None of it Was the GPS’s Fault

With Mr. KNOW-IT-ALL behind the wheels, we can all kiss the thought of arriving home sooner, goodbye!  Translated…

C is zoomed in on the flavors, he’s noted for having tasted everything around the island that’s delicious, there was a pocket list in his brains, and following him, you can, NEVER, go wrong.

But, getting in the car with him, you will get lost, ten times out of ten!

About twenty-five, or was it, twenty-six years ago, on summer day, C who’s a local of Fengshan, with me, from Hsientien in the passenger’s side, with a map, our destination was Chihjing.  C told, that visiting Kaohsiung, we must have some roasted squid from Chihjing.

“Turn left at the next light”, I’d dictated.

At the intersection, C made a U-turn.

“Where you going?”

“To Chihjing!”

“Why did you go back?”

“What, didn’t you say to turn left here?”

“But you’d made a U-turn!”

“oh, right!”

Maybe, I wasn’t dictating it clear enough, or maybe, because I’m not a local, or maybe, it was C who’d, lived in Taipei too long……………I’d told myself, to remain calm, to not blame him, that it’s okay if we’d taken a wrong turn, we can, go back to the right way again.

Many years later, in the summers when we had the weekend off, C who’d rented his stay in Hsintien for long, with his hands on the steering wheel, his girlfriend, G in the passenger seat, sliding her cell phone, I, on the back, with my heart, unsettled.  We are on the way to the Taoyuan International Baseball Park then, to see the Apes versus the Lions.

what the GPS tells you to do…

illustration from online

“Turn left two hundred meters up ahead”, stated the GPS.

C immediately turned left on the next intersection.

“This is NOT the way to the baseball park!” I’d called out.

“But the GPS says to turn here!”

“that’s on the next intersection, not this one.  It just dictated, ‘two-hundred meters up ahead at the next intersection.’”

In twenty minutes time, we were, stuck, in the middle of a rice paddy.  Yep, you got it, the place where rice is, planted down, no roads up ahead.

After a series of cuss words came out, C stated, “What bullshit is this GPS, kept telling me to make U-turns, there’s NO place to U-turn here!”

Or maybe, it is, the GPS that wasn’t, precise, enough, or maybe, because, G is only, sliding on her cell phone, not paying attention, or maybe, I should’ve, taken the high-speed rails to the baseball park…………I’d told myself, it’s okay, it was, just, a regular game, and thankfully, as we finally got to the baseball park, there was still, half of the game left for us to watch.

Several years later, on weekday in the summer, after a gathering, the friends started inquiring one another outside the shop, where are you going?  You came on the MRT?  How do you get back?  C told, you guys who live in Muzha and Hsintien, I’ll give you all a lift, it’s on the way.

He had his hands on the steering wheel, I on the passenger side, our friends, Y and D on the back.  We drove to the end of Fuxing South Road, turning left onto Xinhai Road, entered into the tunnel, then, we’re, all on our ways home, natural as the breaths we are taking.

Shortly after we exited the tunnels, C suddenly turned left at Wan-Mei Street Section 2.

“Why did you go this way?”, I’d asked.

“I’m taking Y home first”, C responded.

“But, my house isn’t this way!”, Y told him.

“Didn’t you say you live in Wanfang Community?”, C inquired.

“uh, I live in Wanlong!”

Silent.

and yet, you’d, decided to, go, the opposite!

illustration from online

C then began, “ah, it’s the same, this is a shortcut!”

Wanmei Street is a road that winds up a mountain, although it wasn’t twisting and turning like the winding passes into the mountains, but there were, many S turns……the point was, to go to Wanlong, we should’ve turn right at the Xinlong Road eight hundred meters away.

There are, no more, maybes, none of this was the fault of the person on the passenger side, nor was it, the GPS’s fault.

It’s the driver’s fault, because he thought he had the map of the city on the back of his hand, instead, he didn’t, he just thought he knew the way, maybe, he enjoyed being in control, that’s why he’s driving, either way you’d, ridden a long, long, long, long, long (five longs still isn’t quite, long enough!) way, and you’re still not getting home anytime soon, because the driver has his own mind on how to drive you guys home.

