lingqi's Journal: May 21st, 2003

May 21th, 2003 (4:31pm)

Continuing the train of thought from the weekend:

It's really a shame that REI got sold to Mont-Bell (and it's true, they sold Mont-Bell everything about two years back). The thing is though, near the minami-machida (å--ç"ç") station on the Tokyu (æ±æ¥) line, there is a huge outlet which included the former REI.

The notable thing is that there is a pet-store right next door to Mont-Bell/REI (I don't know what to call it, REI logo is still hanging outside the buliding), which means there are billions of dogs being dragged along, held, or brought around in a cart/bag, etc. I don't think any of the stores in the outlet has any choice about letting dogs in, as probably half of the patrons brought their pets.

Nontheless, seems to be an interesting shopping area if you are interested in shopping.

On the premises there is also a supermarket with an intergrated conveyor-belt sushi-bar - which I had to admit was a darn good idea. The fish is fresh and cheap, being attached to the supermarket, and more mutual customers to boot. Anyhow, it was really cheap. Most expensive dish was only 300yen, and uni was a mere 200 per plate. Too bad none came about (and I didn't feel like ordering specifically - mostly because I didn't want to embarass myself), so I can't testify for its quality. Though this was definitely the best conveyor-belt sushi I had since I've been in Japan.

Nothing much more for saturday. I like to point out that Shinjuku station has been undergoing some kind of construction for a while now. I have absolutely no clue what they are building, being a uninformed from the countryside - but if anybody visits Japan, beware that Shinjuku station is harder to navigate than before.

Not going onto Sunday's two-costco-in-one-day deal, I want to write something down before I forget. It's definitely not politically correct, and likely very biased (maybe residual stuff left from early education in China), but I figure somebody out there would want to (and, I hope, can) prove me wrong.

SARS has been around for a while now, and I have been tracking it because I have family that's in its immediate area of effect (not to mention that I was as well just a short bit back). However, I swear the "mass resignation" crap that the Taiwanese healthworkers are pulling is total, and absolute display of unprofessionalism and cowardice.

When the word "cowardice" came to my mind (earlier today), I immediately thought to myself (as a unconscious response) "well, what can you expect of those from Taiwan, they have always been cowards."

Now, I didn't conjure this out of the air - one main reason (as told from the communist side, now) that the communists came to power in the early days of China was because they fought against the Japanese while the people who were in power (who almost all eventually fled to Taiwan) did nearly nothing while China was being pillaged. I will not list more recent ancidotes, because everything Taiwan does must be keenly based on an awareness that the Chinese military can crush them like a bug (before any of the "US will defend Taiwan" stuff - even if US defends Taiwan, Taiwan is caught in the middle and would suffer very, very heavy casualties regardless who came out victorious). However, the fleeing-to-taiwan thing was another "evidence" because as far as I know they put up nearly no resistance, and just ran off with a lot of money. (Again, China-side story now - take with some salt)

So, I am keenly aware that having never been to Taiwan, labelling people cowards isn't exactly the most admirable thing to do. However, the thing with the health-worker quitting seriously does not sit well with me, and kind of "confirmed" the suspicion / stereotype that lay silent for all this time. I tried to supress the logical conclusion that selfishness and cowardice ran-rampant within the island (this situation being almost irrefutable evidence of people's attitudes), but on a large part of me this supression isn't working very well. I mean, these people, they took an oath to save the lives of others. What's with this "resigning immediatly after you have been assigned to take care of SARS patients" crap? This is the time when society needs them the most.

You don't see firefighters and police shying away from the WTC because an airplane hit and they might be crushed by a tumbling buliding - they still went in because at that moment, they are more than their own life, because so many people depended on them, and they knew this. I do not know how many would have died then, but if everyone just cleared the entire area and those who were in the buildings were left to their fate, a lot more would not have made it.

So, any thoughts? (not that I need to ask - I am sure anybody who read this far already have a thousand pages of counter / supportive arguments thought up)

Taiwan

[blastedtokyo]

I'm a taiwanese american living in Tokyo now. In Taiwan, there's an interesting split in cultures. Contrary to your post, Taiwan wasn't deserted when those guys fled there. There's who you associate as cowardly, the Chiang Kai-Shek led group of individuals who fled to the island. They showed up in the mid 20th century and can be quite easily identified in the country as they prefer to speak mandarin over Taiwanese 99% of the time. Then there's the ones that came over before like Sun Yat-Sen (mostly from Fujian provice) going back to the 1800s. My lineage comes from the group that came over earlier. And my mommy wants me to marry one of the Taiwanese speaking ones (you asian kids know how important that is).

The Chiang Kai-Shekers (a.k.a. KMT or Nationalists who believe one day they'll be able to take over the mainland again) were in power up until just a couple years ago while the current president is the first to represent the 'real Taiwanese' or pro-Taiwanese independence.

I got into a fight with one of my college friends who I count as part of the Chiang-side people. She argued that the island was poor and backwards until they showed up with authoritarian rule, a mean army and money. I argued that they're a bunch of selfish pricks who don't understand the values of liberty.

As for your original question of whether Taiwanese are more cowardly than mainlanders, I argue probably not. Chinese in general seem much more opportunistic than other cultures. Remember when SARS was finally recognized by the mainland Chinese government? People ran for the hills spreading it all over the place until the military barricaded the city. You could call that (or the denial of the disease in the first place or the lack of followthrough after Tianamen Square) cowardly. Taiwan's in a similar situation. People are trying to hide the fact that they have the illness so that they don't get ostracized, quarrantined, put next to people who have it (i.e. if you have a fever that could be from eating bad shellfish, do you really want to be quarrantined with a bunch of people who are certified to have SARS?), and that fear spreads the disease.

