by Annie Liu
My grandmother’s funeral was the first I had ever attended. The only impression of funerals I had before was from movies, in which people dressed in black gathered inside a church or simply mounted a photo of the dead on an altar. My grandmother was a very traditional Taiwanese woman with a calendar of rituals memorized inside her head. Therefore when she passed away, my father followed her will and gave her an extremely traditional funeral. The day when the doctors decided that they could do nothing more for her, my father decided to take her home. An ambulance was hired, too. The tradition that one must die at home has been passed down in my family; my great grandmother died in the hall of our traditional three-section compound and so did my grandmother. It is considered best to die on a bed in the family hall with your descendents around you. Before she died all her descendents were asked to go outside and crawl back in while crying as loud as they could. It was unbearable to see my father melt into tears, shouting “Mom! Mom! Mom!” over and over. As soon as the last of her heartbeat was quiet, the staff of the funeral company came inside to rinse her with a special Chinese liquid in order to clear her of all her sins, and to change her into a purple shroud. A simple altar was set up in the yard, and we were told to put on mourning apparel, each person’s varying depending on his or her position in the family. The girls had to wear long white headgear that dangled at the back, while the sons and eldest grandson wore hemp-made caps and clothes. We were also told to pin a piece of yellow cloth on our right arm and tie a white cloth with a 10 NT dollar coin on our wrist. We stood in rows in front of the altar holding incense while three Taoist priestesses started to read a sutra aloud. There was also a band playing in an exaggeratingly joyous tone; the wind carried the noise far away into the serene country night. This ritual was meant to clear the road for grandmother’s spirit and to lead her to the underworld. Meanwhile, one person had to stay inside the hall at her feet and burn paper money for her traveling expenses. The reading of the sutra went on for hours, with recesses in between. That was only the first night and the beginning of the seemingly inexhaustible traditions. Traditional Taiwanese believe that you need seven days to ensure the death of a person. Therefore, “Making the Seventh” was required, chanting the sutra every seventh day and lasting for 49 days in total. My family chose a simplified way, only making two sevenths. For the first seventh, all our family from around the world gathered together. More chanting was performed. Specific sutras were chosen for the dead. In grandmother’s case, since she had been ill for a long time and took a lot of medicine, the priestess read a drug sutra to purify her soul. At the end of the chanting, the priestess set up an iron cage where we placed paper money and paper furniture. The family held onto a nylon line and formed a circle around the iron cage while the paper money burned, to guard grandmother’s money from homeless ghosts. The day before the funeral, more people from the funeral company came. They performed acrobatics such as jumping over fire, turning dishes with sticks, riding a one-wheeled bike, and playing with fire sticks. The performers were all extremely young, the youngest still in elementary school. The performance was meant to entertain the dead as well as to ease the pain of the living. Four women dressed in colorful outfits did some traditional dances, their age ranging from 17 to 50. A bench was set up and a mat laid out in the yard. People started throwing coins and candies onto the mat, and a woman stood on the bench and arched her back to pick them up with her mouth. Then, a guy brought a huge bucket of water for people to throw coins into, and miraculously the woman dipped her head into the water and picked all of them up with her mouth. The next day we woke up at four in the morning to put grandmother into her coffin at an auspicious hour. More trucks arrived, bringing with them a band that was formed by a group of middle-aged women in heavy makeup and exaggeratedly narrow skirts. After the public memorial ceremony, some men lifted the coffin and we left for the graveyard. Those whose astrological animal signs might offend grandmother were forbidden to look at the burial. We read more sutras, then finally settling the coffin into the grave. As soon as we got back to our traditional compound, we threw the piece of white cloth tied to our wrist into the fire, keeping the 10 dollar coin that was said to bless us. The funeral finally came to an end, yet the hustle and bustle still echoes inside my head, reminding me of my grandmother’s farewell.
