Friday, March 6, 2009

AIT

You saw that AIT guy on TV last night, moaning again about how Taiwan should let in American beef?
Like this country isn't in trouble enough, it should worry about eating American beef instead of that awful Australian beef, do you hear me right?
They're so deep in financial, political, economical, military, societal, ethnic trouble, so Mister Wonderful AIT wants them to eat American beef.
They were right to warn me never to let those bums at AIT get anywhere close to my project. They may be Americans, but they're the softhearted, wimpy, useless, big mouth/big face/big no-no type of Americans.
The kind that people all around the world rightly object to and protest against. They're stuffing the big stick right in your face and they still think they're being subtle.
Anyway, AIT is almost behind me now. They chose this dreary, rainy day to tell me it's my last one. In Taiwan, that is. The weather will not help my mood, but it will certainly help me cover my tracks. Took my last pictures of the Taiwanese sunlight yesterday afternoon. Nice weather, but I thought I could venture out one last time by the river without raising any undue alarms. Everyone's at home sitting by the TV watching how this sorry episode of Taiwanese history is going to play out.
If AIT is at all involved, then it will be pointing in all the wrong directions. Not because I kept them gloriously uninformed of what I was up to in the first place, but because they're so full of beef.
Rough seas, rain, wind, cold. I better dress warmly, without letting on that I'm off on a nautical voyage. People like me leave Taiwan on airplanes, to Hong Kong, or even to China these days, ironically enough. Open doors. I'm gonna walk right through them, but in a different direction than they're expecting. Of course they'll be looking for people escaping. But they're not expecting someone who looks like me. And I'm not headed for China or the Philippines anyway. I just want to get deeper into the Pacific. The time is set, the place is in the hands of the people I meet in the dark.
I'm out of here. Forever. I'll forget about AIT. The American Institute in Taiwan. Right. They won't forget about me because there is nothing to forget. I never even met any of them, just got warned about them before I even reached Taiwan.
But that was on another continent again. Maybe that's where I need to begin my story.

1 comment:

da43811 said...

So, why *doesn't* Taiwan let in U.S. beef? Is it any less safe than Australian beef? AIT speaks on behalf of many U.S. ranchers and farmers who have no access to the Taiwan bone-in beef market for no compelling reason, at least no scientific-based reason. So why should U.S. ranchers and farmers lose a lucrative market to others? And why *shouldn't* AIT speak up on behalf of U.S. ranchers and farmers? And if AIT doesn't, who will?

It is fortunate that nothing bad happened to you while you were in Taiwan, but many U.S. citizens who have been injured, arrested, lost their passports, etc., have been really glad that AIT was there for them. Job number one of AIT, indeed of all U.S. missions abroad, is the protection and welfare of U.S. citizens. To give you an idea of what AIT does for U.S. citizens, here is a link to AIT's citizen services page:

http://www.ait.org.tw/en/uscitizens/