A Glimpse of Taiwan

    Taiwan from my plane window.         On my recent flight to the Philippines, I got the chance to try EVA Airlines.  EVA is a Taiwanese international airline based at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei.  I had been in Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Saipan airports but I had never landed in Taiwan before.
   From the Chinese Civil War between Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong, ROC was established in Taiwan.  Chiang Kai-shek moved the ROC capital to Taipei.  Under the One-China Policy of the PRC, ROC is not recognized as an independent representative of China.  


   As the world ignores Taiwan, I didn’t know what to expect at the Taoyuan International Airport.  I thought it was admirable that the airport has a library, a reading area and wall décor that encourages reading.  

   I was impressed that the Taoyuan Airport devoted a space for prayer that had three prayer rooms, one for Catholic, one for Muslim and one with a swastika on it.  
   I couldn’t read the Chinese characters beside the controversial symbol which has become known as the emblem of the German Nazi Party.  Good thing my walking Google of a daughter enlightened me. 
   That actually, “the symbol has been used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains for millennia and is commonly assumed to be an Indian sign.” (www.bbc.com)  The oldest swastika pattern has been radio carbon-dated to 15,000 years ago.
   In fact the swastika was used by American military during World War One. The nonthreatening uses came to a halt when the Nazis used of the swastika to symbolize the Aryan race, a white god-like superior race.  Ukraine National Museum of the History has exhibits of swastika engraved treasures.  A number of phallic objects shows that the swastika pattern was used as a fertility symbol.  
   World War Two gave the swastika a dark meaning.  It became the symbol of suppression, and extermination of the Jews in Europe called Holocaust.  Back then it was used against the Jews, in today’s world it’s against any nation of color.  Swastika is now an emblem of hate, racism and evil.  
   “Consequently, Jehovah saw that man’s wickedness was great on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time.” (Genesis 6:5)  
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