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by Wendy Lin
What do all the Foreign Exchange newsletter writers end up doing the rest of their lives? Here’s an encouraging story for those of you who are still wondering what the next step should be after graduation. In 2000, Ying-Ying Shih was one of our staff writers. After graduation she did graduate study in gender and second language acquisition at Harvard University, but now in addition to working part time as a free-lance translator/writer, she is a singer in many projects. She sings with various jazz musicians and has performed in such musicals as I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! (in a Taiwanese production of the Off-Broadway hit) and April Rain. Recently she has performed as a back singer for one of Leehom’s 2008 Music Man concerts, and she is currently starting out her own jazz band. She writes songs and is working on an album to be released next year. In June 2008 she played in the Taiwanese musical April Rain (四月望雨), which tells about the story of the Taiwanese composer Deng Yu-Shian (鄧雨賢), who wrote famous Taiwanese folk songs such as “Desire to the Spring Breeze” (望春風) and “Flowers in the Rainy Night” (雨夜花). The musical was a sensation, the first musical in Taiwanese, Hakka, and Japanese, inspiring both the elder generation as well as young hearts. Realizing that singing is and can be the thing she wants to do for the rest of her life wasn’t easy. During her days in high school and university, she had opportunities to make her own album and to become a pop singer. Yet her mother wasn’t ready to support her. She stayed in Boston for a year after graduation, and then went to Japan to learn the language. “It was more like soul searching,” she says. The days in Harvard and Keio University gave Ying-Ying a chance to explore a different self. She used to be almost anti-social at NTU, yet under another environment she found out that she could be something different. She came back to Taiwan, worked in an office, finding no passion in it. She wanted to give her dream a chance. She participated in a singing contest and won first prize. It was like a sign that this was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Now as Ying-Ying recalls it, sometimes there are times when we are suddenly able to do something we thought were not capable of. If she had become a pop singer earlier, she wouldn’t have had the chance to explore her potential at Harvard or Keio. She wouldn’t be able to perform with a deeper soul, knowing what she wanted to become as a singer. Now she just wants to make music and sing, her way. “Dare to Dream, Dare to Live Life to the Fullest” is the title of her blog. This is how she thinks of her story. Dreams are always worth waiting for. by Isabel Lee
The suffix –aholic is used to describe somebody who cannot stop doing or taking something, as in workaholic, bookaholic, chocoholic, etc. Shopaholic means somebody who likes to shop, maybe a little too much. But while you are proud of your own financial management and judge others for spending unwisely, have you ever thought that you might be a shopaholic, too, just maybe not as extreme as a compulsive shopper? Do you find your closet overflowing with never-worn clothes with the price tags still on them? Or is your fridge stuffed with foods and snacks that you are unlikely to consume before their expiration dates? Do you find your shelves are lined with smart-looking books but reading has never been your hobby? If so, you might be a shopaholic! It’s no doubt that the shopaholic gene can be found in most of us. We all overspend once in a while, therefore, in my opinion, being a shopaholic is not a bad thing as long as you don’t cross the line. As a matter of fact, shopping does bring us moments of happiness. We feel uplifted when wandering around our favorite shopping malls or supermarkets. We feel great when getting a good bargain or buying crazily at big sales because we feel like we are actually “making money.” However, if you spend beyond your budget and are addicted to shopping, you may be a compulsive shopper. Unlike shopaholics in general, compulsive shoppers buy things because they think that they need them. They seek temporary relief by spending on things that they don’t need. So how do compulsive shoppers differ from you? Compulsive shoppers do not buy one pair of shoes at a time, but five pairs with merely slight differences. Moreover, it isn’t just confined to tangible products. Some may go to the beauty salon to get their nails done five times a week. These people depend largely on shopping to fulfill their emotional needs and are unable to curb their rush to shop. Even though they know their wardrobe is full, they will tell themselves “well, maybe I need this shirt or that one will come in handy someday.” They make a lot of excuses to convince themselves that they are making the right decisions to lessen their feelings of guilt. And often, not until a pile of credit-card bills come to their door and their bank accounts are overdrawn do they realize their disorder. Men and women have equal chances to be shopaholics. One interesting thing is the difference between the buying behavior of men and women. One obvious difference is the things they buy. Women seem born to buy clothes, jewelry, cosmetics and everything relating to their appearance, while men tend to buy electronic products, computer hardware, and everything that can keep up with the modern world. Another difference is their sensitivity to prices. Certainly both men and women care about price, but men are less likely to ask for discounts because they might think they lose face if they do so. On the contrary, women perpetually compare prices and make bargains at every turn. For them, the most glorious moment is a successful bargain, and the most exciting time of year is their favorite anniversary sale. But no matter which gender we belong to, we all know we get an adrenaline rush walking into a store or mall from time to time. As long as we are sensible enough and do not let ourselves indulge too much in shopping, sometimes being a shopaholic can be real fun! by Kevin Lee