And in the end, you still only have your selves to blame for it…

The Cruelties of War

The costs of it, considerations, from the people living in the warzones’ perspectives here, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The recent Russian-Ukrainian Conflict, with the people caught in the middle in both countries, having it, the hardest.  The games of betting of the major world powers, using the many forms of warfare, beating the adversaries, elevating oneself.  And yet, does this mean get to the right sort of the ends?  Let’s look at history, the Japanese started the Japanese-Russian Wars in 1904, expected that Russia will be ousted from Asia, and become a part of Europe.  While the novel, “I am a Cat” by Soseki Natsume, was on the Japanese in the Japanese-Russian War, the first person narrator of the “Cat”, observing the times, to show his criticisms of the conflicts.  He’d published his novel, “Sanshiro” in 1908,the character of Hirota criticized the Japanese, “this sort of a look, so useless, even if we’d won the Japanese Russian Wars, becoming one of the top countries in the world, it’s still of no use.  The architectures, the gardens, none of it is, good………”

In 1904, Tolstoy wrote against the Russian-Japanese War, told of how he empathized with the Chinese people who were caught by the Christians, of how the culture was, exploited.  In the fable story collection, “Ivan the Idiot”, Tolstoy showed of how easily it is, to activate the greed in human nature, just give him more than he needs.  The pillaging, the taking over of the neighboring countries’ territories during the Russian-Japanese War, made life suffered, it’s, a tragedy of, mankind.  After Japan had invaded China, there were the photos, documenting how many Chinese people had suffered, and they’re, all, awful to see.

The American writer, Susan Sontag wrote a book, “Regarding the Pains of Others”, discussed the war and the ethics of photography.  Sontag kept on asking, “as we are documenting the images of war, are we, capturing what the wars looked like, or, are we, structuring the myths of these, disasters?”  The innocent Chinese people caught between the Japanese-Russian Conflicts, the trials of their lives were, documented by the foreign reporters, but, who speaks for the Chinese?  Sontag asked, “what’s the purpose, to make the people aware of how much they hated violence, to desensitize us from the sense of conscience that came out?  Watching the wars of others, does it actually, help us know the lessons of wars, or, is it to, numb us all out?”

The former legislation member of the Japanese congress, Yamaguchi’s grandfather, loved Asian culture, he’d moved the family the year the Russian-Japanese War was over to northeast China, Yamaguchi (Lee) was born in Liaoning Province, not far away from the warzones of Japanese-Russian War.  Lee is a formally trained soprano, excellent in the skills of opera.  She’d popularized the song “The Night Willow”.  After World War II was over in 1945, she was charged for treason by the government of Republic of China.  Later it was proven that she was of Japanese nationality, and released on a not-guilty charge, extradited back to Japan.

In Yamaguchi’s biography published in 1994, “War, Peace, & Song” stated, “a man, fooled by the times, the false policies, upon waking from the nightmares, if he is able to think of what he’d done wrong during those times, or, to explain his actions, he’d, blessed too.”  Yamaguchi warned the younger people: peace isn’t easily got.  That you must cherish it, to stand up against war.  She’d hoped, that the younger generations can open up their sights, and, seriously think on how to get along.  Maybe this was from the first half of life which she lived in times of war.  It only takes one person’s thought, to bring about a full-blown war, we must be very careful about this.

And so, this just showed, how much war can hurt us all, and yeah, it might, kick start the economy (as history showed us!), but no matter which country won, people are the ones losing, the biggest, because their lives are lost, homes are, destroyed, and, they will have to, build back their original lives, from scratch, and they may not be able to, get their lives back to, the way it’d been from before the wars began.

My Student & the Electric Fan, on Finding the Right Motivation for a Child with Autism to Learn

Working with a child with autism, the focus of education, is NOT the academic, but having this lad gain a viable life skill, translated…

Hsien, Like Most of the Children with Autism, Intrigued by the Rotation of the Electric Fans, Enchanted by the Movements that the Fans Made…………

The Constantly Turning Fan is Such a Huge Temptation to Him

Hsien is currently in the second grade, although he has a difficult time catching up to the rest of his classmates academically, it didn’t prevent him from being the man of his class, because he can easily, take apart a fan, clean it up, then, assembled it back together, he’s quite a mechanic.

