When was the last time you said your pleases and thank yous? Well, if you're a Taipei resident, chances are you haven't said them in a while, according to Reader's Digest magazine.
The US-based magazine conducted a survey of 35 cities around the world recently, probing the politeness of each city's residents. Ranking 29th overall, Taipei turned up at the bottom of the list, with just six other cities considered ruder. And when it came to "document drops," one of the three tests Reader's Digest reporters used to score politeness, Taipei came in 31st, with only four other cities scoring worse. That test involved a reporter "accidently" dropping a stack of papers in public and seeing if anybody would help pick them up.
Luckily, Taipei fared better on the "service tests" in which the reporters observed whether sales clerks would thank buying customers. The survey also consisted of "door tests" (observing if people tended to hold the door for others), which Taipei flunked as well.
The good news is Taipei is not alone -- of the 10 Asian cities surveyed, including Taipei, none scored above 50 percent (New York was ranked the politest city with a score of 90 percent). Singapore and Seoul were ranked 31st and 32nd respectively.
Among the politer cities, Sao Paulo, Brazil, which ranked fifth, is so courteous that even blackmarket vendors are mindful to thank their customers before running away from the police.
The survey also discovered that there seemed to be an odd correlation between wealth and courtesy. A Reader's Digest reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa, for instance, noticed that the nicer people dressed, the fewer courtesies they extended to strangers.
Seasoned diplomat Loh I-cheng (
Although Loh, now retired, did admit that Taipei residents could be nicer, he said that of the many locales he has traveled to in his career -- including all of the cities the Reader's Digest surveyed except four -- Taipei was one of the most civil.
Radio Taiwan International talkshow host Andrew Ryan agreed, saying that the survey was flawed because it was based on Western standards of courtesy.
"The generosity and respect that the Taiwanese show to guests -- the way mass rail transit [MRT] passengers give up their seats for each other, the men holding women's bags for them. These are all acts of courtesy that Westerners would do well to learn from the Taiwanese," Ryan said.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we