Since it is clear that higher tuition for college/university education in Taiwan is on the way, different views have been voiced. Earlier, the President of National Taiwan University made his opinion clear that NTU students should have to pay more for their education. However, this is by no means a pleasant announcement for people who are either facing pressure from the corporate world to downsize, or still dependent on a student loan. By looking at different sides of this issue, we will be more likely to have a better understanding and a less-biased stance. As pointed out by the President, last year when students from low-income families became eligible to apply for student aid, only about a dozen students applied. According to this way of thinking, a fairly large percentage of NTU students enjoy a higher socio-economic status, and thus the tuition should be higher at NTU to narrow the gap between its privileged students and those in other universities who are from more modest backgrounds. Raising the tuition fees, in other words, is a way to balance the fact that NTU is more subsidized by the government and that NTU students are less likely to find such a raise upsetting given how much money their parents make. But as the need to raise tuition is under discussion, the solution is never as easy as “The rich pay more while the poor pay less.” According to the statistics given by the Ministry of Education, the average tuition for higher education in Taiwan is around 49000NTD/year while public colleges/universities in the US are charging about 130000NTD to 17ooooNTD/year. Reading this, you might think the tuition in Taiwan is rather inexpensive and be ready to brace for higher tuition fees here. However, several European nations only ask for a minimum amount or do not require any tuition fees at all. Besides, the quality of education in each country is a crucial determining factor for judging whether or not its tuition fees are reasonable. In Taiwan, it is obvious that the government favors public schools, considering the overall allocation of financial support and the benefits that teaching professionals are guaranteed. By contrast, private schools receive fewer subsidies and except for donations, their major means of financial support is the fees their students pay. In this sense, it is clear that private colleges/universities in Taiwan will be incapable of providing education of the same, if not higher, quality as their public counterparts. Raising the tuition at NTU or any other public school might seem to ease this discrepancy, but what remains unchanged is the disparity between the quality of education provided by schools of either system. Of course no one is willing to pay more for less. But when it comes to education in Taiwan, the choices are not entirely voluntary. In most cases, your grades are your only qualification. It is not like in the US or in other countries where students are free to apply to any school, and where decisions are not made merely on the basis of academic performance. In other countries it is also a compromise between how much a family can afford and how students might support themselves. In Taiwan, it is sad that families of modest income often fail to send their children to more prestigious schools. Does raising the tuition really help with the deep-rooted educational issues in Taiwan? The answer seems self-evident. Personally I am not for or against raising tuition fees, but I am sure that officials should realize that for every decision or policy made, supporting measures must be thought of as well. Raising the tuition at NTU is simply a one-sided effort that tries to right a wrong that has existed for many years. Students from less-privileged backgrounds in private schools do not really benefit from a rise in prices for public schools. And society does not become more fair just because public schools start charging more for their tuition from now on. Rather, scholarships or student aid of wider availability might help much more, and the terms of student loans can be modified to benefit more those who are in need. On the whole, education is such an important issue concerning people from all walks of life; any quick fix will not bring about an overnight improvement. Only by coping with the problem from various perspectives is it possible for us to come up with a solution that satisfies everyone. by Willy Leung
Many of you have probably never met a person from Guatemala or have little idea about its culture. Are you now wondering, where is Guatemala anyway? I bet you’ve heard the name of the country without knowing much else about it. This is usually the reaction I get when I tell people that I was born and raised in Guatemala. Guatemala, meaning “land of trees” in the Toltec-Mayan and Nahuatl languages, is a country in Central America about 25% larger than Taiwan but with only half the population, about 13 million inhabitants. In Spanish, Guatemala is known as “El país de la eterna primavera,” the land of eternal spring, and there is good reason for that definition. Spring is supposed to be the best time of the year, when the weather is neither too hot nor too cold. In fact, in many parts of Guatemala it feels like spring all year long. Guatemala has only two types of weather, the rainy season, from mid-May to mid-October, and the dry season, from November to April. But