Five years ago, Hsien got into the First Child Development Center’s Daycare Program, that’s how we’d met.  As his early intervention caretaker, I’d found, that Hsien, like most of the children of autism I’d worked with, is intrigued with the rotating movements of the electric fan—because the fan as it rotated, gave off that comforting buzzing sound to him, and this was a huge attraction for the brains of children with autism, who needed the orders.  No matter the time, when Hsien saw a fan, he would, go close to it, and refuse to get pulled away, not only would he forget what his tasks at hand were, as his parents tried to pull him away, he’d start to throw a full blown temper tantrum too.  And, there were, the fans in the early intervention classes, and so, we would often see a child, lifted his head, not moving, focusing on what he wanted to focus on, and, tuned the teachers out, which greatly increases the level of difficulties in teaching the classes.

To change this, the educators set up an individualized service plans for him, added the item of “helping him find something he’s interested to do when leisurely”.  At first, we’d taught him to do the puzzles, and, we’d, found the puzzles with the fan, and even for the art sessions, we’d found the pictures of fans for him to color, and used the toy fans as his reward, hoping to increase his motivations for learning, then, extending it outward.  For three years ago, he’d, changed his behaviors of being completely zoomed in on the fans as he saw them, he’d only needed to lift up his head to see it every now and then now, and can, continue to do what he was working on at hand.

Later on, he was successful in being admitted to the special eds courses of his local elementary school, and started coming to the intervention center only once a week, so the special needs instructors can help him get used to the various learning means, and the atmosphere which he will be learning in.

A Flash of Inspiration that Came to Me, Id’ Worked Together with the Bus Driver

The trainings of the early intervention were focused on “children’s cognitive abilities” and “autonomy”, not the same as the elementary school’s “learning the various knowledge of the many subjects” as the primary goals of learning.  And, this big switch is what Hsien will be faced with, in learning to adapt.  But, how can we get him to feel motivated to learn, and can teach him something he would use, is my, challenge.

The first semester of his first grade year, I’d assisted him in adapting to the new course load and getting him to adapt to his new instructors’ way of teaching, we’d sailed past this successfully.  Second semester, the coursework became harder and more faster paced, and, although the instructors, and his parents didn’t rush him, he’d still felt the pressures, and so, every time he’d come to me, he would start tearing the papers, the book covers, and the erasers.  Seeing how hard he was having it, I’d started thinking about, should I, help him with the academic lessons that he was learning in his school?

illustration from UDN.com

Then one day, I saw the bus driver cleaning the fan, suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to me: doesn’t Hsien love fans?  Can he learn to take them apart, to clean them?  If he learns this skill, this can add to his adjusting to living in his future.  And so, I’d asked the bus driver to come onboard, and the two of us taught him to take the fans apart, to clean them, and to put them back together.

That day, Hsien was grinning ear to ear, walked into the class with his heart expectant.  Knowing, that after class, he will have the opportutity, to touch his beloved fans, to start on that course of dreams.  During the time, we’d used a ton of tools he’d never seen nor encountered before, screw drivers, wrenches, the air nuzzles………………to take the fans apart, you need to unscrew the screws loose, he’d learned to use the screwdrivers; to turn the hexagonal nut, he’d used the wrench; wanted to clean the dust and dirt off, he’d started, learning how to manage the power of the air nuzzles.  In the process of teaching by the bus driver, Hsien lost focus every now and then, and I’d, provided the tips, the techniques to help him get his concentration back.  While as the driver’s explanations were too hard for Hsien to understand, I’d suggested to the bus driver, to help him use the wordings, and the explanations that Hsien can better understand.  After six weeks, Hsien became more and more agile then, taking the fans apart, cleaning them, assembling them back together, he’d become, quicker, and quicker in the skills.

The electric fan, in Hsien’s passages to learning, went from a roadblock to a, motivation, and, the affirmation that Hsien got from being able to take a fan apart, clean it, then, reassembling it back together again, it’d boosted his self-confidence, and, he gained more patience, to deal with the academic courses, the homework assignments that is from his academic.  I have no prediction of Hsien’s future, but one thing can be sure, Hsien right now, is, a happy and confident elementary student.

And so, this is a kid with a mechanical brain, he’d interested in how the machines worked, and, the early intervention instructor got the bus driver, to come onboard, teaching the young boy, how to take the electric fans apart, which gave him a viable skill he can live off of, and, that beats every sort of academic achievement, as this young boy gained self-confidence through the process of learning the skills, and, now, he has this skill set that he can live off of in the future too.

