Admin Edit: Click here for English teachers nabbed in drug-ring bust (Part 1)
"A number of individuals on the expat bulletin board Forumosa.com, where this news item is hotly discussed, have posted comments to the extent that James will deserve whatever punishment he gets, with some even expressing the view they "would have no sympathies if the Taiwan authorities did give out the death penalty." Others have accused him of "ruining it for all of us." While some have stuck up for legalization of drugs and civil rights, the overall tone of the posts has been very moralizing.
I suppose it's not surprising that white foreigners would be the first ones willing to cast the torch to burn James at the stake, mostly out of a desire to distance themselves from such behavior. The problem is that this save-my-ass-first attitude does absolutely nothing to improve understanding between foreigners and locals at a time when the relationship is clearly transforming.
How this case is handled by media and the justice system should be of special concern to an expat community that has grown large enough and networked enough that we "foreigners" can't blend into the woodwork anymore. It's now inevitable that our alien mores, including wide-spread drug consumption, will increasingly come into conflict with local, more conservative values and their reflections in the national Criminal Code.
That Taiwanese investigators release video evidence to TV networks prior to prosecution is extremely worrisome, and we can now rest assured that it affects "us foreigners" too. More cause for worry is that while Taiwan guarantees the right to remain silent, the right to a lawyer, and the right to a phone call, police often don't mention this.
We should also remember that the wonderful livability of Taiwan is afforded by a general sense of goodwill on the part of most Taiwanese, not the law. Taiwanese law does not guarantee a tremendous number of rights for resident aliens: we are not allowed to own businesses or property under their own names; our dependents do not have the right to work; we are only allowed to work the one job specified by their work permit, not multiple jobs as in most developed countries; we have reduced privileges with banks, telecom accounts, drivers' licenses, and banks; we cannot form labor unions; and there is no independent review in cases of deportation.
Given the fuzzy legality of most of Taiwan's systems, a shift in attitude towards "foreign guests" is worrisome (and in fact some of my Taiwanese colleagues have told me they already sense such a shift coming out of the new nationalistic ideas promoted by the DPP). Taiwanese employers routinely tell foreign workers not to worry about work permits, but when there is a problem, the worker is deported while the employer pays a small fine. When the law and goodwill run up against each other, the law always wins.
http://publish.pots.com.tw/english/Comm ... index.html
1. Sounds like the posters above who really know what happened can expect a knock on their door any time now... Remember that you have the right to remain silent even though the police don't tell you that.
2. This is certainly bad news for the expat community, and getting up on our moralistic high horse and throwing the first torch to burn this guy at the stake isn't going to help us.
3. Certainly Asia has plenty of organized crime and plenty of drugs even without the white man. [I had some very tasty "yellow butterfly" X tabs in a Beijing nightclub in 1998] But we make a convenient scapegoat and it will be hard to shake this.