aside from its ideal weather conditions, Guatemala also offers many other attractions such as beautiful landscapes, Mayan culture, coffee beans, sugar, bananas, cardamom, and many other things. A thousand years ago the remarkable Maya civilization flourished, and its ruins still dot the landscape. The ancient Maya were one of the most highly developed societies in pre-colonial America, boasting a sophisticated calendar, astronomic observatories, and construction skills. When Spanish conquerors arrived in the 16th century, they found many cities in ruins and encountered little organized resistance. Still, isolated bands of Mayan-speaking peoples avoided Spanish control for many years. After almost three centuries as a Spanish colony, Guatemala finally won its independence in 1821. Nowadays, Spanish is the official language even though more than half of Guatemalans are descendants of indigenous Maya people. Most of them live in the western highlands and are poor subsistence farmers. By contrast, the rest of the population is known as Ladinos, mostly of mixed Mayan-Spanish ancestry. Ladinos speak Spanish and wear Western clothing, while the Maya speak some 22 indigenous languages and retain traditional dress and customs. The more urbanized Ladino population dominates commerce, government, and the military. Guatemalan society grew increasingly polarized between a Ladino upper class and Maya lower class when guerrilla groups first formed in 1960 to fight for the poor majority. Warfare between guerrillas and the government forces cost 200,000 lives and displaced half a million people. In September 1996, the government and the guerrillas agreed on terms to end their 36-year-long civil war. Nowadays, things in Guatemala are very different. The country has been rebuilding itself, many improvements have been made, and technology has progressed. Even though I grew up in Guatemala, I haven’t been able to visit all of its touristic places. Besides the Mayan ruins in the northern part of the country, there are many other places worth visiting, such as Livingston, Antigua Guatemala, and Lake Atitlán. Livingston is a town in eastern Guatemala noted for its unusual mix of Garífuna, Maya, Ladino, and Indigenous cultures. Antigua Guatemala is Guatemala’s old capital, famously known for its well preserved Spanish Baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches; it has also been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America, with three volcanoes surrounding its southern flank. One of the most famous products in Guatemala and its largest export is coffee. Guatemalan coffee is revered as one of the most flavourful and nuanced cups in the world. Guatemalan coffee varies from region to region, depending on the altitude, the soil, and the climate conditions. In some Taiwanese coffee shops you may have tasted Guatemalan coffee with names such as Antigua Guatemala, Cobán, Huehuetenango, and Atitlán, all of which are named after the regions where the coffee beans were grown. Since I’ve been living in Taiwan for almost two years and a half now, I’ve seen that the lifestyle between the two places can be quite different. In Guatemala, people don’t have hectic lives, usually taking time for almost everything, and people are very friendly and passionate. In Taiwan, life is full of activity; people move and walk very fast, and life is so busy that there’s not much time to enjoy a laid-back lifestyle. Unlike Taiwanese people who go to KTVs, in Guatemala we go out dancing with friends on the weekends. I still remember being taught how to dance since the third grade, but I’m still not very good at it. I guess that dancing is in their blood, since it has always been part of their ancestors’ culture. Guatemala is a multicultural country full of many interesting things. I hope that this introduction was able to give you some idea of the country and feel free to come and explore it! ¡Bienvenidos a Guatemala! by Annie Yulin Liao
Upon walking into Professor Duncan Chesney’s office, I was mesmerized by thousands of books taking up every bit of space, ranging from John Cage to Franco Moretti and including old books with their pages still uncut. You might think he had been occupying this room for quite some time to accumulate such a collection. But in fact he hasn’t even been here for a full semester yet. Duncan Chesney is the newest member of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures’ faculty. Although already notorious for his difficult midterms and his distinctive penmanship, Professor Chesney is described by students as energetic, fun, earnest, and practically a cartoon character. Even with such a powerful search tool like Google, students don’t really know much about him, except for his remarkable academic pedigree—Columbia, Cambridge, and Yale. So here we hope that this interview will help you get to know more about him or even help you decide whether to take his class come next semester. Vive la France! “I love France! I love French literature! I love French cheese and French food! I love French culture!” said Professor Chesney enthusiastically. His love for all things French started out when he got interested in French culture in high school and later flourished when he studied and lived in France during college and graduate school.