Slow Sites, Ma Ying-jeou, etc.
via Thoth Harris
First, I want to complain about something that has been bugging for a long time: the slowness of Taipei Times'. China Post is a pro-KMT newspaper, yet their site is faster and, as a result, is easier to access online than the pro-DPP newspaper, the Taipei Times. You know what? This makes a difference. Maybe a small difference, but it still makes a difference. This means that international news media, and bloggers as well, wherever they are living will access pro-KMT information much easier than, well, the stuff from the other side.
I find, that the Taipei Times site is just getting slower and slower. I just tried to access it a few minutes ago, and nothing came up for something like...five or ten minutes! When the site finally came up, it was in bits and pieces, like when you use internet on a cellphone.This is slower than usual, but this is a continuing problem. I don't know if it is because the people who work on the site are just not as good as some others at writing html, nor do I know if the problem resides instead on chooser a domain and server that are really slow. As you know, the Western media are slow and attention-span challenged. So let me tell you, Taipei Times needs to improve its accessibility. The look of the website is okay, although I must say, it is a little boring. If they could just make it super-fast, though, that would be the key, because the China Post does come up super-fast.
That said, Ma Ying-jeou has won the Taiwanese election. Perhaps it is the news media's lame idea of what makes a good photo to print (after all, some people have accused the news media repeatedly showing Hillary Clinton looking like she is crazy). His picture, seen in this China Post article shows him cheering his victory. Ma is the only public figure in Taiwan, whom, when I see him getting all excited, looks like he is ready to crush all the bugs below him with his foot. Hopefully, he is nicer than that. All in all though, I honestly DO NOT think the results bode well for the future of Taiwan, in light of the recent conflicts, protests, etc. in Tibet. Taiwan, as I so often state, has, at present, a better and more palpable democracy and social system than my own country, Canada. With Ma, I am not sure how much longer that will be the case. With this, Taiwan is in danger of become just another globalized, transnationalized city (I mean in the worst sense, not in a way that means relative equality for the people), with Trump Plazas, Trump Hotels, and super-expensive glitzy places that no one can afford. The only jobs left will be ones left in the IT industry and the service industry, just like what, sadly, had happened in Montreal. Folks, the sad fact is, the no one but the rich (or the boring) can live in in Montreal anymore. Unless you are lucky, which is rare. There are the odd examples, like my friend John, who can work as art teachers in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Other than that however, there is nothing left but multiplexes, American Apparel Stores, and Gap stores. Sad.
Does anyone really want Taiwan to be such a deadened place? Apparently the international media does, since almost none of the them ever presented Taiwan in an intelligent, informed way. Perhaps John "Death Star" McCain is what we all deserve?