I read of millions losing their jobs or being furloughed […]
Actual weekend
Today is the start of the actual weekend; yesterday’s idle day was a bank holiday for the GF and a day without work for me. In the morning, the four of us went back to Serenity for another excellent meal. I must say, they have the best fried rice I’ve ever had, I would dearly […]
Home in the country
Today the GF and I went to the Lin Family mansion, in the outskirts of the city, in Banqiao. This was once a palatial countryside estate, with views of green hills and forests and fields all around. Now, there are the usual grubby apartment blocks and office buildings creeping up against the walls, with some […]
Next steps
The GF and I are starting to think about our next steps. A month from now our commune will be dissolved (thank heavens) and we are considering where to go for our final month in Taiwan (however, however). The current frontrunner is Taitung, a sleepy southern town in beautiful countryside. And after that remains a […]
Eid everywhere
Today was Eid. For once it was Eid everywhere in the world, including in Pakistan where the usual farce around the sighting of the moon reached new heights. The science minister, Fawwad Chaudhry, was previously the information minister in which he characterised himself by a particularly jahil enthusiasm, like a gormless and corrupt Chemical Ali. […]
Sad Eid
A plane fell from the sky in Pakistan, it’ll be a sad Eid. Two survivors, which feels miraculous: one who returned to consciousness and groped towards a light and leapt off the plane wing before the fires reached him, the other flung out, still strapped into his seat, to emerge only with a broken bone […]
On intention
An aberrant musing on religion led me to think about the Islamic tenet that actions are judged by intentions and the central importance of intention – explicit if possible – in being good. I suppose it must be a response to the belief in predestination: what will happen is already written so for the purpose […]