“I’m kind of old school about this. My sense is that you study what you love, not study what someone tells you you ought to study because of your chances of getting a job. You study something because you are very passionate about it.” And later when he talked about NTU students, t he issue of passion came up again. “I find that students here do work hard. Compared to Turkey, where I used to teach, there’s no comparison. Students here work harder, their English is better, everything’s better here than in Turkey. That being said, it’s not clear that a lot of students here have any real passion for what they are studying. I don’t really understand why they are here. They still take it seriously and work hard but I don’t see anyone like I was in college who is in French literature class because he thinks French literature is the most important thing in the world.” “I showed up at college thinking of pursuing medicine because both my parents are medical doctors. But as soon as I took lab sciences I decided I didn’t like medicine. I also took a class on modern literature with Franco Moretti, a great Italian scholar, and I just fell in love with comparative literature because I was taking lab sciences I hated and a literature class I loved at the same time.” That passion-driven decision led him to where he is today. A Film Buff with 1,500 DVDs “I love classic Hollywood and I like gangster movies and noir movies and all movies!” “I would also happily teach French cinema or German cinema or Italian cinema or English cinema!” said Chesney, with the same enthusiasm as when he talked about France. Picking a favorite movie would certainly be too hard but he does have his top 10 list. Among them are The Leopard by Luchino Visconti, La règle du jeu by Jean Renoir, and Madame de… by Max Ophuls. “My friends would always say, ‘We want to watch a movie this weekend, let’s borrow one of your movies!’ But when they come and look at my movies they would say, ‘Oh, these are all arty movies from the 1960s or’70s and they’re not fun!’ You can see that he’s old school through and through. As a cinema and literature lover, what’s his take on the frequent merging of the two these days? “The problem with film adaptation is that it is an interpretation. If you are dealing with a complicated book like “King Lear” or “A la recherche du temps perdu,” these aren’t easy books to interpret. What if you are a 35 year old guy who’s never read anything but who makes movies? Or some producer who’s thinking about the audience but who’s not very smart and tries to dumb it down for them? All put together this usually doesn’t produce a very intelligent interpretation, much less an inspiring one.” “But this summer I was in America getting a health check up and I met a guy who only had a high school education, and when we started talking it somehow came up that I taught movies and he said, ‘Did you see that Beowulf movie? Oh Man! That movie was SO GOOD I think I’m gonna read the book!’ That was backwards, of course, but with film you can at least get people interested and draw them into literature.” “You don’t need to try to recreate all the complexity of Shakespeare but you also don’t want to turn it into some Hollywood superficiality. Hollywood is by definition superficial and Proust isn’t!” An Adventurous Gourmet and Traveler Having been to more than 50 countries, Duncan Chesney, a well-experienced traveler, still has some adjusting to do here in Taipei. Being from a different culture and having a different sense of space are both challenging for him. “I don’t know anyone in Taiwan and I don’t speak Chinese. So it’s difficult to meet people. There are different customs about how you meet people in Taiwan. In America you just say ‘hey’ and then you meet somebody but you don’t do that here. I just find I’m a bit isolated and it’s kind of hard to meet people.” And as for the student-teacher dynamics here, “Students seem at a distance, like the teacher is in a different world. I like the idea of respecting Professors, respecting knowledge, respecting learning but I also like it when your Professor can be a human being instead of a knowledge machine.” Although he had the chance to stick around Yale after finishing his PhD, Chesney decided to be adventurous and go to Turkey instead. In Ankara, besides teaching, he took trips to the Far East, China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia…and the main reason was food. Not only does he like to eat, he also loves to cook. “Italian and French primarily and I try to dabble into Indian but I certainly haven’t tried to deal with Chinese, that’s just too difficult.” However, here in Taiwan, not having a kitchen or eating companions, it’s really hard for him to enjoy good food. To my surprise, unlike most weird-food-phobic foreigners in Taiwan, Professor Chesney has already tried many local night market dishes such as pork pockets, steamed buns, and “that funny, snotty, gooey thing like egg and oyster with some other stuff.” I believe he was describing oyster omelette (蚵仔煎), and what do you know, he said “that’s really weird but I like it!” As for what will be the next destination for his life adventure? “I could be here in Taiwan for two years or I could be here for 25 years depending on how other things work out.” he said with an uncertain and coy tone. But after this interview, you and I can probably take a wild guess that “passion” will play a big part in any of his future endeavors! Profile Name: Duncan Donald McColl Chesney Highest Degree: PhD, Yale University (2003) in Comparative Literature Specialty/Research Field: Modernism, Comparative Literature, Film Studies Courses: European Literature, English Composition by Cindy Chang
