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nativeoftheworld · 8 years ago

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Tears in Taiwan

There is an image I have burned into me of the stunning Taiwan from decades of accumulated experiences stacked atop of the knowledge that this is my parents’ homeland. Taiwan has the previously tallest skyscraper in the world: Taipei 101. At the highest level, the observatory, you can catch a glimpse of the mountainous regions and rock formations through the clouds and mist. Somewhere on those mountains grow lychee fruits aplenty, and somewhere by those trees is a dear friend of mine trying to pick a few for his afternoon snack. The path towards those mountains pass by farmers’ fields and shrine graves amidst exotic flora. If you continue along that path (with a few minor twists and turns), you'll eventually encounter my mom’s middle school, the soymilk place my dad would go to every night because it was the only option, the noodle restaurant that my mom’s family frequented ever since the current owner’s mother was running the business, and the bakery full of goodies right beneath the apartment I've lived in for years. At one point, there was a taxi driver who would wait for us right outside the bakery because he knew we would need a ride to my grandma’s house, and it always had perfect timing—not a single skipped day. This fanciful idea of Taiwan blurs whenever I actually exist in the shoddy excuse of a country; the air stinks of malordorous chickens being inhumanely slaughtered and rotting homeless citizens being inhumanely neglected, the run-down concrete buildings never recovered from their most recent earthquake disaster, and the people can be far too socially conservative to the point of blatant racism and sexism. Needless to say, I have my qualms about this country just like the rest of the politically active citizens (not even counting the actual politicians, who are passionate enough to bring out the fists against each other). One would be the backwards culture of the elders; domestic violence is treated like it is common, animal welfare laws barely exist and only human-owned animals are considered, and women are seen as failures if they are not married by the age of 30. Of course, the younger citizens living in a more globalized digital world are generally different and much more progressive. All of them have been less judgmental than expected whenever I tell them my beliefs, which I do when requested because there is never a reason to lie (except to save someone’s life, which is a philosophical/ethical thought experiment that might become a lot less hypothetical during this trip). The macrocosm of Taiwan cannot compare to its microcosms: yesterday my grandma put out an opened can of dog food for the area’s cats to eat. It turns out that the three felines had long since moved away (or maybe they didn't have a taste for dog food—our chihuahua sure didn't), but memories of the cats and dogs my grandma would rescue and clean up from off the street are pleasant. She did accidentally overdose one of the cats by trying to give it uncut Tylenol to soothe its battle wounds, but we don't mention that. Almost everything you'll ever need is accessible by walking, and always affordable. Many street foods cost less than a dollar and are incredibly mouthwatering, and socks cost around 10¢ a pair. Once you exit the night market and its fake stars (but, boy, is that area LIT), you can generally enter a department store that looks like a conspicuous consumer would think the decor too fluffily luxurious, but still buy the clothing, undeterred by the hiked-up prices because you get what you pay for, right? If only quality worked that way—the world would certainly be a just one if that were the case. And so I continued wishing that the world worked that way as I heard the news that my best friend and our mutual human rights activist friend were in danger because the Taliban was cracking down on openly leftist secular social media figures, and most of Taiwan faded away into a panicked frenzy of searching for wifi for any updates and trying to comfort the friends in danger for simply thinking differently and caring about human rights, and I thought that this was wrong. It was unequivocal in its wrongness, yet simultaneously not worse than what commonly happened in a lot of the world, because Pakistan has never been kind to activists or journalists, yet for the longest time my eyes glazed over all international news that did not concern me or change my view of reality. I ignored all middle eastern happenings and injustices until the day I became best friends with someone who had such deep love in her heart for even the least sympathetic people and a brilliant mind to execute her agenda of doing good, and that's when everything I've ignored until then decided to hit too close to home. There is a sense of surreality whenever your cozy little conception of life decides to implode on you, especially for someone who leaned towards observation and dissociated analysis as much as I did. I was in Taiwan, and I could barely read Chinese (since I had about 2,9700 characters to go before I could consider myself literate). My human rights activist friend was in China, and my best friend was still in the US—thankfully, they would be most likely safe as long as they stayed in their respective countries, but the Taliban already had plans to take away one of them as soon as they arrived at the Pakistani airport. If they sought political asylum, they would never see their families again. If they didn't, they would never see anything again. The answer seemed simple, but it was a hard decision to make. Should they thank the Taliban for essentially making it for them? Family is a core value for the Taiwanese as well, and while I do my best to keep who I am and who I want to be as unaffected by culture as possible, I cannot imagine how my mother would feel if I were in mortal danger (or I suppose I already know perfectly well what would occur, but we don't talk about that as well . . . ). I can't imagine a world in which I couldn't know for sure the state of my mother’s wellbeing, and for my human rights activist friend there's that looming adult fear that your children, so innocent and loving, are going down a darker path alone, or with people who do not have their best interest in mind. What can you do from afar but toss and turn while trying to rest, knowing that there is nothing you can do? Creating a better world starts with us, and with protecting those who care for us and our freedom of choice. In Taiwan, this would call for the oversight of government officials to keep their corruption in check, and more help for the underserved in the community (women, children, indigenous/minorities, and animals), eventually leading to a cultural shift. In Pakistan, this would call for protecting their citizens from the violence of its military simply for stating their truth (which is really the only way for a society to progress). In each of us, it would call for reflection, reorientation, and (most importantly) action, because we can all use whatever power we have to create the world we want to live in, one where everyone wants to exist in someday. I am leaving Taiwan on Feb. 3rd. My best friend is leaving the United States on Feb. 5th, and her fate will remain unknown to me if she can't find a way to contact me, and that frightens me more than I can bear. I have been to enjoy all that Taiwan has to offer (as my human rights activist friend enjoys all that China has to offer) with the weight of several worlds on the back burner. The silence from most people on these is deafening, and the cost is so much higher than they will ever know. Somewhere in the world, someone who could've been a lover, a child, or a best friend is suffering right now, and you have the means to prevent it. Will you?

#human rights #activism #Taiwan #travel #Pakistan #international #love

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