The Increase in the Feelings of Distancing, Estrangement: the Children & Adolescents’ Satisfaction of Life, at an All-Time Low

Children surveyed on their happiness, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

\On the eve of Children’s Day, the Children Welfare League posted the 2020 Taiwanese Children’s Beliefs about How Satisfied They are with Their Own Lives result, which showed that the satisfaction of life for these children is at an all-time ow.  The Children’s Welfare League called out, that the parents should spend more time with their young, with a higher level of support from the families, children’s satisfaction toward life would get higher too.

The Children’s Welfare League pointed out that the W.H.O.’s “HBSC Survey” assessed the children’s level of satisfaction with life using parameters of family resources & structure, peer relations, psychological wellbeing, etc., etc., etc.  In recent years, the Children’s Welfare League started using the same evaluation means to know how the school age children are doing, the results found, that there were only seventy-eight percent of the polled children who’d scored a sixty and above on the satisfaction of their lives, ten-percent lower than the world average of the HBSC.

The surveys also found, that the older the children get, the lower they’d scored on the level of satisfaction of their lives, the average of 78.8 from the elementary school years, 68.1 for middle school, with more than 10.7 difference.

Pai, the C.E.O. of Children’s Welfare League Foundation stated, although seventy-four percent of children polled believed they get along well with their peers, sixty-six percent believed that they are accepted by their peers, but, the more thorough analyses of the group of the high and low found, that the peer support for teens was only forty-one-percent, clearly lower than the world’s average of sixty-percent.  On family relations, there were only forty-three percent of children and adolescents who dined with their own families, lower than the fifty-percent average of the HBSC.  Pai called out to the parents here, to focus on accompanying the children, to set up that well-rounded parent-child communication means, more positive reinforcements, affirmations, that these will help elevate the feelings of happiness in children’s lives.

All of these stats just showed???  Oh yeah how children are less and less happy each and every generation, because of all the shits going on right now, the parents too busy, making the ends meet, not realizing that it’s more important, to accompany their own young as they’re growing up, instead of sending them to their own parents to look after, getting them back for the weekends, because we all have to work, and who has the time, after all, we’re in need of the money that we’re making, that’s what’s keeping the children better off than we had it.

That, is W-H-Y, children are less and less happy by the generation, because you @#$%ING parents don’t take the time to notice what they want from you!  And you never will, because you parents are WAY too god damn @#$%ING stupid!

The Woman Found Dead Lying in a Pool of Her Own Blood, Her Son Who’s Involved in the Murder Found Dumbfounded in the Room

The perp had a history of mental illness, and his condition was left untreated, and it’d, resorted, to, MURDER!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The sixty-two-year-old woman from Taiping District in Taichung was found with multiple puncture wounds on the back of her neck yesterday, lying DEAD, in a pool of blood inside her own living room, rigor had already set in, and the medical examiner believed that she’d been dead for at least a day, while the son, Chen who lived with her locked himself inside the room, and sat dumbfounded in the room.  The police broke down the door, took Chen into the station, at the preliminary evaluations, they’d ruled out breaking and entering, the case is being prosecuted as murder of one’s own direct kin, while the motives of Chen’s murdering his own mother is still pending investigation.

Based off of understanding, as Chen (age 40) was taken into the substation, he was in a daze, psychologically unstable, wasn’t making any sense in his speech, and the testimonies of what had happened came at a very slow pace, Chen is suspected of having schizophrenia, it’s estimated that he will be sent to the D.A.’s Office, and, the district attorney will have a psych evaluation on him.

The neighbors told, that the deceased and Chen lived together in the same building, they’re rarely seen the deceased outside, they’d seen the son wandered around and about the neighborhood areas, but he’d not interacted with them; what was worth noting was Chen had started screaming and yelling in the community, and there were calls made about him obstructing the peace of the neighbors’ lives.

Based off of understanding, the daughter of the deceased lives in Taipei, she’d called home yesterday, but couldn’t reach her, worried that her younger brother was having emotional problems, asked the security personnel of the community to look in.

