Got back from California a few days ago where I was fortunate to see Yo La Tengo for 5 shows. I have so many things to share about that trip but am not sure where this week went and have not had a second to put fingers to keys. I have less obligations this Fall yet seem to have a lot less time. and something is not adding up. So as to not miss a week, am gonna cop out and share a couple of things from about town.
I will say one thing about California and that is that the weather cleared up my crotch rot/diaper rash. Could feel it going away almost immediately upon landing and it was nearly gone by the end of the week. Came back here and a heat wave snapped back and am almost at full itchy/scratchy again. Don't remember it being this bad years previous and figure that either my body chemistry is changing with age somehow, or global warming has reached some level that affected my corner of the animal kingdom.
This week saw a bridge collapse about an hour east of Taipei that killed 5 fishermen of Indonesian dissent. Those folks always seem to be in the path of destruction. You can easily YouTube several videos catching its collapse and have linked one below. Craziest thing to watch is the tanker truck that is crossing the bridge when it starts to fall and almost makes it across before flipping 90 degrees and crashes to the ground. Amazingly, the driver only suffered some cuts and bruises.
Finally for today's abbreviated effort, adding to the list of favorable lists where Taiwan has been ranked highly, Switzerland's IMB Business School placed Taipei 7th in the world on the "smartest cities" ladder. While Singapore was # 1, two Swiss cities attained top 5 ratings, so we should take the process that they used to rate the cities with a grain of salt.
This article outlines some of the criteria used to conduct the survey with things like use of Internet to register for hospital visits, attitudes towards the use of closed circuit TV in fighting crime, and satisfaction with transportation as indicators. This comes on the heels of another report, also by IMB, that ranked Taiwan 9th in technology and 13th in digital competitiveness.
As we are now in our 8th year in this place, I have to agree with all of these reports and accolades. This is a great place to be, with lovely people and a future forward culture, and feel lucky that this is the place we happened to end up. I know I have said and written this sentiment before many times: I bitch about the food and traffic a ton, but the food is a personal preference and traffic sucks in any large city, but if it wasn't for the heat, this could be a perfect place. I am waiting to see something out of Switzerland that ranks Taiwan high on the CRI (Crotch Rot Index)
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