do you vote

"Physicians have lower adjusted voting rates than lawyers and the general population, suggesting reduced civic participation." Drs. David Grande, David Asch, and Katrina Armstrong concluded in the January 2008 issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine. The title of the article is Do Doctors Vote?
According to their conclusion, the answer is "yes, but should be more often."

This article was sent out from the President of our research center.
Probably he was hoping his doctors could participate more in choosing the leader of the country, not just more in making money. According to the same article, doctors make more money than lawyers. Probably he also wanted his doctors could win in any formats of competition. So he was pep-talking to us, which was totally my contemplation and if he actually thought the same way, it simply was a coincident,
"Hey my fellow doctors, well I also want to include Ph.D. in this content because you are literally doctors too; however, I know the attached article was studying medical doctors but I don't want to explicitly leave Ph.D. out because I don't want medical doctors to be too guilty about their lack of civic participation. How about both doctors take the responsibility at this crucial moment?
"Anyway, my fellow doctors, we have to vote. Next time, when the Survey comes to us, I want you to proudly tell the researchers that you have voted and you are a doctor! We can't be won over by lawyers. We are better than them!"

To vote is the it thing everywhere I go these days.
Democracy is hot.

Obama or Clinton?
I checked the CNN website every hour on nights of Primaries.
I wish I could participate more in the US presidential election. But at this moment, the Taiwan presidential election is burning my eyebrows and begs for my full attention. So it is good that the next US Democratic Primary is not going to happen until April 22. By then, I will know the color of Taiwan for a month.

Ma or Hsieh?
Blue or Green?
Do you love Taiwan or not?
Election campaigns in Taiwan are always very Taiwanese.
Every election time Taiwan becomes a concept instead of a real place where real people live in and on and inside out of it.
This time the emphasis on the concept of Taiwan is even stronger than ever because half of the Taiwanese people are frustrated, disappointed, and angry at the other half who care about only the concept rather than the reality of Taiwan.
It's embarrassing to say that half of Taiwanese people actually accuse the other half with the following:
"You don't love Taiwan because you apply for the green card when getting your masters degree in Harvard."
"You don't love Taiwan because you speak Mandarin."
"You don't love Taiwan because you recognize degrees earned in Beijing."
"You don't love Taiwan because you want to promote an open market with China."
"You don't love Taiwan because you want to 'return to' the UN instead of 'join' the UN."
This half is the so-called the dark green who deeply explicitly promoting independence of Taiwan from China --- like what Kosovo has just done to Serbia weeks ago. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the so-called dark blue are people who deeply believe that Taiwan should embrace China and be part of it.

I am in between. Most people are in between. Extremists never outnumber.
From most people's point of view, Taiwan is practically independent. The official name of Taiwan is confusing with China's. Which may be the reason that the non-Chinese think Taiwan is part of China. I always put Taiwan on any form that asks for my nationality. No one ever gave me a look.
But officially changing Taiwan's name is a big deal for China. Explicitly claiming our independence -- by changing the name of our country from Republic of China to Taiwan -- will totally piss off China whose official name is People's Republic of China. As China complains to the other countries, Taiwan wants to break the family. (Arh.... disgusting!)
If the family is broken officially, China may throw a bomb to us as violently as it did yesterday to Tibet. China can easily isolate Taiwan economically too if once the "civil war" begins. Economics is directly related to happiness of people. Everything comes to how well people are fed. Empty stomachs upsets people.

Well.... personally I think the likelihood of a physical war is small even though China has never stopped violently threatening us. China has started wars in international politics and economics years ago, and Taiwan is losing of course. So why bother physically attacking Taiwan and lose its face to the international community? The only reason for a physical war to happen is that China wants to show how powerful it is and how much it does not care about others' condemnations. Taiwan is not Tibet. China won't put a finger on Taiwan because Taiwan's power is not as tiny as the island appears.

However, the dark green actually wants to isolate Taiwan before China does it. Taiwan gets its voice heard because Taiwan is not only democratic but also rich. Money always talk. Rejecting doing business with China is a pathway of getting out of richness. It is not impossible that one day Taiwanese people will have to earn money by exporting labors to other countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, etc. It is scary. My family just hired a "maid" from Indonesia to take care of my grandpa. By meeting with this new member in the house, my uncle was hit in his face that if the dark green takes over Taiwan, his daughter will become this maid in ten years.

I don't understand the logic of rejecting the huge Chinese market. If all we want is a totally independent status, we should accept that China is a different country. Why can't we do business with another country? Why can't we acknowledge academic degrees earned in China? Why can't we import labors from China? Just as how we do with other countries!

Sorry, I cannot stamp my vote on the DPP who represents this dark green idea.
Another reason that I won't give my vote to Hsieh is that Hsieh personally believes in Song Chi Li.
Of course Taiwanese people have much more freedom in choosing their religion than Americans, but Oh Come On!!!! This is not even a religion! Song is not even a God. He is a living human being who is greedy on money and telling his disciples that he can clone his own image any where he wants. If people want to be blessed by him or his images, they should give him loads of money.
This is as ridiculous as believing in virgin pregnancy.
Even sensible Christians do not take the bible word by word. But please explain to me the message of being present anywhere as an image? This is totally beyond me.

On the day of election, we have an option of picking up a ticket about "Joining the UN" as if the result will change our consistent failure of getting into this important international community.
Everyone in Taiwan wants the country to be a member of the UN for many many valuable benefits in all kinds of aspects including the political aspect. However, how to apply for it is a big debate. Should Taiwan "join" it or "return to" it?
This is playing of words.
"Join" implicates that Taiwan is claimed an officially independent country to apply for a new spot in the UN. "Return" means that Republic of China (= Taiwan) once left as a protest now wants to reclaim its position. ROC was one of the founders of the UN but left because Communism took over China.
This name ROC was given by our National Father Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. Because Communists love to emphasize how well they take care of people in theory, the word "people" was added to China's official name -- PROC.
Therefore, the word "return" would emphasize this historian event and tell the world that ROC (Taiwan) is not PROC (China). But the word "join" would emphasize on the independence of Taiwan from China.
I think this is just way tooooo confusing.
To use this topic to run the campaign is simply manipulating voters' thoughts but not trying to propose anything practical. Practical as in how to make everyday life easier and happier.

Blackmailing is sadly again the most frequent and convenient way to run the campaign by the DPP. Sadly some members of the KMT are tangoing with the DPP by saying if the rumors are true, and if the rumors cause the defeat, they are going to commit suicide. One of them said he would cut open his stomach like what Japanese warriors did.
Oh.... kill yourself then. Does this election have to go so dramatic? Can't we act as a civilized society? All the tears, shouting, swearing, blackmailing, and pretending in front of the camera are so ..... Taiwanese.... now I am home.

But please vote.
Don't be like an American physician.
This is the reason why I am here now.
Not just all the great fruit and vegetables and meat and sweets and ... I love Taiwanese food... but also democracy is one of the greatest things in Taiwan.