The personnel used the intercom, but no response, and rang the doorbell upstairs, nothing, as the personnel told the daughter, they’d called the locksmith, and found the woman lying in a pool of blood, they’d immediately called the fire department to rescue her, by the time the police and paramedics arrived, they’d found that there were multiple knife wounds on the back of her neck, she’d been dead already.

And so, this is yet, another tragedy that could’ve been, easily avoided, had this man gotten institutionalized, but he wasn’t, and, this still just goes to show, how the security nets weren’t, set up completely, nor correctly here.  Because this man wasn’t medicated, and had a history of mental illness, and he’d murdered his own mother.

The Longest-Serving Death Row Inmate, Chiu, Accused of Raping His Cellmate

The man’s already on, DEATH row here, what has he, got to lose?  And this showed, of the DARKNESS that’s hidden, within, the correctional systems here!  Off of the Newspapers, translated…

The death row inmate, charged with the murders of the kidnapped boy and the dismemberment and robbery of the insurance agent, Hong-Ke, was accused by a cellmate of sexual assault and fraud, the Hsinbei D.A.’s Office is already looking into the case; the correctional officers said, that Chiu and his inmate are claiming that their words are the truths of what had happened, that other than the protocols of handling matters of sexual assault, the prison had already, separated them into two rooms.

Chiu was accused of murdering the female insurance agent, Ke-Hong back in November of 1987, and the following month, he committed kidnapping, and murder of the kidnapped boy, Lu, and was sentenced to death.  But, Chiu said he was tortured into submission by the police, while the body of the boy, Lu still hadn’t been found yet.  The local justice reform group, and the human rights activist group believed that Chiu was not the responsible for the kidnapping, and had already served thirty-two years in prison, is the longest serving death row inmate of the country, the group continued to call out to the presidential office to pardon the man.  Yesterday, as the news of Chiu’s being accused of sexually assaulting his inmate, the justice reform group stated, that the pro bono team of attorneys will rush to the Taipei Penitentiary to get to the bottom of the case.

The correctional officer said, that if the surveillance cameras were installed, the human rights activist group would object that this was a breach to the inmates’ basic human rights, but, the holes on the door of the prison cells are too tiny, “you can’t see everything that’s going on”, and it’s quite difficult, for the officers of correction to manage these sexual assault incidents.

Chiu is currently in the Taipei Penitentiary, the male cellmate wrote and accused Chiu of “kept playing me for an entire hour until I’d bled”.  The assistant manager of the Taipei Penitentiary, Lin stated, that this case is on the privacy of the inmates, that he can’t disclose any of the investigation details, that the prison system is completely in compliance with the D.A.’s investigations.  The Hsinbei District Attorney’s Office told, that the cases had already been looked into, and they’re finding more of the details right now.

And so, this, is what’s, currently going on in the prison systems right now, because the inmate who’s on deathrow is serving a life-term, there’s no way of him getting out, and he thought, that there’s nothing worse that could happen to him, so why not, rape someone else, and this still just showed, how there is the need for reform in the prison systems, because, the wardens, the jail guards, may not treat these deathrow inmates humanely enough, and the inmates are treating one another like they were one another’s bitch too, so, there’s, a lot of the basic human rights laws that needed to be implemented here.

Counting the Sheep Kept Me Awake

How to introduce the brand new language the children aren’t used to hearing and speaking in class to them for the very first time, so they can be socialized to not fear it, or to, hate it, through games, of course!  Learning through play, in the younger grade levels, the lesson plans by this group of parents here, translated…

The first graders’ parents always inquired that as the children started learning the Chinese phonetic spellings, do they also need to learn the English alphabets at the same time too, to confuse the children with the dual-language lessons?  Some parents also wanted their young to learn their own mother tongues well too (like Hakka dialect, or the tribal languages), and if the school starts on dual-language instructions, then, if we don’t get our kids to learn English, will it make them start with less?   The children at this age, they don’t want to compete, get into that race!  They’re all way too busy by the day, acting up, playing, parents, time to WAKE UP!  We should NOT be pushing them to the starting point, urging them to win that race, but to help them find the fun in learning, to allow them to learn through playtime.

