Living
Driving Me Insane
Hartley Pool
“Left…LEFT!” I screamed, as sure as I’ve ever been of anything that we were about to be pulped by a Taipei City bus, which had suddenly decided to pull out from the stop without looking where it was going. For an instant it seemed to exude a casual kind of malevolence, about to broadside us without so much as a howdy-doody - then it was somehow in front of us.
Society
Pill-popping Practices
Daniel Wallace
Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, despite having been widely celebrated since its conception just over ten years ago, faced financial bankruptcy last year and had to be subsidized by $11bn NT of public money in order to remain operational. Some light investigation soon revealed that one of the lead architects of the system, William Hsiao (蕭慶倫), a professor of economics at Harvard University, believed that, “Taiwan NHI’s financial problems stem from two factors: people’s mindset and politicians’ intervention.”
Living
Visa Purgatory
Joe Schmoe
The Odyssey, one of the oldest and greatest literary works from antiquity, gave us the legend of Sisyphus – some poor bastard who had to roll a damn stone up a hill for all eternity. It’s a comforting tale in some ways, perhaps because it’s one of those stories that helps us feel better about our state of affairs, a story once used to placate the middle class, like Nicholas Cage in The Family Man. Personally, I see Sisyphus as an immigrant worker, a foreign national with a nagging visa problem.
Making Taiwan Easier
Income Tax
Michael Cannings
Taiwan’s personal income tax law can be a little complex at first glance – this guide should help you know your rights and work out your tax burden, so you can be sure of paying only what you need to.
News from the Renegade Province
Area Man Made to Wait 45 Minutes for Beating by Gang of Friday's Workers
TC Lin
Lai Yuan-qing, 27, was forced to take an extra 45 minutes out of his busy schedule so that a gang of rogue waiters working for the international restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's could finally get around to beating him within an inch of his life. "I could tell they were Friday's waiters, not just because of all of those buttons and crap that they have pinned to their red-and-white striped shirts, but because they just sat around and chatted for, like, half and hour before deciding it was time to beat me into a pulp," said Lai.
Parenting
The Taipei Municipal Children’s Recreation Center
Joanne Chang
When people think of the Taipei Children’s Recreation Center near the Yuanshan MRT Station in northern Taipei, the image of amusement park rides usually comes to mind. But the best fun to be had there doesn’t involve spinning around until you vomit.
News from the Renegade Province
Taipei Woman Achieves Pure Whiteness
TC Lin
23-year-old Chen Yi-zhen reached her life-long goal of pure whiteness on Friday, according not only to news sources but also the national meteorological service, which spotted Chen on its satellite scan of the island late last night.