Is your skin the color of caramel or cream? Do you care a lot about looking tanned and healthy, or white and clean? Let’s forget the cliché that beauty is skin deep. In reality, regardless of our age or sex, humans love to judge people by their skin color. Two thousand years ago, Greek and Roman women used lead paint and chalk to lighten their skin. In Asia, women swallowed ground pearls to achieve the same effect. Right now, whitening products line beauty shelves, and advertisements bombard us with models having the finest skin tones. All for what? To look more attractive in the beholders’ eye and to live up to the beauty standards of society. Skin color carries subtle connotations of a person’s class and race. Remember the articles discussing about Obama’s ethnicity during the election campaign? Remember how the new settlers of America called the Indians savages? Even in Taiwan, we subconsciously consider urban people to be whiter, and rural people the opposite. Skin color seems to be the first indicator of one’s character, background, and social status. In most countries around the world, especially in Asia, white skin often implies cultural sophistication, education, and higher income. On the contrary, dark skin is related to labor, vulgarity, or even violence. Let’s zoom back to 15 years ago, when cover pictures of criminal O.J. Simpson were made darker so that he looked even more sinister. Besides, in certain areas such as India and Latin America, where class awareness is still very high, people who have lighter skin color usually have more advantages economically, socially, and politically. Luckily, modern society is beginning to embrace greater variety. Now when we see tanned skin, we think of beach vacations, out-door sports, and tanning salons. If taken with care, bronze shaded skin looks exotic, original, and energetic, too. In truth, being black does not signify anything bad. From a conventional perspective, men seem to prefer women who are whiter. The most desirable ladies back in Victorian England were those who were fragile, delicate, and pale. Men were expected to be macho and strong, so people forgave them for having dark skin since they had to slay dragons under all weather conditions. One theory claims that biologically, females are lighter skinned than males. This explains why babies and little children tend to be attracted to women with whiter skin color. Nonetheless, this is still a subject of great controversy. In short, we often associate white skin with femininity, innocence, and attractiveness. Did you ever realize that people usually say ‘‘She’s too dark’’ but never ‘‘She’s too white?’’ In Chinese, we even have the saying: 一白遮三醜 (‘‘One whiteness covers three flaws,’’ white covers all flaws). Such an inclination toward lighter skin color is also reflected in the media; for example, Disney princesses are never tanned, unless they belong to certain ethnicities, such as Pocahontas who’s Native American or Jasmine who’s Arabic. Of course, there are other reasons that affect our sense of beauty towards skin color. Different cultures and stages of history have different perceptions as to what beauty is. In recent centuries, Caucasians have been dominant on the international stage; thus many see them as the standard model of those who can rise to prosperity. Nonetheless, every region has its own unique religion, climate, and habits. Would men from the Middle East prefer white women instead of their own people? And would an African American baby choose to be held and fed by a Caucasian woman rather than its own mother? Most probably not. Furthermore, seasons may also change our preference toward the color of our skin; tanned skin often looks nice in summer and white skin with rosy cheeks better in winter. No matter what your skin color is, be happy about the way you are. It is not necessary to go to extremes. Since mercury is the best known whitening agent, over-application of bleaching products may cause serious damage to the nervous system and kidneys. In contrast, over-tanning may lead to skin cancer and accelerate the aging of the skin. Keep in mind that most standards of beauty and fashion are arbitrary. We all have different opinions about an ideal; that is, there is no right and wrong, only perspectives. Instead of being enslaved by the media and commercials, build up your inner beauty, too – confidence is what makes everyone radiant. Peggy Chang
In November 2008, Californians voted against same-sex marriage, months after it was legalized by the state’s top court, presumably in fear of harming the sacredness of “holy matrimony.” Days later, Darren Hayes, a renowned singer and songwriter, posted a blog entry on MySpace giving his own definition of marriage. In a nutshell, he said, he and Richard, his gay companion, “want to grow old together.” What’s so wrong about wanting to grow old with one’s beloved? Same-sex marriages are sometimes thought to be religiously immoral, mainly because a same-sex couple is unable to procreate and that is against God’s will. But does marriage have to live up to Christian values? In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis remarks that “there ought to be two distinct types of marriage; one governed by the state with rules enforced by all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her by her own members.” In other words, not all people are Christian and therefore cannot be expected to live Christian lives. The same is true in the U.S., an even less Christian country than England because of its greater cultural diversity. It thus seems ironic that the U.S. is trying to impose Christocentric values and permanently discriminate against one minority group, while at the same time its brags about its freedom and diversity to rest of the world. This debate would be vastly simplified if religious marriage and civil marriage were decoupled. Is it possible that people could make civil marriage contracts approved by a civil court, and leave spiritual marriage to a definition based on their own religion? I claimed that the basis for most opposition to a gender-neutral definition of marriage is religion. We may further simplify the debate thus: should the constitution of California or of the entire U.S. be amended simply for the purpose of