Letters from Taiwan

It's not racism, it's just that ....

… 1,000 residents in a Taoyuan County community petitioning to have 30 Filipino workers move out of the area. Hanging up large banners that read “No to foreign workers in our community,” residents of Rueilian Community (瑞聯社區) in the county’s Bade City (八德) said they did not want the foreign workers from the nearby Ablecome Technology company to stay in the community because of safety concerns.

Here’s the money:

Taoyuan County Councilor Lu Lin Hsiao-feng (呂林小鳳), who represents the constituency, denied that residents wanted foreign workers to leave because of racial discrimination.  “It has nothing to do with discrimination,” she said. “With 460 households and more than 1,000 residents, Rueilian is a peaceful community. They are merely worried that clashes could happen because of these foreign workers, with their different skin color and different culture, going in and out of the community.”

Unfortunately not an isolated case:

Taiwan International Workers Association secretary-general Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮) said that she was not surprised because discrimination has always existed, “it’s just a matter of whether it surfaces.” “Last Sunday, a member of our association took a group of Filipino workers to Xinsheng Park in Taipei to practice drumming, and police officers appeared within 30 minutes, saying the Filipino workers were too noisy and could disturb people in a nearby library, and that they were violating the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), because they did not apply for an assembly permit in advance,” Chen said. “But there’s no library near the park. It’s already very noisy there because it’s close to Songshan airport, and, when have you heard of people needing to apply for a permit to practice drumming in a park? What about those who exercise and do aerobics dancing in the park?” Chen said. Chen said what happened last Sunday was not an isolated case. “We often have difficulties renting an office too, because some of our neighbors pressure the landlord since they don’t want ‘people with dark skin’ to be going in and out of the building,” he said.

They absolutely were NOT violating the Parade And Assembly Law.  Unless the various groups of elderly people gathering all over Taichung very early every morning to do Tai Chi are also in contravention of the law.  No, more likely some bigot or selfish prick decided to call the police out of spite because they a) couldn’t get their beauty naps or b) are racist scum who hate sharing the world with anyone else.

But don’t worry. If you are white or ABC and want to come to Taiwan to take pictures of food, Taipei 101 and Chiang Kai-shek Dictatorship Memorial Hall, you will be treated like a king or queen.  If you are Indian, Pakistani, Thai, Burmese, Filipino or Vietnamese and want to do the same prepare to be questioned by police and expect a far lower level of hospitality.