Foreigners and accidents (deadly example)

I see countless accidents on Taiwan's roads, always Thursday to Sunday when I drive around a bit. Not sure if the motionless people lying face down in a pool of blood always get to stand up again and say "pie say, pie say, nothing serious, we Taiwanese are the best drivers of the world". Press does not make a fuzz of it, death and blood are normal on the roads of Taiwan.
That is much different if the driver is a foreigner though. A British national being involved in a fatal accident with a motor cyclist, whose rider got killed, made big news in Taiwan. Excitement went far on the island, was on TV, in the papers and another unrelated Englishmen also driving a Mercedes got nasty comments (he reported on the foreigner forum forumosa.com).

If two locals are involved in a deadly accident the party presumed to be at fault must pay "blood money" in relation to his income to the victim's family and the police will help to negotiate (and probably take their share of it). A truck driver might pay as much as 40.000 or 80.000 NT, that is 1.000 or 2.000 Euro and then goes without punishment.
In case the two families cannot agree, the guilty driver may get a few month jail term.

Procedure is the same if the victim is a foreigner, meaning usually the family will not be interested in the bit of money and the accused local driver gets a wee bit of punishment, like 6 month in jail or whatever.

Posters on the foreigner forum forumosa.com warned before, a foreigner being accused of causing a fatal traffic accident with a local might get up to 12 years jail term; court cases against foreigners are hard to predict in their outcome. The excitement on island about this particular accident shows in which direction the proceedings are going.

We are all equal here on the island of Little China far east at the edge of the world. Longnoses excluded of course.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1213897&lang=eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society_TAIWAN

Love or punishment, it's your choice

English: There are things which are so much out of place they become invisible. Because you kind of see them but you forget them instantly. A good example of such a thing is a poster which is located in the visitor entrance of Taipei Prison in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. I had been there two times now visiting a German citizen who is imprisoned there (see my article here: http://bobhonest.blogspot.com/2010/01/foreign-prisoners-in-taiwan-locked-up.html) BTW, there are also English prisoners in there so what you read in my article about the Germans holds true for the UK citizens as well. Anyway, when you are in the gray yard and about to enter the visitors hall, where you have to queue up for the visit, you might notice a big poster of the Taiwan Department of Justice on the entrance door which shows a smiling young -and very attractive- Taiwanese lady, clad in pink girlish clothes. The text next to her reads in English (!): Love or Punishment, it's your choice. Well, this is kind of typical Taiwanese. What others may think but would never mention gets stuck on the wall here. You in jail, you no girl, would be the essential meaning I guess and we can be grateful they took someone with good English skills and did not write down the Chinglish short version I proposed here. Anyway, why is it in the visitor's area. I mean for the guys inside it's kind of too late, no? Yes Okay I guess they want to warn the relatives. OK, message is clear, but this poster seems kind of surreal when you see it. Hope they don't do that more often in Taiwan. Wall crash or earning cash, it's up to you [dedicated to car drivers]. Or this one: Trade Union and a belly full of whipping or keep-job, it's up to you. Your Department of Work. Spend time well or read blog...

Mehr hat sie schon an...

German, Deutsch: Wenn man in Taiwan das "Taipei Prison" besucht, was ich zweimal getan habe um nach Anregung der auf mein Blog gestoßenen Familie eines inhaftierten Deutschen ihren Verwandten dort zu besuchen, empfängt einen am Eingang zum Besucherraum ein gar surrealistisches Ding, das sich gar unwirklich in der grauen Umgebung ausnimmt. Ein Plakat hängt dort, das eine in mädchenhafter rosafarbener Kleidung steckende junge Taiwanesin zeigt, die in die Kamera lächelt. Daneben steht auf Englisch: "Love or Punishment, it's your choice", zu Deutsch also: "Liebe oder Bestrafung, es ist deine Wahl". Ob das die Kriminalitätsrate senkt, kann sich jeder selber überlegen und auch welche weiteren Anwendungsmöglichkeiten es für solche Plakate wie dieses vom Justizministerium (Department) sonst noch gibt... Sie sind gewarnt!

Meine Berichte über das Gefängnis und meinen Besuch (und hier ist es leider wörtlich mit dem Spaß ob der Haftbedingungen zu Ende):

http://bobhonest.blogspot.com/2010/01/besuch-bei-deutschem-gefangenen-zu.html

http://bobhonest.blogspot.com/2009/12/falschinformation-uber-gefangnis.html

http://bobhonest.blogspot.com/2009/12/besuch-bei-deutschem-gefangenen-in.html

http://bobhonest.blogspot.com/2009/11/deutsche-im-horrorknast.html

Suddenly short jail terms in Taiwan

Taiwan was always known for having harsh jail sentences. Until recently we had death punishment (even if not actually applied for quite some time) even for robberies. But recently a lot of short term sentences for murder make the news:

http://forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=84340&p=1107267#p1107267
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2010/01/29/242771/Mother-who.htm

Seemingly, a child murder who had recently been sentenced to 20 years in prison was quickly freed only to murder his second child - this time receiving a very short jail term - if the report on the expat forum forumosa.com is correct. I can however see the logic in the reduction of the jail term in the second case, where a child-killing mother seemingly had psychological problems.

