Videos from Anti-Ma protest

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Videos from Anti-Ma protest

I just want to preface this by saying that I was at this protest as a bystander, a non-participant. The 加油's [“add oil” is said as an expression of encouragement] you hear are more in support of a freedom to assemble and express a position in opposition to a government, any government, that is under-performing, knowing that Taiwan is one of the few places in Asia free enough for this to be possible.

I express this thought for reasons I don’t have time to go into right now. Suffice it to say that there are two reasons. First, I’m falling into a Taiwanese funk that makes me feel that both sides of this debate [the “blue” and the “green”] are rotten and inept, not worth the frustration they cause this poor, redheaded non-citizen. Second, I’ve come to see my position here not as one of influencing or encouraging any particular perspective. Rather, I’m more interested now in how my country interacts with Taiwan, and every other country -- i.e., not supporting Taiwanese independence is all fine and good, but actively countering the will of millions of people (if that is the case) is not exactly the most admirable of positions for a country supposedly so adamant about democratic proliferation.