Well, it happened again. Facebook banned me for 30 days. Why this time? Someone wrote that people should be allowed to shop freely during COVID. The post included images of COSTCO packed with people and the OP asking “where can I report people for not following rules?”
My response to the person was “They get COVID ;).”
I was banned for 30 days for going against Community Guidelines. Specifically, bullying. Maybe it was the wink. How this is bullying is beyond me but there’s nothing I can do. I would’ve thought Facebook would ban people that were going against COVID-19 guidelines. Instead, they banned me for calling out the obvious. If you don’t follow guidelines, you can get COVID-19.
So now what?
I’ll see y’all on Instagram and I’ll probably spend this month writing articles here instead of FB. As much as I like the discussion on Facebook and taking part in discussions, it’s becoming clear the FB algorithm hates me. I might find somewhere else in future to hold discussion. In the meantime, keep up to date with my rants and memes on IG with my QR code on the left.
Memes and Commentary
COVID-19 has brought a lot of issues for foreign nationals in Taiwan to public attention. Southeast Asian blue-collar foreign nationals were treated badly by many local governments. Foreign nationals were all mostly excluded from COVID-19 relief plans. Only APRC (permanent residents) were given relief. This, mind you, despite us all on ARCs paying taxes.
While it may feel like we are all in the friend-zone with Taiwan, we are all Jim and one day we will have our Pam (Taiwan). I hope that isn’t too chauvinistic or playing in tropes. I just like any excuse to use an Office reference.
This meme will take a bit more more context. Essentially, there was a lot of thanks given to the US and Japanese governments in Taiwan (and eventually Lithuania) for COVID-19 vaccination donations. Foreign governments and friends from abroad sent help. However, us foreigners in Taiwan don’t get COVID-19 relief. Out of the 850,000+ foreign nationals working in Taiwan, 27,000 with APRCs are the only ones getting COVID relief. It cause a lot of people to get upset (me included) because we pay taxes and live here while Taiwanese abroad with household registered in Taiwan can still receive COVID relief even if they don’t live here or pay taxes. Anyway, it was weird standard to be thankful for foreign help while not help foreigners. I got told to go back home many times over the last month as well.
Going off the last meme, it’s been a bit obvious that foreign labor rights in Taiwan were sacrificed to prevent a cluster to grow. They were locked in factories, dorms, and weren’t allowed to leave. The crazy part was that Taiwanese that worked in the same factories and floors weren’t required to be locked in dorms. Indeed, many migrant workers that lived outside of the dorms and factories were forced to return. Hence, double-standards and the attitude that everything needs to be done to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but that didn’t extend to Taiwanese in the same situation and companies. It was disappointing but thankfully many legislators fought hard in Miaoli and other areas.
This meme requires a lot of backstory. Essentially, whenever a foreigner does something, the issue is amplified. It’s mostly foreigner bashing and it’s a way to get newspapers sold, clicks on the news, and eyeballs glued to the television. In any country, seeing foreigners do something wrong is always a way to get attention for the media. An example of this in the West was during the Brexit referendum when politicians used anti-immigrant/refugee images to push their agenda.
Well, in Taiwan the imagology isn’t always so clear cut but it’s still obvious. There are anti-foreigner tropes in the media that don’t always paint immigrants in a positive light. If it was foreigners going to drink special tea, we’d not get called “Lion King.” We’d probably end up get rung through the media like a dirty 抹布 and not be clean after it. Hence, when Taiwanese breaks laws and regulations, it’s like “meh”, but when foreigners do so, it’s mass condemnation.
台味ㄉ愛爾蘭人 Nihao's It Going? 