Will Taiwan turn from hard martial law era sentencing to anarchy or is it "guanxi", special relations to people, or even money buying the way out?

Foreign prisoners in Taiwan. Locked up forever?

There are articles in German in my blog, which are dealing with the prisoners in Taiwan:
Im Blog sind deutsche Artikel über die deutschen Gefangenen in Taiwan, siehe hier: Artikel 3, Artikel 2, Artikel 1.


English:
Imagine you hadn't eaten good food for several years, all you got was some over-cooked meal which has hardly taste and for years and years no candy, no cookies, hardly soap or shampoo and sometimes no slippers on your feet and not a blanket to cover yourself. And as additional torture you have to watch other people getting good food from home and chocolate and cookies. Sounds like hell, doesn't it?

Taipei Prison in Taoyuan. The real prison is hidden from view behind smaller administration buildings and palm trees. There are no palm trees or parks for the inmates.

Well, in Taiwan jail is NOT meant to be like this. The system is relying on the families of inmates to provide some clothing (however they get the basic clothing in jail) including slippers and blankets and the family can in the beginning of the prison term visit once a month and later every week to bring some food. Cookies and chocolate and needed toiletry can be bought in the prison shop.
But Taiwan has foreign prisoners as well. Currently there are three German prisoners in "Taipei Prison" in Taoyuan county close to Taiwan's capital Taipei, a fourth one is most likely currently imprisoned on remand and there are also prisoners from England. The problem of the foreign inmates is simple: Their families are far, far away and often cannot afford the flight ticket. Even if they come for a visit during the first years or so of imprisonment, the inmate can only see them for about 30 minutes once a month. Now do the maths. Relatives go on a plane to Far East Asia and all they can do is to see their imprisoned relative for 30 minutes. No-one will stay for over a month. Such a visit is deeply disturbing for both inmate and visitor, as I was told from relatives of one inmate. You can do nothing and when you have just finished the emotional hello, the cruel bell cuts off all conversation. "See you again next summer vacation." Of course you don't see the inmate directly but rather through a glass wall. This must be hellish I suppose.

Consequently there are no visits from the folks back home, no food which will be brought. Relatives of one German inmate had seen my blog and contacted me and asked wife and me to pay their relative a visit. As all German prisoners in Taiwan (at least as far as the press reported) he was imprisoned for life for bringing Heroin to Taiwan. Now don't get me wrong. Bringing drugs to Taiwan is a severe crime and it makes me angry to think people might actually do such a thing. The island of Taiwan does not have many hard drugs on the market, nothing of such quality is produced here and airport checks are said to be tough. Consequently the market price is high, which leads criminals to ask foreigners like Germans being in (financial) trouble in Thailand for "help" to bring the drugs to Taiwan. I have to admit I don't want the stuff here on my little island, so I am not trying to make the crime any smaller than it actually is.

However, the foreign inmates in Taiwan get punished indirectly much more severely than the locals - because they do not get the family visits and do not get the foodstuff from home. Being in an alien country adds to the punishment. Yes, they chose to come here on their own with the white powder, but nevertheless it is a humanitarian gesture not to forget them.
Unfortunately they are forgotten for the most part, as Taiwan is not recognized as a state of its own by most countries on the globe and thus there is no possibility of transfer to their home countries. If you get life, Taiwan wants you to serve at least 20 years and then you may get deported home.

The inmate wife and I have visited had never received a private visit (only lawyer and all three months the German representation) in Taiwan and he was here for many years. He was in jail in fact so long he did not know what the word "blog" meant when I told him I wanted to write about the visit in my blog. He is living in the over-crowded jail with 20 people on 16 square meters. He spends the weekends entirely in his cell together with the others and can only commute between cell and workplace during the week. There are no sport courts, no walks in the yard***. The jail is overcrowded and we here in Taiwan are paying only 6% tax, so there is not too much in for them. Imagine so many people in a small cell with a toilet (a hole in a basin on the floor).

He was extremely happy to see us and said our visit was the nicest present he could get for Christmas (we were there shortly before Christmas time). All his hope is to come home one day. But this day of return seems to be far, far away.

And no, you don't find the foreign inmates in Taiwan prisons listed on the usual websites. Remember, Taiwan is not regarded as a country and thus forgotten.

*** The big park in front of the jail is not for inmates. Only the former president of Taiwan, also incarnated there, is allowed to use the park.

English teacher shot (no, no foreigners involved)

Crime is always strange when it gets close to you. Like that housewife who was shot by killers paid by her husband who was living a double life in the prostitution and gambling scene. In Laatzen, Germany, not Taiwan. Like the undertaker stabbing that millionaire's son to get the inheritance and burying him below the stair in his house. In Laatzen, Germany, not Taiwan.
Or now that guy shooting a (female) English teacher (Taiwanese, not foreign) in a NeiHu, Taipei cram school where I always park in front when I get a bread from "Subway". She wanted to separate, he didn't want, he shot her. This time obviously in Taipei, Taiwan.
Just a note.