Year Three, Almost Free 15: Thanks for This Blog and a French Riot

Hello, Tim!
I’ve been falling more and more into the category of a stereotypical Taiwanese student (or in some cases, an Asian student) who, in accord with/against his will, will study whenever morsels of time are scattered around, scolding myself severely if I don’t. I would threaten myself with ominous future predictions, trying desperately to rein my mind in and buckle it onto my studies.
The temperatures have dropped two days ago, and even when the sun is present, it would still make you feel vulnerable from the nipping winds. It’s better; at least it’s feeling a lot more like winter.

What This Blog Has Given Me

Almost two years had fleeted by since I started with this blog, but it was only recently had I thought about all the benefits it, writing an update of my life on at least a weekly basis, has given me.
First of all, my entries are like weekly journals, for they alone can paint a general image of what my life in Taiwan is like. If I departed for a trip rather far from my house, that particular trip is very likely going to be on my blog. Having this kind of records is very convenient, for example, if you are one day suspected of a murder case that would require your alibi on the second Thursday of June, I wouldn’t have to think until my brain cracked and still unable to recall anything.
Just kidding. I, for one, believe that twenty-four hours a day is not enough for us to both live in the moment and trying to remember some details in your memory. Writing them down basically means that you are having a computer work for you and it will remember every word you feed it with no effort.
Keeping a blog also helps me with my writing, both on the English ones and the Chinese ones. When writing events like telling a story, I found myself more and more capable of arranging the paragraphs in a more fluid order; forming similes and metaphors has also become relatively easier. In the past, trying to put some abstract ideas on paper would require me squeezing my brain until all the fluids inside are forced out, but now it’s more like twisting open a water tap; some can be done with rapid succession, while some others would need more strength, meaning that there’s no more mission impossible.
I know half of the effects come from my profuse amount of reading, but I would like to credit the other half to my blog keeping.

French on Riot in Their ‘gilets jaunes’

In our school, especially in civics classes, we mention the current president Emmanuel Macron with an attitude that is either neutral or positive, like how he had joined hands with Merkel at a monument to commemorate a conflict in the past that pitted France and Germany against each other. Therefore, I believe we all have subconsciously registered that he should be adored by the French people.
Oh, wait.
Due to a recent project in our English writing courses, I went to the website of BBC news. It came as a surprise that the Europe section of the media was bombarded with numerous close-up following reports of an anti-government movement in France called the “gilets jaunes,” or “yellow vests.”
I read through several of the reports, including one that says that due to a recent damage of monument by some of the more extreme rioters, most of the tourist sites in Paris like the Eiffel Tower and the Musée d’Orsay will be closed for now.
This movement of angry citizens, according to the reports, had once reached a peak of over 280,000 protesters throughout the nation. Their discontent was clearly aimed at the French government and its president, Emanuel Macron. What had lit up the fuse of the people on the streets with their reflective yellow vests, however, was initially a rise in the diesel tax. This issue sparked another, and it went on and on, until people of all walks marched the streets, crying out their demands for the government to listen. The students wanted President Macron to abolish his plans to change the baccalaureate, a college entrance exam for them; people in poor living conditions wanted a new and friendlier tax system, etc.
It sure is very different in Taiwan. The people here are also constantly having problems with the government, but what we do more often, take my father as an instance, is to turn on the TV and switch to the political commentary program and listen to the people on the show raving about the incompetence of the government. There are occasional demonstrations that happen on streets, but never with such an impressive crowd. Note how even though the yellow vests protesters don’t have a central leadership, they still connected through social media and stood in unity. I know that setting off riots, burning cars, and destroying national treasures should not be praised with merits, but when you are practically several oceans away from the place, you would find it quite fascinating.
Luckily, it seems that the crowd has been temporarily appeased by the PM and his promise that the President would address the problems on the desk in the near future. I don't usually follow politics, but I think I would be interested in seeing what Mr Macron could do as to prevent another French Revolution.

End

I think writing about news also does a great deal of help on my writing. Maybe I should do it more often.