Taiwan Going Against Planned Obsolescence (計畫性報廢)
A term used to describe how people in deep self-exploration reexamine their relationship with their religion and God can also apply to individuals rethinking how they view their nation's culture, politics, and numerous events occurring in the world. This term is called "deconstruction," which has caused many people to go into denial or even deep depression.
I would like to share with you some thoughts I have while living abroad that caused me to reexamine several cultural, social, and political beliefs I once believed were correct and perfectly normal, but in the end, forced me to readjust my beliefs and values and, above all, admit the conclusions.
It became easier for me to observe global events from overseas in ways that I would never have been able to while living in my home nation. It became significantly easier to detect how influential people and nations twist domestic and global events and policies to project positive images and narratives of their countries and government. This may not appear to be anything new to you but what would sound shocking is how much this "twisting" has influenced or infected the minds of individuals and who are the causes of this type of manipulation.
When someone has been removed from a familiar environment, either voluntarily or because of situations out of their control, they tend to have a deep urge to search for individuals like themselves. They often find out quickly that many people they begin to associate with from other nations also carry the desire to learn and explore. Over time, some develop new habits encounter conflicting ideologies and opinions while, at the same time, exposing some personal deficiencies.
In an earlier episode, I talked about how some foreign nationals may become what I call "toxic foreign nationals."
I bet that if you were in this situation, you'd find yourself sharing your experiences with others and later learn how some of these experiences may have provoked you to rethink how you lived your life in your home nation and to some foreign nationals abroad, this may cause them to become overly excited about their home nation's quality of life as it compares to their host nation's, which is often one-sided or even prejudiced.
The destructive events that are taking place in Ukraine have caused me and other foreign nations to think about our situation here in Taiwan and how the rest of the world interprets it.
Taiwan has gone through many destructive events and developmental changes that have caused many families to have been broken up and lives to be lost. Still, the Taiwanese people's resilience kept them pushing forward to create a democratic nation that demonstrates what positive reforms can do.
However, the threat Taiwan is currently constantly under reminds its citizens how fragile their island nation's existence has become.
Politics, in its pure form, is very much like a religion. It's like a religion with a rigid doctrine put under the control of individuals in positions of, often charismatic, influence.
Many of those in, or who have taken, powerful positions have legitimate concerns and causes or feel that their motives are misinterpreted. I can't comment in detail on what may be on their minds,
but what I can comment on is how several people I know currently
living abroad under a similar situation as those in Ukraine are thinking.
Russia's unprovoked attack of Ukraine is the fuse that ignited vast amounts of questioning foreign nations in many nations have been asking. They have begun to seriously question their own country's commitment to democracy and world peace, which may be a good thing.
It appears to me that many agreements between nations over the past 70 years have built-in planned obsolescence that allows parties involved to appear that they have the right in the future to reinterpret an original contract or "translate" it in a very different way.
Planned Obsolescence (計畫性報廢) describes how product manufacturers and even policy planners create and design products and policies that beyond a specific time deteriorate or even self-destruct.
This is exactly how I perceive documents like the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, which is a combined agreement that gives security assurances to nations once part of the former Soviet Union, and the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act that references how the US and China proceed with their "Taiwan Issue."
Please refer to the links below for more detailed information on the mentioned documents. Providing these links doesn't mean that this program's host or network indorses the comments or policies presented in these links.
There is too much room for financially and militaristically endowed signatories to later back out of their agreements and boaster that their interpretation of an agreement is being misinterpreted or ignored, which has given them no other choice but to react in a certain way.
(Video of wars and military or police arresting or attacking citizens.)
Current events, historical agreements, documents, and memorandums like these carry different or more significance to the life of someone living abroad who just "happens" to be where the focus of these contractual agreements are based on or refer to.
While events in Ukraine are accelerating, this is just one attempt to present how those who have made life abroad may one day have to face social and political deconstruction that may force them to reformat and reconfigure the way they interpret events taking place in the world.
Several foreign nationals I communicate with here in Taiwan are finding themselves going through their version of a "deconstruction." They are now questioning some of their past beliefs they, at one time, regarded as unquestionable but now are seen as selfish, prejudiced, or ignorant. This isn't my own "opinion." These responses are coming directly from their mouths, and maybe this is good.
Fortunately, they now see how Taiwan has been working hard to develop into a nation that has learned the values of mutual respect and civil rights. Because many of them have invested their lives in beneficial ways while in Taiwan and observed its positive progression, they now wish that they had spent time showing the great things Taiwan has done, and I believe it's not too late for them to do so still today.
While the world is focusing on the events occurring in Ukraine today, I hope they remember to look east and learn how Taiwan may soon become entangled in a similar situation.
Help us spread the word that we have a lot more in common than we think.
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Like those who are introduced or indoctrinated into a religion or politics at an early age who cannot comprehend or compare other alternatives because they simply didn't have any reason to do so or the opportunity
#ukraine #taiwan #deconstruction
Taiwan Going Against Planned Obsolescence (計畫性報廢)
While the world is focusing on the events occurring in Ukraine today, I hope they remember to look east and learn how Taiwan may soon become entangled in a similar situation.
For more detailed information on mentioned documents, please refer to the links below. Providing these links doesn't mean that this program's host or network indorses the comments or policies presented in these links.
Deconstruction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction
YouTube: The Budapest Memorandum and Ukraine's Security
YouTube: How will the Budapest Memorandum help Zelensky to solve the conflict with Russia? - James Armstead
Wiki: Budapest Memorandum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances
Why China-Taiwan Relations Are So Tense
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-taiwan-relations-tension-us-policy
Taiwan Relations Act (American Institute in Taiwan)
White Paper--The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue
Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Kingdom of Norway
(中華人民共和國駐挪威王國大使館)
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/ceno/eng/ztxw/twwt/t110655.htm
Wiki: One-China Policy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-China_policy
Mainland Affairs Council (Taiwan)
Online Research on Taiwan-U.S.-China Relations
http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~ctung/Documents/Online%20Research.pdf
Planned Obsolescence (計畫性報廢)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
SupChina
https://supchina.com/2022/03/02/the-228-incident-and-the-ambiguities-of-taiwanese-identity/
Arm Control Association
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005-05/features/npt-withdrawal-time-security-council-step