Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

One thing for a westerner who grew up in the USA which is not natural to know is the art of haggling. We are so used to going into a store and having a price listed on the item we want and then we walk to the cash register, and pay for the item. That is just the way it is. That is just how things are handled.

Well, in Taiwan the art of haggling is alive and well. No one expects you to pay the price marked, and it can actually get to be fun haggling for something, trying to come to a price. It becomes a personal thing, where you actually are having a social interaction with the shop keeper or the more you haggle, the more they like it. I grew to love haggling with someone. It was a real fun activity.

I had an interesting experience about 4 years ago. I was traveling around the Orem area, and as part of that day I was stopping at the LDS Distribution Center to buy some items. It was April and they were announcing the new General and Area Authority Seventy leaders of the church. I had received an email from a good Chinese Member friend of mine, Ho Yu Chen, who had served as my 1st Counselor when I was serving as the Branch President of the Chung Li Branch in the Taiwan Mission in 1972.

The Ho’s were a terrific family that I had come to know when I was a missionary. They were my second family. I found them to be such special people, such loving people, and such people of promise. I loved them like I loved my own family. I had kept in touch with them over the years, and loved to hear how they were doing.

Brother Ho (aka Philip) had over the years become a very strong member of the church, being a Bishop, then a Stake President, and the rest of the family had done similar types of leadership opportunities. Brother Ho had sent me an email indicating that he would be in Salt Lake City for conference, only to be stopped in coming by the SAR virus that was ravaging Asia at the time. That morning, I heard President Monson read a somewhat familiar name. He presented the name of Elder Yu Chen Ho. It took me a minute to realize that my dear friend had just been sustained as an Area Authority of the church in Taiwan. I was excited to hear that my friend had been sustained to the leading councils of the church.

Over the intervening years, as I have met with him and his family, I have come to know just how inspired this call is. Brother Ho has come to be known by me as a true Area Authority of the church. He is indeed Elder Ho of the Seventy.

As some of you may know, we in the west have been suffering through a drought recently and have experienced very hot temperatures. I was sitting here at this computer just a few minutes ago and thought I heard drops. I looked over at the window, and what was I to behold but raindrops. A few, not too many, but actually a few rain drops. Will wonders ever cease in this desert. Many people around here, because of the green trees and the lawns, continue to forget that we live in a desert, but we do live in one, and rain can be a rare commodity.

Last year at about this time we were in Taiwan, where rain is plentiful, the people live in the subtropics, and everything is green because it rains so much. Ah, I miss Taiwan, but I also love Utah. What a dichotomy.

I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal today about the effort on mainland China to make sure that all of the signs that have been translated into English there are correct. Beijing has the Olympics scheduled for 2008 and they would like to make sure that it is correct.

Having lived in Taiwan for 3 years, I can say that some of the signs certainly were humorous. It is going to be too bad in some ways, because it was always a private joke that some westerners enjoyed when looking at the signs. I guess politically correct Chinglish is also in vogue now, at least on mainland China.

I am talking about the United States surely.  Well, not really.  I am actually refering to Taiwan.  There are tons of restaurants, particularly fast food restaurants that people visit every day of the week.  While there are also still street stands, that is not as prevelant as they were 30 years ago.  In any event, people are so busy, working tons of hours a day, that eating before you get home is a lot more common than one might think, and makes this nation a lot like the United States.  I was amazed by the mass of fast food places that were everywhere.  They were American, Chinese, and every other nationality that you can think of.  I believe that Eating Out is a national pastime in the island of Taiwan.

The shortest day in your life occured when flying into the sun.  Now, does that make any sense?  Well, I can tell you this.  We left Taipei Taiwan at about 7pm on a Sunday evening.  We got on the plane, flew for 12 hours, and arrived in Los Angeles at about 4:45pm in the afternoon, on the day that we left.  In other words, we arrived in Los Angeles time wise before we left Taiwan.  In that mysterious lapse of time, I saw three movies, had two meals, got a little sleep, and sat in a seat on a jet for a lot of time.

What wasn’t evident to me was that in addition to traveling, the sun went down and came up again (in a hurry I might add).  It was a short day, if you believe that time is totally linear and that each hour must follow the other.  Obviously, the measurement of time is arbitrary when you are traveling.  I think that Einstein figured that out.

Well, we all talk about how long a day seems to get.  Well, I have actually lived a very long day, in fact two, if you want to consider it.  We left Salt Lake on a Friday morning, flying for the ultimate destination of Taiwan.  We got to Los Angeles, then left their at about 6:45pm in the evening.  We got to Taipei, Taiwan, at 9pm the next evening.  Whoa.  Talk about a long flight.  Well, stuck in that seat, against the window and with now place to go sure made the flight, which they said was 14 hours long, feel real long.  But man, a day and some hours later I arrive in Taiwan?

The reality of it is of course the International Date line.  We were flying with the sun, but crossed the date line and arrived in Taiwan the next day, late in the evening.  What a long day that turned out to be.

Well, one of the big changes in Taiwan, was the emergence of gated communities.  Much like in New York City, there are now lots of tall towers that have condominiums, Taiwan now has many gated condos and they have security people, and people to help keep the places clean.  The place reminds me of the old movies that take place in New York, where someone lives in a wonderful apartment complex and has a person that acts as the security person, is alive and well in Taiwan.

For those of you who may have lived overseas, or who specifically lived in Taiwan back in the 70’s, there was a distinct smell when you got off of the plane.  First, it was the smell of rotting vegetation.  However, also part of the smell was the fact that there were open sewers that criss crossed the land.  They smelled as well.  One of the great projects in Taiwan was to cover over those open sewers and make the land more healthy.  They succeded.  The place was magnificant this visit, and the smell was primarily gone.  I really believe that Taiwan has moved from what 30 years ago I would have classified as a 3rd World Country, and they have become first world in each and every way.

I guess that the ultimate in capitalism must exist in Taiwan.  When buying things in most stores, they start ringing up the purchases and one of the first things they ask is whether or not you want a sack for the goods.  If you say yes, then immediately the sack is scanned (since the also use bar codes) and it is added to the total price.  You quickly learn to carry sacks with you so you don’t need to buy a new one.  You don’t through things away.  I guess that is a good use of the resources that we have.  If they sell you the sacks too, you won’t through them away at the drop of a hat.