enforcing a religious objection to a certain kind of marriage? Despite the fact that same-sex marriages cannot produce children, is the love between a homosexual couple any different from a heterosexual one? Both should have the right to grow old together and to share their lives with their companions. Both would be monogamous and faithful, even if sometimes they might argue over which end of the tube to squeeze the toothpaste from. Certainly there are polygamous or unfaithful homosexuals, yet heterosexuals are the same. They are all human beings, the only difference being sexual preference, those whom they love. I wonder: should people be condemned only because they are in love with someone who happens to be of the same gender? Martin Luther King had a dream that his four children would one day “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Here I would like to draw a comparison with same-sex marriage. A marriage should not be judged by its capacity to produce children, but by its contents: affection, affirmation, faith, and love. Most Americans are proud that they live in a supposedly color-blind society: they judge people not from how they look, but from what they do or what they are. I would like to see a world that is gender-blind as well as color-blind; I like Darren Hayes for many reasons, his songs, his depth of thinking, his self-reflection, and his passion for music, none of which has anything to do with his sexual preference. by Johnny Lin
Have you ever noticed stray animals in your neighborhood? They may not be easily spotted, for sometimes they stay on roofs or hid under cars. Whether you enjoy their company or think they bring diseases and other problems to society, we should at least reach a consensus to cope with the stray animals problem. To solve these issues in a less controversial and more human way, people around the world are turning to TNR, which stands for Trap, Neuter, and Release. It involves cooperation between volunteers, veterinarians, and local governments to build a strong community network. TNR is believed to be a more effective and human way of dealing with stray animals than traditional methods such as eradication. Through TNR, the number of feral cats and dogs in communities can be effectively reduced. Meanwhile, TNR also prevents the annoying sounds and smells created by the animals when they are in heat. The origin of the program dates back to the early 1980s, when TNR was applied mainly to colonies of stray cats. The program was gradually accepted by local residents and several state governments in the United States. More recently, TNR has spread across the oceans and has been applied in several countries in Europe and Asia, including, Taiwan. With the help of the media, there are more and more people in Taiwan who are becoming aware of the sad fate of stray animals. However, those who are concerned about the problems can rely only on their own efforts or those of private organizations; we need help from the government to carry out TNR in Taiwan successfully. How does it work? Trap: This may be the most difficult part of the program, because volunteers have to build up trust with the animals before capturing them. Among stray animals, cats are the most sensitive and thus the most difficult to capture. One way for volunteers to get close to the animals is through food and water. And it often takes more than a week to develop minor trust between the human and the animal. With patience and some luck, and remembering to cover up the cage with a blanket to reduce the animals’ fear, one may capture them using a cage trap. Neuter: Bring the cats or dogs to a trustworthy vet, who will do most of the work. There are still a couple of points worth mentioning. First, because there are currently only 18 communities in Taipei supporting the TNR program, one should check before applying for a subsidy to neuter an animal. Also, since the government will cover only the surgery fee (usually NT 500), the remaining cost needs to come out of volunteers’ pockets. Also, stray cats and dogs who have been neutered will have one of their ears marked (male on the right, female the left). The end of the ear is cropped so that it has a square appearance, or a notch is cut at the tip or on the side. Therefore, be careful not to send ear-marked animals back to the hospital again! Release: After the surgery it’s very important to have the animals stay in the hospital for at least a week before releasing them back on the street, because just like us they need rest after major surgery. Some tragedies, such as wound-infections or other side-effects, often take place when animals don’t spend enough time in the hospital to recover. Then you need to bring the animals back to where you captured them and release them on the spot. Don’t feel frustrated when they run away from you, for their trust and friendship can be rebuilt after several days of interaction. Although TNR may not be the ultimate way of solving the stray-animal issue, I personally think it’s the best available means. Cats living near the NTU library have been successfully controlled with TNR; I often see students feeding or playing with them, showing a wonderful balance between humans and animals as living proof that TNR works. If you are interested in the TNR program, you can go to PTT> cat, or the following websites for more information. English: http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=191 http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/ http://www.suite101.com/plantsandanimals/ Chinese: http://www.meetpets.idv.tw/phparticle/ http://www.meetpets.idv.tw/phpbb2/index.php |
Authors
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May 2024
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