valueable democracy

Hpaay Peace Day!!

塔克辛回泰國了...這位被起訴貪污的前泰國總理回國的新聞一小時輪播一次。當他抵達國門時，跪在地下親吻自己的土地。先不管他的貪污是不是屬實 (還未完成調查) 但是這一幕真是讓我感動。

去年聖誕節，去泰國找朋友時剛好碰到當地的議員選舉。當時還陪著朋友在高溫40度的太陽底下投票。當時的感覺...一切都好祥和。當然在投票結束後，政論性的節目也會討論選後的局勢等等的。當時我非常感興趣看著哇啦哇啦講一堆泰文的政論節目，然後拉著朋友問一堆問題。

泰國的選舉 -




好像是選舉公報之類的 -


奇怪的是，每當問到關於泰國皇室對政局的影響，或是提到塔克辛，我的泰國朋友Golf就會說...let's not talk about the King and Thaksin at all (btw, Golf是我在美國的室友，在美國上班好多年了)。所以讓我非常的困惑，因為Golf對我來說已經是個老美，幹嘛要顧忌談論政治性的問題?

後來再去市區的路上Golf告訴我，其實泰國沒有表面上看起來這麼自由的。曾經有一個澳洲人因為公開談論泰皇的"長相"就被關入監獄。在泰國....似乎皇室是最不可侵犯.....

I'm very proud to be a Taiwanese, 民主自由真的是得來不易。尤其當我從泰國回來後，有更深刻的體會。在台灣，每個人都有權利批評政府，罵總統，公投選舉。雖然大部分的時間這讓我覺得非常煩，但也只有在高度民主化的國家才有這樣的情形產生(美國罵得更兇呢 哈)。

希望下一個新總統，能夠提升台灣的國際地位阿，不然老是要跟各國辦公室的同事解釋台灣跟中國的關係，或者台灣跟泰國其實是不一樣的兩個國家....之類的蠢問題。也夠累的了 -_-'

更希望台灣能有一天成為被國際社會認定的獨立國家, God bless Taiwan

New Year plans

Still suffering....
But I'm fine. I know God, my family, friends and partners are supporting on my back, that's very warm and touching.

Well wel well, the biggest plan for me this year is gonna be my travel to Greece. For a long time I didn't really travel along. The last time should be back to year 1999, myself travel to Osaka, Japan. That was super exciting and fun, especially when you don't speak local language and basically I'm a huge direction blind....so the best part for me was to looking for directions from strangers.....with my body language haha.

After this, I always go somewhere with frens, colleagues. Or went to the countries and visited my frens (doesn't count a back-pack travel I know). So this Greece trip will be a big challenge for me. People said in Greece, people don't speak English a lot. Actually since last year i started to do many research, including where to go...the map, subway and others. Lucky for me one of my colleagues Pearl had been to Greece, she also went there travel alone. That's great to have a expert to share experiences with me.

The ticket and hotel are all booked hehe...I'm always doing things quickly after making decisions. Really...Cannot wait to go, YAY.

The other plan will be in nex half of this year..no gonna saying it out loud now (low profile-ing). Keep praying~~~