A Happy Turkey Day to all.
A Taiwanese friend has invited me to join him at a Taiwanese Association TG dinner at a buffet restaurant. There will be a raffle, some turkey, and a multitude of other dishes, many of them recognizeable.
My friend has married a girl from the Mainland, and says that since this organization is a "Deep Green", and believes in Taiwanese Independence, that he feels his wife (who has no real opinions regarding Taiwanese independence) will not be welcome. I don't understand Taiwanese politics, but I imagine he does and this makes sense to him.
He wants to go this year, because he has already paid his dues, but says that he wil drop out of the organization next year on account of his opinion that his Mainlander wife would be unwelcome.
It has always seemed to me logical that if a majority of Taiwanese favor being independent, they should be able to officially be an independent nation. After all, Taiwan has not been ruled by anyone on the Mainland since the times of the Empress Dowager (1895), when it was taken over by the Japanese. In theory, Taiwan is just a province of the Republic of China. But in reality, it is an independent state that most other countries consider a part of the Mainland, not becaue of logic or fairness so much as the fact that the People's Republic has so much power and so many people.
Alaskan independence or Puerto Rican independence would be okay with me, if the people of Alaska or Puerto Rico chose to be independent.
Small independent democratic nations are much more well-behaved than large ones, regardless of their politics. The worst thing that Sweden has ever done to the world is to make it more pleasant to get bombed on Absolut Vodka, and to spend the whole night dancing in a goofy disco manner to the tunes of Abba.
The Swiss have overloaded us with watches, and caused us to bloat on their chocolate. But neither has started any wars for 400 years.