So, the moms from the Morning Crew designed a fun counting lesson for the kids.  First, we’d read that illustrated book, “Russell the Sheep” with the kids, by Rob Scotton, an Englishman, this sheep is in big trouble: he couldn’t sleep!  With all the sheep around him asleep, only him, wide awake, tossing, and turning.  He’d tossed, and turned, come up with an assortment of funny ideas, and in the end, he was able to rely on that never-fail method of, “counting the sheep” to finally, fall asleep.  The insomniac sheep, counting the sheep to help him to sleep, that’s too funny, and in the end, it’d, actually, worked too!  But, the skies are getting light now!  With the rest of the herd waking up one by one, other than, Russell, who’s now, snoring loud.

Illustration from UDN.com

the games the parents set up for helping children learn the English language…

The moms of the morning crew, who had to lie down with their young at night, totally understands how hard it is for the children to toss and turn, that it’s, total, torture (because the moms can’t wait for the kids to fall asleep more quickly!).  And so, as I’d read this story, I’d passed along the ideals, and it’d helped the children empathize.

The many means that were in the book to help the character fall asleep, the most important being, counting the sheep!  Because the sheep lives in Great Britain, naturally, the kids counted using English.  Then, using the number songs, to get the kids involved in exercises!  As the “Singing Walrus (QR Code 1) came on, the kids can immediately, sing along.

After the singing and dancing, as the room is still awaken (the first graders are all very, compliant!), we’d reviewed the numbers from one to twenty in English with the children, then, the addition (plus), and the subtraction (minus), and the equals to; that coincides with the first-grade level of basic arithmetic, and help the children learnt he simple English math problems.

The key is not in instructing, but to take the kids into that happy learning mode of excitement!  After assigning them into groups, the kids started playing the games to get through the levels in the contest with the numbers in English: first level was bingo, the kids wrote the various numbers on the cards with the boxes, the volunteers selected the various numbers and read aloud in English, and whoever made two lines gets to pass first.  The second level manager still read the simple arithmetic problems in English, the kids need to focus in listening, and writing down the equation, and the answers, to pass.  The third level, it’s a head turner, this time, the kids are the ones, reading the numbers or the addition and subtraction, to have the adult in charge of that level to understand them, in order to advance into the next level. The fourth level, with the hand drawn cute animal picture cards by our parents, the kids needed to count up the different species (and to state the nouns of these animals in English to pass).  The final level is a total kill!  We are playing the game of “heart attack” with children, of course, the kids will have to take turn calling the numbers from one to thirteen aloud, and if the card that’s flipped has a corresponding number that’s been called, then, the cards needed to get turned faced down, and the slowest child loses………and, in this nervous level, the kids started screaming, and getting excited, finishing up all the levels of the games, and in the end, we’d given them the soothing “Bye Bye Song”: After a while, Crocodile (QR Code 2).  After all, we need to return these children in a behaved, and calmer state back to their homeroom teachers!

that’s one, to, three sheep! Illustration from online

The short forty minutes worth of the Morning Crew time, started with the sheep counting sheep story, with the lessons, the singing, dancing, with the games that are quiet, and rowdy, the different styles, helping the first graders review over their lessons repeatedly.  This sort of a lesson plan, is by the thoughtfulness of the parents of the class, and at the same time, we’d hoped, that in the dual-language instruction curriculum, the school can open up the new possibilities for the children in school.  Although the start early is the key to learning a new language, but at this age, the kids may not have the level of understanding, nor the ability to rote memorize yet, but they can, instinctively, grab on to what they received using their senses, so, the teaching methods should NOT be one-way, with the instructor yapping, and the students still and writing the notes, we must help the kids not reject a foreign language, and make them learn in the most natural way possible, this was, the parents’ primary, considerations.  As for the standards and formatting of the rules of the dual-language schools by certification of the government, it shouldn’t be what the adults are after in the contents, as for those who told their young, to not lose to other children at the starting lines……………actually, the race track of life is wide open, you all should run it sometimes, the air’s fresh, and it will give you, adults, the exercises you need too!

And so, this, is the lesson plans, to incorporate learning English, and numbers for the lower grade levels, as the new curriculum of dual-language instructions are setting in, and, this learning through game is a good way, to help the children in the younger grade levels, to get acquainted with the foreign language, and then, as they get older, the introductions of the harder vocabulary terms would come much easier, because in these earlier grade years, the kids had already been conditioned, that English is fun and games, by the thoughtfulness of the parents of the morning crew!

