Skip to main content

Tennis

I've recently picked up tennis. I'm slowly moving away from the more contact heavy sports like basketball and going for the longeivity sports. Tennis is fun too. I've always admired Pete Sampras for his style and ability to just win. I frankly don't think there's been a better tennis player..though having never won the French Open does take a bit out of the argument.

So my recent trip back to Taiwan was short but sweet. Two weeks only but packed full of activities. I went back to help out with an interesting program encouraging 2nd generation Taiwanese to go to Taiwan to intern and get to know the land. More info can be found here. I think it's great that a program like this has begun, and I fully intend to support it any way I can. I also came back feeling I need to do more to help Taiwan's cause. So I'm going to try to get more involved.

One thing that put a dent on a great trip was getting some negative press. I was actually in the news and the media being the way they are, had to find some negative things to say without actually doing any homework. And when we sent info to correct them, they didn't respond with any full apologies, rather, just a small correction. I think there is a culture, at least in Taiwan, of the media not being responsible with their reporting and definitely biased in terms of the their political beliefs. The bigger problem though, is the inability to differentiate editorial from news reporting. Editorials are free to take stands, just as the NYTimes editorials are clearly more liberal than conservative. But regular news reporting should be free from that kind of bias. I think the newspapers in Taiwan, and forget about even talking about TV news, just don't get this. Hopefully this will change as the democracy slowly matures. For one thing, we at least have a free press! Anyways, just venting a bit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

M's first art installation

My son and I went exercising at the gym this morning (Feb. 2, 2019). We had physical and mental workouts, and I was full of pride to see him put together this exhibit. He called it, "Train." The work is abstract, with the cone symbolizing the engine and the ball can be pictured as "balls of steam" that roll out of the chimney or exhaust system! Train
Post a Comment
Read more

3D metal printing

I've worked with stainless steel in the machine shop, and it isn't exactly the easiest metal to drill or lathe. So to be able to print it, wow. Another interesting company is Shapeways. Here's a video (not metal printing in this case though).
Post a Comment
Read more

Mr. 郭

There's been a recent controversy in Taiwan over the scandalous writings of the government information officer, 郭冠英, stationed in Toronto. Here's an op-ed piece from Taipei Times. I agree with Mr. Cole that although freedom of speech is guaranteed and necessary in a democratic country, once you are employed in the government, there should be limitations to what can and cannot be said. The writings of Mr. Kuo, even though posted anonymously, breaks the trust that the public has in him as an official representative of Taiwan in Toronto, and is a breach of his responsibility to the citizens of the land of Taiwan. Frankly, I think Mr. Kuo's an idiot. ***** He said it'd be OK to kill my wife By J. Michael Cole 寇謐將 Thursday, Mar 26, 2009, Page 8 We met when I worked as an intelligence officer in Canada, part of an organization that at times risked making racism and hatred for the “other” — in that case, mostly Arabs and Muslims — a normal policy. After nearly three years in t...
Post a Comment
Read more