hypermegaglobal.net

From taiwanbesttrip.net:

To make Taiwan's rich tourism resources and culture known globally, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau has launched a special program as part of its 2008-2009 Tour Taiwan Years campaign. Experienced travelers worldwide are invited to submit money-saving yet creative itineraries for a trip in Taiwan, share their personal stories from the tour in audio/visual blog posts, and let people around the world see this island nation through their eyes.

The rules

50 teams of "Taiwan explorers" are going to be selected to travel in Taiwan for up to 4 days between July 11 and August 31. Each evening, they'll have to upload a video and an "explanation" onto the official website. On day 5, they'll have to show up at a location designated by the bureau and "once confirmed that the required four videos along with four 200-word explanations have been uploaded, the team will be given NT$ 28,000" (~616€) plus a chance to win a "4 days/ 3 night flight + hotel package" for 2 persons.

After leaving Taiwan, writing an 800-word travelogue and producing another video they'll be eligible to enter stage two of the contest. Again, the winning team is going to be selected by a committee and will receive NT$ 1.000.000 minus taxes to spend one month in Taiwan during which it "will be required to visit designated" locations and "upload, on a weekly basis, its most interesting discoveries or episodes in Taiwan in the form of audio-visual blog posts (including a 250-word description) onto the official website".

In stage one, you'd pay to work

If you still think this sounds like "the best trip in the world", please be aware that "the entrants must pay their own airfares". For a team of 2 persons (the minimum size), you can expect to pay roughly the following amount to fly to Taiwan in mid-July (round trip, rates are from opodo):

From Toronto:     NT$ 93.371
From Paris:       NT$ 88.600
From Frankfurt:   NT$ 86.360
From Sidney:      NT$ 64.230
From Los Angeles: NT$ 54.732
From New York:    NT$ 51.550
From Shanghai:    NT$ 39.600 (can this be correct?)
From Tokyo:       NT$ 25.000
From Bangkok:     NT$ 15.774

Compare this to the NT$ 28,000 you'd get, per team, after traveling for four days, and only if the daily videos and reports have been uploaded. If you're bored in Bangkok, stay away from the closet and enter the contest instead. You might be able to make a profit. For everyone else, it looks like a bad deal unless you wanted to fly to Taiwan between July 11 and August 31 anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I really like Taiwan. I've blogged about it before (without being paid). I also think that Taiwan is extremely hard to beat in terms of value for money, you can have a great time there without spending a fortune. I was excited when I first heard a preannouncement of this this contest and had several interesting and funny concepts in mind.

Instead I've now spend an hour writing this completely unfunny post because, in it's current form, the contest is a huge disappointment. It does not deserve to mentioned anywhere without pointing out the fact that the Taiwan Tourism Bureau essentially wants 50 teams to pay for the privilege of promoting Taiwan.

This does not remind me of the generosity I've frequently experienced in Taiwan. It rather reminds me of shrewd businessmen I had to deal with and of stories about stingy Taiwanese bosses. Taiwan deserves a better contest.

Good things about São Paulo:

• Traffic jams are not much worse than in Luxembourg, even though São Paulo (metropolitan area) has about 275 times more inhabitants than Luxembourg city.
• It's so much easier to find a vegetarian-friendly restaurant than in Paris.
• People are friendlier and more patient than in New York.
• Air quality is much better than in Beijing.

Bad things:

• The subway system is a joke compared to... well, any city with a decent subway.
• Internet access is slow (may be the hotel's fault).

That's it so far. I wasn't mugged/shot/kidnapped yet and I'm probably going through the "honeymoon phase" of the culture shock model, so you shouldn't take anything I wrote too seriously, but I've been very pleasantly surprised.

Sometimes, I just try to be nice. You might say 'good for your karma'. Unfortunately, karma's an ironic bitch: I let another car in ahead of me, that car is always the last one to make make it through the next traffic light. I give some change to a beggar, I need exactly that amount a few minutes later. I help a customer who has problems making his payment online, that's the one who asks his credit card company to do a chargeback when his parcel can't be delivered the next day because he wasn't home.

This universe we live in, it can be pretty mischievous. Let me give you another example:

• Monday: not too busy
• Tuesday: not too busy
• Wednesday: not too busy
• Thursday: not too busy
• Friday: all hell breaks loose

Of course, this only happens when Friday's my last day of work before my vacation.

