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EDITORIAL: The
ramblings of a crazy man
Norwegian massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik obviously knows less than he
thinks he does about Taiwan, or he wouldnˇ¦t hold it up as a model of
monoculturalism, a problematic and highly improbable political philosophy to
begin with.
In a 1,500-page manifesto that he e-mailed before he allegedly detonated a car
bomb in Oslo and gunned down dozens of young people on an idyllic island,
Breivik repeatedly referred to Taiwanˇ¦s so-called anti-immigration policies as a
model for Europe, lumping this nation with Japan and South Korea and praising
their adherence to racial purity.
What a farce.
Breivik knows little about the dynamic in Asia. If you were to put a Filipino, a
Chinese, a Japanese, an Indonesian, a South Korean and a Thai next to each
other, Breivik would likely applaud the group for keeping its racial identity
pure.
Breivik, in his hate for anybody not European, not Christian and not white,
looked around the world for superficial examples that would support his warped
vision of reality. Somehow he lit upon Taiwan, maybe because it does have
somewhat stricter immigration policies than some Western countries.
However, these policies do not make this nation a monoculturalist society. In
Taiwan at the moment, there are hundreds of thousands of foreigners. The
majority of them come from Southeast Asia and China. Tens of thousands of
cross-cultural marriages are now providing one of the most reliable sources of
newborn babies in a nation that has a plummeting birthrate.
Although foreigners from all over the world ˇX Westerners, Africans, Asians and
South Americans ˇX might find it difficult to become Republic of China citizens,
they have the right to look for employment, gain residence and eventually gain
permanent residency. They are allowed to own property and invest in businesses.
Calling Taiwan a country that maintains racial purity is a gross
misunderstanding of the facts.
When was Taiwan ever a racially pure nation? Premier Wu Den-yih (§d´°¸q), in his
rambling way ˇX saying Taiwan possessed a ˇ§juicy cultureˇ¨ ˇX had a point: Taiwan
has absorbed the cultures of many parts of the world. First there were the
Aboriginal tribes, then an inflow of Han Chinese, many of whom married
Aborigines. The Han were followed by Dutch and Spanish influences, then more
waves of Chinese, not all of whom spoke the same language. Taiwan was then
colonized by the Japanese, who left many imprints in the culture and society,
before the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) brought yet another version of
Chinese culture that allowed and encouraged Taiwanese to embrace aspects of US
culture.
What Taiwan has been left with is a fairly vibrant culture that is abundantly
open and friendly to outsiders, and readily incorporates aspects of foreign
cultures. This is far different from the monoculturalist society that Breivik
envisioned, and thatˇ¦s before mentioning the mix of religions found in this
nation: animist, Buddhist, Taoist, Christian and Muslim.
Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are safe, comfortable places to live, not because
their societies restrict foreign influences, but because their societies have
inculcated a good set of morals into their people.
Breivik was looking around for an excuse to justify his murderous rampage and
hopes to find modern-day examples of some mythical racist society he believes
Nazi Germany could have created. It would be best if he didnˇ¦t look to Taiwan,
because this place is nothing like what he envisions. In fact, itˇ¦s unlikely his
ideal for a country exists anywhere on this planet.
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