Ma, ma, ma, ma
This is a short clip from our weekend at a hot spring hotel in Taian, in the mountains. As you can see we had a very good time. I’ve never uploaded my own videos to YouTube before. Well, I’ve tried many times but I’ve always given up since it’s taken too long. Not this time. […]
“Advanced studies”
The “Advanced Studies Center” at NCTU has now finally opened its doors. The Ministry of Education in Taipei has just given us a pile of money. The first international scholar, György Szell, from the University of Osnabruck in Germany just completed his stint with us. He gave four lectures on assorted topics (”the Japanese model,” […]
Starting to bite
The recession is starting to really bite. According to the latest trade figures, Taiwan’s exports fell by 41.9% in December. And this is a problem since exports account for some 64 % of Taiwanese GDP (the equivalent figure for Sweden is 53% and for the US a mere 8%). The center of export industries is […]
Made in Taiwan
Most of the things we buy are, naturally, “made in Taiwan.” And much of it really sucks. We have bought MP3 players, phones, electric kettles, tumble driers and blenders, and they all broke down within weeks of coming into our house. In contrast to Japan, it seems Taiwanese companies are spending very little time on […]
That O’Leary is a thief!
That Michael O’Leary is stealing our money! We are in the process of booking tickets for next summer. Unusually, we are making plans well ahead of time. We didn’t go to Sweden last summer and we haven’t been in the US for seven years! As a part of these complicated arrangements, we were trying to […]
Nightmare almost over
The nightmare which was the Bush years is now almost over. In a week Obama will be in the White House. In his last press conference, yesterday, Bush argued that “you misunderestimated me.” I don’t think so. Some of us — unfortunately most of us not Americans — always knew what a disaster he was […]
A Dylan fan in the White House
What more than anything gives me confidence regarding Obama’s presidency is the fact that he’s such a great Dylan fan. According to an interview he gave to Rolling Stone, Obama’s iPod contains 30 Dylan songs, including the entire Blood on the Tracks album. He mentions “Maggie’s Farm” as a particular favorite: Well, I wake up […]
Black? So what?
My president
Obama for Obama