Yes, I'm leaving today and should be in São Paulo by this time tomorrow. Now please don't panic, I know what I wrote about Brazil and about watching "the first world burn while sipping a caipirinha on the porch of your self-sufficient fazenda". However, my traveling there doesn't mean that I think the shit's about to hit the fan.

Actually, considering the examples above, you should expect stuff like "famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and demographic and civilization collapse" to occur as soon as I return to Luxembourg.

Neben einer schwarzen Liste mit gesperrten Websites bereiten die Bundesregierung und das BKA nach neuesten Berichten auch eine sogenannte "graue Liste" vor. Auf dieser Liste sollen alle Websites erfasst werden, die den deutschen Standards nicht genügen.

Nach Angaben von Familienministerin von der Leyen dienten diese Seiten dazu, "die potentiellen Kunden neugierig zu machen. Das ist wie bei einer Droge: Sie werden angefixt. Dann kommt der Hunger nach mehr." [Quelle]

Abgestufte Reaktion

Beim ersten Besuch einer "grauen Seite" erscheint zunächst ein im Manga-Stil gezeichneter Avatar eines Kabinettsmitglieds oder Bundestagsabgeordneten und weist den Besucher auf sein schädliches Verhalten hin. Erst bei Wiederholungstätern drohen strengere Maßnahmen:

Die Gesetzesgrundlage zur grauen Liste soll in Kürze vom Bundestag beschlossen werden. "Hier besteht kein Diskussionsbedarf", so ein Abgeordneter, "oder unterstützen Sie etwa Rentensystemgefährder, Steuerhinterzieher und Amokläufer?"

Satire? Noch! Ernsthafte Informationen zum Thema Internetsperren gibt es z.B. bei Golem und heise.

Hier geht es zur Online-Petition: Internet - Keine Indizierung und Sperrung von Internetseiten.

Wer sich jetzt über Steinbrück aufregt sollte wissen, wo der Mann herkommt. Damit meine ich nicht nur seine klassische Politiker-Laufbahn (Lebenslauf als PDF) sondern vielmehr folgende Aussage in seiner Regierungserklärung Ende September 2008 (ab 01:46):

Das Ende der "Supermacht des Weltfinanzsystems" USA sah er damals gekommen. Mittlerweile muss allerdings auch Steinbrück klar geworden sein, dass Deutschland wegen seiner Exportabhängigkeit mit zu den größten Verlierern der Krise zählen wird und auch die Zukunftsaussichten schon alleine aufgrund der demografischen Entwicklung - anders als in den USA - alles andere als rosig sind. Von seinem Ziel eines ausgeglichenen Bundeshaushalts ist er auch weiter entfernt als jemals zuvor.

Steinbrück dürfte daher erstens persönlich frustriert sein und zweitens als Finanzminister dringend Geld benötigen. Das bekommen jetzt statt den USA eben die kleineren Nachbarländer zu spüren (Juncker: "Weniger Hosenschiss bei Obama und mehr Umsicht bei uns"), deren Bankgeheimnis ohnehin beim weiteren Auspressen der heimischen Steuerzahler stört (siehe auch: SPD verteidigt Pläne gegen Steuerhinterziehung). Das entschuldigt Steinbrücks flapsige Bemerkung zwar nicht, macht sie aber durchaus verständlicher.

In wenigen Monaten wird sich ohnehin niemand mehr über einen Vergleich mit Ouagadougou aufregen, denn dann werden sich viele von uns in Steinbrücks Lage befinden: pleite und frustriert. Größte Risikogruppe sind laut Dmitry Orlov (bisher) erfolgreiche Männer im "besten Alter":

The people who are most at risk psychologically are successful middle-aged men. When their career is suddenly over, their savings are gone, and their property worthless, much of their sense of self-worth is gone as well. They tend to drink themselves to death and commit suicide in disproportionate numbers.

Steinbrücks Bemerkungen sind dagegen wohl nur ein harmloses Vorgeplänkel.

P.S.: Vielleicht möchte "Pöbel-Peer" auch nur von einem "unglaublichen Vorgang" im Zusammenhang mit der HRE ablenken.