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Presidential Palace
The equivalent of our White House. You should have seen the secret service reaction to our accidental pictures as the Presidential motorcade drove by. I want to summarize my trip to Taiwan, but I don't know where to begin.
First, I want to thank all of you for reading what I wrote. I had hoped a few friends and family would read the blog but had no idea how many people would read it and who those people would be.
Gardner Selby and
Robyn Hadley had something to do with that; thank ya'll. I also had readers among those we met and visited in Taiwan. I did not expect that.
Second, I want to thank those who were on the trip with me. They made what could not help being a memorable trip become an opportunity for the establishment of new lifelong friendships and made the trip so much more than the simple sum of its parts because of the character and viewpoints of each of my fellow travelers.
I learned so much.
Every one of you whom I know would enjoy and be fascinated with Taiwan. The political and legislative people among you would be intrigued and bewildered by Taiwan's young democracy. The media folks among you would be astonished at the state of the media in Taiwan; including its 8,
24-hour news stations. You entrepreneurs would find a steadily growing and perhaps complex new market to navigate. All of you would be captivated by the art and culture and food.
Thinking of the politics: Can you imagine American primaries working this way? Primaries there are decided 30% by a party-membership vote; 70% by a general-population phone survey.
There are a lot of problems with the structure and implementation of Taiwan's new democracy, but it includes a populace that by and large participates. While they have some things they could learn from us about how government systems should operate, we have much to learn from them about how democratic representation should be an increasingly accountable and active enterprise.
From fist fights on the floor of the legislative branch to a judicial system that essentially lacks the principle of precedent - and I do not only mean that there is no concept of stare decisis from higher courts to lower; there is often the same deficit in a single court with an individual judge and his judgments - Taiwan has a way to go, but it is doing well and being lead by strong and dedicated people.
The
Longshan Temple
The beauty of this place is hard to describe. trip was a whirlwind. While that is the way I like my trips - I always said that my family packed two weeks of vacation into one week when I was growing up - the time difference combined with the heat, the pace of the agenda, and the overload of sensory novelties has me still feeling a little stunned. I certainly did not get to blog and provide as much detail as I had planned.
And my sleep schedule is all screwed up - it's 4 a.m. Monday morning, for instance, and I just can't sleep.
I will never forget this trip or the friends I made on it. I wish I could have shared more of it with you - the pictures may help a little, but I easily could have doubled the length of this blog if I had had the time to write more of what I was experiencing.
Thanks again and I'll see you on here again during the next trip...
david holmes
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Sylvia
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Awesome!! I look forward to hearing more stories to go along with some of those photo's!! Great camera!! :-)