The Single Mother Who’d Strangled Her Own Children to Death Escaped the Death Penalty, and Received Life-in-Prison Instead

No wonder, the world’s a mess, murderers getting off easy, by making the sorry of excuses of the kids getting too loud, I’m handling everything, my ex doesn’t pay me child support, blah-blah-blah!  Adults are really, bad here, and, there’s NOTHING that anybody does about this!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The single mother, Wu was found to have strangled her own seven year-old daughter and six-year-old son to death, the judge from the first trial believed, that she’d only complained incessantly of how she’d been left alone to care for her own young, that it’d taken her freedom away, that she had no humanity inside of her whatsoever, sentenced her to be executed on murder charges, and it’d caused debates in the society; on her second trial, the verdict changed to life-term, yesterday, the highest court tossed back the appeals, and the case is closed, with the woman due to serve her life sentence.

After her divorce in 2014, Wu was left on her own to raise her two children, she didn’t have stable work, relied on her older brother and sister-in-law to support her economically, but had the run-ins with them often.  On February 13^th, 2020, she’d gotten into yet another conflict on the matter of education of her own young and other matters with her families, left her place of stay with her two children, went to a motel; she’d tried to smother her own children to death, but wasn’t successful, on the fifteenth, she’d drugged her own children, then, strangled them to death using a scout’s rope, then, texted her ex, that she’s going to kill herself, to be with her own two children.

During the trial, Wu admitted to murdering her own young by strangulation, but stated, that for seven years, she was alone in raising her children, that she didn’t have it easy, finding work, that no matter where she’d gone, she had to take her kids with her, she didn’t have any personal freedom.

And because the psych evaluation showed that Wu was of sound state of mind, the judge believed, that her testimonies were only to justify her murdering her own two young children, that she’d committed the murders in such a cruel, and coldblooded manner, and sentenced her to serve the death penalty.

Wu appealed the ruling, and testified in court, that she’d, dreamed of her children being intimate with her, telling her, “keeping going forward, mommy, don’t try to kill yourself again!”.  And told, that she’d rather be starving, and wouldn’t let her kids starve, and complained of how her ex didn’t pay her child support on time, that the children were his too; she’d asked his families, if they were willing to help care for her young, but his families refused.

The High Court’s Collectivist Court took into considerations, that Wu was compounded with depression when she’d committed the murders, that she was under great stress, and that she’d shown remorse after she’d murdered her own children, that she’s learning new skills in prison, that she holds expectations for her own futures; that if Wu is placed in treatment, with the psychotherapy, the counseling sessions, it will help her mental conditions, that there’s the chance she will be able to return back to the society again, thus, gave her the life-term, and stripped her of government post for life.

Yesterday the Highest Courts tossed back Wu’s appeal, case closed.

Wow, so that’s how you, fool the system of law, by pretending that it wasn’t your fault, that your kids were too noisy, that you’d done all that you could, to provide for them, that you’d asked your ex’s family to help you take care of your own young, but they’d, refused, and the pressures of trying to find work, raising two young children, was simply, overwhelming, so you’d, resorted to, murder, and what’s worse was the judge actually bought into that, which was saying, that the lives of these two young children she’d murdered in COLD blood, didn’t matter!  And the woman played the victim here, and it’d, worked, it’d gotten the court’s sympathies, which allowed her to escape the DEATH penalty, but hey, look on the bright side (Yes, there IS one!) from here on out, this bad mama will be tortured by her own guilty conscience for the remaining days of her life!

A Shadow that Became, My, Twin, a Poem

On the shame that one feels, of the wrongdoings, wrong deeds one had, committed, that guilty conscience still gnawed!  Translated…

A Shadow that Became, My, Twin

Repeated My Actions, Until

Until You Became, Me in Form

Dreaming of the Death of My Lover.  Ever Since

You’d, Kept the Secrets For Me Carefully

Troubled by the Problems of the Bitterness, & the Sweetness of the Love

The Soils with the Consciousness, in the Middle of the Abdomen

Love & Regrets Being Born, at the, Same Time

In the, Same Place

I Paid Attention to the Messages Daily, Remembered You

With My Ears

Cared More than the Others, How You Shall, Keep on, Surviving

In this Place, with No Need to Adjust the Planets

who do you think is going to win here??? Illustration from online

With Your Back to the Oceans Alone, You’d Seen———

A Wandering Blind Man, a Bard

Clung Tightly onto the Neck of the Nights, Asking, Where the Heart the Eyes, Belonged

Pressed that Famished Bones of that Whale, Where it had, Fallen

I Turned My Head, and, You’re, No Longer there.