The nurses I don't blame. According to the NY Times, a starting nurse makes like less than $860 a month while minimum wage is $430 a month. Imagine if you're working at a $10.50/hr job in the USA and suddenly you had a 1% chance of death from in the next 6 months from your job (i'm guessing ~10% chance of catching sars multiplied by a ~10% mortality rate).

The doctors, I do think are chickening out. I think it's part of the odd balance where being a doctor is the most prestigious job in the culture which goes from getting you great respect and social graces one day to being avoided by all your neighbors and friends the second day. Clearly, the disease is weeding out those who got into medicine for the money/status and not for the patients.

Finally, I don't think 9-11's a fair comparison. The firefighters had no time to think about it, talk to their families, etc.. They reacted to an event with their squads and all went into what was ultimately a death trap that I bet very few expected. With SARS, it's on the news every single day blown out of proportion. Parents of doctors are pushing them to save themselves (and their grandkids/potential grandkids) and some are flinching from their responsibilities. There's pressure from friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, kids, to get the hell away from this disease without a cure. There's a decision process here completely different from 9-11.

Firefighters and Nurses

[Caoch93]

Finally, I don't think 9-11's a fair comparison. The firefighters had no time to think about it, talk to their families, etc.. They reacted to an event with their squads and all went into what was ultimately a death trap that I bet very few expected. With SARS, it's on the news every single day blown out of proportion. Parents of doctors are pushing them to save themselves (and their grandkids/potential grandkids) and some are flinching from their responsibilities. There's pressure from friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, kids, to get the hell away from this disease without a cure. There's a decision process here completely different from 9-11.

A minor note- having worked for a man who was a volunteer firefighter, I must say that there is a difference in rick recognition between firefighters and nurses, but it's not as you describe it. Basically, it's a matter of the "firefighter culture" versus the "nurse culture".

Virtually any firefighter you talk to will admit that he or she lives with the potential of dying every day he or she is on the job. My own boss, who fought fires without pay, in fact did it for the rush of staring down mortality with every call, and ultimately quit when a structure collapsed on him and he and his wife realized neither of them were really cut out for the stresses of his firefighting. Firefighters' wives, husbands, and children all have thought about the extreme risks of belonging to this profession, and they do their best to embrace it. That's part of the firefighter culture- embracing the risk of the job.

By comparison, there is no cultural value about staring down mortality in nurses. Most of the nurses I have known had a "this is just a job" attitude. At best, nurses are taught that their procedures will protect them from harm, if properly followed. The occurrence of an easily-transmitted, untreatable virus with a fatality probability in the single digits should be enough to show signs of nurses resigning. Heroism and an embracing of their possible heroic death is just not part of their culture, and we hear a lot about firefighting martyrs...not many nurse martyrs.

So, in short, I'd argue that firefighters are just socialized into their heroic mentality; nurses are socialized into a more practical mentality.

Re:Taiwan

[lingqi]

Ahh you misinterpret me.

What I wanted to say was that when the original Nationalists fled to Taiwan, they put up nearly no resistance to the communist group(s) closing in on them; even though they had better weapons, more money, a more or less properly trained military, and a heck a lot of support from the likes of the US (China was originally going to be a pupet for the US - hence the security concil permanent seat).

Thanks for the reply, though. I did not know the split within Taiwan. I always thought wh

Dogs & SARS

[KNicolson]

Did you check out the prices of the dogs, especially Chihuahuas, there? Due to that Aiful CM, people are buying them by the bucket-load, and from what I gather they start at over 300,000 yen per yappy mouth. I saw a program a few months ago about a small pet shop (just 3 staff) in Tokyo that had a turn-over of well over 100,000,000 yen ($1 million) last year, mainly on these stupid canine rat things (can you tell I'm not a dog-lover?)

As for SARS, have you caught the panic in the Kansai over the Taiwanese d

Re:Dogs & SARS

[lingqi]

nope. did not check the prices. However pure-breed dogs are usually expensive, even in the US (500-1000 dollars are not uncommon for a good pedigree), so I am not *that* shocked at the price tag. I heard that there has been a surge in popularity for pigs-as-pets though. in tokyo anyway. Japanese friends are not backing up the rumor, so maybe it's a rumor after all.

Kansai was deemed SARS free i think yesterday. Didn't think too much about it, actually. Like I said - I live in the country side so...

The thin

Health Care Workers

[dorko]

I'll admit I didn't know exactly what you were talking about when you refered to the "mass resignations." A quick search on news.google.com [google.com] pointed to this article [straitstimes.com] at The Straits Times [straitstimes.com]. I quote:

The leading United Daily newspaper said in a commentary yesterday that medical staff treating Sars patients can use only one mask a week and even have to wear their own raincoats to serve as protective gowns.

One mask per week and no bunny suit? I'd have quit too. I think calling these health care workers cowar

Re:Health Care Workers

[lingqi]

I see what you mean.

I was not aware of the dire conditions in which they worked, and knew only of the (resultant) mass-resignations.

I am surprised that being much more well-off economically than places such as mainland china, vietnam, or the philippines - such conditions came to be.

Like I said, though - I was hoping for somebody to prove me wrong. Thanks.