Only the Flaws are Enough

To Cover Up This Darkness that is, Me

And so, this is on, the need to keep oneself hidden, because maybe, you’d done something awful to someone you’d cared about, and you feel regret, and ashamed of what you’d done, that’s why, you can, face up to the light.

I Was Once a Student Here from Before

The very first class of students there, you were, the experimental, the trial-by-error group, and, it’s the principal’s values that’s set the school up, using a more open method, not zoomed in on the academical tracks of things, that you were instructed with, translated…

Recently, my friend sent me a private message, that the very first school principal of the high school I’d attended from way back when was about to retire, and is inviting all the alumni to leave the messages of well-wishes for him.  And, the whole thing was like that hook, stirred up those days of my youth that’s already, sunk to deep, deep, deep down in my past already—————almost forgotten, that I was the very first class of students attending the school.

Recalled how as I’d entered into the high school, the school made the news, but, other than it being newly set up, but, there were the talks of how it’s based off of a freedom of learning.  But, seriously, the direct benefits of being the very first students in the school, was that we got to, take over the entire campus to ourselves.  Back then, there were the total of only eleven classes for both middle and high school ages, more than three hundred students, shared the huge space of over 20,000 square meters of land, the garden up on the rooftops, so quiet, undisturbed, like a private little space to those who’d hung out there, and we can, have a different angle to see everything every day at lunch time; and, sometimes, we would get into the mindset, that we owned a small patch of property in the city of Taipei, as young as we all were.

And, at the same time, the never-before status of us, the first group of students in the school, we’d become, a group of cherished grandchildren.  As the school principal greeted us good morning as we’d arrived, he’d always called us out by our names individually as for the students and teachers, rather than the instructors teaching, students sitting and learning means, we’d become partners, testing out the waters, of an, anarchy that’s started.  During those years, a group of us, wild monkeys, started screaming the words, “surpassing the top schools!!!”, and we’d all, tried and impeached the school instructors, and objected to the foods served in the cafeteria, to even, getting rowdy and raucous in the school board meetings too, and, abused the motto of the school of “freedom, self-discipline, creativity, energies”, and rammed around all day long.  We’d only fallen short of setting the school on fire with the “I’m the RULE” tattooed over all our, foreheads.  And the adults, they’d actually, tolerated us too.  Thinking back, we were, all spoiled children from then.

The wildest three years of our lives, flew by too quickly.  As we’d left school, that’s when we’d come to understand, that there’s no special rights given in the real world, the children’s complaints were, nothing more than the day-to-day goings on of adulthood.  The life, filled with all those, potholes, those patiently listening to us, accepting our behaviors, and, helping us to correct our own selves, it’s not matter-of-fact. The cherished and protected freedom that we got, is nothing more than a dream, in the greenhouse, we’d not known the sharpness of behaving so brashly, and, we’d, stumbled, fallen, gotten back up, stumbled, fallen, and gotten back up again for the decades of our lives that followed, and, all of that became, nothing but the gratitude we feel for, this school of, ours.

This was also why, I’d, forgotten those days of my wilder youth.  After all, the young and naïve monkeys, needed to, grow up.  but even so, as I recalled the past at this very moment, there’s still, nothing but gratitude that I’m feeling, grateful for what our instructors gave to us, grateful for being, lucky as we were.  All we have is this, one life, and I was, right on time, “not late, not early, and, gotten into the high school when I had”.  Everything I need to say to the school, “oh wow, I’d once gone here too!”  that was it.

And, this, is how deep, the memories of your high school days were, because of the kind and caring means of your school principal, because he’d loved everybody in the school like a grandchild, and, you weren’t pressed by the academics back then, because back then, the focus of education isn’t the grades, the placements, it’s on making sure that the students develop properly psychologically and emotionally, and you’d, reached your adulthood years, with those means intact, because of the education you’d received back in your high school years.